[Pophealth] Unnatural Causes wins National Academies Best Science Program Award

[Stephen Bezruchka]

Good news.  This series is getting exposure.  It will air again this  
month on local pbs channels
(see   http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/assets/uploads/file/UC.LocalBroadcastSchedule.100109.pdf
for a listing.  Not the most convenient times, but it is difficult to  
bump prime time programs as subscribers withdraw their support)

And locally, Sparxz and UW Health Equity Circle are screening the  
series with facilitated discussion and the scheduled times Thursdays,  
5:45-7:45pm, all in HS Bldg, T-747
(map at http://www.uwmedicine.org/NR/rdonlyres/DDFB305B-9545-4761-81A5-D2C5E9A83B38/0/Health_Sci_Map.pdf 
  ):

Oct 15,  "In Sickness and In Wealth"

Oct 22, When the Bough Breaks & Becoming American

Oct 29  Bad Sugar & Place Matters

Nov 5  Collateral Damage & Not Just a Paycheck

Please come.  STephen

About the series and the award:

TOP SCIENCE COMMMUNICATIONS HONOR GOES TO UNNATURAL CAUSES

Documentary Series Changing the Way Americans Think About Health

San Francisco - Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, the  
groundbreaking documentary series exploring the root causes of America? 
s alarming class and racial inequities in health, won the 2009 TV /  
Radio / Film Award yesterday, given out by the National Academies for  
best science program. The prestigious prize is the latest of many won  
by the four-hour series produced by California Newsreel with Vital  
Pictures.
While Congress debates health care reform, Unnatural Causes asks what  
makes Americans healthy or sick in the first place, and offers new  
remedies for an ailing society. Unnatural Causes demonstrates how  
health is shaped by far more than health care, bad habits, or unlucky  
genes. Instead, it circles in on a slow killer in plain view: the  
class and racial inequities in the rest of our lives ? in the jobs we  
do, the wealth we enjoy, the neighborhoods we live in, the schools we  
attend - can get under our skin as surely as germs and viruses. They  
kill more Americans in a day than do global pandemics in a year. Socio- 
economic status, race and zip code are even stronger predictors of  
health and life expectancy than smoking.
The National Academies is the umbrella name for the National Academy  
of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine,  
and National Research Council. They provide policy advice to the  
federal government under a congressional charter first passed and  
signed by President Lincoln in 1863.
The National Academies judges committee was chaired by Donald Kennedy,  
past president of Stanford University and editor-in-chief emeritus of  
Science. Unnatural Causes was singled out for ?putting a human face on  
one of the most complex issues in public health.?
The three other 2009 winners are: Neil Shubin for best book, Your  
Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human  
Body (Pantheon Books); Mark Johnson for newspaper / magazine reporting  
for ?The Good Cell? (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel); and NPR News for  
Online / Internet reporting for Climate Connections.
Unnatural Causes has won praise from pundits around the country along  
with a duPont-Columbia Award, the Congressional Black Caucus Health  
Braintrust Excellence in Journalism Award, the Council on Foundations  
Henry Hampton Award and other honors. More than 15,000 community  
dialogues, policy forums, trainings, and town hall meetings built  
around screenings of DVDs of Unnatural Causes since the series?  
initial PBS broadcast have been reframing the way Americans think  
about health.

Unnatural Causes is being re-broadcast in October by many PBS stations  
(check local listings). DVDs are available from California Newsreel at www.newsreel.org 
.
Unnatural Causes was produced by San Francisco?s California Newsreel,  
the country?s oldest non-profit documentary production and  
distribution center, now in its 41st year, in association with Vital  
Pictures of Boston. It was presented on PBS by the National Minority  
Consortia of public television. DVDs can be ordered from California  
Newsreel at www.newsreel.org. More information on the series,  
including video clips and resources on health equity, can be found on  
the companion website at www.unnaturalcauses.org.
####
For more information on Unnatural Causes, visit  
www.unnaturalcauses.org .
For the National Academies? press release, visit: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=093009
To purchase DVDs: www.newsreel.org
Contact: Barrie McClune, 415-284-7800 ext 308, bmc at newsreel.org

Major funding for Unnatural Causes provided by the Ford Foundation,  
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, he  
California Endowment, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,  
the Joint Center Health Policy Institute, Kaiser Permanente, the  
Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  
Additional funding provided by the Akonadi Foundation, the Falk Fund  
and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation. Additional outreach  
funding was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the  
Open Society Institute.

Larry Adelman
CALIFORNIA NEWSREEL
500 Third Street, #505
San Francisco, CA 94107
415-284-7800
LA at newsreel.org
www.newsreel.org
www.unnaturalcauses.org