Generations of Advocacy: A Conversation on Healthcare, History, and Healing

Generations of Advocacy: A Conversation on Healthcare, History, and Healing

In this powerful seventh season, host Ashley D. Freeman sits down for an intimate, intergenerational conversation with Pamela Browner White to explore their origin stories—how they first encountered the healthcare system and how caregiving at a young age shaped their understanding of advocacy. Both women share how their early experiences with caring for their parents sparked a lifelong commitment to improving healthcare and navigating systems that often overlook or harm marginalized communities.

Their candid discussion dives deep into the historic mistreatment of Black people in healthcare—highlighting the painful legacies of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells were used without consent, and J. Marion Sims, whose unethical experiments on Black women helped to shape modern gynecology. Through these stories, Ashley and Pamela reflect on how these systemic harms have left lasting scars in the Black community.

But the conversation doesn’t stop at the past—it extends into the present, with both women sharing their personal encounters with healthcare. They remind us that improving the quality of healthcare for African Americans doesn’t just uplift one community; it lifts all of us.

Tune in for a powerful exchange of stories, wisdom, and a shared vision for a more equitable healthcare system for all.

This season is brought to you in collaboration with American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). This compliments the ABIM Foundation's Building Trust Initiative. We will highlight different stories and context that illustrate racial, ethnic, and gender health disparities. Our goal is to provide this historical context, show how it is connected to inequities that still happen, and share how changemakers are taking action to ensure that history doesn't continue to repeat itself. 

Resources for this Episode Include:

1. 1. ABIM Foundation's Building Trust Initiative: https://buildingtrust.org/author/lnetwork/ 
   2. ABIM Foundation's Health Equity Background Paper: https://abimfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Foundation-2020-Forum-Background-Paper.pdf 
   3. The White Dress Project focusing on fibroid advocacy and empowerment: https://www.thewhitedressproject.org/ 
   4. Therapy For Black Men: https://therapyforblackmen.org/ 
   5. Therapy for Black Girls: https://therapyforblackgirls.com/