Public Health Disrupted podcast
This podcast is about public health, but more importantly, it’s about the systems that need disrupting to make public health better.
Welcome to the podcast series from UCL Health of the Public presented by Doctor, writer and TV presenter Xand van Tulleken and community health psychologist and self-proclaimed hippie, UCL’s Professor Rochelle Burgess.
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.
Each episode, we’ll be joined by activists, scholars, artists, comedians and industry professionals to offer perspectives from the UCL community and beyond. Join us as we challenge the status quo of the public health field, asking what needs to change, why and how to get there.
Listen on: Transistor | Spotify | Apple Podcast
Season 6
Episode 3 | Public Health Disrupted: Live for UCL200
This was our very first episode recorded with a live audience on 30 June 2026.
In this special episode, hosts Professor Rochelle Burgess and Doctor Xand van Tulleken explored the history of public health at UCL and consider what it can teach us about health today.
Recording coming soon!
Episode 2 | Global Mental Health: Rights, Care and the Global Landscape
This episode investigates the relationship between geography and global mental health.
Alongside guests Parth Sharma and Dr Kelly Rose-Clarke, Xand and Rochelle explore how factors such as conflict, climate, and social inequalities shape mental health experiences globally, challenging conventional narratives and highlighting the need for a more nuanced understanding of mental health support.
This episode raises critical questions about the future of mental health care, the need for systemic change, and the role of lived experience in shaping effective interventions.
Episode 1 | Why are younger generations drinking less?
In the Season 6 opener of Public Health Disrupted, Dr Xand van Tulleken and Professor Rochelle Burgess explore why younger generations are drinking less, and what that shift means for public health.
Joining Xand and Rochelle are Millie Gooch, founder of the Sober Girl Society, and Dr Melissa Oldham from UCL. Together, they unpack what the data tells us, what sobriety and “drinking less” look like in everyday social life, and why community, policy and support systems matter if this trend is to lead to better health outcomes in the long term.
Previous seasons
Public Health Disrupted Podcast
Listen to all series on your platform of choice and access the transcripts through Transistor
Access on TransistorAny questions
If there’s a question you’d like our hosts or guests to answer, email us at healthofpublic@ucl.ac.uk or tweet @UCLHealthPublic using the hashtag #PublicHealthDisrupted.
Meet our hosts
Public Health Disrupted is presented by Xand van Tulleken and Rochelle Burgess.
Dr Xand Van Tulleken
Dr Xand van Tulleken’s main interests and expertise lie in Public Health, Medicine, Humanitarian Aid and Anthropology and is one of the BBC’s leading science presenters having worked on many flagship Health & Science programmes.
Alongside his twin brother Chris, Xand presents CBBC’s Operation Ouch! The series has been a huge global success, involving self-experimentation and lab work to find weird and wonderful ways of showing kids what goes on in hospitals, and inside our bodies.
Xand has published several books, including the HuManual - a book all about human biology for children; and Secrets of the Human Body which tied in with his and Chris’ ground-breaking BBC2 Science series.
Professor Rochelle Burgess
Rochelle is a leading community health psychologist, specialising in community-based approaches to health. In addition to being a hippie who talks about the importance of community, solidarity and social change to anyone who will listen. Rochelle is a Professor at the UCL Institute for Global Health.
Her work studies the social and psychological dynamics of community engagement, using qualitative, participatory and transformative methodologies. Rochelle is Deputy Director of the UCL Centre for Global Non-Communicable Diseases and the founder and Director of UCL’s Global Network on Mental Health and Child Marriage. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health, member of the ESRC peer review college, among other affiliations.