Hot Air, Cool People

Send us Fan Mail This episode is hosted by Dr. Anna Gunz , with guest Dr. Helen Butlin , a registered psychotherapist and researcher.  They discuss how cancer care can feel incomplete even when treatment is excellent. Spiritual and emotional support can help people face fear, suffering, and mortality. They then trace how “soul” and “wisdom” drifted out of Western medical language, then turn to pra...

This episode is hosted by Dr. Anna Gunz , with guest Dr. Sean Kidd , a clinical psychologist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and professor at the University of Toronto.  In this episode, we dig into how climate change amplifies mental health risks through poverty, housing insecurity, and unequal exposure to heat and environmental harms. We also explore what the research says a...

This episode is hosted by Dr. Anna Gunz , with guest Dr. Tom Cull, a poet, educator, and community organizer. Together they explore the connection between local environments and social justice. Dr. Cull discusses his 11-year journey co-founding the Antler River Rally in London, Ontario, transforming a simple weekend garbage cleanup into a grassroots movement. Moving past pristine, romanticized myt...

This episode is hosted by Dr. Anna Gunz , with guest Nicole Struthers , a combined Master of Physical Therapy student and PhD candidate at Western University.  Nicole’s work explores environmental physiotherapy and nature-based interventions, with interests in planetary health and integrating environmental perspectives into physiotherapy education and practice.   They also dig into what “healing”...

This episode is hosted by Dr. Anna Gunz , with guest Dr. Melissa Lem Climate change is not a distant forecast, it’s already shaping symptoms, stress, and risk in the people we care for. In this episode, Dr. Anna Gunz talks with family physician and researcher Dr. Melissa Lem about what it means to practice medicine where planetary health is part of primary care and why prevention has to include th...

This episode is hosted by Dr. Anna Gunz , with guest Dr. Myles Sergeant Healthcare has a massive environmental footprint, and making it more sustainable is something we can't ignore. In this episode, Dr. Anna Gunz talks with Dr. Myles Sergeant about practical solutions to reduce that impact. Dr. Sergeant shares realistic advice on how to actually start green initiatives in your own practice,...

This episode is hosted by Dr. Anna Gunz , with guest Dr. Gordon McBean   This episode confronts the reality of the climate crisis, framing it around the UN’s "code red for humanity." Reflecting on a career dating back to the 1970s, Dr. McBean shares insights from helping form the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and breaks down how political shifts historically derailed m...

This episode is hosted by Dr. Anna Gunz , with guest Dr. Ingrid Waldron (Part 1)  In this episode, Dr. Waldron opens up about her personal background and early aspirations, including how her family shaped her academic path. She also shares about her struggles with finding a sense of direction and times when she felt  lost and unmotivated. We also hear about her chance encounter with an environment...

This episode is hosted by Dr. Anna Gunz , with guest Dr. Ingrid Waldron (Part 2)  This episode covers Bill C-226, Canada’s first environmental justice law, which Dr. Waldron co-developed to create structural solutions to environmental racism. We break down how environmental racism drives poor health outcomes, looking at how factors like toxic air quality and climate change disproportionately harm...

This episode is hosted by Dr. Anna Gunz , with guest Dr. Ingrid Waldron (Part 3)  Episode Summary:   Dr. Waldron emphasizes the power of education in tackling systemic racism, describing how, during her work on the environmental racism bill, she realized that many people lacked a full understanding of systemic racism, especially in the context of Canada's healthcare system, which is based on...