Welcome.

This week, we’re taking a look back at one of our favorite episodes from the season: our trip to SXSW’s Wellness Expo, where we interviewed visitors and vendors about their thoughts on what it means to be “healthy”. Now, a few months after our initial trip, the Wooden Teeth staff takes time to reflect on the conversations we had at SXSW, and talk about what the different booths at the event have to say about how our culture thinks about health.

In this episode, we are looking back at some of our favorite interviews from this season about books—books that inspire, that force us to reevaluate our preconceived notions, and that illuminate something within ourselves. We’ll show you some highlights from our conversations with three different authors about their work: Marion Nestle, author of Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat; author of Decolonizing Wealth, Edgar Villanueva; and finally, Leslie Crutchfield, author of How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed and Others Don’t. Our Wooden Teeth staff also joins the podcast to give some of their top book recommendations for this summer. If you are looking for something to read for a coming vacation in these warmer weeks, we promise you will leave this episode with a laundry list of books to stack on your nightstand and expand your mind.

In this episode, Jake speaks with Richard Wilkinson, co-author, along with Kate Pickett, of a new book titled "The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone's Well-Being". This book examines how economic policy influences a myriad of health issues—such as the fact, for instance, that mental illness is three times as common in the United States as it is Germany. In the conversation, we dive into both the reasons why economic inequality manifests in these negative health outcomes, as well as how policy solutions can fix the problem.

A public health insurance failed to make it into the Affordable Care Act, but now states are creating their own version of the public option. Colorado has adopted legislation that initiates the implementation of a public health insurance option for residents, and we get the inside story of the bill and how it passed from Susanna Mizer, Healthier Colorado's Senior Director of Public Affairs. To put this policy development in context, we also present a cheeky 10 minute, 4 act play on the history of the public option in America. Enjoy!