Population Healthy

In this episode we’re exploring the impact of weight-centric perspectives on public health. Kendrin Sonneville, an associate professor of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, is working against a status quo that focuses on weight as a primary indicator of health. She sheds light on the historical basis of weight bias and walks us through why some of our most...

Sara Adar, an environmental epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, unpacks the universal concern of air pollution, offering insights into its daily impact on our lives. From the subtle effects of day-to-day air quality to the long-term consequences on health, Adar shares some of her own research to shed light on sources of air pollution beyond...

In this episode of Population Healthy from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Vic Strecher, a professor renowned for his work in behavior change and digital health, discusses the concept of purpose. Drawing from personal loss and professional research, he found that a strong sense of purpose can lead to a longer life, with improved emotional wellbeing, and even changes in gene exp...

The new season of the Population Healthy podcast from the University of Michigan School of Public Health kicks off on Tuesday, January 16th. This season, we'll look at the health benefits of living with purpose, unexpected sources of air pollution, weight stigma, declining childhood vaccination rates, cancer research, how math can be used to solve some of today's most pressing public health issues...

Police violence is an area of concern for many communities. Establishing public health-informed, alternative response programs—separate from law enforcement agencies—is one approach to reduce police violence and give communities a more diverse set of tools with which to respond to crises and support community health and wellbeing. Such programs have the potential to improve health outcomes, especi...

(For a transcript and past episodes of the Ahead of the Curve podcast, please visit: https://sph.umich.edu/ahead-of-the-curve/) Dr. Larry Brilliant is a physician and epidemiologist, CEO of Pandefense Advisory, senior counselor at the Skoll Foundation and a CNN Medical Analyst. Previously, he served on the board of the Skoll Foundation, was Chair of the Advisory Board of the NGO Ending Pandemics,...

School safety is top of mind for many, particularly after recent mass shootings have impacted schools, colleges, and universities across the United States. In this episode of the Population Healthy podcast, we'll speak with two University of Michigan School of Public Health researchers who are leading efforts to provide evidence-based solutions to promote school safety. We'll learn what encompasse...

2022 saw historic shake-ups in the policies around abortion access across the US. Although abortion has been a huge topic of discussion over the last year, debates about reproductive rights are not novel. Public health experts have long understood that abortion is ultimately a health topic and the health outcomes related to its access have significant consequences. We’ve brought together public he...

2022 saw historic shake-ups in the policies around abortion access across the US. Although abortion has been a huge topic of discussion over the last year, debates about reproductive rights are not novel. Public health experts have long understood that abortion is ultimately a health topic and the health outcomes related to its access have significant consequences. We’ve brought together public he...

The Ukrainian people continue to suffer atrocities at the hands of Russian armed forces, who invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. In this episode, we spoke to two members of the University of Michigan community who have ties to Ukraine and have dedicated their talents and lent their expertise to help safeguard its people. ----- Learn more about the University of Michigan School of Public Health: publ...

You may have heard the term “gender affirming care” in the news or on social media. Often this term is used to refer to surgical procedures to help an individual’s body match their gender identity. However, gender affirming care is actually more than that. It involves a combination of medical, psychological, social, and legal factors. In this episode, we’ll talk with healthcare and public health e...

There’s no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we collectively view infectious disease. In this new era, where global media attention has turned to epidemiology and infectious disease, how do we understand our situation and feel protected when it seems like we’re hearing about so many diseases all the time? We spoke with several infectious disease experts to learn more about the re-...

Welcome to the Ahead of the Curve podcast from the University of Michigan school of Public Health. We also produce a podcast called "Population Healthy", and if you're on that channel right now, we've got some bonus content for you. CNN's Chief Medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta recently joined our Ahead of the Curve speaker series, where we focus on leadership through a public health lens. He dis...

For thousands of health care workers around the world, dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has been non-stop for two years and counting. We want to understand what that is doing to our health care workforce. From dealing with illness themselves, to experiencing burnout, or even leaving the field altogether … we'll explore the ripple effects of COVID's impact for these workers, and what potential so...

In this episode, listeners will hear from four experts who bring their own unique perspective to the topic of health communication — the verbal and written strategies used to influence and empower individuals, populations, and communities to make healthier choices. Health Communication is a vital part of public health, but in many ways, it’s become more difficult to nagicate for public public heal...

It’s been nearly half a century since the HIV/AIDS epidemic emerged. In the 1980s, before medical interventions or effective prevention methods were developed, it was a death sentence. Throughout the years, legislation, stigmatization, and limited resources have created costly setbacks in overcoming the disease and its spread. Today, treatment and prevention has evolved so that many people with HI...

It is no secret that healthier food makes for healthier people. However, there can be challenges to overcome when trying to make healthy food choices for ourselves and our families. For one thing, not all foods are created equally, nutrition-wise. In fact, many highly processed foods can have adverse effects on our health. There are many communities in the US and beyond that do not have ready acce...

The pandemic highlighted the important role health departments play in communities large and small. But the role of a health department extends well beyond pandemic response. Assessing water quality, ensuring restaurants are following food safety practices, ensuring health care access and more. Health departments manage many health-related priorities to improve the lives of community members. In t...

Generally speaking, giving unsolicited advice to people only tends to annoy them and make them less likely to change any of their behaviors. Real change tends to come when someone sees a discrepancy between their own behavior and what they value as a person. So, how do you talk to a coworker, friend, or family member who is firmly entrenched in anti-vaccine beliefs? Preaching to them that COVID va...

Right now, Delta is the dominant COVID-19 variant spreading here in the U.S and in some other areas of the world. It’s one of the handful of variants that have evolved from the original COVID-19 virus. The emergence of the more infectious Delta, and the prospect of new variants on the horizon, has underscored the urgency of widespread vaccination to put an end to the pandemic. In this episode, we'...

Effective change takes effective changemakers. Today, we talk to a few changemakers who are dedicated to improving diversity in public health and healthcare leadership. Research has long shown that the most effective way to improve health for any community is to have public health leaders from that community involved in the day-to-day decision making around the care of that population. Pipeline pr...

It has been roughly one year since the COVID pandemic hit the United States, bringing with it stay-at-home orders, social distancing, masks, and many other unprecedented experiences. One side effect of the pandemic is that epidemiology is now a household name. Our first guest on this special coronavirus series, back when it all started in March 2020, was Joseph Eisenberg, professor and chair of Ep...

In 1960, the population of Flint, Michigan was nearly 200,000 people. It was a center of American manufacturing and economic prosperity. But in the decades that followed, manufacturers abandoned their Flint operations. Many White families left for the suburbs and the now majority Black city entered a state of economic decline. In 2011 then-Governor Rick Snyder appointed an emergency manager. This...

In the last few months, we have seen emergency usage authorization of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. With more and more people receiving vaccines each day, things seem to be looking up. But many still feel unsure about receiving a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them. In this episode, we explore a term you may be hearing a lot these days: vaccine hesita...

As of October 2020, 23% of children in the US are experiencing food insecurity, and that percentage has continued to rise dramatically throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Of those affected, data shows that food insecurity impacts families and children of color disproportionately, with Black and Hispanic households reporting rates nearly double that of white households. In this episode of Population...