Corey Dion Lewis, Public Health Storyteller

03/31/2026

I wrote something for black men, and for everyone who loves them. 🤞🏾

Black men in America are facing some of the highest rates of heart disease and stroke in the country. And the frustrating truth is that so much of it is preventable. Not through expensive programs or perfect diets, but through something as accessible as walking out the front door.

The research on what regular movement does for the body that is under chronic stress is remarkable. Blood pressure drops. Inflammation calms. The nervous system gets a chance to reset. And it doesn’t take a gym or a training plan to get there. It takes consistency, community, and the decision to treat your own health as non-negotiable.

My latest piece on Live. Work. Play. Pray. gets into all of it. the science, the structural barriers that make wellness harder to access in our communities, the faith community’s role, and a simple, urgent message: Walk. Run. Jog. Not for aesthetics. For your life.

Share this with a brotha who needs to hear it. Subscribe so you never miss a post. And if you’re open to it, let’s organize a walk. 👊🏾

Read the full article and subscribe here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/liveworkplaypray/p/good-brotha-i-need-you-to-walk-jog?r=638b89&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

03/24/2026

I spent years as a clinical health coach watching patients come into my office with dangerous blood sugar levels, and leave with advice they couldn’t always afford to follow.

Not because they didn’t care. Because the system wasn’t built for them.

My new piece on Substack is about ultra-processed foods, but it’s really about power, survival math, and why “just eat better” is one of the most tone-deaf things we can say in public health.

If you’ve ever had to choose between what’s healthy and what’s affordable, this one’s for you.

Link in Bio.

03/19/2026

When asked me to be part of this, I didn’t even have to think about it. Instant yes. It’s an honor to be in this with so many incredible people. Ben, the care and intentionality you’ve brought to this project shows. Thank you for the leadership. Can’t wait for the world to see what you have put together.

03/17/2026

I was a shorty watching MTV when I first heard The Message.
I thought I was looking at New York.
I was actually looking at a population health crisis — documented in real time, on a bass line, in 1982.
New article is live on Live. Work. Play. Pray. Breaking down Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five line by line through a public health lens.
Melle Mel knew. The research just finally caught up.
Link in bio.

03/10/2026

The strongest man in the room is often the one closest to dying.

Not because he’s reckless. Because he was taught that silence is strength. That pain is something you push through. That asking for help means you failed.

I wrote about this in my latest piece for Live. Work. Play. Pray. — about the quiet strength Black men carry and how that same silence is showing up in the data. In the ER visits. In the late-stage diagnoses. In the funerals that didn’t have to happen.

This one is personal. I talk about my own fear. About a friend who almost died because he ignored the signs too long. About the phone call I made to a man who refused a prostate exam because his friend went to the hospital and didn’t come back.

The article is live. Link in the comments.
And if this hits home — subscribe. This is what Live. Work. Play. Pray. is. Real conversations about the conditions shaping how we live.

03/09/2026

When you hear “the CDC is getting cut” — does it feel like your problem?

For most people, it doesn’t. It sounds like a Washington problem. A government problem. Something happening far away from your block, your family, your life.

But here’s what I need you to understand.
About 80% of the CDC’s budget doesn’t stay in Atlanta. It flows directly to local health departments, community health centers, free clinics, and nonprofits in neighborhoods like yours. It funds the nurses running free vaccination events. The programs tracking disease outbreaks before they become crises. The HIV prevention work in communities still disproportionately affected. The maternal health programs built specifically to keep Black mothers alive.

The proposed 2026 budget cuts the CDC by more than 50%. Over 100 programs are being eliminated — cancer prevention, diabetes prevention, opioid recovery, the Office of Minority Health.
And when I read that the Milwaukee Health

Department called the CDC for help with lead poisoning in their public schools — and the CDC had to say no because every single staffer in the Childhood Lead Poisoning Program had been placed on administrative leave —
I had to stop and sit with that.
Because that’s a real child. With lead in their body. And nobody coming.

My new solo episode — “When the CDC Dies, Who Actually Dies?” — is live right now. I recorded this because I think our communities need to understand what’s being taken away before it’s gone.

Listen here 👇🏾
https://share.transistor.fm/s/7333c4d9
Share this if someone in your life needs to hear it.

The CDC is being cut by more than 50%. Over 100 public health programs are being eliminated. And the communities that will feel it first — and hardest — are the same ones who've always been at the back of the line. In this solo episode, Corey breaks down what's actually being dismantled, why the...

03/07/2026

The quiet strength we were taught to carry is killing us.

Somebody told us that holding it together was the same as being strong. That silence was dignity. That asking for help was weakness.

This is a frame from an interview I filmed for my upcoming documentary, Save the Homies.

03/02/2026

New episode on YouTube now. ☕
Tone said something in this episode that I haven’t stopped thinking about —
“Every time I did something monumental, I went to post it on Facebook and somebody was dead.”
That’s survivor’s remorse. That’s the weight a lot of us carry and never talk about.
Go watch the full conversation. Link in bio.
Podcast NewEpisode

02/28/2026

I spent 8 years helping people one at a time.

And I loved it. But at some point, I couldn't ignore the question sitting in the back of my mind:

What about all the people I'll never meet?

That question is what led me to shift my lens from individual care to population health. And it's what led me to start something new.

Today I'm launching Live. Work. Play. Pray, a newsletter about the conditions that shape our health, and the communities rewriting the story.

Each issue will explore health through four lenses: how we live, how we work, how we rest and gather, and how we find meaning. Because health doesn't start in a clinic. It starts in our neighborhoods, our jobs, our culture, and our communities.

Issue 1 is live. It's called "What One to Many Really Means" — and it's the most honest thing I've written about why this work matters.

https://liveworkplaypray.substack.com/?r=638b89&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist

Corey Dion Lewis, exploring the social conditions behind our health — through story, systems thinking, and community truth. Click to read "Live. Work. Play. Pray.", by Corey Dion Lewis, a Substack publication. Launched 2 days ago.