Public Health Insight

Health isn't created only in hospitals. It's achieved in housing, food systems, workplaces, and political decisions. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane traces the arc of health promotion through its defining milestones, from the Ottawa Charter to the Geneva Charter, revealing how each global conference pushed the field to see further: beyond behavior, beyond healthcare, beyond borders. Yet the gap between what we know and what we do remains wide. This episode asks the question the field still wrestles with: what would it take to build a world where health is created, not just treated?

Source Material
A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians
Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
Focus On: Foundations of Health Promotion
Seventh Global Conference on Health Promotion: Promoting Health and Development — Closing the Implementation Gap
The Geneva Charter for Well-being
Shaping Global Health Promotion: A Comprehensive Analysis of the 10 Global Conferences on Health Promotion Conferences, 1986–2021

Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room

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Could hantavirus become the next pandemic? After a deadly outbreak on a cruise ship, that question is on everyone's mind. And "don't panic" isn't a real answer.
In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane explores what we know about hantaviruses so far, how Andes virus compares to COVID-19, and what the early science suggests about its potential to spread. He examines the key biological and ecological factors shaping the risk picture, and offers a way of thinking through the uncertainty for yourself as the story continues to develop.

Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Resources
◼️NBCNews: Hantavirus cruise ship docks after seven weeks at sea
◼️KOMO News: What exactly is hantavirus and how concerned should Washington residents be?
◼️Firstpost: What is Hantavirus? Deadly Virus on Cruise Ship Kills 3 | Vantage on Firstpost | 4K
◼️WHO chief provides timeline around cruise-ship hantavirus cases

Production Notes

◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room

Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.

Send us a Text Message to let us know what you think.

How did sanitation become one of public health's greatest triumphs, while being its oldest unfinished problem? 
In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane traces the story from Victorian Britain's overcrowded streets to Edwin Chadwick's groundbreaking 1842 report, which reframed disease as a product of "removable circumstances" rather than individual fate. We revisit the Great Stink of 1858, when London's sewage crisis finally reached Parliament, where swift action followed. Then we confront a sobering reality: 3.4 billion people still lack safely managed sanitation today.

Sources for Content

Chadwick, Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain
UK Parliament — 1842 Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population
UK Parliament — The 1848 Public Health Act
London Museum — The Great Stink of 1858
Science Museum — Flushed Away: Sewers Through History
Royal Museums Greenwich — Dickens and The Great Stink of 1858
WHO/UNICEF JMP — Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2000–2024
UNICEF — Fast Facts: 1 in 4 People Globally Still Lack Access to Safe Drinking Water
WHO — Sanitation Fact Sheet
Britannica — Sir Edwin Chadwick
EBSCO — Edwin Chadwick
Vaishali — Edwin Chadwick: A Pioneer of Public Health Reform and His Relevance to Modern Public Health Practice

Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room

Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.

Send us a Text Message to let us know what you think.

Teaching is one of the most underrated ways to advance public health. In this episode, Gordon reflects on his first semester teaching Health Promotion in Western University's MPH program and what the experience revealed about the field itself. From designing a course to classroom moments that genuinely surprised him, Gordon shares the thinking behind his approach and the lessons that stayed with him. Because public health advances not only through programs and policy but through the people we prepare to do the work. The challenges of tomorrow aren't waiting. Neither should the classroom.

Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room

Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.

Send us a Text Message to let us know what you think.

What really happens when a reviewer opens your MPH application? Host Gordon Thane has been on the other side of the table and what he saw might surprise you. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, he breaks down the most common mistakes applicants make: ignoring instructions, leaning on weak references, writing generic statements that sound like everyone else, and confusing healthcare with public health. More importantly, he shares what actually makes a file stand out. If you're applying, reapplying, or just curious how admissions really works — this one's essential listening.

Host & Producer
◼️Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room

Leave Us Some Feedback
If you enjoy our podcasts, be sure to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and spread the word to your friends to help us get discovered by more people. You can also interact directly with the podcast episodes on Spotify using the new “comment” feature! We’d love to hear what you think.

Send us a Text Message to let us know what you think.