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Description
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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1There’s no denying that human imagination is a powerful thing. It has led us to create incredible works of art, literature that transports its readers to other realms, technology that revolutionizes the way we communicate and travel, music and film that makes us laugh, cry, and hit repeat. But our imagination often falls short when trying to conceive of the world from another person’s perspective, especially when it comes to senses. In this episode, we delve into one of the most prominent examples of this: color vision and color vision deficiencies. First, we take you through how color vision works and just how non-universal this experience is. We then explore the origins of color vision and what evolutionary significance it may have held before getting into the discovery of color vision deficiency and its impact on industry. We close out this colorful episode by chatting about some of the latest developments and products geared towards those with color vision deficiency.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD). The dreaded scourge of daycares, kindergartens, even occasionally college campuses, and the topic of this week’s episode. From the multiple viruses that cause HFMD to the wide array of symptoms (bye bye, fingernails), from the relatively recent discovery of this disease to the ancient origins of all viruses (deep time, y’all), from the changing nature of outbreaks to the development of potential vaccines (fingers crossed) - in this episode we’re going way beyond the basics of hand, foot, and mouth disease. Whether or not you’ve had the pleasure of being up close and personal with this disease, this episode is sure to leave you slightly horrified/mildly impressed by the infectiousness, longevity, resilience, and deep roots of the HFMD viruses.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Most of us are familiar with asthma. Maybe you have the disease yourself or maybe a friend, family member, or coworker has it. Or maybe you’ve just watched a tv show or movie featuring a character with asthma. However you learned about this disease, you probably still have some lingering questions about it, like “how do inhalers work?”, “what are the different types of asthma?”, “where does the word asthma come from?”, “can other animals get asthma?”, and “can Erin and Erin tell me everything they possibly can about asthma?” The answer to that last question is a resounding yes, and the answers to the others you’ll find in today’s episode, where we take you through the complicated but somehow also straightforward biology of this disease, the long history of asthma peppered with firsthand accounts, and the promising research that may transform the way we live with this disease.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Our final TPWKY book club selection of the season will test the limits of your imagination by asking you to consider what it might be like to smell the world through the nose of a dog or to see flowers through the ultraviolet vision of a bee. It will make you ponder the tradeoffs inherent in sensory perception and what an animal’s dominant senses can tell us about what is most important to their species. It will have you contemplating what the future holds for sensory research, both in terms of what new senses we might discover as well as the impacts of sensory pollution on an ecosystem. In short, it will change the way you perceive the world. Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong joins us to chat about his incredible book, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. Yong, whose other book I Contain Multitudes is another TPWKY favorite, leads us on an expedition beyond the boundaries of human senses as we chat about what an octopus tastes, how the line between communication and perception is blurred in electric fish, the evolutionary arms race between bats and moths, and even the long-standing question of why zebras have stripes. Tune in for the riveting and magical conclusion to this season’s miniseries.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The CDC’s list of highest priority bioterrorism agents is a short one, with only six pathogens making the cut. Among the more familiar names on the list, such as anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox, and viral hemorrhagic fevers, is the topic of today’s episode: Francisella tularensis. Unless you’re a hunter or work with small mammals, you may not recognize the name of this pathogen or the disease it causes - tularemia - let alone the characteristics that earned it a place on the CDC’s list. By the end of this episode, though, all that will have changed. Join us as we explore why this pathogen’s brutal biology makes it a force to be reckoned with, how the history of its discovery has surprising origins in the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and what promises future research may hold for protection against this deadly disease.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Oh, to taste the food of the past. Strawberry jam made from farm-fresh strawberries. Milk straight from the cow. Cookies baked with freshly churned butter and brown sugar. Because that’s how it was, right? Everything used to be fresher, more pure, unadulterated by preservatives or additives, right? Our latest TPWKY book club pick shows us just how wrong that notion is. Science journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Deborah Blum joins us this week to chat about her book, The Poison Squad, which tells the story of the fight for food safety regulation in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. In our conversation, Blum rips off those rose-tinted nostalgia glasses and reveals that strawberry jam rarely contained strawberries, milk could include a mix of formaldehyde and pond water, butter had borax, and brown sugar was mostly ground up insects. Until one man, chemist Harvey Wiley, stepped up and spearheaded the campaign for food safety legislation, all of these horrific practices of food adulteration were entirely legal. Tune in to learn what Wiley was up against and some of the tactics used in his struggle, including the wild story of the experiment that gave this book its title.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
