Podcasts about action coalition

Hello friends and welcome back to Thrive Beyond Size. It's been quite a while since I've shared an interview with you so I'm very excited to share one today. I've become passionate about advocating for weight-inclusive care in healthcare and addressing anti-fat bias and weight discrimination in the world and now I'm introducing you to someone who fights weight discrimination in spas. A spa trip is a day to feel relaxed, pampered, and rejuvenated, but often if you live in a bigger body, a spa visit is anything but. So I'm thrilled to introduce Sherilyn Trompetter, the co-founder of the Larger Luxury Certification that designates businesses as welcoming to bodies of all sizes.Sherilyn Trompetter and her co-founder, Sky McLaughlan, were international business professionals travelling around the world and simply visiting spas worldwide for rest and relaxation. But after another humiliating spa visit that happened only because she is a person in a larger body in a spa, Sherilyn decided nobody else would be hurt the way she was and Larger Luxury was born. I talked to Sherilyn about her personal experiences and how Larger Luxury makes a difference through its online education and certification. Sherilyn explains the many things that negatively impact a spa experience for people with bigger bodies: everything from not having large enough robes to not having tables weight-rated for larger bodies. She also breaks down how easy these issues are to address and how to convey messages of inclusivity in marketing. This conversation is so necessary and the work Larger Luxury is doing is so profound. I enjoyed talking with Sherilyn so much and I truly hope you all find our conversation as encouraging as I did.__About Sherilyn Trompetter:Sherilyn is a compassionate and authentic professional who has worked in various themes of diversity, equity and inclusion for over two decades. Sherilyn brings a trauma-informed approach to consulting organizations and coaching individuals and groups. A masterful facilitator, Sherilyn is able to elicit powerful insights and initiate transformative experiences. Sherilyn has extensive community service and volunteer experience. She co-founded ACT Alberta: the Action Coalition on Human Trafficking, the leading research-based and outcome-focused human trafficking organization in Alberta. She has a passion for multiculturalism, social justice and community service and has over 15 years of board experience.Sherilyn has extensive experience working for and with complex and hierarchical unionized environments such as the University of Alberta, the Government of Alberta, and various law enforcement agencies including the RCMP, and the Canadian Red Cross. She has successfully managed projects upwards of $10 million specializing in the development and training of people and systems improvement.__Resources discussed in this episode:RG Spa in Edmonton, AB__Learn more about Sherilyn Trompetter:Website: LargerLuxury.comLinktr.ee: LargerLuxuryOfficialLarger Luxury on InstagramLarger Luxury on LinkedInSherilyn Trompetter on LinkedInEmail SherilynLearn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:Website: www.wayzahealth.comFollow me on Facebook and InstagramEmail Michelle: michelle@wayzahealth.com

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Brigid Croome, South Australian Abortion Action Coalition Co-Convenor-World Safe Abortion Day – South Australia proposed amendments to abortion legislation.     The post Saturday, 28th, September, 2024: World Safe Abortion Day-Brigid Croome, South Australian Abortion Action Coalition Co-Convenor appeared first on Saturday Magazine.

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On the 19th of December 2022, Farzana Yaqubi, a 21 year old law student at AUT, was murdered by a man who had been repeatedly stalking her and sending her threatening messages on social media. In the months leading up to her murder, Farzana made multiple police reports with evidence of her experienced stalking, urging law enforcement to intervene. However, her reports were effectively disregarded and treated as low priority, as there are no official laws in Aotearoa that criminalise stalking. Farzana's murder triggered a call to the government from numerous women's rights advocates across the motu to come up with more effective legislation to criminalise stalking and establish more effective preventative measures in law enforcement. For this week's Get Action! Oto spoke to Leonie Morris from the Auckland Women's Centre, to discuss a petition calling for the official criminalisation of stalking. If you're interested, you can sign the petition here: https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/protect-women-make-stalking-illegal-1

Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Inc. v. FERC

Founder and CEO of Springs of ASAL, Mana Omar, has first-hand experience with gender inequality in climate vulnerable communities. In a sit-down with the Norwegian Youth Delegate, Amalie Holmefjord, she tells her story of growing up in a pastoralist community in Kenya and the challenges that came with it. Listen as Mana and Amalie talk about Mana's role as a youth leader of the UN Women's Action Coalition and her organization's work on climate resilient and gender equal societies, as well as how the Nordic countries can take lead in securing a gender just transition for all. This Nordic Talks episode is the fourth of five special podcast episodes, recorded at COP28 in Dubai.

Carbon Capture and Sequestration are coming to a town near you. Watch out! The right wing supermajority Indiana Legislature has once again been bought out by private investors to support a new industry that may cause more harm than good. Join Kerwin Olson, Executive Director of Citizens Action Coalition, to break it down and explain the merits of Hydrogen as a renewable energy source.

This week we are spreading the word about the Buildings Action Coalition (BAC), a coalition of professionals from all areas of the built environment, from all over the planet, brought together to support a UN-backed global target for 'near-zero emissions and resilient buildings to become the new normal by 2030'.Mindful of this 2030 decline, the BAC is bringing professionals together to "turbocharge our progress and work together to make this a decade of delivery".Jeff was able to arrange for us to be joined by Scott Foster (former Director of Sustainable Energy for the UN Economic commission for Europe, and former guest of the podcast, alongside Barbara-Ann Murphy, CEO of The Enniscorthy Forum (the BAC's parent group) and a Local Councillor.This really should be of interest to most of our listeners and something we believe that you'll all benefit from.Notes from the episodeThe Buildings Action Coalition web pageThe Enniscorthy ForumThe BAC webinars so far (scroll down halfway the page to find them)The Buildings Breakthrough Target**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Zero Ambitions Partners email address - zap@eiux.agencySubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Join ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCListen to Accelerate to Zero, Sara's podcast produced at BE-ST, on Apple or Spotify Email Alex and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User Experience**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

