Vincent Racaniello, a virologist at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, is sick of how fast inaccurate information about viruses can spread. So last year, he began a podcast, This Week in Virology, that attempts to explain the science of viruses in a clear, understandable and conversational manner.

Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier record their This Week in Virology podcast; their twitter name is @profvrr. Image credit: Martine Lecorps

“People don’t really understand viruses,” said Racaniello, the Higgins Professor of Microbiology at P&S. “The press often gets it wrong. They don’t talk to the right people and, for the most part, they just don’t have the [science] background. They’ll call a bacteria a virus and vice versa because they just don’t know the fundamentals.”

The podcast, which is available on iTunes or at www.twiv.tv, is co-hosted by Dickson Despommier, a special lecturer in Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia. Each Friday, the two men record a 60-minute segment from Racaniello’s office in the Hammer Health Sciences Center, where they’re equipped with professional microphones and editing equipment. They don’t follow a script, but rather they have a conversation about virus discoveries and viruses in the news and respond to listeners’ questions on anything from the new H1N1 flu vaccine to the suggested measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine link to autism.

Racaniello said the topic of viruses spans a wide audience. “We keep it at a level where it’s not completely dumbed down,” he said, “but it’s sophisticated enough that it would interest anyone.” This Week in Virology has an average of 5,000 steady listeners, he said, and the podcast is downloaded about 15,000 times per month. Listeners range from high schoolers working on homework assignments to graduate students, academics and retired professionals.

Racaniello, who joined the medical school in 1982, spent two decades researching the polio virus and how it replicates and infects nerve cells. But as the polio vaccine largely eliminated the disease, he has shifted his attention to rhinoviruses—common cold viruses. Later this month, he and Despommier plan to launch a monthly podcast on parasites. Eventually, down the road, Racaniello will produce video podcasts, each of which will include a short experiment on a particular virus. The goal, he said, is to continue teaching and spreading accurate information about viruses to a wider audience.

For someone who has studied viruses for more than 30 years, Racaniello doesn’t appear to be losing interest in the subject. “Viruses are so neat; they’re amazing,” he said. “We don’t understand 95 percent of how they work, and that’s what keeps me interested. There’s still so much to learn.”

In addition to the three courses Racaniello teaches at the medical school, this spring he will be the lead professor on the first virology course offered to undergraduates at the College in over 20 years. But for all the joys of teaching, the podcasts have a far larger reach. “I teach a few hundred people a year at the most,” he said. “Now, I can reach thousands of people, probably more than I have in my entire career.”

—by Melanie A. Farmer