Prescription for Disaster

Antibiotics have saved untold millions of lives, but bacteria are learning to outsmart them at alarming rates. Projections show that by 2050, ten million people could die each year from antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Play Button Pause Button
0:00 0:00
x
Host
  • Gabrielle Sierra
    Podcast Host and Producer
Credits

Asher Ross - Supervising Producer

Markus Zakaria - Audio Producer and Sound Designer

Rafaela Siewert - Associate Podcast Producer

Episode Guests
  • Kathy Talkington
    Director of the Antibiotic Resistance Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts
  • Michael J. Satlin
    Assistant Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine

Show Notes

Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. A major cause is their overuse in both humans and animals. At the same time, a lack of financial incentives is setting back efforts to discover new classes of antibiotics. The problem is both global and local, and without new initiatives, many common medical conditions could become deadly once again.

 

From CFR

 

The End of Antibiotics?,” Claire Felter

 

Antibiotic-Resistant ‘Superbugs’ Are Here,” Laurie Garrett and Ramanan Laxminarayan

 

Read More

 

The post-antibiotic era is here,” Vox

 

The Future of Chicken, Without Antibiotics,” Atlantic

 

U.N. Issues Urgent Warning on the Growing Peril of Drug-Resistant Infections,” New York Times

 

Are Antibiotics Damaging Your Family’s Health?,” Scientific American

 

Watch or Listen

 

We’re Losing the War Against Bacteria, Here’s Why,” New York Times

 

A Superbug Survivor Shares His Struggle with Antibiotic Resistance,” Pew Charitable Trusts

 

The Antibiotic Apocalypse Explained,” Kurzgesagt

 

 The Rise of the Superbug,” Al Jazeera

Center for Preventive Action

The world is entering a new era of great-power competition. As U.S. policymakers look ahead, it pays to know what global threats to anticipate. Every January, the Council on Foreign Relations publishes a survey that analyzes the conflicts most likely to occur in the twelve months ahead and rates their potential impact on the United States. But can the country prepare itself for mass immigration, cyberwarfare, and nuclear tensions while still cooperating with adversaries on global issues such as climate change?

Global Governance

In 2022, several colossal events dominated the headlines, most prominently the war in Ukraine and the worldwide inflation that it helped spark. But beyond Ukraine, events with global implications continued to unfold. In this episode, Why It Matters checks in with three CFR fellows and CFR President Richard Haass to understand the least-covered stories of 2022 and to take a peek at what could await the world in 2023.

Technology and Innovation

For years, the world thought of the internet as a borderless zone that brought people from around the world together. But as governments pursue very different regulatory paths, the monolithic internet is breaking apart. Now, where there had been one, there are at least three internets: one led by the United States, one by China, and one by the European Union.

Top Stories on CFR

Russia

The meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Moscow helped both give the impression of a united front, but underlying tensions were also discernible.

Immigration and Migration

Edward Alden, the Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at CFR and Ross Dist Visiting Professor at Western Washington University, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the crisis at the U.S. southern border and the domestic debates over U.S. immigration policy.

Peru

The mass protests that have rocked Peru since December threaten to upend regional supply chains, intensify migration flows, and strain Lima’s bilateral relations.