Global Health Matters

In this video trailer, Host Garry Aslanyan shares a mid‑season update on Season 5 of Global Health Matters, highlighting the four types of episodes the show now offers — Signature deep‑dives, Dialogue interviews, Trailblazers recorded during his travels, and the newest format, The Inside Track. He also announces that video versions of two episode types will soon be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube, encouraging listeners to keep watching and stay tuned for more content through 2026 and 2027.
We also thank you for listening to Global Health Matters. This short survey (about 8 minutes) will help us understand what is working, what we can do better, and what you would like to hear in Season 6. Your answers are anonymous unless you choose to leave your details at the end.
Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

Subscribe to the Global Health Matters podcast newsletter. 
 
Follow us for updates:
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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.

In this video trailer, Host Garry Aslanyan shares a mid‑season update on Season 5 of Global Health Matters, highlighting the four types of episodes the show now offers — Signature deep‑dives, Dialogue interviews, Trailblazers recorded during his travels, and the newest format, The Inside Track. He also announces that video versions of two episode types will soon be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube, encouraging listeners to keep watching and stay tuned for more content through 2026 and 2027.
We also thank you for listening to Global Health Matters. This short survey (about 8 minutes) will help us understand what is working, what we can do better, and what you would like to hear in Season 6. Your answers are anonymous unless you choose to leave your details at the end.
Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

Subscribe to the Global Health Matters podcast newsletter. 
 
Follow us for updates:
@TDRnews on X
TDR on LinkedIn
@ghm_podcast on Instagram
@ghm-podcast.bsky.social on Bluesky
 
Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.

Building stronger health systems requires more than technical solutions. It requires understanding the people, relationships and power dynamics that shape health outcomes. As countries work towards more equitable and resilient health systems, how can gender and inclusion become central to research, policymaking and practice? And how can partnerships help ensure that evidence reflects the realities of the communities health systems are designed to serve?
In this episode of Guiding Research, Dr. Sam Oti, Senior Programme Specialist at Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), speaks with Professor Asha George, health systems researcher at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
Together, they explore why context matters, how lived experience should complement data, and why long-term partnerships are essential for creating sustainable change. The discussion highlights the importance of community participation, inclusive research and ensuring that those whose voices are too often overlooked are meaningfully involved in shaping health systems. Throughout the conversation, one question continues to emerge: Who is missing?

In this episode

Gender and inclusion in health systems 
Community participation and partnerships 
Evidence, lived experience and policymaking 
Equity and social justice Building people-centred and resilient health systems 
This episode forms part of the Guiding Research podcast series, produced by Global Health Matters in collaboration with Health Systems Global (HSG). The series explores the themes of the Health Systems Research (HSR) 2026 Symposium and brings together leading voices in health policy and systems research.
* HSG’s involvement in the production of these podcast episodes was supported by IDRC.
Subscribe to the Global Health Matters podcast newsletter. 
 
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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.

In May 2025, the world adopted a landmark agreement to prepare for future pandemics. It was the product of 3 years of negotiation across deep political divisions, including the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization. How did the countries with the smallest delegations build real influence at the table? How do health leaders keep people's health at the center of a deeply political process? And what does this achievement signal about cooperation in a divided world?
In this episode, host Garry Aslanyan explores these questions with two guests who bring deeply complementary perspectives. Anne-Claire Amprou is the French Ambassador for Global Health and co-chaired the intergovernmental negotiations that delivered the pandemic agreement. And joining her is Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin, Executive Director of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and former Minister of Health of Ethiopia, who helped build one African voice — 47 countries speaking together — during the negotiations.
Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

Subscribe to the Global Health Matters podcast newsletter. 
 
Follow us for updates:
@TDRnews on X
TDR on LinkedIn
@ghm_podcast on Instagram
@ghm-podcast.bsky.social on Bluesky
 
Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.

Dialogues is a series from the Global Health Matters podcast that includes interviews with some of the world’s sharpest global health minds and brightest thinkers. The goal of each Dialogue is to go beyond the echo chambers that exist in global health and to have in-depth conversations with guests who have explored global health issues from their multi-disciplinary perspectives.
In this episode of Dialogues, host Garry Aslanyan speaks with Daisy Hernández about her personal experience with Chagas disease and the journey she undertook to understand it while writing her book. Daisy is an essayist, memoirist and journalist. Her work focuses on the intersections of race, ethnicity, immigration, class and sexuality. She is the author of “The Kissing Bug: A true story of a family, an insect and a nation’s neglect of a deadly disease” (Tin House, 2021), which won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and was named a top 10 nonfiction book of 2021 by Time magazine. This conversation reminds us, as global health professionals, to go beyond our public health silos and to present our work in a way that motivates experts, policy-makers and lay audiences towards greater action.
Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website.

Subscribe to the Global Health Matters podcast newsletter. 
 
Follow us for updates:
@TDRnews on X
TDR on LinkedIn
@ghm_podcast on Instagram
@ghm-podcast.bsky.social on Bluesky
 
Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the Global Health Matters podcast series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of TDR or the World Health Organization.  

All content © 2026 Global Health Matters.