Recorded during the 2025 National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media (NCHCMM) in Atlanta, NPHIC’s Public Health Speaks podcast continues its Voices from the Field series with a thoughtful and timely conversation on health autonomy, motivation, and the role of artificial intelligence in public health communication.

In this episode, NPHIC is joined by Amelia Burke-Garcia, PhD, a longtime health communicator and Director of the Center for Health Communication Science at NORC at the University of Chicago. With more than 20 years of experience in the field, Burke-Garcia shares insights from her recent opinion piece, What Supporting [Health] Autonomy Should Look Like & How Artificial Intelligence Can Help, and unpacks how Self-Determination Theory can strengthen health communication practice.

The conversation explores how autonomy—often cited as a core principle in medicine and public health—can become uneven or conditional when people are overwhelmed by complex, and sometimes conflicting, health information. Burke-Garcia discusses how health communicators can better support autonomy by designing messages that are more empathetic, relevant, and empowering, while still advancing population health goals. She also examines how emerging AI tools may help scale tailored, evidence-based messaging in ways that build trust and meet people where they are.

Tune in for practical insights and a hopeful path forward for health communicators navigating an increasingly complex information environment.