Podcast: What MAHA Gets Wrong About America's 'Healthy' Past

By Cameron English and ChuckDinerstein — Mar 16, 2026

RFK, Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement hinges on the assumption that our country was once far healthier than it is today. The problem? It never was. By almost every metric, Americans lead longer, healthier lives now than their ancestors ever did. Let's take a closer look at the evidence.

Image: ACSH

Join Cameron English and Dr. Chuck Dinerstein on Episode 159 of the Science Dispatch podcast as they discuss:

America's Healthier Past is no More Than a Myth

“Make America healthy again” sounds like a great slogan. It is loaded with nostalgia and … haziness. What is that “again” all about? When were those halcyon days when Americans were healthier than now? Was it in 1900, when life expectancy was around 47 and one in five children did not reach adulthood?

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Cameron English

Director of Bioscience

Cameron English is a writer, editor and co-host of the Science Facts and Fallacies Podcast. Before joining ACSH, he was managing editor at the Genetic Literacy Project.