In Conversation

In this episode, we discuss vaccine hesitancy, what really makes people unsure about accepting vaccines, and whether science communicators can do anything to heal the relationship between the public and health organizations. We are in conversation with Prof. Maya Goldenberg, who is a professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and specializes in the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy, and reporter Aaron Khemchandani, a science communication MSc student at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, who has studied the phenomenon of mistrust in science.

For World Hepatitis Day, Dr. Hilary Guite discusses hepatitis C's journey, from discovery to cure. She talks with Prof. Graham Foster, professor of hepatology at Queen Mary University of London, and Rachel Halford, CEO of the Hepatitis C Trust, who discusses the stigma surrounding the disease and shares her treatment experience. In this conversation, these experts also explore what the future may hold — in both educational efforts and treatments — for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and whether elimination might be possible.

In this podcast, presenter Dr. Hilary Guite and feature editor Dr. Maria Cohut discuss dementia, how it can manifest, and what researchers are doing to better understand this syndrome. Our guests are Dr. Kamar Ameen-Ali, a lecturer in biomedical science at Teesside University in the United Kingdom specializing in neurodegenerative diseases, and Paula Field, a caregiver for her mother, who lives with Alzheimer’s disease.

As part of Mental Health Awareness month, Dr. Hilary Guite discusses the neuroscience behind anxiety and depression with Dr. Jacques Ambrose, the director of Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center. They also consider the effects of existing and new treatment approaches, such as psychedelic drugs and ketamine. For this conversation, Hilary is also joined by Olivia, who has long-standing anxiety and depression, and Yasemin Nicola Sakay, Medical News Today’s global news editor.

In this installment of our podcast, we discuss climate change and how it affects health, directly and indirectly, from deepening food insecurity to facilitating the spread of infectious diseases. Our guests are Prof. David Pencheon, honorary professor of health and sustainable development at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and founder of the Sustainable Development Unit for NHS England, and Dr. Marina Romanello, a research fellow at the University College London Institute for Global Health and research director of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change.

Fragments of the song "From Green to Red," featured in our podcast, were used with the permission of the artist, Beatie Wolfe.

Earlier this year, the most compelling evidence yet that the Epstein-Barr virus may cause multiple sclerosis (MS) appeared in the journal Science. In this installment of the In Conversation podcast, Dr. Hilary Guite asks Dr. Marianna Cortese, research associate at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-author of the study, about its findings and implications. Could it lead to better treatments for MS? Dr. Guite also hears from Dr. Antje Ronneberger, a recently retired family doctor, about her lived experience with MS.

In our latest In Conversation podcast, we discuss the most recent findings about long COVID’s cardiovascular implications, with a focus on a puzzlingly common syndrome: postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). The podcast features Dr. Lesley Kavi, trustee and chair of PoTS UK, cardiovascular medicine specialist Dr. Artur Fedorowski, Dr. Tae Chung, director of the Johns Hopkins POTS Program, and Angela Meriquez Vázquez, COVID-19 long hauler and Body Politic president.

Winter pressures and COVID-19 have catalyzed a blood supply crisis around the world. As part of National Blood Donor Month in the United States, Dr. Hilary Guite investigates blood transfusions with Maria Cohut, Medical News Today’s feature editor, and Dr. Baia Lasky, medical director of the American Red Cross. Hilary and Maria also speak with Shaun, a blood donor, about the process of giving blood, and hear from blood transfusion recipient-turned-donor, Brian.

In this podcast, Medical News Today’s editors — Tim Newman, Ana Sandoiu, Maria Cohut, and Yasemin Sakay — discuss some of 2021’s most striking research and controversial topics, including bacteria-eating viruses, how systemic racism affects visual representations of skin conditions, what we know about COVID-19 vaccines’ reported impact on menstrual cycles, and the importance of safety guidance and restrictions in the pandemic timeline.

You can follow our editors on Twitter: @MNT_Tim, @MNT_AnaSandoiu, @MNT_MariaCohut, and @MNT_Yazz.

Now that 100 years have passed since the discovery of insulin, Dr. Hilary Guite investigates the past, present, and future of this wonder drug. Maria Cohut, Medical News Today’s feature editor, explores the discovery of insulin and asks Virginie, who is living with type 1 diabetes, about the challenges of being dependent on the injectable therapy. Also, Dr. Tom Barber, associate professor at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and an honorary consultant endocrinologist, explains how insulin regimens can mimic the natural actions of the hormone and why it is so important to provide insulin access to all who need it.

Read more at medicalnewstoday.com/articles/in-conversation-podcast.