When Science Finds a Way

As the world gets hotter and hotter, so do we - and just like crops and wildlife, we're struggling to cope with what extreme heat does to our bodies. Every year temperatures reach new records, and the way we live, work and rest are changing to accommodate it.

Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre and chair of the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance, talks Alisha through the realities of what heat stress does to us, how workers across the globe - from India to the US - are feeling the heat, and the tangible solutions being implemented globally to increase resilience. They discuss how women are disproportionately affected by this issue, and hear from the market traders of Freetown, Sierra Leone, a city on the front line of the climate crisis. They also meet the capital's Chief Heat Officer, who's part of an international network of women working to protect their city's most vulnerable communities from the risks of rising temperatures.

In the 1970s, when a heterosexual couple divorced, courts almost always awarded child custody to the mother, except in one scenario: when the mother had come out as a lesbian.

Professor Susan Golombok was determined to challenge these prejudices and to shine a light on the realities of same-sex parenting. She began studying a range of different family structures to build up a body of evidence which, over the course of her life, has had a tangible impact on everyday families around the world

In this episode, Alisha is in conversation with Susan about the influence and breadth of her work, from broadening societal perceptions to changing laws. We also hear from a couple who took part in the research and learn why it was so important to them, and the legacy it has left for families everywhere.

Since the discovery of penicillin in the early 20th century, we've seen the risk of minor infections virtually disappear. But after years of antibiotics being abused and overused, we now face a silent pandemic where the treatments we rely on no longer work.

The potential scale of antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is staggering, and there is a lack of awareness of just how dangerous it could be. Alisha speaks to Dr Anand Anandkumar, an engineer turned biotechnologist, to correct the misconceptions around AMR, and discover what we can do about it. We'll also hear from John Kariuki in Kenya, whose own experience with AMR almost cost him his life, and Benard Wanyama, whose project is treating patients with infections and monitoring the spread of AMR.

Together, they make a powerful case for urgent and collective action to stem the tide of superbugs.