Public Health Insight
- Episodes
- 344
- Released
- weekly
- Latest episode
- Nov 10, 2026
About the podcast
The Public Health Insight Podcast is a weekly podcast ranked in the top 5% of all podcasts globally. The podcast covers all things public health and global health, from the sustainable development goals to the social determinants of health, as well as interesting dialogues about the diverse career opportunities that exist in the fields. Since its launch in March 2020, the podcast has featured more than 40 high-profile guests and has built an audience in more than 5,000 cities in over 190 countries.
Contributors
Episodes 344
Joining Forces To Hold The Automotive Industry & Governments Accountable
Documenting lead exposure is one step. Getting the people responsible to act is another. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Will Fitzgibbon explains how journalists worked with Nigerian …
Show notes
Documenting lead exposure is one step. Getting the people responsible to act is another. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Will Fitzgibbon explains how journalists worked with Nigerian scientists to test blood and soil, then put their findings to companies and governments. He describes factory shutdowns, changes to lead sourcing, and the responsibility passing that makes accountability difficult across a global supply chain. A September 2026 update follows cleanup efforts in Ogijo and residents still waiting for government blood test results. What changed after the findings became public, and what remains unfinished?
References for Our Discussion
◼️Will Fitzgibbon: Reporter Profile
◼️Recycling lead for U.S. car batteries is poisoning people
◼️How we linked the auto industry to lead poisoning in Nigeria
◼️Lead poisoning: WHO fact sheet
◼️Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Lead
◼️CDC Updates Blood Lead Reference Value
◼️Nigerian battery recyclers pay for lead cleanup after Examination investigation
◼️The Panama Papers: Exposing the Rogue Offshore Finance Industry
◼️The auto industry was warned: Battery recycling was poisoning people
◼️Video: How the U.S. automotive industry fuels lead poisoning in Nigeria
Guest
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
How Car Battery Recycling Is Fueling A Lead Poisoning Crisis
Recycling your car battery sounds like an environmental success story. But behind some of the lead going into new batteries are factories poisoning the communities around them. In this episode of the Public …
Show notes
Recycling your car battery sounds like an environmental success story. But behind some of the lead going into new batteries are factories poisoning the communities around them. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Will Fitzgibbon traces a recycled lead trade connecting Nigerian factories with American automotive supply chains. He explains why lead-acid batteries remain in demand and how unsafe recycling can spread lead dust beyond factory walls into nearby homes, schools, and playgrounds. The trail leads to Ogijo, Nigeria, where workers and families live with the consequences of a global industry. Recycling can be done safely. Why are communities still paying the price when it is not?
References for Our Discussion
◼️Will Fitzgibbon: Reporter Profile
◼️Recycling lead for U.S. car batteries is poisoning people
◼️How we linked the auto industry to lead poisoning in Nigeria
◼️Lead poisoning: WHO fact sheet
◼️Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Lead
◼️CDC Updates Blood Lead Reference Value
◼️Nigerian battery recyclers pay for lead cleanup after Examination investigation
◼️The Panama Papers: Exposing the Rogue Offshore Finance Industry
◼️The auto industry was warned: Battery recycling was poisoning people
◼️Video: How the U.S. automotive industry fuels lead poisoning in Nigeria
Guest
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Following Power & Money Through Investigative Journalism
A choice between pursuing a career in diplomacy and taking a chance on journalism sent Will Fitzgibbon to London with little job security. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, he traces the …
Show notes
A choice between pursuing a career in diplomacy and taking a chance on journalism sent Will Fitzgibbon to London with little job security. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, he traces the decisions and chance encounters that led him to the Panama Papers, a massive global scandal involving offshore finance. He reflects on what those leaked records revealed about the rules available to the rich and powerful, why those discoveries stayed with him, and how following money and corporate decisions eventually brought his reporting into public health.
References for Our Discussion
◼️Will Fitzgibbon: Reporter Profile
◼️Recycling lead for U.S. car batteries is poisoning people
◼️How we linked the auto industry to lead poisoning in Nigeria
◼️Lead poisoning: WHO fact sheet
◼️Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Lead
◼️CDC Updates Blood Lead Reference Value
◼️Nigerian battery recyclers pay for lead cleanup after Examination investigation
◼️The Panama Papers: Exposing the Rogue Offshore Finance Industry
◼️The auto industry was warned: Battery recycling was poisoning people
◼️Video: How the U.S. automotive industry fuels lead poisoning in Nigeria
Guest
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Breaking the Cycle of Adverse Childhood Experiences
What can we actually do about childhood trauma? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Frank Putnam, author of Old Before Their Time, turns from the science to the solutions. He explains why …
Show notes
What can we actually do about childhood trauma? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Frank Putnam, author of Old Before Their Time, turns from the science to the solutions. He explains why simply talking about child sexual abuse can protect the next generation, what clinicians and foster families should watch for, and how supportive relationships with older women help girls. He also describes a home visiting program for new mothers, and why he still sees reasons for hope despite renewed pushback.
