Meet Your Hosts

Danielle DiPietro

Financial Advocate, Board Certified Patient Advocate, and VA-Accredited Claims Agent

Danielle DiPietro is a Financial Advocate, Board Certified Patient Advocate, and VA-accredited claims agent at The Mesothelioma Center, the nation’s most trusted mesothelioma resource. She helps all mesothelioma patients and their families find the best answers to their financial and VA questions.

Missy Miller

Medical Outreach Director

Missy Miller is the medical outreach director for The Mesothelioma Center, the nation’s most trusted mesothelioma resource. She writes about outreach initiatives as a contributing author for Asbestos.com.

Dr. Catherine Perrault

Chief Medical Officer and Board-Certified Family Physician

Dr. Catherine Perrault is a Chief Medical Officer with The Mesothelioma Center’s Medical Outreach Program and a Board-Certified Family Physician. She helps patients and their families understand their treatment options. Dr. Perrault also provides resources about clinical trials that may help patients.

Walter Pacheco

Managing Editor

Managing Editor Walter Pacheco is an award-winning journalist with over 20 years of experience. He filled integral roles at the Miami Herald and Orlando Sentinel news organizations before joining The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com, the nation's most trusted mesothelioma resource.

Kailene De Leon

Public Relations Specialist

Kailene De Leon is a Public Relations Specialist for The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com, the nation's most trusted mesothelioma resource. She leads media relations and outreach efforts to connect patients, caregivers and the public with trusted information and support.

Amy Edel

Senior Editor and Content Strategist

Amy Edel came to The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com, the nation’s most trusted mesothelioma resource, with more than 25 years of professional experience in journalism, publishing, public relations, branding, advertising and corporate communications.

Archive

Previous Episodes

A Firsthand Look at Treating Asbestos Cancers 25 Years After 9/11
29 min
Dr Raja Michael Flores

Dr. Raja Flores

Thoracic Surgeon at Mount Sinai in New York

A Firsthand Look at Treating Asbestos Cancers 25 Years After 9/11

Dr. Raja Flores, thoracic surgeon at Mount Sinai in New York, joins Asbestos.com to discuss 25 years of treating patients with asbestos exposure after 9/11. Dr. Flores shares his personal experience caring for people diagnosed with mesothelioma and lung cancer connected to Ground Zero exposure, including what doctors have learned about diagnosis, treatment and long-term health risks. He also discusses why asbestos-related diseases can take decades to develop and what people with a history of 9/11 exposure should know about their health.

Aug 12, 2026 Episode 8
State of Asbestos in Schools
30 min
Walter Pacheco, Managing Editor

Walter Pacheco

Managing Editor of Asbestos.com

State of Asbestos in Schools

This podcast episode explores the state of asbestos in schools across the United States. Every few weeks, another headline breaks: a school in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York City, or Philadelphia is closed, evacuated, or is under scrutiny because of asbestos exposure. The episode will cover asbestos evaluations at schools, asbestos safety laws for schools and other topics. Our host is Kailene De Leon, public relations specialist, and our guest is Walter Pacheco, managing editor of Asbestos.com.

Jul 23, 2026 Episode 7
Alternatives to Talc-Based Cosmetics
41 min

Whitney Di Bona

Attorney & Consumer Legal Safety Advocate Writer for Drugwatch.com

Alternatives to Talc-Based Cosmetics

This podcast episode explores the role of talc in cosmetics like body powders and eyeshadows, regulations around talc in cosmetics, alternatives to talc-based products and how consumers can better understand the “asbestos-free” and “natural” labels many of these products carry. Our host is Danielle DiPietro, financial advocate and board-certified patient advocate at The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com, and our guest is Whitney Di Bona, an attorney and consumer safety advocate at Drugwatch.com.

Jun 22, 2026 Episode 6
Understanding Asbestos Exposure and Emergency Restoration
39 min

Derrick J. Hall

Chief Operating Officer and Principal Project for ELEMENT Building Sciences

Understanding Asbestos Exposure and Emergency Restoration

Managing editor at The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com, Walter Pacheco, interviews Chief Operating Officer and Principal Project Consultant for ELEMENT Building Sciences, Derrick J. Hall. The podcast dives into the role of restoration in asbestos exposure, Hall’s experience encountering asbestos in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, increasing asbestos awareness and training, and his work with the Restoration Industry Association, among other topics related to asbestos exposure.

Apr 13, 2026 Episode 4
The Push for an Asbestos Ban at a Critical Moment
39 min
Linda Reinstein, President of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization

Linda Reinstein

President and CEO of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization

The Push for an Asbestos Ban at a Critical Moment

Medical Outreach Director Missy Miller of The Mesothelioma Center interviews Linda Reinstein, BCPA, president and co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. Reinstein champions the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act, named after her husband who passed from mesothelioma. Among the topics discussed in this podcast, Reinstein explains how the ARBAN bill seeks to ban all 8 asbestos fibers and raises transparency concerns about the White House East Wing demolition, having filed Freedom of Information Act requests to verify whether administration officials followed proper asbestos inspection, abatement and disposal regulations in that project.

Mar 30, 2026 Episode 3
The Impact of Federal Funding on Cancer Research
49 min

Dr. Michele Carbone

Director of Thoracic Oncology, University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center

The Impact of Federal Funding on Cancer Research

Chief Medical Officer at The Mesothelioma Center, Dr. Catherine Perrault, and Director of Thoracic Oncology at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Dr. Michele Carbone, discuss the impact of federal funding on cancer research, specifically its progressive decline over the last 25 years. This episode particularly explores how the decrease in funding affects all cancers, but rare cancers like mesothelioma are disproportionately impacted because funding prioritizes more common malignancies like lung, breast and prostate cancer.

Feb 16, 2026 Episode 2

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