In an anatomy and physiology class, you may learn how the different heart valves work to circulate your blood, how the structure of your kidney helps to maintain electrolyte levels, and how the expansion and contraction of your lungs sets off a carefully orchestrated cascade of gas exchange and transport. The human body is an endlessly fascinating machine. But when you spend so much time learning about the body, you can lose sight of the fact that it isn’t a machine. It is the story of your life. In this book club installment, I am joined by surgeon and award-winning writer Gabriel Weston to discuss her latest book Alive: Our Bodies and the Richness and Brevity of Existence. In this compelling blend of memoir, science, and meditation, Weston examines different body parts chapter by chapter - what they have meant to her or her loved ones, their significance in history, and how their meanings are shaped by our scientific understanding. Weston inspires readers to take a moment to reflect on what it’s like to live in your body, feel your heart beat, your lungs expand. Doing so can help us connect with ourselves and others. Tune in for a delightful conversation! Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAuSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Ep 193 Necrotizing Fasciitis: A strange beast
If you were asked to describe necrotizing fasciitis in three words, you might choose: rapid, deadly, and rare. The third of those adjectives may provide some comfort, but the first two are the clear inspiration for this infection’s more lurid nickname: flesh-eating bacteria. In this episode, we get up close and personal with necrotizing fasciitis and its causative agents. We start off by examining step by step how these infections wreak so much havoc and why doctors still struggle with its treatment. Then we take a tour through its grisly history, featuring maritime misadventures and wicked war wounds. We wrap up the story with a look at the global trends in these infections as well as some promising new research. This episode may not be for the faint of heart, but it is for the endlessly curious. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAuSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Ep 192 New World Screwworm: Oh-oh here they come
It’s the stuff nightmares are made of. A fly lands on an open wound and lays hundreds of eggs, from which hatch countless ravenous maggots. There they writhe, devouring flesh, insatiable and relentless. Every minute they dig deeper and deeper until flesh gives way to bone. Even the species name of these maggots inspires a shiver of fear: Cochliomyia hominivorax - “man eater”. This nightmare of a fly is the horrifying reality for many mammals in South America and some Caribbean islands, particularly cattle. And it seems to be making a comeback in the places it was previously eradicated - Central and North America. What exactly this fly does, why it’s such a problem, and how we came to defeat it (temporarily) all feature in this week’s episode. Sterile flies? Archival footage? Gnarly descriptions? This episode has it all. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAuSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Special Episode: Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal & Dead Ends!
Science doesn’t always get it right the first time (or the second, or the third, or even the ninety-ninth!). And while we may chuckle at the outlandish things people believed or the goofy experiments they tried, we forget two things: 1) those failures helped us get where we are today and 2) a hundred years from now, people will probably be laughing at the “cutting edge” medical knowledge of today! In this week’s book club episode, Erin and I chat with two of our all-time favorite science communicators, Dr. Lindsey Fithzarris and Adrian Teal to discuss their newest book Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels. This hilarious and insightful book, geared towards middle-school readers (but enjoyable for all ages!), frolicks through some of the strangest stories in the history of medicine, accompanied by delightfully grotesque illustrations. There’s learning, there’s laughter, but most importantly, there’s a lesson: failure is okay. Not just okay but a necessary part of science. Tune in for all this and more! Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAuSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Ep 191 Famine: More than starvation
As we learned last week, starvation extends far beyond hunger and what a lack of food does to the human body. Similarly, famine is much more than a food shortage and starvation on a population-level scale. This week, we’re picking up where we left off last episode to explore the definitions, drivers, and many dimensions of famine. We trace famines throughout human history, asking how they have changed either in their incidence, severity, or cause. No two famines are exactly alike, but taking a bird’s eye view of patterns in famine over time gives us insight, especially into the famines of the past 100 years. We conclude the episode with a discussion of the ongoing famine in Gaza and other food insecurity crises in other regions of the world. Tune in for a broad overview of this heavy but incredibly important topic. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAuSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This podcast might not actually kill you, but Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann Updyke cover so many things that can. In each episode, they tackle a different topic, teaching listeners about the biology, history, and epidemiology of a different disease or medical mystery. They do the scientific research, so you don’t have to.
Since 2017, Erin and Erin have explored chronic and infectious diseases, medications, poisons, viruses, bacteria and scientific discoveries. They’ve researched public health subjects including plague, Zika, COVID-19, lupus, asbestos, endometriosis and more.
Each episode is accompanied by a creative quarantini cocktail recipe and a non-alcoholic placeborita.
Erin Welsh, Ph.D. is a co-host of the This Podcast Will Kill You. She is a disease ecologist and epidemiologist and works full-time as a science communicator through her work on the podcast. Erin Allmann Updyke, MD, Ph.D. is a co-host of This Podcast Will Kill You. She’s an epidemiologist and disease ecologist currently in the final stretch of her family medicine residency program.
This Podcast Will Kill You is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including science, true crime, comedic interviews, news, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, Buried Bones, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast and more.
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