It’s safe to assume that the vast majority of you have a bottle or blister pack of acetaminophen/paracetamol/Tylenol/Panadol in your home medicine cabinet, and an even vaster majority of you have taken the medicine at some point in your life. After all, acetaminophen/paracetamol is one of the most, if not the most, widely used medications worldwide. Despite its near ubiquity, many unanswered questions remain. How does it actually work? Should safe dosage guidelines be revisited? Why on earth does it have multiple names? And finally, who was responsible for the Tylenol murders in 1982? In this jam-packed episode, we do our best to make sense of the mysteries surrounding this drug, weaving our way from the pharmaceutical nitty gritty of acetaminophen/paracetamol to the bizarre story of its discovery, from the horrific crimes that shocked a nation and revolutionized consumer safety standards to the ongoing discussions of whether we’re under- or overestimating how safe this medication actually is.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Riots over inoculations. Large-scale quarantines and lockdowns. Criticisms of government action (or inaction) during disease outbreaks. The spread of mis- and disinformation about the safety of immunizations. You may be thinking, “this is a COVID episode, isn’t it?”. Not quite. In this latest installment of the TPWKY book club we’ll be discussing another key period in US history that had profound, long-lasting impacts on public health and access to medical care: the American Revolutionary War, when liberty from smallpox was even more important to the American colonists than independence from Great Britain. Our time travel tour guide is Dr. Andrew Wehrman, Associate Professor of History at Central Michigan University, who joins us to discuss his fascinating book The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution, published in December 2022. As our conversation reveals, public demand for inoculation was so great that riots were held to protest unequal access, our current lack of universal healthcare systems has incredibly deep roots, and George Washington’s greatest legacy may in fact be his ability to change his mind when presented with new information. With the Fourth of July just one week ago, what better time to consider this fresh perspective on the American fight for independence and freedom from disease.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In early February and late March of this year, separate outbreaks of Marburg virus were declared in Equatorial Guinea and in the United Republic of Tanzania. For several months, news of these outbreaks and other sporadic cases made headlines globally, as public health officials watched the number of cases and suspected cases climb, calling to mind previous outbreaks of Marburg virus's relative, the deadly Ebola virus. Fortunately, the WHO declared both outbreaks over in early June, but the threat of this hemorrhagic virus remains. In this episode (recorded in April 2023) we explore why the biology Marburg virus makes it such a deadly pathogen, what its evolutionary history and the history of its discovery can tell us about the changing landscape of pathogen spillover, and how the recent outbreaks reveal how much we still don't know about this virus. Tune in for everything you ever wanted to know about Marburg virus and more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Are viruses the “great equalizers” that some people claim them to be? Are we all similarly susceptible not only to infection from viruses but also to the consequences from infection? The short answer is no. The longer answer can be found in this week’s book club pick, The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide by Dr. Steven Thrasher. Dr. Thrasher, the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair and Assistant Professor of Journalism at Northwestern University, joins us to discuss how racism, classism, sexism, ableism, stigma, and other forms of oppression intersect to create a viral underclass, a group of individuals that are disproportionately susceptible to and impacted by viruses. Our conversation takes us through several of these vectors of the viral underclass as well as personal stories that illustrate how social and political structures punish certain communities for getting sick while others profit. Part memoir, part academic discussion, part journalism, and entirely groundbreaking, The Viral Underclass is an incredibly timely book that demonstrates the ways that viruses amplify and exacerbate existing inequalities while also underlining how we are truly all in this together. Our interconnectedness means that if one of us is vulnerable to infection, then we all are.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