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This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing!One of the ways that the diet industry is trying to squash the weight-neutral health and fat liberation movements is by using their money, clout, and enmeshment in the healthcare system to re-brand themselves as weight stigma experts, including at conferences, panels, and other events. This can be done by large weight loss industry representatives like the Ob*sity* Action Coalition or by individuals.It is imperative that we do not let this happen, because their goal is to co-opt the concept of eradicating weight stigma and use it to sell weight-loss interventions that risk the health and lives of higher-weight people (which, in turn, increases weight stigma by perpetuating the idea that being fat is so terrible that it's worth risking fat people's lives and quality of life in attempts to make them thin.) So, here are four major red flags that an event that claims to be about ending weight stigma may actually be about co-opting anti-weight-stigma work to sell dangerous, expensive “treatments” for fat people.There are no (fat-positive) fat people speakingThere is absolutely no excuse for this, but that doesn't mean we don't hear them. I think my personal [least] favorite is “we are looking for experts rather than lived experience.” This is wrong in every way I can think of. First of all, lived experience of stigma gives one expertise that cannot be gained in any other way. Beyond that, unless by “experts” they mean “thin people” then there is literally no type of expert that does not include fat people. Doctors, academics, researchers, statisticians, whatever they are looking for, they could find a fat expert. The idea that someone is either an expert in weight stigma or a fat person is weight stigma. Bottom line: If there are no fat-positive fat people speaking at an event, then this isn't truly an anti-weight-stigma event. I will say that I have consulted with people in situations where they were speaking at such an event as a harm reduction tool after they tried to get a fat speaker booked and failed, but this shouldn't be happening.Representatives from the weight loss industry are speakingThey could be representing the weight loss industry directly, through one of their programs (like Novo Nordisk's absolutely ridiculous “It's Bigger Than Me” campaign,) or through an astroturf organization like the “Ob*sity Action Coalition.”This is also why in the first category I specifically said “fat-positive fat people.” Fat people are allowed to want to eradicate fatness in themselves, including as a way for them to try to escape weight stigma, but that doesn't make it an anti-weight-stigma view, especially if they are representing the weight-loss industry or claiming to represent all fat people. (To me, as someone who is both fat and queer, it would be similar to an anti-homophobia panel with a bunch of straight people and one gay panelist who was undergoing so-called “conversion therapy” to become an ex-gay and was representing the interests of the companies selling the therapy.)They are using stigmatizing terminologyIf they are using terms and/or aligning with concepts like “ob*sity,” “person with ob*sity” or “ob*sity epidemic then they are perpetuating stigma. The idea of pathologizing body sizes is, first and foremost, rooted in racism, weight supremacy, and anti-Blackness and I highly recommend reading  Sabrina Strings' Fearing the Black Body – the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia and Da'Shaun Harrison's Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness to understand more about that. Concepts like “overw*ight” and “ob*sity” were created to pathologize bodies based on shared size rather than shared symptomology or cardiometabolic profile. This has been largely architected and perpetuated by the weight loss industry. And while there is absolutely no shame in having a disease, simply existing in a higher-weight body doesn't qualify, and the diet industry's insistence that it does - and especially their use of “anti-weight-stigma” platforms to try to forward that message - harms and kills fat people.  They want to find a way to make fat people thin and stop future fat people from existingWeight stigma is so ubiquitous in our culture, that someone can publicly espouse the notion (in various nomenclature) that the world would be better without fat people in it, and still be considered (and booked!) as an expert on ending weight stigma. It is impossible to fight a “war on ob*sity” without waging war against fat people, and wars, inevitably, have casualties.You cannot be invested in pathologizing and eradicating fatness and also be effective at reducing the stigma against fat people, they are mutually exclusive.There are some people who produce research about weight stigma whose results can be helpful from a harm reduction perspective , even though they, themselves, and their research are still coming from a place deeply rooted in weight stigma. Still, the truth is that nobody who is pathologizing fatness is a qualified expert on ending weight stigma. For more on this, I've also created a handy guide to whether marketing/PR is anti-weight-stigma or just diet industry propaganda. You can find that here.Did you find this post helpful? You can subscribe for free to get future posts delivered direct to your inbox, or choose a paid subscription to support the newsletter (and the work that goes into it!) and get special benefits! Click the Subscribe button below for details:Liked the piece? Share the piece!More research and resources:https://haeshealthsheets.com/resources/*Note on language: I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor as used by the fat activist community, I use “ob*se” and “overw*ight” to acknowledge that these are terms that were created to medicalize and pathologize fat bodies, with roots in racism and specifically anti-Blackness. Please read Sabrina Strings' Fearing the Black Body – the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia and Da'Shaun Harrison's Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness for more on this. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing!In part 1 we talked about a request that has been submitted for the World Health Organization (WHO) to add diet drugs to their list of “essential medicines.” We discussed who was making this request and the justification that they were using. Today we're going to take a deeper dive into the research that they used to try to support this request, and in part three will look at the research around harm and “efficacy,” as well as “cost effectiveness.” (I was originally going to write this in two parts, but I realized that it was just ridiculously long, and there is time before the WHO meets about this, so I've decided to break it into three parts.)Just a reminder that I don't hyperlink to studies or articles that come from a place of weight stigma, though I do provide enough information that someone could google them.In their ”Summary statement of the proposal for inclusion” they say“The use of GLP-1 RAs in the treatment of ob*sity has been well studied and meta-analyses of various GLP-1 RAs have demonstrated that this class of medications can lead to clinically significant weight loss. Compared to control groups, GLP-1 RAs were found to lead to more significant weight loss with a mean difference of approximately 7.1 kg as well as an improvement in glycemic control, with low concern for hypoglycemia[3].”The single paper they cite to back this up (Iqbal et al. Effect of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists on body weight in adults with ob*sity without diabetes mellitus-a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized control trials, 2022) looked at weight loss on these drugs among “ob*se” adults without type 2 diabetes (so hypoglycemia would have been unlikely anyway.) It included 12 trials with a total of 11,459 participants. 80% of the participants were white, 10% were Black or African Americans and 5% were Asians. It is concerning that they are making a global recommendation based on a study population that is overwhelmingly white. There is also the issue of follow-up. Some of the trials were as short as 14 weeks and the longest trial included was only 3 years. The average weight loss was 15.6 lbs more in the group taking the drugs than in control, but some subjects on the drugs lost as little as 5.5 lbs. Those on the drugs also experienced vomiting, nausea, dyspepsia (indigestion,) diarrhea, constipation and abdominal pain as common side effects. There is no way to know how much of this (short-term) weight loss is due to experiencing these common side effects. These drugs also have significant (possibly life-threatening) side effects and the short-term follow-up included here is not likely long enough to capture those. Also, remember that the recommendation is for people to take these drugs for the rest of their lives (since, if they don't, their weight shoots right back up and they lose cardiometabolic benefits,) and they are making that recommendation (globally) on just 14 weeks to 3 years of data.The authors of this study cite no conflicts of interest. Per LinkedIn, someone with the same name as the lead author is a product specialist at Novo Nordisk but I imagine that must be a coincidence or surely it would have been listed as a COI. The article was published in “Ob*sity Reviews” which is an official journal of the “World Ob*sity Federation” (WOF). The WOF took over $5.3 Million dollars from Novo Nordisk (whose weight loss drugs are covered by this recommendation) over three years. Their “members” include the Ob*sity Action Coalition (whose chief funder is Novo Nordisk.) Their current President has taken money to speak on behalf of Novo Nordisk and their past president is John Wilding who was implicated in the recent Novo Nordisk scandal for not disclosing his financial ties to Novo Nordisk while praising their weight loss drugs in the media.There are more issues with this meta-analysis but I'll just stop there and say that I don't think there is any way that 14 weeks to 3 years of data on 11,459 people who are mostly white justifies a global recommendation of these drugs as “essential.”Under “Treatment details (requirements for diagnosis, treatment and monitoring)”Here again they say “Ob*sity, a preventable disease” but offer no citation or support for this narrative that has been largely architected and marketed by the weight loss industry. They continue:“When used in supplement to life style modifications, including a decrease in caloric intake and an increase in exercise, liraglutide is indicated for adults with ob*sity (BMI >30.00) or overweight (BMI >27.00) with a weight-related comorbidity”I just want to note here that this indication (which wasn't created by those who wrote the recommendation to the WHO) predicates risk on body size and simple correlation. These drugs have very unpleasant common side effects and other, possibly life-threatening, side effects. So the fact that those who are “overw*ight” have to have at least one condition that is correlated with being higher weight (with no proof of causation, by the way) but those who are “ob*se” are recommended to risk these side effects based on size alone, with no required symptomology, is pure weight stigma.Next is a table “Excerpts from national and international guidelines on the pharmacological treatment of ob*sity”It is a list of organizations with quotes pulled from various publications that are intended to show support for the drugs. Almost every one of the organizations has financial ties to Novo Nordisk and/or Eli Lilly which doesn't prove that there is anything shady going on, but would be worth disclosing given their use to back up the request that these companies' drugs be considered “essential.” Let's take a deeper look:The American College of Cardiology (ACC)The recommendation that is cited is for the use of these drugs for Type 2 diabetes (T2D), and they mention weight loss as an ancillary effect. This will be a pattern in these recommendations and it matters because the risk/benefit analysis is different for people who have an actual health condition (Type 2 diabetes) rather than those who are simply living in a higher-weight body. Also, one might be misled by the title of the section to believe that these recommendations are specifically for the use of the drugs in the treatment of “ob*sity” which is not the case.The ACC has a partnership with Novo NordiskThey have also partnered with Eli LillySouth Asian Task ForceAgain, this is a recommendation for these medications for the treatment of T2D, not for weight loss.The paper's lead author, Sanjay Kalra has received honoraria for lectures and advisory boards from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.International Diabetes FederationThis, again, is a recommendation of these drugs for the treatment of T2D.Novo Nordisk is a “platinum partner” and Eli Lilly is a “gold partner” (the website isn't clear about how much money they donate, and an email I sent has gone unanswered so far.)National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)This one actually is a recommendation for these drugs for weight loss, however, NICE was implicated in the recent scandal which found that “Novo Nordisk had paid millions to prominent ob*sity “charities,” NHS trusts, universities and other bodies as well healthcare professionals who publicly praised the drug (typically without disclosure of their funding) and who advised NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) on their reviewing of Novo's weight loss drug to decide whether or not it should be made available.”Position statement from the Brazilian Diabetes Society (SBD), the Brazilian Cardiology Society (SBC) and the Brazilian Endocrinology and Metabolism Society (SBEM)This is a statement of recommendations for prevention of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes.Here is a selection of the authors “competing interests” (I've only included Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, the two main companies trying to sell this class of drugs for weight loss.) ROM has received speaker honorarium from: Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.CMV has received honoraria as speaker from Novo Nordisk.SV over the last 5 years, has received honoraria for clinical research from Novo Nordisk; Advisory Board to Novo Nordisk; has received honoraria as speaker from Novo NordiskFT has received honoraria for medical lectures from: Lilly, Novo NordiskRDS over the last 3 years has received honoraria for consulting, research and speaker activities from Eli LillyThe Brazilian Diabetes Society (SBD) has collaborated with Novo NordiskThe Brazilian Cardiology Society (SBC) holds an annual congress that is sponsored by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. The Brazilian Endocrinology and Metabolism Society (SBEM) has partnered with Novo Nordisk on multiple occasions.Korean Society for the Study of Ob*sity Guidelines for the Management of Ob*sity in KoreaThis is not a study but guidelines put out by an organization that appears to represent those with a profit interest in “ob*sity treatment” (similar to the Ob*sity Action Coalition.) Their “recommendation” includes every drug that is approved for long-term use, fails to cite any evidence of efficacy (short or long-term) and they mention that “Not all ob*se people respond to ob*sity drugs, and there are a significant number of non-responders.”Novo Nordisk is a platinum sponsor for their conference. They are also a member of the World Ob*sity Federation which took over $5M from Novo Nordisk.European Medical Association[sic]Here they are citing a press release stating that the European Medicines Association (EMA) (the recommendation authors appear to have been mistaken on the name) has “recommended granting a marketing authorisation for Saxenda (liraglutide) for weight management in overweight or ob*se adults.” Per the EMA's website they are “a scientific body with the expertise required to assess the benefits and risks of medicines. However, under EU law it has no authority to actually permit marketing in the different EU countries. The role of EMA is to make a recommendation to the European Commission which then takes a final legally binding decision on whether the medicine can be marketed in the EU.”I could not find information about the panel that made the decision, or any conflicts of interest they may have had.Australia: NPS Medicine WiseThe citation they offer here is not to Australia: NPS Medicine Wise, but to a paper by a single author - Joseph Proietto who “has been on the medical advisory boards for liraglutide, semaglutide 2.4 mg and bupropion/naltrexone. He has been involved in educational sessions for ob*sity management for both Novo Nordisk (liraglutide, semaglutide) and iNova (phentermine and bupropion/ naltrexone) for which he has received honoraria.” In other disclosures it mentions that he was, in fact, chair of the medical advisory board for Saxenda (Novo Nordisk's brand name for liraglutide, the drug being recommended here.)In the paper he recommends all of the above weight loss drugs in general, but does not recommend the GLP-1 class of drugs over any of the others. The study he uses to recommend these drugs only follows participants for 68 weeks.Singapore HPB-MOH Clinical Practice GuidelinesIn the section on liraglutide they offer information for 56 weeks of follow up and conclude “The long-term safety of high dose liraglutide therapy is, however, unclear.”Canadian Medical Association Journal- Ob*sity in adults: a clinical practice guidelineFunding for these guidelines was provided by Ob*sity Canada, an organization that lobbies for the priorities of those who profit from “ob*sity treatment.” Specifically, the funds came from “Ob*sity Canada's Fund for Ob*sity Collaboration and Unified Strategies (FOCUS) initiative” Novo Nordisk is a supporter of this fund, as well as a sponsor for their annual summit.Here are excerpts from the 1,293 word competing interests statement for the authors (I've only included Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, the two main companies trying to sell this class of drugs for weight loss.) Sean Wharton reports receiving honoraria and travel expenses and has participated in academic advisory boards for Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly. Sean Wharton is also the medical director of a medical clinic specializing in weight management and diabetes. David Lau reports receiving grants and research support from Novo Nordisk, speaker bureau fees from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk; and consulting fees from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Michael Vallis is a member of advisory boards for Novo Nordisk. Michael Vallis has also received consulting fees from Novo Nordisk and speaking fees from Novo Nordisk. Arya Sharma reports receiving speaker's bureau and consulting fees from Novo Nordisk. Laurent Biertho is a member of advisory boards for Novo Nordisk. Denise Campbell-Scherer reports receiving research funding from Novo Nordisk. She also reports receiving an unrestricted education grant from Ob*sity Canada, funded by Novo Nordisk Global. Jennifer Brown reports receiving nonfinancial support from Novo Nordisk, and personal fees Yoni Freedhoff is the co-owner of the Bariatric Medical Institute and Constant Health, which provide weight management services; Constant Health has received a grant from Novo Nordisk. Yoni Freedhoff also regularly