Best Updike Podcasts (2025)

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Special Episode: Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal & Dead Ends! 54:41

Play Pause

6d ago54:41

54:41

Science doesn’t always get it right the first time (or the second, or the third, or even the ninety-ninth!). And while we may chuckle at the outlandish things people believed or the goofy experiments they tried, we forget two things: 1) those failures helped us get where we are today and 2) a hundred years from now, people will probably be laughing…

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Ep 191 Famine: More than starvation 1:10:02

13d ago1:10:02

1:10:02

As we learned last week, starvation extends far beyond hunger and what a lack of food does to the human body. Similarly, famine is much more than a food shortage and starvation on a population-level scale. This week, we’re picking up where we left off last episode to explore the definitions, drivers, and many dimensions of famine. We trace famines …

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Ep 190 Starvation: More than hunger 1:04:09

20d ago1:04:09

1:04:09

Deprived of food, our bodies do the best they can to keep us alive and functioning as long as possible. As the days pass, the rhythms of our lives change: our metabolism, our heartbeats, our hormones, even our thoughts shift to adjust to this period of scarcity. This response is evolutionarily engrained, following a variable but fairly prescribed p…

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Special Episode: Antonia Hylton & Madness 56:32

27d ago56:32

56:32

By Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

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Ep 189 Newborn screening: The future is here 1:18:14

1M ago1:18:14

1:18:14

Every year, millions of babies around the world are screened for dozens of treatable conditions within the first day or two of life. What it takes is a few drops of blood on some filter paper, and what it gives is profound: potentially life-saving information. The advent of newborn screening is one of the greatest public achievements of the 20th ce…

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Ep 188 Candida yeast: Here, there, and everywhere 1:17:17

1M ago1:17:17

1:17:17

None of us are ever truly alone. Our bodies are home to untold numbers of microbes, chilling on our skin, in our guts, throughout our respiratory tract, inside our bellybuttons, under our fingernails, and beyond. For the most part, we live in harmony with these critters, never giving them a second thought. But occasionally, they may grow a bit too …

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Special Episode: Mary Roach & Replaceable You 48:02

2M ago48:02

48:02

When your car breaks down or your fridge goes on the fritz, you can order a replacement part and get things back up and running in no time. The same cannot always be said for another intricate machine: the human body. For centuries, scientists have grappled with making or transplanting suitable replacements for nearly every body part, from hearts t…

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Ep 187 Hypothermia Part 2: How it helps 1:05:37

2M ago1:05:37

1:05:37

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 gets to play the hero, rather than the villain. In the second installment of this frosty miniseries, we explore the situations in which we might use cold…

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Ep 186 Hypothermia Part 1: How it hurts 57:35

2M ago57:35

57:35

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 dwellings, take away our winter clothes, and things can get dicey fast. From frostbite to hypothermia, the cold can settle into our bones, leading us do…

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Special Episode: Lina Zeldovich & The Living Medicine 51:44

2M ago51:44

51:44

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 administration of these lifesaving compounds. But the honeymoon didn’t last long, as resistant bacterial strains emerged and spread. Now, antimicrobial resista…

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Ep 185 The Great Smog of London: “Thick, drab, yellow, disgusting” 1:14:18

3M ago1:14:18

1:14:18

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 first three pairings are safe). If you’ve watched The Crown, you may remember an early episode in which a thick, noxious smog surrounded the entire cit…

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Ep 184 The Gallbladder: Humor us 1:22:41

3M ago1:22:41

1:22:41

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 bile every day. But occasionally, this unassuming organ will announce itself through waves of unceasing, excruciating pain brought on by a blockage o…

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Special Episode: Carl Zimmer & Airborne 49:04

3M ago49:04

49:04

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 for others, it represented decades of dismissal and missed opportunities - opportunities that had cost untold lives. In this week’s TPWKY book club e…

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Ep 183 SSRIs Part 2: Action 1:10:26

3M ago1:10:26

1:10:26

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 serotonin does (A LOT, as it turns out), to why blocking its uptake has the effects it does, from the different side effects of SSRIs, to how effective they r…

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Ep 182 SSRIs Part 1: Origin 1:02:00

3M ago1:02:00

1:02:00

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 misunderstood. This and next week, we tell the story of SSRIs in two parts. In Part 1, we explore the origins of these medications and their predecessors, a …

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Special Episode: Wendy Chin-Tanner & King of the Armadillos 56:21

4M ago56:21

56:21

We’ve got a very special episode of the TPWKY book club this week! We’re featuring our very first fiction book: King of the Armadillos by Wendy Chin-Tanner. This novel tells the story of a young man named Victor, who is sent from his home in New York City to a federal treatment facility in Carville, Louisiana after a diagnosis of Hansen’s disease (…

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Ep 181 PCOS: Beyond the cysts 1:26:36

4M ago1:26:36

1:26:36

What’s in a name? What can you really tell from a label like “polycystic ovarian syndrome”? And how much of that is more misconception than truth? The answer, as it turns out, is the former. In this episode, we delve into the world of PCOS, a world that shows us how preconceived notions of health and disease, gender and sexuality can do far more ha…

Updike Podcasts

1
This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

1
The Updike show

Joe R Updike

1
RePresented

macdermog.com

1
Literature & Spirituality

Daniel Whyte III

1
Mister Bex Talks Sex & Gender

Ames Beckerman

1
AFB Possibilities

American Foundation for the Blind

1
Special Episode: Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal & Dead Ends! 54:41

1
Ep 191 Famine: More than starvation 1:10:02

1
Ep 190 Starvation: More than hunger 1:04:09

1
Special Episode: Antonia Hylton & Madness 56:32

1
Ep 189 Newborn screening: The future is here 1:18:14

1
Ep 188 Candida yeast: Here, there, and everywhere 1:17:17

1
Special Episode: Mary Roach & Replaceable You 48:02

1
Ep 187 Hypothermia Part 2: How it helps 1:05:37

1
Ep 186 Hypothermia Part 1: How it hurts 57:35

1
Special Episode: Lina Zeldovich & The Living Medicine 51:44

1
Ep 185 The Great Smog of London: “Thick, drab, yellow, disgusting” 1:14:18

1
Ep 184 The Gallbladder: Humor us 1:22:41

1
Special Episode: Carl Zimmer & Airborne 49:04

1
Ep 183 SSRIs Part 2: Action 1:10:26

1
Ep 182 SSRIs Part 1: Origin 1:02:00

1
Special Episode: Wendy Chin-Tanner & King of the Armadillos 56:21

1
Ep 181 PCOS: Beyond the cysts 1:26:36