Pick Your Poison

What toxin can spontaneously combust in the emergency department? What poison is so potent that the patients' vomit and stools are a danger to staff members? Why are there no bones at the famous battle of Waterloo where ten thousand men died in one day? Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what candy can kill you? Though the flavor is so beloved, it was found in King Tut's tomb. And might make camels less thirsty? Listen to find out.Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what causes fire eaters' lung, what disease you can get from sitting in a hot tub, and how you can be poisoned by stealing gasoline? Grab your stethoscope and let's go!Send us Fan Mail

Today's episode is about a toxin so powerful that a little smeared on the tip of a blowgun arrow is enough to silence every muscle in your body, including your diaphragm, stopping your breathing. How did a poison like this become a commonly used drug in modern medicine? We'll also go inside a Siberian prison cell where one of the most high-profile political prisoners on the planet collapses and dies. Was this a state-sponsored assassination using a poison from the rainforest? Listen to find out. Send us Fan Mail

Imagine a fever that doesn't break with acetaminophen (i.e. Tylenol or paracetamol). A toxin that leaves you trapped inside your own body. Want to know what your doctor is really thinking when you tell them you take a round white pill? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know What meal ended the House of Habsburg and was said by Voltaire to have changed the destiny of Europe? The risks associated with foraging, and what milk thistle might be an antidote for? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know What antidote is made from the blood of scientists? And what poisoning occurs due to a lack of bile acids and good bacteria in the GI tract? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Mystery lovers, this one is for you. We are going to discuss a real-life scenario where a person can be found dead in an enclosed space, without evidence of trauma, intrusion, or even another person. Listen to find out how it happens!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what toxin affects humans, but not bees? What contaminated substance is so valuable, people risk their lives to collect it? What popular natural substance was used in biological warfare in wars between Russia and Ukraine in the past? Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what easily available product in the drug store works like botulism? Why enemas were used to treat brain injuries? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what ingredient in beer other than alcohol causes disease in humans? What might be defense attorneys favorite medical diagnosis? Why everyone has a positive blood alcohol level, even if they don’t drink a drop? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Will our patient survive this podcast? It’s up to you and the choices you make. Want to know what toxin has killed thrives robbing houses? What pesticide is so poisonous it depletes the ozone layer? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what poisoned advice was given by a chatbot? What drug toxicity is also a euphemism for trite or boring? What toxin is in the Dead Sea? Listen to find out. Send us Fan Mail

What to know what drug of abuse is called rhino tranq? What adulterant found in fentanyl is also used as a medicine in the ED and ICU? And can cause life-threatening withdrawal? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what cocaine has to do with residency hours? What genetic disease can kill you in the operating room? How a missed diagnosis resulted in changes to the training of every American intern and resident afterward? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what the wet-dog shakes have to do with humans? What drug reaction causes a temperature so high it can cook the proteins inside your body? What over the counter medicine can cause a potentially life-threatening reaction with SSRIs? Listen to find out. Send us Fan Mail

 Interested in poisons, mystery, and murder in mayhem? You're in the right place. This is Pick your Poison. I'm your host, Dr. JP, here to share my passion for poisons.  It is a fast-paced interactive show where your choices direct the diagnosis and treatment. Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what substance is used by 20 million people a day worldwide, but almost unknown in Western countries. What movie might’ve included US drug policy and what plant’s potency decreases rapidly once it’s picked? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

