Covid: One year on

Are there some foods that you just hate? Have you ever hated a food in the past but started liking it? We hear from a food expert and a dietitian about why there are some foods we just hate and even fear, and whether it's possible to learn to love them. Neil and Becca discuss thi ... Show More

Many of us are trying to be more careful with our food choices, both for our personal health and for the health of the planet in general. But did you know that the food we buy is closely linked to national security? Neil and Pippa hear from climate reporter and a chief executive ... Show More

How do you feel about being in a small room heated to a temperature of 80°C? Believe it or not, some people love it! There might be some health benefits to this hot habit too! Georgie and Neil hear from a BBC reporter and a professor from BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Health. You' ... Show More

Our conversation this time is about something which has been central to our lives around the world since the beginning of the year. We are speaking, of course, about the coronavirus pandemic. Let's get started with a conversation. 

A year ago today, the World Health Organisation officially declared the coronavirus outbreak a "pandemic". In reality, it'd been clear for some time that the SARS-CoV-2 virus wasn't going to go away anytime soon. Cases outside China had been growing fast and Italy was going into ... Show More

It's been about a year since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic. The world has learned a lot in that time — about how the virus spreads, who is at heightened risk and how the disease progresses. Today, Maddie walks us through some of these big lesso ... Show More

<p>A little over two years into a pandemic, the last thing you probably want to see is headlines announcing yet another disease spreading across the globe. And yet, here we are. Beginning in May 2022, an increasing number of cases of monkeypox have been reported in many countries ... Show More

More than six months into a shape-shifting pandemic that’s killed more than 454,000 people worldwide, it’s clear we are losing the battle against the outbreak. Most experts believe an effective vaccine won’t be ready until well into 2021. So how do we adjust our thinking from bea ... Show More

<p>As we will all need to be staying at home for a while longer yet due to the coronavirus I thought I would introduce what I think is the best strategy for learning English in the new year.</p> 

April 5, 1918. The first mention of a new influenza outbreak in Kansas appears in a public health report. That strain, later called the Spanish Flu, would go on to kill at least 50 million people worldwide. In a time before widespread global travel, how did this disease spread so ... Show More

As soon as the Coronavirus became a pandemic, people began making parallels to the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918, and reaching even further back to the black death of the middle ages. It makes sense--past pandemics may be our only reference point for whole populations being strick ... Show More