Going Viral - The Podcast
33 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 months ago - ★★★★★ - 43 ratingsThe science & history podcast all about PANDEMICS.
Series 1: Join the 'disease detectives' Mark Honigsbaum and Hannah Mawdsley as they investigate the most devastating pandemic of all time: the 1918 Spanish influenza. Part scientific detective story, part historical inquiry, 'Going Viral' takes listeners to the scene of the viral crime and in the process recovers the experience of the world's deadliest virus, which is 100 years old.
Series 2: The Covid Files: 100 years after the deadly Spanish Flu, Mark and his guests discuss the many faces of the Covid-19 pandemic. What lessons can we learn from history?
Series 3: It's the science story of the century - how successful vaccines against Covid-19 have been created in under a year. In 'Vaxx and the Facts', Marks takes a deep dive into the history and science of vaccinations - exploring how they work, where they come from and where they may be going.
Series 4: Pandemic Ethics: produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator.
Follow our news on Twitter @GoingViral_pod
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Blog: markhonigsbaum.substack.com
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Episodes
Who Do We Not Save?
July 16, 2023 06:05 - 26 minutes - 21.1 MBAs the UK’s independent public inquiry into Covid-19 gets underway, members of the Covid bereaved complain that they are not being given an opportunity to testify. Today, in the second part of our two-part special, Mark speaks to the parents of Susan Sullivan, a woman with Down's Syndrome who died of Covid-19 at Barnet General Hospital on March 28, 2020, after being deemed “not for resuscitation” and he reveals the findings of a confidential investigation by the Royal Free NHS Hospital T...
The Dancing Queen
July 13, 2023 08:31 - 29 minutes - 24 MBAs the UK’s independent public inquiry into Covid-19 gets underway, members of the Covid bereaved complain that they are not being given an opportunity to testify. Today, Mark speaks to the parents of Susan Sullivan, a woman with Down's Syndrome who died of Covid-19 at Barnet General Hospital on March 28, 2020, after being deemed “not for resuscitation” and being denied access to intensive care. The Sullivans have long suspected that their daughter was the victim of medical bias and ma...
NEW 2 Part Special Coming Soon...
July 10, 2023 09:10 - 2 minutes - 1.72 MBAs the UK’s independent public inquiry into Covid-19 gets underway, members of the Covid bereaved complain that they are not being given an opportunity to testify. In a new two part special, Mark speaks to the parents of Susan Sullivan, a Down’s Syndrome woman who died of Covid-19 at Barnet General Hospital on March 28, 2020, after being deemed “not for resuscitation” and being denied access to intensive care. The Sullivans have long suspected that their daughter was the victim of medi...
What Would An Ethical Pandemic Look Like?
January 26, 2023 15:57 - 57 minutes - 46.2 MBAs sure as night follows day, we will face another pandemic, so how can we learn from the mistakes made during Covid-19, to ensure our response next time is not only more effective, but also more ethical? Today Mark and his guests Ilina Singh, James Wilson and John Prideaux dissect the British Government’s approach during the Covid-19 pandemic and explore the failure to engage seriously with the ethical challenges the pandemic raised, comparing the British approach with those in the USA an...
How Many Deaths Are Too Many?
January 19, 2023 10:47 - 1 hour - 54.1 MBFrom the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the British Government made it clear that a baseline level of mortality from Covid was being “priced in” to its decision making: on March 12th 2020, Boris Johnson stopped short of ordering the sort of lockdowns seen in other countries and warned that, “many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.” This approach belied a series of value judgements and trade-offs where people’s lives were set against other values, such as personal...
Covid Inequalities with Professor Sir Michael Marmot
January 11, 2023 15:53 - 47 minutes - 38.1 MBProfessor Sir Michael Marmot has been researching health inequalities and their relationship to social injustice for more than 50 years. He has long been a vocal critic of how health inequalities undermine social cohesion and the ability of health systems to respond effectively to pandemics and other health emergencies. Despite being an outspoken critic of austerity and the policies of successive Coalition and Conservative British governments, he was named a Companion of Honour in the 2023 N...
All In It Together: Were Unequal Outcomes Inevitable during Covid-19?
