Episodi

  • When Doctors Got it Wrong: Prescribing the Sun
    Apr 26 2026

    If you were feeling sickly 100 years ago, your doctor might have prescribed a loincloth, a bed, and a sun-drenched balcony in the Swiss Alps. No blood tests or scans — your degree of tan would determine your prognosis.

    From sun worship to sun-gazing to Coco Chanel accidentally making bronzed skin chic, this episode explores the many ways medicine and mankind have misunderstood the sun.

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    12 min
  • DNA, Twins, and the Serial Killer Who Never Existed
    Apr 19 2026

    Your DNA can build a body, grow a tumour, or implicate you in a crime. This episode explores what happens when DNA evidence meets identical twins, and why one of Europe’s most feared serial killers turned out to be much stranger than anyone expected.


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    12 min
  • Could You Get a Voice Transplant?
    Apr 12 2026

    If you’ve ever heard a recording of your own voice, you may have wished for a voice transplant. But would it be possible? This episode explores why your voice is more than your voice box — and what it would actually take to sound like Elvis.


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    12 min
  • Heartburn – And Why Astronauts Love Shrimp
    Apr 5 2026

    Your oesophagus was never designed to handle acid splashes — and yet, sometimes it has to. This episode looks at heartburn — why it happens, the neat trick emergency doctors use to distinguish it from a heart attack, and what spaceflight reveals about reflux.

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    13 min
  • How to Actually Stop Hiccups
    Mar 29 2026

    Over the centuries, doctors have tried everything to cure hiccups — from sugar to shock to what modern medicine would classify as controlled drugs and poisons. This episode looks at what hiccups actually are, why they happen, and which cures have at least some chance of working.


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    14 min
  • The Point of That Groove in Your Upper Lip
    Mar 22 2026

    Many animals use chemical signals — pheromones — to find mates, mark territory, and warn of danger. Humans, despite popular belief, can’t detect them. This episode examines these signals — including the anatomical relic of our pheromone-sniffing past, still sitting in the middle of your face.


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    9 min
  • The Man With a Window Into His Stomach
    Mar 15 2026

    A strange accident in 1822 left a man with a window through his chest into his stomach. What followed was one of the most unusual series of experiments in medical history — revealing how digestion really works, and why your stomach doesn’t digest itself.


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    11 min
  • Why Some People Sweat Blood
    Mar 12 2026

    Can stress really make someone sweat blood? In rare cases, yes. This episode explores the strange condition known as hematidrosis — and why hippos seem to have it too.

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    12 min