The Inside Track: the pope, the Force and the hope

The Inside Track is a new series from Global Health Matters offering context, clarity and foresight that you won’t find in traditional news shows. Each episode brings host Garry Aslanyan together with two recurring voices: Catherine Kyobutungi, who brings insight from the frontlines of health research and policy in Africa, and Ricardo Baptista Leite, a physician and global thinker on health, politics and AI. Together, they unpack the headlines with candid conversations grounded in lived experience. If you work in global health and want a better understanding of what’s happening, why it matters and what to watch out for , this series is for you. What do the pope, the Force and a dose of hope have in common? In this episode of The Inside Track , we discuss planetary health—the idea that human health is inseparable from the health of the planet. The discussion underscores how factors like climate, food and living conditions drive most health outcomes, far beyond clinical care. Host Garry Aslanyan and recurring expert-pundits Catherine Kyobutungi and Ricardo Baptista Leite call for a shift from reactive health systems to prevention, and for rethinking “development” to prioritise sustainability alongside human wellbeing. Clipping: “ Global health governance in transition ” — a brief discussion on reimagining global health through new partnerships and stronger local ownership. Related episode documents, transcripts and other information can be found on our website .

You can listen to The Inside Track: the pope, the Force and the hope online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Inside Track: the pope, the Force and the hope is an episode from Global Health Matters by Dr. Garry Aslanyan.

This episode is 48:39 long.

This episode was published on Apr 7, 2026.

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