Trainee doctor Emma Espiner introduces her new podcast Getting Better - A Year in the Life of a Māori Medical Student.

Trainee doctor and award-winning writer Emma Espiner (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou) travels to the front lines of healthcare in New Zealand, where life and death decisions are made every day and where the statistics clearly show Māori are suffering: Māori die younger, get chronic illnesses earlier and receive less care than non-Māori.

We'll hear from whānau whose experiences are the real-life stories behind the statistics and doctors who see first-hand the racism that has led to our acceptance of "unequal outcomes"- in the real world, "unequal outcomes" means sickness and death.

Finally, we'll look at the COVID-19 crisis, which underlined the governments' ability to act when it's not just Māori at risk of dying too soon. Does that mean that Māori dying early is just business as usual?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details