Episodes

  • Ep 163 Circadian Rhythm: Live from Perth, Australia

    Ep 163 Circadian Rhythm: Live from Perth, Australia
    Jan 28 2025
    We are coming at you with our very first live episode from Perth, Australia! Here at the 2024 Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists Annual Scientific Conference and Exhibition, occupational hazards and exposures get top billing. And one of the most ubiquitous hazards, experienced by nearly every industry is fatigue, specifically fatigue caused by circadian rhythm disruption. In this very special episode, we explore how our circadian rhythms work and some of the consequences that can emerge when we work against those rhythms, whether that’s because we’re traveling across many time zones or switching to night shift work. We then dig into the history of circadian rhythm research, from how we first learned about these daily patterns to when their disruption became a routine occurrence. Helping us to navigate some of the alarmist headlines (“your screens are ruining your sleep!”) and biohacker claims (“avoid jet lag with this one simple trick!”) is Ian Dunican, PhD. Dr. Dunican is the Director and Chief Adviser of Melius Consulting, a scientific consultancy undertaking research, consulting, and education, and he also hosts and produces the Sleep4Performance podcast. We also bring on Dr. John Iliff, Emergency Physician and Aeromedical Consultant to share his frightening experience with fatigue after a long shift during his training as a physician. Tune in for a fascinating discussion about the rhythms that drive our lives! Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Special Episode: Robert Alpert, Merle Eisenberg, Lee Mordechai & Diseased Cinema

    Special Episode: Robert Alpert, Merle Eisenberg, Lee Mordechai & Diseased Cinema
    Jan 21 2025
    Everyone’s got a favorite disease movie. What’s yours? Does it feature zombies like 28 Days Later (2002), or is it more grounded in reality, like Contagion (2011)? Does it end with a glimmer of hope or with a dose of despair? Who are the bad guys and who are the good guys? From the early days of disease movies like Panic in the Streets (1950) to more recent films like Little Joe (2019), these movies have provided endless entertainment, excitement, and opportunities to examine society itself. In this TPWKY book club episode, Robert Alpert, Dr. Merle Eisenberg, and Dr. Lee Mordechai join us to discuss their book Diseased Cinema: Plagues, Pandemics, and Zombies in American Movies. Diseased Cinema approaches the genre of disease-themed movies with the goal of understanding what these movies say about our hopes, our fears, our anxieties, and how these perspectives have shifted over the decades. When did faith in our government’s problem solving give way to rugged self-reliance? Why did people start to view science as the bad guy rather than the source of salvation? Tune in for a fascinating discussion that will stay on your mind long after your next movie night. And also check out Merle and Lee’s excellent podcast Infectious Historians! Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    52 mins
  • Ep 162 Allergies Part 2: Shots, pills, & pens

    Ep 162 Allergies Part 2: Shots, pills, & pens
    Jan 14 2025
    Yes, the world may be out to get us with allergens around every corner, but we’ve got some tricks up our sleeve to help us cope. Our allergy treatment toolkit includes an impressive suite of tools, and in the second episode of our two-part series on allergies, we focus on three in particular: antihistamine medications, allergy shots, and the epinephrine auto-injector (aka the EpiPen). We take you through how exactly each of these work, trace their development from concept to product, and highlight some of the most promising areas of allergy treatment research today. Have you ever wondered why we have so many different types of antihistamines? Or thought about what the Cold War has to do with the EpiPen? Then this is the episode for you. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 39 mins
  • Ep 161 Allergies Part 1: Pollens, nuts, & bugs

    Ep 161 Allergies Part 1: Pollens, nuts, & bugs
    Jan 7 2025
    Sometimes it seems like the world is out to get us: bees in our garden, pollen in the air, nuts in our brownies, any number of other things that could trigger an allergic reaction ranging from itchy eyes and a runny nose all the way to anaphylaxis. Why must our bodies react in such over-the-top ways to these seemingly innocuous substances? In the first episode of our two-parter on allergies, we explore that very question. From the biological basis of an allergic reaction to the potential evolutionary significance of allergies, from the history of their discovery to the global status of allergies today, we cover it all. Tune in today! Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 30 mins
  • Special Episode: Philip Eil & Prescription for Pain

    Special Episode: Philip Eil & Prescription for Pain
    Dec 17 2024
    In February 2012, Paul Volkman was sentenced to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment for his role in illegally prescribing and dispensing pain medications that resulted in the deaths of several individuals in his care. This was a remarkable case, both in terms of the lengthy sentence as well as the perpetrator. Paul Volkman was a highly-educated physician researcher, who earned both his MD and PhD and had decades of experience practicing medicine. How did he end up in a cash-only pain clinic in southern Ohio? In this TPWKY book club episode, journalist Philip Eil joins me to trace Volkman’s journey as outlined in Eil’s book Prescription for Pain: How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the “Pill Mill Killer”. Eil places Volkman’s actions in the broader context of the opioid epidemic and reflects on the lasting impact Volkman’s case has had on painkiller regulation and the communities most impacted by his crimes. Tune in for a fascinating conversation about what happens when a doctor decides he is above the law. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Ep 160 Appendicitis: Don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?

    Ep 160 Appendicitis: Don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?
    Dec 10 2024
    For decades, it seemed like the appendix would go the way of 8-track players, pagers, and the phonograph. Outdated, obsolete, not worth keeping around. Surgeons performed appendectomies like it was spring cleaning - when in doubt, cut it out. But then the tides began to turn as medicine started to question the long-held belief that the appendix is a defunct organ (on a good day) or a ticking time bomb (on a very bad one). In this episode, we trace the story of the appendix from its earliest descriptions to the latest advancements in treatment of appendicitis. If you’ve ever wondered whether the appendix actually serves any function and what that function might be, then this is the episode for you! Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 19 mins
  • Ep 159 Scabies: Tiny but Mite-y

    Ep 159 Scabies: Tiny but Mite-y
    Dec 3 2024
    Among the many conditions that creep under your skin and make scratching irresistible, scabies alone holds the honor of being called simply “The Itch” for centuries. In this episode, we examine how the burrowing scabies mites cause this extremely uncomfortable sensation, what we can do to halt their progress, and how contagious they really are (less than you probably think). Today, the word scabies instantly conjures up images of the mite responsible for The Itch, but for centuries, medicine failed to make that connection, even when the proof was right in front of them and when traditional wisdom had long since known mite=scabies. Tune in to learn how the great scabies debate was finally resolved with a public demonstration, what role conscientious objectors played in scabies research during WWII, and where we are with scabies around the globe today. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • Ep 158 Scarlet Fever: You’ve changed

    Ep 158 Scarlet Fever: You’ve changed
    Nov 26 2024
    A mere 150 years ago, uttering the words “scarlet fever” was enough to strike fear into the hearts of many, especially parents of young children. For a brief period of time, this disease, caused by an infection with the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, reigned as a leading cause of childhood death in many parts of the world. It left its mark on gravestones, in public health decrees, in literature like the Velveteen Rabbit, but then something changed. The disease became milder, no longer the deadly threat it once was. But it didn’t go away entirely or lose its bite completely. In this episode, we examine the biology of scarlet fever and trace how it can make you sick before exploring its strange and tragic history. How did such a deadly disease change almost overnight, before any effective treatment was developed? And what can that tell us about its potential to change back? Tune in to find out. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwtIAu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 18 mins