Chronic inflammatory diseases are on the rise, especially in so-called industrialized countries that have been structured by the hands of colonialism. Could this collective inflammation we are experiencing be a sign from our bodies that we are indeed mired in systemically unhealthy living conditions? What we might have once understood as an individual ailment, must now be understood as a side effect of daily exposures of air pollution, economic precarity, contaminated water, police brutality, mounting debt, and an overall increasingly difficult social structure to stay afloat in. In this week’s episode, Dr. Rupa Marya and Raj Patel discuss the biological impacts of oppressive social structures. We are left with the resounding reminder that inflammation is an indicator that we must change our collective ways in order to heal, and in today’s world that requires us to dismantle oppressive systems and expand our understanding of health beyond inadequate colonial definitions.
Dr. Rupa Marya is a physician, an activist, a mother, and a composer. She is an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where she practices and teaches internal medicine. She is a cofounder of the Do No Harm Coalition, a collective of health workers committed to addressing disease through structural change. Raj Patel is a research professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, a professor in the University’s Department of Nutrition, and a research associate at Rhodes University, South Africa. He is the author of Stuffed and Starved and The Value of Nothing. He serves on the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and has advised governments worldwide on the causes of and solutions to crises of sustainability.
Music by Roma Ransom and Lindsey Mills.
Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.
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