Research project
Global Health Histories podcast series
- Start date: 1 December 2025
- End date: 31 March 2026
- Funder: Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures Impact Acceleration Account
- Primary investigator: Shane Doyle
- Co-investigators: Professor Sanjoy Bhattacharya
- Technicians: Helena McCormick; Ben Pierce
Description
The Global Health Histories podcast series seeks to enhance understanding of the historical context of health challenges facing the word today.
The podcasts bring historians of international and global health into conversation with medical researchers and policymakers, examining the cultural, economic, political, and social contexts which shaped past health interventions. Each podcast examines a specific case study of contemporary relevance, addressing not only medical research and the prevention or amelioration of disease and debility, but also health-related policy and diplomacy.
The series’ aim is to highlight the potential of historical research to aid national and global medical communities in responding to, and communicating about, the challenges of the present in order to shape a healthier future.
Episodes
Episode 1: Framework Convention for Tobacco Control: Global Perspectives from the WHO
The first episode of The Global Health Histories Podcast, hosted by Sanjoy Bhattacharya (Head of the School of History and Professor of Medical and Global Heath Histories at the University of Leeds) features a discussion on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first international treaty negotiated under the WHO's Article 19 powers. Speakers include:
- Kate Lannan, senior lawyer at the WHO FCTC Secretariat
- Doug Bettcher, senior advisor to the WHO Director-General
- Hebe Gouda, epidemiologist leading the WHO global tobacco epidemic report
- Alison Commar, demographer monitoring global tobacco prevalence
They highlight the FCTC's role in reducing global tobacco use, with adult prevalence dropping from 33% in 2000 to 21% in 2022, and discuss the MPOWER technical package, which outlines effective tobacco control measures. The conversation also addresses ongoing challenges, such as tobacco industry interference, and emphasizes the need for continued global collaboration, enforcement of tobacco control policies, and civil society support to combat the tobacco epidemic, which still claims 8 million lives annually.
In 2025, its 20th year, the FCTC is celebrated as a vital tool for public health, environmental protection, and economic sustainability.
Additional links
Centre for Global Health Histories
Episode 2: Framework Convention for Tobacco Control: A National Perspective from Sri Lanka
This episode of the Global Health Histories Podcast features a conversation between Sanjoy Bhattacharya (Head of the School of History and Professor of Medical and Global Heath Histories at the University of Leeds) and Dr Suranga Dolamulla, focusing on the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) and how it is being implemented in Sri Lanka. Dr. Dolamulla, Director of Laboratory Services and the Medical Research Institute at the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka, discusses the country's efforts and challenges in reducing tobacco use. The podcast highlights Sri Lanka's proactive stance in tobacco control and its significant contributions to global health initiatives.
Additional links
Centre for Global Health Histories
Centre for Combating Tobacco - Tobacco Observatory of Sri Lanka and the Region
Episode 3: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
In this episode of the Global Health Histories podcast, Sanjoy Bhattacharya speaks to Jeremy Knox from the Wellcome Trust and Suranga Dolamulla from Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health to discuss antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Jeremy highlights his policy work on AMR, emphasising the economic impact and the need for global policy actions. Suranga shares his clinical and research experience, noting the long-standing issue of antibiotic efficacy and the broader implications of AMR beyond clinical settings.
The discussion covers the definition and historical context of AMR, its drivers such as overuse of antibiotics, and the challenges in tackling it, including complexity, cost, and stakeholder resistance. The guests stress the importance of national action plans, international collaboration, and the role of civil society in raising awareness and supporting community initiatives. They also discuss the WHO's leadership, the need for new antibiotics, rapid diagnostics, alternative therapies, and vaccination programs. The episode concludes with a call for a participatory approach involving WHO, governments, and communities to effectively manage AMR.
Additional links
Centre for Global Health Histories
WHO - Antimicrobial resistance
Wellcome Trust - Antimicrobial resistance: it's time for global action
WHO - Sri Lanka: National Strategic Plan for Combating Antimicrobial Resistance 2023-2028
Episode 4: Maternal Health and Maternal Mortality
The fourth episode of The Global Health Histories Podcast, hosted by Shane Doyle (Professor of African History and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Heath Histories at the University of Leeds) focuses on maternal health in the Global South, and particularly on maternal mortality in Kenya. The discussion features interviews with:
- Professor Marleen Temmerman, former Director of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research of the World Health Organization
- Dr Estelle Sidze, research lead for maternal, newborn, and child health and wellbeing at the African Population and Health Research Center
The episode discusses the significance of landmark interventions in maternal health, from the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, to the development of dedicated Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals in this field. Yet, while much has been achieved, maternal mortality has proven to be one of the most intractable of global health challenges. In analysing why negative outcomes remain relatively common in the Global South, a number of issues are examined, from accountability within medical systems to maternal mental health.
