This Podcast Will Kill You

Ep 127 Bhopal: The 1984 Union Carbide Disaster

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On the night of December 2, 1984, a deadly gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India led to what has been described as the world’...

Ep 126 Migraine: A Cacophony in Four Movements

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“Throbbing, pulsating pain.” “Like a drill boring into your head.” “As though your head is gripped by a vise.” “Stabbing pain hammering ...

Ep 125 Blastomycosis: How fungus became amongus

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 explor...

Ep 124 The full spectrum of color vision deficiency

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There’s no denying that human imagination is a powerful thing. It has led us to create incredible works of art, literature that transports its reade...

Ep 123 Hand, Foot, and Mouth (and Butt?) Disease

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD). The dreaded scourge of daycares, kindergartens, even occasionally college campuses, and the topic of this week’...

Ep 122 Asthma: A phlegmy episode

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us are familiar with asthma. Maybe you have the disease yourself or maybe a friend, family member, or coworker has it. Or maybe you’ve just ...

Special Episode: Ed Yong & An Immense World

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our final TPWKY book club selection of the season will test the limits of your imagination by asking you to consider what it might be like to smell th...

Ep 121 Tularemia: Hare today, gone tomorrow

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The CDC’s list of highest priority bioterrorism agents is a short one, with only six pathogens making the cut. Among the more familiar names on the ...

Special Episode: Deborah Blum & The Poison Squad

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Oh, to taste the food of the past. Strawberry jam made from farm-fresh strawberries. Milk straight from the cow. Cookies baked with freshly churned bu...

Ep 120 Acetaminophen/Paracetamol: Pain. Killer.

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s safe to assume that the vast majority of you have a bottle or blister pack of acetaminophen/paracetamol/Tylenol/Panadol in your home medicine c...

Special Episode: Dr. Andrew Wehrman & The Contagion of Liberty

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Riots over inoculations. Large-scale quarantines and lockdowns. Criticisms of government action (or inaction) during disease outbreaks. The spread of ...

Ep 119 Marburg virus: Too fast, too furious

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In early February and late March of this year, separate outbreaks of Marburg virus were declared in Equatorial Guinea and in the United Republic of Ta...

Special Episode: Dr. Steven Thrasher & The Viral Underclass

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are viruses the “great equalizers” that some people claim them to be? Are we all similarly susceptible not only to infection from viruses but also...

Ep 118 Asbestos: Corruption and cancer and corporate greed, oh my!

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An entire generation probably first learned the word “mesothelioma” and its link to asbestos from those ubiquitous commercials in the 1990s and 20...

Special Episode: Mary Roach & Fuzz

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Where can you find banana-stealing macaques, dumpster-diving bears, flower-destroying gulls, and dangerously-exploding trees all in the same place? In...

Ep 117 Bedbugs: Bug-bitten and bedeviled

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This just might be our itchiest episode yet, and for that we sincerely apologize. But it might also be one of our most fascinating and fun episodes ye...

Special Episode: Dr. Kate Clancy & Period

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Menstruation. Is there any other biological process that is so widely experienced yet is still discussed in hushed tones or with an air of disgust? Pe...

Ep 116 It's never lupus (except this time)

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Even if you haven’t watched the TV show House MD, you’re probably familiar with the phrase “it’s never lupus”. But have you stopped to consi...

Ep 115 Altitude Sickness: Balloons though?

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Special Episode: Angela Saini & Superior

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Listeners of this podcast are likely no strangers to the horrifying history of eugenics, a topic that has made an appearance in our episodes on epilep...

Ep 114 Listeria: It put dairy on the map

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For many of us, our encounters with listeria may not go beyond reading the occasional headline about an outbreak from contaminated hot dogs or listeni...

Special Episode: Sarah Everts & The Joy of Sweat

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You may be wondering if there’s a typo in this week’s TPWKY book club selection - The Joy of Sweat? Are we supposed to find joy in this secretion?...

Ep 113 Vitamin D: The D stands for drama

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Special Episode: David Quammen & Breathless

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What do you get when you combine a love of reading with an interest in biology/public health/medical history and a background in podcasting? The TPWKY...

Ep 112 Epilepsy: It’s always the phlegm

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Only our second episode of the season and we’re already getting in over (and inside) our heads with one of the biggest topics we’ve taken on yet: ...

Ep 111 RSV: What’s syncytial anyway?

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We’re kicking off our sixth season in the same way we ended our fifth: with another headline-making respiratory virus. But as our listeners know, no...

