The Infectious Science Podcast

Join us for an episode on lone star ticks and alpha gal syndrome.Send us Fan MailThanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast, we hope you enjoyed this  episode. You can find more cool science content on infectiousscience.org. Please leave us a review and share this episode with others who may be interested, and don’t hesitate to ask us questions or tell us which topics you want to hear covered in future episodes.

A parasite that eats living flesh sounds like a monster movie plot until you realize it has a scientific name, a documented history, and a very real comeback story. We’re talking about the New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax), a fly whose larvae infest wounds in humans and animals, driving pain, infection, and massive losses in livestock operations. Through a One Health lens, we trace how this single species ties together ranching economics, wildlife reservoirs, and the fact that diseases do not recognize borders we draw on maps.We walk through the screwworm life cycle and why it’s so damaging, then unpack the surprisingly elegant control tool that once pushed it back: the sterile insect technique. Because female screwworms mate only once, releasing irradiated sterile males can collapse reproduction without relying on widespread insecticides. We also revisit the history behind “eradication” claims in the United States, the long-running strategy of holding a barrier farther south, and what happens when funding, surveillance, and infrastructure lose priority over time.From the Florida Keys to Texas and New Mexico, we look at the conditions that help resurgence: underreporting, movement of livestock, and even pet relocation. Finally, we get practical about treatment and prevention, including the realities of manual larva removal, wound care, antibiotics, and what pet owners can do right now to reduce risk.Subscribe for more infectious disease stories with real-world stakes, share this with a friend who cares about animal health or public health, and leave a review so more listeners can find us.Send us Fan MailThanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast, we hope you enjoyed this  episode. You can find more cool science content on infectiousscience.org. Please leave us a review and share this episode with others who may be interested, and don’t hesitate to ask us questions or tell us which topics you want to hear covered in future episodes.

This episode, we’re talking ergotism, a fungus-driven poisoning linked to contaminated grains like rye. It’s a vivid One Health case study where weather patterns, crop disease, and human biology collide in ways that were historically interpreted as supernatural, but that we now know are due to the razor thin edge between medicine and poison in the alkaloids nature can produce.We walk through how ergot infects rye, how it survives across seasons, and why insects help spread it. Then we get into the real driver of the chaos: ergot alkaloids. These compounds can vary by region and growing conditions, creating different “cocktails” that change how outbreaks look from place to place. That variability helps explain why some communities saw gangrenous ergotism with dry gangrene from severe blood vessel constriction, while others faced convulsive ergotism marked by neurological symptoms and hallucinations.Ergot’s legacy isn’t only tragedy. We also talk about how people experimented with ergot medicinally, including historical midwife use around labor and delivery, and how modern medicine still uses ergot-inspired synthetic compounds in tightly controlled doses. Along the way, we chat about serotonin biology, migraine treatments, medication safety, and why “natural” doesn’t automatically mean safe. We even close with a brief discussion of the most famous semi-synthetic ergot alkaloid of all: LSD, and what its origin story says about the thin boundary between toxin and therapy.If you like science that connects the lab, the clinic, and the farm field, subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and leave a review. What’s your favorite fungus, and what topic should we tackle next?Send us Fan MailThanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast, we hope you enjoyed this  episode. You can find more cool science content on infectiousscience.org. Please leave us a review and share this episode with others who may be interested, and don’t hesitate to ask us questions or tell us which topics you want to hear covered in future episodes.

A virus rarely “comes out of nowhere.” More often, we build the bridge it crosses. We’re talking One Health through two vivid case studies, Machupo virus and Zika virus, and the shared thread connecting them: land use change and the human decisions that reshape ecosystems faster than they can adapt.First, we break down Machupo, a New World arenavirus that causes Bolivian hemorrhagic fever. We walk through how spillover happens from a rodent reservoir, why the early symptoms can look like so many other infections, and why basic questions about travel history and animal exposure can change everything when a clinician is determining a diagnosis. Then we zoom out to the bigger drivers: Bolivia’s mid-century land reform, land clearance, deforestation, and how agricultural practices and predator loss can boost rodent populations and increase human exposure to them.Next, we shift to Zika, a flavivirus spread by Aedes mosquitoes that became headline news once it reached the Americas. We talk global travel and trade, why Zika felt “new” even though it wasn’t, and the public health stakes of congenital complications such as microcephaly. We also dive into  how humans create environments mosquitoes thrive in like tires, plant pots, buckets, and other containers that create breeding sites right alongside our homes, plus how climate variation can push mosquito ranges into new regions.If you care about outbreak prevention, environmental health, deforestation, and the real-world mechanics of zoonotic spillover and vector-borne disease, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find the show. What local land use change have you seen that might be shaping disease risk where you live?Send us Fan MailThanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast, we hope you enjoyed this  episode. You can find more cool science content on infectiousscience.org. Please leave us a review and share this episode with others who may be interested, and don’t hesitate to ask us questions or tell us which topics you want to hear covered in future episodes.