January 08, 2023 15:07 - 58 minutes - 46.7 MBWhen Covid-19 first struck the UK, the disease was described as “a great leveller”. But it soon became clear that Covid's impacts were not evenly distributed - we may have been in the same storm, but we were in different boats. Today Mark and his guests Charlotte Augst, Halima Begum and Beth Kamunge-Kpodo discuss unequal outcomes during the Covid-19. With Professor Sir Michael Marmot and Pastor Mick Fleming. Produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator. Presented by M...
Who Do We Trust in a Pandemic?
December 05, 2022 11:58 - 58 minutes - 46.7 MBThe coronavirus pandemic raised significant questions about public trust: trust in science, trust in politicians and trust in the public health messaging. Today Mark and his guests Anjana Ahuja; Sarah Cunningham-Burley; Charles Kwaku-Odoi and Christina Pagel discuss trust during the Covid-19 pandemic for this Going Viral special, produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With: Anjana Ahuja Anjana Ahuja is a contributin...
Collecting Covid
June 10, 2022 07:32 - 47 minutes - 38.4 MBMark visits the Science Museum in London to look at their Collecting Covid-19 objects and talk to Natasha McEnroe, the museum’s Keeper of Medicine, about their curatorial choices. The collection currently comprises over 400 items relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, including some major works of art. Hosted by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With: Natasha McEnroe, Keep of Medicine at Science Museum London @natashamcenroe https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/project/collecting-covid-19/...
Bearing Witness with Dr. Rachel Clarke
March 17, 2022 15:08 - 38 minutes - 30.9 MBOne of the most important functions of journalism is to bear witness to historic events. But in the case of the coronavirus pandemic, some of the most unflinching witnesses to the crisis that engulfed the NHS in 2020-2021 were doctors and frontline health workers. In this episode, the Oxford-based palliative care doctor, Rachel Clarke, recalls her experience of the first wave of Covid-19 as it ripped through the wards of her local hospital and emphasises the importance of holding the governm...
Commemorating Covid
June 07, 2021 16:18 - 35 minutes - 28.7 MBPandemics don’t tend to register in collective memory and there are almost no memorials to the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, but Covid-19 looks set to be different. Today Mark and Hannah visit the ‘National Covid Memorial Wall’ on the South Bank of the Thames in London, opposite the Houses of Parliament. Stretching 500 metres along Albert Embankment, the wall is an audacious work of guerrilla art, comprising of 150,000 hand-drawn hearts – one for every British victim of the coronavirus. T...
Reporting the Pandemic
May 10, 2021 09:27 - 49 minutes - 39.8 MBIn this special episode, supported by the Department of Journalism at City, University of London, Mark speaks to three UK-based health and science reporters about the highs and lows of covering the Covid-19 pandemic: Sarah Boseley, The Guardian’s Health Editor; Victoria Macdonald, Health and Social Care Editor at Channel 4 News and Shaun Lintern, the Independent’s Health Correspondent. What’s it been like being on the front line of the story of the century? And looking back, what do they w...
Vaxx and the Facts: The House that Jenner Built
April 23, 2021 10:22 - 34 minutes - 28 MBToday Mark explores the discovery of the first vaccine, against Smallpox in 1796, by the English country doctor Edward Jenner. With Owen Gower, General Manager of Dr. Jenner’s House Museum. Meanwhile, Melissa catches up with Mark’s progress in the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine trial, the very latest in vaccine science. From Smallpox to Covid-19: this is the house that Jenner built. Hosted by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With Owen Gower, General Manager, Dr. Jenner’s House, Museum and Gard...
Vaxx and the Facts: The Godfather of Vaccines
April 08, 2021 16:23 - 37 minutes - 29.8 MBThis is not the first time scientists have raced to develop vaccines against a new disease. In the 1960s, scientists faced a similar crisis over rubella, also known as German measles. Today Mark explores the race to create the rubella vaccine with Dr. Stanley Plotkin, dubbed ‘The Godfather of Vaccines’. In 1964, working in his Wistar Institute laboratory in Philadelphia, Stanley developed the rubella vaccine — the “R” in MMR— that’s now used across the world. And Melissa speaks to scienc...
Vaxx and the Facts: Premonitions of the Pandemic
February 12, 2021 09:08 - 33 minutes - 27.1 MBIt’s the science story of the century - how successful vaccines against Covid-19 have been created in under a year. Mark explores the back-story on how they did it so quickly with Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the NIAID and Sarah Gilbert from the Jenner Institute, Oxford. He gets the low down on the vaccine science from scientist Rob Swanda and he talks vaccines vs. variants with Wendy Barclay from Imperial College London. Hosted by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With Anthony S. Fauci, M....
