Distillations Podcast

Before pharmaceuticals existed, all medicines had to come from natural sources—like plants. On this week’s show we focus on such remedies.

This month Distillations takes a step back to bring you some of our favorite segments from past episodes: Glenn Seaborg, the Three Sisters, and Living with Illness.

Innovation can be messy work, and sometimes outright disastrous. This week on Distillations we’re looking at some of the 20th century’s most infamous scientific missteps.

The future is now. Distillations, therefore, is pausing to compare what people once predicted the modern world would look like to the actual reality on the ground—and in the air.

Whether it’s preventing illness by vaccines or avoiding germs, this episode is about getting sick and staying healthy.

Let there be light! Whether it comes from the sky or a bulb, we’d be lost without it.

Every year the Chemical Heritage Foundation holds Innovation Day—an event for people to get together to discuss and learn about science’s exciting new technologies. In this episode we take a look at innovations—the natural kind and the man-made kind.

Birth, once nature's miracle, is increasingly manipulated by humans and regulated by society. In this week’s episode we look at a range of reproductive technologies and the implications of their use. Chemical Agent: Luteinizing Hormone.

Distillations takes a look at the history and chemistry of dentistry. We find out how baking soda cleans your teeth and lidocaine numbs your gums.

After several long, cold months baseball season has finally begun! From Philadelphia, the home of 2008 World Series Champions, we bring you a show straight from the ballpark. Chemical Agent: Anabolic steroids.