Additional links
Centre for Global Health Histories
WHO Strategies toward ending preventable maternal mortality
Strategic Partnerships to Save Lives of Mothers and Newborns in Kenya
Oyugi B, Audi-Poquillon Z, Kendall S, et al, ‘Examining the quality of care across the continuum of maternal care (antenatal, perinatal and postnatal care) under the expanded free maternity policy (Linda Mama Policy) in Kenya: a mixed-methods study’, BMJ Open 2024;14:e082011.
Episode 5: Adolescent Maternal and Reproductive Health
The fifth episode of The Global Health Histories Podcast, hosted by Shane Doyle (Professor of African History and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Heath Histories at the University of Leeds), focuses on adolescent maternal and reproductive health, particularly in the Global South. The discussion features an interview with:
- Dr Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli, who led work on adolescent health in the World Health Organization from 2005 until his retirement in 2023, first in the Department of Child and Adolescent Health, and then in the Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research.
The episode discusses the particular health risks, both physical and mental, associated with adolescent reproduction. Adolescent mothers face elevated risks of conditions such as eclampsia, systemic infections, and postnatal depression, while their babies are more likely to be born preterm or with complications. While globally the adolescent birth rate has fallen since 2000, this decline has been extremely uneven, between and within countries. In this episode, discussion focuses on the reasons why adolescent reproduction continues to be marginalised within health systems, why progress has reversed in some societies, and why adolescent pregnancy is increasingly associated with various forms of vulnerability.
Additional links
Blum RW, Chandra-Mouli V., ‘Where We Are and How We Got Here: Taking Stock of the State of Global Adolescent Health’, Journal of Adolescent Health. 2024; 75(4S):S6-S8.
Centre for Global Health Histories
Chung, W.H, Kim, ME., Lee, J., ‘Comprehensive understanding of risk and protective factors related to adolescent pregnancy in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review’, Journal of Adolescence. 2018; 69: 180-188.
UNFPA, My Body, My Life, My World: A global Strategy for Adolescents and Youth
World Health Organisation, Adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights
Episode 6: Health Inequalities and Disability
The sixth episode of The Global Health Histories Podcast, hosted by Shane Doyle (Professor of African History and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Heath Histories at the University of Leeds), focuses on disability and health inequities. The podcast features interviews with:
- Professor Jessica Meyer, Professor of British Social and Cultural History at the University of Leeds. Jessica is a specialist in the history of health inequities experienced by veterans with disabilities after the First World War (01:34)
- Dr Kaloyan Kamenov, who currently leads the World Health Organization program on disability, and helps coordinate the WHO Disability Health Equity Initiative (27:26).
1.3 billion people, around a sixth of the world’s population, live with disability. In the recent pandemic, COVID-related mortality among people with disabilities was 2.7 times higher than in the rest of the global population. This relative disadvantage is not a new phenomenon – in a series of studies analysing mortality due to all causes, people with disabilities were found to have a mortality rate that was around twice as high as people without disabilities. Much of this elevated risk of death is due to factors which are avoidable.
In November 2025, the World Health Organisation launched a Disability Health Equity Network aiming to address the structural disadvantages which affect people with disabilities as they engage with health systems around the world.
This episode discusses the ambitions of this new WHO program, and considers the significance of the First World War in the long history of efforts to achieve health equity for people with disabilities. Discussion focuses on a series of key issues: the importance of stimulating a demand for equitable health access; the prioritisation of ensuring state recognition of health equity as a right; and the challenges of achieving broad-based progress when health budgets are under pressure.
Additional links
World Health Organisation health topics: Disability
WHO Disability Health Equity Initiative
World Health Organisation, Global report on health equity for persons with disabilities (2022)
Tracey Smythe, ‘Why is healthcare leaving people with disabilities behind?’ (2024)
Men, Women and Care (University of Leeds 2015-2020) research project webpage.
Jessica Meyer, ‘“He does not appear to have done much useful work since he was wounded”: Age, disability, and the history of masculinity’, Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, 25 (2022), 41-58.
Emre Umucu et al., ‘Health inequities among persons with disabilities: a global scoping review’, Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 13, Feb (2025) 10;13:1538519.