Podcast appearances and mentions of samara linton

In ‘The Colour of Madness: Exploring BAME Mental Health in the UK', a ground-breaking collection of memoirs, essays, poetry, short fiction and artwork, Rianna Walcott and Dr Samara Linton share and amplify the voices of people of colour and their experiences with mental health - particularly those who have been touched by medical inequalities in the UK. This interview with Rianna Walcott was recorded on 7th October 2022. Author: Jennifer Hakim Category: ARTS Listen to the full story, or read it online - also available in Easy Read. For more Arts-related stories, head to https://www.thespillmag.com/arts --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thespillmag/message

Good luck with the start of another academic year: you are not alone. Mental health is often falsely presented as irrelevant to people of colour. Dr. Samara Linton and Dr. Rianna Walcott's brilliant The Colour of Madness explores mental health for and by people of colour across art, essays, poetry, and stories. Together with PhDiva Xine they discuss bridging the STEM/humanities divide through their collaboration and the uses of the book to communities, teaching, and health care professionals. The Colour of Madness https://linktr.ee/TheColourofMadness https://www.instagram.com/colourofmadness/?hl=en https://twitter.com/madnesscolourof?lang=en Support PhDivas on Patreon: www.patreon.com/phdivaspodcast Dr Samara Linton (she/her) is an award-winning writer, researcher, and multidisciplinary content producer. Her work includes The Colour of Madness: Mental Health and Race in Technicolour (2022) and Diane Abbott: The Authorised Biography (2020). Samara writes for various publications, including gal-dem, Huffington Post UK, The Metro, New Economics Foundation, Fawcett Society, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Her published research includes an influential report on Ebola-affected communities for the Africa All-Party Parliamentary Group (2016). She also sat on the editorial board for the British Medical Journal's award-winning Racism in Medicine special issue (2020). Samara worked as a junior doctor in east London before joining the BBC, where she worked in production. A University of Cambridge (BA Hons.) and University College London (MBBS) graduate, she is currently completing an MA in Health Humanities at University College London. You can find out more about Samara's work at www.samaralinton.com, and she tweets at @samara_linton. Rianna Walcott (she/her) is an LAHP alumna and PhD candidate at Kings College London researching Black British identity formation in digital spaces. Rianna combines digital work, decolonial studies, arts and culture, and mental health advocacy in her work, with a deep commitment to outreach work and public engagement. She co-founded projectmyopia.com, a website that promotes inclusivity in academia and a decolonized curriculum, and is the UCL writing lab's Scholar-in-Residence for 21-22. Rianna frequently writes about race, feminism, mental health, and arts and culture for publications including The Wellcome Collection, The Metro, The Guardian, The BBC, Vice, and Dazed. Rianna is co-editor of an anthology about BAME mental health - The Colour of Madness (2022), and in the time left over, she moonlights as a professional jazz singer. Rianna will be based at The Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) Lab at the University of Maryland-College Park. Research at this new lab will focus on race and technology, as well as the development of a pipeline program to introduce undergraduates and those in the wider community to the field of Black digital studies with the aim of working toward a more equitable digital future. You can find out more about Rianna's work at www.riannawalcott.com, and she tweets at @rianna_walcott.

Rianna joined us to talk about the re-publication of The Colour of Madness: Mental Health and Race in Technicolour with Samara Linton. Links: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/samara-linton/the-colour-of-madness/9781529088496

Astronomers have captured the first image of Sagittarius A*, the gargantuan black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Dr Ziri Younsi, University College London, shares what it took to capture a picture of a supermassive black hole that is 26,000 light-years away and from which (almost) nothing, not even light, can escape. The world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, is restarting after three years of upgrades. Roland Pease visits the European Particle Physics Laboratory, CERN, to see how things are going, and looks back on some of the team's past successes. Also, how do you investigate the mysterious deaths of the world's biggest fish when their bodies sink without trace? That's the quandary facing marine scientists who've been trying to figure out what exactly is killing whale sharks. Freya Womersley, UK Marine Biological Association, shares how satellite tracking technology is helping us solve the mystery. And finally, what's in a name? As our inventory of Earth's biodiversity progresses, the number of species given a Latin name is also growing. So, where do scientists find their naming inspiration? In Royal Society Proceedings B this week, an analysis of nearly 3,000 parasitic worm species uncovered some intriguing patterns and worrying biases. Samara Linton reports. Presenter Victoria Gill Produced by Alex Mansfield and Samara Linton