speaks on topics related to ob*sity and receives honoraria and travel costs and expenses for same. Michel Gagner reports receiving consulting fees from Novo Nordisk. Marie-France Langlois reports receiving personal fees from Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly. David Macklin reports receiving personal fees from Novo Nordisk. Priya Manjoo reports receiving personal fees from Novo Nordisk. Marie-Philippe Morin reports receiving speaker honoraria from Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and research subvention from Novo Nordisk, and consultation honoraria from Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly. Sue Pedersen reports receiving personal fees from Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and grants from Eli Lilly, and nonfinancial support from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.Megha Poddar reports receiving honoraria for continuing medical education (CME) from Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, education grants from Novo Nordisk, fees for mentorship from Novo Nordisk; fees for membership of advisory boards from Novo Nordisk. Paul Poirier reports receiving fees for consulting and continuing medical education from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk. Judy Shiau reports receiving personal fees from Novo Nordisk. Diana Sherifali reports receiving a grant from Ob*sity Canada to support the literature review process, during the conduct of the study. Shahebina Walji reports receiving consulting or advisory board fees from Novo Nordisk and speaker's bureau fees from Novo Nordisk.All of their recommendations around liraglutide are level 2a (Evidence from at least 1 controlled study without randomization) and Grade B ( Directly based on level 2 evidence or extrapolated recommendation from category 1 evidence) they suggest that these recommendations should use the terms “may” or “can” (as opposed to “should.”) The studies that they cite offer, at most, only 56 weeks of follow-up.Information supporting the public health relevanceIn this section they claim that “not only is the prevalence of ob*sity increasing, but the number of global deaths attributed to BMI has substantially increased from 1990 to 2017 (Figure 1) [23]. The global burden of disease of ob*sity study also found that though the age-standardized rate of high BMI related disability adjusted life years (DALY) increased by 12.7% for females and 26.8% for males, the actual global number of high BMI DALYs has doubled, despite sex”The study that they cite to support this (The global burden of disease attributable to high body mass index in 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: An analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study, Dai et al., 2020) calculates these numbers based on the assumption that the health problems higher-weight people have are due to their weight (even though people of all sizes experience them). They also fail to control for the health impacts of weight stigma, weight cycling, or healthcare inequalities, despite the research that shows that they are confounding variables. The assumption that higher-weight people's health issues are caused by their weight coupled with the failure to account for (or even discuss) confounding variables suggests to me either near-complete incompetence of the study authors around basic research methods, or a desire for specific conclusions.The study is at least honest that they don't know if weight loss would change this, stating “Successful population-wide initiatives targeting high BMI may mitigate the burden of a wide range of diseases” [emphasis mine].Thus, this doesn't actually support the recommendation to the WHO. Without proof that these medications would reduce disease or increase life years long-term, there is no reason to consider them “essential,” and no such evidence exists.Next they claim that “Ob*sity also plays a role in health care related costs; for patients and families, total healthcare costs for patients with ob*sity were higher than that of patients who are overweight.”First of all, this begins to wade into the idea that higher-weight people should be eradicated because they are “too expensive,” which is heading down a bad road when it comes to ethics. Further, the study they use to support this is based on 97 Dutch people who filled out a survey. The study included costs such as “expenditures related to the respondent's weight, such as adapted clothing, gym subscription, diet books, parking permit, food, etc.” First of all, thin people also have gym subscriptions and parking permits, but, moreover, telling fat people that they should buy diet books and pay for various weight loss foods and methods (despite the near-total failure rate,) then blaming them for the cost of following those dubious recommendations (as well as the additional costs of living in a world where structural weight stigma creates a lack of accommodation in clothing etc.) as a justification for more expensive, more dangerous “interventions” is a long way from being ethical science and is a particularly craven marketing tactic. I'm just going to stop there, but to say that I've seen elementary school science fair projects with more rigorous methodology and I would be beyond embarrassed to cite this for any reason ever, other than as an example of the piss-poor state of weight science.They finish up the section with “Given the global burden of ob*sity and the goal of reducing preventable disease related deaths, it is evident that affordable and available pharmacotherapy for ob*sity is needed on a global level.”Let's rephrase this to reflect the evidence they provided: “Based on a survey taken by 97 people, a study that failed to control for any confounding variables and made wild assumptions about causality based on simple correlation, and their own research's acknowledgment that changing body size may not change health outcomes, it is evident that affordable and available pharmacotherapy for ob*sity is needed on a global level.”Which is to say, what they provided here does not come close to justifying their request.In part three we'll wrap this up with a look at the evidence they use to discuss harm, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness.Did you find this post helpful? You can subscribe for free to get future posts delivered direct to your inbox, or choose a paid subscription to support the newsletter and get special benefits! Click the Subscribe button below for details:Liked this piece? Share this piece:More research and resources:https://haeshealthsheets.com/resources/*Note on language: I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor as used by the fat activist community, I use “ob*se” and “overw*ight” to acknowledge that these are terms that were created to medicalize and pathologize fat bodies, with roots in racism and specifically anti-Blackness. Please read Sabrina Strings' Fearing the Black Body – the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia and Da'Shaun Harrison's Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness for more on this. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing!In Part 1 we talked about how Novo Nordisk got suspended from The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry for their shady marketing practices. Today, we're going to talk about an investigation by The Observer that found what so many of us have been saying for a looooong time - that Novo Nordisk had paid millions to prominent ob*sity “charities,” NHS trusts, universities and other bodies as well healthcare professionals who publicly praised the drug (typically without disclosure of their funding) and who advised NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) on their reviewing of Novo's weight loss drug to decide whether or not it should be made available.The Observer article by Shanti Das and Jon Ungoes-Thomas “‘Orchestrated PR campaign': how skinny jab drug firm sought to shape ob*sity debate” (Note: per my policy I'm not linking to it because it still comes from a place of weight stigma) found that in three years, Novo Nordisk had shelled out £21,700,000 (about $26,415,301.50 USD) over 3,500 transactions which were separate from their research and development spending.The Observer found:“The payments include donations, event sponsorship, grants and other fees to prominent ob*sity charities, NHS trusts, royal colleges, GP surgeries, healthcare education providers and universities - on top of £28m spent by the company on research and development. A further £4m in payments such as consulting and lecture fees went to health professionals, including experts on ob*sity. The business has also provided financial support for the running of the all-party parliamentary group on ob*sity - a cross party group of MPs and members of the Lords that lobbies the government on health policy.”I've written before about how major papers like the New York Times are writing articles that are, essentially, lobbying for Novo Nordisk's priorities where every expert quoted is on Novo's payroll with no disclosure. One question I get asked a lot is “how is that legal?” First I'll point out that legal and ethical are two different things. Beyond that, there is a tendency to believe that doctors and academics are somehow immune to industry influence (or to the ways that their promotion of the weight loss paradigm will support their careers) such that reporters and others (including those on the pharma industry's payroll) claim that disclosing these conflicts of interest isn't important.An excellent example of the ways in which those who are seen as “impartial” experts in academia are, in fact, on the payroll of these companies and actively shilling for them is Professor John Wilding. Professor Wilding is at Liverpool University, where he leads clinical research on “ob*sity.” He also serves as president of the “World Ob*sity Federation” (an astroturf organization similar to the Ob*sity Action Coalition) which took more than £4.3M over three years, per The Observer. Somehow, this did not make its way onto his conflicts of interest statement. Meanwhile, he was quoted extensively in the media recommending Novo's drug Wegovy. Jason Halford, who is the Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Leeds, told an audience of millions on BBC that Wegovy is “one of the most powerful pharmaceutical tools” for treating “ob*sity.” He did not disclose that he is also the president of the European Association for the Study of Ob*sity (EASO), another astroturf organization (which is to say, an organization that claims to advocate for marginalized people but, in reality, is predominantly funded by and acting as a lobbying arm of, the pharmaceutical/weight loss surgery industry.) The Observer found that the EASO received more than three-quarters of its income (more than £3.65m) from Novo Nordisk. He was also a previous member of Novo Nordisk's UK advisory board.I'm glad Novo Nordisk's lack of ethics are getting wider coverage (though, as I pointed out in part 1, people in fat liberation and weight-neutral health advocates like Mikey Mercedes, Louise Adams, Asher Larmie, myself and others have been talking about this for some time,) but I don't expect it to stop them until we can put enough pressure on them to force them to stop. This is a company that orchestrated aggressive price gouging on insulin, proving beyond a doubt that they will kill people for money. And as pressure in the US is forcing Novo to lower the price of insulin, they seem to have a lot of eggs in the Wegovy basket. Prior to launch, they promised their shareholders the “fastest ever” post FDA-approval launch and that they would double their “ob*sity” sales by 2025. In fact, The Observer found that Novo Nordisk's sales on their new “ob*sity treatments” rose 84% in 2022 to $2.4B – a figure Novo projects will “grow significantly” in 2023.And what will they do to grow this figure significantly this year? I think their behavior makes it clear – absolutely anything they can get away with.Did you find this post helpful? You can subscribe for free to get future posts delivered direct to your inbox, or choose a paid subscription to support the newsletter and get special benefits! Click the Subscribe button below for details:Liked this piece? Share this piece:More research and resources:https://haeshealthsheets.com/resources/*Note on language: I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor as used by the fat activist community, I use “ob*se” and “overw*ight” to acknowledge that these are terms that were created to medicalize and pathologize fat bodies, with roots in racism and specifically anti-Blackness. Please read Sabrina Strings Fearing the Black Body – the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia and Da'Shaun Harrison Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness for more on this. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript:This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing!The Ob*sity* Action Coalition (OAC) claims to be a non-profit advocacy group for higher-weight people. The truth from my perspective is that they are anything but.I wrote about the OAC in 2014 when their priority had been lobbying the AMA to declare that “ob*sity” is a disease. Today their priority is the “Treat and Reduce Ob*sity Act” the goal of which is to expand  Medicare coverage for weight loss interventions, including specifically expanding coverage for weight loss drugs.These priorities make a lot more sense when you realize that the OAC is not an advocacy group for higher-weight people, but rather an organization that is predominantly funded by, and lobbies for the priorities of, the weight loss industry.When I first wrote about the OAC the “Platinum” level of their Chairman's Council (a distinction for those providing funding of $100,000 or more annually) included:·         Allergan – Manufacturers of the lap band·         American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric [weight loss] Surgery·         Covidien – “committed to better patient outcomes through bariatric surgery“·         Eisai – manufactures of the weight loss drug Belviq (now pulled from the market)·         Vivus – manufacturers of the weight loss drug QysmiaAll of these organizations stood to profit from the AMA's declaration of being higher-weight as a disease (and the lobbying was successful, not only did the AMA declare living in a larger body to be a disease, but they blatantly ignored the findings of their own Committee on Science and Public Health which had studied the matter for a year and recommended against it in order to do the weight loss industry's bidding.)Having simply existing in a larger body re-branded into a disease was a major step forward, but not the only step. The next big step for Big Pharma is insurance coverage for dangerous, expensive (and almost certain to fail) weight loss “treatments.”And now the OACs “Platinum” level is down to one company – Novo Nordisk. A company that, having made a literal fortune price gouging on insulin, has promised their shareholders that their new weight loss drug, Wegovy, will make them billions. The rest of the sponsorship levels are still chock full of weight loss companies. They've also separated their Chairman's Council from what they are calling “Corporate Partners”. Here Novo is again the top funder at “more than $500,000 annually” with Eli Lilly kicking in “more than $100,000” and the list goes on. I've included the lists below.There is something else in common between the OAC of 2014 and today. At both times, they were involved in parallel campaigns that claimed to be about ending weight stigma, but were in fact about selling more weight loss interventions.We've seen this before. It was a tactic used by Purdue Pharma and other pharma and medical device companies to sell opioids – they created non-profits like the American Pain Foundation that were billed as advocacy groups for pain patients (a legitimate group of patients who deserve advocacy and treatment,) but were, in fact, funded by and acting in the interest of the pharmaceutical industry. The work of these non-profits influenced legitimate government and healthcare organizations to do the pharma companies' bidding, including influencing the behavior of doctors and other healthcare providers with their patients, creating an explosion in pain diagnoses and opioid prescriptions.This is exactly what Novo Nordisk and other weight loss companies want to do, so it's not surprising that they are taking a page or two from the Purdue Pharma Oxycontin playbook.Fool us once, a lot of people are harmed and killed in the service of pharma industry profits. Fool us twice, even more lives are irreparably harmed and lost. That is why it is critical that we not allow the OAC to get away with this - that we not allow them and their spokespeople to claim to be fighting weight stigma when they are really shilling for the weight loss industry.When you see “Ob*sity Action Coalition” you should think “Novo Nordisk and their weight loss industry buddies” and treat them accordingly, with extreme suspicion.Current “Corporate Partners”Note: the date represents how long they've been an “OAC Partner”Platinum (contributing more than $500,000 annually)Novo Nordisk (2013)Gold (more than $100,000 annually)Eli Lilly (2020)Silver (more than $50,000 annually)Boehringer Ingelheim (2010)Ethicon (2012)Medtronic (2010)Bronze (more than $25,000 annually)American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (2005)Currax pharmaceuticals (2020)Fujifilm (2018)Patron(more than $10,000 annually)Bariatric Advantage Nutritional Products (2008)Intuitive (2021)Rhythm (2018)The Ob*sity Society (2012)Wondr Health (2017)Weight Watchers aka WW (2015)Source: https://www.obesityaction.org/corporate-partnersCurrent chairman's council funders:Platinum (donates more than 100k annually to OAC's general operating efforts)Novo NordiskGold: between 50k and $99,999 annuallyAmerican Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery Bariatric Advantage Boehringer Ingelheim Eli Lilly and Company Pfizer Potomac CurrentsSilver $10k-$49,999 annually Amgen Currax Pharmaceuticals Ethicon INTUITIVE Medtronic RoBronze $5k-$9,999 annually Allurion Calibrate Health Found Geisinger Healthcare System ReShape Lifesciences Rocky Mountain Associated Physicians Wondr HealthPatron $1k-$4,999 annually Bariatric Medicine Institute Billings Clinic BonusLife ConscienHealth Gainesville Medical Ob*sity Specialty Clinic HorizonView Health New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery Rhythm The Better Weight Center The Ob*sity Society Weight & Life MD Woman's Hospital Source: https://www.obesityaction.org/donate/corporate-support/chairmans-council/Did you find this post helpful? You can subscribe for free to get future posts delivered direct to your inbox, or choose a paid subscription to support the newsletter and get special benefits! Click the Subscribe button below for details:More research and resources:https://haeshealthsheets.com/resources/*Note on language: I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor as used by the fat activist community, I use “ob*se” and “overw*ight” to acknowledge that these are terms that were created to medicalize and pathologize fat bodies, with roots in racism and specifically anti-Blackness. Please read Sabrina Strings' Fearing the Black Body – the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia and Da'Shaun Harrison's Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness for more on this. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

