Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Sunscreen

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt and special guest Lydia Bugg explore why sunscreen is secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR LYDIA BUGG:

• 1900HOTDOG — read Lydia’s weekly columns! (and monthly columns by Alex Schmidt too)
• Healthy Choices (novella) by Lydia Bugg
• Lydia Bugg on Reductress.com
• Trailer Park Boys Get a F#¢*!ng Comic Book! #1

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• “Finding Lenapehoking” (YouTube / Hudson River Maritime Museum)
• Why Do They Call It Beacon? (The Highlands Current)
• Dutch & Native American Heritage In The Hudson River Valley (National Park Service)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and on Us by George Zaidan
• How do the chemicals in sunscreen protect our skin from damage? (The Conversation)
• Why Sunscreen Is an Important Tool for People of Color (Cleveland Clinic)
• Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report: QuickStats: Percentage* of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Who Always Use Sunscreen When Outside for >1 Hour on a Sunny Day,† by Sex and Age Group — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2020 (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Spray Sunscreen Is Convenient. But Does It Work? (The New York Times)
• UV (Ultraviolet) Radiation and Cancer Risk (American Cancer Society)
• Melanoma strikes men harder (American Academy of Dermatology)
• Yes, Your Eyes Can Get Sunburned (University of Utah Health) — Alex tracked this down after taping, for more information on the real phenomenon of sunburned eyes. The vision damage can be permanent if the sunburn leads to specific infections.
• What is a photon? — The fundamental particle of light is both ordinary and full of surprises. (Symmetry Magazine)
• The Risks of Tanning (U.S. Food & Drug Administration)
• SciShow: “3 Ways Your Sun Protection Can Backfire” (YouTube)
• Metal oxide sunscreens protect skin by absorption, not by reflection or scattering (the journal “Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine”)
• Weatherwatch: shining a light on the history of sunscreen (The Guardian)
• Skin Deep: “Sunscreen: A History” (The New York Times)
• What did that sign say? Take a look at old highway billboards in Miami (Miami Herald)
• Yeah, Summer’s Over, But Coppertone Has a New Look Courtesy of Pearlfisher (TheDieline.com)
• Mary Schmich: Advice, like youth, probably wasted on the young… (The Chicago Tribune)
• ‘I thought it was a speech by Kurt Vonnegut’: Baz Luhrmann on making “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” (The Guardian)
• The sunscreen paradox: McGill University researchers warn of ‘false sense of security’ (McGill University Office of Science and Society)
• SPF 50+ is better than SPF 30, but by how much? (Australian Academy of Science)
• Several leading Australian sunscreens don’t provide the protection they say, Choice finds (The Guardian)
• As a heatwave approaches, experts say US sunscreens are less effective than those abroad (The Guardian)
• U.S. Sunscreen Is Stuck in the ’90s. Is This a Job for Congress? (The New York Times)
• “The SPF 50 you’re applying is SPF 4”: Study tests 20 popular sunscreens with SPF 50. But 16 of them failed (The Daily Dot)
• Scientists Now Know Why Sunscreen Harms Corals (Smithsonian Magazine)
• 5 Living Things That Make Their Own Sunblock (Popular Mechanics)
• Corals convert sunscreen chemical into a toxin that kills them (Ars Technica)
• Sunscreen In The Environment: The History of Sunscreen’s Effect on Corals (Smithsonian Ocean)
• Sunscreen Linked to Coral Reef Decay (JStor Daily)
• Sunscreen’s impact on marine life needs urgent investigation, study finds (The Guardian)
• Are corals animals or plants? — Coral, a sessile animal, relies on its relationship with plant-like algae to build the largest structures of biological origin on Earth. (U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
• Some TikTok influencers are maligning sunscreen. Here’s what to know about the claims (NPR Morning Edition)
• Picking the ‘right’ sunscreen isn’t as important as avoiding these 6 mistakes (NPR Morning Edition)
• Why it’s important everyone wears sunscreen — even if you have a darker skin tone (PBS News / The Associated Press)
• Kristin Cavallari, 37, claims she doesn’t need sunscreen in viral interview (USA Today)
• YouTube upload of The Simpsons scene where Mr. Burns plots to destroy the sun — Alex paraphrased this quote: “Since the beginning of time man has yearned to destroy the sun.”