Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health; known for research on social determinants of health and the Whitehall studies.
On the island
Eight records
It had to be Puccini's Madame Butterfly.
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, third movement
The first piece of music I owned was Sibelius. ... I had to have something from that part of the world.
Matchmaker, Matchmaker (from Fiddler on the Roof)
When my oldest brother went off to the United States, ... he sent us Fiddler on the Roof. ... My daughter ... performed in Fiddler on the Roof ... You're not crying, are you, Daddy? ... No, no, it's the wind in the wind in the theatre.
When my wife and I ... went on the hippie trail through India and Nepal. ... Indian music was a big part of our lives. ... So for all these reasons, I had to have something Indian.
Oh, hang at open doors the net of the court (from Peter Grimes)
Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis
One of the first pieces of music we heard live was Peter Grimes at Covent Garden. ... if I were stranded, I could play this and I could think this is a piece of music that my wife particularly loves.
Deh vieni, non tardar (from Le nozze di Figaro)
I once had the conceit that I could write a book and begin every chapter with some opera. ... Really the reason for choosing Figaro is the music is divine.
Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008: AllemandeFavourite
I took up the viola. ... one of the first serious pieces of music I tried to play were the Bach Cello Suites transcribed for viola, so I had to have that.
My eldest son plays music. ... this is from the group that he currently has.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:57Can you really do what you do and avoid the skullduggery of politics?
I maintain the fiction to myself that what I do is not political. ... A colleague in Sweden said to me recently, What you do is highly political, because there are clear political implications of the evidence that you bring. ... But I do bring the evidence and I do present it in a way that I hope has clear policy implications, and policy implications ultimately become political.
Presenter asks
2:37You say that social injustice is killing on a grand scale. Can you sum it up in a nutshell?
What we said in the report ... the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age are fundamental to health and health inequalities, and inequity in power. Money and resources drive those inequities in daily life. And that's why I say social injustice is killing on a grand scale.
Presenter asks
7:39How on earth do we reconfigure workplaces to make them less stressful and still productive?
What the evidence shows is that all workplaces are hierarchical, but the link between where you are in the hierarchy and this stress of high demand, low control or imbalance between effort and reward, that link can be broken. ... I would say that the evidence suggests a happier workforce is a more productive and a healthier workforce.
The keepsakes
The book
Oxford English Dictionary (complete 13-volume with supplements)
I can spend endless hours tracking from one entry to another.
The luxury
I'm going to listen to Pablo Casals and I'm going to try and learn to play the Bach Suites just like Casals does.
Presenter asks
11:34What are your earliest memories of life at home?
Little class were invented to describe my family, and because my parents had both left school at fourteen and felt they'd been denied the opportunity to have an education, education was emphasized very greatly.
Presenter asks
15:56You've said that medicine was failed prevention. Where did that come from?
It was just seeing what I saw on the wards. ... patients would come in who couldn't speak English very well, complain of some nonspecific pain in the belly, and we'd give them a bottle of white mixture and send them home. I thought they've come in with a problem in living and we've given them a bottle of white mixture. ... we were treating people with cardiac failure or chronic respiratory disease, and we'd patch them up and send them home brilliant thing to do, make people feel better, and they're back again three months later. I thought there's got to be a better way.
Presenter asks
23:57What do you say to those who think your strategies are utopian in an age of austerity and tight finances?
Put health equity at the heart of all policy making. If your economic policies have the potential to damage children, then they're wrong. ... these are political choices we're making, and a political choice not to put money into early child development, not to support older people. ... I would say arguing from the evidence, that's a bad choice.
“Whoever put out the rumour that it was more stressful to be at the top? That was presumably put across by people at the top.”
“You're not crying, are you, Daddy? ... No, no, it's the wind in the wind in the theatre.”
“If your economic policies have the potential to damage children, then they're wrong.”
“I don't think the work is done by any means.”