The Meaning of Health Podcast

We kick off our new series on women’s health with a chat with Dr Jacquie Frayne, a GP and researcher at the University of Western Australia who specialises in mental health for women during pregnancy and in the period after birth. Jacquie discusses the work herself and colleagues do at the Childbirth and Mental Illness Service located at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Subiaco: https://www.kemh.h...

We bring you a chat with Sydney-based musician Joe West in this episode. Joe talks about his upbringing in regional New South Wales, and his life working as a musician for many years. Joe discusses the challenges that the lifestyle can pose for many, often resulting in a strained connection with society. Joe shares his own experience struggling with mental heath challenges and issues with substanc...

In this episode we bring you a conversation we had with A/Prof Bevan Erueti from Massey University in Aotearoa/New Zealand in late 2024. Bevan discussed health and health research from a Māori perspective. Bevan talked us through the concept of pūrākau (Māori realities and narratives) and how this guides culturally competent health care and health research in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Bevan took us th...

In this episode we chat with Dr Ruth Wallace, a senior lecturer in the School of Medical and Health Sciences at Edith Cowan University. Ruth is an expert in nutrition and early childhood education, which has led her to co-write and publish the “Little Aussie Bugs” series of books with her collaborator Dr Amelia Ruscoe. These innovative books are aimed at young children, typically in childcare, and...

Welcome back for our first episode of 2025. We bring you panel conversation from a “Breakfast by the Bay” event recorded in October 2024 at the University Club of Western Australia. The panel conversation was moderated by Linda Savage, lawyer, former member of parliament and law reform and social justice advocate. The panellists were: Kate Chaney, Independent Federal Member for Curtin Adjunct Clin...

We have made it to our final episode for 2024! As is now Meaning of Health tradition, we get together for a recap of the year that was, and chat about things that went well, badly, or otherwise in 2024. Ingrid talks us through a journal article that looks at whether ChatGPT is “BS”: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5 Leah talks us through Chonkus, an algae that could assi...

Welcome to the sixth and final episode of our special series we recorded at the Public Health Association of Australia’s (PHAA) Australian Public Health Conference in Perth in September 2024 #AustPH2024. We had many guests come through our pop-up studio over the 3 day conference to chat about their career and recent work. In this episode we feature conversations with: A/Prof Hayley Christian from...

In this episode we are joined by: A/Prof Aditya Vyas a Public Health Physician and Researcher from the University of Canberra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityavyas15/?originalSubdomain=au and Dr Melandri Vlok a bioarchaeologist and palaeopathologis from Notre Dame University Australia: https://www.notredame.edu.au/staff/teach/teaching-at-nda/faculties-and-schools/school-of-health-sciences/freman...

Welcome to the fifth episode of our special series we recorded at the Public Health Association of Australia’s (PHAA) Australian Public Health Conference in Perth in September 2024 #AustPH2024. We had many guests come through our pop-up studio over the 3 day conference to chat about their career and recent work. In this episode we feature conversations with: Dr Hannah Barbour from Flinders Univers...

All the way from Manitoba, Canada, Associate Professor Nathan Nickel joins us for this episode, recorded a few weeks ago during a visit to Perth, Western Australia. Nathan chats about his journey from church pastor in California, all the way through his time in the deep south, to where he is now as the Director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy at the University of Manitoba in Canada. Natha...

Welcome to the fourth episode of our special series we recorded at the Public Health Association of Australia’s (PHAA) Australian Public Health Conference in Perth in September 2024 #AustPH2024. We had many guests come through our pop-up studio over the 3 day conference to chat about their career and recent work. In this episode we feature conversations with: Ms Hyatt Narsh from the Ethnic Communi...

We recently returned to the Uni Club at the University of Western Australia to record a live event for World Mental Health Day from the Breakfast by the Bay series “Voices of Tomorrow: Shaping Youth Mental Health Research”. The event was hosted by Prof Andrew Page from the UWA School of Psychological Science, and featured panellists: Ben Quick – UWA Student and Youth Engagement Officer at Thriving...

