Migraines affect over one billion people worldwide and rank as the second leading cause of disability globally — yet fewer than 5% of chronic sufferers get adequate care. So why are they so misunderstood?

Dr. Kaveh Hoda sits down with Dr. Andrew Charles (neurologist and migraine researcher at UCLA) and Jesse Thorn (broadcaster and lifelong migraine sufferer) to talk about what migraines really are, why stigma keeps so many people from getting help, and the exciting new treatments that are finally changing the game. Please share with a migraine sufferer in your life.

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In January 2010, a catastrophic earthquake devastated Haiti — a country that hadn't seen a single case of cholera in over a century. Then, months later, people living along the Artibonite River started getting violently ill. Within 29 days, cholera had spread throughout all of Haiti. The source? A UN peacekeeping base upstream, whose sewage was flowing directly into the river.

In this episode, Dr. Kaveh Hoda is joined by co-host Kieran Hervold and special guest Joe Kassabian — host of the Lions Led By Donkeys podcast — to break down one of the most consequential public health failures in modern history. They cover what cholera actually is and how it kills, why the UN was in Haiti in the first place, how journalists and scientists pieced together the evidence.

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Kaveh is joined by comedian, illustrator, and podcaster Kaveh Taherian to investigate Dr. Max Jacobson — aka "Dr. Feelgood" and "Miracle Max" — the physician who fled Nazi Germany and built a celebrity clientele with amphetamine-laced "vitamin cocktails." His patients included Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and President John F. Kennedy.

They dig into how his treatments worked, why JFK looked so good in the Nixon debate, and how a bottle of leftover "super serum" ended up with the FBI.

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Kaveh is joined by Kieran Hervold and infectious disease physician and global health expert Dr. Krutika Kuppalli to break down the facts about the Ebola virus, separating fact from fiction, her personal experiences treating the disease, understanding the stigma around diagnosis and discussing the unsung heroes of the battle against this deadly disease.

Here is the link to the open letter to Congress expressing concerns about the proposed use of third-country facilities for Americans potentially exposed to or infected with Ebola.

Please consider signing: tinyurl.com/Ebola-Letter

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In this episode, Kaveh discusses his recent colonoscopy and his broken finger and if the two are related. We cover when to start colon cancer screening, the pluses and minuses of the colon cancer screening options that are available, why Kaveh picked a colonoscopy and tips and tricks to make it go as smoothly as possible!

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In this special episode, Dr. Kaveh Hoda is joined by guests Rebecca Watson (Skepchick) and Dr. Will Flannery (Dr. Glaucomflecken, ophthalmologist & comedian) to do what the film never asked for: a serious medical review of every injury inflicted on the Wet Bandits in Home Alone.

From BB gun blasts to the groin, a blowtorch to the scalp, a hot iron to the face, a paint can to the head, and a nail through a bare foot — the trio rates each injury on a lethality scale of 1–10, debates whether Harry and Marv would actually survive, and asks the real question: why didn't Kevin just call the cops?

Also on the docket: the tarantula hair ophthalmology incident (yes, it's real), the dangers of slipping on ice, skincare routines, aging, Zoom beauty filters, and the Jeremy Renner app — but for doctors.

Featuring:

- Rebecca Watson — skeptchick.org | patreon.com/rebecca

- Dr. Will Flannery (Dr. Glaucomflecken) — glaucomflecken.com | Humor & Humanity in Medicine app

The House of Pod is hosted by Dr. Kaveh Hoda. Rate & review on iTunes! Merch at bonfire.com/hopmerch

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RFK Jr. has set his sights on antidepressants — and we're not stoked about it. In this episode, Kaveh is joined by Dr. Tyler Black, psychiatrist and suicidologist, and Melody Schreiber, award-winning healthcare journalist, to break down the federal push to curb SSRI prescribing and what it really means for patients.

They cover:

• What "deprescribing" actually means — and who it will harm most
• The racist history of "reparenting" and why RFK Jr.'s use of the term matters
• Whether SSRIs are truly linked to violence and school shootings
• Are antidepressants really "harder to quit than heroin"?
• The statin wars, cholesterol misinformation, and the wellness-to-conspiracy pipeline
• What good deprescribing actually looks like when done by a real clinician

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Iran is one of the most important stories in the world right now — and one of the most distorted. Kaveh brings on AFP journalist Mariam Ishani Thompson, who reports from the only global news agency with a permanent bureau inside Iran, alongside returning guest Dr. Arghavan Salis, to talk about what's actually happening on the ground, why the information ecosystem around Iran is so broken, and what it means that most of us are getting our news from social media comments and partisan feeds.

They get into the January massacres, the Strait of Hormuz, the diaspora's complicated relationship with the bombing, and how to find sources you can actually trust.

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Find me Kaveh on Instagram or TikTok @thehouseofpod or email at [email protected]

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A mysterious illness strikes passengers aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Cape Verde — and it's not the norovirus you'd expect. In this episode, Dr. Kaveh Hoda is joined by guest cohost Allen Liu and infectious disease physician and global health expert Dr. Krutika Kuppalli to break down the hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius, what it means for public health in the US, and why it has experts paying close attention, particularly with millions of visitors expected for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the US stepping back from the WHO.

How prepared are we really? Not as much as you would hope, that's for sure.

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Endometriosis affects an estimated 10% of reproductive-age women worldwide — and yet it takes an average of 7 to 10 years to get diagnosed. In this episode of House of Pod, Dr. Kaveh Hoda sits down with two very special guests to break down one of the most misunderstood and chronically dismissed conditions in all of medicine.

Dr. Camran Nezhat — pioneer of modern minimally invasive and robotic surgery, founder of the Worldwide EndoMarch, and one of the world's leading endometriosis specialists — joins the show to explain what endometriosis actually is, why it's so difficult to diagnose, and how it can affect virtually every system in the body, from the GI tract and urinary system to the lungs, eyes, and even the brain.

Also joining is certified yoga therapist and women's health advocate Stacey Felice, who shares her own 10-year journey to diagnosis and how lifestyle practices have helped her manage symptoms over the years.

Episode brought to you with limited commercial interruptions

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