A. MacLeod Episode 380

Andrew MacLeod and David Peck talk about mental health, choices and social context, addiction, brokenness, trauma, thinking collectively and a health in all policies approach to wellness.

Synopsis

Never before have individuals faced so much conflicting information about how to be healthy: a constant rotation of fad diets, extreme workout regimens and celebrity-endorsed supplements are regularly hyped as the latest cure for all modern ills. We also maintain a massive health care system that absorbs a steadily growing share of public spending. As health has increasingly come to occupy a prominent role in our lives and headlines, however, we’ve tended to ignore that many of the the most significant contributors to making and keeping us well lie outside both the medical system and our individual control—income, education, employment, housing, environmental factors and social supports.

In All Together Healthy, award-winning author Andrew MacLeod digs deep to discover how to build a healthy society, examines inequities within Canada and draws on international comparisons to assess why Canada’s high spending on health care has failed to achieve better results. Meticulously researched and enlivened with interviews and personal stories, MacLeodexplains the complexities of public health policy in an immediate and approachable way, making a passionate case for how best to maximize the health of the many.

In Canada, this is a moment of political optimism, where the path to a healthier society seems possible, but it is uncertain whether promised changes will happen. All Together Healthy defines what’s at stake and articulates a vision of a future where the health and well-being of all citizens is of central importance.

Biography

Andrew MacLeod is the BC Legislative Bureau Chief for TheTyee.ca website. His first book, A Better Place on Earth (Harbour Publishing, 2015), won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature.

He won a 2006 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies award for news writing and was a finalist for a 2007 Western Magazine Award for best article in BC and the Yukon.

His reporting has appeared in Monday Magazine, The Georgia Straight, BCBusiness Magazine, 24 Hours, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Detroit’s MetroTimes, Portland’s Willamette Week and elsewhere. Andrew lives in Victoria, BC.

 Image Copyright: Andrew MacLeod. Used with permission.