Episode 42 - Outbreak After Dark: A Consumption Christmas Carol

This month’s Outbreak After Dark is a special holiday episode — and a heavier one. In A Consumption Christmas Carol , we reimagine Dickens’ classic ghost story through the real epidemic that haunted Victorian London: tuberculosis. Long before antibiotics, TB shaped daily life, art, poverty, and policy — romanticized in parlors, devastating in tenements, and deadly across all social classes. Guided by familiar spirits of past, present, and yet to come, we trace how tuberculosis was misunderstood, aestheticized, and ultimately revealed as an airborne infectious disease — one that remains among the world’s deadliest today. This episode blends historical storytelling, medical science, and reflection on why some diseases never truly stay in the past. Because this is a weightier story, we close the episode gathered by the fire for a post-Carol decompression — sharing snacks, drinks, behind-the-scenes thoughts, and space to process the history together. 🕯️ Outbreak After Dark is the after-hours storytelling series of Infectious Dose, where science, history, and a little gothic atmosphere meet.  This episode is an original reimagining inspired by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.