Ep 110 Influenza, Take 2: Fowl Play

Ep 110 Influenza, Take 2: Fowl Play

Ep 110 Influenza, Take 2: Sitting Ducks; Fowl Play

Over five years ago, on October 31, 2017, the very first episode of This Podcast Will Kill You premiered, an action-packed (and mildly disorganized) tour of the influenza virus and the 1918 flu pandemic. So much has happened since that episode’s release, both within the podcast and in the world of public health, not the least of which is a respiratory virus pandemic. Given this distance from the podcast’s beginning and the added perspective of experiencing a pandemic firsthand, we decided to circle back to where we started by revisiting influenza for our fifth season finale. In this episode, we provide a bird’s eye view of influenza viruses overall, from how they make you sick to the long history of influenza pandemics and where we stand with case numbers in recent years. Then we dig deeper by giving you a different kind of bird’s eye view: a close examination of highly pathogenic avian influenza, especially H5N1. How is this virus different from your standard seasonal influenza strain, where did it come from, and how worried do we need to be? Are we just a bunch of sitting ducks? Tune in to find out.

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Episoder(282)

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

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 Mar 1h 36min

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