Acute severe asthma is common. The global prevalence, morbidity and mortality, and economic burden caused by asthma have progressively increased over the last few decades. About 300 million people worldwide currently have asthma. About 180,000 deaths annually are caused by asthma. And most asthma deaths are preventable. So it is important that we get the diagnosis and management of this condition right. To find out more about this problem and what we can do about it, please do listen to his podcast interview with Richard Russell, Specialty Registrar in Respiratory Medicine, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, UK. Richard is one of the authors of our topic on acute asthma on BMJ Best Practice. Competing interests: RR has received support from Chiesi.