This week, we begin with a disturbing medical mystery. Since the start of the year, almost 200 children worldwide have fallen ill with hepatitis—or liver inflammation—without any apparent cause. Most of the children are under five, and nearly half of the cases were in the UK. Vic Gill asks clinical epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani, Queen Mary University of London, what we do and don't know about these rare cases. Also on the programme, with a huge tidal range, Wales and the west coast of England have become the focal point for a new generation of tidal power plans. So, is the tidal energy revolution finally happening? Roger Falconer, Emeritus Professor of Water and Environmental Engineering at Cardiff University, and Andrew Scott, CEO of Orbital Marine Power, which has demonstrated a working tidal stream turbine - called O2 - off Orkney, share their insights. And fancy eating an insect burger? Or how about adding seaweed smoothies or mycoprotein meatballs to your diet? Fellow BBC science correspondent Helen Briggs shares how lab-grown proteins could make our diets much kinder to the planet. And a recent study has found that a fifth of reptile species are at risk of extinction. Conservation scientist and study co-author Monika Bohm, Indianapolis Zoo in the US, tells us how, despite the gloomy findings, she remains hopeful. Presented by Victoria Gill Produced by Alex Mansfield and Samara Linton

Victoria Gill and guests ask why does scientific communication matters in society and how it might be done better, with Sam Illingworth, Berry Billingsley and Ozmala Ismail. The climate crisis and Covid-19 have shown over the recent years the importance of reliable, relatable, transparent and trusted science communication. But just like science itself, it comes in different forms and takes different approaches. Always keen to keep you up to date, BBC Inside Science takes a moment to discuss good practice and how it might be done better. Dr Oz Ismail is a dementia researcher who also finds time to do stand-up, public engagement and a podcast called Why Aren't You A Doctor Yet? Sam Illingworth is an Associate Professor at Edinburgh Napier University who investigates science and communication between disciplines. He is also a poet and writer, and has a podcast called The Poetry of Science. And Berry Billingsley is Professor in Science Education at Canterbury Christchurch University. Erstwhile science broadcaster, she looks at ways science education could be enhanced through building what her team call Epistemic Insight - transforming the nature of science education in society's younger members. Presented by Victoria Gill Produced by Alex Mansfield and Samara Linton

Studies from South Africa and the UK suggest Omicron may be a mild infection for the majority of people. Hospital admissions are down when compared with other variants. However, the virus is replicating at a much faster rate than earlier variants and is able to overcome vaccines to some extent. Cases studies so far have mainly been in young people. There is concern over what will now happen as Omicron spreads across Europe and the US where there are older unvaccinated populations. Anne von Gottberg from South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases tells us what early results from studies there show and discusses the implications. Typhoon Rai in the Philippines led to the loss of many lives and even destroyed buildings designed to resist such extreme weather events. Could more have been done either to predict the ferocity of the typhoon or to prepare for its impact? Liz Stephens, Associate Professor in Climate Risks and Resilience from the University of Reading discusses these issues. Beavers are making a comeback – in the Arctic. Their activity in engineering the landscape, building dams, and changing water courses is so widespread it can be picked out by satellites. However, this is not entirely welcome says Helen Wheeler Senior Lecturer in Zoology at Anglia Ruskin University. who has been working with local people concerned about the beavers impact on their livelihoods. And the James Webb telescope is finally launching. Heidi Hammel, who has been involved in the project for over 20 years tells us what it's all about. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens – CrowdScience has covered a lot this year. And what better way to see out 2021 than to look back at a few of our (and your!) favourite things? Great questions are right at the top of the team's list – especially with the way that for every one we answer, five more appear in our inbox! So for a festive treat, Marnie asks the crew to answer three of them. What's the sun's role in our sense of direction? Why are we so uncomfortable with other people's sadness? And why does listening to the radio make us sleepy? (Or is it just too much eggnog…?) From our favourite listener advice on how to keep your Christmas lights untangled to why cold swimming could activate your Vagus nerve, tune in for new questions and more CrowdScience favourites to light up your holiday season! Presented by Marnie Chesterton and many members the CrowdScience Team – Melanie Brown, Marijke Peters, Caroline Steel, Hannah Fisher, Samara Linton and Anand Jagatia. Produced by Sam Baker for BBC World Service. Featuring: • Haneul Jang, post-doctoral researcher, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology • Juliet Rosenfeld, psychotherapist and author of The State of Disbelief: A Story of Death, Love and Forgetting • Mathias Basner, professor of psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania (Image: Getty Images)

