Tear gas is an expected, normalized part of protests today. But its use in international war is banned. How can that be? That’s just one of the questions we investigate in this episode. First, we take you through the long history of tear gas and its emergence alongside deadlier chemical weapons before discussing how its use became routine, fueled by industry interests. Then we delve into what’s in tear gas that causes the painful physical reaction and consider whether claims of non-toxicity are backed up by research (spoilers: not really). This is an info-packed episode that will leave you with many questions answered, but not all of those answers will be satisfying.

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Though discovered relatively recently, Oropouche virus has been making headlines as an emerging vector-borne infectious disease on the rise. Not transmitted by the usual suspects (like ticks and mosquitoes), this virus is instead spread through the bites of midges or no-see-ums. Since these arthropods are already widely distributed and their range is growing thanks to climate change, this is a recipe for potential disaster. In this episode, we take you through the story of Oropouche virus, from how it makes us sick to what the construction of a highway has to do with its discovery, from surprising prevalence statistics to the history of One Health. Tune in for the full scoop on this midge and the virus it carries.

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For the entirety of our species’ history, our approach to cancer has largely been to react, to design new therapies and better combinations of treatments. This energy has certainly been well-spent, but what if we didn’t have to use treatment at all? Or what if we could minimize the use of aggressive therapies? Prevention and screening represent two under-appreciated pillars of cancer care, and we’re using this final installment in our cancer miniseries to show some appreciation. To grasp the impact that screening and prevention can have, we also need to consider the global landscape of cancer prevalence and incidence - where is it decreasing? Where is it on the rise? Where can intervention or prevention make an impact? As we’ve shown over these four episodes, science and medicine has accumulated a wealth of information about cancer - but the striking racial and socioeconomic disparities in cancer incidence and mortality in the US and around the world demonstrates that that knowledge has not been applied equally. Any proposal to reduce the global cancer burden must address the systemic issues driving these disparities. Tune in for a thought-provoking reflection on the status of cancer today.

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