Baptist HealthTalk Podcast Marks Milestones

Two years, 150 experts, 50,000 downloads, and now, 100 episodes. Baptist HealthTalk, a popular podcast hosted by preventive cardiologist Jonathan Fialkow, M.D., celebrated these milestones recently with a special episode that took listeners behind the microphone.

“When I reflect on two years ago and 100 podcasts and the work done behind the scenes, I always felt that if we had a way to communicate to patients, to the lay public, in a way that they would understand and about things they want to hear, it’d be very viable. It’d be very popular,” says Dr. Fialkow, who is chief of cardiology at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute and chief population health officer for Baptist Health.

Since podcasting began in the early 2000s it has grown exponentially. Today, it’s estimated that there are more than two million active podcasts. More than a third of Americans listen to podcasts regularly, with health and fitness being the fifth most popular genre.

According to Dr. Fialkow, the original vision for the podcast involved general health topics such as back pain, sleep issues and stress. But in March 2020, the focus pivoted to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The podcast became a great vehicle for bringing in experts, and in real time, exploring what we were learning about coronavirus and COVID,” he explains. “And if we’re able to help people be a little more assured, take proper actions, give perspective regarding some of the controversy – we had one on masks and we had one on vaccines – then people can make their appropriate decisions based on that information. It was fortunate that we had already had the podcast infrastructure, but wow, to take off on the coronavirus and COVID experience was really rewarding.”

Hear more about the evolution of the Baptist HealthTalk podcast, its future and Dr. Fialkow’s perspective as host in episode 100.