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens – CrowdScience has covered a lot this year. And what better way to see out 2021 than to look back at a few of our (and your!) favourite things? Great questions are right at the top of the team's list – especially with the way that for every one we answer, five more appear in our inbox! So for a festive treat, Marnie asks the crew to answer three of them. What's the sun's role in our sense of direction? Why are we so uncomfortable with other people's sadness? And why does listening to the radio make us sleepy? (Or is it just too much eggnog…?) From our favourite listener advice on how to keep your Christmas lights untangled to why cold swimming could activate your Vagus nerve, tune in for new questions and more CrowdScience favourites to light up your holiday season! Presented by Marnie Chesterton and many members the CrowdScience Team – Melanie Brown, Marijke Peters, Caroline Steel, Hannah Fisher, Samara Linton and Anand Jagatia. Produced by Sam Baker for BBC World Service. Featuring: • Haneul Jang, post-doctoral researcher, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology • Juliet Rosenfeld, psychotherapist and author of The State of Disbelief: A Story of Death, Love and Forgetting • Mathias Basner, professor of psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania

Breathtaking: the UK's human story of Covid is written by Palliative Care Dr Rachel Clarke. Dr Clarke gives us an in-depth overview of the first four months of 2020 of the developing pandemic, where she describes the behind the scenes of NHS hospitals during that period of time. She shares how her colleagues dealt with the exponentially rising death toll, the neglect from the government and the fear many patients felt as they were taken into the intensive care unit. Former Junior Doctor, now Producer, Samara Linton (https://twitter.com/samara_linton) and Podcast Producer at Broccoli Productions, Jaja Muhammad (https://twitter.com/jaja__muhammad) discuss the themes behind book in depth with our host Diyora (https://twitter.com/thediyora). In next month's book club we'll be discussing ‘Shedding The Shackles' by Lynne Stein, so get reading now and send in your thoughts and comments via voice-note to voicenotes@broccolicontent.com Don't forget to share the podcast and join the conversation using the #BroccoliBookClub. And if you liked what you heard why not leave a review on your favourite podcast app.

Trials have shown that cocktails of antibodies are effective against Covid, and one called Ronapreve has just been approved for use in the UK, following in the footsteps of Japan and the US. Claudia Hammond talks to Penny Ward, Professor of Pharmaceutical Medicine at Kings College, London, about how these monoclonal antibodies work and where they are best used, given that they are very expensive. The UN Refugee Agency and the International Organisation for Migration have called on governments to ensure that everyone is included in vaccination plans, including refugees and internally displaced people. Samara Linton reports on how undocumented migrants, in South East Asia and in the UK, are getting vaccinated against Covid. The increased heat we are experiencing with climate change is causing deaths in people with underlying health conditions. Professor Kristie Ebi of the University of Washington tells Claudia about what we can do to keep cool, in particular in places without air conditioning. And family doctor Graham Easton comments on these stories and discusses the relationship between Covid and heat. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Deborah Cohen (Picture: Computer illustration of the release of monoclonal antibodies. Credit: Nanoclustering/Science Photo Library/Getty Images.)

