Ep 115 Altitude Sickness: Balloons though?

Ep 115 Altitude Sickness: Balloons though?

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.

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Episoder(283)

Ep 208 Dietary Guidelines Part 1: Who’s behind these guidelines?

Ep 208 Dietary Guidelines Part 1: Who’s behind these guidelines?

Over the decades, dietary guidelines have taken a diverse array of shapes, from pamphlets to wheels, from plates to pyramids. In many cases, the shapes have changed more than the recommendations they ...

28 Apr 57min

Special Episode: Adam Kucharski & Proof

Special Episode: Adam Kucharski & Proof

Why do we believe what we believe? Is what we believe the truth? How can we convince others of our beliefs? If you’ve ever found yourself pondering these questions, you know that the answers are rarel...

21 Apr 50min

Ep 207 Tear Gas: How can a chemical weapon be “humane”?

Ep 207 Tear Gas: How can a chemical weapon be “humane”?

Tear gas is an expected, normalized part of protests today. But its use in international war is banned. How can that be? That’s just one of the questions we investigate in this episode. First, we take...

14 Apr 1h 15min

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 Apr 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 Mar 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 Mar 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 Mar 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 Mar 1h 18min

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