In 2014, Salome Karwah was living in Monrovia, Liberia, when Ebola struck. It killed seven members of her family and infected her, her sister and her fiancé. As soon as Karwah recovered, she volunteered with Doctors Without Borders and went to help...

In May 1991, Queen shot their iconic video for These Are The Days of Our Lives. Six months later, lead frontman Freddie Mercury was dead from AIDS. In this episode we look at one of the worst disease outbreaks in modern history, and how Freddie Mercury...

Contains graphic descriptions of violenceIn 1913, a six year old Frida Kahlo contracted polio disease in Coyoacan, Mexico. The following nine months she spent pent up as a result of the illness would ignite her creativity, and begin an artistic...

In London 1918, Spanish Flu seemed a minor threat, especially compared to the pressing matter of the First World War. Living in the leafy suburb of Richmond, Virginia Woolf mocked The Times for an article comparing the flu with the Black Death. But the...

Lincoln had just given the Gettysburg address when, on the train back to Washington, he began to suffer from symptoms of smallpox. In this episode, we go over to the US to look at the effect of smallpox on Lincoln's presidency - and what happens when a...

Poet John Keats was 25 years old when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1820. The disease would eventually kill him, and after his death he became an icon of the supposed relation of tuberculosis to art, beauty and genius. In this episode we...

When Cambridge University shut for plague in 1665, Newton was sent back to his parents' home in Lincolnshire. The eighteen months he spent there was the most productive time of his life. In this episode, we look at some of the theories Newton developed...

A history of plague through the eyes of William Shakespeare