Ep 110 Influenza, Take 2: Fowl Play

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ep 110 Influenza, Take 2: Sitting Ducks; Fowl PlayOver five years ago, on October 31, 2017, the very first episode of This Podcast Will Kill You premi...

Ep 109 Chikungunya: Not dengue (or is it?)

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Somehow it’s taken us until the penultimate episode to cover this season’s first mosquito-borne virus. But we assure you, this episode is well-wor...

Ep 108 Gout: Toetally fascinating

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Although today we tend to think about diseases in terms of signs and symptoms, tests and treatments, that hasn’t always been the case. For much of h...

Ep 107 Sepsis: It's a mess

11 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over the years of the podcast, we have often struggled with questions of why: why pathogens act the way they do, why certain people get sick while oth...

Ep 106 Turner Syndrome: Let's talk about X

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Are you in the mood to chat chromosomes, specifically the X chromosome? If so, have we got the perfect episode for you! You may have come across the d...

Ep 105 Down in the Mumps

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve covered measles, we’ve taken on rubella, and now we’re finishing up the classic MMR vaccine by exploring the other M: mumps. To some liste...

Ep 104 The Bends: Industrial Revolution, baby

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Don your wetsuit, grab your oxygen tank, and securely fasten your mask, because this week we’re going on our deepest dive yet. In this episode, we’...

Ep 103 Leptospirosis: Don't blame the rats

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The story of leptospirosis is chock full of variety. In terms of biology, any number of different Leptospira species and serovars can play a role in i...

Ep 102 Arsenic: Paris Green with Envy

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“The king of poisons,” “the poison of kings,” “inheritance powder.” As its various nicknames suggest, arsenic’s notoriety largely stems ...

Ep 101 Immortality: This Podcast Won't Kill You

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For what was originally going to be our 100th regular season episode, we wanted to turn the vaguely threatening title of our podcast on its head by ex...

Ep 100 Monkeypox: Here we go again?

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A little over two years into a pandemic, the last thing you probably want to see is headlines announcing yet another disease spreading across the glob...

Ep 99 Salmonella: A hard egg to crack

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve all been there: doubled over in pain as stomach cramps grip your guts; the panicked shuffle to the nearest bathroom; the waves of nausea and c...

Ep 98 Folate: Marmite, anyone?

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been years since our first (and, until now, only) vitamin-centric episode on scurvy, and we’re thrilled to be dipping our toes back into thes...

Special Episode: Snake Venom Evolution

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our snake venom episode last week took us down some fascinating roads, from the pathophysiological effects of these compounds to the snake detection h...

Ep 97 Snake Venom: Collateral Damage

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do you feel about snakes? Intrigued or terrified? In awe or creeped out? Of course, those aren’t the only options; the sight or thought of a sna...

Special Episode: Coprolites!

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our tapeworm episode last week mentioned the remarkable finding of tapeworm eggs in a 270 million-year old shark coprolite, that is, fossilized feces....

Ep 96 Tapeworm: We encyst you listen

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We can probably all agree that the thought of a tapeworm hiding out in your gut is not a pleasant one. Nor is the image of tapeworm larvae forming cys...

Special Episode: On the Origin of Epidemiology

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The classic tale of epidemiology almost always begins with public health hero John Snow traipsing all over London to track down the source of the 1854...

Ep 95 Tetanus: An inhuman calamity!

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

[CW: Firsthand account includes description of the death of an infant. Skip approximately first 3 min to avoid.]What comes to mind when you hear the w...

Special Episode: Chlamydia, Koalas, and More!

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chlamydia trachomatis may have stolen the show in our last episode, but there are many other Chlamydiae that deserve some time under the spotlight. In...

Ep 94 Chlamydia: Double Trouble

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With this episode, you’re getting much more than you probably bargained for, thanks to the quirks of Chlamydia trachomatis. This small but mighty ba...

Re-Release: Ep 27 Vaccines Part 2: Have you thanked your immune system lately?

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

[This episode is a re-release of Ep 27 Vaccines Part 2: Have you thanked your immune system lately?, originally published May 21, 2019]Were you stoked...

Re-Release: Ep 26 Vaccines Part 1: Let's hear it for Maurice

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

[This episode is a re-release of Ep 26 Vaccines Part 1: Let's hear it for Maurice, originally published May 14, 2019]The wait is finally over: this we...

Special Episode: Electricity

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While last week’s episode covered ample ground when it came to lightning strikes, there is so much more to the world of electricity left to explore....

Ep 93 Lightning & Other Stories: Power Hour (and a Half)

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lightning strikes have an aura of myth and legend around them, and their mystical reputation is inflated by stories that tell of people who, after hav...

