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By far the deadliest parasitic disease in human history, malaria has killed millions upon millions of people over the past several thousand years. Effective anti-malarial treatments have existed since the 17th century, but the disease still kills more than a million people a year, many of them children. Despite enormous efforts to neutralise and eradicate the disease, the malaria parasite has proved hugely resilient, capable of developing a resistance to everything humankind has ever thrown at it. Produced by NPR, Herbs and Empires traces the strange history of one of our most formidable foes.
Producers: Adam Cole, Ben de la Cruz
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Wellbeing
Born in China, Zee seeks a gender-affirming life in the American Midwest
11 minutes
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Chemistry
Why do the building blocks of life possess a mysterious symmetry?
12 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle
8 minutes
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Cosmology
Tiny, entangled universes that form or fizzle out – a theory of the quantum multiverse
11 minutes
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Astronomy
The history of astronomy is a history of conjuring intelligent life where it isn’t
34 minutes
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Politics and government
How it looked to Afghan women to see the Taliban return to power
33 minutes
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Metaphysics
Simple entities in universal harmony – Leibniz’s evocative perspective on reality
4 minutes
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Biography and memoir
Passed over as the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight carved out an impressive second act
13 minutes
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The ancient world
The six priestesses who kept the flame of ancient Rome alight at risk of death
5 minutes