We know from research that stories can have a significant impact on what people know, feel and do. For better and worse, food’s pervasive depictions in entertainment like movies, television and music can be models for behavior and beliefs. How do these images of food affect us? What if storytellers chose to use their power to inspire audiences to make healthy food choices?
If there’s one message to take away from Racing Extinction, the new environmental documentary from Academy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos (The Cove), it’s this: If climate change goes unchecked, humanity won't go out with a bang but more likely with a whimper.
Hollywood, Health & Society’s recent discussion, "The Double XX Files: Health and Justice for Women in Film and TV,” brought the topics of sexual assault, breast cancer and reproductive care into sharp focus with behind-the-scenes looks at the creative process from entertainment writers and producers, personal experiences and some sobering statistics.
Hollywood, Health & Society brought its message of the power of entertainment to one of the most important global health battles, leading an international group of writers and producers to participate in a storytelling workshop and panel at the 2014 World Cancer Congress in Melbourne, Australia.
Hollywood, Health & Society’s 15th annual Sentinel Awards had it all, including top names from the entertainment industry, a NASA astronaut who wowed the audience when she recounted her childhood dream to one day follow in the footsteps of Neil Armstrong, and moving tributes to the spirit of two young boys who have touched many hearts—one a fictional TV character and the other whose real life flashed brightly and ever so briefly.
What do you get when you mix TV legend Norman Lear with climate change experts and some of the funniest comedy writers around, and put them all in front of a packed house?
One only had to look at a montage of video clips from TV shows presented at Hollywood, Health & Society’s July 22 panel on health-care coverage, Affordable Me: The Face of Obamacare On the Ground & On the Air, to see how far we’ve come.
With this week’s release of the National Climate Assessment, a major scientific study on how the U.S. is already feeling the widespread effects of climate disruption, Hollywood, Health & Society’s invitation-only screening of Extreme Realities couldn’t have come at a better time.
Lost in all the white-hot noise over the recent rocky roll-out for Obamacare enrollment—with a glitchy government website and revelations that many people would not be allowed to keep their current coverage, despite what the president promised—was an overlooked but important fact: the Affordable Care Act had fundamentally changed how health insurance companies could operate.
With the sun shining and deer quietly nestled on patches of lawn at the wooded, tranquil NASA-JPL complex in the foothills near Pasadena, it’s easy to forget that some of the world’s most advanced research is being conducted—right here in our own back yard—on how to counteract the dark threat brought on by global warming.
