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Although not the first episode that we recorded we figured it made sense to go live with the most apt disease. It's one with an incredible history, a lot of which you will know but some of which you might not!
Enjoy!
Theme by Barbarian Hermit
Main Artwork by Dafydd Jones
References
Ansari, I., Grier, G., & Byers, M. (2020). Deliberate release: Plague – A review. Journal of Biosafety and Biosecurity, 2(1), 10–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobb.2020.02.001
Barbieri, R. (2020). Yersinia pestis: The natural history of plague. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 34(1). https://doi.org/10.1128/cmr.00044-19
Britannica. (2023, May 14). Black Death - Cause and outbreak. Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death/Cause-and-outbreak
Butler, T. (2014). Plague history: Yersin’s discovery of the causative bacterium in 1894 enabled, in the subsequent century, scientific progress in understanding the disease and the development of treatments and vaccines. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 20(3), 202–209. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-0691.12540
CDC. (2024, May 15). Signs and symptoms of plague. CDC. Plague. https://www.cdc.gov/plague/signs-symptoms/index.html
Cost-effective treatment for bubonic plague shown to be highly effective and. (2025, August 7). Lshtm. https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2025/cost-effective-treatment-bubonic-plague-shown-be-highly-effective
Cox, D. (2024, March 24). How bubonic plague rewired the human immune system. Www.Bbc.Com. https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20240220-bubonic-plague-did-the-black-death-rewire-our-immune-system
Glatter, K., & Finkelman, P. (2020). History of the plague: An ancient pandemic for the age of covid-19. The American Journal of Medicine, 134(2), 176–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.08.019
Heckel, J., & Bureau, I. N. (2022, October 27). Tracing the roots of the black death. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Illinois. https://las.illinois.edu/news/2022-10-27/tracing-roots-black-death
Ibn Khaldun. (2022). An infallible criterion | Ibn Khaldun. Lapham’s Quarterly. https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/infallible-criterion
Ibn Khaldun | oxford centre for Islamic studies. (2026). Oxcis.Ac.Uk. https://www.oxcis.ac.uk/publication/ibn-khaldun
Irving, M. (2026, July 22). We may finally have a vaccine against the plague, with two new vaccines showing 100% effectiveness in mice. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/new-plague-vaccines-100-effective-against-the-deadly-disease-in-mice
Justinianic plague was nothing like flu and may have hit England before constantinople. (2021, November 22). University of Cambridge. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/justinianic-plague-was-nothing-like-flu-and-may-have-hit-england-before-constantinople
Lei, C., & Kumar, S. (2022). Yersinia pestis antibiotic resistance: A systematic review. Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives, 13(1), 24–36. https://doi.org/10.24171/j.phrp.2021.0288
Mckenna, D. (2016, November 5). Eyam plague: The village of the damned. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35064071
Pearse, R. (2017, May 10). John of Ephesus describes the justinianic plague. Roger Pearse. https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2017/05/10/john-of-ephesus-describes-the-justinianic-plague
Plague: What is it, how do you get it & symptoms. (2022, August 22). Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17782-plague
Randremanana, R. V., Raberahona, M., Bourner, J., Rajerison, M., Edwards, T., Randriamparany, R., Fehizoro Razafindratsinana, T., Razananaivo, L. H., Zadonirina, G., Mayouya-Gamana, T., Salam, A. P. A., Mangahasimbola, R. T., Andrianaivoarimanana, V., Pesonel, E., Rakotoarivelo, R. A., Randria, M. J. de D., Horby, P., & Olliaro, P. (2025). Ciprofloxacin versus aminoglycoside–ciprofloxacin for bubonic plague. New England Journal of Medicine, 393(6), 544–555. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2413772
Spyrou, M. A. (2022). The source of the black death in fourteenth-century Central Eurasia. Nature, 606(7915), 718–724. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04800-3
Wheelis, M. (2002). Biological warfare at the 1346 siege of Caffa. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 8(9), 971–975. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid0809.010536
World Health Organization. (2022, July 7). Plague. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/plague
From the publisher's feed
Three sisters, two hypochondriacs, one disease geek. A show discussing the history of notorious diseases and exploring how we feel about them.