‘The Healthy Project’ podcast tackles health equity for people of color

Each week on his podcast, Des Moines-based health coach Corey Dion Lewis explores “those things we don’t really talk about in health care.”

The Healthy Project podcast, launched from Iowa in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic a year and a half ago, draws medical professionals and experts from across the country as guests. Each week, the podcast discusses health equity, diversity and improving outcomes for the most vulnerable populations — especially patients of color who are more likely to face challenges in their health care.

Each podcast episode averages about 2,000 downloads. Episodes can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Starting the podcast

As a clinical health coach at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines since 2017, Lewis educates patients about their diagnosis and lifestyle changes that can help manage their disease, including diet and exercise. He said many patients he works with do not have high health literacy, and he aims to give them the knowledge and tools they need to better understand their health.

Then coronavirus arrived in Iowa in March 2020, and Lewis no longer was able to see patients to provide health coaching in person.

“The podcast was one of those things I had thought would be cool to do for three years, but I just never did it,” he said. “Once the pandemic really hit, I had a lot of time to think about my goals and the things I wanted to do.”

So he asked a friend who was a fellow health coach based in New York to have a conversation. Lewis gathered the audio equipment, watched how-to videos on YouTube and pieced together how to record the first episode of his podcast. It aired on May 4, 2020.

Initially, his goal was to speak with other health coaches to discuss diets and certain additions, but Lewis said as his confidence and his skills grew, the podcast “took on a mind of its own.”

As he continued recording more episodes for The Healthy Project podcast, Lewis began to hear more anecdotes about Black and brown patients’ negative experiences within the health care system.

Lewis said he also witnessed how his mother was treated by doctors in the Quad Cities area, before she moved to live with him in Des Moines. His mother, who has diabetes, was not getting the diabetic eye exams she needed and could have gone blind if doctors in Des Moines had not emphasized the importance of those exams.

The Healthy Project podcast began to shift focus on improving health equity for the most vulnerable patients, in particular for Black and brown patients.

“The conversations shifted from just talking with (health) coaches to talking with health professionals and thought leaders about health equity and inclusion,” Lewis said.

Recent episodes tackle topics that include skin cancer in people of color, diversity in medical schools and healthy equity in digital health devices. Many of his guests who hail from across the country are people of color, which Lewis said was a conscious choice.

“I can’t have a conversation about color and race and not talk with people who are in that profession and are of color,” he said.

Plans to grow podcast’s reach

Hosting the podcast and having discussions on health equity with his guests also has changed the way Lewis thinks about his role as a health coach. Lewis said he’s become more aware patients may not disclose everything to him because they’ve been treated poorly by medical professionals in the past.

He also said he’s more mindful that challenges in a patient’s life may be keeping them from managing their diagnosis. How can they focus on eating healthy when they’re on food stamps or don’t have reliable transportation?

“As I’m having these conversations with these people on the podcast and as I’m listening and asking these questions, I’m thinking about the people I serve,” Lewis said. “I want to make sure I’m mindful of the fact I can provide a service and understand their life is not just the 30 minutes I talk about their health.”

Lewis has begun to explore projects outside of the podcast, including a conference in Des Moines called My City My Healthy that will further the podcast’s mission to improve health equity for vulnerable populations. The event is planned to take place later this year.

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