References for Our Discussion
◼️New Book: Old Before Their Time: A Scientific Life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become **Participate in the book giveaway. Contest rules at the end of the description**
Guest
Host
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Old Before Their Time
One in five women and one in eight men report a history of child sexual abuse. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Frank Putnam, author of Old Before Their Time, explains what 35 years of …
Show notes
One in five women and one in eight men report a history of child sexual abuse. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Frank Putnam, author of Old Before Their Time, explains what 35 years of the Female Growth and Development Study found. He describes how childhood trauma shows up in the body as early autoimmune activity, inflammation, and epigenetic aging. He also covers how adverse experiences compound, how trauma crosses generations, and why a child protection system with outdated, inconsistent data struggles to respond.
References for Our Discussion
◼️New Book: Old Before Their Time: A Scientific Life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become **Participate in the book giveaway. Contest rules at the end of the description**
Guest
Host
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Psychiatry, Child Protection, and the Roots of Childhood Trauma
In the early 1980s, Dr. Frank Putnam noticed that the children referred to him had very different symptoms but one thing in common: a history of abuse. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr …
Show notes
In the early 1980s, Dr. Frank Putnam noticed that the children referred to him had very different symptoms but one thing in common: a history of abuse. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Putnam, author of Old Before Their Time, walks us through the path that led him from adult psychiatry to child protection. He also explains how he launched a study that followed abused girls for decades, at a time when many dismissed the work as a social problem rather than a scientific one.
References for Our Discussion
◼️New Book: Old Before Their Time: A Scientific Life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become **Participate in the book giveaway. Contest rules at the end of the description**
Guest
Host
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
The Nefarious Influence of Big Tobacco
A tobacco company promises jobs, investment and a factory, but only if a government makes health warnings smaller. Investigative journalist Matthew Chapman joins the Public Health Insight Podcast to examine how …
Show notes
A tobacco company promises jobs, investment and a factory, but only if a government makes health warnings smaller. Investigative journalist Matthew Chapman joins the Public Health Insight Podcast to examine how tobacco companies adapt their products and influence the rules governing them. Drawing on investigations in Kenya, Israel and the United Kingdom, he reveals undisclosed payments to experts, pressure on policymakers and efforts to weaken or delay regulation. The conversation explores Britain’s generational tobacco ban, the immense death toll linked to China Tobacco, and the limits of personal choice for addictive substances.
Guest
References for Our Discussion
◼️Lawmaker with family tie to British American Tobacco attempts to stop UK smoking ban
◼️British American Tobacco undermines Kenyan health laws in bid for Gen Z
◼️What to know about the global tobacco control treaty
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Why Prevented Disasters Don't Make the News & Acting Earlier to Save Lives
When a disaster is prevented, it doesn't make the news and most don't hear about it; and that's exactly the problem. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast with Dr. Barry Davis …
Show notes
When a disaster is prevented, it doesn't make the news and most don't hear about it; and that's exactly the problem. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast with Dr. Barry Davis, biostatistician and author of The Preventioneers, we explore why prevention's biggest successes stay invisible. We discuss why climate warnings have gone unheeded for 170 years, why treatment beats prevention for the "popular vote," and how to rebuild trust with a public that distrusts experts. The answer isn't more data, but humility, storytelling, and trusted messengers.
References for Our Discussion
◼️[NEW BOOK] The Preventioneers: Diseases, Disasters, and the Discoveries That Changed Our World
◼️An Ounce of Prevention: A Substack by Barry R. Davis
Host
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
The Preventioneers: Why We Wait Until It's Too Late
A doctor proves handwashing saves lives and gets destroyed for it. A president dies of a preventable stroke. Scientists spend decades proving smoking kills while the industry fights back. In this episode of the …
Show notes
A doctor proves handwashing saves lives and gets destroyed for it. A president dies of a preventable stroke. Scientists spend decades proving smoking kills while the industry fights back. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Barry Davis, author of The Preventioneers, introduces us to people in history who saw catastrophe coming, built the evidence, and ran straight into resistance from industries, institutions, and a public that didn't want to hear it. If prevention saves lives, protects health, and saves money, why do we keep ignoring it until it's too late? This episode digs into that question.
