Sasha Borissenko, host of the Herald’s Chewing the Facts podcast , has won Established Journalist at the inaugural Science Journalism Awards, run by the Science Media Centre. She won the award for the fifth episode of the podcast, Going under the knife, which investigated bariatric and other weight loss surgeries, and the role body mass index plays in determining who qualifies for surgery. One nominator said the series gained traction among health officials, and resulted in policies being reviewed.
The judges said it was an impressive piece of science communication and praised the careful and ethical way Sasha approached the topic. You can listen to the award-winning episode below. Are Māori and Pasifika people being excluded from weight loss surgery by a racist qualification system that’s designed to save money? That’s the challenge posed by critics in episode 5 of Chewing the Facts, a podcast that busts many popular myths about fatness.
In Aotearoa, access to publicly-funded bariatric or weight loss surgery, which changes the digestive and hormonal system to decrease appetite, is controlled by a number of factors including a patient’s body mass index (BMI) - weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. Auckland University indigenous health lecturer Ash Gillon told Chewing the Facts host Sasha Borissenko she believed the controversial measurement tool had been weaponised by the medical community to restrict access to the operation. “If your BMI is too.