Unnatural Causes on PBS

Photo with permission: "UNNATURAL CAUSES: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?”
Produced by California Newsreel with Vital Pictures.
Presented by the National Minority Consortia.

http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/ --- http://www.newsreel.org/

Unnatural Causes, a four-part documentary series focusing on health equity in the US, begins airing nationally on PBS tonight at 7pm PST for HDTV viewers, and on April 2nd at 11pm PST for analog/cable viewers. Alternate times are listed below. The documentary will be available on DVD through California Newsreel, and is

... a four-part series for PBS broadcast and DVD release, will, for the first time on television, sound the alarm about our glaring socio-economic and racial disparities in health—and seek out 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, it turns out there is 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 companion website to the series is interactive and comprehensive. Visit to find interactive activities, video clips, quizzes, an Action Toolkit, case studies, resources and access to a panel of experts who will answer questions submitted by the public.

Educators: the site's In the Classroom page offers educational resources including curricular materials, discussion guides, handouts, facilitation questions and more. Coming soon: links enabling educators to use case studies and interactivities in the classroom.

The opening 56-minute episode, In Sickness and In Wealth, presents the series’ overarching themes. Each supporting half-hour episode, set in a different ethnic/racial community, provides a deeper exploration of how social conditions affect population health and how some communities are extending their lives by improving them.

The school district is verifying the rights to this series, and plans to have it available on DVD! This is great news, and we appreciate their efforts to have this informative series available as a resource.

The Communities of Color Coalition (C3) will be hosting two-hour facilitated community forums at local hospitals to discuss disparities in health care. The first two events will be held in Everett and Monroe after the complete series has aired. Please check back at the C3 site for further information on the forums.

Episode descriptions can be found here.

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BROADCAST INFO:
This info is for Pacific Standard Time (PST).
For other time zones, check your local TV listings here at PBS.

• HDTV episodes will air on:
  -- 4 consecutive Thursdays @ 7pm, starting March 27th, or
  -- 4 consecutive Sundays @ 1pm, starting March 30th
  
• Analog/Cable episodes will air on:
  -- 4 consecutive Wednesdays @ 11pm, starting April 2nd, or
  -- 4 consecutive Saturdays @ 1pm, starting April 5th

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Don't miss this fascinating series!