A dull pounding headache. Body aches that come and go. Chills that set your teeth to chattering and have you reaching for the fluffiest blankets to warm up. But the thing is, you’re already warm, hot even. At least according to the thermometer. That’s right, you’ve got a fever. Throughout the years of making this podcast, we’ve begun many a disease description with “it started with a fever” but we haven’t ever explored what that really means in depth until this episode. We take you through why fevers happen, how they work, why on earth you feel cold when you’re actually running a temperature, and whether they’re helpful, harmful, or somewhere in between. We then poke around in the history of thermometers, exploring when someone first thought to measure human body temperature and how that changed the concept of Fever the disease to fever the symptom. This is a red-hot fever dream of an episode with some very fun fever facts, so make sure to tune in!
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Ep 96 Tapeworm: We encyst you listen
Special Episode: On the Origin of Epidemiology
Ep 95 Tetanus: An inhuman calamity!
Special Episode: Chlamydia, Koalas, and More!
Ep 94 Chlamydia: Double Trouble
Re-Release: Ep 27 Vaccines Part 2: Have you thanked your immune system lately?
Re-Release: Ep 26 Vaccines Part 1: Let's hear it for Maurice
Special Episode: Electricity
Ep 93 Lightning & Other Stories: Power Hour (and a Half)
Special Episode: Epstein-Barr Virus
Ep 92 Multiple Sclerosis: Scarred nerves & skating saints
Special Episode: Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus
Ep 91 Myxomatosis: Down the rabbit hole
Special Episode: Human African Trypanosomiasis & Drug Development
Ep 90 Human African Trypanosomiasis: A lot to unpack
Special Episode: Hep B Stigma & Discrimination
Ep 89 Hepatitis B: Hepatiti, Take 2
Ep 88 Endometriosis: Menstrual Backwash
Ep 87 C. diff: Fighting poop with poop
Ep 86 Typhus: Another lousy episode
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