This Podcast Will Kill You

From the earliest grunts and gestures to the complex sentences we use today to convey a multitude of concepts, language has evolved to become one of humanity’s most powerful tools. It allows us to con...

In last week’s episode, we traced the history of fluoridation (and the anti-fluoridation movement) to its roots in the early 20th century, but we left you wondering whether there’s anything to back up...

Is it just us, or does it seem like every other week there’s a new headline about some state or town banning water fluoridation? As it turns out, this has been going on for decades, basically since fl...

For many of us, pelvic exams are a routine part of our healthcare. Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t await them with some dread or anxiety; naturally, these exams evoke a wide range of emotions. B...

If you’ve ever read the little instructions pamphlet included in a box of tampons, you probably came across a paragraph calling attention to a condition called toxic shock syndrome (TSS). It describes...

This week, we’re coming at you with a classic TPWKY episode on one of the most notorious poisons out there: strychnine. Although strychnine might not flash across too many headlines these days, it was...

For the past few months, measles has been in regular rotation in the news cycle here in the US, with outbreaks occurring across the country in regions with low vaccine uptake. These outbreaks represen...

Last week, we started this two-parter with a big picture view of pasteurization and the raw milk movement. In this episode, we address the alleged health claims made by proponents of raw milk and dive...

Seriously, what’s the deal? Lately, it seems like raw milk has started to pop up more and more frequently in our feeds, with influencers touting the alleged health benefits of raw milk over pasteurize...

Tuberculosis, or consumption as it was once known, might conjure up images of huge sanitoriums or writers and artists from the late 1800s (Moulin Rouge, anyone?). But this deadly disease is far from a...