Superbugs Unplugged

In this episode, co-hosts Lance Price and Jay Graham interview Erta Kalanxhi of the One Health Trust to discuss her new paper, The Value of Vaccines to Mitigate Antimicrobial Resistance -- Evidence from Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Together, they discuss how vaccines can save lives while lowering the risk of antibiotic resistance.  A win-win for everyone! Read the report. Visit the One Health Trust's website and check out their blogs!

In this episode, we introduce our new co-host Dr. Jay Graham, Associate Professor in Residence of Environmental Health Sciences, at the University of California, Berkley  School of Public Health. Together, with Dr. Lance Price, they discuss a new study that suggests that Escherichia coli and other disease-causing microbes are passing easily between humans and animals in Cambodia, a country where clean water, sanitation and hygienic controls are lacking in many regions. The continuous exchange, along with unregulated antibiotic use, leads to the emergence and spread of drug-resistant E. coli.Our guest is Maya Nadimpalli who, along with colleagues, conducted the research in Phnom Penh, an urban area where humans and animals are often living in close proximity without clean water or other environmental controls that help prevent the spread of E. coli and other potentially dangerous microbes. Check our the paper here and ESPECIALLY look at the graphics.To learn more about our new co-host, check out his bio. To learn more about co-host, Lance Price, click here. 

We'll see you next month with a brand new episode and co-host. Enjoy listening to this episode from 2021 on the fascinating and terrifying world of fungal infections.We spend a lot of time talking about antibiotic resistance, but lately, something else has caught our attention -- antifungal resistance! Thanks to the changing climate and increased fungicide use, a couple of nasty fungi have begun developing resistance genes that could make fungal infections in people untreatable. When did this happen? How bad is the threat? What are the solutions? As always, co-hosts Matt and Lance have lots of questions. Fortunately, Dr. Tom Chiller, Chief of the Mycotic Diseases Branch for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has lots of answers.  Join us for an exciting conversation with the CDC about the wild world of fungi. 

This episode first aired on March 25, 2020. We are re-airing it during our summer hiatus. We hope you enjoy listening. In this episode, co-host, Dr. Lance B. Price interviews longtime friend, colleague, and microbiologist, Jay Graham, who is an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Graham is an expert in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and has been working to improve WASH in underdeveloped communities for more than 20 years. Today, you'll learn about Dr. Graham's recent research on antibiotic use in animals and the importance of WASH in addressing the challenge of antibiotic-resistant diseases.

This episode first aired in January 2021. We are taking the summer off as we search for a new podcast co-host. We're re-airing some of our most listened to episodes. Enjoy! Consumption, the Captain of all these Men of Death, the White Plague, the King's Evil -- all names for the bacterial infection known today as Tuberculosis or TB. In the early nineteenth century, TB was one of the most common killers American adults, but since entering the antibiotic era, this once deadly disease has faded into the background of American life. Unfortunately, our eagerness to forget our past has allowed TB to continue to affect low and middle income countries across the globe. Dr. Carole Mitnick, Sc.D, Professor of Global Health & Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School  reminds us that Tuberculosis, and super-resistant tuberculosis, kills around 1.4 million people globally each year.  Continuing to deprioritize this nasty bug will only come back to bite us. To our amateur historians out there, give us a shout in the comments if you can figure out what turned Lance's Aunt Navis blue. 

This was a sad episode for our co-hosts Dr. Lance B. Price and Matt Wellington as well as our producer, Laura Rogers. In this episode we bade farewell to Matt who is leaving U.S. PIRG after 10 years to serve as the Associate Director for the Maine Public Health Association(his home state). In addition to saying goodbye, we reminisced about some of his favorite episodes including  “CDC on the Fungal Kingdom: Full of Friends and Enemies” and “Designing the Perfect Predator: Phage Therapy.” Fear not, Superbugs Unplugged will continue. We're taking a summer hiatus, but will have a fresh episode for you in September. We'll repost some of our most listened to episodes over the summer. We hope you will listen and encourage others to do the same!

In this episode, hosts Dr. Lance B. Price and Matthew Wellington discuss an op ed they co-authored that was published in STAT News.  The piece is titled "The window is closing to stop deadly drug-resistant fungi like Candida auris" and discusses just what you think it does. The co-hosts discuss other fungal and bacterial infections and the need for better surveillance systems in the US so we better prepared for the next public health emergency. Read the op ed. 