Vaxx and the Facts: Operation Warp Speed
January 29, 2021 07:17 - 31 minutes - 24.9 MBOn New Year’s Eve 2020, Mark took his mum to St Charles’s Hospital in London’s North Kensington to get a shot of the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, almost a year after the coronavirus had emerged in Wuhan. It’s the science story of the century - how successful vaccines against Covid-19 have been created in under a year. Mark explores how they did it so quickly with Adrian Hill, Director of the Jenner Institute in Oxford behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. And against the backdrop of globa...
The Covid Files 7: Back to Wuhan
January 21, 2021 20:57 - 27 minutes - 21.9 MBDisease ecologist Peter Daszak speaks to Mark down the line from his hotel room in Wuhan, China, on day 4 of his quarantine. He’s a member of the World Health Organisation team currently investigating the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Hosted by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With @PeterDaszak the President of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to understanding the connections between human, animal, and environmental health. Facebook @EcoHealthNYC Twitter @EcoHealthNYC Instagram @ec...
The Covid Files 6: Spanish Flu Redux
June 10, 2020 20:15 - 37 minutes - 29.7 MBMark returns to a subject close to his heart: the Spanish Flu of 1918/19 and asks what can we learn from that pandemic of 100 years ago? With Wendy Moore and Hannah Mawdsley. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With Wendy Moore, author of The Knife Man; Wedlock; How to Create the Perfect Wife; and The Mesmerist. Her new book is ENDELL STREET: The Trailblazing Women who ran World War One’s Most Remarkable Military Hospital (Atlantic, UK). Published in the US (Basic Books) as NO MAN...
The Covid Files 5: Disease X, He Tried to Warn Us
May 13, 2020 20:54 - 39 minutes - 31.6 MBMark examines the origins of Covid-19 and why we failed to heed the warnings about coronaviruses with virus hunter Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With @PeterDaszak the President of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to understanding the connections between human, animal, and environmental health. EcoHealth Alliance works in 30 countries around the world to identify and study the threat of emerging zoonotic disease. EcoHea...
The Covid Files 4: Following the Science
May 05, 2020 20:40 - 56 minutes - 45.6 MBWith the UK recording the highest death toll from Covid-19 in Europe, Mark speaks to Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet and Robert Dingwall, medical sociologist at Nottingham Trent University, who sits on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) to help him make sense of the British government’s decision-making. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet medical journal www.thelancet.com / @richardhorton1 Robert...
The Covid Files 3: “They’re Trying to Control your Mind”
April 30, 2020 16:26 - 32 minutes - 26 MBMark debunks the latest #batshitcrazy conspiracy theories about Covid-19 with David Robert Grimes and Mike Jay. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With David Robert Grimes @drg1985 cancer researcher and vocal opponent of conspiracy theorists. His new book ‘The Irrational Ape’ on why we get everything from medicine to politics wrong and how we can stop ourselves falling victim to fools, liars and charlatans, will be out on Sept 5th 2020. Mike Jay @MikeJayNet author and cultur...
The Covid Files 2: How Are You Feeling?
April 23, 2020 17:33 - 38 minutes - 30.6 MBMark checks our emotional health with Thomas Dixon, Professor of History at Queen Mary University of London and Nancy Lublin, the founder & CEO of CrisisTextLine.org Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With @ProfThomasDixon Professor of History at Queen Mary University of London where he runs the Wellcome Trust funded 'Living With Feeling' project. His most recent book is Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears. You can find out more about his team's 'Developing Emotions...
The Covid Files 1: Corona by Numbers
April 10, 2020 08:42 - 53 minutes - 42.9 MBMark Honigsbaum talks facts, figures and projections about Covid-19 to Andrew Noymer, medical demographer and professor of public health at University of California Irvine. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With @AndrewNoymer Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @Melissafitzg Cover art by Patrick Blower www.blowercartoons.com Follow us on Twitter @GoingViral_pod
Adverse Events: Vaccines and the Media
July 12, 2019 22:12 - 57 minutes - 46.7 MBGoing Viral brings you a special episode about the role of the media in the growth of vaccine hesitancy, recorded live at City University of London on 26th June 2019. @CityUniLondon. In the last 18 months, Europe and the US have seen an upsurge in measles cases seemingly fuelled by growing distrust of the Measles Mumps and Rubella vaccine. Many media commentators blame the measles outbreaks on the activities of anti-vaxxers – in particular, misleading information about MMR and other vacc...
