Public Health Insight

Ever wonder why people ignore free health services, conveniently placed in their community, even when their life could depend on it? Looking back to the 1950s gives us some clues, and what researchers discovered led to the creation of one of public health's most enduring frameworks for understanding human behavior. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane unpacks the Health Belief Model and why it still shapes health promotion practice today.

Source Material
◼️ Theory at a Glance: A Guide For Health Promotion Practice 

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

Production Notes

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

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An MPH can cost two years, tens of thousands of dollars, the salary you would have earned if you continued to work instead, and the promise of the other degree that you decided not to pursue. So is it worth it? 
In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane breaks down how to think through the real return on investment of a Master of Public Health, from tuition and debt to opportunity cost and the alternatives most people never seriously compare. Whether you are about to start a program, still weighing the decision, or already graduated and figuring out what comes next, this one is for you.

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.

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

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.

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.