References for Our Discussion
◼️[NEW BOOK] The Preventioneers: Diseases, Disasters, and the Discoveries That Changed Our World
◼️An Ounce of Prevention: A Substack by Barry R. Davis
Host
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Mathematics, Medicine, and the Stories In Between
We often have the evidence to prevent harm long before we actually do something about it, and that delay costs lives. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we sit down with a physician and …
Show notes
We often have the evidence to prevent harm long before we actually do something about it, and that delay costs lives. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we sit down with a physician and mathematician whose career spans early machine learning research in the 1980s, landmark hypertension trials, and over 150 data monitoring committees. Dr. Davis reflects on the experiences that shaped his thinking and how resistance to change repeats throughout history.
References for Our Discussion
◼️[NEW BOOK] The Preventioneers: Diseases, Disasters, and the Discoveries That Changed Our World
◼️An Ounce of Prevention: A Substack by Barry R. Davis
Host
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Public Health Is Dead
Daniella wanted to make a podcast for years, but she waited for the right idea. Then she noticed no one had made a public health show this honest and this bold, especially from a Black perspective. So she made …
Show notes
Daniella wanted to make a podcast for years, but she waited for the right idea. Then she noticed no one had made a public health show this honest and this bold, especially from a Black perspective. So she made it herself.
In this episode, Daniella shares how she started Public Health Is Dead, built on years of teaching herself to record and edit on her own. It grew out of a frustration she kept running into: public health is known for holding the world accountable, but can fall short when it comes to turning that same honesty on itself.
Check Out
Guest
◼️Daniella Barreto
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
A Public Health Story with a Snoop Dogg Cameo & a Mansion of 12 Strangers
A cannabis conference. A front-row seat she wasn't supposed to have. A question to Snoop Dogg about racial justice in cannabis legislation that she absolutely was not going to leave unasked. In this …
Show notes
A cannabis conference. A front-row seat she wasn't supposed to have. A question to Snoop Dogg about racial justice in cannabis legislation that she absolutely was not going to leave unasked. In this episode of a 4-part series in collaboration between Public Health Insight Podcast and Public Health Is Dead, Gordon Thane rewinds to the early beginnings of Daniella Barreto's story, which includes a childhood in Zimbabwe, a mother who made immunology a dinner-table subject, immigration to Vancouver, HIV research, and the discovery that audio storytelling was her medium, inspired by a Big Brother-style experience.
References for Our Discussion
Guest
◼️Daniella Barreto
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
The Health Belief Model Explained
Ever wonder why people ignore free health services, conveniently placed in their community, even when their life could depend on it? Looking back to the 1950s gives us some clues, and what researchers …
Show notes
Ever wonder why people ignore free health services, conveniently placed in their community, even when their life could depend on it? Looking back to the 1950s gives us some clues, and what researchers discovered led to the creation of one of public health's most enduring frameworks for understanding human behavior. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane unpacks the Health Belief Model and why it still shapes health promotion practice today.
Source Material
◼️ Theory at a Glance: A Guide For Health Promotion Practice
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
What’s the ROI on an MPH?
An MPH can cost two years, tens of thousands of dollars, the salary you would have earned if you continued to work instead, and the promise of the other degree that you decided not to pursue. So is it worth it? …
Show notes
An MPH can cost two years, tens of thousands of dollars, the salary you would have earned if you continued to work instead, and the promise of the other degree that you decided not to pursue. So is it worth it?
In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane breaks down how to think through the real return on investment of a Master of Public Health, from tuition and debt to opportunity cost and the alternatives most people never seriously compare. Whether you are about to start a program, still weighing the decision, or already graduated and figuring out what comes next, this one is for you.
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
10 Key Milestones In Health Promotion
Health isn't created only in hospitals. It's achieved in housing, food systems, workplaces, and political decisions. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane traces the …
Show notes
Health isn't created only in hospitals. It's achieved in housing, food systems, workplaces, and political decisions. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane traces the arc of health promotion through its defining milestones, from the Ottawa Charter to the Geneva Charter, revealing how each global conference pushed the field to see further: beyond behavior, beyond healthcare, beyond borders. Yet the gap between what we know and what we do remains wide. This episode asks the question the field still wrestles with: what would it take to build a world where health is created, not just treated?