In our March 2023 episode, Matt Wellington interviews his co-host, Dr. Lance B. Price, about a new study he co-authored that establishes a link between E. coli in raw meat and urinary tract infections in people. First, we hear about how these infections occur in people and some steps we can take to mitigate our risk. Next, Dr. Price addresses the “shared responsibility” of reducing the spread of E. coli and other foodborne pathogens and describes how government agencies can do their part through enhanced surveillance and vaccination research. To wrap up the episode, Dr. Price offers his outlook on our whole food system and highlights other opportunities for improvement. 

For our February episode, you'll hear the recording of a recent PIRG webinar, "How States can Protect Life-saving Antibiotics". First, each panelist, listed below, shares his/her perspective on the antibiotic resistance crisis. Next, the group explores the connection between antibiotic resistance and animal agriculture through moderator and audience questions. Finally, the panel turns to state action, including the Transparent and Responsible Antibiotic Use Act, which has recently been introduced in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly. You'll hear from:Matt Wellington, Public Health Campaigns Director, PIRGRaya Carr, Shepherdess and Events & Project Coordinator, Mint Creek FarmMadeleine Kleven, Safe and Healthy Food Program Associate, FACTDr. Sameer Patel, Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Director, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of ChicagoTune in here to listen to the discussion!

In our January episode of Superbugs Unplugged, co-hosts Matt Wellington and Louis Sokolow chat with Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and Director of the Yale Collaboration for Regulatory Rigor, Integrity, and Transparency (CRRIT). First, we hear about Dr. Ramanchandran's work with CRRIT to ensure that FDA-approved medical products are sufficiently safe and accessible. Next, we do a deep dive into the PASTEUR Act, a piece of legislation that would incentivize antibiotic development through government contracts with companies that receive FDA approval for a new antibiotic. Dr. Ramachandran provides her perspective and walks us through the flaws she sees in the bill, and we wrap up with a discussion of alternatives to PASTEUR. Tune in here to listen to the conversation! 

In this episode of Superbugs Unplugged, our guest, Dr. Erin Duffy, discusses the global health threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and why and how her non-profit, CARB-X, is investing in diverse products to help overcome common challenges faced in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Dr. Duffy is the Chief of R&D at CARB-X, a global biopharmaceutical accelerator for the discovery and early development of products to prevent, diagnose and treat resistant bacterialinfections. Prior to CARB-X, Dr. Duffy served as Chief Scientific Officer of Melinta Therapeutics.

In this episode we talk with Kevin Outterson the Executive Director and Principal Investigator of CARB-X about our need for the development of antibiotics. He is Professor of Law and N. Neil Pike Scholar of Health and Disability Law at Boston University School of Law, where he leads multi-disciplinary teams to solve global health issues. 

Our guest this month is patient advocate Ella Balasa who was born with the rare and chronic lung disease cystic fibrosis (CF). She shares how important antibiotics are for people living with CF to be able to fight off dangerous lung infections. She also shares how she became a patient advocate. It's a really great discussion that you won't want to miss.

In this month's episode, co-hosts Dr. Lance Price and Matthew Wellington interview award-winning chef, cookbook author, activist, and media personality Mary Sue Milliken. She's best known for her modern Mexican concept, Border Grill restaurants, trucks, and catering, which she runs with her business partner Susan Feniger. Mary Sue Milliken was one of the first chefs to join the Supermoms Against Superbugs movement, an advocacy program run by ARAC's deputy director, Laura Rogers, when she was at the Pew Charitable Trusts. In the episode, Mary Sue shares why she is passionate about antibiotic resistance and how after serving as a Supermom transformed her restaurants to ensure the meat she procures are from animals  raised with responsible antibiotic use. 

Our latest episode features distinguished Indian environmentalist, political activist, and writer Sunita Narain, who discusses antibiotic resistance as it relates to environmentalism and human health. She's based in New Delhi in India and is a force of nature. You won't want to miss this episode!

Tune into the latest episode of our podcast to hear public health researcher and advocate, Dr. Everly Macario, discuss her personal connection to antibiotic resistance, and its impact on the medical system as we know it.

Tune into the latest episode of our podcast to hear ARAC's deputy director, Laura Rogers, discuss the Center's new paper in Science Magazine that calls into question the integrity of the 'Raised without Antibiotics' label claim.

On this episode, Co-Host Matthew Wellington talks with experts from World Animal Protection. Topics addressed include antibiotic over use on industrial farms, animal welfare issues related to these huge farms and the need for a moratorium on additional factory farms in the United States and globally.

