In a world that often looks at the bad news coming out of the developing world, Rosling was determined to spread the good news with his captivating presentations about extended life expectancy, falling rates of disease and infant mortality. He was fighting what he called the ‘post-fact era‘ of global health. He was passionate about global development and before he became famous he lived and worked in Mozambique, India and the Democratic Republic of Congo using data and his skills as a doctor to save lives. Despite ill health he also travelled to Liberia during the Ebola outbreak in 2014 to help gather and consolidate data to help fight the outbreak. On a personal level he was warm, funny and kind and will be greatly missed by a huge number of people.

This podcast first broadcast on 10 February in the series More or Less.

Image: Hans Rosling, Credit: Associated Press