Sneeze

The History and Science of the Common Cold

By: David Miles

Narrated by: Maxim Reston

A tickle in the back of your throat? A cough that won't let you sleep? A stuffy nose and a constant need to sneeze?

When it comes to understanding the common cold, we have all had plenty of first-hand experience. We are all too familiar with the symptoms of the cold virus, having caught and fought one every few months on average. At this point, the cold is seen as an inevitable inconvenience, rather than an illness that should be wiped out.

Dr David Miles, a world-leading immunologist, has amassed over a century of research on the common cold, starting from the foundational discovery that colds are caused by viruses, up to developments made during the pandemic.

In Sneeze, Dr Miles looks at what exactly colds are and where they come from, to reveal practical steps we can take to avoid catching them, fighting them and, perhaps most ambitiously, the steps that we as a society can take to make our environment less conducive to spreading them.

Comprehensive and richly detailed, Sneeze is the story of the common cold, and why it doesn't need to be as common as we have come to imagine.

© David Miles (P) 2025 DK Audio

David Miles is an infectious disease immunologist who spent ten years researching diseases of childhood in Africa and the vaccinations that protect against them. He now lives in London and tutors on the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's online MSc course.