Merle and Lee discuss a recent conference on epidemics in the first millennium of the common era they both participated in at Georgetown University (in Washington DC). They begin with an overview of the conference itself - its topic and structure - as well as the people they met, include quite a few who were already guests on the show (and a few others who will be guests on the show in the next few episodes). They discuss some of the topics of the talks in the conference and how the many scholars who work on mostly premodern diseases from different disciplines in certain times and places who came together and demonstrated the diverse approaches in this dynamic field of studies. They finish the episode with a brief outline of some of the future topics the podcast will cover.