So, that was a lot. The pandemic showed us how a microscopic virus no one knew existed could upend our lives–and how unprepared our systems, our leaders, and our society were for it. It reminds us that when it comes to health, there’s so much more out there we need to understand–like how new genetic discoveries could change our relationship with our own genes, how our addiction to social media changes our brains, or how climate change could make the next major pandemic more likely. But for every threat, there are heroes out there working at the edges of science and policy to protect us.

Every week, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed — a physician, epidemiologist, and the former Detroit health commissioner — offers perspectives on these issues and more, and talks to the doctors, scientists, culture makers, and policy leaders who are working out new ways to solve them. Together, we dissect how scientific discoveries, trillion-dollar policies, and cultural trends are changing the world — and what we have to do about them. New episodes of America Dissected every Tuesday.