Futuremakers

Latest Episodes:

S3 Ep10: History of Pandemics: Ebola Dec 13, 2020

Show notes

Peter begins the final episode of the series in 2014, at the onset of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Whilst that pandemic officially ended in 2016, this virus has caused a brutal outbreak nearly every year since. After his discussion at the start of the series about whether Ebola may have been the disease that caused the Plague of Athens, has Peter arrived back where he started?
This episode is part of our History of Pandemics season - follow Professor Peter Millican as he talks to researchers from around the world about some of the devastating pandemics humanity has experienced. Peter and his colleagues will discuss ten major outbreaks: from the Plague of Athens to the West African Ebola outbreak, via the Black Death, Smallpox and Cholera, and ask how these outbreaks have shaped society, what we may be able to learn from them today, and where we might be heading? Find out more at https://bit.ly/TheHistoryOfPandemics
Futuremakers is created in-house at The University of Oxford, and presented by Professor Peter Millican, from Hertford College. The voice actor for this episode was Benjamin Morel. The score for the series was composed and recorded by Richard Watts, and the series is written and produced by Ben Harwood and Steve Pritchard.

S3 Ep9: History of Pandemics: HIV and AIDS Dec 13, 2020

Show notes

In the ninth episode of our History of Pandemics season, Peter leaves the perils of influenza behind, only to discover an entirely new virus: HIV. Many of you may remember the emerging panic that became the media narrative around HIV and the disease it can lead to, AIDS, and in this episode Peter follows the story from the beginning, with medical experts who’ve worked on the front line of this pandemic since the early days.
This episode is part of our History of Pandemics season - follow Professor Peter Millican as he talks to researchers from around the world about some of the devastating pandemics humanity has experienced. Peter and his colleagues will discuss ten major outbreaks: from the Plague of Athens to the West African Ebola outbreak, via the Black Death, Smallpox and Cholera, and ask how these outbreaks have shaped society, what we may be able to learn from them today, and where we might be heading? Find out more at https://bit.ly/TheHistoryOfPandemics
Futuremakers is created in-house at The University of Oxford, and presented by Professor Peter Millican, from Hertford College. The voice actor for this episode was Mike MacDonald. The score for the series was composed and recorded by Richard Watts, and the series is written and produced by Ben Harwood and Steve Pritchard.

S3 Ep8: History of Pandemics: The 'Spanish' Flu Dec 13, 2020

Show notes

Peter arrives in the twentieth century, during the last years of the Great War, to a pandemic which you may have read a lot about during the early coverage of our current COVID-19 outbreak. After the Black Death, the so-called ‘Spanish’ Flu has one of the most famous monikers of any pandemic, but does it deserve such notoriety?
This episode is part of our History of Pandemics season - follow Professor Peter Millican as he talks to researchers from around the world about some of the devastating pandemics humanity has experienced. Peter and his colleagues will discuss ten major outbreaks: from the Plague of Athens to the West African Ebola outbreak, via the Black Death, Smallpox and Cholera, and ask how these outbreaks have shaped society, what we may be able to learn from them today, and where we might be heading? Find out more at https://bit.ly/TheHistoryOfPandemics
Futuremakers is created in-house at The University of Oxford, and presented by Professor Peter Millican, from Hertford College. The voice actor for this episode was Anna Wilson. The score for the series was composed and recorded by Richard Watts, and the series is written and produced by Ben Harwood and Steve Pritchard.

S3 Ep7: History of Pandemics: The 'Russian' Flu Dec 13, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Peter discusses a controversial outbreak... So-called 'Russian' Flu is either the first influenza pandemic we’ll be discussing, or it wasn’t the flu at all. It was either a disease which emerged from and then devastated the country it was named after, or an outbreak which the Russian people barely noticed at the time. It either deserves its place as the seventh pandemic we’re covering in the series, or it’s the pandemic that never was, an outlier in our historical narrative…
This episode is part of our History of Pandemics season - follow Professor Peter Millican as he talks to researchers from around the world about some of the devastating pandemics humanity has experienced. Peter and his colleagues will discuss ten major outbreaks: from the Plague of Athens to the West African Ebola outbreak, via the Black Death, Smallpox and Cholera, and ask how these outbreaks have shaped society, what we may be able to learn from them today, and where we might be heading? Find out more at https://bit.ly/TheHistoryOfPandemics
Futuremakers is created in-house at The University of Oxford, and presented by Professor Peter Millican, from Hertford College. The voice actor for this episode was Anna Wilson. The score for the series was composed and recorded by Richard Watts, and the series is written and produced by Ben Harwood and Steve Pritchard.

S3 Ep6: History of Pandemics: Cholera and John Snow Dec 13, 2020

Show notes

Peter makes it to the nineteenth century to discuss the achievements of John Snow - a man who either played a central role in the history of epidemiology, or was just one of many trying to tackle that centuries’ foremost threat; cholera. Peter discusses Snow's role, water pump handles, and how we may very well still be experiencing this devastating pandemic today.
This episode is part of our History of Pandemics season - follow Professor Peter Millican as he talks to researchers from around the world about some of the devastating pandemics humanity has experienced. Peter and his colleagues will discuss ten major outbreaks: from the Plague of Athens to the West African Ebola outbreak, via the Black Death, Smallpox and Cholera, and ask how these outbreaks have shaped society, what we may be able to learn from them today, and where we might be heading? Find out more at https://bit.ly/TheHistoryOfPandemics
Futuremakers is created in-house at The University of Oxford, and presented by Professor Peter Millican, from Hertford College. The voice actor for this episode was Benjamin Morel. The score for the series was composed and recorded by Richard Watts, and the series is written and produced by Ben Harwood and Steve Pritchard.

