Health Hats, the Podcast

21:47

Endometriosis: A Web You Can Touch

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/10/03

Danny and Phee open their endometriosis series: how they met, Phee’s decade-long journey to diagnosis, and what this disease actually does to the body.Click here to view the verbatim transcript Click here to read the newsletter Summary Danny and Phee Marcial launch their co-produced series on endometriosis by telling the story behind it: Phee’s mom, Danny’s old friend, introduced them after years of talking about hard-to-diagnose conditions in her own family. Phee walks through

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8:39

The Gods Fight: Intro to Endometriosis Series w Phee...

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/09/13

Phee Marcial’s artwork opens our co-produced endometriosis series: Armor, Light, and Power. A conversation about art, pain, and process. Click here to view the verbatim transcript Click here to read the newsletter Summary Phee created art; Health Hats was floored. They are well into co-producing a series about endometriosis. Health Hats knows little about endometriosis or manga/anime-adjacent art. Phee knows little about podcasting and video production. Both share vibrant curiosity. What a

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6:57

100 Elephants, Same Blind Spot

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/08/30

My first-ever post (2012) meets 100 life-sized elephants on Commonwealth Ave. Episode 625. I still haven’t found the whole animal.Click here to view the verbatim transcript Summary I revisit my first-ever blog post, a 2012 story about two strangers in wheelchairs, each certain the other had it worse, as I ride my wheelchair through The Great Elephant Migration’s 100 life-sized sculptures on Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue. Fourteen years and 625 episodes later, the argument holds:

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13:31

2-Minute Bitch Session in 14 Minutes

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/08/15

Pathological optimism meets its cathartic downside. Listen to a 2-minute burst about what sucks in life as I ride my recumbent trike. It’s lame & heartfelt. Click here to view the printable newsletter. More readable than a transcript. Click here to view the verbatim transcript Summary Pathological optimism doesn’t mean things don’t suck. Sometimes you just need a 2-minute burst of complaining. I hate leaking misery in dribs and drabs. I let loose about my sax struggles, MS fatigue,

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5:01

I Love This So Much I Have to Do Less of It

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/08/05

Less, more frequently. Keeping my glorious subscribers up to date on some changes. Click here to view the printable newsletter. More readable than a transcript. Summary 600 blog posts and 250 podcast episodes in. I’m making a change. Production runs 50-60 hours per episode — unsustainable, even though I love every minute. In this trike-ride solo episode, I share what’s pulling my time: co-founding Trust My Own Health (a new startup, weekly one-screen newsletter ), co-leading an

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296 Pages of Data, Zero Bites of Information

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/07/19

As a nurse with MS, I’m interviewed about AI’s real role in care: pattern recognition, human-in-the-loop skepticism, and the Three T’s and Two C’s framework. Click here to view the printable newsletter. More readable than a transcript. Click here for a verbatim transcript Summary I sit in the guest chair on Practical AI in Healthcare with Steve Labkoff. I walk through my experience feeding my own symptom logs, lab results, and ten years of clinician notes into an AI LLM: a

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33:06

Alone in a Dark Hospital Room, She Asked Claude

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/06/14

Using AI to track symptoms, weigh medication options, and advocate. Not a cure, a toolkit. An honest, careful path without handing over the wheel. Summary Health Hats reviewed Melissa Reynolds’ book on pregnancy in 2019, and they bonded over the fact that a man had blurbed it. Now she’s on to something new: she’s been figuring out how to use AI to manage a body that’s been hard to live in for two decades. The turning point came in a diagnostic unit, alone in the dark with no idea what

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14:58

Nurses’ Week, Handel’s Messiah, Oldest Maternity...

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/05/11

From a 10-bed lying-in hospital to Handel’s Messiah, the Rotunda Maternity Hospital has operated continuously for 281 years. A Nurses’ Week story. Summary Across the street from Danny’s Dublin hotel stood a large white institutional building with no signage. It turned out to be the Rotunda Hospital — the oldest continuously operating maternity hospital in the world, delivering babies in the same building since December 8th, 1757. Surgeon Bartholomew Mosse founded it after losing his

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19:49

Participatory Governance: Right People Right Question

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/04/18

Participatory governance in healthcare means asking the right people the right questions. Three stories where listening as leadership changed everything. Summary This episode is about listening as leadership — the gap between where knowledge lives and where decisions get made, and what it costs when we pretend that gap doesn’t exist. Three stories from my career as a nurse manager, quality director, and VP — three moments where participatory governance in healthcare produced the same result:

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22:44

Crutches, Caves, and Currents: Tubing in Belize

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/03/01

Health Hats walks & floats through ancient Maya caves in Belize with forearm crutches, teamwork, trust, and shared decision-making every step of the way.Watch this episode on YouTube. Audio is published, but not the same Podcast episode on YouTube Summary What does it take to go cave tubing in Belize when you use forearm crutches and have no electric wheelchair? For Danny van Leeuwen, it takes the 3 T’s: Time (a half-mile walk), Trust (in guides and companions), and Talk (real-time