Source Material
- A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians
- Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
- Focus On: Foundations of Health Promotion
- Seventh Global Conference on Health Promotion: Promoting Health and Development — Closing the Implementation Gap
- The Geneva Charter for Well-being
- Shaping Global Health Promotion: A Comprehensive Analysis of the 10 Global Conferences on Health Promotion Conferences, 1986–2021
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Hantavirus: What They're Not Telling You
Could hantavirus become the next pandemic? After a deadly outbreak on a cruise ship, that question is on everyone's mind. And "don't panic" isn't a real answer.In this episode of the Public …
Show notes
Could hantavirus become the next pandemic? After a deadly outbreak on a cruise ship, that question is on everyone's mind. And "don't panic" isn't a real answer.
In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane explores what we know about hantaviruses so far, how Andes virus compares to COVID-19, and what the early science suggests about its potential to spread. He examines the key biological and ecological factors shaping the risk picture, and offers a way of thinking through the uncertainty for yourself as the story continues to develop.
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Resources
◼️NBCNews: Hantavirus cruise ship docks after seven weeks at sea
◼️KOMO News: What exactly is hantavirus and how concerned should Washington residents be?
◼️Firstpost: What is Hantavirus? Deadly Virus on Cruise Ship Kills 3 | Vantage on Firstpost | 4K
◼️WHO chief provides timeline around cruise-ship hantavirus cases
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Edwin Chadwick & The History of Sanitation
How did sanitation become one of public health's greatest triumphs, while being its oldest unfinished problem? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane traces the story from …
Show notes
How did sanitation become one of public health's greatest triumphs, while being its oldest unfinished problem?
In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane traces the story from Victorian Britain's overcrowded streets to Edwin Chadwick's groundbreaking 1842 report, which reframed disease as a product of "removable circumstances" rather than individual fate. We revisit the Great Stink of 1858, when London's sewage crisis finally reached Parliament, where swift action followed. Then we confront a sobering reality: 3.4 billion people still lack safely managed sanitation today.
Sources for Content
- Chadwick, Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain
- UK Parliament — 1842 Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population
- UK Parliament — The 1848 Public Health Act
- London Museum — The Great Stink of 1858
- Science Museum — Flushed Away: Sewers Through History
- Royal Museums Greenwich — Dickens and The Great Stink of 1858
- WHO/UNICEF JMP — Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2000–2024
- UNICEF — Fast Facts: 1 in 4 People Globally Still Lack Access to Safe Drinking Water
- WHO — Sanitation Fact Sheet
- Britannica — Sir Edwin Chadwick
- EBSCO — Edwin Chadwick
- Vaishali — Edwin Chadwick: A Pioneer of Public Health Reform and His Relevance to Modern Public Health Practice
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
I Taught an MPH Course. Here's What It Taught Me.
Teaching is one of the most underrated ways to advance public health. In this episode, Gordon reflects on his first semester teaching Health Promotion in Western University's MPH program and what the …
Show notes
Teaching is one of the most underrated ways to advance public health. In this episode, Gordon reflects on his first semester teaching Health Promotion in Western University's MPH program and what the experience revealed about the field itself. From designing a course to classroom moments that genuinely surprised him, Gordon shares the thinking behind his approach and the lessons that stayed with him. Because public health advances not only through programs and policy but through the people we prepare to do the work. The challenges of tomorrow aren't waiting. Neither should the classroom.
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
I Was on an MPH Admissions Committee. Here’s What Hurt Applicants
What really happens when a reviewer opens your MPH application? Host Gordon Thane has been on the other side of the table and what he saw might surprise you. In this episode of the Public Health Insight …
Show notes
What really happens when a reviewer opens your MPH application? Host Gordon Thane has been on the other side of the table and what he saw might surprise you. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, he breaks down the most common mistakes applicants make: ignoring instructions, leaning on weak references, writing generic statements that sound like everyone else, and confusing healthcare with public health. More importantly, he shares what actually makes a file stand out. If you're applying, reapplying, or just curious how admissions really works — this one's essential listening.
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Practicums Are Here, Now What: A Thriver’s Guide
By the end of your practicum, you'll land in one of three boxes — and you don't get to pick which one.. or do you? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane draws on his …
Show notes
By the end of your practicum, you'll land in one of three boxes — and you don't get to pick which one.. or do you?
