On time podcast

The 'On time’ podcast aims to engage the public with interdisciplinary conversations around key themes such as history, memory, and speed of the immune response, alternated with musical pieces and sounds. 

The project was originally conceived in 2024 by science communicator Francesco Seganfreddo and immunologist Francesca Di Rosa, in collaboration with Adrian Hayday, to expand in the digital space the 'Vaccination, a time machine' exhibit at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition 2024 in London (2–7 July 2024). The podcast became a miniseries in 2025.

First episode

The first episode, ‘History’ (June 2024), features an imaginary dialogue between two influential figures in the history of variolation, an old practice preventing smallpox that was imported in the UK from Turkey and preceded modern vaccines. 

The two influential guests from the past are Emmanuel Timoni, a Greek doctor of Italian origin, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a distinguished English aristocrat and writer, known for her advocacy of variolation. Both of them played a crucial role in building bridges between the East and West in the early 1700s, about 80 years before Edward Jenner introduced his famous cowpox vaccine.

Emmanuel Timoni and Lady Montagu were cultived intellectuals who had travelled and lived in several countries, each bringing a personal viewpoint and knowledge. Thus, in the episode ‘History’, their imaginary conversation lies at the intersection of science and the humanities, and it is enriched with some anecdotes of personal life. 

Interchanges across widely differing cultural perspectives and human experiences remained as a file rouge throughout the series of interviews with real guests conducted by Francesco Seganfreddo in subsequent episodes of the podcast 'On time'.

Second episode

The second episode, ‘Speed’ (part 1 and part 2, March/April 2025), was released on the occasion of the science outreach event ‘Rhythms of immunity | Choreographing the dance of vaccination’ at the Francis Crick Institute. 

It features a conversation around the meaning of ‘speed’ in the work of either an immunologist or a choreographer between Ambra Natalini, post-doc in the laboratory of Adrian Hayday, and Dennie Wilson, dance artist, educator and researcher at the Royal Academy of Dance. This podcast episode is a component of the ‘Dancing like a lymphocyte’ project, a science outreach initiative promoted by Francesca Di Rosa and Adrian Hayday.

Third episode

The third episode, ‘Memory’ (part 1 and part 2, November 10, 2025), was released on the World Science Day for Peace and Development 2025. Indeed, the ‘On time’ podcast is aligned with the UNESCO initiative to celebrate every year the significant role of science in society and to highlight the need to engage the public in debates on emerging scientific issues. 

This podcast episode is an exchange of ideas and reflections around the concept of ‘memory’ between Polly Matzinger, immunologist at the National Institutes of Health (USA) and Louisiane Ferlier, historian and digital resources manager at the Royal Society of London. Their conversation centers on how traces of the past are maintained over time and retrieved when needed by either the immune system or librarians of scientific archives.

Special episode 

The ‘Special episode – The Royal Society Summer Exhibition 2024’ (November 28, 2025) was released to celebrate the 365th anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Society (November 28, 1660). 

Originally recorded by Francesco Seganfreddo during the intense days of the exhibition in July 2024, it was revisited to distill the reflections on immunology in society that still resonate at some distance from that experience. It captures impressions and thoughts of immunologists Adrian Hayday, Francesca Di Rosa, Fran Balkwill, of architect Fabrizio Lepore, as well as of some of the visitors and of the young volunteers at the stand.