On today's special broadcast Radio GAG shares an update on Legislative Action from Angela Weber, of the Honor with Action Coalition. Live from DC, Ti Cersley from Gays Against Guns reports from the Vigil and Commemoration “Remembering Parkland” sponsored by Brady “Team ENOUGH. Kevin Cramer Jr. also reports the direct action in DC with Change the Ref's Guac school bus blocking traffic calling for an assault weapons ban. We share clips from March for our Lives, the youth-led movement that helped bring about a Blue wave in the 2018 midterm elections. Gun Violence Prevention Activists share their work and how they have survived trauma and nurtured their families and communities. And we take your calls about moving on and reducing gun violence in America. Poem "If I Were a Riffle", by Lidija Slokenbergs

In part 1 I talked about information that was brought to me by two senior residents who wanted people to know that they are being invited to “educational summits” that are actually being run by doctors with massive undisclosed ties to the pharmaceutical companies that make the drugs that are recommended in the summits. I did some digging around the company that is behind this to try to get some information about what's going on.The company that created both of these summits is PCMG, Primary Care Metabolic Group. Their tagline is “Serving to Educate Primary Care Clinicians on Metabolic Issues.” The words “Evidence Based Medicine” appear prominently in the banner at the top of each page. Their homepage states:The Primary Care Metabolic Group (PCMG) is a national educational initiative providing comprehensive metabolic disease resources. PCMG's mission is to provide an easily accessible repository of metabolic disease information for primary care clinicians that includes disease management and raising standards of patient care through the dissemination of best practices and educational information.Their ”services” include·         Monthly metabolic disease news articles from our partners·         Opportunities for FREE CME·         Member discounts for upcoming CME conferences and summitsAs a quick aside, CME stands for Continuing Medical Education. Doctors must obtain a certain number of CMEs in order to maintain their state licensure. The number of CME hours and requirements as to topics varies by state.  Full disclosure, many of the workshops/talks I give for physicians provide CMEs. None, as far as I know, has ever been sponsored by a pharmaceutical company and I don't receive any money from the pharmaceutical industry.Back to PCMG. The word “partners” struck me in the first bullet point. What do they mean by “partners?” As I scrolled down the page I see that they are welcoming a new “collaborator” – the Ob*sity Action Coalition. It says “This national nonprofit coalition is fighting to eliminate weight bias and discrimination, elevating the conversation of weight and its impacts on health, and offering a community of support to people affected. OAC also offers resources for clinicians, as well as a database of clinicians who treat patients with ob*sity.”It doesn't say that this “national nonprofit coalition” has Novo Nordisk (manufacturer of the weight loss drug Wegovy and one of the leading pharma companies price gouging on insulin) as its main funder, with the vast majority of its funding coming from pharmaceutical companies and weight loss surgery interests. It doesn't say that their plan to “eliminate weight bias” is focused on pushing for insurance coverage of their dangerous drugs and surgeries, or that they are trying to sell the “we don't want to stigmatize fat people, we just want to make as much money as we can trying to eradicate them from the earth” line that is not, in any way, an anti-stigma approach.After reading the entire website, I called PCMG to ask what they meant by “partners” as well as who was funding the free and discounted CME training.I spoke with Nora Williams. I opened by explaining that I was writing an article about CME trainings and I had a couple quick questions about how their trainings were structured. She interrupted me to say that she was “suspicious” because she didn't know who I was, or what outlet I was writing for, or what my story was about (in my defense, she hadn't let me get that far.) She told me that if I sent her an email she would “consider it.” For me, this has the ring of a company that knows they are involved in things that they would rather not have brought to light, but of course, that's just my gut feeling. I emailed her after our call in the afternoon of 1/7/23 and am still awaiting a response.However, the email that she gave me led me to PCEConsortium.orgIn searching, I had already found Primary Care Respiratory Group – US (PCRG) which has a website that is almost an exact copy of PCMG, except replacing metabolic with respiratory. The Consortium site has a long list of free CME workshops.I wanted to look into their materials, so I started by downloading their free CME “Common Questions on Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) in Primary Care” I am not an expert in CGM, but I do a lot of work around weight-neutral blood sugar management and so it's an area where I felt confident that I had enough knowledge to understand the paper.The author is Eden Miller, DO (who you may recognize as having been a speaker at both the free summits and having taken $1,429,227.40 in industry payments.) Miller is the co-founder and CEO of Diabetes Nation - Diabetes and Ob*sity Care, and in this publication disclosed that she serves on the advisory board and speakers bureau for Abbott Diabetes, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, and Novo Nordisk; on the advisory board for AstraZeneca, Merck, Plenity, and Sanofi Aventis; and does research for Abbott Diabetes and Pendulum Pharmaceuticals.Here are some things that I noticed:Two of the devices that the paper specifically mentions are made by Abbot Laboratories (for whom Miller is a speakers bureau member and does research.)In the section “Which patients will benefit from its use” Miller (who, again, takes money from a CGM device manufacturer) writes “This author does not feel there are any poor candidates for CGM as all people with diabetes could benefit on some level from the data and insight it provides.”That struck me as odd. Again, I'm not an expert but it would be…surprising… if this device wasn't contraindicated for anyone. A quick search of Abbott's website (remember this is a company for which Dr. Miller does research and is on the speakers bureau) explains that you “should not use the [CGM] system” for people less than 18 years of age, critically ill patients, pregnant women or patients on dialysis,  and that the system has not been evaluated on patients who use other implanted devices. Other studies and articles mention things like technology aversion, medications that interfere with CGM, certain mental health diagnoses, patient motivation, and other contraindications.So, there are, in fact, poor candidates for CGM. I would suggest that this is a problem whether Dr. Miller was ignorant of this or purposely left it out. Remember, this is Continuing Medical Education – doctors are supposed to be able to rely on this information in their practice, so telling them that there aren't any poor candidates, when there very much are is a failure of that education and a danger to patients.There is a section for “Key elements to obtaining Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance,” complete with billing codes. It also mentions that “In a recent comparison of retail costs, Abbott's FreeStyle Libre had the lowest monthly cost…”The conclusion states “CGM is quickly emerging as a standard of care for many patients with diabetes.”To back this statement up, Miller cites a study by John B. Welsh, PhD and Roy Thomas, PharmD. A quick look at the disclosures for that study finds that both are employees of Dexcom, the manufacturer of the Dexcom G6 Continuous Glucose Monitor.You have to wonder: To what extent is this CME providing evidence-based information, and to what extent is this simply an extension of Dr. Miller's duties as a member of Abbott's Speakers Bureau?But maybe this one was just a fluke, right? While I was waiting on the reply from Nora that never came, I took a quick look at some of the other free CME on the consortium's page. I definitely found a pattern of CME that was recommending products that were part of the author's disclosures. A couple of quick examples:Title: Improving Detection and Management of Anemia in CKDAuthors: Steven Fishbane, MD; Stephen Brunton, MD, FAAFPDisclosures: Dr. Fishbane: Consultant and does research for Akebia and AstraZenec aand is a consultant for FibroGen and GlaxoSmithKline.Dr. Brunton:  Advisory board and speakers bureau for Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Sanofi, and on the advisory board for Xeris and Pendulum Therapeutics.Summary: “HIF-PHIs are investigational agents on the horizon that, if approved, will offer patients an oral option to treat anemia in CKD”A quick search found that AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, and Akebia are all developing HIF-PHIs.Title: The Role of Eggs in Healthy DietsAuthor: Maria Luz Fernandez, PhDKey takeaways: Eggs can be part of a healthy diet, Epidemiologic evidence and clinical trials have found no links between egg intake and increased risk for heart disease, Eggs are a good source of high-quality protein, Eggs, in addition to numerous vitamins and minerals, contain compounds including choline, lutein, and zeaxanthin with functions that go beyond nutrition as they protect against chronic disease.Disclosure: Dr. Fernandez has a research grant from The American Egg Board.Sponsorship: “This [CME] activity is sponsored by Primary Care Education Consortium and supported by funding from The American Egg Board.”There is language in some of PCMG's CMEs (though, interestingly, not in the egg-related CME) that claims that conflicts of interest have been “mitigated,” but is that even truly possible?Regardless of how ethical the authors might be, there are undeniable conflicts of interest when those who are creating education about pharmaceuticals are also paid advocates for those pharmaceutical companies.At some point, simply disclosing affiliations is not enough. I believe that we are, in fact, way past that point. There is literally nothing to prevent the pharmaceutical industry (not to mention weight loss surgery interests, medical device manufacturers, etc.) from simply putting a stable of doctors on their payroll and letting them use their credentials as the ultimate sales tools, including by engaging with companies that convert pharmaceutical industry marketing messages into CMEs that are delivered to doctors and other healthcare practitioners who think that they are getting education about best practices and educational information. It's similar to what we've seen in the media and it is a dangerous disservice to healthcare practitioners and patients.I want to, again, give thanks and credit to Dr. Clarissa O'Conor and Dr. Will Ward, who originally reached out to me, for all of the work they did researching this. They are in the middle of intense training and still finding the time to do extra work to try to get the education (free from pharma industry influence,) that they deserve.And we should all have their backs - asking questions, doing research, pointing out these flagrant conflicts of interest and dirty diet industry tactics. Our doctors deserve the best education they can get, not the best education pharmaceutical companies can buy.Did you find this post helpful? You can subscribe for free to get future posts delivered direct to your inbox, or choose a paid subscription to support the newsletter and get special benefits! Click the Subscribe button below for details:More research and resources:https://haeshealthsheets.com/resources/*Note on language: I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor as used by the fat activist community, I use “ob*se” and “overw*ight” to acknowledge that these are terms that were created to medicalize and pathologize fat bodies, with roots in racism and specifically anti-Blackness. Please read Sabrina Strings Fearing the Black Body – the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia and Da'Shaun Harrison Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness for more on this.Note I don't link to everything I discuss in this post because I don't want to give traffic and clicks to dangerous media. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

