nature in a experiment i don't know yet why is like so far like it sounds so simple they had no idea

but now the data's i find this not only refreshing but but at some level astounding nature Nature.

Welcome back to the nature podcast.

This week, we'll be finding out how economic downturns affect public health and simulating supermassive black holes.

I'm Charmany Bundell.

And I'm Benjamin Thompson.

Okay. I'm Charmany Bandelle. And I'm Benjamin Thompson. Over the past few weeks, there have been some rumblings in the press of an economic downturn and potentially even another global recession in the not too distant future.

This week, Nature has a feature article looking at the effects that times like these have on

public health. In particular, the article looks at the effects of the Great Depression of the

1930s and the Great Recession, which began in the late 2000s.

It makes sense that these downturns would be pretty bad for a population's health, but that may not be the whole story, as Lynn Peoples, the features author, explains.

It's a mixed bag.

So obviously intuitively, you might guess that economic crashes would result in some

health harms to at least individuals in the

population that are directly impacted. Some researchers have found that losing a job actually

increases the odds of developing conditions such as hypertension, arthritis, diabetes,

and mental health problems are certainly the one health consequence

that's been very consistent in the literature. Certainly suicide rates have generally risen

during times of recession. And then there's some, you know, less obvious impacts, a little

less direct. For example, you know, less obvious impacts, a little less direct.

For example, in California during the Great Recession, when there was a foreclosure crisis,

there was actually an uptick in West Nile virus because these swimming pools in backyards of California homes were left abandoned.

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