Season 1 episodes

Episode 3

Nicotine Gummies with Alyssa F. Harlow, PhD, MPH

Alyssa F. Harlow, PhD, MPH is an epidemiologist and postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California and the USC Health, Emotion, and Addiction Laboratory. Harlow’s research applies novel epidemiologic methods and causal inference to better understand the determinants and health effects of tobacco-product and substance use behaviors and inform policy. She has extensive experience conducting longitudinal analyses with the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH), a large national cohort study on tobacco product use. Her research primarily falls under three domains, including (a) documenting disparities and identifying fundamental causes of disparities in tobacco use among vulnerable populations; (b) identifying determinants of product transitions (e.g., initiation, progression, cessation), including the impact of product characteristics on substance use behaviors; and (c) examining the physical health effects of tobacco-product and cannabis use, including cardiopulmonary and reproductive health outcomes.

Episode 2

Air Pollution and Pregnancy with Carrie Breton, ScD and Zhongzheng Jason Niu, PhD

Carrie Breton, ScD is a professor of population and public health sciences and co-director of the Maternal And Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) Center for Environmental Health Disparities. Breton is interested in understanding how prenatal environmental exposures and stressors affect epigenetic pathways and maternal and child health outcomes.

Zhongzheng Niu, PhD is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences. He has a broad interest in understanding early life environmental risk factors and biological mechanisms for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) theory, with a particular focus on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and aging-related biomarkers.

Episode 1

Electric Vehicle Adoption with Sandrah Eckel, PhD

Sandrah Eckel is an associate professor of population and public health sciences, and director of the PhD in Biostatistics program. Her latest research documents the actual impact of electric vehicle adoption in the first study to use real-world data to link electric cars, air pollution and health. Leveraging publicly available datasets, the researchers analyzed a “natural experiment” occurring in California as residents in the state rapidly transitioned to electric cars, or light-duty zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs).