What do cottage cheese, sunscreen and pimple popping have in common?
Authors
- Katie Edwards
Commissioning Editor, Health + Medicine and Host of Strange Health podcast, The Conversation
- Dan Baumgardt
Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol
They are all heading our way in the new series of Strange Health , the podcast from The Conversation that investigates the odd, awkward and occasionally disgusting questions raised by our bodies and the health trends surrounding them.
We’re back for season two, with a new batch of questions that have been bothering us, fascinating us or sending us down unexpectedly strange research rabbit holes.
If you missed the first series, Strange Health takes the things people are talking about, searching for and sometimes doing to themselves, then asks researchers what the science actually says.
This time, we’ll be looking at cottage cheese, which seems to have escaped from the back of the fridge and become one of the internet’s favourite foods … cottage cheese brownies , anyone? We’ll also investigate some of the alarming claims circulating about sunscreen. Do sunscreens really contain cancer-causing toxins? And if you’re worried about what is in a bottle from the chemist, is making your own sun cream at home a sensible alternative?
Then there are pimples.
Dermatologists have spent years telling us that squeezing spots is a terrible idea. It can damage the skin, increase inflammation and potentially leave scars. So why do videos showing people doing exactly that attract audiences of millions?
I would particularly like an answer to this one because, despite knowing perfectly well that it’s probably not the best use of my time, I am among that enormous audience. There is something horrifyingly compelling about a good pimple-popping video, and season two will try to work out why.
We’re also returning with a little extra spring in our step because Strange Health recently won best health and wellbeing podcast at the Publisher Podcast Awards 2026 .
We were delighted, especially because the award suggests plenty of other people share our appetite for exploring the stranger corners of health and medicine.
And now we want your help.
What have you always wanted to know about your body? Which health claim have you seen online and thought, surely that can’t be right? Is there a habit, symptom or trend you would love somebody to investigate properly?
Send us your strange health questions to [email protected]. Your curiosity could become a future episode.
Season two launches on October 20, so subscribe to Strange Health wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
Strange Health is hosted by Katie Edwards and Dan Baumgardt. The executive producer is Gemma Ware, with video and sound editing for this episode by Anouk Millet. Artwork by Alice Mason.
If you’ve got a question about a viral trend or video you’ve seen and you’d like us to delve into the science behind it in a future episode, please email us at [email protected].
Listen to Strange Health via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here . A transcript is available via the Apple Podcasts or Spotify apps.
