Infectious Historians

Jan 24 2025 131 ep. 64 mins 1.1k

Infectious Historians Podcast artwork

Covering infectious diseases through history from plague to COVID-19.

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Episode 130 - Reading and Caregiving during Covid with Robert Zaretsky

Jan 24 2025 72 mins

Robert Zaretsky (University of Houston) joins the Infectious Historians to reflect on his experiences during Covid as he read “plague literature” and volunteered as an aide at a nursing home. The interview begins with Robert reflecting on his thinking during Covid and how he moved from reading history to literature. The conversation continues by moving between Robert’s volu

Episode 129 - Modern Flu with Michael Bresalier

Jan 03 2025 71 mins

Michael Bresalier (Swansea University) discusses his work on the modern flu with Merle and Lee. Michael begins with talking about influenza in general and how the virus is constantly changing. The conversation then moves to focus on the annual flu shot - including its composition and how it is manufactured. Michael answers questions about a few other topics - including the impact o

Episode 128 - Medieval Recipes with Claire Burridge

Dec 20 2024 65 mins

Claire Burridge (University of Oslo) comes on the podcast to discuss her work on “medical minitexts” such as recipe added to medieval manuscripts otherwise unrelated to medicine. The conversation begins with a broad framing of the period of and the genre of medical manuscripts before zooming into some of the recipes that address a variety of health issues. Claire reflects on th

Episode 127 - Infectious Diseases and Podcasting with Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann Updyke

Sep 12 2024 70 mins

Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann Updyke, hosts of This Podcast Will Kill You, probably the first podcast on diseases - join Merle and Lee to reflect on podcasting and infectious diseases over the past several years. The conversation traces the beginnings of Erin and Erin’s podcast and the reason why they decided to launch it. Erin and Erin talk about how things changed since the begin

Episode 126 - South Asian Medicine with Anthony Cerulli

Aug 31 2024 65 mins

Anthony Cerulli (University of Wisconsin - Madison) joins the podcast to discuss his work on medicine in South Asia, focusing on ayurvedic medicine in premodernity. After some basic background contextualizing south Asian medicine, Anthony provides an overview of the three foundational texts for it. The conversations touches upon subjects such as the role of the patients, how healin

Episode 125 - Pandemic Politics during Covid-19 with Shana Gadarian

Jun 28 2024 68 mins

Shana Gadarian (Syracuse University) joins the infectious historians to discuss her book on politics and their influence on behavior during Covid-19. The conversation begins with Shana’s decision to work on the behavior of Americans during Covid-19 early in the pandemic and she reflects on the process of writing the book as events were still unfolding. She explains the methodolog

Episode 124 - Emotions and Plague with Philippa Nicole Barr

Jun 09 2024 74 mins

Philippa Nicole Barr (Australia National University) speaks to the Infectious Historians about her work on the public emotions surrounding the outbreak of the third plague pandemic in Australia. Philippa frames the discussion by providing some background about Australia at the turn of the 20th century and how plague reached Australia and led to the 1900 outbreak. She then explains

Episode 123 - Plague and Astrology with Michelle Pfeffer

May 18 2024 76 mins

Michelle Pfeffer (University of Oxford) comes on the podcast to present her work on astrology in the context of the second plague pandemic. The conversation begins with a brief discussion of the second plague pandemic and some of the cultural reactions to it. Michelle then speaks about public health and the question of its origins, before moving into astrology as a complex body of

Episode 122 - Smallpox and Virgin Soil Epidemics with Jason Opal

Apr 21 2024 67 mins

Jason Opal (McGill University) joins the Infectious Historians. Jason begins by discussing the massive impact of disease on the Americas between the 15th and 18th centuries, while also acknowledging the realization of this history in the 1970s. He also touches upon the concept of “virgin soil” epidemics. The second part of the episode focuses on inoculation against smallpox in

Episode 121 - A Special Journal Issue on Pandemics with Neeraja Sankaran and Stephen Weldon

Mar 22 2024 73 mins

Neeraja Sankaran (National Centre for Biological Sciences-TIFR) and Stephen Weldon (University of Oklahoma) join the Infectious Historians to discuss a recent special journal issue they edited. The issue includes many studies about histories of disease, pandemics and their impact around the world and across time, and reflections on how people have studies these events in the past.