Engineering safer football helmets, and the science behind drug overdoses

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News, News Commentary, Science

4.3 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

First up on the podcast, host Sarah Crespi and Staff Writer Adrian Cho talk football and the latest science behind helmets engineered to reduce head injuries. Have better materials and testing led to fewer concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy in players? Next on the show, more than 100,000 people die from opioid overdoses in North America per year. Although much study has gone into addiction research, less attention has been paid to the biological details of overdose itself. John Strang, a professor in the National Addiction Centre at King’s College London, joins the podcast to discuss the questions researchers could be asking about overdose, and how to partner with drug addicted people to find solutions. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is supported by the Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, an international leader in research, education, and patient care.
0:07.9	The medical and graduate school is part of the Mount Sinai Health System, one of the largest academic medical systems in New York City.
0:15.6	Ranked among the top recipients of NIH funding, researchers at Mount Sinai have made breakthrough discoveries advancing
0:21.9	the health of patients. Here, clinicians and scientists push the boundaries in cardiology,
0:27.5	cancer, immunology, neuroscience, genomics, geriatrics, environmental medicine, and artificial
0:34.0	intelligence. The Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, we find a way.
0:41.2	This is a science podcast for February 5th, 2026.
0:45.1	I'm Sarah Crespi.
0:46.4	First this week, a very timely feature story.
0:49.5	Staff writer Adrian Cho is here to talk football
0:52.0	and the latest science behind helmets engineered to reduce head
0:56.0	injuries. Next on the show, researcher John Strang joins us to talk about the undone science of opioids.
1:03.0	More than 100,000 people die from opioid overdoses in North America every year. And although
1:08.2	much study has gone into addiction research, less attention has been paid
1:12.3	to the biological details of overdose itself. This week, Adrian Cho wrote a very seasonal feature story in honor of the upcoming Super Bowl.
1:31.3	We're going to talk about improving the technology of football helmets.
1:35.0	Hi, Adrienne.
1:35.7	Welcome back to the podcast.
1:36.8	Hi, Sarah.
1:37.3	It's nice to be here.
1:38.3	I got to admit here that I probably know just as much about quantum physics as I do about football.
2:01.4	It's probably equal for me. So this will be really similar to our other conversations that we have. Fair enough. Yeah, I really only know head injuries and touchdowns. I'm just very limited. I obviously would recognize a helmet. But it seems to be a passion of yours looking at the communications going on around this story. Is this something that you followed for a long time? Well, it's not. I'll be completely honest. I was just intrigued by the
	...

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