This month's episode focuses on a recent AMR study published in the Lancet: Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis. Our guest this month is co-author Dr. Kevin Ikuta, Infectious Disease Physician, Assistant Professor at UCLA in the Division of Infectious Diseases, and Hospital Epidemiologist at the Greater Los Angeles VA.We dive into the details and methods of the report, which areas are most impacted by AMR, and how to tackle this global health crisis.

Dr. Jesper Larsen and Anders R. Larsen, Ph.D. join us to discuss their exciting new report “Emergence of methicillin resistance predates the clinical use of antibiotics”. This study reveals that some strains of MRSA were around far before the era of human antibiotic use.  It was discovered in the most unlikely of places – on the backs of hedgehogs. Co-hosts Matt and Lance unpack this discovery and discuss how it relates to the importance of reducing antibiotic use in human and animal settings to slow resistance. 

Join Lance and Matt as they sit down with Dr. Laura Huber and Dr. Thomas Van Boeckle to discuss the findings of their recent paper, which looks at reductions in antibiotics in chickens in Canada and the impact on resistance in Salmonella, Campy and E coli. 

In this episode, co-hosts Dr. Lance B. Price and Lydia Palumbo sit down with Louise Francois Watkins from the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC. They discuss antibiotic resistant campylobacter, and how it makes its way into our lives through our food and pets.

In this month's episode, co-host Dr. Lance B. Price talks with his former colleague and current friend, Dave Wagner, a plague expert at the Northern Arizona University. The two discuss plague, why it's still around. and the critical role antibiotics play in protecting the public .

Join Lance and Matt in this month's episode, as they meet with Dr. Jeffery Klausner, a Clinical Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences and Professor of Medicine at the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. We'll explore the threat of drug-resistant gonorrhea, how it came to be, and how the flaws in our health system make it a daunting issue to solve.

In this episode, Maria Lettini, executive director of FAIRR, talks about their latest report: Feeding Resistance: Antimicrobial Stewardship in the Animal Health Industry. It's the first report to assess the animal health industry through the lens of antibiotic resistance and highlights the role that the sector can play in tackling the growing risk of resistance. Co-host Matt Wellington and Maria Lettini also discuss how this investor network raises awareness of the environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities brought about by industrial farming. 

This month's episode focuses on the work of the Peggy Lillis Foundation established in 2010 by Christian and Liam Lillis after the untimely death of their mother to a C. diff (Clostridioides difficile) infection. Hosts Dr. Lance B. Price and Matthew Wellington interview Christian Lillis who serves as the foundation's executive director. In this moving episode, you will hear about the loving and giving life of Peggy Lillis, her battle with the infection neither sibling had ever heard of, and how and why the brothers stood up the foundation in her name.  C. diff  is a Gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium or germ and is the most common cause of infectious diarrhea in healthcare settings. It causes nearly 500,000 infections and 29,000 deaths every year in the United States. The Peggy Lillis Foundation is building a nationwide C. diff awareness movement by educating the public, empowering advocates, and shaping policy. Learn more about the foundation's important work.

In March of 2020, the world's attention turned to one public health threat --- COVID-19. As we battled this horrific pandemic, rumors began circulating about the high rates of prescribing “just in case” antibiotics by health providers .   These fears were confirmed in a recent study from The Pew Charitable Trusts that reviewed antibiotic use among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The findings strongly suggest significant overprescribing during the first six months of the pandemic. Dr. David Hyun, a pediatric infectious diseases doctor and Director of Pew's Antibiotic Resistance Project joins hosts Matt Wellington and  Dr. Lance B. Price on the podcast to talk about the issue of antibiotic overprescription in human medicine. The conversation covers concerns about COVID-19's impact on antibiotic resistance and renewed antibiotic stewardship efforts in human medicine. 

We spend a lot of time talking about antibiotic resistance, but lately, something else has caught our attention -- antifungal resistance! Thanks to the changing climate and increased fungicide use, a couple of nasty fungi have begun developing resistance genes that could make fungal infections in people untreatable. When did this happen? How bad is the threat? What are the solutions? As always, co-hosts Matt and Lance have lots of questions. Fortunately, Dr. Tom Chiller, Chief of the Mycotic Diseases Branch for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has lots of answers.  Join us for an exciting conversation with the CDC about the wild world of fungi. 

