Author, journalist, and hard hitting disease detective Maryn McKenna has been reporting on bad bugs since long before it was cool. In this episode, Maryn joins Lance and Matt to explore intersections of viral, bacterial, and fungal infections in the era of COVID-19. Even in the midst of a pandemic, the U.S. livestock and agriculture industry continues to overuse antibiotics critical to human health. If we don’t course correct soon, we run the risk of losing these drugs for good. Maryn offers her...
Feb 22, 2021•37 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Consumption, the Captain of all these Men of Death, the White Plague, the King’s Evil -- all names for the bacterial infection known today as Tuberculosis or TB. In the early nineteenth century, TB was one of the most common killers American adults, but since entering the antibiotic era, this once deadly disease has faded into the background of American life. Unfortunately, our eagerness to forget our past has allowed TB to continue to affect low and middle income countries across the globe. Dr....
Jan 26, 2021•32 min•Season 2Ep. 1
On this episode, co-hosts Matthew Wellington and Lance B. Price, interview Dr. Evgeni Sokurenko, MD, PhD., a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Washington and the Founder and Chairman of the Board at ID Genomics, Inc. Dr. Sokurenko’s work focuses on mechanisms of molecular adaptive evolution of genes in bacterial pathogens such as E. coli. In this episode, you will learn about the binding mechanisms that allow E. coli to attach to human tissues to cause urinary tract infections, muta...
Dec 18, 2020•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 12
This month our Pod takes on a new format. We decided to air the panel discussion organized by our podcast co-host, U.S. PIRG, titled: Antibiotics in Agriculture: Preventing the Next Pandemic. It was an hour-long, virtual event co-sponsored by Harvard Law School that featured a host of experts from a variety of fields including infectious disease, business, market investment, advocacy, and journalism. It was held on November 18 -- the first day of World Antibiotic Awareness Week. A great way to s...
Nov 19, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 11
On this episode, co-hosts, Matthew Wellington and Lance B. Price, along with U.S. PIRG’s Sydney Riess, interview Matt Kuhn, DVM, PhD, a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Kuhn’s expertise lies in dairy medicine, and his work has focused on the prevention of disease and the reduction of antibiotic use in cattle. In this episode, you will learn about the various challenges that farmers and veterinarians face with regards to antibiotic use on farms as w...
Oct 30, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 10
On this episode, co-host, Matthew Wellington, interviews Dr. Sameer Patel, pediatric infectious disease physician and Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. In this episode, they discuss what it means to be an advocate and a health professional, and you will learn about Dr. Patel's experience working on health policy advocacy as a health professional and its importance especially in today's health climate....
Sep 29, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 9
On this episode, co-host, Matthew Wellington, interviews Dr. David Wallinga, Senior Health Advisor at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Dr. Wallinga is a physician with over 20 years of experience working on policy and advocacy, and his current work focuses on antibiotic overuse in U.S. livestock production. In this episode, they discuss Better Burgers: Why It's High Time the U.S. Beef Industry Kicked It's Antibiotic Habit , a report from the NRDC that analyzes antibiotic overuse in ...
Aug 31, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 8
On this episode, co-hosts Lance B. Price and Matthew Wellington are back "together apart" (socially distanced, of course!) to discuss parallels between COVID-19 and antibiotic resistance. The co-hosts look at antibiotic resistance through the lens of COVID-19 by diving into the themes of isolationism, individualism, a lack of a coordinated national response to address current public health issues, and over-dependence on vaccine/antibiotic development, all of which threaten our ability to effecti...
Jul 29, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 7
In this episode of Superbugs Unplugged, co-host, Dr. Lance Price, interviews Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at the Los Angeles + University of Southern California Medical Center and medical director of biosciences for Los Angeles county. Dr. Spellberg has over 16 years of experience working on national antibiotic policies related to use and development. Today, you’ll learn about Dr. Spellberg’s national public policy work, the current state of the antibiotic industry, and present-day soci...
Jun 29, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 6
In this episode, co-host, Dr. Lance B. Price, interviews Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious disease professor in the division of Infectious Disease and Vaccinology at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Lee’s research focuses on diseases of urban slums, in which antimicrobial resistance is an emerging issue, but it’s his ground breaking work on the origins of antibiotic-resistant E. coli that cause urinary tract infections that is the focus of this episode. You’ll learn about the various type...
Apr 29, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In this episode, co-host, Dr. Lance B. Price interviews longtime friend, colleague, and microbiologist, Jay Graham, who is an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Graham is an expert in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and has been working to improve WASH in underdeveloped communities for more than 20 years. Today, you'll learn about Dr. Graham's recent research on antibiotic use in animals and the importance of WASH in addressing the challenge of antibiotic-r...
Mar 25, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 4
On this episode, co-hosts Lance B. Price from the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center and Matt Wellington from US PIRG dig into an annual report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that summarizes sales of antibiotics used in U.S. food animal production. The co-hosts explain both the significance and limitations of the report, which showed a nearly 10% increase in antibiotics sold for food animals from 2017 to 2018. Listeners will learn which animals species are "hogging" most of the anti...
Feb 25, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 3
On this episode, we are taking a closer look at the extremely real, human threat of antibiotic resistant infections, and discussing how momentum for beating these harmful bugs can start from just one person with a determination to find a solution. Co-host Matthew Wellington from U.S. PIRG interviewed Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, co-author of the book The Perfect Predator - A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug . Dr. Strathdee is the Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences, H...
Jan 06, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 2
This week, Dr. Lance Price and Matthew Wellington welcome listeners to the inaugural episode of their podcast and explain a bit about themselves, their respective organizations, and the rationale that sparked the creation of Superbugs Unplugged. You’ll learn about the growing dangers of drug-resistant infections and how the overuse of antibiotics in human medicine, food animal production and plant agriculture is causing these critical drugs to lose their effectiveness, putting us all at risk . Y...
Nov 14, 2019•29 min•Season 1Ep. 1
