Georgina Ferry interviews Stanley Ulijaszek, Professor of Human Ecology, 15 December 2022.
Topics discussed include (00:00:39) early interest in science, particularly public health nutrition and nutritional ecology, work in Papua New Guinea, work at the University of Cambridge as a nutritional anthropologist, writings with Simon Strickland; (00:02:28) work with seminal figures in Papua New Guinea; (00:03:17) work on obesity, particularly relating to different pathways to obesity; (00:05:57) elements of the pathways to obesity of interest, work with Foresight obesity think tank; (00:08:19) factors triggering obesity; (00:12:25) methodology and data collection in anthropology; (00:17:21) first awareness of COVID-19; (00:21:27) research question arising out of the pandemic lockdown; (00:23:24) design of the study; (00:24:35) sample representativeness; (00:26:28) key questions asked in the survey, particularly in relation to physical and mental health; (00:31:59) recommendations made to support public health, as a result of the study; (00:37:18) data collection on body weight, including national food strategy; (00:42:30) questionnaire narrative section; (00:43:38) publications as a result of study, ability to give evidence to House of Lords committee, vaccine hesitancy, economic insecurity for young people; (00:47:58) involvement with podcast series with St Cross College; (00:49:16) podcast series 'Lockdown Food'; (00:52:20) preparedness for a future pandemic; (00:58:28) multidisciplinary approaches to tackling public health issues, particularly obesity, including social approaches to medicine.