Welcome to the third episode of our special series we recorded at the Public Health Association of Australia’s (PHAA) Australian Public Health Conference in Perth in September 2024 #AustPH2024. We had many guests come through our pop-up studio over the 3 day conference to chat about their career and recent work. In this episode we feature conversations with: Dr Sylvester Nyadanu from Curtin Univer...

We recently sat down with Dr Maria Tanyag from the Australian National University and Dr Ari Jerrems from the University of Western Australia for chat about what happens to health systems during a crisis (such as a pandemic or war). Ari talks us through his work studying the Spanish health system during COVID and how policies were implemented in different parts of Spain. Maria talks us through som...

Welcome to the second episode of our special series we recorded at the Public Health Association of Australia’s (PHAA) Australian Public Health Conference in Perth in September 2024 #AustPH2024. We had many guests come through our pop-up studio over the 3 day conference to chat about their career and recent work. In this episode we feature conversations with: Dr Sarah Carmody from the Centre of Re...

In this episode we are joined by Dr Ria Hopkins from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at the University of New South Wales. Ria is also a member of the Medicines Intelligence Centre for Research Excellence (MI-CRE). Ria chats with us about her work looking at prescribing patterns of medication used to manage pain. We talk at length about the recent trends in Australia and the...

In this episode we kick off a special series of episodes we recorded at the Public Health Association of Australia’s (PHAA) Australian Public Health Conference in Perth in September 2024 #AustPH2024. We had many guests come through our pop-up studio over the 3 day conference to chat about their career and recent work. This episode features: Dr Jacquie McGraw from the University of Queensland - htt...

This episode features a fascinating conversation with CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) Prof Terry Slevin. Terry was over in Perth recently for the PHAA’s Australian Public Health Conference, and generously took some time to chat about his career in health promotion and public health. Terry has worked in numerous areas of health promotion and prevention including alcohol, ca...

Episode 104 - Vaccination Among People Who Inject Drugs With Olivia Price by The Meaning of Health Podcast

Welcome to a special episode where we bring you the conversation from a live event “Breakfast By the Bay – Menopause Matters: Igniting Change with Menopause Policy Reform” hosted by the UWA Public Policy Institute (PPI) at the University Club at UWA in July 2024. The event included opening remarks from WA Member of the Legislative Assembly Dr Katrina Stratton who shared her experience of menopause...

In this episode Craig sits down in the outdoor studio (a park bench) to chat with Ingrid Stacey, a cardiovascular epidemiologist and biostatistician from the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Centre at the UWA School of Population and Global Health. Ingrid, a finalist in the 2023 Premier’s Student Science of the Year Award, talks through her education and career, which started doing lab researc...

We partnered with the Equity Project (https://www.equityproject.org.au) in Perth to bring you another live episode, this time looking at whether the recent federal budget allows for a “fair go”. To help answer this important question, at an event MC’d by lived experience advocate Charlie Octavia (https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-octavia-675b984a/), ABC Perth radio legend Geoff Hutchison (https:...

To celebrate our 100th episode we partnered with the Public Policy Institute at the University of Western Australia to hold a live event at the Backlot cinema in West Perth in May 2024. We invited a panel of experts to discuss the use of AI in healthcare and heard different perspectives on what the risks and benefits are of using AI for many aspects of healthcare. Our panel included: Tania Harris,...

In this episode you will hear a conversation that took place at the Creative Expression Centre for Arts Therapy (CECAT). Craig spoke with Angela, a previous client of the service who has experienced a head injury and mental health challenges, and Barbara, an art therapist who has worked with Angela. Angela talked about how art therapy has helped her deal with challenges resulting from an accident...

In this episode we sit down for a chat with Natalia Kacperek from the WA Office of Digital Government and Prof David Preen, the Chair in Public Health at the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia. We discuss the issue of linked administrative data and PeopleWA, the WA Government’s new platform launched in late 2023 for making a range of government data acces...