In this month’s Campfire Chat, Wes, David, and Adam gather fireside to discuss Faith-Rooted Organizing by Alexia Salvatierra and Peter Heltzel. What begins as a reflection on the role of churches in public health quickly deepens into a powerful conversation about moral imagination, structural injustice, and the difference between acting out of anger versus love.

The episode dives into real stories of immigration reform, labor advocacy, and interfaith collaboration—each grounded in deep compassion rather than political expediency. They wrestle with how these lessons apply to their own work in public health and community partnerships, especially in regions like the rural South. Along the way, they explore the limitations of technical planning, the importance of trust-building, and why prayer—often dismissed as “soft”—can be one of the most radical acts of solidarity.

Plus: a detour worth taking into the novels of Lisa Wingate, and a sneak peek at next month’s pick, Under the Sky We Make by Kimberly Nicholas.

In this episode of Route Notes, Wes and David debrief after a jam-packed weekend of community service and public health engagement. David shares the chaos and clarity that came from trying to over-engineer a complex event serving children with intellectual disabilities—only to have the day go off the rails and then somehow soar thanks to the brilliance of students, staff, and volunteers.

Wes and David reflect on the danger of linear thinking in complex environments, the difference between systems like Chick-fil-A and community-based work, and the power of trusting your team and centering mission over meticulous plans. Along the way, they offer lessons for leaders, educators, and planners—plus a detour about hot peppers and poor choices.

This one’s about humility, flexibility, and the incredible outcomes that emerge when people show up, lean in, and care deeply.

In this episode of Route Notes, David and Wes unpack the future of public health education against the backdrop of Campbell Cares Community Days—service-based learning grounded in interprofessional collaboration. They dive into the tension between machine-driven public health and the human-centered practice that's urgently needed, arguing that the curriculum of the future must move beyond technical training toward embedded community relationships, ethics, and real-time apprenticeship.

The episode explores real examples of students doing windshield surveys with tribal partners, running health fairs in unexpected places, and hosting deeply personal talking circles with survivors of violence. Along the way, they discuss the role of AI, the dangers of replacing lived experience with simulation, and why "fixing problems you can touch with people you know" might be the most important learning outcome of all.