This month on the podcast, two all-stars from Niman Ranch join Lance and Matt for a fantastic discussion on raising animals without the use of antibiotics. Chris Oliviero, the General Manager of Niman Ranch, and Ron Mardensen, an Iowa-based hog farmer and field agent for Niman Ranch, detail the benefits of a farming system that doesn’t overuse antibiotics. Meat production is the single largest purchaser of medically important antibiotics in the United States. Often these antibiotics are used to combat unsanitary or stressful factory farming conditions, rather than to treat verified illnesses. According to sales data from the past few years this number is trending in the wrong direction, which is bad news for keeping antibiotics effective. Niman Ranch has led the way in raising hogs, cattle, and lamb without the use of any antibiotics. Their secret to success? Let pigs be pigs! Plus they use a combination of fresh air, low stress environments, and the occasional essential oil to keep animals healthy. Here’s to hoping conventional producers are taking notes. 

You have heard of antibiotic overuse in food animal production, but wait until you get a load of spraying antibiotics on citrus trees.In the United States, the use of medically important antibiotics on crops has more than quadrupled from 2000 to 2017 and the problem is only getting worse. The EPA recently greenlighted the potential spraying of more than 650,000 pounds of streptomycin, a critically important antibiotic, on citrus crops in Florida and California. This is bad news for antibiotic resistance. This month, Nathan Donley, a senior scientist from the Center for Biological Diversity, joins Dr. Lance B. Price and guest co-host, Sydney Riess, to discuss why antibiotics are being used in citrus in the first place and how the practice may be contributing to the antibiotic resistance crisis we are in. Maybe its just us, but air-blasting medically important antibiotics out the back of a pick-up truck all over citrus trees seems like a recipe for disaster. Ready to take action? Add your name to this petition urging the EPA to stop spraying medically important antibiotics on citrus crops: https://uspirg.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=43218

Author, journalist, and hard hitting disease detective Maryn McKenna has been reporting on bad bugs since long before it was cool. In this episode, Maryn joins Lance and Matt to explore intersections of viral, bacterial, and fungal infections in the era of COVID-19. Even in the midst of a pandemic, the U.S. livestock and agriculture industry continues to overuse antibiotics critical to human health. If we don’t course correct soon, we run the risk of losing these drugs for good. Maryn offers her take on antibiotic resistance and walks us through her career reporting on every aspect of the issue from factory farming to stubborn pharmaceutical marketplaces. She has been an influential voice on the topic for years, having authored two books on the subject Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA and Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats.

Consumption, the Captain of all these Men of Death, the White Plague, the King’s Evil -- all names for the bacterial infection known today as Tuberculosis or TB. In the early nineteenth century, TB was one of the most common killers American adults, but since entering the antibiotic era, this once deadly disease has faded into the background of American life. Unfortunately, our eagerness to forget our past has allowed TB to continue to affect low and middle income countries across the globe. Dr. Carole Mitnick, Sc.D, Professor of Global Health & Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School has joined Lance and Matt for a particularly dynamic episode of Superbugs Unplugged. She reminds us that Tuberculosis, and super-resistant tuberculosis, kills around 1.4 million people globally each year and that continuing to deprioritize this nasty bug will only come back to bite us. To our amateur historians out there, give us a shout in the comments if you can figure out what turned Lance’s Aunt Navis blue.

On this episode, co-hosts Matthew Wellington and Lance B. Price, interview Dr. Evgeni Sokurenko, MD, PhD., a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Washington and the Founder and Chairman of the Board at ID Genomics, Inc. Dr. Sokurenko’s work focuses on mechanisms of molecular adaptive evolution of genes in bacterial pathogens such as E. coli. In this episode, you will learn about the binding mechanisms that allow E. coli to attach to human tissues to cause urinary tract infections, mutations that allow E. coli to become more pathogenic, and overall implications that such mutations have on antibiotic resistance and the treatability of bacterial infections.

This month our Pod takes on a new format. We decided to air the panel discussion organized by our podcast co-host, U.S. PIRG, titled: Antibiotics in Agriculture: Preventing the Next Pandemic. It was an hour-long, virtual event co-sponsored by Harvard Law School that featured a host of experts from a variety of fields including infectious disease, business, market investment, advocacy, and journalism. It was held on November 18 -- the first day of World Antibiotic Awareness Week. A great way to start this important week! We really hope you enjoy it.

On this episode, co-hosts, Matthew Wellington and Lance B. Price, along with U.S. PIRG’s Sydney Riess, interview Matt Kuhn, DVM, PhD, a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Kuhn’s expertise lies in dairy medicine, and his work has focused on the prevention of disease and the reduction of antibiotic use in cattle. In this episode, you will learn about the various challenges that farmers and veterinarians face with regards to antibiotic use on farms as well as the steps that both scientists and policymakers can take in order to effectively tackle antibiotic misuse and overuse.

