Unnatural Causes will, for the first time on film, investigate the sources of America’s enormous racial and socio-economic disparities in health.  This four-hour series, produced by California Newsreel in association with Vital Pictures is designed for PBS broadcast and video/DVD release.  Conceived as part of a larger public engagement campaign in association with leading health, public policy and community-based organizations, Unnatural Causes aims at nothing less than helping effect a paradigm shift among the general public and policy makers both, one that links our individual aspirations for better health to wider social and economic policies.

Research reveals a gradient to health that affects us all, not only the poverty-stricken but the middle class as well.  At each descending rung of the socio-economic ladder, people tend to be sicker and die sooner.  At the bottom rung, poverty and income inequality kill more people than the combined total from lung cancer, HIV/AIDS, unintentional injuries, diabetes, suicide, and homicide.  And African Americans and persons of color fare the worst of all – at all socio-economic levels.
How does socio-economic status and racism get under the skin? How does inequality, the cumulative disparities in housing, wealth, jobs, and education – combined with lack of power – translate into bad health?  How do the distribution of income in society, immigration, access to political power, globalization, all impact our risk for disease and illness?  The outcome will surprise you. 

Program One: In Sickness and In Wealth (60:00)
A hospital in Louisville, Kentucky becomes a reflection of how health works in the larger society—stress, status, education, income, social environment and outlook are all key.

Program Two: Place Matters (30:00)
Our street address is an important predictor of our health.  In Richmond, California we see a neighborhood as a health hazard; in Seattle, a neighborhood as a promoter of health.

Program Three:  Becoming American (30:00)
Many immigrants arrive in the US healthy, but the longer they are here, the less healthy they become.  In Kennett Square near Philadelphia, Mexican mushroom workers offer a portrait of the social bonds and community connectedness that may keep us all healthier.

Program Four : When the Bough Breaks (30:00)
Infant mortality is worse for highly educated affluent African American women than for the poorest white women.  Can racism and its impact over generations, be the culprit?

Program Five:  Bad Sugar (30:00)
Diabetes is an American epidemic, and Native Americans were the first population to suffer its profound effects.  The history of the Pima in Arizona – and their changing fortunes – reveal the structures that trigger the disease and offer hope for the future.

Program Six : Not Just A Paycheck (30:00)
Unemployment isn’t just bad for your pocketbook – it’s bad for your health.  From Greenville, Michigan to Vastervik, Sweden, workers for the Electrolux Corporation cope with job loss – and become sick or remain healthy. 

Program Seven: Collateral Damage (30:00)
In the Marshall Islands, the bombings of Bikini Island and continuing US policy and globalization are dramatic precipitators of ill health.  The health of the Marshallese now in Springdale, Arkansas, and their experience with TB, brings their struggle for health to the American mainland.

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