Some Chemicals are Forever

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.6 • 986 Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As their name suggests, “forever chemicals” have extraordinary staying power. When these nearly indestructible compounds find their way into our soil and water, they don’t break down for hundreds or thousands of years. PFAS – the name for these synthetic chemicals – isn’t just in our natural environment. Scientists have found it everywhere, including in the blood of nearly every living being. In this episode, we talk to the reporter who broke open the story about a decades-long corporate coverup regarding forever chemicals, look at what we know about their health effects, and consider how a kneecapping of the EPA’s regulatory power may weaken the best tool we have for protecting ourselves from PFAS contamination. Guests: Nathaniel Rich – Author of “Second Nature: Scenes from a World Remade,” and the New York Times Magazine article, “The Lawyer Who Became Dupont’s Worst Nightmare” Rachel Frazin – Energy and Environment Policy reporter for The Hill, co-author of “Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America” Janet McCabe – visiting professor at the Robert McKinney School of Law at Indiana University, former deputy administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:04.2	I'm Matt Kaplan, the host of Safeguarding Sound Science, Evolution Edition.
0:09.6	Evolution is the unifying principle of biology, yet it still breeds controversy a century
0:15.3	and a half after Charles Darwin.
0:17.7	Join us as we meet the passionate researchers and communicators who are expanding our knowledge
0:23.0	and fighting to keep good science in our schools and politics. Subscribe to Safeguarding Sound
0:29.3	Science on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you like to listen.
0:50.0	In the 1960s, a television commercial touted a remarkable new product for the modern kitchen.
0:55.5	Even burned food won't stick to Teflon, so it's always easy to clean.
1:01.9	The ad ends by zooming in on a label that reads Teflon, DuPont-approved finish.
1:07.0	The non-stick properties of this chemical coating made it a useful application for cookware,
1:11.6	but today we can't toss out our non-stick pans fast enough. We've learned about the dark side of forever chemicals.
1:14.6	They don't go away.
1:16.6	They don't break down.
1:18.6	That's part of their use and function in an industrial context.
1:23.6	But the result is that once they're made, they're permanent.
1:28.8	The more we look, the more we find these synthetic chemicals everywhere, including in the
1:33.2	blood of nearly every living being.
1:36.0	Welcome to Big Picture Science.
1:37.4	I'm Molly Bentley.
1:38.5	In this episode, what's known about the health risks of forever chemicals, how a corporate
1:43.4	cover-up for decades hid some of those facts from the public,
	...

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