Pandemics Past and Present with Jeremy Farrar
October 03, 2018 20:21 - 27 minutes - 25.8 MBThe disease detectives talk pandemics, past and present, with Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust. How prepared are we for the next outbreak? Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum and Hannah Mawdsley @HannahMawdsley With: Dr. Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust. www.wellcome.ac.uk / @JeremyFarrar View the animation ‘How Pandemics Spread’ here: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-pandemics-spread The series is produced by Melissa FitzGerald @Melissafitzg Cover ar...
The Pandemic Fear Industry
September 26, 2018 19:15 - 28 minutes - 26.8 MBThe disease detectives investigate the persistent fear that another pandemic virus will emerge again to threaten humanity, in the way that the Spanish Flu did 100 years ago. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum and Hannah Mawdsley @HannahMawdsley With: Dr. Jeffery K. Taubenberger, Chief, Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, Deputy Chief, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, USA. www.irp.nih.gov...
Remembering the Forgotten Pandemic
September 19, 2018 13:56 - 20 minutes - 19.4 MBThe disease detectives investigate Britain’s only memorial to the Spanish flu pandemic, which leads them to the diary of flu fighter Dr. Basil Hood - offering a rare insight into the experiences of the brave medics who served on the frontline of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum and Hannah Mawdsley @HannahMawdsley With: Professor John Oxford, Blizzard Institute, Queen Mary College, London. Scientific Director, Oxford Media Medicine www.oxfordmediamed...
Global Impacts, Local Traces
July 19, 2018 12:27 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MBThe disease detectives investigate the global ramifications of the Spanish flu pandemic and discover places far removed from the European theatre of war, where the Spanish flu has left its trace. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum and Hannah Mawdsley @HannahMawdsley With: Shobana Jeyasingh, Choreographer. @SJeyasinghDance ‘Contagion’ is touring in 2018, for more information go to: www.shobanajeyasingh.co.uk Laura Spinney, Novelist, science journalist and author of ‘Pale Rider...
Some New Kind of Plague
July 10, 2018 14:53 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBThe disease detectives investigate the theory that the Spanish flu originated in America and another theory that it came from China: in both cases the flu was first identified as ‘plague’. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum and Hannah Mawdsley @HannahMawdsley With: Dr. David Morens, CAPT, United States Public Health Service, Senior Advisor to the Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, USA. www.demystifyingmedicine.od.nih.g...
The Blue Death
July 05, 2018 14:32 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBThe disease detectives investigate the theory that the Spanish flu originated in Etaples, Northern France in 1916. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum and Hannah Mawdsley @HannahMawdsley With: Professor John Oxford, Blizzard Institute, Queen Mary College, London. Scientific Director, Oxford Media Medicine www.oxfordmediamedicine.co Glyn Prysor, Chief Historian at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. @glynprysor Find out more about Etaples Military Cemetery: www.cwgc.org/f...
Resurrecting The Killer
June 28, 2018 21:28 - 24 minutes - 23.1 MBThe incredible story of how a team of scientists brought the deadly Spanish flu virus back to life. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum and Hannah Mawdsley @HannahMawdsley With: Dr. Jeffery K. Taubenberger, Chief, Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, Deputy Chief, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, USA. www.irp.nih.gov/pi/jeffery-taubenberger Dr. Peter Palese Horace W. Goldsmith Professo...
Bringing Up The Bodies
June 21, 2018 23:18 - 22 minutes - 21.3 MBHow bodies emerging from the past inspired the search for the secrets of the Spanish flu. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum and Hannah Mawdsley @HannahMawdsley With: Dr. Jeffery K. Taubenberger, Chief, Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, Deputy Chief, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, USA. www.irp.nih.gov/pi/jeffery-taubenberger Laura Spinney, Novelist, science journalist and author o...
Going Viral: Trail
June 07, 2018 17:54 - 30 seconds - 1.59 MBMark and Hannah introduce 'Going Viral', coming soon to iTunes.