 |
Money Power Health with Nason MaaniAuthor: Nason Maani
A podcast on how our health is influenced by commercial forces, wealth and power, hosted by Dr Nason Maani and featuring conversations from a range of perspectives. Language: en Genres: Science Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
Episode 19: Commercial power, conflicts of interest and health policy with Elena Whitham
Episode 19
Tuesday, 12 May, 2026
Hello everyone and welcome back to Money Power Health.Today's episode is about what it actually looks like, from the inside, when commercial interests try to shape health policy. My guest is Elena Whitham, who served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament and as Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy in the Scottish Government. That role put her at the intersection of highly contested territory in public health, where evidence about what works collides with the interests of industries that profit from the products causing harm in the most deprived communities.In this conversation, Elena reflects on her own life experience navigating challenging circumstances, through to working at the local level to national politics. She discusses what commercial influence on health policy-making actually looks like in practice, how it shaped her thinking and approach, the importance of civil society and academics, what advice she would give to other policy-makers based on her experiences, if they are to make a healthier, more equitable Scotland. If you are interested in finding out more about some of the issues we discussed, please find some links with further information:-Responses to a recent consultation on alcohol advertising and promotion: https://consult.gov.scot/alcohol-policy/alcohol-advertising-and-promotion/ -Link to the Public Health Scotland evaluation of Minimum Unit Pricing: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/evaluating-the-impact-of-minimum-unit-pricing-for-alcohol-in-scotland-a-synthesis-of-the-evidence/-Latest data release from National Records of Scotland on drug and alcohol deaths in Scotland: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2024/-Link to a resource hub on tools and approaches to addressing commercial drivers of ill-health hosted by our UKRI Population Health Improvement Local Health Global Profits consortium: https://www.bath.ac.uk/campaigns/commercial-determinants-of-health-resource-hub/
