Hi, I'm Anne Strange Champs.

It's to the best of our knowledge, and today we're going to talk about something that is so essential,

we wouldn't be here without it. You can see it. It's everywhere, all the time, but mostly we don't notice or even think about it.

I'm talking about light.

Most of us are hungry for it, right?

We crave sunny days and clear skies.

We like big windows and well-lit rooms.

But some people have a more complicated relationship with light.

I have a disorder called albinism, which I will generously call a genetic gift from my parents.

This is John Murfeld. He's a physics student at Tufts University.

He's been interning with us this summer, and he's the reason we're doing this episode.

Because John is a guy who, for his whole life, has had to think hard about light.

My body does not produce melanin.

Melanin is the pigment that allows your body to absorb light and do something constructive with it.

So, you know, my skin and my hair are translucently pale,

and when I go outside, my skin, it just burns.

It doesn't tan. It just, you know, almost instantly burns.

And my eyes are so sensitive to light

that they're just overwhelmed by the light of the sky and the sun.

It's like the visual equivalent of, you know,

having like a gunshot right outside your ear all the time.

It's just, it's too much.

...