Category: All|Learning Resources

First off, let me say these reviews are swayed towards the American podcasts. I’m not sure if that is a factor of what showed up on my podcasts searches in the past, or if there is a dominance in the podcast-verse of U.S.-based podcasts on this topic. These reviews also are more targeted towards those in the medical and healthcare fields. There are some others that go more in depth about microbes that are not of medical relevance, so they didn’t make the cut. Here is a list of the 5 Best Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Podcasts: Puscast by the Edgy Doc The sarcastic rants of this doc make the show educational and entertaining at the same time. That’s a difficult feat to pull off when talking about micro (no offense to microbiologists!). The years of archived podcasts from his site are a treasure trove of information. I particularly like the nearly episodic criticism of journal articles not putting in pronunciation keys to their works. Many of us have 3+ pronunciations for words depending on our own nationality or that of our instructors so it's nice to have some clarification from time to time. ASCP LabMedicine The American Society for Clinical Pathology is a great source for what’s current in clinical medicine. This is the hidden side of Pathology as most physicians don’t think twice about what happens after a sample has been send “down to the lab”. LabMedicine covers diagnosis, staining, and presentations of many medically useful pathogens. If you have any histopathologic questions, this is a great resource to keep in mind! This Week In Microbiology As a part of the TwiX family, Dr. Vincent Racanelli’s TwiM podcast is a long running discussion on the latest in micro research and discussion of recent articles. This is a bit advanced, but it’s still a fun and entertaining discussion for those interested in micro. This Week in Virology and This Week in Parasitism also follow this theme in their respective niches. Dr. Racanelli also has a Virology course on Coursera that is available for free and may be a great introduction into undergrad virology. Infectious Disease Society of America The IDSA are not only a leader in medical guidance for infectious disease, but also have a pretty informative podcast. This is a great addition for residents and physicians, but may also help medical students in understanding current treatment guidelines. They don’t release episodes very often, but they can sum up very large guidelines with complex graphics into a quick audio podcast and save us valuable time. CDC Emerging Infectious Disease You can’t have a list about contagious diseases and not have a Center for Disease Control and Prevention link somewhere. These usually 10-15 minute episode are released sporadically, and cover emerging diseases. These virus and bacterial pathogens (usually) are often hot topics in the news at the time. Zika, Plague, and many other diseases will be seen, and what epidemiologists and other specialists are doing to monitor and prepare for potential outbreaks. They sound a bit scripted, but I find this fine as long as the podcast is kept short. Like our Medical Microbiology videos, when a script is used properly it can allow for information-dense and organized material. There are definitely some others out there, like Meet the Microbiologist, that are worth checking out. However, the ones above provide the most educational benefit for medical students and premeds. Of course, if you use the Apple Podcast app (which I usually don’t) you can find a podcast and go to the "Related" tab to find some similar topics and titles. Sometimes this works, sometimes not so well. These have been vetted (if you trust my judgment) to be worthy of your time! If you have other resources in this category, feel free to drop a line for the next list update.