ABC pandemic podcast wins national science prize
ABC podcast RN Presents…Patient Zero has won a national prize for outstanding science journalism for exploring the origins and impacts of pandemics such as COVID-19.
The win marks the second year running that an ABC audio series has won the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Science Journalism, following the success of Radio National’s Coronacast in 2020.
Conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic and produced during state lockdowns, the eight-part audio documentary series and podcast RN Presents…Patient Zero cut through the deluge of daily news to help audiences understand major disease outbreaks – where they begin, why they happen and how the world had found itself in the middle of a really big one.
Executive Producer Joel Werner described the series as “true crime but for disease outbreaks”. “The Eurekas are Australia’s most prestigious science awards and we’re still pinching ourselves that Patient Zero won the prize for science journalism,” he said.
“The series was produced almost entirely in lockdown, from a collection of living room offices and cobbled-together home studios across the country. And while most of our episodes focused on disease outbreaks of the past, we didn’t shy away from the obvious – producing an in-depth, richly produced and journalistically rigorous documentary about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we were living through it.
“We wanted to find an audience beyond scientifically literate consumers and give everyone a means of learning more about the complexities of pandemics. To do this, we assembled a multidisciplinary team of science journalists, true crime producers and audio specialists from across the ABC. I couldn’t be prouder of the Patient Zero team – this award is just recognition for all their hard work.”
The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, established in 1990, honour excellence across the areas of research and innovation, science leadership and engagement and school science.
