Craig Spencer, MD: Running toward the crisis: Part 1

20-Minute Health Talk · Jun 17, 2026 · 23m

20-Minute Health Talk host Chethan Sathya, MD, sits down with Craig Spencer, MD, — ER physician, global health leader, and public health professor at Brown University — for a story that stretches from childhood dreams of “sharkology” to the front lines of the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak. [Note that this was recorded prior to the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.] Dr. Spencer explains why he walked away from a surgical path, moved to China, and ultimately chose emergency medicine to “treat anyone, for anything, anywhere.”

Northwell is New York State’s largest healthcare…