What to know what antidote is getting more attention on social media than the poison it treats? What happens if the doctor panics while giving it. Why people are drinking fish tank antifungal cleaner? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what dictators’ autopsy was published on the front page of the newspaper, why he hated doctors and what that had to do with his death? What leeches were used for in 1950? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know why cocaine is used in the operating room? What toxin has been used in bombs, impregnated into clothing and sprayed on salad bars? What rat poison is treated with vitamins? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what eating meat has to do with doping and drug testing in the Olympics? What medicine to treat asthma in horses is abused by humans for weight loss? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what hitchhikers have to do with toxicology? Exposure to what animal has been mistaken for a drug of abuse? What substance costs $40 million dollars per gallon? Listen to find out. Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what toxin was used by Nazis and is treated with vitamins? Is potent enough to kill a moose in 20 minutes. A poison where the antidote changes the color of your blood and skin? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Do you know what poison is the most potent known to man, yet is ubiquitous in nature? How you can be poisoned by a prison potato? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what compound from the Amazon combines 2 plants in a bit of ingenious indigenous pharmacology? What substance was considered too dangerous for study in communist countries? Send us Fan Mail

Want to know poisoning is often mistaken for an allergic reaction? What you risk by eating barracuda? What causes Foreign Accent Syndrome when a person suddenly starts speaking in another language? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what poison makes bones crumble and glow-in-the-dark? What living thing thrives inside Chernobyl?  Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what poison causes septic shock? What famous scientist died after exposure? And what medical treatment requires a doctor’s note to get through airport security after receiving it? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what toxin causes excruciating pain and death in minutes? Has been treated with amputation? And when petroleum jelly (brand name Vaseline) is used to treat poisoning? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what toxin in the local diet affected Artic explorers in the 1800s but not native people? Which body part reflects brain swelling? What did the ancient Egyptians use to treat night blindness? Send us Fan Mail

What antidote has caused more deaths than the toxin itself? Want to know what type of bite has been mistaken for appendicitis? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what disease is more common in the Emergency Department in the month of January? Has been called Jitterbug? Why Veterans hospitals used to have whisky on the formulary? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what poison is called the Silent Killer? Is colorless, odorless and tasteless i.e. completely undetectable? How car part theft might increase the toxicity of your car? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know about the dangers of mistletoe tea and snow flocking spray? What life-threatening complication alcohol can cause in a person who isn’t drunk? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what disease affects both sea lions and humans? What toxin inspired a horror film and has also been used as a deworming agent ?Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what substance has been used at parties since 1799 and is still popular on sites like TikTok? Why it’s used as much as 600 times per day and where you can find it in the grocery store? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what toxin you can find at a haunted house? How it’s responsible for world-wide outbreaks, poisoning thousands, many of the victims children? How too much exercise can cause kidney failure? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know how homemade jewelry can poison you? Why some people remain unaffected after exposure to this lethal toxin? How it was used to assassinate dissidents from Eastern Europe?  Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what phrase strikes fear into the hearts of toxicologists? What was in the state poison Athens used for capital punishment? How people become sick after eating quail? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what over the counter drug is lethal to pets? What important toxicology tool was plotted on a cocktail napkin? What’s the medical use of a barbiturate coma? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what my biggest phobia is? When not to wash a wound? What toxicology problem the WHO calls a neglected tropical disease killing more than 100,000 people per year? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know how your organs can turn green? About the controversial start to forensic toxicology evidence? And why our patient isn’t responding to treatment? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what poison is still used as medicine? Why it’s called the King of Poisons and what it has to do with the very first antibiotic? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what pacifiers have to do with drugs? What toxin causes your brain to swell and how drinking too much water increases the risk? What drug of abuse is currently under review by the FDA as medicine? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Will you survive this podcast? Want to know how lack of smell might kill you? What lethal poison routinely kills rescuers, yet is made in your body? Listen to find out! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know the common way people are exposed to the chemical causing lung damage in microwave popcorn workers? What vitamin might be toxic for your lungs and how you can inhale heavy metals without welding? Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what upholstery has to do with seizures? What poison murdered children during the Kindergarten Wars? What toxin sends a shiver of fear down my own spine? Listen to find out!  Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what toxin has killed hundreds of thousands of people, has been associated with the Salem Witch Trials and is the source of modern hallucinogens? Then stay tuned! Send us Fan Mail

Want to know what animal is called the most venomous in the world? If pee is an antidote and how pantyhose makes swimming safer?  Listen to find out!Send us Fan Mail