Infectious dose is the shot of science you need to protect yourself from misinformation. Heather McSharry, PhD, an expert in viral pathogenesis, brings her blog to the airwaves to help bridge the dangerous gap between the science of infectious diseases and public misperception. On the podcast website, infectiousdose.com, all episodes have corresponding blog posts with the information contained in the episode along with links or PDFs for all sources used. To prevent unwelcome surprises, episodes with limited, mild profanity are marked as explicit.
*Podcast intro and outro music are adapted from Heather Nova’s song, I Miss My Sky. Used with permission.
In this week's Outbreak Watch, we're examining the latest developments in the DRC Ebola outbreak, Pennsylvania's ongoing measles outbreak and a new development in the US H5N1 outbreak. Finally, we separate evidence from speculation surrounding reports of a possible laboratory-associated infection in Russia.
Outbreak Watch is part of Infectious Dose, bringing you outbreak developments, epidemiological context, and the science behind the headlines.
Find the full transcript, annotated sources, and additional resources at Infectious Dose.
7 Oct 2026
S2E41 The Collection: Exhibits to Die For
The museum is closed. The exhibits aren't finished changing.
In the first episode of Month of the Macabre 2026, a routine after-hours visit to a museum of infectious disease history takes an unexpected turn. Past the familiar scenes of Broad Street, the 1918 influenza pandemic, and SARS in Toronto, a new gallery has appeared: a modern train station displaying an outbreak that hasn't happened yet.Then the exhibit changes.
And changes again
The Collection is an immersive Infectious Dose audio story about infectious disease history, transmission, outbreak investigation, and what happens when knowing the future doesn't necessarily mean you can control it.
🎬 This week's #SickFlicks to accompany the episode: Annihilation (2018) and The Endless (2017)—two stories in which reality begins behaving according to unfamiliar rules, leaving the people inside to figure out what those rules mean.
Check out the companion blog post for citations and transcript. 🎧 Headphones recommended.
30 Sept 2026
S2E40 Monsters, Movies, and Microbes: When Infection Becomes Horror
It’s horror movie night, but Heather can’t stop seeing infectious disease in the monsters.
Heather is joined by her friend Valerie to explore the real biology behind some of horror’s most enduring fears: tuberculosis and vampire lore, rabies and werewolves, zombies as outbreak epidemiology, neurological disease and possession, and the strange biology behind The Last of Us, The Thing, and Alien.
Plus, Valerie plays the hilarious Horror Movie or Medical Literature? and discovers that when it comes to horror, evolution has had a considerable head start.
So grab a drink, pick a movie, and remember the most important public-health lesson horror has apparently failed to teach us: stop hiding bites.
Annotated citations and episode recipes available in the companion blog post.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
9 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 27 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
41
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
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