A podcast from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (I miss the CBC!).

We are healthier than ever before, and we live longer, but improvements in health are not distributed evenly. The rich outlive the middle classes, who outlive the poor. Swedes and Japanese live longer than Canadians, and Canadians, longer than Americans. Freelance journalist Jill Eisen discovers that the reasons have little to do with our health care systems.

The program explores the high importance of the social determinants of health, addressing many of the same concerns as Unnatural Causes from a Canadian perspective. The program devotes considerable attention to the importance of looking at "upstream" causes of health, make strong cases for public intervention in the causes of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and present possible policies for intervention on different levels.

Part One: Eisen speaks with S. Leonard Syme, Richard Glazier, Carol Shively, and Michael Marmot to explore the ideas of social determinants, evidence for the relevance of stress to the "modern" diseases, and the moral and practical obligations we have to demand action.

Listen to Part II HERE