Tiny Vampires

Agoraphobia 5

Happy Halloween everyone!! And welcome to the Tiny Vampires Agoraphobia special. Every year I put together a story written from an insect’s perspective. This year is a ho

Episode 45: Our shared history with leeches

For thousands of years Egypt, India, China, the Middle East, Europe, and the US, one after another all saw leeches as the answer to their problems. They were exercisers o

Episode 44: Poison of the Past

Anyone growing up in the United States during the 1950s or 60s has memories of chasing trucks down the road as they doused the neighborhood in a mosquito-killing fog. The

Episode 43: Unexpected Vampires

Blood is vital, transporting hormones, nutrients, and oxygen, and removing waste products but for all its complexity some animals see it simply as food. While we grow up

Invitation: Intelligent Speech Conference -online-

Join me and more than 40 of your other favorite independent podcasters at the Intelligent Speech Conference. Get 10% off your ticket price when you use the offer code Hos

Episode 42: Malaria Islands

When we call mosquitoes “the deadliest animals on earth” we aren’t just talking about human deaths. Mosquitoes have played a major role in Hawaii’s infamous designation a

Halloween Special: Gutted

We all believe that we have the capacity to completely change ourselves, but at what cost? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Halloween Special: Yersinia pestis

An entirely new perspective on the infamous black death. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Halloween Special: The Passenger

We’ll kick-off this Halloween special with “The Passenger” a tale of control, desire, and the monster within. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 41: So Much Worse The Second Time Around

Most of the time when we get sick we expect to suffer through it and end up rewarded with immunity to disease, or at least the knowledge that it won’t hit so hard if you

Episode 40: The emergence of a new kind of childhood paralysis

The African continent was declared polio-free just a couple of days ago, which means that we are, once again, coming close to eradicating it from the globe. Yet, in 2014

Episode 39: The world of obscure mosquito-borne viruses

The CDC has a catalog of 537 viruses that are transmitted by insects or their relatives around the world. This number can be overwhelming and scary but the more we learn

Episode 38: Guinea Worms and Human Nature

The symbol for medicine, a serpent wrapped around a staff, is displayed on everything from the World Health Organization logo to your doctor’s name tag, depicts the treat

Episode 37: What are those fog trucks spraying?

A truck slowly drives by your house at night with a cloud of fog coming out from behind it. It might seem creepy but that fog is effectively synthetic chrysanthemums wate

Episode 36: How could one tiny tick paralyze a person?

Bloodsuckers can be hijacked by viruses and parasites, but some ticks are lethal all on their own. The Australian Paralysis tick paralyzes 10 thousand dogs and cats a yea

Episode 35: Busting Myths about Flies

Author and fly researcher Dr. Erica McAlister helps bust myths about mosquitoes and other flies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 34: How do mosquito control devices work? Wait, do they work?!

Who needs bug spray when you have phone apps, bug zappers, barbecue grill sized rigs to keep the mosquitoes away? Mosquito control devices might hurt your bank account bu

Episode 33: Blood-Sucking Insects You Have Never Heard of

You may have heard of mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and lice but there are other blood suckers out there, like tsetse flies, floor maggots, toe fleas, and kissing bugs. The r

Episode 32: Chagas disease in the United States

After a little girl was bit by a new, exotic, and dangerous insect in Delaware the media began to speculate, but after a closer look we find there is a much mundane story

Episode 31: Connecting Deforestation and Disease

The lives of organisms in an ecosystem are intimately intertwined. When an entire tropical forest is chopped down the ripple from that destruction can end with new diseas