The Lancet Voice

This episode of The Lancet Voice sets the stage for the arrival of one of the most influential figures in the history of public health, John Snow and explains how he revolutionised modern epidemiology during a devastating wave of cholera in London's Soho and how cholera is still a scourge today in many countries requiring a multisectoral response.

Click here to read the full articles:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)60830-2/fulltext

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673613608296/fulltext

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)60766-7/abstract

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02005-5/fulltext

https://johnsnowsociety.org/

Lecture link:

Tuesday 17 November 2026 - Pumphandle Lecture 2026: From outbreaks to endgame, the fight to end polio with Dr Hamid Jafari

https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/events/outbreaks-endgame-fight-end-polio-dr-hamid-jafari

The Lancet Voice is part of the Lancet Group podcast offering. 

Editorial team: Niall Boyce, Miriam Sabin, Jessamy Bagenal, Richard Horton, and Gavin Cleaver

Podcast editing: Matteo Simonetti

Visit https://www.thelancet.com/multimedia to learn more about our multimedia offering. 

Find the best science for better lives at thelancet.com

What's the truth behind media reports of people experiencing "AI psychosis" after interacting with chatbots? Editors Niall Boyce and Miriam Sabin are joined by psychiatrist Matthew Nour of Oxford University and Microsoft AI to separate fact from fiction, and understand more about the ways in which artificial intelligence might affect human mental health.

The Lancet Voice is part of the Lancet Group podcast offering. 

Editorial team: Niall Boyce, Miriam Sabin, Jessamy Bagenal, Richard Horton, and Gavin Cleaver

Podcast editing: Matteo Simonetti

Visit https://www.thelancet.com/multimedia to learn more about our multimedia offering. 

Find the best science for better lives at thelancet.com

287 million people live with viral hepatitis worldwide. But vaccination and treatment offer new hope that elimination is possible. Lancet editor Niall Boyce discusses progress and challenges with Dr John Ward, Director of the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination at the Task Force for Global Health.

Visit https://www.taskforce.org/viral-hepatitis/ and https://www.worldhepatitisday.org/ to find out more.

The Lancet Voice is part of the Lancet Group podcast offering. 

Editorial team: Niall Boyce, Miriam Sabin, Jessamy Bagenal, Richard Horton, and Gavin Cleaver

Podcast editing: Matteo Simonetti

Visit https://www.thelancet.com/multimedia to learn more about our multimedia offering. 

Find the best science for better lives at thelancet.com

Can an algorithm decide who sees a doctor first — and what happens when it gets the call wrong?

The NHS is rolling out AI triage tools and ambient scribes across general practice, promising to shorten waiting lists and free up clinician time. In this episode of The Lancet Voice, host Niall Boyce and Chloe Wilson, senior editor at The Lancet, cast a questioning eye over the initiative.

Chloe raises concerns about AI triage — including the risk of downgrading seemingly innocuous but important symptoms — and questions whether AI in health care is adding efficiency, or simply cutting costs. The hosts also examine ambient scribes in the consulting room, discussing how AI scribes may change clinical practice, or even deskill physicians.

The issue isn't whether AI can help the NHS — it's whether we're asking it to do the right things, and if we are implementing it in the right way.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

The Lancet Voice is part of the Lancet Group podcast offering. 

Editorial team: Niall Boyce, Miriam Sabin, Jessamy Bagenal, Richard Horton, and Gavin Cleaver

Podcast editing: Matteo Simonetti

Visit https://www.thelancet.com/multimedia to learn more about our multimedia offering. 

Find the best science for better lives at thelancet.com

On The Lancet Voice, host Niall Boyce and co-host Miriam Sabin are joined by Taissa Villa, editor-in-chief of The Lancet Regional Health Americas, and Professor Marcia de Castro — Andelot Professor of Demography and chair of the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University — to assess the state of health across Latin America.

2024 was dengue's worst year on record. Oropouche virus has broken out of the Amazon. Venezuela's earthquake exposed a health system already gutted by a decade of political crisis. PAHO estimates the combined burden of NCDs and mental health at seven trillion dollars — roughly the region's entire GDP. And US withdrawal from PEPFAR and the Global Fund now threatens malaria elimination programs that were within reach in Mesoamerica.

