Prevention Works podcast six years of success

Prevention Works is a series of conversations with some of our nation’s top public health researchers as well as international guests and emerging leaders in prevention research, policy and practice. Since 2018 we have recorded 37 episodes with our talented host Dr Gretchen Miller interviewing 49 policy makers and researchers to discuss how the Prevention Centre is finding new ways of addressing Australia’s greatest health challenge of chronic disease.

The Prevention Centre’s Director of Science Communication, Ainsley Burgess, has been impressed by how well these podcast episodes have been received over the past six years.

The Prevention Works podcast allows us to communicate broader issues in chronic disease prevention, often complex or wicked problems, through a more informal and intimate format that creates genuine engagement with our audiences.

Ainsley Burgess, Director of Science Communication

The COVID-19 pandemic provided a positive shift in how people engage with trusted health information and podcasts were successfully employed by media, governments, and not-for-profits to communicate complex public health information, build trust in the science and combat misinformation.

At the Prevention Centre, we use our Prevention Works podcast series to demystify prevention for a general audience, to discuss various issues in chronic disease prevention in a conversational style rather than the more formal and one-way sharing of information through documents. This format helps us to also tackle wider issues that are shared with the public, including to:

• Encourage public debate around prevention issues
• Increase public understanding of the challenges facing prevention in Australia
• Showcase the work of prevention researchers in a more engaging way
• Position prevention researchers as topic experts beyond a specific project.

The interview style format from journalism often used in podcasts, including Prevention Works, also allows us to talk more broadly about a specific research topic and illustrate an issue using real-world examples which helps to improve understanding and the ability to remember the information.

Each episode gives us the ability to connect the different voices and challenges of the prevention research community, the human interest stories, with those who can act on it as they go about their lives outside of work, walking the dog, riding a bike, catching the bus. This innovative format allows us to include the backstory to a problem, including anecdotes and side comments that would not appear in other formats such as the academic paper or news article.

Ainsley Burgess, Director of Science Communication

Our podcast reviewers agree in their appreciation of us bringing together some of the great thinkers in prevention to discuss current and emerging issues.

Really informative podcast, picking up the key themes and newer thinking around prevention.

Extremely informative and thought provoking.

This podcast makes me feel more intelligent when I listen.

Brilliant questioning and logical discussions.

Giant shoulders to stand on – thank you

Prevention Works podcast reviewers

The latest Prevention Works podcast looks at ‘Measuring the cost of diets can help people make healthier food choices‘ with Dr Meron Lewis discussing her PhD research project that measured the cost and affordability of diets in low socioeconomic households.

Check out our back catalogue of Prevention Works podcasts here.