Trials have shown that cocktails of antibodies are effective against Covid, and one called Ronapreve has just been approved for use in the UK, following in the footsteps of Japan and the US. Claudia Hammond talks to Penny Ward, Professor of Pharmaceutical Medicine at Kings College, London, about how these monoclonal antibodies work and where they are best used, given that they are very expensive. The UN Refugee Agency and the International Organisation for Migration have called on governments to ensure that everyone is included in vaccination plans, including refugees and internally displaced people. Samara Linton reports on how undocumented migrants, in South East Asia and in the UK, are getting vaccinated against Covid. The increased heat we are experiencing with climate change is causing deaths in people with underlying health conditions. Professor Kristie Ebi of the University of Washington tells Claudia about what we can do to keep cool, in particular in places without air conditioning. And family doctor Graham Easton comments on these stories and discusses the relationship between Covid and heat. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Deborah Cohen (Picture: Computer illustration of the release of monoclonal antibodies. Credit: Nanoclustering/Science Photo Library/Getty Images.)

Whatever happened to those sniffer dogs who were seeking out any passengers infected with Covid-19 at Helsinki airport? And did plans to sample sewage to spot outbreaks early prove successful? This week on The Evidence, we have listeners' questions about some of the clever ideas which were in the news early on in the pandemic but we haven't heard about for a while. Trials of treatments like the cheap steroid dexamethasone proved successful – but what about the anti-parasite medication, ivermectin, which has sparked fierce debate on social media? Because of its role in our body's immune system, researchers wondered if Vitamin D might be useful in preventing Covid infections or treating people in hospital. We hear about some of the flaws in those studies – and the role which genetics plays in how much Vitamin D there is in our bodies. Nasal sprays have been used for colds and flu to help shorten how long you are ill for and reduce the symptoms – can we achieve the same result for Covid infections by using a spray which contains seaweed? Vaccination is key to ending the pandemic – but have all of the vaccines bought by countries like the United States been used? And what will happen to any which are left over, can they be given to countries which desperately need them? Once enough people are vaccinated or have immunity from being infected we should reach the magical “herd immunity” level where there aren't enough people vulnerable to infection for Covid-19 to spread. We hear how new variants of the virus could mean that number will grow – making it more difficult to bring the pandemic to an end. Claudia Hammond's panel of experts will guide you through some of the ideas which have been tested like nasal sprays and nicotine patches – to separate the duds from the winners – as well as highlight others which could still prove to be promising. Claudia's expert panel includes global health epidemiologist from the University of Boston, Professor Matthew Fox; from The Netherlands Professor Marion Koopmans who's Head of the Erasmus MC Department of Viroscience in Rotterdam, who was a member of the WHO's mission to Wuhan in China earlier this year to investigate the origins of Covid-19; Vice Dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine Dr Danny Bryden, who's a Consultant at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals; medical journalist Clare Wilson from New Scientist Magazine. Produced by: Paula McGrath, Samara Linton and Maria Simons Studio Engineers: Jo Longton

New research on Covid vaccination in prisons. Plus can financial incentives like free tuition or free cruises encourage people to get the jab? Samara Linton reports on some surprising examples, while Professor Stephen Higgins reviews the evidence. And does the use of words like "provider" or "customer" subtly change healthcare? Claudia's guest is Matt Fox, Professor of Global Health Epidemiology at Boston University. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Prisoners at the La Modelo Correctional Facility wait to receive a Covid-19 vaccination administered by medical workers in Bogota, Colombia in July 2021. Photo credit: Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.)

