Special Edition Announcement and General Conference PSA

 In this episode of the Y Health Podcast, Dr. Cougar Hall announces two exciting new formats being added to the show: 

1. Y Health Classroom Edition – Faculty members will highlight key concepts from their courses at BYU, providing educational content that is both informative and accessible to a broad audience.
2. Public Service Announcements (PSAs) – Short, timely episodes meant to benefit listeners, sometimes shared by Dr. Hall and other times by invited guests.

To introduce the new PSA format, Dr. Hall offers the podcast’s first PSA, reflecting on the unique integration of faith and education at BYU. As a faculty member, he discusses the privilege of opening each class with prayer and weaving in gospel truths—especially the teachings of Jesus Christ—when they align with course topics. In cases where professional material may not align with church teachings, Dr. Hall presents the content professionally, then reaffirms his personal testimony of gospel truths.
 
With General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints approaching (held each April and October), Dr. Hall invites listeners—just as he does his students—to participate as much as possible and to reflect on how conference messages relate to public health themes studied in class. A strong connection is drawn between gospel teachings and public health principles.

The episode includes the parable of the river, a well-known story in public health illustrating the value of prevention. In the story, two people tirelessly rescue drowning children from a river until one decides to run upstream to find out why the children are falling in. This metaphor highlights how public health focuses on addressing root causes and preventing harm, while healthcare focuses on treatment and healing.

Dr. Hall draws a parallel between this idea and the role of Jesus Christ, emphasizing that He prevents, repairs, and transforms. His gospel not only protects us from harm and saves us when we’re in trouble—it also changes us for the better.
 
The episode concludes with gratitude to listeners and encouragement to join in the transformative experience of General Conference. The team looks forward to continuing engaging interviews and adding new, educational content through the Classroom Edition and PSA formats.

Recorded, Edited & Produced by Christy Gonzalez, Harper Xinyu Zhang, Kailey Hopkins, and Tanya Gale

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome, welcome. We are making a few changes here at the Y Health Podcast. We will continue to record conversations with BYU faculty, students and professionals working in public health as we've been doing, but we will be adding two new podcast formats. First, we will produce a Y Health Classroom edition. 

Where faculty guests share several key points from a course they teach on campus. We feel this format will be informative and educational to a wide variety of listeners. Second, we'll record short public service announcements or PSAs, which are hopefully timely and beneficial for listeners. Sometimes I will be sharing announcement, but often I will invite another individual to participate in our PSAs. 

We hope that you enjoy both of these two new formats, and perhaps I can take advantage of this recording to provide our first PSA BYU is owned and operated by the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. [00:01:00] As a faculty member at BYU, it is my privilege to begin each class with prayer and to point out relevant gospel truths, especially the teachings of our savior Jesus Christ, when they align with topics from class from time to time. 

A course will include theories, models, or principles essential to a student's professional preparation, but that do not align with the teachings of Jesus Christ or official church policies. In these instances, I provide instruction consistent with professional norms, and then before class ends testify of restored truth as the annual and semi-annual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ to Latter-Day Saints approaches. 

Each April and October, I invite my students to participate in as much of general conference as their schedules will allow and further invite them to listen for topics or themes from our class. So often there is great overlap between the public health concepts we've been studying as a [00:02:00] class and the teachings of living prophets and general church leadership. 

I. I want to similarly invite you to listen to conference and reflect upon the preventative power that can be found in following the teachings of Jesus Christ. In public health, we talk of quote unquote, getting upstream, which means to prevent root causes of morbidity and mortality by focusing on factors that contribute to poor health. 

This phrase comes from what is termed the parable of the river. In the parable of the river, two individuals are walking along a river. When they notice a child floating downstream struggling to keep his or her head above the water, the couple immediately jump in to rescue the child from the swift current. 

A moment later, they see yet another child coming down the river in the same predicament. They again scramble to rescue the child and proceed to provide life-saving care. The situation repeats as more and more children need to be rescued from the river. The couple [00:03:00] is in desperate need of additional help in saving the children. 

It is at this moment that one of the adults abandons the rescue efforts and begins running up the River's bank. Where are you going? The other adult frantically asks, I'm headed upstream to see why all these children are falling into the river. Comes the response. This is public health. It's about preventing death and disability. 

It's about making it easy to stay safe and difficult to get injured. It aims to get upstream by contrast. Healthcare is focused on repairing and treating ailments once they occur. It aims to relieve suffering and pain. Our savior, Jesus Christ, does both his teachings help prevent us from falling into the river. 

And his atonement rescues us when we're drowning. His powers are both to prevent and repair, yet there is more. The gospel of Jesus [00:04:00] Christ isn't just preventative or reparative. It can be transformative. It changes you and me, so I invite you to prepare for a transformative experience on April 5th and sixth. 

As we once again have the opportunity to hear God's words and fill our savior's love through his chosen leaders. Thank you for supporting the Y Health Podcast. We look forward to continuing to provide you with engaging discussions as well as more focused educational content through our new classroom edition and timely public health service announcements. 

We need your support and we thank you for being a regular listener.