Venom and the cure

Outside/In

NHPR

Society & Culture, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Venom is full of dualities. According to the UN’s World Health Organization, snakebite envenoming causes somewhere between 81,000 and 138,000 deaths per year, and even that is likely an undercount. Yet research into venom has yielded treatments for diabetes, cancer, erectile dysfunction, and even the celebrity favorite diabetes slash diet drug, Ozempic. In this episode, we explore the world of venom, where fear and fascination go hand-in-hand, and the potential for healing comes with deadly stakes. This is part II of our “Things That Can Kill You” miniseries, which also explores poison and allergies. Featuring Sakthi Vaiyapuri. Thanks to Iva Tatić for her question. Produced by Justine Paradis. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org. SUPPORT To share your questions and feedback with Outside/In, call the show’s hotline and leave us a voicemail. The number is 1-844-GO-OTTER. No question is too serious or too silly. Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. Follow Outside/In on Instagram, BlueSky, Tiktok, or join our private discussion group on Facebook. LINKS Here’s more on Sakthi Vaiyapuri’s community awareness programs in India and his team’s research on the socioeconomic impacts on rural populations in Tamil Nadu The UN’s World Health Organization’s fact sheet on snake envenoming as a high-priority neglected tropical disease A great breakdown on why snakebite deaths are undercounted and the problem of missing data, written by global health researcher Saloni Dattani on Substack A Nature article on potential advances in antivenom Check out this Science Friday film on the cool research on cone snails and the non-opoiod painkillers derived from their venom. More on Ozempic and lots of other innovations with roots in venom research (New York Times) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Nate. Hey, Justine. So lately on the show, we've been exploring the theme of poison.
0:07.4	Yes. We've asked listeners to submit their questions on the topic. Last week, we answered a lot of them.
0:13.3	But there's one I'd like to get to today, which we have not discussed yet.
0:17.5	Hi, Outside N. This is Iva Tatatic, calling from a Mediterranean country, Croatia.
0:23.4	My question is, if you could please, once and for all, explain what exactly the difference
0:29.1	between poisonous and venomous is. Hopefully, you can do it in a way where the explanation
0:35.0	can be turned into a soundbite.
0:40.7	One to be used forever and ever when this question appears.
0:41.7	Thanks.
0:45.3	Does Eva, do you think like Eva gets this question a lot?
0:49.1	This must be like an issue in her life.
0:50.4	Yeah, absolutely.
0:54.8	I think when she first wrote us too, she asked the tone to be stern.
0:57.5	Like she wanted us to sternly explain.
0:59.8	And I was like, I don't know if I have that in me.
1:00.2	We'll see.
1:03.1	There is someone in Eva's life that needs a stern explanation.
1:03.7	Absolutely.
1:08.6	So to answer this one, I did get in touch with an expert in venom and snake bites.
1:10.8	His name is Sakhti Vyapuri.
1:12.8	I'm Professor Sakhti Vyyapuri.
1:14.7	I'm a professor in cardiovascular and venom pharmacology at the University of Reading in England.
	...

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