Pushing Back Against Four Industries Making Us Sick with Prof Dame Theresa Marteau

Eat healthily, cut back on alcohol, quit smoking, cycle to work, fly less. We all know what we should be doing — so why aren’t we? What are the ideas, interests and institutions that stop those in power from acting on evidence that could transform our health and the health of the planet? And what can we do about it?

Join behavioural scientist Theresa Marteau as she addresses these questions, drawing on three decades of research. She’ll examine what actually works to change behaviour at scale –and how the tobacco, alcohol, food and fossil fuel industries stop, delay and dilute effective policies that threaten their financial interests.

Professor Dame Theresa Marteau is Professor Emerita of Behaviour and Health at the University of Cambridge. She has led research on behaviour change across four continents and advised governments in the UK and elsewhere. During the COVID-19 pandemic she served on SAGE, the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Pushback: How Four Industries Are Making Us Sick, And How We Can Reclaim Control is her first book for a general readership, to be published on 4 February 2027 by The Bodley Head.