Staph Retreat

About this episode

This episode explores the challenges of antibiotic resistance and a historical secret that may change our understanding of progress.

A strange brew that's hard to resist, even for a modern day microbe.In the war on devilish microbes, our weapons are starting to fail us. The antibiotics we once wielded like miraculous flaming swords seem more like lukewarm butter knives. But in this episode, originally released in 2015, we follow an odd couple, of a sort, to a storied land of elves and dragons. There, they uncover a 1,000-year-old secret that makes us reconsider our most basic assumptions about human progress and wonder: what if the only way forward is backward? Special thanks to Steve Diggle, Professor Roberta Frank, Alexandra Reider and Justin Park (our Old English readers), Gene Murrow from Gotham Early Music Scene, Marcia Young for her performance on the medieval harp and Collin Monro of Tadcaster and the rest of the Barony of Iron Bog.Can’t get enough of that sweet, sweet antibiotic resistance content? Then you’ll be over the moon about next week’s release. It’s the podcast cut of our most recent installment of our live show series called Viscera. This one features executive editor Soren Wheeler and Avir Mitra, and it’s all about how our millenia's-long war against bacteria came to a tipping point in this…

People in this episode

Host: Latif Nasser

Topics covered

• antibiotic resistance
• microbiology
• human progress
• historical secrets
• cultural history

Keywords

• antibiotics
• microbes
• resistance
• history
• culture
• progress

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Viscera

Places: Tadcaster, Barony of Iron Bog

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