In our episode on the bends, you joined us as we explored how low we can go. Now we’re back with a similar invitation: come along to learn how high we can fly (and what happens to our bodies when we get up there). In this very special episode, we examine the short-term effects and potentially deadly consequences of life at great heights and ask how we came to understand the relationship between altitude, oxygen, and health. This journey begins earlier than you may have guessed, back to a time before oxygen was discovered, and winds through unexpected avenues, including misadventures in hot air ..read more

Listeners of this podcast are likely no strangers to the horrifying history of eugenics, a topic that has made an appearance in our episodes on epilepsy, Huntington’s disease, hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, and many others. We have touched on eugenic policies that prohibited marriage, encouraged and permitted forced sterilization, and restricted immigration in the U.S. in the early 20th century. But what we haven’t explored in great depth are the origins of eugenics as well as its disturbing persistence in scientific research today. This week’s TPWKY book club selection, Superior: The Return ..read more

You may be wondering if there’s a typo in this week’s TPWKY book club selection - The Joy of Sweat? Are we supposed to find joy in this secretion? Shouldn’t it be The Inconvenience of Sweat? Some of you sauna-goers or hot yoga enthusiasts may already welcome sweat (at the right time and place, of course), but I’m guessing there are plenty of you out there that do everything you can to prevent perspiration and the odor that frequently accompanies it. In this bonus episode, Sarah Everts (@saraeverts), author of The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration and Science Journalism Chair at ..read more

There is no shortage of ailments that vitamin D has been claimed to prevent or cure - various types of cancers, heart disease, COVID-19, diabetes, an assortment of autoimmune conditions, just to name a few. What is it about this micronutrient that leads people to behold it as a panacea? In this episode, we sift through what we know about the biology of vitamin D, along with what happens when you don’t have enough of it, in an attempt to discern what might be overhype and what might be underhype when it comes to vitamin D and health claims. And there certainly is ample reason for excitement ove ..read more

What do you get when you combine a love of reading with an interest in biology/public health/medical history and a background in podcasting? The TPWKY book club, of course! This season’s miniseries of bonus episodes features interviews with authors of popular science books, covering topics ranging from why sweat matters to the history of food safety, from the menstrual cycle to the persistence of race science and so much more. So dust off that library card, crack open that e-reader, fire up those earbuds, do whatever it takes to get yourself ready for the nerdiest book club yet. We’re startin ..read more

Only our second episode of the season and we’re already getting in over (and inside) our heads with one of the biggest topics we’ve taken on yet: epilepsy. In this episode, we navigate the constantly changing definitions of epilepsy, make our way through the many different types of seizures, and dig into the inner workings of the brain as we attempt to understand the pathophysiology of this disease. And that’s just the biology section! The history of epilepsy proves to be just as intense, as shown by the multitude of meanings this disease has held over thousands of years. The past merges with ..read more

We’re kicking off our sixth season in the same way we ended our fifth: with another headline-making respiratory virus. But as our listeners know, not all respiratory viruses are the same, and it’s often those differences among them that play the biggest role in their spread or the symptoms they cause. This episode, we’re exploring the virus that everyone has been talking about lately. No, not that one. Or that one. The other one. Yes, we’re talking about respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. For many people, the recent surge in RSV infections that dominated headlines this winter may have been t ..read more

Hosted by Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart from the hit show Morbid. When 90-year-old Laurence Pilgeram drops dead on the sidewalk outside his condo, you might think that’s the end of his story. But, really, it’s just the beginning. Because Laurence and others like him have signed up to be frozen and brought back to life in the future. And that belief will pull multiple generations of the Pilgeram family into a cryonics soap opera filled with dead pets, gold coins, grenades, fist fights, mysterious packages, family feuds, Hall of Fame baseball legends, and frozen heads — lots of frozen heads. Fr ..read more

The Vanished is a true crime podcast that explores the stories of those who have gone missing. The Vanished goes beyond conventional news reports to take a deep dive into the story of a different missing person each week. Host Marissa Jones brings you exclusive interviews with family members, friends, law enforcement and experts on mainstream cases, as well as little known ones. Listen in, to hear what The Vanished will uncover next: wondery.fm/TPWKY_TheVanished See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ..read more

Somehow it’s taken us until the penultimate episode to cover this season’s first mosquito-borne virus. But we assure you, this episode is well-worth the wait. Although Chikungunya virus is often lumped in with dengue or Zika, the unique characteristics that distinguish Chikungunya virus from these other arboviruses are just as important to note as the similarities among them. In this episode, we explore these differences and similarities in the biology of Chikungunya virus before reassessing what we thought we knew about the history of this disease, a history that is presently under revision ..read more