#public-health
91 episodes
#5214: Meningitis: Why It Kills So Fast
Meningitis is an anatomical description, not a prognosis. Same word, wildly different odds — from a bad week to five days from flu symptoms to a fu...
#5209: Sensitivity, Specificity & the Numbers Doctors Use
A field guide to the numbers in a medical paper — what sensitivity, effect size, and risk ratio actually answer, and when they mislead.
#5157: When Labored Breathing in a Baby Means Go
A reassuring oximeter reading isn't the whole story. How to read the work of breathing, count infant breaths, and know when to head in.
#5150: Gaza's Hunger Numbers: What the Data Actually Shows
Famine classification fights obscure simpler questions: how many children are acutely malnourished, and what does the data actually show?
#5149: What 40 Million Tons of Rubble Does to a Landscape
Satellite imagery shows the scale. It doesn't show the eight meters of crushed concrete, the asbestos dust, or the ordnance beneath.
#5148: How the WHO Essential Medicines List Works
Five days in 1977, eight experts, one list that now shapes what billions of people can get from their pharmacies.
#5029: How Much Tuna Is Actually Safe to Eat?
We break down the science of mercury in tuna, the real symptoms of toxicity, and whether canned fish can actually hurt you.
#4953: What Actually Drives Crime Rates?
Youth bulges, alcohol, lead exposure — the surprising science of what makes crime rise and fall.
#4885: Cold Sanctuaries: A Radical AC Policy for Heat Survival
What if every neighborhood had a free, permanent air-conditioned refuge? One man's radical idea for surviving extreme heat.
#4767: What Future Generations Will Blame Us For
We examine today's miracle materials and practices that history may judge as our biggest mistakes.
#4766: Lead Paint: Why 34 Million Homes Still Have It
Why lead was in paint, how it actually becomes dangerous, and why we'll never remove it all.
#4744: Lyme Disease: Facts, Myths, and Tick Safety
What Lyme actually is, why Storrs is ground zero, and how to stay safe outdoors without spiraling.
#4705: The Parasite Hiding in Your Salad
Cyclospora isn't a bacteria—it's a parasite that turns lettuce into an incubator. Here's why outbreaks keep happening.
#4674: Why Earth's Heat Has a Ceiling (And 57°C Is a Lie)
Why 40°C is routine but 57°C is impossible, and what that means for your body, your car's thermometer, and heatwave deaths.
#4646: A Single Slice of Turkey: Border Biosecurity Explained
Why a leftover sandwich triggered a full customs inspection — and the surprising science behind agricultural biosecurity.
#4182: The Corner Store Loophole: Alcohol, Law & Addiction
Why corner stores can sell to visibly addicted customers—and what that does to the body.
#4131: Perpetual Stew: Safe or Scary?
A simmering pot is self-sterilizing. Here's why the USDA says it's safe indefinitely above 140°F.
#4093: Blood Pressure, Kidneys & Gout: The Hidden Loop
How hypertension, kidney damage, and uric acid form a three-way feedback loop — and what to do about it.
#4082: How Heat, Noise, and Smog Make Us Angrier
Three environmental stressors that measurably increase human aggression — and what happens when they hit at once.
#3900: Why Zero-Side-Effect Drugs Are Impossible
Side effects aren’t design flaws—they’re physics. Here’s why no drug can ever be perfectly safe for everyone.
#3886: The Nurse Who Noticed: Catching a Poisoning Cluster
How a nurse's "that's strange" caught a baby food poisoning cluster in Jerusalem before it grew.
#3881: Baby Food Tampering in Jerusalem: What Parents Need to Know
Infants collapsed from benzodiazepine-laced baby food in Jerusalem. Here's what happened, the history, and how tamper-evident packaging works.
#3823: How Cities Can Enforce Construction Noise with Real-Time Data
Can cities actually enforce noise limits with real-time sound data? We explore the tech, the gaps, and who's doing it right.
#3758: Singulair's Black Box Warning: What's the Real Risk?
What the FDA's strongest warning actually means for asthma patients — and how to monitor safely.