- 21 minutes 42 secondsJoining Forces To Hold The Automotive Industry & Governments Accountable
Documenting lead exposure is one step. Getting the people responsible to act is another. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Will Fitzgibbon explains how journalists worked with Nigerian scientists to test blood and soil, then put their findings to companies and governments. He describes factory shutdowns, changes to lead sourcing, and the responsibility passing that makes accountability difficult across a global supply chain. A September 2026 update follows cleanup efforts in Ogijo and residents still waiting for government blood test results. What changed after the findings became public, and what remains unfinished?
References for Our Discussion
◼️Will Fitzgibbon: Reporter Profile
◼️Recycling lead for U.S. car batteries is poisoning people
◼️How we linked the auto industry to lead poisoning in Nigeria
◼️Lead poisoning: WHO fact sheet
◼️Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Lead
◼️CDC Updates Blood Lead Reference Value
◼️Nigerian battery recyclers pay for lead cleanup after Examination investigation
◼️The Panama Papers: Exposing the Rogue Offshore Finance Industry
◼️The auto industry was warned: Battery recycling was poisoning people
◼️Video: How the U.S. automotive industry fuels lead poisoning in Nigeria
Guest
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.
10 November 2026, 6:00 am - 23 minutes 38 secondsHow Car Battery Recycling Is Fueling A Lead Poisoning Crisis
Recycling your car battery sounds like an environmental success story. But behind some of the lead going into new batteries are factories poisoning the communities around them. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Will Fitzgibbon traces a recycled lead trade connecting Nigerian factories with American automotive supply chains. He explains why lead-acid batteries remain in demand and how unsafe recycling can spread lead dust beyond factory walls into nearby homes, schools, and playgrounds. The trail leads to Ogijo, Nigeria, where workers and families live with the consequences of a global industry. Recycling can be done safely. Why are communities still paying the price when it is not?
References for Our Discussion
◼️Will Fitzgibbon: Reporter Profile
◼️Recycling lead for U.S. car batteries is poisoning people
◼️How we linked the auto industry to lead poisoning in Nigeria
◼️Lead poisoning: WHO fact sheet
◼️Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Lead
◼️CDC Updates Blood Lead Reference Value
◼️Nigerian battery recyclers pay for lead cleanup after Examination investigation
◼️The Panama Papers: Exposing the Rogue Offshore Finance Industry
◼️The auto industry was warned: Battery recycling was poisoning people
◼️Video: How the U.S. automotive industry fuels lead poisoning in Nigeria
Guest
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.
3 November 2026, 6:00 am - 14 minutes 39 secondsFollowing Power & Money Through Investigative Journalism
A choice between pursuing a career in diplomacy and taking a chance on journalism sent Will Fitzgibbon to London with little job security. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, he traces the decisions and chance encounters that led him to the Panama Papers, a massive global scandal involving offshore finance. He reflects on what those leaked records revealed about the rules available to the rich and powerful, why those discoveries stayed with him, and how following money and corporate decisions eventually brought his reporting into public health.
References for Our Discussion
◼️Will Fitzgibbon: Reporter Profile
◼️Recycling lead for U.S. car batteries is poisoning people
◼️How we linked the auto industry to lead poisoning in Nigeria
◼️Lead poisoning: WHO fact sheet
◼️Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Lead
◼️CDC Updates Blood Lead Reference Value
◼️Nigerian battery recyclers pay for lead cleanup after Examination investigation
◼️The Panama Papers: Exposing the Rogue Offshore Finance Industry
◼️The auto industry was warned: Battery recycling was poisoning people
◼️Video: How the U.S. automotive industry fuels lead poisoning in Nigeria
Guest
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.
27 October 2026, 5:00 am - 18 minutes 51 secondsBreaking the Cycle of Adverse Childhood Experiences
What can we actually do about childhood trauma? In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Frank Putnam, author of Old Before Their Time, turns from the science to the solutions. He explains why simply talking about child sexual abuse can protect the next generation, what clinicians and foster families should watch for, and how supportive relationships with older women help girls. He also describes a home visiting program for new mothers, and why he still sees reasons for hope despite renewed pushback.
References for Our Discussion
◼️New Book: Old Before Their Time: A Scientific Life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become **Participate in the book giveaway. Contest rules at the end of the description**
Guest
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.
20 October 2026, 5:00 am - 30 minutes 1 secondOld Before Their Time
One in five women and one in eight men report a history of child sexual abuse. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Frank Putnam, author of Old Before Their Time, explains what 35 years of the Female Growth and Development Study found. He describes how childhood trauma shows up in the body as early autoimmune activity, inflammation, and epigenetic aging. He also covers how adverse experiences compound, how trauma crosses generations, and why a child protection system with outdated, inconsistent data struggles to respond.