New research on Covid vaccination in prisons. Plus can financial incentives like free tuition or free cruises encourage people to get the jab? Samara Linton reports on some surprising examples, while Professor Stephen Higgins reviews the evidence. And does the use of words like "provider" or "customer" subtly change healthcare? Claudia's guest is Matt Fox, Professor of Global Health Epidemiology at Boston University. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Prisoners at the La Modelo Correctional Facility wait to receive a Covid-19 vaccination administered by medical workers in Bogota, Colombia in July 2021. Photo credit: Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.)

Back in November it was announced that an AI company called DeepMind had essentially cracked the problem of protein folding – that is they had managed to successfully predict the 3D structures of complex biochemical molecules by only knowing the 2D sequence of amino acids from which they are made. They are not the only team to use machine learning to approach the vast amounts of data involved. But last week, they released the source code and methodology behind their so called AlphaFold2 tool. Today, they are publishing via a paper in the journal Nature, a simply huge database of predicted structures including most of the human proteome and 20 other model species such as yes, mice. The possibilities for any biochemists are very exciting. As DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis tells Roland Pease, they partnered with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory to make over 350,000 protein predictions available to researchers around the world free of charge and open sourced. Dr Benjamin Perry of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative told us how it may help in the search for urgently needed drugs for difficult diseases such as Chagas disease. Prof John McGeehan of the Centre for Enzyme Innovation at Portsmouth University in the UK is on the search for enzymes that might be used to digest otherwise pollutant plastics. He received results (that would have taken years using more traditional methods) back from the AlphaFold team in just a couple of days. Prof Julia Gog of Cambridge University is a biomathematician who has been modelling Covid epidemiology and behaviour. In a recent paper in Royal Society Open Science, she and colleagues wonder whether the vaccination strategy of jabbing the most vulnerable in a population first, rather than the most gregarious or mobile, is necessarily the optimal way to protect them. Should nations still at an early stage in vaccine rollout consider her model? And did you know that elephants can hear things up to a kilometre away through their feet? And that sometimes they communicate by bellowing and rumbling such the ground shakes? Dr Beth Mortimer of Oxford University has been planting seismic detectors in savannah in Kenya to see if they can tap into the elephant messaging network, to possibly help conservationists track their movements. Image: Protein folding Credit: Nicolas_/iStock/Getty Images Presenter: Roland Pease Producers: Alex Mansfield and Samara Linton

The lofty ambition of the global community was that across the globe, those with the highest risk of losing their lives to this virus should be vaccinated first. With 99% of deaths coming in the over fifties, the plan was that everybody in this age group should be inoculated. But that’s not what has happened. Vaccine supply is in crisis and in Africa, a continent of over 1.2 billion people, only around 20 million Africans have been vaccinated, with only 35 million vaccines landing so far on the continent. It’s been called “vaccine apartheid” and “a moral outrage” but as South Asia, South America find themselves again, in the eye of the virus storm, largely unvaccinated Africa fears the next wave is heading for them. Can vaccine nationalism be overcome and scare supply be fairly distributed? It’s a question that very much concerns Claudia Hammond’s expert panel: Gagandeep Kang, Professor of Microbiology at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, Dr Yodi Alakija, co-chair of the African Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance for Covid-19, Professor Andy Pollard from the Oxford Vaccine Group who led the clinical trials for the Oxford/Astra Zeneca (or Covishield) Vaccine and Professor Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine in Houston and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Centre for Vaccine Development in the USA. Produced by: Fiona Hill, Hannah Fisher and Maria Simons Studio Engineers: Jackie Marjoram and Tim Heffer Claudia Hammond and her expert panel consider what the new shapeshifting virus means for the global goal of herd immunity and an end to the pandemic. And they answer your questions. Please do keep your virus queries coming in to the.evidence@bbc.co.uk and your question could be included in the next programme. Claudia’s guests include Dr Richard Lessells, infectious diseases specialist from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and part of the team that identified the South African variant; Dr Muge Cevik, clinical lecturer in infectious diseases and medical virology at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and a member of the UK’s expert committee NERVTAG (New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group); Dr Shane Crotty, Professor for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research at la Jolla Institute for Immunology, University of California San Diego in the USA and Dr Margaret Harris from the World Health Organisation in Geneva. Produced by: Fiona Hill, Samara Linton and Maria Simons Editor: Deborah Cohen Technical Support: Donald McDonald and Tim Heffer