 7.10AM We hear from refugee activists Margaret Sinclair & Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition, on their witness of the harsh survival life for refugees in Indonesia, the need to end the ban on resettlement in Australia and the Albanese government's promise for the refugees. To learn more about what went on in the forum, head to https://refugeeaction.org.au/ You can watch the full video at http://Full Video HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtBoOxTx60c&t=2013s 7.30AM We hear from advocates for Teachers4 Refugees including Carly Hawkins, an ex-teacher on Nauru and PhD student researching the impacts of detention on education for refugees. The Teachers4Refugees hosted a rally outside the Federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare's office in Sydney last Thursday 2nd February 2023. To find out more about the rally go to fb @Teachers for refugees NSWWe will  be posting the ways you can support Teachers4Refugees shortly so watch this space!7.50AM We speak with Melbourne-based writer Jessica Au, winner of the 2023 Victorian Premier's Literature Prize for Fiction and the overall Victorian Literature Prize for the exquisitely crafted novella Cold Enough for Snow.8.10AM Content warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners: This segment contains the name of a person who has died.We speak with Nerita Waight, CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Service, about the latest developments regarding bail reform in Victoria. For further information and to get involved in the VALS bail reform campaign, go to http://www.vals.org.au/fix-victorias-bail-laws/   MusicGive Me One Reason - Tracy ChapmanMake Room - Bridie KingTimes Like These - Glenn Barber

In discussing weight stigma and diet culture in medicine in general and, recently, the new AAP guidelines that recommend “intensive” weight loss attempts to toddlers, a common question I get is - How did we get here? How did doctors get so totally invested in this paradigm that they can't see past it? I think that a huge part of this is how enmeshed the weight loss industry is in every aspect of the healthcare system, including (and perhaps especially) provider education.Recently I was contacted by Dr. Clarissa O'Conor and Dr. Will Ward, both family medicine residents who wanted to let me know about something that has been happening in their program regarding the education they are being offered.Just for starters, some background about the process of becoming a doctor in the US - it is both intense and hierarchical. After four years of medical school, newly minted doctors enter their residency. This stage of their training is specific to their chosen specialty (for example, internal medicine, ob/gyn, family medicine etc.) At this point, they are medical doctors practicing under supervision. In their first year, residents are known as “interns,” in their second year they become “residents.” In later years (residency can last from 3-7 years depending on specialty) they become senior residents, overseeing the work of newer residents. Some senior residents will become a Chief Resident. Chief Residents lead a group of residents both clinically and administratively. Those who choose additional training in a subspecialty fellowship are known as “Fellows.” The doctors who contacted me are senior residents. They had been invited to a “Chiefs Resident Summit on Ob*sity” and a “Family Medicine Chiefs Resident Summit on Diabetes.” Both were free (to the attendees) and were billed as “evidence-based” educational conferences.One of the residents did some research and found that the seven speakers at the “Ob*sity” summit had collectively accepted $2,651,160 from pharma companies that market weight loss since 2015 (when data collection started). Five of the physicians accepted money from Novo Nordisk in 2021, with an average payment of $18,000. (As a reminder, Novo Nordisk sells the weight loss drug Wegovy which they promised their shareholders would be massively profitable.)The Summit on Diabetes was headlined by five doctors (some of whom also spoke at the ob*sity summit.) Collectively these doctors had taken $7,106,460 from pharmaceutical companies that sell diabetes medications and supplies.Note that these numbers only include direct payments. These doctors have also collectively received millions more in research payments and associated research funding. It also only includes data up to 2021 and we know that Novo Nordisk has been absolutely pouring money into their Wegovy campaign in order to make good on their promise to shareholders of doubling their ob*sity sales by 2025.You can see the resident's full research spreadsheet here.In the “ob*sity summit lineup, in addition to taking a ton of money from industries whose products the summit promotes, the speakers who are physicians have all pinned their careers to the “body size as disease” framework, including several who own weight loss clinics.  One speaker was the President of the “Ob*sity Action Coalition.” This is an astroturf organization that purports to be an advocacy group for higher-weight people but is, in fact, funded by and acting as a lobbying arm for the diet industry. Novo Nordisk is their chief funder. Let's be crystal clear about what is happening.  As part of their training, these doctors are being invited to “evidence-based, educational” summits, but what they are actually attending are, essentially, pharmaceutical company seminars. They are being indoctrinated with pharmaceutical/diet industry talking points without consent (or knowledge unless they do their own research (which it's pretty difficult to find the time to do when you are training to be a doctor,) and under the guise of unbiased, expert tutelage. This is not ok. This is a big part of how another generation of doctors are proselytized into a weight loss paradigm that has been actively failing patients for at least a hundred years.In part two we'll learn about the company behind this, and take a closer look at what they are passing off as “evidence-based medicine.” For now, another example can be found in Novo Nordisk's horrifying nursing grand grounds, which I wrote about before. Did you find this post helpful? You can subscribe for free to get future posts delivered direct to your inbox, or choose a paid subscription to support the newsletter and get special benefits! Click the Subscribe button below for details:Liked this piece? Share this piece:More research and resources:https://haeshealthsheets.com/resources/*Note on language: I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor as used by the fat activist community, I use “ob*se” and “overw*ight” to acknowledge that these are terms that were created to medicalize and pathologize fat bodies, with roots in racism and specifically anti-Blackness. Please read Sabrina Strings Fearing the Black Body – the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia and Da'Shaun Harrison Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness for more on this. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

