Unnatural Causes will, for the first time on television, sound the alarm about the extent of our alarming socio-economic and racial disparities in health—and search for their root causes. But those causes are not what we might expect.  While we pour more and more money into drugs, dietary supplements and new medical technologies, Unnatural Causes crisscrosses the country investigating the findings that are shaking up conventional understanding of what really makes us healthy—or sick.  It turns out there’s much more to our health than bad habits, health care or unlucky genes.  The social conditions in which we are born, live and work profoundly affect our well-being and longevity.  

The four-hour series, produced for a Winter 2008 PBS broadcast and DVD release, has been conceived as part of an ambitious communications and public impact campaign conducted with leading public health, policy and community-based organizations.  The campaign aims to use the series and companion materials to help reframe the national debate over health.  It will suggest a new and hopeful approach to tackling health inequities, one that links our individual aspirations for better health not only to medical interventions but to our social policies.

As a society, we have a choice. We can address the inequities that lead us down the path to disease now. Or we can pay to repair bodies later.

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