Is a fungal pandemic possible?
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2023
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
James Gallagher asks whether the next pandemic might be an invasive fungi? Most people think of athlete's foot or fungal toe nails but the World Health Organisation recently issued the first ever list of life threatening fungi. James hears stories of hospitals being shut down, a ruined honeymoon and fungal infections that consume human tissue leaving terrible disfigurement. Add to that ‘The Last of Us’ a hit video game turned new TV series where a parasitic fungus manipulating the brains of ants has jumped to people. Sounds fanciful but while this particular fungus couldn’t cross from ants to humans, Dr Neil Stone explains why invasive fungal infections are on the rise and a potential pandemic should not be dismissed. Producer, Erika Wright
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, |
| 0:05.4 | The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's |
| 0:10.6 | Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials |
| 0:16.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommas Shranger Nathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncloked. |
| 0:24.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.4 | Hello there, and welcome to the Inside Health podcast. I'm James Gallagher. |
| 0:33.2 | And it's finally happening. We're talking zombies. Yeah, zombies. |
| 0:40.2 | Somewhere out west. |
| 0:41.9 | They're working on a cure. |
| 0:44.3 | I think what really impressed them was the fact that I didn't turn into a monster. |
| 0:48.3 | She's so much as Twitches. |
| 0:50.1 | That's a clip from the new TV drama, The Last of Us. |
| 0:53.1 | It's based on one of the best video games I've ever played. |
| 0:56.4 | In it, a fungus called cordyceps starts infecting people. |
| 1:00.6 | It takes control of their bodies, zombieifying them, so that it can spread to yet more people. |
| 1:06.4 | The result is a pandemic that collapses society. |
| 1:10.4 | Yeah, I know what you're thinking. It sounds completely |
| 1:12.4 | unbelievable, but Caudicep's fungus is real. It's known as the zombie fungus for the way |
| 1:18.4 | it invades and takes over the minds of insects. Today, we're going to see if a fungal pandemic |
| 1:24.4 | of any form is actually possible. So let's start with the zombie fungus. |
| 1:28.7 | It's the speciality of Dr. Sharissa DeBaker, who's a microbiologist at Utrecht University. |
| 1:33.7 | Shresa, welcome to Inside Health. And I suppose the first thing I want to know is someone who |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.