Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore’s new health commissioner, has been compared to a “lit firecracker.” A Harvard-trained emergency physician who started college at 13, Wen’s dynamic career has taken her from inner-city clinics to the halls of academia. Not afraid to ruffle feathers within the medical community, Wen now turns her attention to the public health challenges in one of the country’s poorest cities — from heroin and prescription drug abuse to the endemic health problems wracking poor neighborhoods. Kojo sits down with Wen to talk about her first months on the job, how she’s prioritizing public health needs, and how her personal story instructs her vision for health policy and progress in Baltimore.