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The science of endocrinology, disease, environmental epidemiology, and risk assessment can be hard for even well-trained scientists to digest. In this podcast, we break down these concepts into bite-sized stories. Here, you can get 'A Daily Dose' of complex scientific information with stories that highlight what we know about endocrine disrupting chemicals, and how we know it.
28 Episodes
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As we conclude the podcast, we reflect on the process of creating it and everything we learned along the way. Thank you for listening, and we hope you learned something new. We sure did!
Prevention is the key pillar of public health. After everything we've learned about EDCs, it can seem almost impossible to limit our exposure to them in everyday life. But several experts are here to show us that small steps can be taken to protect ourselves. The more we know about EDCs and the importance of limiting exposure, the more we can push for systemic change as well.
The future of the field of EDC research is bright, full of innovation and passion for finding solutions. Two of the young scientists leading the way in this field discuss developments to cleaning up EDCs from the environment and improving the study of risks these chemicals pose, illustrating the hope there is for things to get better.
Females. Girls. Chicas. Sheilas. However you want to refer to them, women have made remarkable contributions to the field of EDCs. In this episode of A Daily Dose, we take a step away from the science and four special guests share with us their experiences as being women in this field of science, as well as their concerns that female-centered research is understudied.
The effects of EDCs – diseases, loss of IQ, behavioral changes – all add up. Dr. Leonardo Trasande has actually calculated that very cost, and it’s staggering. He joins us to describe just how much EDCs contribute to global health costs and where the brunt of the burden of these costs lies.
Could EDCs be a risk factor for Type II diabetes? We delve into the meaning of the term “diabetogens” in this episode featuring Dr. Angel Nadal, who has found BPA can disrupt pancreatic cell function – leading to a greater risk for developing diabetes.
The Clarity BPA study was intended to blend both academic and regulatory study designs to get a unified interpretation of the effects of endocrine disruptor BPA … whether this study was successful is up for debate. Two scientists who were directly involved with Clarity BPA, Dr. Jerry Heindel and Dr. Pat Hunt, are featured in this episode to give some insight into this infamous, controversial study.
Phthalates are a well-studied class of chemicals that have been shown to affect male reproductive health as well as brain development. But how do we know that phthalates are responsible for these effects on health? Dr. Youssef Oulhote helps us understand the epidemiological principles surrounding the association of a chemical to a particular effect.
Who would drink a cocktail of chemicals? When you put it like that, no one. But in our environment we are exposed to a mixture of chemicals all the time; we ingest them through food and water all the same. When these chemicals mix together, they create the "cocktail effect," meaning the effect they can have on health may be different than their individual effects. Dr. Andreas Kortenkamp is pushing for a change in the way chemicals are evaluated, so that their risk to health is assessed in mixtures and not just individually.
Join us for episode two of our "podcast within a podcast," brought to you by students at Great Neck South High School on Long Island. They continue the discussion of advocacy around environmental exposures that contribute to breast cancer.
Dive into a "podcast within a podcast" as students from Great Neck South High School on Long Island take over A Daily Dose to discuss advocacy surrounding breast cancer and women's health.
The history of companies dumping chemicals into public water is not a short one, yet the incidence of GE depositing PCBs into the Hudson River is an especially egregious example. PCBs, like the ones that millions of New Yorkers were exposed to through this event, have the potential to impact the thyroid hormone. Dr. Tom Zoeller knows a lot about thyroid hormone's function and influence on brain development, and he joins us to discuss how chemicals like PCBs can disrupt it.
The average human consumes about a credit card's worth of plastic each week -- what could this exposure be doing to us? Dr. Juliette Legler joins us to discuss the growing concern for health and the environment as plastic use continues to increase globally.
Can fate exist in science? The process behind Dr. Pat Hunt's discovery of the endocrine disrupting properties of BPA might make you wonder. She joins us to recount her accidental discovery of one of the most famous EDCs out there.
It's no secret that fracking has serious consequences on the environment -- but did you know that the chemicals used in the fracking process can have effects on the function of the endocrine system as well? Dig below the surface level issues of fracking in this episode featuring Dr. Chris Kassotis and his work documenting and studying the mixture of EDCs used in fracking fluid.
The prostate gland is a critical part of the male reproductive system. Dr. Gail Prins studies this gland, its role in men's reproductive health, and effects of EDCs on function and disease outcomes. Male reproductive health and the disruptions EDCs can cause to the function of the prostate are the focus of this episode of A Daily Dose.
Regulatory agencies and researchers have not always agreed on what it means for a chemical to be considered dangerous or not. Using the story of asbestos, we dive into the process it takes for the EPA to ban a chemical – or not. Dr. Juleen Lam joins us to give a glimpse inside the EPA’s decision-making process when it comes to banning the use of chemicals.
The pesticide DDT is like a character from a murder mystery who we thought was innocent, and was even very likable, but turned out to be the killer. DDT has proven vital for growing crops and stopping the spread of disease, but as it turns out, could have caused more harm than good. On this episode of A Daily Dose, Dr. Michele La Merrill explains one of these unintended effects: DDT exposure leads to weight gain over multiple generations.
The first organ involved in forming human life is the placenta, and the importance of this protective barrier has been understood for hundreds of years, revered in various ways in different cultures before its scientific properties were ever understood. These properties are still not fully known to modern scientists, though Dr. Heather Patisaul and Dr. Jean-Baptiste Fini are some of those working on uncovering the mysteries of this fascinating organ.
To name a few of the most famous races on Earth, the Kentucky Derby, Space Race, and New York City Marathon come to mind. Beyond doubt, however, the most relevant and important one in recent years was the race to make a COVID-19 vaccine. Though we have crossed the finish line, the larger goal to effectively end the pandemic contains a hurdle we didn’t see coming: exposure to environmental chemicals can dampen our immune responses to vaccines. In this episode of A Daily Dose, Dr. Phillippe Grandjean shares how his research has led him to come to this conclusion.
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