Pick Your Poison

A candy flavor beloved around the world. An ancient treat found in King Tut’s tomb and rumored to make camels less thirsty. And an overdose that drives blood pressure up while throwing the heart out of rhythm.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive medical toxicology case involving candy and herbal-product exposure, severe hypertension, low potassium, muscle weakness, cardiac arrhythmias, and electrolyte treatment.

Send us Fan Mail

Fire eaters who damage their lungs without being burned. Hot-tub users who develop a serious respiratory illness. And gasoline thieves poisoned by the way they steal it.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive pulmonary and emergency medicine case involving hydrocarbon aspiration, chemical pneumonitis, cough, low oxygen, secondary infection, and treatment that may not involve antibiotics.

Send us Fan Mail

Today's episode is about a toxin so powerful that a little smeared on the tip of a blowgun arrow is enough to silence every muscle in your body, including your diaphragm, stopping your breathing. How did a poison like this become a commonly used drug in modern medicine? 

We'll also go inside a Siberian prison cell where one of the most high-profile political prisoners on the planet collapses and dies. Was this a state-sponsored assassination using a poison from the rainforest?

 Listen to find out. 

Send us Fan Mail

A fever that refuses to break with ordinary medicine. Muscles rigid enough to trap a conscious patient inside the body. And the diagnostic chaos caused by “a round white pill.”

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive medication-safety case involving a severe drug reaction, hyperthermia, muscle rigidity, altered mental status, medication identification, supportive care, and competing diagnoses.

Send us Fan Mail

A foraged mushroom served at a royal meal. A dinner said to have ended the House of Habsburg and changed Europe. And a plant extract investigated as an antidote to liver failure.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive wilderness and emergency medicine case involving mushroom foraging, delayed gastrointestinal symptoms, severe liver injury, transplant evaluation, and uncertain antidote evidence.

Send us Fan Mail

A healthy infant who becomes too weak to cry or feed. A digestive system missing key protective bacteria and bile acids. And a lifesaving antidote produced with help from scientists—and horses.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive pediatric toxicology case involving foodborne or environmental spores, descending paralysis, poor feeding, respiratory failure, stool testing, and specialized antitoxin treatment.

Send us Fan Mail

A locked room with no intruder. A dead person with no sign of trauma. And a volatile clue that vanishes before investigators arrive.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive forensic toxicology mystery involving enclosed-space exposure, sudden collapse, oxygen displacement, scene safety, postmortem uncertainty, and a substance that leaves little evidence behind.

Send us Fan Mail

A natural poison that harms humans but leaves bees untouched. A rare honey valuable enough to risk lives harvesting it. And a sweet weapon used in conflicts between Russia and Ukraine.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive foodborne and wilderness medicine case involving contaminated honey, vomiting, low blood pressure, dangerously slow heart rate, cardiac monitoring, and ancient biological warfare.

Send us Fan Mail

An easy-to-buy drugstore product that can paralyze like a famous bacterial poison. An old-fashioned enema once used for brain injuries. And a treatment choice that turns constipation into a toxic emergency.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive medication and gastrointestinal toxicology case involving enema misuse, electrolyte disturbance, muscle weakness, respiratory failure, ECG changes, and urgent supportive treatment.

Season 4

Send us Fan Mail

A beer-related ingredient other than alcohol that can cause disease. A diagnosis defense attorneys may be especially fond of. And the reason every person has a measurable blood-alcohol level—even without drinking.

Your patient. Your diagnosis. Your decision.

An interactive gastrointestinal and forensic medicine case involving internal fermentation, altered mental status, disputed intoxication, microbiome changes, diagnostic testing, and unusual alcohol production.

Send us Fan Mail