An entire generation probably first learned the word “mesothelioma” and its link to asbestos from those ubiquitous commercials in the 1990s and 2000s. You know the one: “if you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma you may be entitled to financial compensation.” These commercials made it seem like mesothelioma suddenly came out of nowhere. Was this a newly discovered disease? Wasn’t asbestos banned? How did asbestos cause mesothelioma? Heck, what even was asbestos? By seeking to answer all those questions and more, this episode picks up where those commercials left off. We detail how teeny tiny asbestos fibers can wreak immense devastation, untangle the long human history of asbestos products, and assess the current status of this fibrous mineral, which is disappointingly far from banned worldwide. No story of asbestos would be complete without a spotlight on the town of Libby, Montana, where brave crusaders continue to fight against a company whose callous negligence led to injury, death, and widespread environmental contamination. Tune in to find out where salamanders, The Wizard of Oz, Charlemagne, and The River Wild fit into the story of asbestos.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Where can you find banana-stealing macaques, dumpster-diving bears, flower-destroying gulls, and dangerously-exploding trees all in the same place? In a book by Mary Roach, of course. In this TPWKY book club episode, we’re joined by world’s funniest science writer and award-winning author to chat about her latest book Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, a rollicking tour of the many ways that humans and wildlife clash and the varied attempts to mitigate this conflict. Our conversation carries us across the globe as we discuss why “man-eating cat” is a misnomer and how the Vatican takes pest control very seriously, and through time as we contemplate the changing nature of conservation and the hopeful future of human-wildlife conflict. If you’ve ever wondered about the forensics of wildlife attacks (in other words, what’s going on in the Ponderosa Room?) or whether scarecrows work like they’re supposed to (spoilers, they don’t), then this is the episode for you.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This just might be our itchiest episode yet, and for that we sincerely apologize. But it might also be one of our most fascinating and fun episodes yet, and for that we are proud. Whether or not you have personal experience with bedbugs, the mere mention of these vampiric critters is often enough to inspire skin-crawling horror in us all. But in this episode, we also make a case for their appreciation. How can you not admire (from a distance, of course), their incredible ability to go for months or even a year without feeding? Or that their saliva contains all kinds of proteins that slow blood clotting or dilate our blood vessels? Or that the ubiquity of these bugs during the Industrial Revolution drove massive changes in furniture design? From the biology of a bedbug bite to the impressively long history of these blood-feeding arthropods, we present the story of bedbugs in more detail than you ever knew you wanted (and trust us, you do).See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Menstruation. Is there any other biological process that is so widely experienced yet is still discussed in hushed tones or with an air of disgust? Period product commercials that never mention menstruation (and what’s with the blue liquid?), sex education classes covering what periods are without advising how to manage them, the endless list of menstruation euphemisms, prominent evolutionary hypotheses dismissing periods as maladaptive, even proposed laws forbidding the discussion of periods in school (looking at you, Florida) - these are just a few examples of the ways that we have been taught to be ashamed or grossed out by a natural biological process. In this TPWKY book club episode, we chat with Dr. Kate Clancy, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, about her recently published book Period: The Real Story of Menstruation, a compelling must-read that examines both scientific and societal perceptions of periods. Our conversation with Dr. Clancy takes us through the origins of period stigma, the leading hypotheses as to why we get periods, the observed link between the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and menstruation, the hopeful period future, and so much more. Tune in to learn where a uterus pancake fits into this discussion and stay to have all of your period myths busted.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Even if you haven’t watched the TV show House MD, you’re probably familiar with the phrase “it’s never lupus”. But have you stopped to consider why it’s never lupus? Or why lupus is so often suspected in the first case? Well, dear listeners, this episode aims to get at the heart of those questions, which is easier said than done. Like many other autoimmune diseases, lupus erythematosus continues to baffle, but we know a lot more now than we used to. In this episode, we take you through that knowledge as best we can and then trace the steps of how we came to first recognize, then describe, and then treat lupus, a journey that takes us through how we learned about autoimmunity in the first place. If you’ve ever been curious about how lupus got its name (wolf bite, anyone?) or what the pregnancy compensation hypothesis could mean for this and other autoimmune diseases, then this is the episode for you.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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 balloons and early experiments demonstrating the vitality of air, as we trace how the pieces of high altitude physiology were put together. A big part of what makes this episode so very special is our guest, Dr. Jonathan Velotta, Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Denver, who joins us to chat about some of the incredible ways that humans and other animals have adapted to live at high altitude. Tune in for a bird’s-eye view of what it’s like to have a high life.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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 of Race Science, goes way beyond filling in those gaps, offering a brilliant, disturbing, and much-needed examination of the history and continued practice of race science. In this bonus episode, Angela Saini, award-winning journalist and author of Superior (and many other must-read books), joins us to discuss this history, exploring questions such as “what role did colonialism play in the creation of racial categories?”, “where does the public image makeover of Neanderthals fit into this story?”, “what does race science look like today?”, and “how did race science make an appearance during the COVID pandemic?”. Tune in for a fascinating interview that highlights the need to remain vigilant against the insidious and damaging practice of race science.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
