We return to the beginning of the global Aids crisis and explore the personal and political struggles of the epidemic, as it unfolded in two very different countries – the United States and South Africa – and hear stories from people who fought through it, and survived. The series begins in the USA, where 40 years ago the Centers for Disease Control published a memo flagging a rare pneumonia found in five previously healthy, young gay men in California. Two of the men had died. These would be the first recorded cases of Aids in the world – a disease which would go on to kill 35 million people.