The Lifeline Project

Sep 07 2024

The Lifeline Project Podcast artwork

Wait, it’s a musical about what!? The Lifeline Project explores the science and stories behind the musical, ’Lifeline’, a show about antibiotics, Alexander Fleming and the biggest current health crisis you might never have heard of - AntiMicrobial Resistance. In this podcast we explore this massive topic in global health through the eyes of scientists, patients, campaigners, writers and musicians. With AMR threatening to kill 10 million people a year by 2050 the time to act is now, and what better way to find out about this pressing social and scientific issue than through a musical and its accompanying podcast! So, what is AMR? How do we prevent it? And how on earth can a musical about antibiotics make any difference? The Lifeline Project is produced and hosted by Lifeline cast member, Graham Richardson, with original music from Lifeline Composer, Robin Hiley. The musical itself is running off Broadway at Signature Theatre from 28 Aug-28 Sep 2024 with tickets available from the website. www.lifelinemusical.com @lifelinemusical

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The Chorus

Sep 07 2024 42 mins

In this episode we talk to the chorus of healthcare professionals who take to the stage with the principal cast every night to tell the story of Jess and Alexander Fleming. This is the last episode in the series of ten which should give you a good introduction to how to talk about AMR from a scientific and social perspective, and give you an insight into how a highly collaborative

The New Lifeline

Aug 28 2024 40 mins

Lifeline has been in production for nearly a decade. In that time, much has changed but the core scientific and social message has always stayed the same. In this episode we talk to Robin Hiley, composer, Becky Hope-Palmer, book writer, and Dr Meghan Perry, scientific advisor who have been three of the people closest to the action making Lifeline what it is today. If you're interes

The Drugs Are In The Water

Aug 20 2024 44 mins

How do you fit the nearly hundred year history of antimicrobials in agriculture and the environment into one song? Buckle up. Talking about the antibiotic emergency under the banner of One Health means not only taking in the history of drugs in medicine but also the wild ways they have been used in animals and their effect on the environment. Helping us navigate this huge topic are

The Man Behind the Mould

Jul 02 2024 44 mins

Kevin Brown wrote the book on Alexander Fleming. Rob Hiley wrote the musical. Who better to ask about the man behind the mould? Alexander Fleming has been described as a man of few words and a poor public speaker and yet, after pencilling became widely available, he became the spokesperson for the drug travelling the world to plaudits and prizes. So what was he really like? And is

Dame Sally Davies, A Musical

Jun 18 2024 44 mins

One of our biggest supporters over the last few years has been Dame Sally Davies, the former haematologist, civil servant, Chief Medical Officer of the UK and the current master of Trinity College and UK’s Special Envoy on AMR. She’s also a legend. During her career, she has seen the face of medicine change, from a time when we had a choice of drugs from the medicine cabinet, t

There's More To TB Than Science

Jun 04 2024 40 mins

Ingrid was young and starting her career as a dietician when two years of hospitalisation, injections and recovery which changed her life forever. In this episode we focus on Tuberculosis, or TB, a disease with a long history in humans which is both curable and preventable but continues to kill 1.2 million people every year. It’s also got some pretty nasty resistant forms of the

Jess, Julian and Aaron

May 21 2024 32 mins

Jess is a doctor, Aaron is a patient, Julian is in a position of power. Together, they are the three friends whose story is at the heart of the show. Anyone from any background can become an antimicrobial steward, someone who spreads the word about AMR and encourages people to use antimicrobials efficiently. When Aaron gets sick, all three of the friends explore stewardship and wha

The Billion Dollar Question

May 14 2024 31 mins

AMR is a problem with a plethora of solutions...and plenty of barriers to reach them. In this episode we look at the role innovation can play – innovating new antibiotics, relatively unexplored treatments and preventing infection in the first place. So how expensive is it to make a new antibiotic? Are viruses actually our friends? And what does it have to do with the whales? Feat

Who Killed Mrs X!?

May 07 2024 39 mins

Who killed Mrs X? Was it her husband, infecting her with a resistant bacterium? Was it the pharmacist, who sold Mr X the antibiotics? Or was it the system that allowed him to get the antibiotics in the first place? In this episode we delve into the world of antimicrobial resistance and antibiotics, finding out about the link between the two and how AMR is making our medicines ineff

My-crobes and Your-crobes

Apr 30 2024 42 mins

The Lifeline project is a podcast exploring the science and process behind the musical, Lifeline, a show about antibiotics, Alexander Fleming, and the biggest current global health crisis you might never have heard of. The first episode is a potted history of the show and it's principal cast members - not the actors, the microbes that help make their bodies function. From the patho