Yet Brazil's SUS remains the only free universal health system serving a population above 200 million, and Castro sees real grounds for hope in PAHO-led malaria elimination efforts.

The Lancet Voice is part of the Lancet Group podcast offering. 

Editorial team: Niall Boyce, Miriam Sabin, Jessamy Bagenal, Richard Horton, and Gavin Cleaver

Podcast editing: Matteo Simonetti

Visit https://www.thelancet.com/multimedia to learn more about our multimedia offering. 

Find the best science for better lives at thelancet.com

Retracted articles hit a high of 10,000 in 2023, representing an increase of almost ten times in ten years. The introduction of AI brings incredible benefits to science, but could also add to the seemingly endless tide of papers that are fraudulent, misleading, or just plain wrong.

What can journals such as The Lancet do to rise to this challenge, keeping the scientific record accurate, honest, and transparent? Editors Niall Boyce and Sabine Kleinert are joined by Professor Lex Bouter from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Professor Mai Har Sham of the Chinese University of Hong Kong to discuss a new Lancet Commission.

Click here to read the full article:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01528-4/fulltext

The Lancet Voice is part of the Lancet Group podcast offering. 

Editorial team: Niall Boyce, Miriam Sabin, Jessamy Bagenal, Richard Horton, and Gavin Cleaver

Podcast editing: Matteo Simonetti

Visit https://www.thelancet.com/multimedia to learn more about our multimedia offering. 

Find the best science for better lives at thelancet.com

The UK Government has just announced a ban on social media for under 16-year-olds. Why? Why now? And will it actually improve young people's health and wellbeing?

Lancet Editor Niall Boyce is joined by Esther Lau, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, to discuss the key issues and likely consequences.

The Lancet Voice is part of the Lancet Group podcast offering. 

Editorial team: Niall Boyce, Miriam Sabin, Jessamy Bagenal, Richard Horton, and Gavin Cleaver

Podcast editing: Matteo Simonetti

Visit https://www.thelancet.com/multimedia to learn more about our multimedia offering. 

Find the best science for better lives at thelancet.com

Bioethics are a matter of practical, everyday concern for physicians, and other health care providers, especially as medical science continues to advance, opening up new therapeutic possibilities. In this episode of The Lancet Voice, the bioethicist and oncologist, Ezekiel Emanuel, talks about applying bioethics to some of today's most pressing health problems, globally.

Click here to read the full article:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/piis0140-6736(09)60137-9/fulltext

The Lancet Voice is part of the Lancet Group podcast offering. 

Editorial team: Niall Boyce, Miriam Sabin, Jessamy Bagenal, Richard Horton, and Gavin Cleaver

Podcast editing: Matteo Simonetti

Visit https://www.thelancet.com/multimedia to learn more about our multimedia offering. 

Find the best science for better lives at thelancet.com

Manchuria, 1910. An outbreak of a mysterious illness has claimed tens of thousands of lives. But one doctor has a plan to stop it.

Niall and Miriam are joined by Dr Yvonne Ho to discuss the life and legacy of Dr Wu Lien-Teh, and the continuing importance of his story in today's world.

The Lancet Voice is part of the Lancet Group podcast offering. 

Editorial team: Niall Boyce, Miriam Sabin, Jessamy Bagenal, Richard Horton, and Gavin Cleaver

Podcast editing: Matteo Simonetti

Visit https://www.thelancet.com/multimedia to learn more about our multimedia offering. 

Find the best science for better lives at thelancet.com

While cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, almost half of the states of the US have now legalised it for recreational use. But what effect has this had on health, and how are researchers monitoring the situation?

Niall Boyce and Mariam Sabin from the Lancet chat with Professor Deborah Hasin, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Columbia University.

The Lancet Voice is part of the Lancet Group podcast offering. 

Editorial team: Niall Boyce, Miriam Sabin, Jessamy Bagenal, Richard Horton, and Gavin Cleaver

Podcast editing: Matteo Simonetti

Visit https://www.thelancet.com/multimedia to learn more about our multimedia offering. 

Find the best science for better lives at thelancet.com