Special Episode: Epstein-Barr Virus

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In last week’s episode, we explored the mysterious world of multiple sclerosis (MS) and the ongoing quest to determine what causes this autoimmune d...

Ep 92 Multiple Sclerosis: Scarred nerves & skating saints

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Like many autoimmune diseases, multiple sclerosis so clearly illustrates how detection and description of a disease only gets us so far when it comes ...

Special Episode: Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We ended our myxoma virus episode on a bit of a cliffhanger, briefly alluding to the emergence of another deadly rabbit virus on the global scene. In ...

Ep 91 Myxomatosis: Down the rabbit hole

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Invasive rabbits so numerous they form a “gray blanket” across the land. A killer virus, intentionally released to keep the bunnies at bay. An ens...

Special Episode: Human African Trypanosomiasis & Drug Development

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our episode last week ended on a hopeful note, a rare occurrence for this podcast, and it was due in large part to the incredible decline in reported ...

Ep 90 Human African Trypanosomiasis: A lot to unpack

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Here on the podcast, we’re no strangers to multi-host parasites with complicated life cycles, intricate ecologies and dense human histories. But hum...

Special Episode: Hep B Stigma & Discrimination

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Blood tests and liver function results can only tell us part of the story when it comes to the impact that hepatitis B has on people living with the v...

Ep 89 Hepatitis B: Hepatiti, Take 2

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we’re dipping a toe back into the vast waters of hepatitis viruses, this time with a focus on hepatitis B. The hepatitis B virus, though ...

Ep 88 Endometriosis: Menstrual Backwash

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chances are you know someone with endometriosis, or perhaps you’re affected yourself. But despite its incredibly high prevalence, endo remains almos...

Ep 87 C. diff: Fighting poop with poop

28 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s episode, we cover a bacterium whose recent emergence and rapid spread has been largely an epidemic of our own making. Clostridium di...

Ep 86 Typhus: Another lousy episode

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We’re back with our first episode of Season 5, and we’re starting off with a bang! Epidemic typhus, that friend of war and famine, may have caused...

Ep 85 Alcohol: Beer for Thought

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

To say that alcohol is a part of human culture is a bit of an understatement. The relationship our species has with alcohol can be traced so far back ...

Ep 84 West Nile virus: The Crow in the Coal Mine

19 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the summer of 1999 in New York City, and everyone's looking towards the future, towards millennium parties and potential Y2K catastrophes. But ...

Ep 83 Diabetes: Short & Sweet

05 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Almost everyone is familiar with diabetes mellitus in some way. Whether we know family or friends that have been diagnosed with the condition or we’...

Ep 82 Anthrax: The Hardcore Spore

21 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty years ago this month, letters containing Bacillus anthracis spores were mailed to various politicians and news media offices in the US, resul...

Ep 81 Chagas disease: The Reverse Triple Discovery

07 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A nighttime “kiss” from a bug that casts a curse on its recipient in the form of a lifelong, and possibly fatal, illness. No, this isn’t some ha...

Ep 80 Dysentery loves a disaster

24 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

While many of us know how deadly dysentery can be from playing countless hours of The Oregon Trail, there’s only so much that the classic game cover...

Ep 79 Hemophilia: A Hemorrhagic Disposition

10 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Bumps and bruises. Cuts and scrapes. Gashes and gouges. Injuries small and large are familiar to all of us, but what happens when part of our body’s...

Ep 78 Bartonella: Keep Calm and Carrión

27 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“Let’s do Bartonella next,” we said. “It’ll be straightforward and fun,” we promised ourselves. Turns out we were half right. In this fu...

Ep 77 Legionnaires' Disease: A Killer Mist

13 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Celebration wasn’t the only thing in the air in Philadelphia in July of 1976. Over the course of several days during the 58th Annual Convention of t...

Ep 76 Chickenpox: There's always a 'but'

29 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ah, chickenpox, that pesky old childhood illness. And that’s all it is, right? Just a mild, routine infection that we all used to catch until the va...

Ep 75 Mercury: The cost of progress

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When you think of mercury, what springs to mind? Is it the entrancing drop of shimmery liquid that flows from a broken thermometer, giving the metal t...

COVID-19 Chapter 20: Looking forward by looking back

08 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past year and a half, we have learned so much about this virus, but there is still more to know. There always will be. We have seen the wides...

Ep 74 Naegleria fowleri: The "brain-eating amoeba"

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Every summer, when the warm weather rolls around and the local ponds and lakes heat up enough for a tempting dip, remember that there may be something...

COVID-19 Chapter 19: Your Stories

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From virology to vaccines, from education to economics, and from disparities to disease, our Anatomy of a Pandemic series has covered many different a...

