The Ottawa Charter offered a bold idea: that health isn't just shaped in hospitals or clinics, but in the everyday decisions we make about policy, environments, education, and empowerment. Nearly four decades later, that idea feels more urgent than ever.

In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane unpacks the story of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. From its origins in Ottawa, Ontario, to the movement it tried to spark, we’ll explore why the Charter felt revolutionary in 1986, how it slipped from practice, and why its vision still matters today.

Hosts & Producers

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

References for the Discussion

◼️ Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion: An International Conference on Health Promotion

◼️ The 1st International Conference on Health Promotion, Ottawa, 1986

◼️ Milestones in health promotion : statements from global conferences

◼️ Health promotion emblem

Podcast Production Notes

◼️ 1st news clip adapted from  ‘UN: Chronic, Non-Communicable Disease Is World's Leading Killer’ [Voice of America]

◼️ 2nd audio clip adapted from ‘Health Report - WHO Campaign to Beat Cardiovascular Disease’ [Voice of Africa]

◼️ 3rd audio clip adapted from ‘Global Cancer Crisis: WHO's Urgent Call to Action’ [News Central TV]

◼️ 4th audio clip adapted from ‘Why is diabetes spreading around the world? | Inside Story’ [Al Jazeera English]

Credits

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

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Subscribe to The Insight newsletter so you don’t miss out on the latest podcast episodes, live events, job skills, learning opportunities, and other engaging professional development content here.

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.

One morning in February 2025, EngenderHealth received the kind of email every global health leader dreads—three major USAID grants were gone. No warning. No appeal. Just: “not in the national interest.”

In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we unpack the real-world consequences: canceled surgeries, programs being stretched to their limit, and the ripple effects that reach far beyond borders. EngenderHealth’s CEO, Traci Baird, returns to share how her team acted fast—redirecting emergency funds, forming unlikely partnerships, and putting resilience to the test. Because when lives are on the line, waiting for policy to catch up isn’t always an option.

References for Our Discussion

◼️EngenderHealth

◼️DOGE Makes Its Latest Errors Harder to Find

Guest

◼️Traci Baird

Host(s)

 Purva Mehta, BMSc, MSc

Producer(s)

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

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

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Subscribe to The Insight newsletter so you don’t miss out on the latest podcast episodes, live events, job skills, learning opportunities, and other engaging professional development content here.

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.

The path to global reproductive rights often begins in the most local of places—a single clinic, a single conversation, a single patient.

In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Purva Mehta explores how Traci Baird’s career unfolded from counselling women in a North Carolina clinic to scaling abortion access across five continents. Along the way, she redefined what quality care looks like, led bold expansions into medication abortion, and championed inclusive sexual health education for youth. Now as President and CEO of EngenderHealth, she reflects on the moments that shaped her leadership and the lessons that still guide her through uncertainty.

References for Our Discussion

◼️EngenderHealth

◼️DOGE Makes Its Latest Errors Harder to Find

Guest

◼️Traci Baird

Host(s)

 Purva Mehta, BMSc, MSc

Producer(s)

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

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

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Subscribe to The Insight newsletter so you don’t miss out on the latest podcast episodes, live events, job skills, learning opportunities, and other engaging professional development content here.

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.

By 1981, the U.S. Surgeon General’s office was a shadow of its former self—no ships, no quarantine stations, barely a dozen staff, and one statutory duty: publish the annual smoking report. Yet the Reagan White House still saw an opportunity. They tapped Dr. C. Everett Koop, a pediatric surgery legend whose outspoken pro-life views looked perfect for them in shoring up the administration’s social-conservative base.

In the final chapter of this three-part mini-series on the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane and biographer Dr. Nigel S. Cameron explore how Koop turned a “figurehead” job into the nation’s moral megaphone—taking on Big Tobacco, steering the federal response to HIV/AIDS, and redefining public-health leadership.

References for Our Discussion

◼️Dr. Koop: The Many Lives of the Surgeon General

Guest

◼️Nigel S. Cameron on LinkedIn

Host(s) & Producer(s)

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

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

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Subscribe to The Insight newsletter so you don’t miss out on the latest podcast episodes, live events, job skills, learning opportunities, and other engaging professional development content here.

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.

Pediatric surgery as a specialty hasn’t been around for as long as you might think. Before 1946, it wasn’t even a line item in most hospitals—children simply waited for whichever general surgeon happened to be on call.

In the second chapter of this three-part mini-series on the Public Health Insight Podcast, host Gordon Thane continues his conversation with biographer Nigel M. de S. Cameron to trace the journey of a young Dr. C. Everett Koop—from his first day at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to the moment he helped turn the care of children into an entirely new medical specialty, one whose ripple effects still shape neonatal, trauma, and fetal surgery today.