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34:26

If You Have a Body, You’re an Athlete: Training for MS

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2026/02/08

Former Nike exec Mark Hochgesang interviews Danny on Heavy Hitter Sports Podcast about MS & being an adaptive athlete. Just back from Belize! Training works.Summary My friend Mark Hochgesang, former Nike exec and host of Heavy Hitter Sports, recently interviewed me. While I usually wear my life on my sleeve on Health Hats, this conversation revealed something different—how I think about myself as an adaptive athlete. Phil Knight’s mantra: “If you have a body, you’re an

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25:29

Retirement Improvisation – Onward: 2025 Holiday Letter

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2025/12/28

Health Hats Danny celebrates 50 – years with his honey & pounds lost. With gratitude for privilege, & best health thru family, media, music, travel, & advocacy.Summary Think of 2025 as Danny’s Sofrito year—familiar and unexpected ingredients simmering together. The base: 50 years married, daily saxophone practice, steady MS management. The aromatics: Cuban jazz immersion, co-founding a Personal Health Data Bank, and celebrating with old friends on Bloom Mountain. The heat:

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A Third on the Shelf: Rethinking Power in Community...

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2025/11/24

Kirk & Lacy on shifting research funding away from federal grants: what happens to community partnerships when the money—and the rules—change? Summary Three Audiences, One Report Lacy Fabian and Kirk Knestis untangle a fundamental confusion in community health research: there are three distinct audiences with competing needs—funders want accountability, researchers want generalizable knowledge, and communities want immediate benefit. Current practice optimizes for the funder, producing

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43:49

Give Me My Damn Data. Then What? Managing Permissions.

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2025/11/02

Your health data belongs to you—but how can you share it safely? Fabienne Bourgeois, MD, exposes the complex truth about privacy, permissions, and data control. Summary According to Fabienne Bourgeois, MD, patients want control over their health data, but privacy preferences and constant changes complicate this. The discussion is relevant to people with disabilities, caregivers, and others navigating complex health information. About 80% of people share common privacy concerns that current systems

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23:04

Catch-22.0: AI Creates Problems It Solves

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2025/10/06

Healthcare AI isn't a tech problem—it's a mirror reflecting how our health system already fails. Uncomfortable truths from Datapalooza 2025.Summary We're asking the wrong questions about AI in healthcare. Instead of debating whether it's good or bad, we need to examine the system-eating-its-tail contradictions we've created: locking away vital data so AI learns from everything except what matters most, demanding transparency from inherently secretive companies, and fearing tools could make us lazy

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4:07

Letter: Trust Me, I’m Skeptical

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2025/09/07

Letters beat emails for trustworthiness. A gullible skeptic reflects on navigating trust in a 50-year marriage, and the energy cost of distrust. Click here to view the printable newsletter with images. More readable than a transcript, which can also be found below. Please comment and ask questions: at the comment section at the bottom of the show notes on LinkedIn via email YouTube channel DM on Instagram, TikTok to @healthhats Production Team Kayla Nelson: Web and

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46:29

Listen First, Lead Together: Advocacy and Power Dynamics

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2025/08/10

Ronda Alexander on strategies to build inclusive health coalitions, manage power dynamics, center marginalized voices, & design sustainable governance.Summary In this episode of Health Hats, host Danny van Leeuwen talks with Ronda Alexander, a community health advocate and skilled facilitator, about the challenges of building and maintaining effective health coalitions. Alexander shares her journey from attending Detroit's innovative Henry Ford Academy to working with Ford Partnership for Advanced

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33:37

Never leave your shit on someone else’s farm!

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2025/07/19

Exploring bird flu prevention with farm owner Shannon Hayes. Discover boot washing, flock protection with coyotes, and best practices in biosecurity. Summary 🎯 The Lede: Bird flu cycles have shortened, forcing farmers like Shannon Hayes to reimagine their biosecurity protocols completely. Farm owner Shannon Hayes reveals how her family protects their livestock from bird flu at Sap Bush Hollow Farm. Key strategies include washing boots with soap and vinegar solutions, timing poultry purchases for

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First We Listen, Then We Act. Informatics in...

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2025/06/21

MS patient turned healthcare disruptor shares why your biggest "problem users" are actually your most valuable system improvers.Summary 🎯 The Lede: Collaborate with patients, caregivers, and clinician partners to develop tools that truly inform health decisions. From a reluctant keynote speaker who prefers hallway conversations comes wisdom about transforming healthcare through authentic partnership. At the American Nursing Informatics Association conference, Danny van Leeuwen shared how his MS

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44:27

Pod People, Participatory Governance during COVID

Health Hats, the Podcast ·

2025/05/21

These families created a pandemic pod with clear rules & shared childcare. While adults navigated anxiety, their kids called it "the best time of their lives."Summary Bevin Croft and David Weintraub talk about their experience forming a "pod" during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Hats introduces participatory governance - a concept I’ve studied throughout my life in various contexts, including families, communities, organizations, and healthcare. My history with governance spans from 1968,

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