Pick Your Poison

Want to know what dangerous wellness trend causes harm with bubbles? Why the treatment for too much oxygen can be more oxygen? And how concentration can make the difference between a mild exposure and a medical emergency?

A woman collapses at a yoga retreat after severe abdominal pain, frothy vomiting, a seizure, and sudden paralysis. Her CT scan reveals a strange clue: gas where it doesn’t belong. Can you identify the toxin—and choose the treatment—before permanent damage is done?

Your patient is waiting. Your diagnosis—and your decision—matter.

Pick Your Poison is an interactive medical mystery podcast about toxicology, poisoning, emergency medicine, and the clues that lead to a diagnosis.

Transcripts are available at pickpoison.com.

This podcast is fictional and is intended for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice.

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A three-year-old develops abdominal pain, constipation, profound lethargy, and a sudden seizure after a family gathering. The crucial clue appears in an unexpected place—and points toward a mysterious Civil War artifact. Along the way, discover what movies get wrong about gunshot wounds and how one toxin may have influenced the Roman Empire.

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A routine medication turns catastrophic when a patient's brain loses its brakes. Why won't the seizures stop? What hidden diagnosis is everyone missing? And what life-saving antidote has to be given before it's too late? Join Dr. JP as you investigate a rapidly deteriorating patient while exploring emergency medicine, toxicology, and one of the most dramatic poisoning emergencies you'll ever encounter. Your patient is waiting. Your diagnosis—and your decision—matter.

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A notorious green spirit served in a Belle Époque bar. A violent patient hallucinating and fighting invisible enemies. And a medical myth linked to some of history’s most famous artists.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive emergency medicine and toxicology case involving sudden psychosis, dangerous behavior, hallucinations, substance use, medical versus psychiatric causes, and the myths surrounding a mysterious green drink.

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A harmless-looking plant gathered for a wilderness dinner. An ancient remedy for madness associated with Heracles. And a flower carrying the same kind of cardiac poison found in toxic toads.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive wilderness and emergency medicine case involving mistaken foraging, plant poisoning, vomiting, dangerous heart rhythms, persistent symptoms, and ancient Greek medicine.

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A normal conversation followed by unconsciousness within minutes. A drug abandoned as too dangerous for medicine but reborn on the illicit market. And prison contraband hidden on an apparently blank sheet of paper.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive emergency and forensic toxicology case involving highly potent synthetic-drug exposure, sudden respiratory depression, hidden prison contraband, overdose reversal, and a scene with no pills or powder.

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Want to know what toxin has been killing workers since Paleolithic times—and is hiding in modern kitchens? The ancient Romans called it a widow-maker… because husbands died so quickly, some women had as many as seven. 

Listen to find out! 
 

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An animal that poisons without biting or stinging. An infamous aphrodisiac behind centuries of terrible decisions. And a blistering substance used as a murder weapon.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive forensic toxicology case involving animal-derived exposure, severe skin and urinary-tract injury, internal burns, gastrointestinal symptoms, kidney damage, and a long history of malicious poisoning.

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A poison that can burst into flame in the emergency department. Vomit and stool dangerous enough to threaten the medical team. And a possible answer to the missing bones of Waterloo.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive emergency and hazardous-materials case involving spontaneous combustion, severe gastrointestinal injury, liver failure, patient decontamination, staff safety, and battlefield history.

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