Abdul El-Sayed
The Catalyst
Ideas with a spark, energy, range and the ability to start things.
Abdul El-Sayed is a public health expert and political activist who focuses on rebuilding health systems and addressing inequalities. This interview reveals his commitment to listening to people's stories and using those insights to drive impactful change in communities.
“And he asked me if I'm interested in the public health job. And it was not like we're having a long conversation. And I say, yeah, of course I'm interested in the public health job, not knowing exactly what that job is. He said, great, my scheduler, find us a time. I fly back through Detroit two weeks later.”
“I had a friend that he and I were in the same fellowship program and he was at Yale Law School, had a bunch of offers to go work for White Shuva law firms or go and be a law clerk for a judge. And he chose to go to the city of Detroit, which was an uncommon move. And I happened to be in town.”
“I was in my role in Detroit and we were doing all kinds of work that I'm quite proud of and grateful I got to do with a community of folks who took it on with me. But there was a ceiling on what we could do because of the politics of the circumstance, right?”
“On 9 11, I went from being a brown kid with a funny name to being a very particular kind of brown kid with a very particular kind of funny name.”
The Axe Files with David Axelrod — Ep. 370 — Abdul El-Sayed
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