Pharma Podcasts

In 1996, Nicholas Negroponte (founder of MIT’s Media Lab) wrote in his book “Being Digital”, that the information about us (our personal metadata), could one day be used to “narrowcast” information to us. As prophetic as that vision may have been over 20 years ago, the reality of narrowcasting has had both benefits and drawbacks that were wholly unanticipated.

One of the key benefits of narrowcasting though has been the emergence of podcasting over the last 5 years as increasingly popular approach to finding personalised content that turns the time-suck that is the average daily commute, into a valuable opportunity to recharge and learn.

That need for personalised content goes beyond just the latest episode of The Guardian’s Science podcast, TEDTalk Radio, or The BBC’s “In Our Time”. Podcast topics are becoming increasingly specialised and range from general science podcasts to podcasts geared towards industry professionals. There are even CME podcasts for clinicians.

In addition, journals such as Nature, Science, Gut, OncoTarget, JAMA and NEJM produce podcasts, as do media outlets like the Guardian, the BBC and NPR. Major conferences such as ESMO and ASCO have their own podcasts, some of which include recordings of panel discussions and conference presentations

Here are a few of my favourites:

General Science Podcasts

• Engines of our Ingenuity – The University of Houston’s Daily Science Program which features stories from the history of science and technology.
• The Guardian Science Weekly – The Guardian’s Weekly Science program
• Quirks and Quarks – The CBC’s Weekly Science Program
• Science Friday – NPR’s Weekly Science Program
• Science In Action – The BBC’s Weekly Science Program
• Science On Top – An Australian weekly program on science
• TED Talk Radio – NPR’s interviews & summations of key TED Talks.

Journal Podcasts

• Lancet Oncology
• Nature Biotech Podcast
• Nature Podcast
• OncoTarget
• Science Magazine Podcast

Industry-Related Podcasts

• Base Pairs – stories on genetics from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• BioFlash – stories from the San Francisco Business Times on biotech companies in the Bay Area
• The Bio Report – The Bio Report podcast, hosted by veteran journalist Daniel Levine, focuses on the intersection of biotechnology with business, science, and policy.
• Drug Discovery World – stories from the pages of Drug Discovery World
• FierceBiotech – stories from the pages of FierceBiotech
• GEN Sounds of Science Podcast – stories from the pages of Genetic Engineering News
• The Pharmcast – stories from the Life Science industry
• Quicksand Pharma/Biotech Weekly News – A weekly audio digest of the most important news in drug development affecting the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.
• Regenerate – Regenerative Medicine podcast
• The Readout Loud – Weekly industry news from the folks at STAT.
• The Stemcell Podcast – interviews with researchers in stem
• This Week In Virology – a weekly podcast about viruses
• This Week in Microbiology – a weekly podcast about microbes
• Novel Targets – A podcast about cancer drug targets produced by the folks at Blue Ice Publishing (Pieter Droppert and Sally Church) who also publish the highly-respected Pharma Strategy Blog and Biotech Strategy Blog.

Conference/Society Podcasts

• ASCO – ASCO provides a collection of 9 different podcasts on topics ranging from research to advocacy. You’ll find all of the podcasts here.
• ACS
• ASH
• CHI Podcasts – previews and highlights from some of the numerous conferences that Cambridge Healthtech Institute organizes.
• ESMO Open – ESMO Open is the open journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology and this podcast highlights research from the journal and their conference.

Scientist Conversations

• Illumina Genomics Podcast – conversations with leading scientists on genomics-related topics.
• The Long Run – Luke Timmerman’s engaging conversations with biotech leaders across the US.
• Pharma & Biotech Thought Leadership – Shanna Landolt, leading executive recruiter interviews top thought leaders from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to share their expertise with the pharma and biotechnology community.
• Scientist The Human Podcast – conversations with researchers on topics from biology, medicine, pharmacology and more.
• Two Scientists Walk Into A Bar – conversations with scientists from Genentech on a range of drug discovery and development topics. It’s an interesting peek behind the curtain at one of the most successful biotech companies.

Drug Development

• Clinical Trial Podcast – what does it take to be a clinical trials professional? Listen to interviews with those in the field.
• The Clinical Trials Guru – the challenges of clinical trials from the perspective of professionals operating in the field.

Medical Podcasts

• Imedex – a Continuing Medical Education (CME) series
• PeerView Oncology & Hematology – a CME series for oncology/hematology practitioners
• Project Oncology – “focuses on a wide array of oncology topics designed to educate and enlighten practitioners on late-breaking discoveries, novel treatment options, evolving methods of patient management, and more. This series provides cutting-edge updates on the biology, diagnosis, and multidisciplinary management, as well as new understandings of evidence-based recommendations to achieve optimal patient outcomes”.

Podcasting tools like Stitcher, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Google Play can be used to find and subscribe to podcasts. To subscribe to any of these podcasts simply search for them in your podcasting app of choice, and tap the “Subscribe” button.

What are your favourite podcasts?