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Causes or Cures
For the Nerds and the Nerd Nots
Curious about health? So is Dr. Eeks.
Causes or Cures is an independent health podcast hosted by Dr. Eeks (ErinKate Stair, MD, MPH). It is an offbeat, grassroots show driven by curiosity and a genuine love of making complicated health topics easier to understand. Science is fascinating. It does not have to sound corporate to be credible.
Dr. Eeks is a public health professional specializing in applied epidemiology and health communication. By day, she works on complex national public health issues. By choice, she spends her free time asking scientists, physicians, researchers, authors, clinicians, and other fascinating people questions she hopes everyone else is wondering too.
The goal is simple. Make good science understandable without watering it down.
Along the way, the podcast has wandered into everything from memory and longevity to self medicating animals, migraines, gene drive mosquitoes, public health history, the spiritual realm, and the occasional existential detour. If it has something to teach us about health or what it means to be human, it is probably fair game.
Recurring segments include Public Health is Weird, which uncovers strange but true stories from public health history, WTF Health News, where Dr. Eeks breaks down bizarre or buzzworthy health headlines, and Eeks Speakeasy, a more personal corner of the podcast where curiosity occasionally spills over into life, philosophy, and whatever else deserves a drink and a discussion.
A few housekeeping notes...
This podcast is for information, curiosity, and conversation. It is not medical advice.
Although Dr. Eeks has an MD, she does not practice medicine. She is a full time public health nerd and will never tell you what to do with your own health. If you have a medical question, your healthcare provider knows you far better than a podcast ever could.
Guests are invited because they have something interesting to contribute, not because Dr. Eeks agrees with every opinion they hold. Likewise, she does not endorse miracle supplements, mysterious oils, magic socks, potions, or anything that promises to solve all of life's problems.
If an episode is sponsored or underwritten by a company she genuinely enjoys working with, she will always tell you.
Causes or Cures is also not a news site. It is a place for thoughtful conversations. Dr. Eeks believes people can disagree respectfully, ask difficult questions, change their minds, and occasionally laugh at themselves along the way. Some of the best conversations she has ever had happened in hole in the walls, on sidewalks, and in places where nobody was trying to win an argument.
Sometimes Barnaby, her dog and unofficial executive producer, contributes his thoughts as well. Fortunately, he is a pretty smart dog.
Above all, Dr. Eeks hopes this podcast encourages people to stay curious, compassionate, honest, open minded, and engaged. Freedom of discussion is a beautiful, delightfully messy thing, and one worth protecting.
The views expressed on this podcast are Dr. Eeks' own and do not reflect the views of any organization she contracts with or consults for.
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Want to work together or say hello? Visit bloomingwellness.com.
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Causes or Cures
How Bad is Healthcare Fraud and Corruption? With Professor Graham Brooks
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Healthcare corruption doesn’t just happen in broken systems or far away countries.
It happens in hospitals with shiny floors.
In billion dollar healthcare industries.
In systems filled with rules, audits, and professionals sworn to protect patients.
It happens quietly. And it happens everywhere.
In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks speaks with Professor Graham Brooks, an international expert on healthcare corruption and criminal justice, to expose how fraud and corruption operate across healthcare systems around the world, from low resource settings to some of the most regulated and well funded systems on Earth.
Rather than treating corruption as something that belongs “elsewhere,” this conversation reveals the shared vulnerabilities that allow it to thrive in plain sight.
We explore:
• The hidden ways corruption shows up in both poor and wealthy healthcare systems
• Real world schemes that drained millions while patients paid the price
• How much money vanishes globally each year and why the true cost is likely far higher
• Why rules, oversight, and trained professionals often fail to stop exploitation
• How financial incentives and conflicts of interest quietly shape care and clinical decisions
• Where today’s biggest corruption hotspots exist, from billing to drug pricing to procurement
• Whether AI and data could help uncover fraud or create new risks of surveillance
• What patients and clinicians can do when the system itself feels rigged
This episode pulls back the curtain on a side of healthcare most people never see and shows why corruption isn’t a rare scandal. It’s a systemic threat hiding in plain sight.
About the Guest
Professor Graham Brooks is an international expert on corruption in healthcare and criminal justice. He has advised governments, law enforcement bodies, and international organizations on counter fraud and anti corruption efforts, and has been a keynote speaker at major conferences across Europe.
He has participated in United Kingdom Cabinet Office round table discussions on anti corruption, worked with the Royal United Services Institute on money laundering and online business risks, and currently serves as a member of the Group of Experts for the European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network.
Professor Brooks has published extensively with international collaborators and is the author of Healthcare Corruption: Causes, Costs, Consequences and Criminal Justice.
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