How Toxic Is the Air You Breathe?

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Science, Education, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 12.4K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Trump administration is rolling back restrictions on air pollution in the U.S., and some experts say this could affect the health of millions of people. And what makes air pollution especially dangerous is that we often can’t see it at all. So today, we’re going back to the story of Ella Kissi-Debrah, a little girl who suddenly got sick and landed in the hospital. In this episode, her mom, Rosamund, takes on the fight to find out what exactly happened to Ella. And the answer has BIG implications — for us all. We’ll hear from Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah and Professor Stephen Holgate. Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/ScienceVsAirPollution In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Ella’s story (13:02) The campaign and investigation (21:01) Why air pollution is so dangerous (25:39) Accountability and change This episode was produced by Ekedi Fausther-Keeys with help from Rose Rimler, Wendy Zukerman, Michelle Dang, Meryl Horn, and Courtney Gilbert. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Wendy Zukerman is the Executive Producer. Extra help by Saidu Tejan-Thomas, Nicole Beemsterboer, Kendra Pierre-Louis, and Alex Blumberg. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Bumi Hidaka. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, Bobby Lord and SoWylie. Thanks to all of the researchers and experts we got in touch with for this episode, including Jocelyn Cockburn, Professor Vernon Morris, Dr. George Thurston, Dr. Lauren Zajac, Dr. Jennifer Burney, Dr. Sacoby Wilson, Dr. Melissa Burroughs, Dr Wei Peng, Professor Barbara Hoffman, Dr Michael Craig, and Dr Wes Austin. Special thanks to Rachel Humphreys, BBC Motion Gallery / Getty Images, Jonah Delso, Jackie Llanos, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman, and this is Science Verses.
0:05.6	Before we get into today's episode, I just want to say that we're getting advertising from various companies about AI products, but we are going to be rethinking our policy on all of this.
0:19.4	For those who have been writing to us, we are reading your comments.
0:23.9	We totally hear you.
0:26.1	We have to take a lot into account to try to keep this show going.
0:30.5	And there are some balances we need to strike, but sometimes we make the wrong call.
0:35.5	So I just wanted to say thank you for getting in touch.
0:39.4	And now on with the show.
0:44.1	Recently, the Trump administration has been rolling back protections
0:47.8	that are designed to keep the air clean in the US.
0:51.3	And he's been making it easier for certain industries
0:53.7	to pump potentially dangerous chemicals into the US. And he's been making it easier for certain industries to pump potentially dangerous
0:55.7	chemicals into the air. They want to make pollution great again. So in case you don't know,
1:02.6	the EPA just announced that they're doing massive deregulation. It means pollutants from cars,
1:08.1	trucks and power plants will no longer be regulated at the federal level.
1:13.6	We cancel the EPA's absurd, just totally absurd, tailpipe emission standards, which was a disaster.
1:22.6	Trump says that he's doing this to save money for the automotive and fossil fuel industry and to make
1:28.5	cars cheaper for consumers. And since he's said that climate change is a scam, he's obviously
1:36.1	not worrying about that. I'm like us. But the thing is, even away from climate change, these
1:42.1	changes that he's making, it made us at Science Versus
1:46.6	want to go back to an episode that we published several years ago. It's one that I find
1:52.2	myself thinking about a lot these days. And I won't say too much more about it. I've probably
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 21 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Spotify Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Spotify Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.