When the rules of democracy get rewritten mid-game, public health is on the line. On Episode 1 of Prescribing Healthier Futures, Senator Dr. Akilah Weber Pierson talks with Will Rodriguez-Kennedy about Texas’s mid-decade redistricting push and why Californians can’t ignore it. They connect the dots from congressional control to Medi-Cal and CalFresh funding, hospital stability, environmental justice, and San Diego’s border economy.

California’s proposed response—Proposition 50—is framed as a temporary, voter-approved safeguard that returns to independent redistricting in 2030. With ballots arriving and Election Day on November 4, the episode urges listeners to engage, vote, and defend health, equity, and democracy.