When Solutions Start with Listening

Sometimes the best medicine is just listening. 

We’ve found this over and over again in this podcast – doctors, public health workers, ecologists and other people working in the One Health field struggle to solve some seemingly complicated problem, and then find it’s pretty straightforward when they stop and really listen to the people they’re trying to help. 

Whether it’s parents worried about vaccines harming their children; residents suspicious of foreigners who say they want to help screen for a new disease that’s spreading, or farmers struggling to work with veterinarians to keep their livestock healthy, people all have their own expertise, experience, and motivation. The so-called experts need to pay attention. 

Dr. Eri Togami learned some of this working in Rwanda, Tanzania, Cambodia, and elsewhere. She’s a veterinarian and epidemiologist who’s now working on her PhD in environmental health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Whiting School of Engineering. 

In just one example, Togami says, she assumed farmers whose pigs were affected by a parasitic disease called cysticercosis would sell their animals readily. It was only after listening to them at length that she learned the pigs were actually valuable, long-term investments held against hard times. 

Listen as she chats with One World, One Health about what else she’s learning as she works in the classroom and in the field.