This Podcast Will Kill You is an educational series that delves into the biology, history, and epidemiology of various diseases and medical mysteries. Hosted by Dr. Erin Welsh, a disease ecologist and epidemiologist, and Dr. Erin Allmann Updyke, a physician and epidemiologist, the podcast aims to make complex medical topics accessible and engaging for a broad audience.

Obstetrics-gynaecology, fertility and safeguarding teams get an ethical and clinical discussion of IVF, egg freezing, donor conception, surrogacy and donor breast milk. It distinguishes regulated milk-bank supply from informal online purchase and keeps informed consent, commercial pressure, cross-border treatment, multiple pregnancy and the future welfare of children in view.

ENT, general-practice and emergency clinicians get a practical cerumen review. It reframes earwax as protective rather than dirty, covering lubrication, acidic antimicrobial activity, epithelial clearance, impaction, hearing aids, earbuds, cotton-swab injury, safe softening and ear-candling harm.

ENT, infectious-diseases and basic-science learners get a clinically useful review of nasal mucus, mucins, cilia, IgA, humidification and particle trapping. It turns runny nose, blocked nose, post-nasal drip, mucus colour and recurrent nose-picking into practical counselling points that help avoid unnecessary antibiotics.

A research ethics and human-factors discussion for clinicians, educators and investigators. Acute mental illness, impaired voluntariness, therapeutic misconception, authority gradients and institutional conflicts show why valid consent requires more than a signature and why unresolved participant-safety concerns may need independent escalation.

Acute-care and burns teams get a practical view of severe burns as systemic illness. Airway risk, circulation, fluid loss, infection prevention, debridement, wound cover and rehabilitation sit alongside grafts, dressings, scar prevention and long-term function.

Burn assessment starts with mechanism, depth and total body surface area, not degree labels alone. The teaching separates superficial, partial thickness and full thickness patterns, then links circumferential swelling, inhalation risk and early physiology to escalation.

Persistent symptoms without a clear label need a plan, not another disconnected consultation. This conversation focuses on wrong, delayed and missed diagnoses, with practical habits around documenting uncertainty, safety-netting, follow-up, examination and team review when symptoms cross specialties.

Travel nausea is explained through sensory conflict, not personality or anxiety. Ask about the motion trigger, visual task and symptom sequence; horizon fixation, fresh air and pre-travel medication planning matter before vomiting is established.

Persistent fever with bilateral pneumonia, fatigue and exertional breathlessness should bring exposure history forward. Ask about geography, soil disturbance, caves, birds, bats and immunosuppression, then use imaging, antigen testing, PCR where available and culture together when histoplasmosis fits.

Genital sores, dysuria or discharge can be made harder to disclose by shame and fear. This historical sexual-health item is worth choosing for non-judgemental language, private questioning and the social consequences of sexually transmitted infection diagnoses.