Ep 125 Blastomycosis: How fungus became amongus

Ep 125 Blastomycosis: How fungus became amongus

Fungal infections don’t often make an appearance on this podcast, but when they do, you know you’re in for a wild ride. In this episode, we explore the rare but potentially deadly fungal infection blastomycosis. We trace the journey of Blastomyces spores as they depart from their cozy homes of decomposing wood and make their way first into mammalian lungs before possibly moving into the skin, intestines, and brain. How and why these fungi can be so deadly is our next stop, one that takes us into an unexpected direction: the fall of dinosaurs, the rise of mammals and the role that pathogenic fungi played in this transition. We delve into why comparatively few fungi are pathogenic to humans and how our warm-bloodedness may protect us. But, as we discuss in the episode’s conclusion, that protection may be weakened as our warming planet selects for fungi that can tolerate increasing temperatures. Dinos, dogs, deep time, and deadly outbreaks - this episode has it all.

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Episoder(282)

Ep 187 Hypothermia Part 2: How it helps

Ep 187 Hypothermia Part 2: How it helps

Last week, we took you through all the ways that cold can harm us and the harrowing history of humans perishing at its icy hands. Ending the story there would be skipping over the parts where cold get...

9 Sep 20251h 5min

Ep 186 Hypothermia Part 1: How it hurts

Ep 186 Hypothermia Part 1: How it hurts

For all our wondrous adaptations as a species - our big brains, our capacity for language, our opposable thumbs - we humans are not well-equipped to deal with the cold. Take us out of our insulated dw...

2 Sep 202557min

Special Episode: Lina Zeldovich & The Living Medicine

Special Episode: Lina Zeldovich & The Living Medicine

The development of antibiotics was one of the greatest turning points in the history of medicine. Bacterial infections that were once death sentences were cured within a matter of days after administr...

26 Aug 202551min

Ep 185 The Great Smog of London: “Thick, drab, yellow, disgusting”

Ep 185 The Great Smog of London: “Thick, drab, yellow, disgusting”

Some things just go together: peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, milk and cereal, London and smog. Or at least, that’s the way things used to be until the Great Smog of 1952. (Don’t worry, the f...

19 Aug 20251h 14min

Ep 184 The Gallbladder: Humor us

Ep 184 The Gallbladder: Humor us

For most of us, there probably hasn’t been a good reason for you to think about your gallbladder. Ever. Much of the time, it sits there, silently storing, concentrating, and, when needed, churning out...

12 Aug 20251h 22min

Special Episode: Carl Zimmer & Airborne

Special Episode: Carl Zimmer & Airborne

In the first years of the COVID pandemic, a debate raged: was the virus transmitted via respiratory droplets, or was it airborne? For some, this distinction seemed overly technical, pedantic even. But...

5 Aug 202549min

Ep 183 SSRIs Part 2: Action

Ep 183 SSRIs Part 2: Action

Last week, we took you on a journey of discovery and innovation, and this week we’re gonna tell you how the heck it all works. That means a deep dive into the nitty gritty of SSRIs, from what serotoni...

29 Jul 20251h 10min

Ep 182 SSRIs Part 1: Origin

Ep 182 SSRIs Part 1: Origin

Since first hitting the shelves nearly 40 years ago, SSRIs have become one of the most commonly prescribed classes of antidepressants around the world, as well as one of the most discussed and misunde...

22 Jul 20251h 2min

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