logo
episode-header-image
Yesterday
15m 58s

Microplastics, blood cleaning and Orland...

The Guardian
About this episode
The actor recently posted a photo of himself undergoing a £10,000 procedure at a London clinic that claims to remove microplastics, forever chemicals and herbicides from the blood. But how settled is the science around the health risks of microplastics? To find out, Ian Sample speaks to Dr Stephanie Wright, associate professor of environmental toxicology at Imperial College London’s school of public health. She explains what we know so far about the effects of microplastics in the body, why the science is still evolving, and what we can do to reduce our exposure. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod
Up next
Today
Texas floods and forecasting cuts: a sign of things to come?
In the days since the deadly floods in the Texas Hill Country, speculation has grown about whether cuts to US weather agencies may have contributed to the the number of casualties. Ian Sample talks to the meteorologist and climate journalist Eric Holthaus to find out whether this ... Show More
16m 49s
Jul 3
Why British women are freezing their eggs abroad
The number of women choosing to freeze their eggs has increased sharply, according to figures from the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). The number deciding to embark on the process abroad also appears to be rising. Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian ... Show More
18m 26s
Jul 1
What does it take to make a nuclear weapon?
In an interview last weekend, Iran’s ambassador to the UN said his country’s nuclear enrichment ‘will never stop’ because it is permitted for ‘peaceful energy’ purposes. It is the latest development in an escalation of tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme, which erupted when Is ... Show More
15m 54s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2024
Why We Overthink (Amanda Montell)
Amanda Montell is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, as well as Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism and Wordslut. Amanda is a linguistics major from NYU and all of her work centers around the way that words— ... Show More
47m 10s
Jul 2024
The Science Of Memory: How To Get Better At Remembering And Be Okay With Forgetting | Charan Ranganath
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- A neuroscientist’s strategies to help you remember what really matters, and how mood, multitasking and other people can impact our memories Charan Ranganath ... Show More
1h 16m
Feb 2024
Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There
Today’s book is: Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2024), by Tali Sharot and Cass R. Sunstein, a book that asks why stimulating jobs and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after a while. People stop noticing what is mo ... Show More
52m 13s
Dec 2024
The Science Of Grief: What Helps, What Doesn’t, And Why We Don’t Talk About It Enough | Cody Delistraty
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- A journalist explores one of humanity’s most brutal and unavoidable experiences. Cody Delistraty is a writer and speechwriter, most recently working as the c ... Show More
1h 12m
May 2023
Experiencing Pain, Grief and the Cosmos, Ivory-Billed Controversy. May 26, 2023, Part 2
The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Debate Keeps Pecking Away Every so often, there’s a claim that the ivory-billed woodpecker is back from the dead. Pixelated videos go viral, blurry photos make the front page, and birders flock to the woods to get a glimpse of the ghost bird. Last week ... Show More
46m 52s
May 2024
Your Mind Is Being Fracked
The steady dings of notifications. The 40 tabs that greet you when you open your computer in the morning. The hundreds of unread emails, most of them spam, with subject lines pleading or screaming for you to click. Our attention is under assault these days, and most of us are fam ... Show More
1h 12m
Aug 2024
The One Word That Explains Art Now
There's so much culture now that it can be hard just to keep up, let alone to think about it all as a whole... but that only makes the effort to find perspective more important. It's not always clear when you're in the thick of it, but almost certainly when people in the future l ... Show More
44m 26s
Apr 18
From the Internet’s Beginnings to Our Understanding of Consciousness, This Editor Has Seen It All
Senior mind and brain editor Gary Stix has covered the breadth of science and technology over the past 35 years at Scientific American. He joins host Rachel Feltman to take us through the rise of the Internet and the acceleration of advancement in neuroscience that he’s covered t ... Show More
20m 15s
Aug 2024
Does life have meaning? PART 1: John VERVAEKE on Solving the meaning crisis
PART 1 of Does life have meaning Series: How do we find meaning (and happiness) in the contemporary age?Humans have a special need for meaning in their life. A life without meaning, many would agree, has no value. But what does meaning actually mean? And how can we ensure our lif ... Show More
35m 10s
Jan 2025
Your Brain On... Social Media
Two decades on from the start of the smartphone revolution, we have the first humans who, for as long as they’ve been alive, have had the entire internet just a few taps away. What has this done to our brains? It’s been an unprecedented period of rapid change, and, with the large ... Show More
48m 38s