The Implications Episode 1: Dr. Catherine Brinkley and One Health

MIIS Radio

Hello everyone. This is Gabe Sanders, and old habits die hard. I’m podcasting again, building off what I started at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies with MIIS Radio. Welcome to my newest project, which I’m calling: The Implications. This is a podcast about public policy as well, but with this work I’m going to go bigger. I’m looking to the frontier of policy for adapting to climate change, to a growing human population, to greater awareness of the need for balancing human life with the ecosystem that sustains us. The plan is to interview professionals, academics, activists about the work they’re doing to improve the relationship among humans, the natural world, and the strange miasma we call “an economy." Whether it's renewable energy or decarbonization, creating market incentives for green technology, creating affordable housing, increasing equity of socioeconomic opportunity, or revolutionizing the food system sustaining our species I’ll be asking these people about their research, their findings, their observations and policy recommendations – and then discussing implications their work has on the future of human adaptation for survival. This new series begins with Dr. Catherine Brinkley. Dr. Brinkley is an assistant professor of Community and Regional Development at my undergraduate alma mater, the University of California at Davis. Her work centers around a concept called One Health, which considers health shared by humans, animals, and their environment. Her latest research focuses on food systems and municipal general plans and the broad question: “how do food systems reorient diets and land use?” What are the implications of Dr. Brinkley’s work? You’ll have to listen to the interview to find out, but I will say this: land use plans and food system regulation affect the placement and affordability of housing, public and environmental health, and even the distribution of economic power in society, from the smallest town to the global economy. One very salient example: the Corona Virus thought to have emerged from an illegal meat market in Wuhan, China may not have spread beyond the infected animals with better localized control of the food system. Now that I’ve whet your appetite: thank you for tuning in to this inaugural episode of the Implications. Here is my interview with Dr. Catherine Brinkley. (You can check out Dr. Brinkley's work here: https://humanecology.ucdavis.edu/catherine-brinkley) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/miis-radio/support