Jessica Snyder Sachs on The Open Mind: Drug Resistance as a Public Health Crisis

On this week's episode of The Open Mind, Jessica Snyder Sachs discusses drug resistance as a public health crisis. The war on germs and over-reliance on antibiotics in drugs and food over the past decade has led to unforeseen health crises. Initiatives that have increased our lifespan have obliterated germs that were calming down our immune systems, leading to epidemics of inflammatory disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, allergies and inflammatory bowel disorders in addition to increasing our resistance to drugs. What is the new frontier? What are solutions to avert a public health crisis? What does a generation of high-tech probiotics look like?

Jessica Snyder Sachs is the author of “Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World” which spotlights the pioneering work of scientists developing solutions to both antibiotic-resistant infections and chronic inflammatory diseases. A chronicler of Science and Popular Science, Discover and the New York Times, Snyder Sachs currently works as the director of science communications for the non-profit organization Autism Speaks, where she helps translate the findings of autism researchers for the lay public.

Hosted by Alexander Heffner, The Open Mind is a thoughtful excursion into the world of ideas across politics, media, technology, the arts, and all realms of civic life. First broadcast in 1956, it explores challenges of the digital age, American politics and emerging issues. These conversations are a primary resource to the public, students, teachers, researchers, and archivists.

Alexander is host of The Open Mind on PBS. He has covered American politics, civic life and Millennials since the 2008 presidential campaign. His work has been profiled in The Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Variety, Medium, and on NBC News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NPR, CNN, BBC, ABC and NY1, among other media outlets. His writing has appeared in TIME, USA TODAY, Daily Beast, Reuters, RealClearPolitics, NYT's Room for Debate, The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe and Philadelphia Inquirer, among other publications. He is coauthor of A Documentary History of the United States (Penguin, 2018).