You and Betty and the Nancy's and Bill's and Joes and Jane's will find in the study of science

a richer, more rewarding life.

Welcome to Inquiring Minds.

I'm Indravis Gantus.

This is a podcast that explores the space where science and society collide.

We want to find out what's true, what's left to discover,

and why it matters. In today's conversations about the environment, the focus is often on

climate change, global warming, shrinking ice caps,

wildfires, and so on. But it seems we haven't really been talking about air pollution since

the 1980s when it was such a hot topic. In fact, a lot of cities have really kind of cleaned up

their air pollution and it doesn't seem to be as bad as it was, at least not in the U.S.

But the fact is that poor air quality can have implications on our lives beyond our imaginations.

I wanted to address this issue that's just not talked about enough these days in my opinion.

And yet we have so many good ways of measuring air quality.

I mean, on my phone I have three different apps that tell me air quality from sensors all across the Bay Area.

But what does it mean when air quality is poor or unhealthy for sensitive groups? Does it have a

long-term effect on my own physical health? Is a week of breathing wildfire smoke better or worse than

living in Beijing? So I talked to Beth Gardner, who's an environmental

journalist. She's written for The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic,

Missonian. And even though she's American, she's been living in London since the year 2000.

And she's recently written a book called Choked, Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution.

Beth Gardner, welcome to inquiring minds.

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