Following the success of its debut series, the University of Bath’s Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) is launching a second season of its acclaimed podcast, Deadly Industry: Challenging Big Tobacco. TCRG is a world leader in uncovering Big Tobacco’s darkest tactics and is part of the University’s Centre for 21st Century Public Health (C21PH).

The eight-part weekly series, hosted by investigative researcher and journalist Louis Laurence, digs into how the tobacco industry relentlessly pursues profit at the expense of public health. The launch comes ahead of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control COP11, taking place in Geneva this November - a major global meeting where decisions will be made that shape tobacco policy and regulation worldwide.

Host, Louis Laurence, said:

After the response to Series 1, we’re excited to reveal even more of Big Tobacco’s playbook in Series 2. This season, we’ll uncover how Big Tobacco exploits workers, manipulates science, and exerts its power in the world around us and why this matters far beyond tobacco.

What to expect in Series 2

Each episode exposes a new layer of industry interference:

  • The human cost of tobacco farming – with Professor Roy Maconachie (University of Bath) and Dr Pankhuri Agarwal (University of Bath) on exploitation, debt cycles, child labour and the concept of modern slavery.

  • Inside the global supply chain - Dr John Mehegan (University of Bath) and Fred Dunwoodie Stirton (University of Bath) expose the hidden dangers of production and the ways tobacco companies obscure their operations.

  • Uncovering London’s Tobacco Past and Present - Phil Chamberlain (University of Bath) takes Louis on a walking tour of London to discover what Big Tobacco really looks like, from the docks to the boardroom, and how it exerts its power in the British capital and around the world.

  • Industry at the policy table - Dr Amber van den Akker (University of Bath) and Dr Nason Maani (The University of Edinburgh) discuss why corporations lobby for a role in policymaking and the risks this poses to public health.

  • Tobacco’s transformation narrative - Dr Iona Fitzpatrick (University of Bath) explores how the industry uses language to reinvent itself and curate its own image.

  • What really happens at FCTC COP - Leslie Rae Ferat (Global Alliance for Tobacco Control) and Dr Allen Gallagher (University of Bath) explain the politics of international tobacco treaty negotiations and how Big Tobacco seeks to undermine them.

  • Conflicts of interest in science - Dr Tess Legg (University of Bath) and Dr Alice Fabbri (University of Bath) reveal how commercial funding can distort research and policy.

  • Global interference strategies - Dr Quan Gan (The University of Sydney) and international experts uncover how the industry tailors its tactics across regions to delay or derail tobacco control.

Podcast contributor, Dr Nason Maani, Senior Lecturer in Inequalities and Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh commented:

Big Tobacco continues to pose a threat not only to public health, but to national and global governance mechanisms. Its actions continue to distort what we mean by “evidence-based”, “all of society” or “multi-stakeholder” approaches, to the detriment of society. This series helps to lay these influences bare.

Podcast contributor, Leslie Rae Ferat, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Tobacco Control said:

The FCTC COP is where governments from around the world come together to advance global tobacco control, a crucial space for protecting public health. But the tobacco industry works relentlessly to influence, obstruct, or undermine these negotiations. By pulling back the curtain on what happens at COP and how interference plays out, this series helps listeners understand why these meetings matter and what’s at stake when industry tactics go unchecked.

While the focus is on Big Tobacco, the series also draws connections to other harmful industries, including alcohol, ultra-processed food, and fossil fuels, showing how these industries’ corporate strategies are replicated to protect profits, promote addiction, and resist regulation.

Evidenced by TCRG’s award-winning research, Deadly Industry: Challenging Big Tobacco continues to deliver sharp insights and powerful storytelling, making it a must-listen for public health advocates, policymakers, journalists and anyone interested in how powerful industries operate behind closed doors.

Deadly Industry: Challenging Big Tobacco - Series 2 launches on 30 Sep 25 and is available on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.