S3: Mid-series break: a message from Professor Sir John Bell Dec 06, 2020

Show notes

We'll be publishing the second half of our History of Pandemics series next week; featuring episodes on Cholera, the pandemic that wasn't, the so-called Spanish Flu, HIV/AIDS, and the West African Ebola outbreak. In the meantime, here's a short message from Oxford's Professor Sir John Bell on the importance of learning from past pandemics.
Please do continue to enjoy our first five stories, from the Plague of Athens to Smallpox, and tell everyone you know about the show! You can find out more at https://bit.ly/TheHistoryOfPandemics

S3 Ep5: History of Pandemics: Smallpox, and Jenner Nov 29, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to the eighteenth century, at a point when Europe is going through another major smallpox outbreak, a disease that by this point has been plaguing populations around the globe for centuries. Peter will discover why milkmaids may be to central to the story of vaccination, how smallpox features in popular contemporary literature and what Napoleon thought of an English physician called Edward Jenner.
This episode is part of our History of Pandemics season - follow Professor Peter Millican as he talks to researchers from around the world about some of the devastating pandemics humanity has experienced. Peter and his colleagues will discuss ten major outbreaks: from the Plague of Athens to the West African Ebola outbreak, via the Black Death, Smallpox and Cholera, and ask how these outbreaks have shaped society, what we may be able to learn from them today, and where we might be heading? Find out more at https://bit.ly/TheHistoryOfPandemics
Futuremakers is created in-house at The University of Oxford, and presented by Professor Peter Millican, from Hertford College. The voice actor for this episode was Anna Wilson. The score for the series was composed and recorded by Richard Watts, and the series is written and produced by Ben Harwood and Steve Pritchard.

S3 Ep4: History of Pandemics: The Great Plague Nov 29, 2020

Show notes

In the final plague episode of the series, Peter talks to his guests about the last major outbreak of this horrific disease in seventeenth-century England. Along the way they dispel some myths – for example it wasn’t the Great Fire of London that finally defeated the disease – and he drops in on one of the outbreaks most famous commentators – Samuel Pepys. Stay tuned to the end for a bonus conversation on Shakespeare’s experience during the plague outbreaks which led up to this final Great Plague.
This episode is part of our History of Pandemics season - follow Professor Peter Millican as he talks to researchers from around the world about some of the devastating pandemics humanity has experienced. Peter and his colleagues will discuss ten major outbreaks: from the Plague of Athens to the West African Ebola outbreak, via the Black Death, Smallpox and Cholera, and ask how these outbreaks have shaped society, what we may be able to learn from them today, and where we might be heading? Find out more at https://bit.ly/TheHistoryOfPandemics
Futuremakers is created in-house at The University of Oxford, and presented by Professor Peter Millican, from Hertford College. The voice actor for this episode was Tom Wilkinson. The score for the series was composed and recorded by Richard Watts, and the series is written and produced by Ben Harwood and Steve Pritchard.

S3 Ep3: History of Pandemics: The Black Death Nov 29, 2020

Show notes

Peter arrives in the fourteenth century and meets history's most notorious plague outbreak. The Black Death is a gruesome name well-matched with a grim disease, and as you'll find out, it's not just the name which has survived to the modern period...
This episode is part of our History of Pandemics season - follow Professor Peter Millican as he talks to researchers from around the world about some of the devastating pandemics humanity has experienced. Peter and his colleagues will discuss ten major outbreaks: from the Plague of Athens to the West African Ebola outbreak, via the Black Death, Smallpox and Cholera, and ask how these outbreaks have shaped society, what we may be able to learn from them today, and where we might be heading? Find out more at https://bit.ly/TheHistoryOfPandemics
Futuremakers is created in-house at The University of Oxford, and presented by Professor Peter Millican, from Hertford College. The voice actor for this episode was Tom Wilkinson. The score for the series was composed and recorded by Richard Watts, and the series is written and produced by Ben Harwood and Steve Pritchard.

S3 Ep2: History of Pandemics: The Plague of Justinian Nov 29, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to the Eastern Roman Empire in the sixth century. This time, Peter discusses a plague that historians and medical experts agree was likely the first plague pandemic humanity experienced. You may not have heard much about the emperor Justinian I, or why he’s got a plague outbreak named after him, but by the end of this episode you’ll hear just how devastating and long-lasting this pandemic was.
This episode is part of our History of Pandemics season - follow Professor Peter Millican as he talks to researchers from around the world about some of the devastating pandemics humanity has experienced. Peter and his colleagues will discuss ten major outbreaks: from the Plague of Athens to the West African Ebola outbreak, via the Black Death, Smallpox and Cholera, and ask how these outbreaks have shaped society, what we may be able to learn from them today, and where we might be heading? Find out more at https://bit.ly/TheHistoryOfPandemics

Futuremakers is created in-house at The University of Oxford, and presented by Professor Peter Millican, from Hertford College. The voice actor for this episode was Liz McCarthy. The score for the series was composed and recorded by Richard Watts, and the series is written and produced by Ben Harwood and Steve Pritchard.

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