How can public health work with migrant farmworkers to ensure healthy and just housing conditions? Listen to this episode to learn about how our current system allows for unsafe housing conditions for migrant farmworkers. Kit Andres, long-time organizer with Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, shares recommendations developed by migrants themselves and opportunities for public health to be part of the solution.

Episode Guest: Kit Andres is a farmworker organizer with Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, which serves as secretariat for the Migrant Rights Network, the country’s largest migrant-led coalition. Kit is a 3rd generation white settler in the Niagara region of Dish with One Spoon treaty territory. As a citizen worker, they are united with their migrant, refugee, and undocumented neighbours to win full rights, dignity, and liberation for all.

Learn more:

• Determining Health: Migrant health issue brief (NCCDH, 2025)
• Migrant Rights Network
• Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
• Decent & Dignified Housing for Migrant Farmworkers (Migrant Rights Network, 2020)

Episode Credits:

This episode was produced by Rebecca Cheff and Pemma Muzumdar. Mind the Disruption is hosted by Pemma Muzumdar and led by Rebecca Cheff, with technical production and original music by Chris Perry. Promotion by Caralyn Vossen (NCCDH). Artwork by comet art + design. Special thanks to Bernice Yanful and Carolina Jimenez for contributing to the development of this season. Mind the Disruption is a podcast by the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health. NCCDH is hosted by St. Francis Xavier University and funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the PHAC.

What makes a public green space healthy for everyone? Listen to this episode to hear how Dr. Nadha Hassen is disrupting the status quo through intersectional and anti-racist approaches in research and community collaborations. Nadha speaks with host Pemma Muzumdar, sharing unique insights on why public green spaces are a critical part of public health infrastructure.

Episode Guest: Dr. Nadha Hassen is a public health and environmental studies scholar focused on healthy, just, and equitable places and environments. Dr. Hassen’s research explores health and social equity and takes an interdisciplinary approach with a focus on intersectional anti-racism. Her research and evaluation work is community-engaged and participatory where she collaborates with marginalized communities to address the social, structural, and environmental determinants of health. As an interdisciplinary health researcher, she has worked at both policy and community levels, with experiences spanning grassroots and nonprofit organizations, hospitals, provincial government, and think tanks. Dr. Hassen has a PhD from the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University and a Master of Public Health from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, specializing in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences.

Learn more:

• Park Perceptions and Racialized Realities
• Narratives of exclusion: A photovoice study towards racial equity and justice in public urban greenspaces
• Methodological desire lines: Engaging with feminist and anti-racist approaches to researching health and place
• Rx For Social Connection: Public space as a strategy to combat loneliness
• Measuring Health, Wellbeing, and Equity in Greenspaces: A Toolkit & Common Indicators Framework
• Core competencies for public health in Canada: Release 2.0

Episode Credits: This episode was produced by Pemma Muzumdar and Rebecca Cheff (NCCDH). Mind the Disruption is hosted by Pemma Muzumdar and led by Rebecca Cheff, with technical production and original music by Chris Perry. Promotion by Caralyn Vossen (NCCDH). Artwork by comet art + design. Special thanks to Bernice Yanful and Carolina Jimenez for contributing to the development of this season. Mind the Disruption is a podcast by the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health. NCCDH is hosted by St. Francis Xavier University and funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the PHAC.

Welcome back! In the fourth season of Mind the Disruption, we focus on healthy and just places and spaces.

We’ll explore topics such as the natural and built environment, belonging, a safe and secure place to call home, and cultural humility and safety. Join us as we reflect on opportunities for people in public health to work with others to create healthy and just places and spaces for everyone. Season 4 includes four episodes released starting in April 2026. 

This season of Mind the Disruption is hosted by Pemma Muzumdar, and is produced by Rebecca Cheff and Pemma Muzumdar. The Mind the Disruption project team is led by Rebecca Cheff, with technical production and original music by Chris Perry. Special thanks to Bernice Yanful and Carolina Jimenez for contributing to the development of this season. Mind the Disruption is a podcast by the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health. Visit our website to learn more about the podcast and our work.