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This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you appreciate the content here, please consider supporting the newsletter by subscribing and/or sharing!As the diet industry works hard to co-opt the language of weight-neutral health and fat liberation and misuse it to sell weight loss interventions, I'm seeing more and more “anti-weight bias” trainings that are actually just diet industry marketing in disguise.Sometimes the trainers are very aware of what they are doing, sometimes they are actually well-meaning but simply duped by diet culture. Regardless, this is especially dangerous since the attendees leave thinking that they've learned how to reduce or eliminate weight stigma, when in fact what they've learned is how to be uncompensated, unwitting marketers for the diet industry, increasing weight stigma in the process.Here are some common red flagsThe trainer is one or more of the following:* Involved in “ob*sity medicine” * Paid to sell/prescribe/provide weight loss interventions* Taking payments from the weight loss industry* Represents an astroturf organization like the Ob*sity Action Coalition, Ob*sity Society etc.Taking the position that “I don't want to stigmatize fat people, but I want to dedicate my career to eradicating them and making sure that no more ever exist” is not an anti-weight stigma stance.You cannot be invested (ideologically or monetarily) in anti-fatness (aka anti-ob*sity) and be anti-weight stigma, they are mutually exclusive positions.The training uses pathologizing/person first languageThe words “ob*se” and “overw*ight” were literally made up to pathologize and medicalize higher-weight bodies. “Overw*ight” is inherently shaming (as it indicates that a body is “over” whatever is being considered a “correct” weight,) and “ob*se” comes from a Latin word that means “to eat until fat,” so much more stereotype than science there. Person-first language (saying person with ob*sity, person affected by ob*sity, person with overw*ight etc.) does NOT come from weight-neutral health community or fat liberation community. It was co-opted from disability community (where it is controversial) by the weight loss industry in the service of their goal of declaring that simply existing in a higher-weight body (regardless of any measure or concept of health) is a “chronic lifelong health condition” (that requires their profit-driving interventions.) This is not about reducing stigma, it's about increasing the bottom line of the weight loss industry.The training suggests that weight loss is a solution for weight stigmaIf they list bullying, lack of accommodation, or other types of weight stigma as a reason that people need access to weight loss interventions (including and especially drugs and surgeries) then they are inciting bias, not reducing it. While weight stigma is real and does real harm, and fat people are allowed to make whatever choices they want in dealing with it, in an anti-bias training it is wildly inappropriate to teach that oppressed people should have to change themselves (including risking their lives and quality of life with dangerous and/or expensive weight loss interventions,) to escape oppression. Teaching that oppressed people should change themselves to suit their oppressors is not an anti-stigma position. Even if someone believes that fat people are less healthy, healthism does not justify weight stigma.If the curriculum is not focused on creating a world that fully affirms and accommodates fat people, then it's likely diet industry propaganda.They suggest that the “real” injustice is a lack of access to weight loss interventionsI'm seeing this more and more from people who work for/take payments from the weight loss industry. They try to claim that the true injustice and stigma is that some people don't have access to their dangerous and expensive interventions. This has, actually, nothing to do with reducing weight stigma and, instead, is part of the weight loss industry's long game to get their procedures covered by insurance, which will vastly increase profits.Playing the Rename GameThere is definitely a place in anti-bias training for discussing language. However, if, instead of working to dismantle stigmatizing diet culture concepts, they are just renaming them (ie: instead of “willpower” use “commitment,” instead of “ideal weight” use “goal weight” etc.) then they are just repackaging diet culture.Reducing bias isn't about using different words for the same harmful concepts and practices, it's about dismantling the biased paradigm and using words that create a new paradigm (instead of “ob*se” use fat/higher-weight, stop conceptualizing weight as ideal, healthy, a goal etc.)They claim that the problem is that there isn't enough anti-fat educationIf they are claiming that healthcare practitioners and others should receive more education about pathologizing fat people and prescribing/recommending weight loss interventions, this is a weight loss marketing seminar, not an anti-bias training.  NovoNordisk is involvedHaving made (and continuing to make) a literal fortune from price gouging on insulin, NovoNordisk is bringing this same attitude (and the Perdue Pharma Oxycontin marketing playbook) to their weight loss drug Wegovy, which they promised their shareholders would be a massive profit-driver. I wrote more about this here. You can also check out this episode of the excellent podcast Untrapped during which I got to talk about this with the brilliant Louise Adams and Fiona Willer! Their message is “don't blame fat people, but do focus on eradicating them”If they are only admitting the fact that weight isn't a simple matter of calories in/calories out so that they can use that as a reason to promote diet drugs and weight loss surgeries then, again, you are not at an anti-stigma training, you are at a marketing seminar for the diet industry. (Even worse if they are acting like they just discovered this fact, when true anti-weight stigma and fat liberation activists have been screaming it from rooftops for literal decades.) Bottom Line:A true anti-weight bias/anti-weight stigma training de-pathologizes fatness and promotes a world that fully affirms and accommodates fat people. While there may be harm reduction models that fall short of this, if any of the red flags above are present, it tell me that I should do even more digging about who is creating/funding/providing this training, and who is profiting from the ideas presented. Please feel free to put other red flags that you have noticed in the comments below.Did you find this newsletter helpful? You can subscribe for free to get future newsletters delivered direct to your inbox, or choose a paid subscription to support the newsletter and get special benefits! Click the Subscribe button for details:Like this piece? Share this piece:More ResearchFor a full bank of research, check out https://haeshealthsheets.com/resources/*Note on language: I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor as used by the fat activist community, I use “ob*se” and “overw*ight” to acknowledge that these are terms that were created to medicalize and pathologize fat bodies, with roots in racism and specifically anti-Blackness. Please read Sabrina Strings: Fearing the Black Body – the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia and Da'Shaun Harrison: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness for more on this. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

 Are you looking for a fantastic side gig while doing medical practice? Join Andrew Tisser and Dr. Amy Fogelman as they discuss how to get started in medical expert consulting. Dr. Amy Fogelman owns a company that matches lawyers with the right medical experts for their cases. She shares that a medical expert acts as an educator and should remain unbiased no matter which side hired them. She believes that the keys to getting cases are confidence and doing an excellent job. Tune in to learn more!In this episode, you will learn:·        How did she get started in the expert witness world?·        Can any specialty do expert witness work?·        The goal of being an expert witness·        Her course on performing medical expert work·        The type of physician that should not get involved in this kind of work·        Tips for early career physiciansAbout Dr. Amy Fogelman:Amy G. Fogelman, MD is Board Certified in Internal Medicine with 17 years of experience seeing patients at ambulatory practices in the Boston area. She graduated with a BA in Biology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and MD from Boston University School of Medicine. She completed her Internship and Residency at Harvard Medical School's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a Chief Residency in Primary Care at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in West Roxbury. She has been awarded prizes in clinical excellence and leadership at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).Amy's career has been notable for her advocacy efforts. She was the Executive Director of Communications for the COVID-19 Action Coalition of Massachusetts. She now serves on the Board of the Huntington's Disease Society of America's Massachusetts/Rhode Island Chapter. Amy also volunteers as a Member for the Juvenile Substance Abuse and Mental Health Task Force at the Norfolk County Sheriff's Office. Amy also serves in several leadership positions at the Massachusetts Medical Society.Amy is an educator who can communicate about complex medical-legal issues in easy to understand terms. She loves teaching patients, trainees, attorneys, juries and other Medical Experts. She sees patients at Fenway Health in Boston.Connect with Dr. Amy Fogelman:Website : https://amyfogelmanmd.com/                https://medlawconsulting.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyfogelmanmd/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amyfogelmanmd/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyfogelmanmd/?hl=en Connect with Talk2Medoc on:Website:          https://www.andrewtisserdo.com/LinkedIn:         https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewtisserdo/Facebook:       https://www.facebook.com/andrew.tisserInstagram:       https://www.instagram.com/talk2medoc_llc/Twitter:                        https://twitter.com/Talk2MeDocYouTube:        https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0O_Sf3aYLavYaJ_hg7bM8g

Alvin and German conduct a great conversation with St. John's University's Dean of St. John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and professor of theology and religious studies, Teresa Delgado, '88. After graduating from Colgate University, she graduated earned her doctorate from Union Theological Seminary. Her book, A Puerto Rican Decolonial Theology: Prophesy Freedom, was published in September 2017. A Senior Fellow of the Ford Foundation, she has served on the board of the Hispanic Theological Initiative. She has served as President of the Board of (Westchester People's Action Coalition, a leading force of social justice activism in Westchester County, and currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Colgate University and The Ursuline School. While at Colgate, she was a HR and received a BA in Religion.

In this episode, Toria talks to Nolan Higdon about the importance of teaching our young people to communicate effectively. Nolan has written a book alongside Mickey Huff 'Let's Agree to Disagree: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management, and Critical Media Literacy' and in it they look at how best we can develop this in our classrooms. Nolan explains to Toria how fostering constructive dialogue in classrooms  can can enable young people to develop their critical thinking and learn how to 'Agree to Disagree'. Nolan Higdon is a lecturer at Merrill College and the Education Department at University of California, Santa Cruz. Higdon's areas of concentration include digital culture, news media history, and critical media literacy. Higdon is a founding member of the Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas. He sits on the boards of the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME) and Northwest Alliance For Alternative Media And Education. His most recent publications include The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education (2020) and The Podcaster's Dilemma: Decolonizing Podcasters in the Era of Surveillance Capitalism (2021). He is a longtime contributor to Project Censored's annual book, Censored. In addition, he has been a contributor to Truthout and Counter-Punch; and a source of expertise for numerous news outlets including The New York Times, CNBC, and San Francisco Chronicle.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode, share it with others and leave a review. The Tiny Voices Talk book is coming soon - click here to pre-order your copy.

Reaksie word ontvang op President Hage Geingob wat weer oor die naweek uitgevaar het teen veral senior politieke analiste wat die regerende party kritiseer. Hy het by die party se Ouderlingeraad-kongres gesê toegewyde kaders moet bly en die wat ‘moeg' is, moet waai. Frederico Links van Action Coalition sê die ontleders praat oor kwessies wat mense raak.

One more problem with living in a supermajority Republican state is the free pass for utility monopolies to determine the price of our electricity, gas, and their environmental impact.