In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane draws on his own journey to show why the students who thrive aren't the ones who wait for direction. From an unpaid MPH practicum placement to now being on the advisory board of that same organization member; he explores:
- how to tailor your practicum experience to the next job opportunity you’d like to pursue, and
- why the learning contract you signed may be out of date by the time you start day one, and
- how to build three references who'd hire you again tomorrow.
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Debate the Policy, Not the Science
You can disagree on policy. You can't disagree on facts. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Brian Castucci unpacks what it really means when science bends to political power, whether …
Show notes
You can disagree on policy. You can't disagree on facts. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Brian Castucci unpacks what it really means when science bends to political power, whether silencing dangerous voices is ever justified, why public health is losing the war it should be winning - culminating in an uncomfortable truth: if you can't stand the people you're trying to reach, you've already lost.
References for Our Discussion
◼️A New AI Platform to Strengthen Health Communication and Combat False Narratives
Guest
Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Turning Data To Action With Community Needs Assessments
How often do public health organizations decide what a community needs — without actually asking them? This episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast sees Gordon sit down with Alexandra Piatkowski …
Show notes
How often do public health organizations decide what a community needs — without actually asking them? This episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast sees Gordon sit down with Alexandra Piatkowski, epidemiologist and founder & CEO of Piat Public Health, to unpack one of public health's most foundational — and often misused — tools: the community needs assessment.
They explore why existing quantitative data is never enough on its own, how health equity moves from buzzword to practice, and what it really takes to do a needs assessment well when budgets are tight and funders want results fast.
References for Our Discussion
Guest
◼️Alexandra Piatkowski, MPH, PMP
Host & Executive Producer
◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Jumping From Health Systems Transformation to Public Health Consulting
What does it take to hit the ground running after grad school? For Alexandra Piatkowski, the answer started long before graduation — by deliberately building real-world experience while still a student.In this …
Show notes
What does it take to hit the ground running after grad school? For Alexandra Piatkowski, the answer started long before graduation — by deliberately building real-world experience while still a student.
In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Gordon sits down with the founder of Piat Public Health to trace a career that blends epidemiology, health policy, and project management into something entirely her own. Alexandra shares how stacking hands-on experience during school set her up to thrive and how that momentum carried her all the way to co-leading the development of Canada's first accredited geriatric emergency department.
References for Our Discussion
Guest
◼️Alexandra Piatkowski, MPH, PMP
Host & Executive Producer
◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Building A Better Future With 'Just' One Health
Prevention is the most powerful public health tool we have and yet the hardest to fund. Dr. Hope Ferdowsian of Phoenix Zones Initiative explains how her organization is changing that: informing global health …
Show notes
Prevention is the most powerful public health tool we have and yet the hardest to fund. Dr. Hope Ferdowsian of Phoenix Zones Initiative explains how her organization is changing that: informing global health strategies, training cross-sector professionals, and advancing a justice-centered framework called Just One Health that targets root causes, not symptoms. She also shares a bold 10-year vision — where well-being replaces GDP, animals gain rights recognition, and prevention is the default.
References for Our Discussion
Guest
◼️Hope Ferdowsian, Co-Founder and President of Phoenix Zones Initiative
Host
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
The Cost of Putting Humans First
Animal abuse is a predictor child abuse. Slaughterhouse locations correlate with violent crime. Over three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases trace back to how we treat animals and ecosystems. In this …
Show notes
Animal abuse is a predictor child abuse. Slaughterhouse locations correlate with violent crime. Over three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases trace back to how we treat animals and ecosystems. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Hope Ferdowsian connects these patterns to a single root cause: systems built on hierarchies that reduce living beings to their financial worth. She challenges public health to stop treating symptoms, expand its moral circle beyond humans, and finally address the conditions that create disease, violence, and exploitation in the first place.
References for Our Discussion
Guest
◼️Hope Ferdowsian, Co-Founder and President of Phoenix Zones Initiative
Host
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
It Started With A Sheep Named Crystal
Healing people requires healing animals and the systems we share. Dr. Hope Ferdowsian traces that conviction from a sheep named Crystal on an Oklahoma farm to sanctuary chimpanzees with PTSD, to asylum seekers …
Show notes
Healing people requires healing animals and the systems we share. Dr. Hope Ferdowsian traces that conviction from a sheep named Crystal on an Oklahoma farm to sanctuary chimpanzees with PTSD, to asylum seekers she's evaluated across borders. The through-line isn't a coincidence — it's a career built on understanding humanity through animals, following suffering wherever it leads, and finding resilience on the other side.
