Hello! This week we’re talking about health inequalities. The evidence has long been clear that your life circumstances determine how long and how healthy your life will be. Over the last decade, life expectancy has stalled and the pandemic has amplified existing inequalities. In the face of this bleak prognosis, we look for optimism with the leading academic on the topic Professor. Sir Michael Marmot, who tells us about the social factors that determine health; Christina Gray, Member of the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) and Director for Communities and Public Health for Bristol on the importance of community cohesion; and Chris Thomas, Principal Research Fellow at IPPR about the links between health and economic prosperity.

Plus: Geoff talks Star Wars and Ed tells us about his run-in with the Chancellor.

Show notes:

Buy tickets for the live show on 17th July here: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/words/reasons-to-be-cheerful-live/

Ed's speech in the Commons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjtXbwi-2Qg

Fair Society, Healthy Lives (The Marmot Review, 2010): https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/fair-society-healthy-lives-the-marmot-review

Marmot Review 10 Years On (2020): https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/marmot-review-10-years-on

Build Back Fairer: The COVID-19 Marmot Review (2021): https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/build-back-fairer-the-covid-19-marmot-review

Ambition Lawrence Weston: https://www.ambitionlw.org/

IPPR: Introducing the Commission on Health and Prosperity (2022): https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/health-and-prosperity

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