Music, Public Health & Climate Action – Emma O’Brien, Global Scrub Choir

Feb 28, 2024

“The link for us with (the WHO) is about universal health coverage and the sustainable development goal number three, which obviously the WHO places in the middle of the wheel of all the sustainable development goals. But on top and behind and with each other is climate action. We cannot have one without the other. And our role is to remind a lot of people that when they're making policies, they're talking about human beings.”  Emma O’Brien on Electric Ladies Podcast

Climate change has a real impact on public health, from asthma and other respiratory illnesses due to CO2 and pollutants, to biodiversity-related risks like viruses, to heart disease, malnutrition and injuries and deaths from extreme weather events and extreme heat. Not to mention the stresses of displacement and trauma of these events.

Listen to Emma O’Brien, Ph.D., the founder of the Global Scrub Choir and Head of Music Therapy at the Royal Melbourne Hospital talk about music + public health + climate change in this truly inspiring interview on Electric Ladies podcast with host Joan Michelson.  

You’ll hear:

• The impact of music on the brain – and the impact of creativity on health.
• The connection between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Scrub Choir and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – and why the Choir was at the UN’s Climate Week 2023.
• Risks to public health from climate change
• Plus, insightful career advice ….

“if you're within a system, I think you need to spend a lot of time understanding that system, but also,  never being afraid to question it.… not be afraid to ask questions. Because I found across my career that often I'll ask a question in a meeting and everyone will go, oh, thank goodness someone asked that question.” Emma O’Brien on Electric Ladies podcast

You’ll also want to listen to:

• Sandra Bargman & Chantal Bilodeau, about their Climate Cabaret
• Jill Tidman, Executive Director of The Redford Center, on how we talk about the climate and documentaries
• Daniella Ortega, writer and director of “Carbon: The Unauthorized Biography.”
• Deborah Rutter, President of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on managing creative people and the Reach center’s sustainability features. (Note: This was recorded under the previous name of the show, Green Connections Radio.)

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