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A Shot in the Arm Podcast with Ben Plumley

A Shot in the Arm Podcast with Ben Plumley

A podcast about exploring innovation and equity in global health

All About ViiV: An Interview with CEO Deborah Waterhouse at CROI 2024

ViiV Healthcare is the world’s  only pharmaceutical company dedicated exclusively to HIV, and in this episode, Ben meets its CEO, Deborah Waterhouse, to explore the company’s approach to HIV R&D and commercial success - as well as the controversies its global access strategy has attracted for its new long acting injectables. Deborah and Ben find they have much in common beyond both being Brits growing up in the 70s and 80s, from being students of the humanities choosing to make careers in health, to their favorite pop music.  https://viivhealthcare.com https://www.unaids.org/en https://www.who.int/health-topics/hiv-aids https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/default.html https://au.int/en/sa/oid #ViiV #pharma #HIV #AIDS #treatment #Prevention #PrEP #dualtherapy #longacting #injectables #globalaccess #globalequity #discrimination #positiveaction #womenleaders #IWD 
March 13, 2024

Our Bodies, Our Rights, Our Choices.

This International Women’s Day, we’re sharing the mic with Frontline AIDS. Yvette Raphael reflects on the challenges and setbacks girls and women face around the world in 2024, in a hard hitting conversation with Frontline AIDS’ Yumnah Hattas, Toyin Chukwudozie Executive Director of Nigeria’s Education As A Vaccine, and Beirne Roose-Snyder, Senior Director of the Preclusion Project.  https://frontlineaids.org https://www.evanigeria.org https://apha.org.za https://www.thepreclusionproject.org https://www.unaids.org/en https://www.state.gov/pepfar https://www.project2025.org #IWD #HIV #AIDS #pepfar #womensrights #antiabortion #forcedbirth #neocolonialism #reproductivehealth #choiceagenda
March 8, 2024

PEPFAR: An HIV Marshall Plan Dissected

In the next of our podcasts dedicated to the USA’s multibillion investment in the fight against AIDS, Ben and Yvette catch up with Emily Bass, author of To End A Plague - the definitive history of PEPFAR, to discuss how PEPFAR, the pride of US bipartisanship, has become yet another victim of congressional mischief-making. PEPFAR saves lives: it also reinforces US soft power abroad. So why would politicians want to scupper it? https://www.state.gov/pepfar https://apha.org.za https://www.emilybass.club Find out more about Emily’s book “To End A Plague”, Check out our 2022 interview with her https://youtu.be/YSzO3NWQeI0?si=6oKAfO4aoazQd8EO #pepfar #HIV #AIDS #stigma #discrimination #Prevention #treatment #bipartisanship #US #Congress
March 3, 2024

Uganda’s Legalized Persecution of LGBTQ+ / Personal & Public Health Threats

Recorded in June 2023, Yvette Raphael and Ben Plumley catch up with Dr. Frank Mugisha, a leading Ugandan advocate at the forefront of the fight against the country’s persecution of the LGBTQ+ community. After the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill became law in Uganda, Frank explains the direct threats to the safety of the LGBTQ+ Ugandans and their supporters. He points to the outsize funding and influence of Western, particularly North American, right-wing Christian evangelists. The conversation serves, not only as an insight into the growing anti-rights movement that targets women’s as well as LGBTQ+ rights, but also a call to action to other pro-rights African leaders to stand up and be counted. How can the end of AIDS be achieved by 2030, if disproportionately affected communities are persecuted and driven underground?   https://smuginternational.org   https://www.state.gov/pepfar   https://www.unaids.org/en   https://frontlineaids.org   https://global-listening.org   https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/family-watch-international   #LGBTQ #Uganda #anti-homosexualitylaw #HIV #AIDS #marginalisedcommunities #neocolonialism #extremism #Africansolidarity 
February 18, 2024

The Global Trust Crisis with 70,000 People from 70 Countries

The Global Listening Project has teamed up with the Global Health Diplomats and A Shot In The Arm Podcast, to bring you the release of the Project’s new 70 country 70,000 people study into how public trust in governments and health policies have been affected by COVID-19. It’s the first data set of this size to capture comprehensive information about people’s sense of preparedness for future crises. Coming just before the Munich Security Conference, Co-host Ben Plumley catches up with GLP founder, Professor Heidi Larson in Bengaluru, along with friend of the podcast, Prasada Rao JVR, former Health Secretary of India, and Professor Balaji Parthasarthy, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, to explore why we are witnessing a global trust crisis - and why it its urgent for human security to address this.  https://global-listening.org https://www.iiitb.ac.in https://securityconference.org/en https://securityconference.org/en/publications/munich-security-report-2024 #security #humansecurity #globalsecurity #globalhealthsecurity #pandemicpreparedness #climatedisruption #conflict #trust #india #munichsecurityconference 
February 14, 2024

