Professor Anna Gilmore, Director of the Local Health and Global Profits research consortium, features in the latest episode of the hard-hitting weekly podcast Why Should I Trust You?, where she joined journalists Brinda Adhikari and Tom Johnson alongside virologist Dr. Maggie Bartlett for a wide-ranging conversation on how corporations drive today’s chronic disease crisis.
In the episode, released on 28 August, Professor Gilmore pulls back the curtain on Commercial Determinants of Health (CDoH) - exposing how corporate power intersects with the better-known Social Determinants of Health. She reveals how just four industries - tobacco, fossil fuels, ultra-processed food, and alcohol - are responsible for at least one-third of global deaths, killing nearly 19 million people every year.
The discussion doesn’t stop at the problem: it dives into solutions. Gilmore explains how corporate-funded science fosters doubt, and outlines how transparency, stronger regulation, and holding corporations accountable could rebuild public trust. The panel debates whether voluntary partnerships can ever work, the promise (and pitfalls) of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, and what it will take to fix broken food systems.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone who cares about the future of public health—and whether corporations should keep shaping it.
Professor Gilmore comments on the podcast:
Over the past half-century, commercial interests have pushed deeper and deeper into areas once safeguarded by the state—water, education, and other foundations of public health. What we’re witnessing is a seismic shift: corporations now shape the very conditions that determine our health. These forces are no longer peripheral—they are central. The reality is that commercial influence has become one of the most powerful drivers of health outcomes worldwide.
Why Should I Trust You? is a weekly podcast and YouTube show that looks at the breakdown in trust for science and public health and asks if it is possible to rebuild that trust.
Professor Gilmore is a world-renowned expert on the Commercial Determinants of Health (CDoH) and Co-Director of the Centre for 21st Century Public Health (C21PH) at the University of Bath.
