Ep 113 Vitamin D: The D stands for drama

Ep 113 Vitamin D: The D stands for drama

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.

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Ep 206 Oropouche Virus: More than a smidge worrisome

Ep 206 Oropouche Virus: More than a smidge worrisome

Though discovered relatively recently, Oropouche virus has been making headlines as an emerging vector-borne infectious disease on the rise. Not transmitted by the usual suspects (like ticks and mosqu...

7 Huhti 1h 12min

Ep 205 Cancer Part 4: Where do things stand today?

Ep 205 Cancer Part 4: Where do things stand today?

For the entirety of our species’ history, our approach to cancer has largely been to react, to design new therapies and better combinations of treatments. This energy has certainly been well-spent, bu...

31 Maalis 1h 19min

Ep 204 Cancer Part 3: How do we treat it?

Ep 204 Cancer Part 3: How do we treat it?

A century and a half ago, the list of effective cancer treatments was essentially a single entry: surgery. Today, in 2026, you’d need pages to contain the number of treatments available, and multiple ...

24 Maalis 1h 32min

Special Episode: Lawrence Ingrassia & A Fatal Inheritance

Special Episode: Lawrence Ingrassia & A Fatal Inheritance

For centuries, physicians noticed that cancer sometimes ran in families, but until the 1960s, an answer to this mystery remained out of reach. Only then were scientists beginning to unlock the cellula...

17 Maalis 45min

Ep 203 Cancer Part 2: Why does it happen?

Ep 203 Cancer Part 2: Why does it happen?

Each of our cells can become cancerous. It’s an uncomfortable, yet unavoidable truth. Nor is it a truth restricted to our species - cancer is a consequence of complex life. The features that make a ce...

10 Maalis 1h 18min

Ep 202 Cancer Part 1: What is it?

Ep 202 Cancer Part 1: What is it?

Cancer has touched every one of us in some capacity, and learning of a diagnosis inspires many more questions than it answers. In this four-part series on cancer, we aim to lay a foundation of knowled...

3 Maalis 1h 36min

Special Episode: Jon Adams and Edmund Ramsden & Rat City

Special Episode: Jon Adams and Edmund Ramsden & Rat City

What happens if you put a bunch of rats in an enclosure and provision them with unlimited food and water? Researcher John B. Calhoun was committed to finding out. Results from Calhoun’s “rat utopia” e...

24 Helmi 56min

Ep 201 Poop Part 2: Flushed away

Ep 201 Poop Part 2: Flushed away

Poop is an incredibly valuable and massively underutilized resource. However, most of us don’t see it that way because of our evolutionarily ingrained disgust towards poop. Flush toilets and intricate...

17 Helmi 1h 21min

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