# Dr. David O. Fakunle II on Art, Storytelling, Health Equity, and the Power of Narrative

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-truth-in-this-art-stories-that-matter-1372723/dr-david-o-fakunle-ii
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-truth-in-this-art-stories-that-matter-1372723/dr-david-o-fakunle-ii.md
Podcast: [The Truth In This Art: Stories That Matter](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-truth-in-this-art-stories-that-matter-1372723)
Published: 2026-06-02T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.thetruthinthisart.com/episodes/dr-david-o-fakunle-ii
Audio file: https://op3.dev/e/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/prfx.byspotify.com/e/media.transistor.fm/eaaaeebd/5120bb2d.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-truth-in-this-art-stories-that-matter-1372723/episodes/dr-david-o-fakunle-ii
Duration seconds: 4960

## Resource

In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Dr. David O. Fakunle II! About Dr. David O. Fakunle II: Dr. David Fakunle II is a Baltimore native, academic, and self-described mercenary for change and celestial body for change who has spent 25 years using art and storytelling for liberation. He is an assistant professor at Morgan State University in the School of Community Health and Policy and associate faculty at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health . He serves as director of the TEACH Division (Transforming Equity through Arts, Culture and Health) at the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum , working intentionally at the intersection of arts, culture, and health. We talk about his evolution as a mercenary and celestial body for change, his role in developing the Urban Cipher game (originally called the Game of Appreciation) during his postdoc at Morgan State University —a Monopoly-style game that models how inequities are built into systems. He discusses his contribution to the paper "Life as We Tell It: A Revolution Through Narratives and Creative Expression," which explores narrative as a determinant of health, and his framework for understanding data: stories are qualitative data that answer "how" and "why," while quantitative data answers "who, what, where, when." Fakunle shares insights from his recent work at the National Academy of Medicine in DC on a national initiative to build trust between communities and health science. He reflects on teaching his 16-person qualitative research class and helping students understand that AI cannot replicate context—only humans can bring meaning and circumstances to statistics. He introduces his concept of the "existential determinants of health"—five universal virtues all humans want: to be acknowledged,…

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