Strange Health

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, a practising GP and lecturer in health and life sciences at the University of Bristol, tackle a new batch of questions that have been fascinating them or sending them down unexpectedly strange research rabbit holes.
Episode 1 of season two arrives on October 13. Watch Strange Health on YouTube or follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
The Conversation is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. If you like the show, please consider donating to support our work. You can sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation here.
Hosts: Katie Edwards and Dan Baumgardt
Executive Producer: Gemma Ware
Editing and mixing: Anouk Millet
Artwork: Alice Mason

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 some influencers say can shorten your period.
Strange Health is a podcast from The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. If you've got a question about a viral trend or video you've seen and you'd like us to delve into the science behind it in a future episode, please email us at strangehealth@theconversation.com.
Full credits for this episode available here. If you like the show, please consider donating to support our work. You can sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation here. If you've got a questeion
Hosts: Katie Edwards from The Conversation and Dan Baumgardt, University of Bristol
Executive Producer: Gemma Ware
Editing and mixing: Anouk Millet
Artwork: Alice Mason
Menstrual health literacy is alarmingly low – what you don’t know can harm you
Would you put period blood on your face? What science says about ‘menstrual masking’
Your vagina cleans itself: why vagina cleaning fads are unnecessary and harmful

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 currently being trialled to treat conditions like depression.
Strange Health is a podcast from The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. Full credits for this episode available here. If you like the show, please consider donating to support our work. You can sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation here.
Hosts: Katie Edwards from The Conversation and Dan Baumgardt, University of Bristol
Executive Producer: Gemma Ware
Editing and mixing: Anouk Millet
Artwork: Alice Mason
Can a psychedelic-induced mystical experience really improve your mental health?
SAD lamps: do they work? Experts explain how they help the winter blues

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 is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. Full credits for this episode available here. If you like the show, please consider donating to support our work. You can sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation here.
Hosts: Katie Edwards from The Conversation and Dan Baumgardt, University of Bristol
Executive Producer: Gemma Ware
Editing and mixing: Anouk Millet
Artwork: Alice Mason

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 that can cause problems, from dust mites, to scabies.
Hosts Katie Edwards and Dan Baumgardt turn this week to Alejandra Perotti, professor of invertebrate biology at the University of Reading, who studies the relationship between mites and humans.
Strange Health is a podcast from The Conversation is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. Full credits for this episode available here. If you like the show, please consider donating to support our work. You can sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation here.
Hosts: Katie Edwards from The Conversation and Dan Baumgardt, University of Bristol
Executive Producer: Gemma Ware
Editing and mixing: Sikander Khan
Artwork: Alice Mason
Invisible skin mites called Demodex almost certainly live on your face – but what about your mascara?
How often should you really be washing your bedding? A microbiologist explains
Scabies outbreak in UK and Europe – what you need to know