All Blog Posts

Outbreak Watch: Line of Sight examines the growing Ebola outbreak in the DRC, the Hondius hantavirus response, and emerging screwworm detections in the U.S., exploring how surveillance, visibility, and uncertainty shape outbreak response.

Petrichor feels deeply human, but the smell of rain may not be for us at all. A look at geosmin, animal behavior, and the ecological signals hidden in summer storms.

Why can we smell rain? Explore the science of petrichor, geosmin, soil microbes, and the memories connected to summer storms in this immersive podcast episode.

What follows us home from a walk in the woods? This issue of Field Notes explores summer ecosystems and the unseen exchanges between people and nature.

How can a tick bite make someone allergic to red meat months later? Explore the mystery, science, diagnosis, and history of alpha-gal syndrome in this episode of Infectious Dose.

Standing Watch On the quiet machinery of survival Field Notes is where I take one idea from the episode—something that feels like a hinge point—and follow it to see what it reveals. If you want the full story, you can read or listen to the episode here. In the Margins When people think about public health, they usually picture things with obvious health labels. Vaccination campaigns. Disease surveillance. Health departments. Epidemiologists tracking outbreaks. They rarely pic

Hurricanes don't create pathogens—they change exposure. Learn about floodwater infections, mold, mosquitoes, food safety, and hurricane preparedness in this Infectious Dose episode.

Outbreak update covering the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in DRC and Uganda, the Andes hantavirus cruise cluster, and growing global public-health strain.

Exposure Archives On the histories infection writes into us Field Notes is where I take one idea from the episode—something that feels like a hinge point—and follow it to see what it reveals. If you want the full story, you can read or listen to the episode here. In the Margins There’s a moment in this episode that won’t let go of me. Not the courtroom, not the verdict. It’s the nurse in Louisiana, at home, half-asleep, the familiar weight of someone she’d trusted for a decad

Outbreak After Dark explores the true crime case that brought forensic virology into court and asked: can a virus testify?

Blind Spots On viruses, visibility, and the signals we miss Field Notes is where I take one idea from the episode—something that feels like a hinge point—and follow it to see what it reveals. If you want the full story, you can read or listen to the episode here. In the Margins Somewhere in almost every Ebola outbreak, there’s a moment when the virus is already there, but the tools built to recognize it are still looking for something else. In Yambuku in 1976, clinicians thou

What is Ebola really — and how does it spread? This episode explores Ebola transmission, pathogenesis, outbreak history, and the 2026 Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in DRC and Uganda.

Walking the Line On risk, reassurance, and the lines that divide us Field Notes is where I take one idea from the episode—something that feels like a hinge point—and follow it to see what it reveals. If you want the full story, you can read or listen to the episode here. In the Margins Somewhere during an outbreak investigation, a contact tracer has to decide whether someone “counts” as an exposure. Two passengers sat beside the same infected person on a flight. One was there

Part 2 of Infectious Dose’s Andes virus cruise ship investigation explores new genomic evidence, WHO guidance, person-to-person transmission, and the public-health communication challenges surrounding the MV Hondius hantavirus outbreak.

In Memoriam On uncertainty, memory, and the stories outbreaks inherit Field Notes is where I take one idea from the episode—something that feels like a hinge point—and follow it to see what it reveals. If you want the full story, you can read or listen to the episode here. In the Margins One of the hardest things about modern outbreak communication is that people no longer hear scientific language in isolation. They hear it through memory. “Airborne” is no longer just a techn

A science-based breakdown of the hantavirus cruise outbreak, including airborne transmission, Andes virus, person-to-person spread, and how to communicate honestly during evolving outbreaks.

Issue #3 It Passes Between Us On transmission, transformation, and the language before pathogens Welcome to Field Notes. Each week, I take one idea from the episode and follow it where it leads. For Outbreak After Dark, that idea isn’t just biological—it’s how we make sense of what we don’t fully understand. If you want the full story, you can read or listen to the episode here. In the Margins There’s a line in the episode about garlic—how it shows up both in early infection

A deep dive into the strangest medical treatments in history—from bloodletting and mercury to tobacco smoke enemas and early infection therapies—exploring how medicine evolved before germ theory and what those practices reveal about the origins of modern science.

Issue #2 When Infection Doesn't End On persistence and what gets lost when infection is treated as an event Welcome to Field Notes . Each week, I take one idea from the episode—something that feels like a hinge point—and follow it where it leads. Not to repeat the science, but to see what it reveals. If you want the full story, you can read or listen to the episode here . In the Margins Most of the time, we treat infection like something that declares itself and then resolves

Summary Epstein–Barr virus is one of the most common infections in the world—by adulthood, nearly 95% of people carry it. Most remember it, if at all, as “just mono.” A brief illness. A recovery. The end of the story. Except it isn’t. EBV doesn’t leave. It stays—inside the very immune cells responsible for remembering infection. For most people, it exists quietly, held in check by the immune system. But under certain conditions, that balance can shift, linking this common vir