Ep 73 Puerperal Fever: Seriously, wash your hands

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our sign-off, “wash your hands, ya filthy animals”, has never been more appropriate than with this episode on puerperal or childbed fever, now kno...

COVID-19 Chapter 18: Conservation & Pandemics

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The COVID-19 pandemic has touched all of our lives in incredibly varied ways, with no two experiences exactly alike. Despite this, we all probably sha...

Ep 72 White-Nose Syndrome: How deep is your torpor?

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A fluffy white fungus and a little brown bat. A deafening silence and an uncertain future. In this episode, we explore one of the most devastating wil...

COVID-19 Chapter 17: Frontline Mental Health

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This pandemic has certainly taken its toll on all of us, but one group that has been particularly hard hit are those who have been on the front lines,...

Ep 71 Onchocerciasis/River Blindness: So many mysteries

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this classic TPWKY episode we travel down rivers and into worm-laden nodes as we take a look at the complex world of Onchocerca volvulus, the vecto...

COVID-19 Chapter 16: Disparities, Take 2

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic minorities, especially here in the United States. Higher infection, hospitaliz...

Ep 70 Henrietta Lacks: HeLa, There, & Everywhere

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Of the many topics our podcast has covered in the past, from smallpox to scurvy, vaccines to birth control and beyond, one factor has linked nearly al...

COVID-19 Chapter 15: Disease, Take 2

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We’re over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, and our understanding of this virus and the disease it causes has grown immensely. And while we’ve l...

Ep 69 Huntington’s disease: Let’s talk frankly

23 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Despite being one of the earliest recognized genetic diseases, many aspects of Huntington’s disease remain shrouded in mystery. This stems in part f...

Ep 68 Coccidioidomycosis: It’s never a spider bite

09 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Don’t be daunted by the length of this disease name or just how difficult it looks to pronounce. By the end of the episode, you’ll be saying it ri...

Ep 67 HPV: My wart be with you

23 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The world of human papillomaviruses is vast and varied, and causing cervical cancer is just one of the many roles these viruses can take on. From thei...

Ep 66 The Outs and Ins of Organ Transplantation

09 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From the first skin grafts to the future of 3D printed organs, the science of organ transplantation has always seemed like something out of a sci-fi n...

Ep 65 Sweating Sickness: Ready, Sweat, Go!

26 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Here’s a pop quiz for all of you: what disease makes you sweat profusely, run a slight fever, develop body aches and a pounding head and then makes ...

Ep 64 Rubella: Timing is Everything

12 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For many of us, rubella has simply come to mean the R in MMR, the routine childhood measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. But that hasn’t always been...

COVID-19 Chapter 14: Virology, Take 2

05 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The fourteenth installment of our Anatomy of a Pandemic series on COVID-19 dives into what we’ve learned about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COV...

Ep 63 Poison Ivy: It's Just Us

29 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Our first crossover episode this season with Dr. Matt Candeias of In Defense of Plants stars everyone’s favorite irritating plant-originated substan...

COVID-19 Chapter 13: Vaccines, Take 2

22 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We’re back with another episode in our Anatomy of a Pandemic series on COVID-19. This time, our subject matter is the one everyone has been waiting ...

Ep 62 Leishmaniasis, Relationship Status: It's Complicated

15 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The neglected tropical disease known as leishmaniasis is really more of a collection of diseases caused by a variety of parasites transmitted through ...

COVID-19 Chapter 12: Control, Take 2

10 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

That’s right, we are rebooting our Anatomy of a Pandemic series in which we cover various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic that has held the world i...

Ep 61 Typhoid: There's Something About Mary

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Your long wait is finally over - the season four premiere of This Podcast Will Kill You has arrived! And to mark the special occasion, we’re taking ...

Ep 60 Giving birth to "The Pill"

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Well, TPWKY listeners, it has been a heck of a year, and it’s not even over yet! But one thing has come to an end: our third season. Given the profo...

Ep 59 Thalidomide: Justice Delayed, Justice Denied

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The story of thalidomide is often employed as a cautionary tale - why testing a drug’s safety during pregnancy is crucial or why it’s important to...

Ep 58 Guinea worm: (Almost) Ancient History

15 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

You’ve heard about smallpox, and you’ve learned about rinderpest. Now it’s time to meet what may be the third disease to ever be eradicated: dra...

Ep 57 Herpes: Stop the STIgma

01 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The harm caused by herpes simplex viruses (HSV) 1 & 2 often arises not from the pathology of the viruses themselves but rather from the stigma and...