Science for the People

Latest Episodes:

#612 The Poopisode Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

Number 2. Poop. Crap. Doodoo. It's something that a lot of people just want to flush and forget, but others want to talk about it. Do they poop too much? Not enough? Easily enough? Not only can poop tell us about ourselves and our health, though, it could also doo much more. Feces can fertilize our crops, and with the right processing, toilet water can be refreshing. All we need to do is rethink our relationship with poo. This week we sit down with Bryn Nelson to talk about his new book Flush: The Remarkable Science of an Unlikely Treasure.

#611 Spark: The Life of Electricity and the Electricity of Life Oct 17, 2022

Show notes

Usually when we talk about electricity we're talking about the technology that runs the modern world, but electricity is a lot more integral to our existance than making our tech work. Without electricty our bodies don't know how to move, see or hear, and the history of how we came to understand what electricity is and what it can do is wrapped up in our exploration of biology. Rachelle Saunders speaks with Tim Jorgensen, author of the new book "Spark: The Life of Electricity and the Electricity of Life", about the intertwined nature of electricity and life and how we came to understand it better.

#610 Thieving Trees Sep 26, 2022

Show notes

The word "poaching" conjures images of elephants, tigers and pangolins. But there's a multi-billion dollar industry in poaching...trees. It might seem ok at first, trees grow back right? But it's so much more complicated than that. Today we're talking with Lyndsie Bourgon about her new book Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods.

#609 A world of universal vaccines Sep 12, 2022

Show notes

It seems like no one vaccine is ever enough. COVID mutates and the vaccines fall short. A new flu vaccine every year, and each one different from the last. Wouldn't it be nice if we just could get one? One flu shot and call it done? One COVID vaccine and make everything better? Well, scientists are trying their best to develop universal vaccines--one vaccine for the flu, one for COVID, and some for...worms? Yes. Worms. This week, we chat with Kawsar Talaat, an infectious diseases researcher at Johns Hopkins University, and Maria Elena Bottozzi, co-director of the vaccine center at the Baylor College of Medicine, about universal vaccines.

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#607 Shark Matters Aug 22, 2022

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Sharks are fascinating, often misunderstood creatures, and many of them are threatened or endangered, and they definitely deserve our conservation effort. But conservation effort takes time, money, and focused attention: all things that are limited resources, as much as we might wish they weren't. So how do we focus our conservation efforst to make the biggest real impact for sharks (and other creatures) in an evidence-based way? We speak with interdisciplinary marine conservation biologist and author David Shiffman about his new book "Why Sharks Matter: A Deep Dive with the World's Most Misunderstood Predator", and dig deep into the ins and outs of marine conservation: what makes it difficult, what good conservation policy takes into account, how critical it is to ensure the impacted people and communities are included in decision-making, how to differentate conservation efforts and discussions from animal welfare efforts and discussions, and why that's so important.

#606 Carte Blanche: The Erosion of Medical Consent Aug 03, 2022

Show notes

Even the luckiest and healthiest of us will interact with the medical systems we live in eventually, and navigating these systems can be frustrating, scary, and intimidating. In this labyrinth filled with jargon, bureaucracy, and opaque layers of expertise we often don't understand, we expect to have some control over what happens to our bodies and to get a say in opting in or out of what treatments are offered, in particular if they are experimental. But this assumption does not always hold true, and we are not always aware of when our ability consent to medical research has been side-stepped. Rachelle Saunders speaks with Harriet Washington, ethicist and author of the book "Carte Blanche: The Erosion of Medical Consent", about how modern medical research can bypass our understanding of medical consent.

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