In this audio podcast excerpted from an original interview, Anthony Iton, director of the Alameda County Department of Public Health, talks about the extraordinary health of recent Latino immigrants and what we can all learn from them, the importance of hope, the power of community organizing, and why it's in all our best interest to tackle inequities sooner rather than later.

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New research into brain development, human biology and behavior is showing how early experience can affect our health and well-being for the rest of our lives. Jill Eisen's three-part series reports that even so-called "life-style" illnesses like heart disease and diabetes may have their roots in early childhood.

In this original interview, Dr. Camara Jones, research director on the social determinants of health at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, discusses her pioneering work on measuring racism and health. She describes three levels of racism (personally mediated, internal and institutional), the stress of everyday racism, and the need to expand our thinking about how racism, opportunity and health inequities are structured and intertwined.

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Bezruchka explains that an increasing stratification between the rich and the poor plays a major role in the United States' decline in health and life expectancy rankings over the last five decades. Life spans and infant mortality rates depend very much on the hierarchal structure of a society. And new research shows that half of what influences our health as adults is largely determined before the age of five. What can we learn from other countries whose citizens live longer and healthier lives?

The above link opens a pdf of the transcript. Audio of this and other radio pieces by Bezruchka are available at Alternative Radio. Other articles and presentations by Bezruchka are available in the Population Health Forum's Resource Library.

This episode of Forum (available in streaming audio and MP3 download) discusses "why health disparities exist between the rich and poor and among minority groups." Krasny interviews Brian Smedley, Dr. Mohammad Siahpush, Dr. Nancy Adler, and Larry Adelman, series creator and executive producer for UNNATURAL CAUSES. Originally broadcast March 26, 2008.

In this original interview, Dr. Jack Shonkoff, director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, discusses the importance of early childhood experiences on life-long health, learning, and success. He describes the effect of toxic stress on brain development, and asserts that we have a moral and economic incentive to provide the best environments for all children or pay the price later in the form of reduced productivity and the burden of chronic disease.

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In this audio podcast, excerpted from an interview conducted for UNNATURAL CAUSES, Nancy Krieger of the Harvard School of Public Health talks about the political economy of health, how racial and place-based inequities impact health, and how public health and social justice are inextricably intertwined. ENHANCED PODCAST (m4a)

Journalist Jill Eisen explores the importance of the social determinants of health from a Canadian perspective. The program devotes considers the importance of looking at "upstream" causes of health and presents possible policies for intervention on different levels.
Part One: S. Leonard Syme, Richard Glazier, Carol Shively, and Michael Marmot explain the concepts behind social determinants of health, present evidence for how stress contribute to "modern" diseases, and elaborate the moral and practical obligations we have to demand action. Part Two: Dennis Raphael, Richard Glazier, and Clyde Hertzman discuss the obesity and diabetes epidemics and early childhood development. Raphael makes an interesting commentary as to why governments continuously fail to address social threats to health.

In this audio podcast, excerpted from an interview conducted during the making of UNNATURAL CAUSES, Sir Michael Marmot of University College, London, discusses the social gradient in health, his pioneering Whitehall Studies and why he's optimistic about improving health outcomes.

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