Public Health Insight

If public health is a population-based field of science for preventing diseases and promoting health, what can a corporate defense attorney possibly do to positively influence the health of millions of people? Discovering the impacts of toxic chemicals on a community and holding chemical companies accountable for their actions is a good place to start. Understanding the intersection of science, re...

Digital technology has the potential to transform life as we know it - from automating daily tasks, to essentially allowing us to carry around pocket-sized computers. Whatever the case, we are fully immersed in this digital age for better or for worse. Global targets have been set to ensure health for all by 2030, and while health systems around the world face challenges in achieving these targets...

Navigating the public health and global health space as a student and early career professional can be difficult. Understanding that so many people face similar challenges, we identified a need to do things differently. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we will be talking about some of the key lessons we learned from actively engaging with hundreds of aspiring public health pro...

A career in public health can be fulfilling but it's more of a journey than a destination, and along that journey, we're often faced with questions like what should I do after finishing my Bachelor's Degree, is an undergrad sufficient to get me the job I want, and how will the MPH help me achieve my career goals? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we answer these...

Tobacco use is currently the leading cause of preventable death, responsible for more than eight million deaths worldwide each year. Given this reality, healthcare companies still committed to smoking cessation can play a pivotal role in addressing this escalating smoking and nicotine addiction epidemic. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we speak with Dr. Cindy Jacobs, Presiden...

What happens when scientists try to advise policymakers and decision-makers about a significant threat to public health and they fail to act? What if you then found out that not only did these decision-makers fail to act, but instead chose to exploit the situation for economic gain?  While this sounds like an all too familiar present-day scenario, this story is captured in the fictional Netflix fi...

Whether you’re an aspiring public health professional who is unsure about how to get noticed by a potential employer or you’ve already been working in the public health field for a period of time, there are skills we must continually work to develop to allow us to excel in an evolving public health landscape. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we will be talking about seven core...

One of the things we always hear from our community of people - some aspiring to go into the field of public health and others having some work experience in other fields - is what is considered as public health experience.  In order to answer the question, we must first understand what public health is. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we talk about: Standard definitions from...

Whether you’ve just completed your Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree, or have been working in the public health field for a while, there are always opportunities to continue advancing your career and add value to your workplace. In this episode of the Public Health Podcast, we talk about 5 certifications you should pursue to advance your public health career or to become more competitive in the j...

For over 50 years, St. Leonard’s Community Services (SLCS), London and Region has been dedicated to a community where everyone feels safe, valued and supported. St. Leonard’s accomplishes this by implementing and advocating for improved policies, procedures, and service delivery within the justice system, through a range of youth and adult community programs. In this episode of the Public Health I...

What happens when a corporate defence attorney goes from representing large powerful chemical manufacturing companies to fighting against them after learning that their environmental toxic waste was connected to a growing number of unexplained diseases and deaths in animals and humans? In this episode of Rewind, a new limited series by the Public Health Insight Podcast, we take a closer look at Da...

After launching the podcast in March 2020, Public Health Insight has grown into so much more than we could have ever imagined. In this special episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we take the opportunity to reintroduce ourselves by sharing our mission, vision, projects, initiatives, ongoing work to date, and some of our upcoming plans for the future. Podcast Host Leshawn Benedict, MPH, MS...

The graduate application season is upon us and many people are curious about the various ways they can maximize their chances of being accepted to Master of Public Health (MPH) programs. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we will be talking about what you can do to stand out amongst a crowd of outstanding applicants. Podcast Host Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP® Leshawn Benedict, M...

You just finished your undergrad or you’ve been working for awhile now and have decided to pursue a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, but what do you need to know before submitting your application and how do you stand out? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we will be sharing our experience to help guide you as you prepare your MPH graduate program applications and how to d...

TikTok is a short video-sharing social media platform that has grown quickly since its launch garnering over 1 billion monthly global users. Although we might get lost in the endless scrolling and engaging aspects of this platform, in this episode we will be learning about some of the public health concerns related to TikTok and what we need to know in order to better protect our populations from...

The One Health approach informs the way we address complex problems affecting all organisms on the planet. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we talk about lessons learned from One Health Connect (OHC) 2021 - a virtual event co-organized by the Public Health Insight, which aimed to highlight the importance of transdisciplinary approaches to address present and future challenges...

It is more important now than ever that people are able to speak with colleagues, friends, family, and the general public about controversial topics, but how do we create a safe space to have those conversations? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Thomson, Veterinarian, Educator, Science Policy Advisor, and the Founder of One Health Lessons, remains to share some ways you ca...

What if you learned the real story of the woman behind the development of mRNA vaccine technology and realized it wasn’t as straightforward of a journey as you previously thought? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Thomson, Veterinarian, Educator, Science Policy Advisor, and the Founder of One Health Lessons, remains to share why teaching children can help you to become a be...

Science communication is a term that has been at the forefront of public discourse as of recently, but what does it even mean? Is it more of an art or is it more for science? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Deborah Thomson, Veterinarian, Educator, Science Policy Advisor, and the Founder of One Health Lessons, joins us to talk about the importance of science communication...

Medical technology and precision medicine have come a long way, and many people assume that the process of researching, discovering, and producing new drugs has never been easier. What if you learned that the last entirely original class of antibiotic was discovered in the late 1980s?  In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Mr. Schacht remains to discuss: Geographical distribution o...

Antimicrobials are a broad range of medicines used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals, and plants, including antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitics. The discovery of penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Flemming has been widely recognized as one of the greatest scientific advancements of the 20th century, but what happens when there are no new antimicrobials being disco...

Usually, when we talk about resolving issues, one of the things that often comes to mind is allocating more resources and throwing more money at the problem. When it comes to addressing homelessness, two experts caution against this approach as cities with bigger budgets do not necessarily have more effective solutions for homelessness.  In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Linda...

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of themselves and of their family…” This raises the question, why do so many people live on the streets sleeping tough?  Homelessness is a complex issue that affects people living in cities across the world. In this episode, we will be speaking with two cha...

Mental health is more than the absence of mental illness or disorders. So what's the difference between mental health and mental illness? The Two Continua Model of Mental Health and Illness illustrates that it is possible for people to have positive mental health while having a mental illness, just as it is possible to have poor mental health without having a mental illness. In this episode o...

What if everything we currently know about mental health and mental illness is wrong? According to the World Health Organization, by 2030, depression will be among the leading conditions for disability and morbidity - second only to heart disease. Clearly, something is not working. Traditionally, mental health is defined as the absence of mental illness. Is this definition enough?  Dr. Corey Keyes...