Podcast · Health

Strange Health

by The Conversation · English · Health

Strange Health from The Conversation dives into the science behind the most bizarre, viral, and sometimes questionable health trends dominating social media from period scooping and menstrual masking to stroboscopic light therapy, demodex mites, vagus nerve hacks and liver detox myths. Expect honest

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 35 min
Latest: 13 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026 · 2 minNew

Trailer: season 2 coming soon!

We're back with a new season of Strange Health, the podcast from The Conversation , that investigates the odd, awkward and occasionally disgusting questions raised by our bodies and the health trends surrounding them. This season we’ll be looking at cottage cheese, which seems to have escaped from the back of the fridge and become one of the internet’s favourite foods, investigate some of the alarming claims circulating about sunscreen, and look at whether migraine hacks online really will alleviate your headache. Hosts Katie Edwards, a health editor at The Conversation, and Dan Baumgardt ,…

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Earlier episodes 9 most recent

E8 · 10 Mar 2026 · 37 min
What is period scooping? And other menstrual hacks you should think twice about
Period scooping sounds like something you would only hear in a biology lab, not while doom-scrolling TikTok. Yet earlier this year, videos claiming you can “scoop out” your period to avoid the mess and shorten the whole thing racked up millions of views. In this episode, we hear from Sally King, a visiting fellow at King’s College London, about why you can't shorten your period, and why you need to be careful about upsetting the pH balance of your body. She also gives us her perspective as a menstrual physiologist on other period hacks, including menstrual blood face masks, and drinks that…
E7 · 3 Mar 2026 · 38 min
Does light therapy work? The science of stroboscopic stimulation
Light therapy sounds wholesome. Sit in front of a lamp. Feel better. But nowadays, it can also mean strapping on a flashing mask and watching your own brain generate kaleidoscopic hallucinations behind closed eyelids. In this episode, host Katie Edwards tries on a stroboscopic light mask being promoted by celebrities including Jennifer Aniston and Rosamund Pike to find out what happens. And David Schwartzman , a research fellow at the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex, explains how stroboscopic light produces hallucinations in the brain, and how it's…
E6 · 24 Feb 2026 · 40 min
What your body odour says about you
Body odour has a reputation problem. It is often treated as a hygiene failure or a social offence. In reality, it is biology at work, plus a big helping of culture. And yet people online are trying chlorophyll shots to make their BO smell better. Hosts Katie Edwards and Dan Baumgardt discuss what evidence there is behind this, plus some of the health conditions that can affect body odour. And we talk to Mats Olsson , a professor of experimental psychology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, who studies how humans perceive body odour. Strange Health is a podcast from The Conversation…
E5 · 17 Feb 2026 · 34 min
Meet the mites that live on you: from demodex to dust mites and scabies
You are not alone in your own skin. Millions of microscopic creatures live there too. Our skin is home to entire ecosystems of microscopic life. Bacteria and fungi get most of the attention, but mites are there too. Among the most common are demodex mites, tiny eight-legged relatives of spiders that live inside hair follicles and pores, especially on the face. Almost all adults carry them. In this episode we explore what these microscopic housemates are actually doing on our bodies and why the idea of them can feel so unsettling. While demodex may be harmless, there are plenty of other mites…
E4 · 10 Feb 2026 · 36 min
What is the vagus nerve and can you really reset it?
The vagus nerve has become the internet’s favourite body part. On social media, it is everywhere. People hum into their phones, gargle with theatrical enthusiasm, dunk their faces into bowls of ice water and poke at their ears in the hope of “activating” it. So in this episode we focus our attention on the body’s longest cranial nerve and ask a simple question: what does the vagus nerve actually do, and can we really hack it? Hosts Katie Edwards and Dan Baumgardt turn this week to Arshad Majid , a professor of cerebrovascular neurology at the University of Sheffield and an expert in vagus…
E3 · 3 Feb 2026 · 35 min
Is cracking my neck and knuckles bad?
Joint cracking is one of those habits most of us acquire without thinking about it. In our third episode, we turn our attention to one of the body’s most common and least understood noises. Knuckles, backs, knees and necks all feature, along with the enduring warning many of us grew up with: “Stop cracking your joints, you’ll get arthritis.” Is there any truth in it? And why can cracking feel so strangely satisfying? Hosts Katie Edwards and Dan Baumgardt turn this week to Clodagh Toomey , a specialist in musculoskeletal injury and chronic lifestyle-related diseases such as osteoarthritis ,…
E2 · 27 Jan 2026 · 27 min
Tonsils, kidneys and gall: why your body makes stones
The human body, it turns out, is surprisingly good at making stone. Give it enough time and the right conditions and it will go about crystallising minerals, hardening secretions and, in rare cases, turning tragedy into rock. Gallstones. Kidney stones. Tonsil stones. Salivary stones. And, in one of the strangest and saddest corners of medical history, stone babies. In our second episode, hosts Katie Edwards, a health editor at The Conversation, and Dan Baumgardt , a practising GP and lecturer in health and life sciences at the University of Bristol, take a tour through the stony side of…
E1 · 20 Jan 2026 · 34 min
Is detoxing your liver worth the hype?
Social media is full of green juices, charcoal supplements, foot patches and seven-day “liver resets”, all promising to purge the body of mysterious toxins and return it to a purer state. But do you really need to detox your liver? In the first episode of Strange Health, hosts Katie Edwards, a health editor at The Conversation, and Dan Baumgardt , a practising GP and lecturer in health and life sciences at the University of Bristol wince and occasionally laugh their way through some of the internet’s most popular detox trends. They also speak to Trish Lalor , a liver expert from the…
6 Jan 2026 · 2 min
Introducing Strange Health from The Conversation
Introducing Strange Health, a new podcast from The Conversation . Time and again, the health stories that go viral are the ones that make people recoil slightly before clicking anyway. Worms. Smells. Leaks. Stones. Toxins. The things you Google at midnight and hope nobody ever finds in your search history. Behind the gag reflex, there is usually a serious question. Is this normal? Is this dangerous? Has the internet just convinced me I am dying? That is why The Conversation has launched Strange Health, a new podcast series hosted by Katie Edwards, a health editor at The Conversation, and Dan…

About Strange Health

Strange Health is a English health podcast from The Conversation. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: The Conversation
Language: English
Category: Health
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 35 min
Latest episode: 13 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1866947239

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