NEPHTC Interview Spotlight: Healthy Maine Talks Podcast
NEPHTC’s Program Manager Candice Bangham and Program Assistant Lindsay Kastner sat down with Matt Wellington, Associate Director of the Maine Public Health Association (MPHA), to discuss his podcast, Healthy Maine Talks, that he started in 2023.
How did the Maine Talks Podcast get started/what was the inspiration or demonstrated need for creating it?
“Healthy Maine Talks was a great opportunity for me to get the lay of the land on public health in Maine from stakeholders all across the state and also to meet more people in our network, which is super diverse. It still amazes me now how many different kinds of folks we represent, whether it’s businesses, banks, environmental organizations, and of course traditional public health professionals.”
Who would you say your intended audience is for the podcast – would you say it’s more for public health professionals or could this be for the general public or clinicians? Or all of the above?
“I think it’s definitely more of a stakeholder podcast and not just public health professionals but folks who are working in policy, for example. I know some policymakers who tune in pretty regularly. Reporters listen to the podcast, and of course, public health professionals as well. We have episodes that have been more geared towards the general public.
One example is after the PFAS spill happened in Brunswick over the summer – that is not far from where I live. So I had a personal interest in trying to find more information and definitely felt as a resident that there was not a ton of accurate, up-to-date information out there about the threat to the public. I reached out to the town water district manager, Craig Douglas, to come on to the podcast, and he shared a ton of detailed information that made me feel a lot better about the safety of our town’s water supply and whether or not my daughter could drink it. Our elected officials in Brunswick actually shared the podcast (on postcards with the link to the episode) with people who were attending town meetings. That is one of our most downloaded episodes of 2024, so it can really be a general interest podcast depending on the subject matter.”
So other than from MPHA, what else do you do to disseminate the podcast?
“For the episode on PFAS, the town manager promoted that through their network listserv, social media, and elected officials – this was a great example of reaching a broader audience outside of public health professionals. But, there’s way more potential to do that kind of promotion outside of MPHAs network. I think with the support we’ve received from NEPHTC, we’ll be able to do a lot more of that. I’m hoping this year we really get out there to chambers of commerce meetings and town fairs and festivals to table now that we have resources to expand the audience of Healthy Maine Talks, because there are lots of episodes that could absolutely be helpful for the public.
Typically, we’ve put the episodes out through our MPHA channels and the monthly newsletter, but there are a lot of plans to get it out to a much broader audience!”
For potential listeners, could you give a list of some of the topic areas that Healthy Maine Talks has covered in the past or might be covering in the future?
“Well, I would direct people to some of our most listened to episodes from 2024. One was with Gabriella Alcalde from the Sewell Foundation about their theory of change as a foundation and how they have woven health equity into all of the work they do – it’s very much where the rubber meets the road on that, and not like a lip-service thing. I’ve seen it in action firsthand.
We’ve had reporters come on and do a deeper dive into some of the stories they’ve written – both from folks in Maine and outside of Maine. Rose Lundy did an investigation into Maine’s long-term care system and some of the gaps there that other states might be seeing as well in long term care, staffing issues, etc. which was a bit of a bombshell when the story came out in Maine.
There are others that are just kind of evergreen. Dr. Shelley Hearne from the Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy at Johns Hopkins joined us to talk about how you can engage in public health advocacy as a public health professional, navigating the differences between advocacy and lobbying and how important it is for folks to engage in that kind of work.
So yeah, there are lots of episodes I would encourage people to check out. That’s one of the things I love the most about Healthy Maine Talks is that our purview is pretty broad. We talk about featuring stories from folks across Maine who are working to make their communities healthier and safer, and a lot of different people and topics can fit into that.”
What is your favorite episode and why?
“This might be cheating, but I think my favorite episode might be our first one. It was with Ray Ruby from the Maine Cancer Foundation. It was a great way to kick off the podcast. He’s doing incredible work. His team’s doing incredible work to prevent cancer here in Maine. So it was just a very nice, warm way to introduce what we’re trying to do with Healthy Maine Talks, which is to dig into sometimes pretty heavy topics in a way that feels relatable and that isn’t just snippets from a media story. It feels much more meaningful, so I think that’s my favorite episode so far.”
So it sounds like you try to bring in a subject matter expert to just about every episode of the podcast – are you actively looking for subject matter experts or do they come to you? And additionally, is there anyone or any topic that you would really like to have on the podcast that you haven’t gotten to yet?
