A Look Back at 2023's Most Contagious Conversations

As we look forward to the year ahead, we are taking this opportunity to look back at some of the many highlights from our Contagious Conversations podcast in 2023. This year, we covered topics as diverse as community-based approaches to veteran suicide prevention, training the next generation of public health professionals and the respiratory triple threat posed by COVID-19, influenza and RSV. Here are a few additional topics we highlight in this year-end episode:

  • The groundbreaking vaccination approach that led to the eradication of smallpox in 1980;
  • How investigators zeroed in on the cause of an outbreak of a drug-resistant strain of pseudomonas aeruginosa found in contaminated eye drops;
  • The health threats most common to women, and the particular challenges faced by Black women;
  • A conversation with Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on her vision of the agency’s role in public health and its direction going forward, and;
  • Countering hypertension in America, which poses a serious health risk to nearly half of U.S. adults.

This and every year we try to bring you a wide range of voices in public health and keep you informed on public health threats, challenges and successes. Please tune in for a look back at some of these important topics we covered this year. Thank you to all of our guests, and thank you, our listeners. We wish all of our listeners a happy and healthy new year.



Photo of Claire Stinson
Claire Stinson is a communications officer for the CDC Foundation.