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Causes or Cures
For the Nerds and the Nerd Nots
Causes or Cures is an independent health podcast hosted by "Dr. Eeks" (ErinKate Stair, MD, MPH). It is an offbeat, grassroots show driven by curiosity and a genuine love of making complicated health topics easier to understand.
Dr. Eeks is a public health professional specializing in applied epidemiology & health communication. By day, she works on challenging public health issues. By choice, she spends some of her free time asking scientists, physicians, researchers, authors, clinicians, and other fascinating people questions she hopes everyone else is wondering too.
Along the way, the podcast has wandered into everything from memory and longevity to self medicating animals, migraines, gene drive mosquitoes, strange public health history, the spiritual realm, and the occasional existential detour. If it has something to teach us about health or what it means to be human, it is probably fair game.
Recurring segments include Public Health is Weird, which uncovers strange but true stories from public health history, WTF Health News, where Dr. Eeks breaks down bizarre or buzzworthy health headlines, and Eeks Speakeasy, a more personal corner of the podcast where curiosity occasionally spills over into life, philosophy, and whatever else deserves a drink and a discussion.
A few housekeeping notes...
This podcast is for information, curiosity, and conversation. It is not medical advice.
Although Dr. Eeks has an MD, she does not practice medicine. She is a full time public health nerd and will never tell you what to do with your own health. If you have a medical question, your healthcare provider knows you far better than a podcast ever could.
Guests are invited because they have something interesting to contribute, not because Dr. Eeks agrees with every opinion they hold. Likewise, she does not endorse miracle supplements, mysterious oils, magic socks, potions, or anything that promises to solve all of life's problems.
If an episode is sponsored or underwritten by a company she genuinely enjoys working with, she will always tell you.
Causes or Cures is also not a news site. It is a place for thoughtful conversations. Dr. Eeks believes people can disagree respectfully, ask difficult questions, change their minds, and occasionally laugh at themselves along the way. Some of the best conversations she has ever had happened in hole in the walls, on sidewalks, and in places where nobody was trying to win an argument.
Sometimes Barnaby, her dog and unofficial executive producer, contributes his thoughts as well. Fortunately, he is a pretty smart dog.
Above all, Dr. Eeks hopes this podcast encourages people to stay curious, compassionate, honest, open minded, and engaged. Freedom of discussion is a beautiful, delightfully messy thing, and one worth protecting.
The views expressed on this podcast are Dr. Eeks' own and do not reflect the views of any organization she contracts with or consults for.
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Want to sponsor or underwrite an episode?
Causes or Cures works with a limited number of sponsors and episode underwriters in health, science, and public health. Partnerships are kept separate from editorial content and guest selection. If your organization might be a fit, reach out at: erin@bloomingwellness.com
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Causes or Cures
Why We are Getting Obesity Wrong & What to Do About It, with Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode Dr. Eeks chats with the obesity doctor, Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, about all things obesity. In the first part of the podcast, they discuss why obesity is a disease and why every public health measure fails to lower obesity rates in the US. Dr. Stanford will explain the relationship between obesity and sleep, what a set point is and why that is so important, and the relationship between obesity and stress. They also discuss what to do for people who are "doing everything right" but still unable to lose weight.
In the last part of the podcast they discuss how addressing obesity fits in with the Body Positive and Fat Acceptance movements, both prominent in society and on social media, and where her message about obesity intersects with theirs and where it deviates.
Dr. Stanford practices and teaches at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/ Harvard Medical School (HMS) as one of the first fellowship-trained obesity medicine physician in the world. Dr. Stanford received her BS and MPH from Emory University as a MLK Scholar, her MD from the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine as a Stoney Scholar, her MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Zuckerman Fellow in the Harvard Center for Public Leadership, and her executive MBA as a merit-based scholarship recipient from the Quantic School of Business and . She completed her Obesity Medicine & Nutrition Fellowship at MGH/HMS after completing her internal medicine and pediatrics residency at the University of South Carolina. She has served as a health communications fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a behavioral sciences intern at the American Cancer Society.
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