The Lifeline Project

In this episode we talk to the chorus of healthcare professionals who take to the stage with the principal cast every night to tell the story of Jess and Alexander Fleming.

This is the last episode in the series of ten which should give you a good introduction to how to talk about AMR from a scientific and social perspective, and give you an insight into how a highly collaborative musical about a tricky scientific topic was made. 

 

Lifeline is on in New York in until 28th September 2024! Buy your tickets at www.li...

Lifeline has been in production for nearly a decade. In that time, much has changed but the core scientific and social message has always stayed the same.

In this episode we talk to Robin Hiley, composer, Becky Hope-Palmer, book writer, and Dr Meghan Perry, scientific advisor who have been three of the people closest to the action making Lifeline what it is today. If you're interested in finding out what it takes to make a musical with an important scientific and social message, this is the place to find the answer.

 

Lifeline is o...

How do you fit the nearly hundred year history of antimicrobials in agriculture and the environment into one song? Buckle up.

Talking about the antibiotic emergency under the banner of One Health means not only taking in the history of drugs in medicine but also the wild ways they have been used in animals and their effect on the environment. Helping us navigate this huge topic are 'bugs and drugs' historian Dr Claas Kirchhelle and AMR expert and vital friend to the show, Dr CarriAyne Jones Parr.

 

Lifeline is on in New York i...

Kevin Brown wrote the book on Alexander Fleming. Rob Hiley wrote the musical. Who better to ask about the man behind the mould?

Alexander Fleming has been described as a man of few words and a poor public speaker and yet, after pencilling became widely available, he became the spokesperson for the drug travelling the world to plaudits and prizes. So what was he really like? And is he really the perfect subject for a piece of musical theatre in the 21st century?

 

The Lifeline Project is a podcast exploring the science and s...

One of our biggest supporters over the last few years has been Dame Sally Davies, the former haematologist, civil servant, Chief Medical Officer of the UK and the current master of Trinity College and UK’s Special Envoy on AMR. She’s also a legend.

 

During her career, she has seen the face of medicine change, from a time when we had a choice of drugs from the medicine cabinet, to a world where the AMR is clearing those same cabinets bare.

 

Given her experience in the field, we sat down to cha...

Ingrid was young and starting her career as a dietician when two years of hospitalisation, injections and recovery which changed her life forever.

 

In this episode we focus on Tuberculosis, or TB, a disease with a long history in humans which is both curable and preventable but continues to kill 1.2 million people every year. It’s also got some pretty nasty resistant forms of the disease, which are becoming much more common especially in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Seen through the lens of Ingrid’s story, we find out how TB affect...

Jess is a doctor, Aaron is a patient, Julian is in a position of power. Together, they are the three friends whose story is at the heart of the show.

Anyone from any background can become an antimicrobial steward, someone who spreads the word about AMR and encourages people to use antimicrobials efficiently. When Aaron gets sick, all three of the friends explore stewardship and what that means to their professional and personal bonds.

In the real world we too can be stewards in our own unique ways and this episode looks at how some...

AMR is a problem with a plethora of solutions...and plenty of barriers to reach them.

In this episode we look at the role innovation can play – innovating new antibiotics, relatively unexplored treatments and preventing infection in the first place. So how expensive is it to make a new antibiotic? Are viruses actually our friends? And what does it have to do with the whales?

Featuring:

Silas Holland, Executive director in infectious disease policy at Merck

Dr Michele Ritter, Infectious Disease Specialist and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Ca...

Who killed Mrs X?

Was it her husband, infecting her with a resistant bacterium? Was it the pharmacist, who sold Mr X the antibiotics? Or was it the system that allowed him to get the antibiotics in the first place?

In this episode we delve into the world of antimicrobial resistance and antibiotics, finding out about the link between the two and how AMR is making our medicines ineffective. Joining us this week are:

Prof Bob Phillips, Professor of Paediatrics and Evidence Synthesis at at the University of York and an Honorary Consultant...

The Lifeline project is a podcast exploring the science and process behind the musical, Lifeline, a show about antibiotics, Alexander Fleming, and the biggest current global health crisis you might never have heard of.

The first episode is a potted history of the show and it's principal cast members - not the actors, the microbes that help make their bodies function. From the pathogens that make us sick to our microbiomes which help us digest food and fight disease, we look at the different tiny creatures that we meet in lives and ask, how do they survive...