ACT Alberta provides training and education on human trafficking to service providers and stakeholders throughout the province. Incidents of human trafficking often happen in plain sight, yet may go unnoticed due to lack of citizen understanding and information. The speaker will discuss the tools needed to accurately identify red flags and indicators of human trafficking and what citizens can do to safely respond to such instances. Human trafficking, charges and convictions in Alberta, as well as ACT Alberta's victim response will be discussed.      Speaker:   Jessica Brandon - Director of Programs for the Action Coalition on Human Trafficking                                                     (ACT) Alberta               Jessica has 15 years of advocacy experience with a strong focus on Human Rights. She began as a volunteer with the Action Coalition on Human Trafficking (ACT) Alberta in 2015 and took the leap from a leadership role in the tech sector to manage the Education Program at ACT Alberta in 2018. Since then, she has presented to thousands of community members and partners on behalf of ACT Alberta. Jessica specializes in the research, development, and delivery of trauma-informed curriculum for front-line service providers responding to human trafficking across various sectors, including healthcare professionals, law enforcement, government and non-governmental agencies, aviation, massage licensing, agriculture, hospitality, and post-secondary institutions.

One of us is on Vacation this week, while the other still has to work. As we go into full spring break mode, it's been really busy for the wedding business. Kristines wedding coordination business was busy over the weekend and Kris came and helping move stuff with the truck. Unfortunately Kristine was injured on her foot while loading the big wedding arch display. A part of it fell off the truck tailgate and hit her on the foot... ouch! Later this Episode we were joined by Dr. Nolan Higdon. He is a lecturer at Merrill College and the Education Department at University of California, Santa Cruz. Higdon's areas of concentration include digital culture, news media history, and critical media literacy. Higdon is a founding member of the Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas. He sits on the boards of the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME) and Northwest Alliance For Alternative Media And Education. His most recent publications include The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education (2020) and The Podcaster's Dilemma: Decolonizing Podcasters in the Era of Surveillance Capitalism (2021). He is a longtime contributor to Project Censored's annual book, Censored. In addition, he has been a contributor to Truthout and Counter-Punch; and a source of expertise for numerous news outlets including The New York Times, CNBC, and San Francisco Chronicle. His new book: Let's Agree to Disagree A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management, and Critical Media Literacy https://www.routledge.com/Lets-Agree-to-Disagree-A-Critical-Thinking-Guide-to-Communication-Conflict/Higdon-Huff/p/book/9781032168982 http://www.krisandkristineshow.com https://www.kristinesmithdesigns.com/ Email: krisandkristinepodcast@gmail.com Voice Mail: https://www.speakpipe.com/KrisandKristineShow Twitter: https://twitter.com/k2showsandiego Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thek2showsandiego/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/k2showsandiego Patreon: www.patreon.com/thekrisandkristineshow

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews Dr. Nicole Christian-Brathwaite, MD of Array Behavioral Care. Dr. Nicole is a child and adult psychiatrist in Massachusetts and provides education, consultation and coaching on mental health, trauma and the impact of race and culture on mental health.  Nicole Christian-Brathwaite, MD is a double board-certified adult and child and adolescent psychiatrist. Dr. Christian-Brathwaite received her medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and completed her adult psychiatry residency and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/ Mclean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. She is the founder and CEO of Well Minds Psychiatry and Consulting Company, which provides psychiatric and therapeutic treatment as well as education, consultation and coaching on mental health and trauma, wellness and self-care, implicit bias and understanding mental illness in children of color.  Dr. Christian-Brathwaite has written numerous articles for scientific or medical publications and frequently speaks about the impact trauma, race and culture have on mental health. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Post-Partum Depression Fund of Massachusetts and Families for Depression Awareness and is the Disparities Lead for the COVID-19 Action Coalition of Massachusetts. In this interview, you will hear Dr. Nicole and Laura talking about: Why children are struggling even more than usual in this time - the Fall season of 2021 when the show was recorded, as well as during this period of history. How racial trauma and other traumatic experiences of marginalization, violence, oppression, discrimination are affecting children on top of the stress of living during a pandemic and the individual and family stressors that were present prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The deficit of treatment options available in the United States's overtaxed mental health systems. Specific actions parents and teachers can take to support children who are impacted by trauma, including racial trauma. How Array Behavioral Health telepsychiatry can fill in some of the gaps in treatment availability and access. Resources:  Dr. Nicole Christian-Brathwaite's website: www.arraybc.com  Phone number for help with accessing services: 1-800-442-8938 Thank you to SuperBill for sponsoring this week's episode!  SuperBill is free for therapists, and your clients can use the code THERAPYCHAT to get a free month of the service. Also, you can earn $100 for every therapist you refer. Learn more at www.thesuperbill.com! This week's episode is also sponsored by Trauma Therapist Network.  Therapists, join by 1/31/22 and lock in the lowest membership rate. You'll have a beautiful listing for your practice that helps trauma survivors find you so they can receive the right kind of help for their particular need. And you'll have access to additional support coming soon!   Starting in March 2022, 4 monthly calls are added to the membership at the original Founding Member rate if you join by January 31, 2022. After February 1 the membership price goes up to $97 per month (still a steal for all the content!) so this is your chance to get the lowest pricing that will be offered for the lifetime of your membership! Join now at www.traumatherapistnetwork.com! Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio 

Marisa interviewed Samantha Lee Police Accountability Soicitor from Redfern Legal Centre about the need for greater police caution in response to COVID-19 public health order breaches.Marisa also interviewed ian Rintoul from The refugee Action Coalition about the growing support that is growing for the last remaining refugee family in Darwin's Mercure Hotel prison to be released from detention. The pandemic was also discussed.

Randall Taylor of Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition joins the show to talk about the decline in the black population in the city. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hailing from Porter B's LQBTQIA floor, Isabella talks about what it means to identify as non-binary. Speaking with Lain Lease, a member of the Trans and Non-binary Action Coalition at UCSC, this episode covers the steps UCSC has taken to create an inclusive space for non-binary people in our academic space.Sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs and Success and produced by our student podcasters, UCSC Slugcast supports free expression of ideas. Please be aware that the views and opinions expressed by guests are that of the speaker alone and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Similarly, views and opinions of University employees or students are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Slugcast, the Division of Student Affairs and Success, or the University.

As the fight to defund the police progresses, citizens continue to encounter and interact with the officers. In part two of a two-part miniseries, Michelle Gross joins to provide some info from the Know Your Rights Training offered by Communities United Against Police Brutality. These episodes provide a crash course on the rights that should be afforded to citizens that interact with police.    Communities United Against Police Brutality is a non-profit working to deal with police brutality on an ongoing basis. To learn more, visit cuapb.org   To support BIPOC-led organizations in the fight to defund the police, abolish the prison industrial complex and build infrastructure to support Black, Indigenous and other targeted communities, visit and donate to the following:   Minnesota Healing Justice Network. https://www.mnhealingjustice.com/  Until We Are All Free. http://www.untilweareallfree.com/  Young People's Action Coalition. https://www.facebook.com/YPACMN/  Campaign Zero. https://www.joincampaignzero.org/  Minnesota Freedom Fund. https://mnfreedomfund.org/  Reclaim The Block. https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/    To find more SPNN programs, head to spnn.org.  

As the fight to defund the police progresses, citizens continue to encounter and interact with the officers. In part two of a two-part miniseries, Michelle Gross joins to provide some info from the Know Your Rights Training offered by Communities United Against Police Brutality. These episodes provide a crash course on the rights that should be afforded to citizens that interact with police.    Communities United Against Police Brutality is a non-profit working to deal with police brutality on an ongoing basis. To learn more, visit cuapb.org   To support BIPOC-led organizations in the fight to defund the police, abolish the prison industrial complex and build infrastructure to support Black, Indigenous and other targeted communities, visit and donate to the following:   Minnesota Healing Justice Network. https://www.mnhealingjustice.com/  Until We Are All Free. http://www.untilweareallfree.com/  Young People’s Action Coalition. https://www.facebook.com/YPACMN/  Campaign Zero. https://www.joincampaignzero.org/  Minnesota Freedom Fund. https://mnfreedomfund.org/  Reclaim The Block. https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/    To find more SPNN programs, head to spnn.org.  

The doin time show interviewed Ian Rintoul from the refugee Action Coalition regarding the Mental health of Medivac refugees and asylum seekers placed in hotel Quaranto in Brisbane.The next interview was Meena Singh Legal Director, heading up the team of Aboriginal and Tore Strait Islanders from the Human Rights Law centre, speaking about the Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 proposing new laws that reverse the presumption of bail for children who reoffend in certain circumstances; calls for children aged 16 and 17 years old to be shackled with electronic tracking devices; and makes breach of bail an aggravating factor in the sentencing of children. Investment in programmes for marginalised young people, and deaths in custody were also discussed.

In this discussion about Stone Mountain Park and the push to remove confederacy branding from the park itself. For those of you who aren't from the great state of Georgia, Stone Mountain is a mountain located near the city of Stone Mountain, Georgia. It's a family park with family attractions, which have been most recently added over the past 10 years, and a historical landmark that depicts three Confederate leaders, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. Joining Tamika, and me, on this discussion is Brian Morris a man that has done his research who is working alongside “The Stone Mountain Action Coalition” in getting streets renamed in the park that's named after these confederate leaders and having the confederate flagged removed before we the people go after those carvings and put up some true winners. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ptg-tv/support

As the fight to defund the police progresses, citizens continue to encounter and interact with officers. In part one of a two-part miniseries, Michelle Gross joins to provide some info from the Know Your Rights Training offered by Communities United Against Police Brutality. These episodes provide a crash course on the rights that should be afforded to citizens that interact with police.  Community United Against Police Brutality is a non-profit working to deal with police brutality on an ongoing basis. To learn more, visit cuapb.org To support BIPOC-led organizations in the fight to defund the police, abolish the prison industrial complex and build infrastructure to support Black, Indigenous and other targeted communities, visit and donate to the following: Minnesota Healing Justice Network. https://www.mnhealingjustice.com/  Until We Are All Free. http://www.untilweareallfree.com/  Young People's Action Coalition. https://www.facebook.com/YPACMN/  Campaign Zero. https://www.joincampaignzero.org/  Minnesota Freedom Fund. https://mnfreedomfund.org/  Reclaim The Block. https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/    To find more SPNN programs, head to spnn.org.

