On April 1st 2020, Derek Yach started the Global Health Perspectives Podcast
As of September 30, 2020 he has hosted 29 sessions, listed below.
At the beginning of podcast #20, posted on June 29, the podcast producer, Evan Hahn announced (for the first and only time): "At the top of the show I want to get a quick disclaimer out of the way: All the scientists, doctors and public health experts that are interviewed on this show do so voluntarily and without any financial incentive. We neither endorse, nor particularly comments that are made by our guests (sic) but we encourage an open dialogue from all perspectives. That said if you have any questions or comments about the production process, please reach out to us at podcast at smokefreeworld.org ". I did reach out on July 1st about the lack of disclosure of financial ties between the podcast guests and the FSFW but I have not received an answer (yet). By September 17, Derek started to mention on the site such links when they exist but without providing the amounts involved and not within the podcast itself , from the get go as that would be the most appropriate(see update below).
I understand the mention of the absence of financial incentive for the interview per se but I think it is worth noticing that 13 of the guests are Foundation's grantees, while they also include 4 members of the board of directors who are compensated (if they have been serving for a certain period of time), 3 Foundation's employees ( including Derek) and 2 contractors: all have financial ties with the Foundation if not financial incentives. Those, often substantial financial ties are not systematically disclosed (for details see the list below).
By September 30, on the 29 guests, I found only 6 without such links (that I was able to assess).
What is the audience of the podcasts? I have only looked at Soundcloud where (for now) the program has 16
'followers' (subscribers): 14 episodes had less than 100 listeners, 4 had between 100 and 150, 2 between 150 and 200, and 2 more than 200. Maybe there are more on the other platforms (Spotify, iTunes)... Why not disclosing that a guest is a recipient of one or several grants from the Foundation? Why such secrecy? There is
an ongoing controversy about how effective or eventually negative disclosing potential 'conflicts of interest' is. In this present case I only think it would be normal for host and guest to acknowledge/disclose their eventual relationship and even expand/explain about it. I believe everybody would gain and learn from such a transparent approach. Avoiding the issue, as presently done by Derek and the Foundation negatively impact their credibility, sustains inconsistent and incomplete information on the various outlets of the Foundation, gives credit to the power of their adversaries. What is there to fear, but fear itself?
Rereading FD Roosevelt's address now is indeed most appropriate.
Update: starting with the episode 28 with Daniel Malan (September 17) and then with episode 29 with Sudanshu Patwardhan (September 30), Derek mentions on the site the existence of grants awarded to the guests but not the amounts. He does not appear to mention it during the interview (at least at the very start of each podcast).
"Derek Yach has focused his career on advancing global health. He is the Chief Health Officer (CHO) of Vitality, and leads the Vitality Institute."
Derek's Linkedin profile mentions he remained as a consultant until August 2017, before becoming FSFW's President.
36. End of year recap, 12/18/2020,
35. Bengt Wigberg, 12/16/2020
34. William Kamkwamba, 11/25/2020,
33. Harry Shapiro, 11/16/2020, Harry works for KAC, based in London, that is
funded by FSFW. Funding is not disclosed in the interview presentation.
32. Michael Cummings, 10/30/2020
31. Elise Rasmussen, 10/17/2020, Global Nicotine and Tobacco Forum
30. Karl Fagerstrom, 10/9/2020.
29. Dr. Sudanshu Patwardhan, 9/30/2020 co-founder with his spouse of the Centre for Health Research and Education (CHRE). has received
several grants from the FSFW. Amounts estimated at $450,000 and $723,399.
Not mentioned (at this time) in their grants database.
28.
Daniel Malan, 09/17 Derek now mentions that the guest was the recipient of a grant from the FSFW for the production of its report Contradictions and conflicts: "This report was made possible by a grant from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World." he does not mention the amount (not yet available, only public with the next PPF 990 form?) nor the fact Daniel had also previously received another grant for
another report ($85,000 or so) with the University of Stellenbosch.
26.
Donald Kenkel, 08/25, Economist from Cornell University, received
2 grants from FSFW in 2020.
Here you can see the usual opaque description of the grant in the FSFW database. No mention either of the connection with the Foundation in
this post about Kenkel's recent work. No mention of the connection during the interview. Why such secrecy?
23 minute podcast
25.
Karen Nelson. 08/19. President Craig Venter Institute no info available about eventual grant
22.
Corinna Lathan 07/16 FSFW Board member (3,397 in 2018, 50,000 in 2019)
20. Konstantinos Farsalinos 06/29
19. François Millard 06/22 Vitality Group
18. George Bostock 06/3 Cambridge Design Partnership FSFW Grantee (104,320 in 2018, 514,433 in 2019, 277,000 future)
17. A message for World No Tobacco Day, by Derek Yach 05/30 (Derek Yach, President's compensation was $813.700 for 2018 and $974.481 for 2019)
16. Jed Rose 05/29 FSFW grantee Rose Research Center (4,7M in 2019, 20,7M future)
15. Dyborn Chibonga 05/26 FSFW Board Member ( 37,500 in 2018, 50,000 in 2019)
14. Melonie Kastman 05/19 FSFW contractor for documentary film, The True Cost of a Cigarette, amount unknown
13. Gerry Stimson 05/14 FSFW Grantee KAC ( 787,000 in 2018, 1,3M in 2019, 6 million future)
12. Dr Tikki Pangestu. 05/12
11. Marewa Glover 05/05 FSFW grantee (489,225 in 2018, 1,7M in 2019, 7,3M future)
10. Angela Hofmann 05/01 new FSFW Board Member (since December 2019, 0 in 2019)
9. Dr. Pooja Padwarthan 04/29 FSFW Grantee CHRE (450,115 in 2019 + 732,399 future)
8. Ethan Nadelmann 04/24
7. Darshita Gillies 04/20 FSFW Board Member (3,397 in 2018, 50,000 in 2019)
6. Chitra Subramaniam 04/16
5. Nilesh Jain 04/13. FSFW Grantee Clinivantage (36,000 in 2018)
4. Yuchen Xue 04/09 FSFW Employee
3. Shlomi Madar 04/07 Signal Analytics is a FSFW contractor (2,130,000 in 2019)
2. Candida Nakhumwa 04/03 FSFW Employee
1. Riccardo Polosa 04/01 FSFW Grantee COEHAR (8,000,000+ in 2019, 22,000,000+ to come)
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