For many of us, our encounters with listeria may not go beyond reading the occasional headline about an outbreak from contaminated hot dogs or listening to our doctor advise us to avoid certain foods while pregnant. But as we explore in this episode, the story of Listeria monocytogenes is more complex, scary, and unexpected than you may have imagined. Join us this episode as we trace the dual-natured and sometimes extremely deadly infections this pathogen can cause, examine how the industrial revolution and cattle movements may have altered the landscape of Listeria monocytogenes, and ask why cell biologists are so enamored with this bacterium. One thing’s for sure: this isn’t your typical food-borne pathogen.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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 Carleton University’s School of Journalism, joins us to discuss why we should reconsider our stance on sweat and instead recognize it for the superpower it is. Or at the very least, be grateful that we don’t do what vultures do to cool off. Our conversation covers topics as far-ranging as sweat forensics, the evolutionary significance of body odor, the shameful marketing of early antiperspirants, the wild world of sweat dating, and so much more. Whatever your current feelings towards perspiration, this episode will have you thinking more about sweaty secretions than you ever have before (and enjoying every second of it).See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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 over this micronutrient, as its deep, deep evolutionary history reveals just how many biological processes in which vitamin D is intimately and vitally involved. The consequences of vitamin D deficiency form a large part of its human history, as soaring rates of rickets during the Industrial Revolution drew the interest of researchers intent on pinpointing the cause of this disease. As is typical for this podcast, the more we know, the more questions we have, like “who decided what counts as deficiency?”, “how much vitamin D should people be getting?”, and “what is vitamin D really telling us?”. Tune in for plenty of sunshine, cod liver oil, and drama over vitamin D.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Thai you ladies for helping me understand as usual! I'd like to recommend another autoimmune disease. Addison's disease! it's hereditary, JFK had it. my dog has it. I'd like to learn more in the way only you can tell it!
Thank you for this! Our neighbor's sweet granddaughter has Turners and is 25 years old.
sepsis. it's a messpsis
the title makes me think of the show House. Was it ever Lupus? they suggested it every time 😂
you little tb's keep on kickin!!!
it's ironic that, as scientists, you talk about the language attitudes and concealment yet not once have you said the word women or girls but say people and people who menstruate. shame on you and shame on your degrees.
"stop it right now"!!!! ABRACADABRA = go away Malaria!!!!!
I love the interviews you guys do . it brings such a personal touch to these diseases
also thanks for the history of the March of Dimes and how Roosevelt got on the dime. I never knew this story. Thanks
excellent episode. also I think it was great to include the interview .. gave such a personal touch on the subject!!!
yep roasting you for not liking cats!!!! but still gonna listen to you guys because you are both so awesome!!!!!
thanks for the 💩 show . the history of cholera covers interesting
my husband has had gout since he was 19. so it's not always just older people.
interesting topic
thank you for sharing the history of leprosy . fascinating but tragic
I love your podcast and have shared episodes with my biology students. this episode had some cringe moments when you were laughing about the slave trade. while I think you might have been laughing because this topic came up before, it's really not a laughing matter. so unfortunately, this is not an episode I'm comfortable sharing and would think twice before recommending your podcast to others in the future.
You guys should do one of these about the coca plant, because cocaine is a hell of a drug and its got a hell of a history. Theres the South American natives who would chew coca leaves for a coffee like effect, to old times doctors who diagnosed you with ghosts in your blood and told you to do cocaine about it, to coca cola, all the way to the crack epidemic. Theres also a bunch of stuff that I don't even know about and that's why I want you guys to do an episode about it. You guys are so good at digging up obscure facts about your topics and I love it. This podcast is one of the things what gets me through long dishwasher shifts. That and just the tiniest amount of cocaine. Jkjk
Get checked for STDs when you have unprotected sex with a new partner otherwise you may end up sending the tips of your penises to Ms. Zaucha for testing. Horrifying!
I can only imagine Luxeria saying, "Gout, girls!!!"
how did she get the puncture/ bump on her finger in the first place?