As the fight to defund the police progresses, citizens continue to encounter and interact with officers. In part one of a two-part miniseries, Michelle Gross joins to provide some info from the Know Your Rights Training offered by Communities United Against Police Brutality. These episodes provide a crash course on the rights that should be afforded to citizens that interact with police.  Community United Against Police Brutality is a non-profit working to deal with police brutality on an ongoing basis. To learn more, visit cuapb.org To support BIPOC-led organizations in the fight to defund the police, abolish the prison industrial complex and build infrastructure to support Black, Indigenous and other targeted communities, visit and donate to the following: Minnesota Healing Justice Network. https://www.mnhealingjustice.com/  Until We Are All Free. http://www.untilweareallfree.com/  Young People’s Action Coalition. https://www.facebook.com/YPACMN/  Campaign Zero. https://www.joincampaignzero.org/  Minnesota Freedom Fund. https://mnfreedomfund.org/  Reclaim The Block. https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/    To find more SPNN programs, head to spnn.org.

Description Episode 93:  Community Action Coalition- Project Recovery with Matida Bojang On today's Madtown Mom Squad podcast Dr. Jasmine Zapata was leading the topic. Today we had special guest Matida Bojang, Crisis Counselor & Team Lead, with Community Action Coalition-Project Recovery.  Project Recovery is a crisis counseling program that provides emotional support, resource referrals, and sustainable solutions to individuals impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. This program is completely free and here to be a listening ear. It is for ANYONE that has been affected by Covid. You can call 211, the hotline 608-237-1255 or go to https://projectrecoverywi.org/. Thank you to our sponsor American Girl! Stay healthy and be safe. The ladies joined us all by phone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Had the great honor to speak with Jess and Cassaundra from ACT Alberta. This episode we go in-depth into more facts, resources and ways to fight against human trafficking. The Action Coalition on Human Trafficking (ACT Alberta) has worked collaboratively with law enforcement, government agencies and non-government agencies to identify and respond to human trafficking in our province. ACT Alberta serves the needs of internationally and internally trafficked women, men, and LGBTQ+ communities, assisting those trafficked for the purposes of labour exploitation, sexual exploitation, and the forced removal of organs. ACT Alberta is a registered charity and is funded by all levels of government. ACT Alberta’s Victim Response Team works to support victims of all forms of human trafficking across the province. We provide free, safe, and confidential service coordination and referrals for victims of human trafficking. We use a victim-centered approach in which we put the needs and concerns of the victims first; this also means that we do not force reporting. Call our Victim Response Coordinators today if you need supportVictim Response Team South email: VRCSouth@actalberta.orgHuman Trafficking Hotline: 1 (833) 900-1010Victim Response Team South Phone: (587) 585- 5236Social mediaInstagram: ACT Alberta (@actalberta) • Instagram photos and videosFacebook: ACT Alberta - Home | FacebookTwitter: ACT Alberta (@ACTAlberta) / TwitterCanadian Protection and Assistance for Victims of Human Trafficking: Help and Protection For Victims (justice.gc.ca)Reset Calgary provides individualized support and safe housing for women and children exiting sexual exploitation and sex trafficking https://resetcalgary.ca/ The Law and Human Trafficking in Canada explained: The Law and Human Trafficking in Canada (owjn.org) Red flags to identify instances of Human Trafficking: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/law-crime-and-justice/criminal-justice/victims-of-crime/human-trafficking/training/resources/printable/mod3_info_sheet2.pdf Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/madcasters)

Bill Horan and Matt Leonard learn about efforts on Long Island to try to get people to quit smoking from their guests, Paulette Orlando and Carol Meschkow, who are Community Engagement Specialists both representing the American Lung Association and the Tobacco Action Coalition of Long Island.

Music executive Binta Brown talked about why she left a successful career as an attorney to enter the music industry. We talk about the opportunities she saw and how the industry differs from other forms of media. We also talked about her work leading the Black Music Action Coalition, an advocacy organization formed to address systemic racism in the music industry. Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Overcast | Amazon | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | RSS Host: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.co Guest: Binta Brown, @batnib Link: Black Music Action Coalition Hip-hop’s influence continues to grow. Learn how it impacts your business. Join the execs, CEOs, and moguls who read Trapital: trapital.co

Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu)considers the ten-year history of the annual reports from the Asian American Performer’s Action Coalition and asks what happens when a demand goes unheeded, followed by some thoughts on what might be the three “signature” genres of remote theatre: the remote reading, the virtual benefit, and the hand-made puppet show… Transcripts for Season3 of StinkyLulu Says are typically available within 24-48 hours of each episode's release. Links to those transcripts are available here.

Blue Carreker of Citizens Action Coalition joins hosts Michele Maserjian and Andrea Cunliffe live in the HMM studio to discuss paid sick leave in a pandemic. Blue is the statewide facilitator for CAC. NYC has had paid sick leave since 2014 - Why is New York so far behind? What’s the status of state-wide paid sick leave in the legislature? What important elements would the paid sick leave bill need to have? All that and more in this discussion.

Host Dave Mitchell will be interviewing Melissa Cheatham, a concerned citizen and member of a panel on the Metro KC Climate Action Coalition, which is developing a policy playbook for […] The post Metro KC Climate Action Coalition appeared first on KKFI.

'Waste to Energy' or 'Waste of Energy' - Incinerator plants as a solution to waste management.Public Housing Vigil report IINew Citizen War on Waste Action Coalition II The chemical fires in the Northern Suburbs and the devastation of the creeks in the Western suburbs have been the impetus for a new citizen's coalition to bring waste management to centre stage in Victoria.This is the Week that was IIDr Noah Bassil on the US & Iran II Noah is back giving us an incisive look at what is motivating US foreign policy when it comes to Iran.

Host Richard Mabion speaks with Beth-Hannes Zacharias of the Metro Kansas City Climate Action Coalition along with Kristin Riott of Bridging the Gap. The post Metro Kansas City Climate Action Coalition appeared first on KKFI.

The Women’s Action Coalition, Greater Allegany County began following the  the Women’s March in Washington, DC, January 21, 2017. Their mission is to increase our understanding of the current political situation, take action to bridge divides, and acknowledge the inherent value of each person, without exception.  This episode we will be promoting the First  Book Discussion in partnership with the Allegany County Public Library system; Hillbilly Elegy. This book will help kick start dialogue and hopefully bring about change and understanding. If you would like to help put the ACTION in women action, then click the links below for more information.  Meeting are held every Wednesday on the campus of Allegany College of Maryland. Allied Health Building Rm: 237 from 7-9pm  For more information: WAC FaceBook Group  Choose Civility   

Call in 516-387-1815 The Catch was clearly in decline for many years. The club’s owner, Jewel Thais-Williams, opens the massive multiroom venue only for special events, most of which are run by promoters who have no affiliation with the black gay community. Without a stand-alone venue aimed at them, and with L.A.’s neighborhoods becoming more diverse — thus diluting black enclaves — some gay black men are fighting for their right to party. But others are wondering if, in today's more integrated culture, there's a need for black gay bars — or any gay bars targeting a particular ethnicity. As black men respond to the Catch's closure by migrating to West Hollywood as an alternative, some feel that the lily-white area offers little hope for black men looking for fun. “We have to try to make ourselves believe that we’re wanted there and that we’re supported there, when it really is not that,” says Greg Wilson, deputy director at Realistic Education in Action Coalition to Foster Health, or Reach L.A., a nonprofit that coordinates HIV services and wellness programs for LGBTQ youth of color. Reach L.A. also stages the wildly popular Ovahness Ball, an annual ballroom competition with mostly black performers. Wilson says there are “many ways” in which bars in Boystown, the gay-friendly stretch of West Hollywood, show black men they’re not welcome. “Places like the Abbey that will change the music up a certain way, or make sure that all you see in the bar are people that are identified as ‘their population,” he says. “Which is, y’know, Caucasian.” (Abbey founder and owner David Cooley responds, "The Abbey is for everyone." He stressed that Sunday nights are "a little more hip-hop," and that the bar tries to keep things broad.) .

Margery Glickman – Sled Dog Action Coalition.

On this episode of V-RADIO we will be talking to members of the Energy Action Coalition. A great activist group dedicated to spreading awareness of Alternative Energy and it's benefits.

Almost 3 out of 4 Americans consider it a worthy goal to do something to temper the violence in our media, yet violent movies, television and video games are extremely popular. Do violent games, like the recently updated Grand Theft Auto series, along with other violent entertainment, chip away at our sensitivities about violence and impact our notions about conflict resolution? This time on Peace Talks Radio, the video game violence debate. And it is a debate. While no one is FOR letting very young kids play the most violent games, there ARE authors and academics who defend the presence of violence in the games rated for adults, and question the strength of the research studies that suggest that exposure to violent entertainment correlates with aggression and desensitization toward violence. On the other side, there are those who decry the violence, believe the negative effects research to be true and call for tighter restrictions on violent game sales and content. We hear both sides of the conversation on this program. Guests: Bob McCannon, a media scholar, educator and media reform activist, co-founder and co-president of the Action Coalition for Media Education; Arizona State University Education Professor James Paul Gee, author of "Why Video Games Are Good for Your Soul"; Dmitri Williams, Assistant Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. Paul Ingles, Host.

Almost 3 out of 4 Americans consider it a worthy goal to do something to temper the violence in our media, yet violent movies, television and video games are extremely popular. Do violent games, like the recently updated Grand Theft Auto series, along with other violent entertainment, chip away at our sensitivities about violence and impact our notions about conflict resolution? This time on Peace Talks Radio, the video game violence debate. And it is a debate. While no one is FOR letting very young kids play the most violent games, there ARE authors and academics who defend the presence of violence in the games rated for adults, and question the strength of the research studies that suggest that exposure to violent entertainment correlates with aggression and desensitization toward violence. On the other side, there are those who decry the violence, believe the negative effects research to be true and call for tighter restrictions on violent game sales and content. We hear both sides of the conversation on this program. Guests: Bob McCannon, a media scholar, educator and media reform activist, co-founder and co-president of the Action Coalition for Media Education; Arizona State University Education Professor James Paul Gee, author of "Why Video Games Are Good for Your Soul"; Dmitri Williams, Assistant Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. Paul Ingles, Host.

Rob Williams is many things as well as a media education consultant. Here he talks about Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME) and many other things relating to media. Agree, disagree, like, don't like...? Feel free to leave a comment at http://mediasnackers.com/2006/09/mediasnackers-podcast42/