This Week In Virology

In 2008, the This Week In Tech podcasting network had been going for three years and a number of related topic podcasts started up on the network including one called Futures in Biotech. Modelled on the idea of having a weekly podcast on a specialist subject, a new podcast split away by Professor Vincent Racaniello of Columbia University called This Week In Virology (TWIV). It was inspired by this Week In Tech and given virus is also used in technology, the new podcast developed the tagline “the podcast about viruses – the kind that make you sick”. The first episode was on West Nile Virus and as someone who had no previous interest in viruses, the show fascinated me and fourteen years later I'm still a regular listener as I both enjoy science as well as having gotten to know the team well over the years.

With SARS CoV 2 the popularity of the podcast has increased and the podcast is now approaching 100,000 subscribers – quite remarkable for a science focussed podcast on the latest research papers on viruses. As a listener now for fourteen years, I love the focus on science and during the pandemic this hasn't changed. TWIV has a number of regular contributors Professor Vincent Racaniello brings in guests on topics of interest, in the last eighteen months these have often been on some element of SARS CoV2. TWIV is not afraid to ask the questions that you won't always see in the popular media such as is the Delta Variant really more transmissible or is there any science behind the lab leak hypothesis in Wuhan. These questions are examined in light of scientific evidence and through the eyes of leading Virologists rather than through the media who are not specialists in virology.

The podcast has now become the Microbe TV network and has spawned other specialist shows. TWIV alone has many hours of content each week and there is a weekly live stream on YouTube, a weekly medical update from Dr Daniel Griffin and two other weekly shows focussed on research papers or specialist guests. Microbe TV is about to move to a new studio being called The Incubator and Professor Racaniello is going to look to provide even more content on science and virology to the community. I highly recommend Microbe TV and This Week In Virology as a place to learn about science and virology. And if you listen to the end you'll hear Professor Racaniello declare that another podcast has gone viral.