“Definitely. So, it’s a mix of how we find guests for the podcast. It’s at the point now where some folks come to us or people ask to be featured on the podcast. I definitely have a list of people that I actively invite to come on and join the podcast. For example, I went through a training with the Groundwater Institute which works on combating structural racism in our institutions and it was just mind-blowing for me. It was really a great workshop. So I invited one of the facilitators, Nafeesha Mitchell, to come on the podcast for a future episode and talk about what the Groundwater Institute does for other people, because I think it’s something that our audience would absolutely be interested in and potentially have their own organizations go through. So it’s a mix of how speakers come on.
For folks who I would love to have on, Dr. Nirav Shah, former Maine CDC director – I’d love to have him on. He’s somebody that I used to run into on the plane back and forth from D.C. and Maine when I used to work in D.C. He’s a great spokesperson for public health and he’s really relatable. I would really like to get his take on how we move forward in our current climate around public health. So if he’s reading this, come on Healthy Maine Talks!”
If someone reading this article would like to reach out about coming on the podcast, how could they best get in touch with you to do that?
“Folks should definitely reach out if they have ideas for compelling speakers! My email is best – it’s mwellington@mainepublichealth.org.”
If a public health professional was interested in starting a podcast, what is one piece of knowledge you would share with them that you would have wanted to know before you started Healthy Maine Talks?
“Listening is important, so ask open-ended questions. That will help you get to the root of what the guest is there to talk about. And I think be curious and ask follow-up questions. Don’t feel like you need to stick to a script. That can be helpful for some settings, but I prefer to keep it more casual. I typically send a short guide of questions to my guests beforehand so they can get a feel of topics I will cover, but I definitely leave a good amount of room for what comes up in the moment. So listening is a really important part of that and asking those open-ended questions. It’s never very interesting when you listen to a podcast and the person’s just saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ because the host is asking them very specific questions. The more you can get the person talking, the better.
The only other thing I would add is that I don’t think a podcast has to be the most polished thing in the world for it to be successful. We have steadily raised our bar on Healthy Maine Talks in terms of sound quality and editing, which has been mostly thanks to having PHTC (Public Health Training Center) support and me gradually learning more how to do it. But it’s okay to keep it simple. I feel like that can hold people back sometimes from doing really cool things with podcasts because they feel like they aren’t a master editor or don’t have a high-tech microphone. When we first started this podcast, it was all over Zoom – no microphone, just on Zoom. I recorded it, used a basic program to edit it – that was it. So I would encourage people to not let the technical side hold them back, because you can start pretty simple and work up from there.”
What’s next for Healthy Maine Talks?
“Healthy Maine Talks on the road! I’m excited to get into places that we don’t often go in person in Maine. We have a network that covers all 16 counties in Maine, and we stay in touch with folks, but it’s not too often we get out to the western or down-east regions of the state, which are both just a few hours away from where we are. So I’m really excited to talk to people that I don’t often get to talk to in-person. It feels different to do in-person interviews, so I’m really pumped to do that. And, it allowed us to make sure we’re activating and engaging our networks of partners all over the state, and I think there will be a lot of added value that comes with me taking the podcast on tour. We’ll have more meetings with people and informal discussions about not just the podcast, but also about the Maine Public Health Association and how we can be a better resource for them.”
A fun last question – where did the name ‘Healthy Maine Talks’ originate?
“I think Becca Boulos, our executive director, came up with Healthy Maine Talks, so I cannot take credit for that one. But it just embodies the podcast really well. We’re out there talking to folks across Maine working to make their communities healthier and safer. And, ‘Healthy Maine Talks’ feels casual and fun, I think. It’s a really good fit – kudos to Becca Boulos for coming up with it.”
Is there anything else you’d like to share about Healthy Maine Talks?
“The last thing I’ll say is that Health Maine Talks is doing what we hoped it would do. It’s stirring discussion. Oftentimes when I go to meetings or conferences, people will chime in and say, ‘Hey, I listened to that episode, I thought it was great. I have a suggestion for a guest you should check out.’ And these are all kinds of people – not just public health professionals – reporters, legislators, etc. It’s serving the purpose we hoped it would serve. And I want to say thank you for the support from NEPHTC for the podcast.”
Thank you so much to Matt for sitting down with NEPHTC! Check out this episode to hear briefly from Candice Bangham, Senior Program Manager at NEPHTC, and you can access the rest of the podcast episodes here or wherever you get your podcasts!