In Solidarity: Connecting Power, Place and Health

How does public health return to its roots of organizing to improve health? In this episode, we will share recent organizing success stories with specific examples and strategies that work on the ground. 

How do we transition from organizing for change to enacting policy change? In this episode we’ll explore the power of labor unions to protect workers’ rights, health and wealth. 

This episode explores how organizing around housing issues advances public health priorities. We delve into tenants’ rights groups: how and why they started; how they have protected tenants from abuse; how they’ve improved living conditions; and how they’ve encouraged people to become more politically engaged.  

The first episode of In Solidarity's four-part series, Organizing for Health, covers how the field of public health is rooted in organizing and how practitioners can re-engage and reconnect to their powerful, political origins. Physician, epidemiologist and host of the America Dissected podcast, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, joins the conversation to discuss public health's history with organizing and the ways we can use organizing to improve health.

In Solidarity is back for a new series exploring the power of organizing to improve our health. We’re diving into public health’s history of organizing around just causes and the ways it can return to its powerful, political roots. All episodes available October 16, 2024.

In the series’ final episode, Host Ericka Burroughs-Girardi talks with a young changemaker who offers insights on motivating other young people to get involved. Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina freshman Olivia Cody shares her experience encouraging fellow students to vote, volunteer and make a difference in their communities. She also discusses the obstacles they face.    

In this second episode of our three-part series, we’re tackling civic education and young people’s involvement in civic life: where we’re at as a country, what we can do to improve it and how it’s linked to our overall health. Host Beth Silver interviews prolific author Eric Liu, a self-described civic evangelist and CEO of Citizen University, an organization that promotes “powerful citizenship and civic education.” Silver and Liu discuss power, obligation and responsibility in a democracy.  

Students’ social studies scores have plummeted, due in part to disinvestment in civic education. Yet, studies show a clear connection between the civics foundation laid in schools and participation in our democracy into adulthood. And creating strong civic health equals healthier communities overall. Host Ericka Burroughs-Girardi kicks off the series with civic education expert Dr. Kelly Siegel-Stechler, a Tufts University senior researcher at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), Siegel-Stechler discusses why improving democracy and our health requires shifting mindsets and investing in civic education.  

In Solidarity is back for a new series on the importance of supporting young people in strengthening our democracy and how building this foundation impacts everyone’s health. We’re bringing you three exciting conversations with civic education expert Dr. Kelly Siegel-Stechler, prolific author and Citizen University CEO Eric Liu, and a young community advocate and Winston-Salem State University freshman, Olivia Cody. 

When people closest to problems have the power to influence solutions, those solutions often benefit everyone. In our final episode of this series on civic health, hosts Beth Silver and Ericka Burroughs-Girardi explore strategies to ensure everyone has a voice and the opportunity for collective change. They are joined by Solange Gould, the co-director of Human Impact Partners, who discusses the role narratives play in building power and improving civic health.  Dr. Erika Blacksher, the John B. Francis Chair in Bioethics and a professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center, concludes our series by defining democratic deliberation and how it’s related to health equity.