References for Our Discussion

◼️Dr. Koop: The Many Lives of the Surgeon General

Guest

◼️Nigel M. de S. Cameron on LinkedIn

Host(s) & Producer(s)

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

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

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Subscribe to The Insight newsletter so you don’t miss out on the latest podcast episodes, live events, job skills, learning opportunities, and other engaging professional development content here.

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.

Dr. C. Everett Koop was one of the most iconic figures in U.S. public health—instantly recognizable by his beard and bow tie, but much less known for the deeper convictions that guided his work. Despite his groundbreaking contributions to pediatric surgery, tobacco control, and AIDS education, his full story has remained largely untold—until now.

In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we speak with Dr. Nigel M. de S. Cameron, the author of the first full biography of Dr. Koop. Drawing on personal friendship and years of research, Cameron shares why he felt called to tell Koop’s story, how the book came to be, and what public health professionals today can learn from Koop’s moral clarity, courage, and complexity.

References for Our Discussion

◼️Dr. Koop: The Many Lives of the Surgeon General

Guest

◼️Nigel M. de S. Cameron on LinkedIn

Host(s) & Producer(s)

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

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

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Subscribe to The Insight newsletter so you don’t miss out on the latest podcast episodes, live events, job skills, learning opportunities, and other engaging professional development content here.

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.

It started with an eye condition, a laptop, and a growing sense that public health professionals deserved more support. What came next? A mentorship model shaking things up across Canada.

In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Carly La Berge shares the story behind the Canadian Public Health Hub, including its triad mentorship model, how she’s keeping it inclusive and burnout-free, and why she believes mentorship should be accessible, flexible, and community-driven.

She also reflects on the lessons from an early failed attempt at mentorship involving $500 worth of uneaten pizza and makes a compelling case for why more public health professionals should step up as mentors.

References for Our Discussion

◼️The Canadian Public Health Hub 

Guest

◼️Carly La Berge, MPH

Host(s) & Producer(s)

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

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

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Subscribe to The Insight newsletter so you don’t miss out on the latest podcast episodes, live events, job skills, learning opportunities, and other engaging professional development content here.

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.

Carly La Berge never planned to work in public health. After years of pursuing a career in medicine, rejection letters, and frustrations in healthcare clinics sent her down an unexpected path — one fueled by advocacy, system change, and a lot of detours.

In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Carly shares how working as a medical office assistant opened her eyes to deeper health inequities, why she pursued an MPH in Social Policy, and how policy writing became a tool for accountability and action. She also talks about imposter syndrome, board leadership, and the story behind Charlie’s Colourful Plate, a public health children's book inspired by her own experiences as one of the world's pickiest eaters.

References for Our Discussion

◼️The Canadian Public Health Hub 

Guest

◼️Carly La Berge, MPH

Host(s) & Producer(s)

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

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

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Subscribe to The Insight newsletter so you don’t miss out on the latest podcast episodes, live events, job skills, learning opportunities, and other engaging professional development content here.

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.

When public health stories are told right, they don’t just inform—they move people.

In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast with Alexson Calahan, Founder of Small Adventures Communications, we dive deep into the ‘how’ of public relations in public health and explore tangible takeaways to do it better.

From building trust with patients to crafting campaigns that change behavior, Alexson shares the tools, strategies, and lessons she’s learned across two decades in the field, including:

◼️The difference between PR, marketing, and communications in practice
◼️What happens when PR and public health work really well together
◼️How to connect emotionally and ethically with communities and patients
◼️A step-by-step approach to collecting, crafting, and sharing patient stories responsibly
◼️How organizations can prepare for crises and protect both relationships and reputations

Plus, we unpack the role of AI in PR (spoiler: it’s not ready to write your press releases just yet).

References for Our Discussion

◼️Small Adventures Communications

◼️Today Show Article: How parents of children born with heart defects share their hope

Guest

◼️Alexson Calahan, APR

Host(s) & Producer(s)

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

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

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Subscribe to The Insight newsletter so you don’t miss out on the latest podcast episodes, live events, job skills, learning opportunities, and other engaging professional development content here.

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 does public health have to gain from public relations? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we speak with Alexson Calahan—Founder of Small Adventures Communications and a seasoned public relations expert with nearly 20 years of experience about her unconventional journey from selling classified ads to how she turned a data inquiry from the Today Show into a $100K gift for congenital heart defect research.

Whether you're in public health, comms, or curious about how stories shape change—this one’s for you.

References for Our Discussion

◼️Small Adventures Communications

◼️Today Show Article: How parents of children born with heart defects share their hope

Guest

◼️Alexson Calahan, APR

Host(s) & Producer(s)

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

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

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Subscribe to The Insight newsletter so you don’t miss out on the latest podcast episodes, live events, job skills, learning opportunities, and other engaging professional development content here.

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.