References for Our Discussion
Guest
◼️Hope Ferdowsian, Co-Founder and President of Phoenix Zones Initiative
Host
Executive Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Rx Kids: A Cash Prescription for Pregnant Moms & Babies
What if the prescription wasn't a pill, but cash? Rx Kids gives expecting and new mothers up to $7,500, no questions asked. Laura Keen from GiveDirectly explains why giving money to everyone — not just the …
Show notes
What if the prescription wasn't a pill, but cash? Rx Kids gives expecting and new mothers up to $7,500, no questions asked. Laura Keen from GiveDirectly explains why giving money to everyone — not just the poorest — actually works better, why nearly every eligible mom in Flint signed up, and what happened to preterm births, evictions, and depression when communities invested in families from day one. Plus, how a program centered on babies united both sides of the political aisle.
References for Our Discussion
◼️Direct Unconditional Cash Transfers Boost Well-Being for Mothers and Babies
◼️To End Extreme Poverty, Give Cash — Not Advice | Rory Stewart | TED
Guest
◼️Laura Keen, U.S. Program Director, GiveDirectly
Host
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
Flint Is (Re)Writing Its Own Story & You Should Pay Attention
Flint, Michigan was once known as one of America's most prosperous industrial cities. Decades of deindustrialization and a water crisis changed that, but crisis isn't the whole story. Laura Keen of …
Show notes
Flint, Michigan was once known as one of America's most prosperous industrial cities. Decades of deindustrialization and a water crisis changed that, but crisis isn't the whole story. Laura Keen of GiveDirectly joins the podcast to explore the resilience behind the popular headlines, the gaps in America's safety net, and what the expanded Child Tax Credit revealed about child poverty. All of it set the stage for Rx Kids — one of the most ambitious social programs in the country.
References for Our Discussion
◼️Direct Unconditional Cash Transfers Boost Well-Being for Mothers and Babies
◼️To End Extreme Poverty, Give Cash — Not Advice | Rory Stewart | TED
Guest
◼️Laura Keen, U.S. Program Director, GiveDirectly
Host
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
What Do Telenovelas, Staircases, & Supply Chains Have In Common?
She studied philosophy at UPenn, sharpened her Spanish watching telenovelas with a host mom in silk robes and kitten heels, then moved to Peru and built staircases so families wouldn't fall carrying water …
Show notes
She studied philosophy at UPenn, sharpened her Spanish watching telenovelas with a host mom in silk robes and kitten heels, then moved to Peru and built staircases so families wouldn't fall carrying water. Laura Keen's path wound through cocoa farms in West Africa, anti-trafficking work in the Amazon, and the inner workings of fair trade — each stop ultimately leading her to GiveDirectly and a radically simple idea that's reshaping how we think about poverty.
References for Our Discussion
◼️Direct Unconditional Cash Transfers Boost Well-Being for Mothers and Babies
◼️To End Extreme Poverty, Give Cash — Not Advice | Rory Stewart | TED
Guest
◼️Laura Keen, U.S. Program Director, GiveDirectly
Host
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
What Would It Take To Strike Out Snakebite?
Imagine surviving a snake bite only to battle depression for years. Half of hospitals can't properly treat snake bites and almost all healthcare workers struggle to administer life-saving anti-venom in …
Show notes
Imagine surviving a snake bite only to battle depression for years. Half of hospitals can't properly treat snake bites and almost all healthcare workers struggle to administer life-saving anti-venom in many ways. Dr. David Lalloo illuminates a crisis killing more people than many familiar diseases, yet receiving a fraction of the funding.
From recent strides in quality control to universal antivenom approaches and simple prevention measures, this conversation reveals the challenges of snakebite envenoming and the promising solutions that could finally end it.
References for Our Discussion
◼️Strike Out Snakebite: The Global Snakebite Taskforce
◼️Snakebites kill 130,000 people a year. This UK lab may have the answer
◼️Why giant statues of snakes popped up in Geneva
Guest
Host
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®
Production Notes
◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room
Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.
These are the latest 40 of 344 episodes. You’ll find older episodes in the podcast’s feed.
Recommended by Public Health Insight
Similar podcasts
More Education podcasts
Is this your podcast?
Confirm it with an entry in your feed: you get a code here, add it as podcast:txt to the channel of your feed, and we check it. Your podcast is then shown as “verified” on SoundNode.