References for Our Discussion
◼️New Book: Old Before Their Time: A Scientific Life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become **Participate in the book giveaway. Contest rules at the end of the description**
Guest
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.
13 October 2026, 6:00 am - 37 minutes 26 secondsPsychiatry, Child Protection, and the Roots of Childhood Trauma
In the early 1980s, Dr. Frank Putnam noticed that the children referred to him had very different symptoms but one thing in common: a history of abuse. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Putnam, author of Old Before Their Time, walks us through the path that led him from adult psychiatry to child protection. He also explains how he launched a study that followed abused girls for decades, at a time when many dismissed the work as a social problem rather than a scientific one.
References for Our Discussion
◼️New Book: Old Before Their Time: A Scientific Life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become **Participate in the book giveaway. Contest rules at the end of the description**
Guest
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.
6 October 2026, 5:00 am - 39 minutes 14 secondsThe Nefarious Influence of Big Tobacco
A tobacco company promises jobs, investment and a factory, but only if a government makes health warnings smaller. Investigative journalist Matthew Chapman joins the Public Health Insight Podcast to examine how tobacco companies adapt their products and influence the rules governing them. Drawing on investigations in Kenya, Israel and the United Kingdom, he reveals undisclosed payments to experts, pressure on policymakers and efforts to weaken or delay regulation. The conversation explores Britain’s generational tobacco ban, the immense death toll linked to China Tobacco, and the limits of personal choice for addictive substances.
Guest
References for Our Discussion
◼️Lawmaker with family tie to British American Tobacco attempts to stop UK smoking ban
◼️British American Tobacco undermines Kenyan health laws in bid for Gen Z
◼️What to know about the global tobacco control treaty
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.
30 July 2026, 4:00 am - 19 minutes 58 secondsWhy Prevented Disasters Don't Make the News & Acting Earlier to Save Lives
When a disaster is prevented, it doesn't make the news and most don't hear about it; and that's exactly the problem. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast with Dr. Barry Davis, biostatistician and author of The Preventioneers, we explore why prevention's biggest successes stay invisible. We discuss why climate warnings have gone unheeded for 170 years, why treatment beats prevention for the "popular vote," and how to rebuild trust with a public that distrusts experts. The answer isn't more data, but humility, storytelling, and trusted messengers.
References for Our Discussion
◼️[NEW BOOK] The Preventioneers: Diseases, Disasters, and the Discoveries That Changed Our World
◼️An Ounce of Prevention: A Substack by Barry R. Davis
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.
14 July 2026, 6:00 am - 27 minutes 23 secondsThe Preventioneers: Why We Wait Until It's Too Late
A doctor proves handwashing saves lives and gets destroyed for it. A president dies of a preventable stroke. Scientists spend decades proving smoking kills while the industry fights back. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Dr. Barry Davis, author of The Preventioneers, introduces us to people in history who saw catastrophe coming, built the evidence, and ran straight into resistance from industries, institutions, and a public that didn't want to hear it. If prevention saves lives, protects health, and saves money, why do we keep ignoring it until it's too late? This episode digs into that question.
References for Our Discussion
◼️[NEW BOOK] The Preventioneers: Diseases, Disasters, and the Discoveries That Changed Our World
◼️An Ounce of Prevention: A Substack by Barry R. Davis
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.
7 July 2026, 6:00 am - 26 minutes 33 secondsMathematics, Medicine, and the Stories In Between
We often have the evidence to prevent harm long before we actually do something about it, and that delay costs lives. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we sit down with a physician and mathematician whose career spans early machine learning research in the 1980s, landmark hypertension trials, and over 150 data monitoring committees. Dr. Davis reflects on the experiences that shaped his thinking and how resistance to change repeats throughout history.
References for Our Discussion
◼️[NEW BOOK] The Preventioneers: Diseases, Disasters, and the Discoveries That Changed Our World
◼️An Ounce of Prevention: A Substack by Barry R. Davis
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.
1 July 2026, 3:00 am - 13 minutes 41 secondsPublic Health Is Dead
Daniella wanted to make a podcast for years, but she waited for the right idea. Then she noticed no one had made a public health show this honest and this bold, especially from a Black perspective. So she made it herself.
In this episode, Daniella shares how she started Public Health Is Dead, built on years of teaching herself to record and edit on her own. It grew out of a frustration she kept running into: public health is known for holding the world accountable, but can fall short when it comes to turning that same honesty on itself.
Check Out
Guest
◼️Daniella Barreto
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.
23 June 2026, 6:00 pm - More Episodes? Get the App