This Podcast Will Kill You
Hosted by Erin Allmann Updyke & Erin Welsh · 9 decoded episodes · newest Oct 6, 2026
This podcast might not actually kill you, but Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann Updyke cover so many things that can. In each episode, they tackle a different topic, teaching listeners about the biology, history, and epidemiology of a different disease or medical mystery. They do the scientific research, so you don’t have to. Since 2017, Erin and Erin have explored chronic and infectious diseases, medications, poisons, viruses, bacteria and scientific discoveries. They’ve researched public health subjects including plague, Zika, COVID-19, lupus, asbestos, endometriosis and more. Each episode is accompanied by a creative quarantini cocktail recipe and a non-alcoholic placeborita. Erin Welsh, Ph.D. is a co-host of the This Podcast Will Kill You. She is a disease ecologist and epidemiologist and works full-time as a science communicator through her work on the podcast. Erin Allmann Updyke, MD, Ph.D. is a co-host of This Podcast Will Kill You. She’s an epidemiologist and disease ecologist currently in the final stretch of her family medicine residency program. This Podcast Will Kill You is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including science, true crime, comedic interviews, news, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, Buried Bones, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast and more.
Episodes 9
- Oct 6, 2026 · 50 minInherited dementia tests identity, family and hopeThe conversation shows how inherited frontotemporal dementia turns genetic uncertainty, caregiving and early detection into deeply personal stakes.
- Sep 29, 2026 · 1h 23mALS research confronts a disease with many facesALS remains devastating and biologically complex, while limited treatments and emerging therapies make better diagnosis and research models urgent.
- Sep 22, 2026 · 1h 9mNewborn vitamin K prevents a dangerous return of bleedingNewborns start with little vitamin K, making a simple, highly effective intervention crucial against potentially catastrophic bleeding.
- Sep 15, 2026 · 55 minRenaissance medicine mixed insight, ritual, and dangerous remediesThe episode shows how trust, access, anatomy, and professional institutions shaped medical care long before modern standards emerged.
- Sep 8, 2026 · 58 minECT offers powerful treatment while leaving hard questions unansweredModern ECT can rapidly help severe illness, but memory risks, limited access, stigma, and uncertain mechanisms complicate its use.
- Sep 1, 2026 · 59 minECT’s troubled past still shapes its modern useECT can bring profound relief for severe depression, but understanding its history of coercion, misuse, and memory loss is essential to judging its place in psychiatric care.
- Aug 25, 2026 · 49 minClimate change is reshaping how brains remember and behaveThe episode connects gradual environmental disruption to cognition, disease risk, aggression, and mental health without minimizing the uncertainty or the stakes.
- Aug 18, 2026 · 1h 7mBrown recluse bites are rarer—and harder to diagnose—than fearedThe episode separates genuine medical risk from widespread misdiagnosis while showing why spiders deserve ecological attention rather than reflexive fear.
- Aug 11, 2026 · 60 minHow algorithms turn health anxiety into a marketOnline health information can expand access and community while also magnifying fear, misinformation, overdiagnosis, and demand for unproven products.