We wouldn’t drink dirty water so why do we put up with polluted air? Researchers are calling for a major rethink on our attitude to air quality. Professor Lidia Morawska, from the Queensland University of Technology, says attention to air quality during the Covid pandemic has shown how levels of airborne disease can be reduced. Sam Wilson from the UK Medical Research Council, University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research has been investigating genetic mechanisms associated with susceptibility to Covid infection. His team has identified a molecule that detects SARS-COV-2 when it starts to replicate in our cells. However, not all humans have this protective mechanism, which may help explain why some people become very ill with Covid and others have little if any symptoms. Many Europeans lack this protective molecule, whereas the vast majority of Africans have it. The difference can be seen in cell cultures. However, the lack of diversity in the cells used in experiments worldwide can be a serious problem when looking at genetic differences as Samara Linton reports. Nuclear material buried beneath the doomed Chernobyl nuclear power plant is becoming more active Neil Hyatt Professor of Nuclear Materials Chemistry at Sheffield University says it’s a small increase but needs to be monitored. And There are over 400,000 species of plant on earth, they’re on every continent including Antarctica. But humans only regularly eat about 200 species globally, with the vast majority of our nutrition coming from just three species. Many of the fruits, leaves and tubers that other plants grow are packed full of toxins that are poisonous to us, and would make us very ill if we ate them. But could we take out the poisons and create new, edible crops? That’s what CrowdScience listener Marija wants to know. Crowdscience dives into this topic, and uncovers the that many crops are poisonous, and why so few plants are eaten globally. Host Anand Jagatia finds that even the modern scientific processes of crop breeding are very slow. But science can now engineer plants at the genetic level by adding, silencing or removing specific genes. This ‘genetic modification’ is hugely controversial but can be highly effective. Anand finds a man who has spent decades making cotton seeds edible by removing the poisons they naturally produce in their seeds. This GM crop could help fend-off starvation. But sometimes introducing poisons can be as important as removing them, as we find in the genetically modified ‘BT eggplants’ in Bangladesh. The new gene makes the vegetable toxic to a major insect pest, so they are much easier to grow. But GM crops are not the perfect solution. They have problems of gene escape, can increase the use of environmentally damaging herbicide, and can be open to monopolisation. In some countries, particularly in Europe, GM crops are hugely controversial. Anand finds out whether these concerns stand up to science and looks at the counterpoint in developing countries in Africa, South Asia and elsewhere, where local farmers like Patience Koku in Nigeria have little time for some of the concerns around GM, particularly as they see poor harvests, poverty and starvation as the more pressing problems. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

We wouldn’t drink dirty water so why do we put up with polluted air? Researchers are calling for a major rethink on our attitude to air quality. Professor Lidia Morawska, from the Queensland University of Technology, says attention to air quality during the Covid pandemic has shown how levels of airborne disease can be reduced. Sam Wilson from the UK Medical Research Council, University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research has been investigating genetic mechanisms associated with susceptibility to Covid infection. His team has identified a molecule that detects SARS-COV-2 when it starts to replicate in our cells. However, not all humans have this protective mechanism, which may help explain why some people become very ill with Covid and others have little if any symptoms. Many Europeans lack this protective molecule, whereas the vast majority of Africans have it. The difference can be seen in cell cultures. However, the lack of diversity in the cells used in experiments worldwide can be a serious problem when looking at genetic differences as Samara Linton reports. Nuclear material buried beneath the doomed Chernobyl nuclear power plant is becoming more active Neil Hyatt Professor of Nuclear Materials Chemistry at Sheffield University says it’s a small increase but needs to be monitored. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield

As Covid cases surge almost beyond belief in India, how much is to do with social distancing, and how much to do with the mutations to the original virus? Ramanan Laxminarayan talks to Roland from Delhi about ways in which the huge second wave could and could not have been predicted and avoided. Suggestions of the latest variant to make the headlines, B1.617, have got virologists such as Ravindra Gupta working hard to identify the clinical significance of the latest combinations of mutations. In the journal Science, Stephen Chanock of the US Cancer program reports work with colleagues in Ukraine looking at the long footprint of radiation dosing from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 35 years ago this week. In the first of two papers, they find a definite footprint of radiation damage accounting for the many sad cases of thyroid cancer in people alive in the region at the time. But in another study, they looked at whether any higher level of mutations could be detected in the germlines of children conceived subsequently to parents who had experienced radiation in the disaster. While the parents' own health is often affected, 35 years on, thus far their offspring show no widespread elevated levels of disease, as was commonly expected. And in the week that the world witnessed a guilty verdict delivered in the trial for the murder of George Floyd in the US, David Curtis of the University of Utah and colleagues report in the journal PNAS a study that suggests the widespread media coverage of acts of racial violence, including deaths at the hands of police, leads to poorer mental health in Black Americans. As the BBC’s Samara Linton reports, the study involved google search data over five years up to 2017, and nearly 2.3 million survey respondents. Also, most of us don’t like to dwell on our toilet habits, but this week we have gone down the drain to discover what wastewater can tell us about our health. It’s been more than a year since scientists across the globe started to track the spread of Covid-19, with help from home test results and hospital data. Marnie Chesterton investigates the latest tool in their arsenal: sewage. Listener Kevin has heard how human waste can be monitored to check for virus levels, and wants to know if it can also be used to stop the disease in its tracks? Although the coronavirus has been discovered in people’s poo, so far there’s little indication it’s actually being spread through the water system. But by taking regular samples from different parts of cities, authorities are now able to accurately predict a local peak weeks before the population shows signs of sickness, then take immediate measures to alert them. In Detroit we hear how environmental engineer Professor Irene Zagoraraki used this method to detect a rare strain of Herpes which doctors didn’t even know was a potential problem. We talk to Professor Nick Thomson from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, who sequenced the genome of the bacteria that causes cholera, to understand how it has crisscrossed the globe. He discovered that the pandemic currently devastating Yemen actually originated in Asia. It’s a discovery that has changed how the WHO is thinking about this killer disease and could have important implications for vaccination programmes. But our effluent can also pose environmental problems, and Professor Andrew Johnson from the UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology explains there are now as many as 300,000 chemicals that could threaten natural habitats. While authorities try to test each one individually, he’s concerned they may have different effects when they mix in wastewater, and current monitoring systems don’t take this into account. Not only that, but some of these substances contain silver nanoparticles, which Professor Juliane Filser tells us stick around in soil for ever, threatening organisms and bacteria at the base of the food chain Image: NurPhoto/Getty Images

As Covid cases surge almost beyond belief in India, how much is to do with social distancing, and how much to do with the mutations to the original virus? Ramanan Laxminarayan talks to Roland from Delhi about ways in which the huge second wave could and could not have been predicted and avoided. Suggestions of the latest variant to make the headlines, B1.617, have got virologists such as Ravindra Gupta working hard to identify the clinical significance of the latest combinations of mutations. In the journal Science, Stephen Chanock of the US Cancer program reports work with colleagues in Ukraine looking at the long footprint of radiation dosing from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 35 years ago this week. In the first of two papers, they find a definite footprint of radiation damage accounting for the many sad cases of thyroid cancer in people alive in the region at the time. But in another study, they looked at whether any higher level of mutations could be detected in the germlines of children conceived subsequently to parents who had experienced radiation in the disaster. While the parents' own health is often affected, 35 years on, thus far their offspring show no widespread elevated levels of disease, as was commonly expected. And in the week that the world witnessed a guilty verdict delivered in the trial for the murder of George Floyd in the US, David Curtis of the University of Utah and colleagues report in the journal PNAS a study that suggests the widespread media coverage of acts of racial violence, including deaths at the hands of police, leads to poorer mental health in Black Americans. As the BBC’s Samara Linton reports, the study involved google search data over five years up to 2017, and nearly 2.3 million survey respondents. Image: NurPhoto/Getty Images Presenter: Roland Pease Reporter: Samara Linton Producer: Alex Mansfield