On this episode, co-host, Matthew Wellington, interviews Dr. Sameer Patel, pediatric infectious disease physician and Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. In this episode, they discuss what it means to be an advocate and a health professional, and you will learn about Dr. Patel's experience working on health policy advocacy as a health professional and its importance especially in today's health climate.

On this episode, co-host, Matthew Wellington, interviews Dr. David Wallinga, Senior Health Advisor at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Dr. Wallinga is a physician with over 20 years of experience working on policy and advocacy, and his current work focuses on antibiotic overuse in U.S. livestock production. In this episode, they discuss Better Burgers: Why It's High Time the U.S. Beef Industry Kicked It's Antibiotic Habit, a report from the NRDC that analyzes antibiotic overuse in the U.S. beef industry and its relationship to antibiotic-resistant bacteria and its negative impact on human health.

On this episode, co-hosts Lance B. Price and Matthew Wellington are back "together apart" (socially distanced, of course!) to discuss parallels between COVID-19 and antibiotic resistance. The co-hosts look at antibiotic resistance through the lens of COVID-19 by diving into the themes of isolationism, individualism, a lack of a coordinated national response to address current public health issues, and over-dependence on vaccine/antibiotic development, all of which threaten our ability to effectively and efficiently address both issues.

In this episode of Superbugs Unplugged, co-host, Dr. Lance Price, interviews Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at the Los Angeles + University of Southern California Medical Center and medical director of biosciences for Los Angeles county. Dr. Spellberg has over 16 years of experience working on national antibiotic policies related to use and development. Today, you’ll learn about Dr. Spellberg’s national public policy work, the current state of the antibiotic industry, and present-day society’s need for sustainable antibiotic development as it relates to antibiotic resistance.

In this episode, co-host, Dr. Lance B. Price, interviews Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious disease professor in the division of Infectious Disease and Vaccinology at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Lee’s research focuses on diseases of urban slums, in which antimicrobial resistance is an emerging issue, but it’s his ground breaking work on the origins of antibiotic-resistant E. coli that cause urinary tract infections that is the focus of this episode. You’ll learn about the various types of E. coli, where they are found, and how they can cause UTIs (including from food!) and develop antibiotic resistance that negatively impacts human health.

In this episode, co-host, Dr. Lance B. Price interviews longtime friend, colleague, and microbiologist, Jay Graham, who is an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Graham is an expert in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and has been working to improve WASH in underdeveloped communities for more than 20 years. Today, you'll learn about Dr. Graham's recent research on antibiotic use in animals and the importance of WASH in addressing the challenge of antibiotic-resistant diseases.

On this episode, co-hosts Lance B. Price from the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center and Matt Wellington from US PIRG dig into an annual report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that summarizes sales of antibiotics used in U.S. food animal production. The co-hosts explain both the significance and limitations of the report, which showed a nearly 10% increase in antibiotics sold for food animals from 2017 to 2018. Listeners will learn which animals species are "hogging" most of the antibiotics and how the U.S. compares with some European countries.

On this episode, we are taking a closer look at the extremely real, human threat of antibiotic resistant infections, and discussing how momentum for beating these harmful bugs can start from just one person with a determination to find a solution. Co-host Matthew Wellington from U.S. PIRG interviewed Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, co-author of the book The Perfect Predator - A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug. Dr. Strathdee is the Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences, Harold Simon Professor at the University of California San Diego School (UCSD) of Medicine and Co-Director at the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics. In this episode, she tells the story of how her husband, Tom Patterson, was infected with a bacteria that was resistant to all available antibiotics and how doctors and researchers from around the world saved his life with a hundred year old forgotten cure—phage therapy—that shows promise as a weapon to tackle the global superbug crisis. Her husband co-authored the book with her and is also a renowned scientist at UCSD. To wrap up, Matt will dive into the news and updates currently chiming across the world of antibiotic resistance.

This week, Dr. Lance Price and Matthew Wellington welcome listeners to the inaugural episode of their podcast and explain a bit about themselves, their respective organizations, and the rationale that sparked the creation of Superbugs Unplugged. You’ll learn about the growing dangers of drug-resistant infections and how the overuse of antibiotics in human medicine, food animal production and plant agriculture is causing these critical drugs to lose their effectiveness, putting us all at risk . You’ll also hear about topics that we’ll explore in future episodes and guests we hope to feature!