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Rachel Gotbaum

Rachel Gotbaum is a radio journalist with two decades of experience.

Rachel Gotbaum is a radio journalist with two decades of experience. Her expertise is in health and science. She has won numerous national awards for her documentaries and features on end of life care, Alzheimers disease, AIDS, stem cell science, Primary Care doctors and the country's only successful merger of a public and private hospital.She created the first web cast for The New England Journal of Medicine, where her interviews included President Jimmy Carter talking about efforts to eradicate guinea worm disease world-wide, to an Iraqi whose job was to count civilian casualties of the war, to an Atlanta doctor who aids in prison executions, to an recent American veteran of the war in Afghanistan who was blinded by a roadside bomb, but dreams of becoming a fireman. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Oregonian, CBC, BBC, NPR, Kaiser Health News,The Atlantic and American Public Media.One of her favorite stories she reported is about a clinic in downtown Boston that treats the feet of homeless people.When she is not covering sex and death, she will jump at any chance to do a story about food. In 2002, she interviewed Julia Child in her Cambridge kitchen before she donated it to the Smithsonian. 

A protester calls for on NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over the Ukraine during a demonstration in Paris, France, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022.

‘The risk of escalation is too great’ for a no-fly zone in Ukraine, analyst explains

Ukraine

A no-fly zone would basically commit NATO to shoot down all Russian planes that violate the airspace within the no-fly zone, explained Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center. “And a no-fly zone can’t just be established, it has to be enforced,” Rizzo told The World.

A Ukrainian woman waits for relatives fleeing the conflict from neighboring Ukraine at the border crossing in Medyka, southeastern Poland, on Feb. 25, 2022. UN officials said that 100,000 people were believed to have left their homes and estimated up to 4

Poland prepares to accept thousands of refugees from Ukraine

Ukraine
A man gets vaccinated against COVID-19 at a site near Johannesburg, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. 

At least 9 African countries set to produce COVID vaccines, Africa’s CDC chief says

COVID-19
Security forces stand guard inside an airport terminal in Rabat, Morocco

Discussion: The omicron variant and holiday travel

Coronavirus Conversations
A pregnant woman wearing a face mask and gloves holds her belly as she waits in line for groceries at St. Mary's Church in Waltham, Mass.

Discussion: The pandemic, women’s health and pregnancy

Coronavirus Conversations
Children play with a therapist in the pediatric unit of the Robert Debre hospital, in Paris, France

Discussion: Children’s mental health during COVID

Coronavirus Conversations

The World’s reporter Elana Gordon hosted a discussion on the pandemic’s effects on children’s mental health with Karestan Koenen, Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Merck corporate headquarters in Kenilworth, New Jersey.

New Merck pill could help treat COVID-19 symptoms for people without access to vaccines

Medicine

“There are a lot of people, particularly in developing countries, that have not had the opportunity to have vaccines,” James Love tells The World’s host Marco Werman. “And so, a treatment like this will really be important.”

A nurse prepares a syringe for a patient infected with the coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the Syrian American Medical Society Hospital

Discussion: The challenges of vaccinating people in conflict zones

Coronavirus Conversations

As part of The World’s series of conversations on the coronavirus pandemic with Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, reporter Elana Gordon moderated a discussion about a pandemic ceasefire to vaccinate people in conflict zones.

In this Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019, file photo, a woman waits outside the Migowi Health Clinic to be injected with the world's first vaccine against malaria in a pilot program, in Migowi, Malawi. 

First WHO-backed malaria vaccine is a ‘dream for the community,’ health expert says

Medicine

Regina Rabinovich, the director of the Malaria Elimination Initiative at ISGlobal and a visiting scholar at Harvard University, joined The World’s host Marco Werman to discuss the advancement.

An illegal golf course which was demolished and turned into a cornfield is seen through a fence in the suburbs of Beijing, June 16, 2014.

Xi Jinping doesn’t play golf. How will he and Trump talk shop at Mar-a-Lago?

Global Politics

There probably won’t be any golf diplomacy when China’s president holds his first face-to-face meeting with his new American counterpart this week.