BROADCASTS.com

b'

Earlier this month, a Texas judge issued a contentious decision about a\\xa0drug named\\xa0Mifepristone, widely used as an abortion pill and a medication to aid treatment of\\xa0people who suffer miscarriages.\\xa0U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointee with documented anti-abortion views,\\xa0ruled to suspend use of the drug across the entire country, saying that the Food and Drug Administration didn\'t properly\\xa0vet the drug when it was cleared for market over twenty years ago.\\xa0

The FDA has spent quite a bit of time in the national limelight the past few years, largely due to the pandemic.\\xa0But despite its occupation of headlines, the FDA\\u2019s history\\u2013and at times contentious relationship with the government that created it\\u2013aren\\u2019t always as widely covered. This week, Brooke sits down with Daniel Carpenter, the Allie S. Freed Professor of Government at Harvard University and author of the book, \\u201cReputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA,\\u201d to talk about the agency\'s origins and\\xa0complicated task in the face of our modern political arena.\\xa0