Episode 2: Singing the praises of communities

SummaryGrammy-award winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre joins chair of the UK’s largest COVID-19 social study and UCL professor Dr Daisy Fancourt to talk about the power of community. They explore how people bound by common experiences can improve their health through non-clinical methods, looking at how singing and music can form a part of that process, and the wider implications that has on the health of the public.Episode Description“Every single person feels part of something larger than themselves.”Communities are vital for a functioning society, but in an ever-changing world, has the concept of what ‘community’ means evolved into something new? Can virtual choirs really help with regulating emotions and coping with stress in the same way that singing live in a room full of people could? And is social prescribing of arts through linked support services the answer?Grammy-award winning composer Eric Whitacre, and associate professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at UCL Dr Daisy Fancourt, seek to answer these questions and more, from studying the social factors on health such as loneliness and isolation, to how singing can help regulate emotions and cope with stress, and the physiological benefits that belonging to a community can bring.Dr Fancourt’s research focuses on the effects of social factors on health, including loneliness, social isolation, community assets, art, cultural engagement, and social prescribing. She leads the team running the UK’s largest COVID-19 social study into the psychological and social impact of the virus. She also established and chairs the International Arts Help Early Career Research network, the UK March network, and is a consultant to the World Health Organization. You can find her on Twitter @Daisy_Fancourt.Nevada-born Eric Whitacre is a multiple award-winning composer, conductor and graduate of New York’s prestigious Juilliard School of Music, whose work is recognised worldwide. Eric also established groundbreaking virtual choirs that have united singers from more than 145 countries. He has been the artist in residence at Los Angeles Master Chorale and University of Cambridge. You can find Eric on Twitter @EricWhitacre and at: https://ericwhitacre.comPublic Health Disrupted with Rochelle Burgess and Xand Van Tulleken is produced by Buckers at Decibelle Creative, find her on Instagram: @decibelle_creative and here: https://www.decibellecreative.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Presented by Doctor, writer and TV Presenter Xand Van Tulleken and community health psychologist, UCL lecturer and self-proclaimed hippie, Dr Rochelle Burgess.This podcast is about public health, but more importantly, it’s about the systems that need disrupting to make public health better. In each episode, we’ll be challenging the status quo of this field, asking what needs to change, why and how to get there. Each month we’ll be joined by activists, scholars, artists, comedians and industry professionals to offer perspectives from the UCL community and beyond. We’re calling this podcast Public Health Disrupted because that’s exactly what we want to do. We are going to be breaking down disciplinary, sectoral and geographic boundaries to really understand the diverse and complex issues impacting our health. Issues as complex as structural racism and as broad as the role of tech in public health. New episodes will be made available monthly via the UCL Soundcloud, Acast, Spotify, Apple Podcast and Google PodcastIf there’s a question you’d like us and our guests to answer, email us at healthofpublic@ucl.ac.uk or tweet @UCLHealthPublic.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.