logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2021
5m 52s

A king cobra bite -- and a scientific di...

TED
About this episode

A king cobra has enough venom to kill 10 people in a single bite. Recounting his near-death experience after being bitten by one of these majestic yet deadly snakes, conservationist and TED Fellow Gowri Shankar shares the epiphany he had when the antivenom failed: there's more than one unique species of king cobra.

Learn more about our flagship conference happening this April at attend.ted.com/podcast


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Yesterday
Sunday Pick: How to find true love (w/ Francesca Hogi) | from How to Be a Better Human
Love coach Francesca Hogi is dedicated to helping daters find “lasting love in the midst of a broken dating culture.” In this episode, Francesca shares her approach to analyzing romantic patterns and feeling more empowered in your love life. From discussing romantic manifestation ... Show More
39m 28s
Feb 14
The AI-generated intimacy crisis | Bryony Cole
Tonight, millions of people will go to bed and whisper to an AI companion. But what are we giving up when we fall in love with machines? Sextech expert Bryony Cole offers three questions to ask yourself if you’re already intimate with AI, laying out a playbook for synthetic compa ... Show More
16m 14s
Feb 13
The doctor on a mission to build a healthier South Sudan | Yohanis Riek
Yohanis Riek went from herding cattle and fighting as a child soldier to becoming the first doctor in his community in South Sudan. He shares his journey to found a nonprofit bringing health care to remote communities — empowering locals to take charge of their own health, as the ... Show More
29m 13s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2022
The Cobra Effect, Part 1: Snakes, Rats, and Unintended Consequences
<p>Back in the days of the British Raj, colonial leaders had a problem: Delhi was overrun with snakes. And not just any snakes -- cobras. These dangerous death noodles slithered through every nook and cranny in town. The solution? Put a bounty on cobras, and allow any citizen to ... Show More
41m 44s
Feb 2022
Tooth and Claw: Venomous snakes
Adam Hart discovers why rattlesnakes make good mothers and how deadly their venom is. There are over 600 different species of venomous snakes around the world with fearsome fangs delivering deadly venoms. Up to a third of the world’s population lives in fear of snakes, but are th ... Show More
27m 3s
Jan 2022
The venomous vendetta
Whilst watching a documentary about some poisonous frogs, Curio Janni in Amsterdam, started to wonder what would happen if a frog licked itself or another frog of the same species. She asks Dr Adam Rutherford and Professor Hannah Fry to investigate whether an animal would react b ... Show More
27m 20s
Oct 2022
#203: The Carnival Boy - Serial Killer Pee Wee Gaskins
<p>It was a bit gruesome even for a carnival act. The snake and the rat. A giant king cobra in the cage hissing about and an employee would throw rat after rat into the cage.</p><p>No matter how full, bored, or even tired the snake was, it would kill each rat that entered the cag ... Show More
1h 22m
Mar 2022
The Cobra Effect, Part 2: Four Pests and a Disastrous Success
<p>The Cobra Effect - a particularly extreme form of unintended consequences - isn't limited to India and Vietnam. In China, the technically successful Four Pests eradication campaign led to tremendous ecological disaster, as the mass murder of sparrows led to a plague of ravenou ... Show More
41m 16s
May 2022
Special Episode: Snake Venom Evolution
<p>Our snake venom episode last week took us down some fascinating roads, from the pathophysiological effects of these compounds to the snake detection hypothesis and from the development of antivenom to the incidence of snakebite around the world today. But how did we make it th ... Show More
59m 32s
Mar 2021
Science Vs Snakes
<p>More than 100,000 people die every year from snake bites. Snake venom can have up to 200 different toxins inside it and each toxin has a different horrible effect to your body. Some attack your muscles, while others attack your nerves. And sometimes two different toxins can wo ... Show More
37m 1s