In the 1980s, as HIV/AIDS ravaged queer communities and communities of color in the United States and beyond, a straight white teenager named Ryan White emerged as the face of the epidemic. Diagnosed with hemophilia at birth, Ryan contracted HIV through contaminated blood products. In 1985, he became a household name after he was barred from attending his In ... Show More
Nov 19
Carl Benedikt Frey, "How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations" (Princeton UP, 2025)
In How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations (Princeton University Press, 2025), Carl Benedikt Frey challenges the conventional belief that economic and technological progress is inevitable. For most of human history, stagnation was the norm, and even tod ... Show More
54m 29s
Dec 2023
Jenny Trinitapoli, "An Epidemic of Uncertainty: Navigating HIV and Young Adulthood in Malawi" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
A decade-long study of young adulthood in Malawi demonstrates the impact of widespread HIV status uncertainty, laying bare the sociological implications of what is not known.
An Epidemic of Uncertainty: Navigating HIV and Young Adulthood in Malawi (U Chicago Press, 2023) advance ... Show More
39 m
Feb 2024
Laurence Ralph, "Sito: An American Teenager and the City That Failed Him" (Grand Central Publishing, 2023)
In September of 2019, Luis Alberto Quiñonez—known as Sito— was shot to death as he sat in his car in the Mission District of San Francisco. He was nineteen. His killer, Julius Williams, was seventeen. It was the second time the teens had encountered one another. The first, five y ... Show More
48m 50s
Nov 2024
HIV Awareness | 2 Campaigners on Living With HIV & Breaking The Stigma
<p>Despite being nearly 45 years on from the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, HIV remains one of the most misunderstood diseases. To help sort fact from fiction and understand what it’s like living with HIV, Charlotte Collins is joined by campaigner Sue Hunter, who was diagnosed in 20 ... Show More
48m 39s
Jul 2024
Raymond Schinazi on revolutionising treatments for killer viruses
In recent decades, we've taken huge steps forward in treating formerly fatal viruses: with pharmacological breakthroughs revolutionising treatment for conditions such as HIV, hepatitis and herpes. Raymond Schinazi has played a big role in that revolution. Ray was born in Egypt, w ... Show More
28m 39s
Feb 2024
'Women Don’t Get AIDS, They Just Die From It'
From the very earliest days of the epidemic, women got infected with HIV and died from AIDS — just like men. But from the earliest days, this undeniable fact was largely ignored — by the public, the government and even the medical establishment. The consequences of this blindspot ... Show More
44m 5s
Jun 2024
The Aftermath: The Death of Freddie Mercury
New Guest Expert! On this week’s Aftermath, Rebecca speaks with Dr. Marika Cifor about the evolution of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. Author of Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS, Dr. Cifor describes the social, political and structural climate in Ame ... Show More
30m 24s
May 2024
Infected blood scandal, Anita Pallenberg, Feminist theatre
<p>The long awaited final report of the public inquiry into the infected blood scandal is published today, The inquiry was announced in 2017 after years of campaigning by victims. From the 1970s to the early 1990s, approximately 30,000 people were infected with blood contaminated ... Show More
56m 28s