Public health has been used as a tool of empire for centuries. Keeping settlers healthy enough to maintain colonial control over land, resources, and capital is a part of public health’s history. It’s also part of its present.
*Content Note: This episode contains mentions of residential schools and colonial violence. (Transcript HERE).
In this episode, hear about Renee Bach, an ill-famed recent character in the long line of drop-in missionaries or "voluntourists" who go to Africa to “help” poor people and end up doing a lot of harm. Featured guest, Professor Matiangai Sirleaf, discusses her paper “White Health in International Law”, breaks down how the interests of whiteness have always been at the forefront of public health globally. How has the COVID pandemic response reinforced global hierarchies of care and concern? Can public health move towards emancipatory futures?
We hear about show host Daniella’s university exchange trip to Ghana as an African-born immigrant to Canada, why race is usually not relevant to public health research but *racism* is, how experiments on Indigenous children shaped Canada’s food policy, and the little-known history of the Hepatitis B vaccine—a public health advancement which has been under recent scrutiny (for the wrong reasons) by RFK Jr. and his public health demolition crew. We also meet Daniella’s mom, an immunologist who shares her experience as a medical doctor in Zimbabwe and her response to growing anti-vax ideas in the West.
Epidemiology methods partly grew from the massive data and surveillance possibilities that existed in captured populations. This same data collection and surveillance can perpetuate harm, especially when AI is involved. Hear how First Nations communities have established OCAP® (Ownership, Control, Access, Possession) in response to harmful research practices in the past.
Has public health shed its colonial lens? And what do these legacies of colonialism mean for addressing ongoing and future pandemics?
RESOURCES
** READ THIS FIRST IF YOU ARE NEW TO THINKING ABOUT RACISM & PUBLIC HEALTH:
Systemic And Structural Racism: Definitions, Examples, Health Damages, And Approaches To Dismantling (2022)
White Health and International Law (2025), Matiangai Sirleaf published in Race, Racism & International Law, Devon Carbado, Kimberle Crenshaw, Justin Desautels-Stein, and Chantal Thomas eds., Stanford University Press.
Rethinking Race & Risk in Epidemiological Training (2023), Natasha Richmond
Find more resources on the episode website
CREDITS
Created, written, produced, edited, and hosted by Daniella Barreto.
Music, mixing, and sound design by Alexandria Maillot.
Script editing by Kevin Ball and Lauren M.
Additional script feedback from Gordon Thane.
Fact checking by Anika Sharma.
Final mix and mastering by Nick Dooley at Good Egg Audio.
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Canada - english