A parasite that senses you coming. An “egg” that waits for the right moment. A life cycle designed to turn a host into a nursery. Space pathogen sci-fi stories hit so hard because they borrow from real evolutionary tricks, and in this episode we put that biology under a microscope as we dissect out some of our sci-fi favorites. We start with the Alien franchise and unpack what makes xenomorph horror feel believable: host detection, parasite-like behavior, and uncomfortable parallels on Earth like ticks that track hosts, embryos that respond to temperature stress, and jewel wasps whose reproduction is basically nature’s version of a chestburster scene. From there, we shift to the classic fear that something could arrive from space and infect us, examining the hypothesis of lithopanspermia and the Murchison meteorite as real-world anchors. Then we flip the question: what if we are safe from space, but space isn’t safe from us? What if the most realistic space biosecurity threat is humans bringing microbes with us? We talk astronaut health, microgravity, radiation, circadian disruption, immune changes, microbiome shifts, and how space impacts pathogens. We dig into viral reactivation data, and what that could mean for longer missions and eventual Mars travel. Subscribe, share the episode with a sci-fi fan or a biology nerd, and leave a review so more listeners can find Infectious Science.Send us Fan MailThanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast, we hope you enjoyed this  episode. You can find more cool science content on infectiousscience.org. Please leave us a review and share this episode with others who may be interested, and don’t hesitate to ask us questions or tell us which topics you want to hear covered in future episodes.

Parasites spark equal parts fascination and fear—and they reveal how closely our health is tied to animals, food, water, and the places we live. We take you from the “heirlooms” we inherited from primate ancestors to the “souvenirs” picked up through agriculture and travel, then unpack what parasites actually do to the human body and why some symptoms are red flags while others are everyday noise. Along the way, we fact-check the social media wellness trend pushing “parasite cleanses,” and explain how self‑diagnosis and self-treatment often misses the mark.Grounded in One Health, we map the real exposure routes—undercooked meat, raw dairy products, and unclean water—and share a clinical vignette of a severe parasitic infection to separate rare but serious danger from common myths. Then we get practical: how proven antiparasitics work, what side effects to expect as parasites lose their grip, and why supportive care for anemia and nutrition matters just as much as killing the parasites. At the heart of the conversation is trust. People want agency and clear language; medicine offers evidence and accountability. We aim to bridge both—respecting traditional knowledge where it’s validated, challenging hype where it’s not, and highlighting the reliable guidance out there.If this conversation sparked your interest in parasites and health, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review. Your feedback steers future topics—what should we fact-check next?Send us Fan MailThanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast, we hope you enjoyed this  episode. You can find more cool science content on infectiousscience.org. Please leave us a review and share this episode with others who may be interested, and don’t hesitate to ask us questions or tell us which topics you want to hear covered in future episodes.

Ice doesn’t just melt; it remembers. As permafrost thaws, we unpack what really ‘wakes up’ in the soil—and what that means for human health, animals, crops, and culture. We bring a One Health lens to a noisy topic, cutting through “zombie virus” headlines to explain why most human viruses don’t survive freeze–thaw cycles, and how a 2016 Siberian outbreak became a case study in climate, ecology, and policy colliding.We explore the icy regions of the map—Russia, Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Antarctica—then dive into the mechanics: frozen soils, ancient organic matter, and greenhouse gases are released when microbes “switch on.” You’ll hear how megaviruses that infect amoebae survived for tens of thousands of years, why smallpox on ice is noninfectious, and how plant pathogens threaten food systems as tourism and trade move microbes on boots and gear. We also explore prion durability, revived nematodes, and fungi’s overlooked role in carbon cycling that accelerates warming.Beyond the lab, we sit with the human story. Indigenous communities situated in permafrost regions face failing infrastructure, disrupted wildlife patterns, and cultural loss that statistics can’t capture. Add in geopolitics: like the Ukrainian war that has severed scientific data flows from vast Siberian regions, creating dangerous blind spots in permafrost surveillance. The takeaway isn’t panic—it’s preparation. Surveil, learn, support cross-border monitoring, and center cultural resilience alongside climate adaptation.Send us Fan MailThanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast, we hope you enjoyed this  episode. You can find more cool science content on infectiousscience.org. Please leave us a review and share this episode with others who may be interested, and don’t hesitate to ask us questions or tell us which topics you want to hear covered in future episodes.