Claudia Hammond discusses the latest influx of excellent Covid-19 vaccine results with Sarah Boseley, health editor of The Guardian. Dr Samara Linton reports on efforts by black doctors in the UK to overcome vaccine hesitancy in their communities. The Biden administration is to rescind the USA's Mexico City Policy which denies federal aid funding to organisations overseas that provide abortion counselling or services. The policy, also known as the Global Gag, prevented other family planning and HIV prevention services from receiving essential funding. Joy Phumaphi, former Botswanan health minister and now with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health talks to Claudia about the impact of the policy on the health and wellbeing on women and children in sub-Saharan Africa, and about the prospects for these services after the Mexico City Policy's imminent demise. A team of eye specialists at University College London has found that levels of air pollution typical of big cities around the world increase the risk of one of the commonest causes of age-related sight loss – macular degeneration, a progressive deterioration of the retina. Professor Paul Foster tells Claudia how airborne pollutants from traffic and industry can damage the eye. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Dr. Nita Patel, Director of Antibody discovery and Vaccine development, lifts a vial with a potential coronavirus, COVID-19, vaccine at Novavax labs in Gaithersburg, Maryland in March 2020. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP.)

Special guest Samara Linton is a Doctor, Writer and now radio Producer. She co-edited ‘The Colour of Madness': an anthology of poems, stories and art about the experiences of minorities with mental health services in the UK. Samara also co-authored 'Diane Abbott: The Authorised Biography'. Henna Shah returns to host this episode with Frankie Grant, as they talk to Samara about her literary success, Diane Abbott's life & politics and the intersections between race and mental health. Samara also reads a powerful poem from the anthology. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Oxford University and Astrazeneca announced interim results from the phase 3 trial of their coronavirus vaccine. The results are promising with efficacy scores ranging from 70% to possibly 90%, depending on the dose of the first of the two inoculations. This vaccine also remains viable when stored at refrigerator temperatures – a logistical advantage compared to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Claudia consults Charlie Wheeler, head of vaccines at the Wellcome Trust, about how this vaccine may advance the ambition of protecting the world from Covid-19. The pandemic has disrupted routine health services in many countries. Maternity services for pregnant women and women in labour have not escaped restrictions. In the UK this has included banning partners from clinics and wards, often for most of labour. Dr Samara Linton reports. High levels of lead exposure in childhood result in smaller, less robust-looking brains in middle age. This is the conclusion of a long-running study of hundreds of people who grew up in the town of Dunedin in New Zealand. They have been followed since their childhoods in the early 1970s, during the era of leaded petrol. At the age of 45, more than 550 of them have had MRI brain scans. This part of the research has been led by Aaron Reuben and Maxwell Elliot at Duke University in the United States. Although leaded petrol is banned in all but one country today, hundreds of millions of children are still exposed to environmental lead levels well above what's regarded as safe. Epidemiologist Matthew Fox of Boston University also joins Claudia to talk about the disappointing covid antiviral drug remdesivir, coronavirus rapid tests and a flu vaccine grown in plants. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Laboratory technicians in Italy handle capped vials as part of filling and packaging tests for the large-scale production and supply of the University of Oxford's Covid-19 vaccine. Photo credit: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images.)

In this episode we are joined by Samara Linton, a fellow Cambridge alum ; medical doctor; content creator; and co-writer of the upcoming authorised biography of UK MP, Dianne Abbott . We discuss everything from her transition to TV producing from medicine, to the research and writing process for what is set to be a pioneering look into the iconic figure that is Dianne Abbott. Pre-order 'Dianne Abbott: The Authorised Biography' now at https://t.co/e37G5CBZuQ?amp=1.