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Science Vs

SNAKES!!!

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Education, Science, Health & Fitness

4.412.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Snake venom is a wily beast. It's packed with hundreds of toxins that can attack our blood vessels, muscles and nerves. That's why snake bites kill some 100,000 people each year. On today's show — dangerous snake bites and the bizarre way we make the only thing that can save you from them: antivenom. (Spoiler alert: it takes snake milkers and stables filled with horses.) We'll also look at the groundbreaking research that could eventually revolutionise all this. We speak to Captain Pete Bethune, snake venom researchers Dr. Christina Zdenek, Professor José María Gutiérrez, Dr. Laura Albulescu and snake milker Greivin Corales.  To read more about Pete Bethune's work: https://www.earthrace.net/  Our instagram is: science_vs Check out the transcript right here: https://bit.ly/3ffV8oE This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman with help from Meryl Horn, Rose Rimler, Michelle Dang, Nick DelRose, and Taylor White. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Bumi Hidaka. Music written by Peter Leonard, Marcus Bagala, Emma Munger, and Bobby Lord. A huge thanks to all the researchers we got in touch with for this episode, including Professor Abdul Razaq Habib, Dr. Gavin Smith, Professor Abina Crean, Professor Nick Casewell, Dr. Jessicah Kurere, and Dr. Tarek Mohamed. And special thanks to Pia Gadkari, the Zukerman family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Versus from Gimlet.

0:04.1

This is the show The Pits Facts Against Fangs.

0:07.4

How are you doing?

0:09.6

How are you doing?

0:10.6

I'm good, how are you?

0:12.2

I'm alright mate.

0:13.5

I'm happy to be alive.

0:15.6

How are you doing?

0:18.3

How are you doing?

0:20.6

This is Pete Bethune.

0:22.5

Pete is a conservationist, G.I. Joe style.

0:26.1

He stopped whalers out in the Pacific Ocean, rescued a dolphin held captive in a resort,

0:31.8

and recently on one of his adventures, things went particularly sideways.

0:38.1

It's just before Christmas.

0:40.0

Pete is deep in the rainforests of Costa Rica with his team, a couple of guys, and they're

0:45.1

looking for evidence of illegal logging and hunting.

0:49.1

This is a lush forest, thick canopy, very hilly.

0:52.9

It's up and down, up and down, up and down, really steep.

0:56.0

Jungle is very spiky.

0:57.4

Got this, you know, it's got the most ferocious ants on it.

1:00.7

It's got poisonous spiders, it's got snakes.

1:03.3

So it's a jungle you need to be really careful walking through.

...

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