The average primary care visit lasts about 18 minutes. Complex symptoms, multiple conditions, and a maze of electronic forms don’t fit neatly into that window—and neither do the emotions that come with being sick. We sat down with advocates including a medical writer who was part of ACT UP, a sickle cell advocacy leader and a humanities scholar turned epidemiologist to unpack how patients, families, and clinicians can turn limited time into better outcomes with clearer language, smarter tools, and community trust.We dig into the numbers behind health literacy and why discharge summaries so often miss the mark, then translate that research into steps anyone can use: keep a simple medication list, coordinate records across specialists, and lean on reliable sources like local health departments and major nonprofits. Faith Adjei-Sarpong shares how sickle cell stigma—especially around pain and opioids—creates dangerous delays in care, and how sharing real stories online and off can shift bias. Drs. Heather Duncan and Patrick Murphy explain how plain-language micro-learning helps both sides of the exam room, and how medical writers can bridge patients and providers without diluting the science.We also surface the trust problem. The wellness industry wins attention with community and clear words, even when products are unregulated. So we talk about meeting people where trust already lives—barber shops, neighborhood centers—and why that approach worked from HIV activism to recent Mpox vaccination drives. Along the way, we address clinician burnout, the pressure of quotas, and the case for labor power in medicine to protect both providers and patients.If you care about health equity, patient rights, and practical advocacy, this conversation gives you a roadmap: listen first, use plain language, build locally, and measure success by human impact. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs it, and tell us what you think!Fact-check note: The pharmaceutical industry is currently valued around $1 trillion, but it is expected to exceed $3 trillion after 2030.Send us Fan MailThanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast, we hope you enjoyed this  episode. You can find more cool science content on infectiousscience.org. Please leave us a review and share this episode with others who may be interested, and don’t hesitate to ask us questions or tell us which topics you want to hear covered in future episodes.

Curious how AI can make healthcare feel more human instead of less? We sit down with medical writer and AI adoption strategist Dr. Núria Negrão, who went from bench science to building practical ways for clinicians, researchers, and communicators to use generative tools without losing accuracy or empathy. From HIV educations roots to today’s most promising AI workflows, we trace what’s working now and where the next breakthroughs may land.We unpack the real bottlenecks: clinicians stuck typing and scientists drowning in papers. Dr. Negrão shows how ambient scribe tools can free clinicians up for face-to-face time with patients, while research copilots can scan literature, connect ideas, and surface the studies that matter. We talk medical education use cases—virtual patients for difficult conversations, culturally sensitive practice, and adaptive learning that meets people where they are. Along the way, we tackle the hard parts: AI hallucinations, bias reinforcement, privacy risks, and the myth that AI is either flawless or useless. The answer is supervision, sourcing, and clear guardrails.Regulation-by-principle anchors our approach: no emotion surveillance, no automated life-and-death allocation, strong data protections, and human override in care. Then we look at the upside for patients. Imagine leaving an appointment with a plain-language summary of what the doctor said, clear next steps, and links to trusted support groups—plus a secure assistant to answer follow-ups when anxiety spikes at midnight. That’s not replacing clinicians; that’s better navigation of the health system. If you want a grounded, hopeful take on AI in healthcare, science communication, and medical writing—one that boosts health literacy and speeds discovery—this conversation is for you.If this sparked ideas, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Tell us what you want to hear next so we can keep building tools and stories that serve real people.Send us Fan MailThanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast, we hope you enjoyed this  episode. You can find more cool science content on infectiousscience.org. Please leave us a review and share this episode with others who may be interested, and don’t hesitate to ask us questions or tell us which topics you want to hear covered in future episodes.

The climate isn’t just warming—it’s reorganizing the rules of biology. We explore how rising temperatures, deforestation, wildfire smoke, and thawing permafrost are reshaping the risk landscape for malaria parasites, heat-trained fungi, spillover-prone viruses, and resilient bacteria. From Kenyan highlands that became friendlier to Anopheles mosquitoes, to urban heat islands that may condition fungi to tolerate our body temperature, to the sobering lesson of Siberia’s anthrax outbreak after unusual warmth, we connect data points to the lived reality of health systems on the front lines.We dive into malaria’s life cycle and why vector capacity accelerates in warmer, deforested microclimates. We examine fungal threats, including how wildfire smoke can disperse spores, and why limited antifungal options raise the stakes. On viruses, we unpack Ebola’s reservoir ecology, the role of habitat loss and food insecurity in human–animal interfaces, and how language and stigma can undermine outbreak response. Finally, we look at bacterial risks within permafrost feedback loops and across water and food systems, where floods, droughts, and soil microbiome shifts threaten safety and yields.Throughout, we keep solutions in focus: protecting forests and wetlands, cutting fossil fuels and air pollution, building climate-smart surveillance and diagnostics, and communicating with dignity so communities participate in prevention. Climate action is infection prevention—and it starts now. If this conversation sparked new questions or ideas, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find the show. What solutions can you enact in your life to face the rising threat?Send us Fan MailThanks for listening to the Infectious Science Podcast, we hope you enjoyed this  episode. You can find more cool science content on infectiousscience.org. Please leave us a review and share this episode with others who may be interested, and don’t hesitate to ask us questions or tell us which topics you want to hear covered in future episodes.