In this inaugural episode we bring you stories from around the state of people who are improving their own health and the health of their communities.

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act is dramatically changing our healthcare system. But research shows that where you live is more closely connected to your health than doctors or hospitals — or whether or not you have insurance coverage.

Throughout this program we’ll be looking at all the factors that affect our health — both the things we can control and those we can’t.

First we go to Los Angeles where a group called the Kitchen Divas is connecting the dots between eating healthy and avoiding chronic disease. In this story, you’ll meet Veronica Mayes-Jackson, a Kitchen Diva who’s educating members of her community about how to change their lifestyle in order to improve their health.

Then we go to Richmond, where a mother of three, Alejandra Escobedo, was trapped in an abusive relationship. Like other immigrants in her situation, she didn’t speak English and didn’t have a job. It was hard to see a way out, until she found The Latina Center — an organization that helps Latinas move forward and become leaders in their community.

Then we go to the rural farming communities about 60 miles east of wealthy Palm Springs, where tens of thousands of people live in what many have described as third world conditions. They crowd into dilapidated mobile home parks where clean drinking water is hard to come by and other public services can be sporadic. We’ll get a glimpse of the efforts of Rodolfo Pinon with Pueblo Unido – a nonprofit that’s working to improve the quality of life for farmworkers’ and their families.

Finally Dr. David Williams, an author and professor and an authority on the social influences on health, joins host Daniel Weintraub in studio.