Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is launching a new podcast next week, moving his message into a format he has used for years as a guest and now plans to control himself. The show, titled The Secretary Kennedy Podcast, will feature Kennedy in conversation with doctors, scientists and agency staff.
In a 90-second teaser video, Kennedy says the podcast is meant to begin “a new era of radical transparency in government.” He says it will expose corruption and lies that have made Americans sick, adding: “We’re going to name the names of the forces that obstruct the paths to public health.”
The launch comes after a rough stretch for the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency has faced criticism over vaccine policy changes, and a federal ruling last month blocked several of those moves. It also comes as resistance from key Republican senators has kept President Trump’s surgeon general pick from taking office, leaving Kennedy’s health agenda under pressure even as he opens a new public channel to sell it.
The podcast has been in the works since early in the second Trump administration, according to people familiar with the effort inside the department. Kennedy previously hosted his own podcast, and as recently as this week he has appeared on dozens of podcasts to lay out his views in longform interviews. But this will be the first one hosted by a sitting Cabinet secretary, Tyler Burger said, calling it “our first podcast” and saying the set was pieced together largely with items the agency already had.
Burger said the studio can seat four people at once, a small setup built for conversation rather than spectacle. Liam Nahill said the show is part of a broader push to bring the Make America Healthy Again message to as wide an audience as possible. Andrew Nixon said the podcast will focus on affordability and other issues that polls show matter to voters ahead of November’s midterm elections, including chronic disease, nutrition, food quality and health costs.
The timing is telling. After getting bogged down in fights over vaccines, Kennedy is turning to a cleaner, less contentious lane: healthy food, disease prevention and cost. The new podcast is meant to sound like outreach, but it is also a defense of his agenda, with the secretary taking his case directly to the public before the midterms sharpen the politics around health care and government trust.
That is why the show matters now. Kennedy is not just starting another media project; he is trying to turn a Cabinet office into a broadcast platform while the department he runs faces legal setbacks and political resistance. Whether listeners hear a transparency push or a sustained argument for his movement, the first episode will be the start of a more aggressive campaign to frame the fight over public health on his terms.