How US Domestic Abortion Decisions Affect the Rights & Health of People Globally

In the first of an informal series of episodes looking at the PEPFAR & US global AIDS funding, Ben chats with Dr Anu Kumar, President & CEO of IPAS, on how the US Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe vs Wade has mobilized extremist neo-colonial efforts to reverse HIV, safe abortion services and global health programs particularly in sub Saharan Africa.  https://www.ipas.org https://www.state.gov/pepfar https://www.emilybass.club/book https://www.unaids.org/en #pepfar #HIV #AIDS #SRHR #abortion #safeabortion #RoeVsWade #LGBT
February 11, 2024

Focus on PEPFAR

Upcoming episodes of A Shot In The Arm and Global Health Diplomats podcasts are focusing on PEPFAR - the US multi-billion investment in helping countries hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic, and saving tens of millions of lives. Its future funding is precarious, stalled in Congress - and we will explore the massive impact it has had, how it became the poster child for bipartisanship in Washington DC - and how allies of all political stripes can get it back on track.
February 11, 2024

How Prepared is Japanese Society for the Next Crisis?

Japan’s collectivistic approach to society enabled its citizens to “pull together” through the COVID pandemic - but has it become complacent in the face of future crises? Ben caught up with Heidi Larson, the co-founder of the Global Listening Project in Tokyo, as she shared initial learnings from the Project’s 70 country opinion research study into societal preparedness with experts, as well as leading Japanese virologist Professor Hitoshi Oshitani, and Moderna’s Dr Rachel Dawson to explore just how far the country’s COVID response provides important lessons for the next crisis. Professor Hitoshi Oshitani, Professor of Virology, Tohoku University, Japan Dr. Rachel Dawson, Executive Director, Medical Affairs, Moderna Professor Heidi Larson, Co-Founder & Chair, The Global Listening Project https://global-listening.org http://www.tohoku.ac.jp/en https://www.modernatx.com https://www.ashotinthearmpodcast.com https://www.youtube.com/@shotarmpodcast #japan #COVID-19 #society #globallistening #resilience #preparedness #futurecrisis #HPV #influenza #vaccine #mRNA
December 29, 2023
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A Shot in the Arm Podcast with Ben Plumley

Advances in healthcare for the many, not the few? How to rebuild trust between clinical science and the general public? Global Health strategist Ben Plumley meets experts from around the world to explore the pressing issues in global health innovation and equity, from biotechnology, to access to medicines, communications, and the decolonization of public health.

Host

Ben Plumley

Ben Plumley

Ben is an internationally recognized global health strategist and advocate, with over 25 years’ experience in the UN, private and non-profit sectors. Now based in California, Ben’s unique strength is in mobilizing stakeholders to create impactful public private partnerships in global health.

Ben is Head of Engagement, Partnerships and Impact at Ikana Health Action Lab, and a Senior Fellow at the Global Health Reporting Center.

Ben is an internationally respected podcaster, and host of A Shot In The Arm Podcast, a cutting-edge video podcast about innovation and equity in global health – particularly in the age of pandemics. Guests have included Dr Anthony Fauci, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Professor Heidi Larson. Ben’s other podcasts include Business Fights AIDS, a behind the scenes look at his collaboration with the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke to mobilize the business response to AIDS, and Vax Up – a video podcast designed for vaccine implementers on how social technologies can be used to promote vaccine confidence.

Between 2010 and 2018, he was the CEO of the Global Health Technical Assistance and Policy Think Tank, the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation. As well as non-profits, he has extensive public and private sector experience, having been Vice President of Access at Johnson & Johnson, Chief of Staff to Dr Peter Piot, the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS, and a public consultation policy adviser at the UK Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority.

Ben is Chair of the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, producer of the award-winning MTV Shuga terrestrial and digital soap operas, promoting young people’s sexual and reproductive health across Southern Africa and India.

He is also the incoming Chair of the San Francisco Community Health Center, a national center of excellence which provides ground-breaking comprehensive health and wellness services for hard-to-reach homeless, trans and drug-using communities in San Francisco’s tenderloin district. Ben was educated at Churchill College, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.

Ben's other interests include the literature (and particularly the essays) of Aldous Huxley (perhaps the greatest essayist of the 20th century), as well as the genre of speculative fiction - particularly Margaret Atwood (definitely the best English-language writer of our era). And, to the alarm of many of his friends, he is passionate about British, German and Japanese electronic pop music, particularly the Pet Shop Boys, Rosenstolz and Kirinji.

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