This Week in Science – The Kickass Science Podcast · Dr. Kirsten Sanford Science Media

Sanitize Your Timeline with Science

·1 hr 35 min·5 clips

The 1980s pertussis vaccine had roughly 3,000 antigens; today's entire schedule has fewer than 160.

1. This Week in Science episode 1042 is titled "Sanitize Your Timeline with Science" and was recorded on Wednesday, January 7th, 2026. 2. Dr. Kiki hosts with Blair, and both matter because they trade off the medical and fossil stories that structure the show. 3. The episode asks how recent science should shape public-health choices, fossil interpretation, and the story of human origins. 4. Dr. Kiki opens by discussing RFK Jr.'s unilateral changes to the CDC vaccine schedule and the food pyramid. 5. She cites a JAMA Internal Medicine report based on CDC data from October 2022 to September 2024 that places annual U.S. COVID-19 deaths at around 100,000. 6. The vaccine discussion focuses on older adults 65 and over, nursing homes, and convalescent hospitals as high-risk settings. 7. Dr. Kiki says the new schedule delays some vaccines, changes the infant hepatitis B recommendation to 12 years, and includes money for an unblinded trial in Africa. 8. Blair and Dr. Kiki question what happens if vaccines are removed from CDC recommendations but families still want coverage through health insurance. 9. The conversation connects vaccine spacing to public-good arguments, school access, and possible class divisions between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. 10. Dr. Kiki then shifts to the food pyramid and says the new version emphasizes steak, potatoes, and cheese over whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. 11. She argues that vaccine policy should be grounded in evidence because the previous CDC schedule helped reduce illness and death for decades. 12. One concrete example she gives is the pertussis vaccine, which contained roughly 3,000 antigens in the 1980s. 13. She contrasts that with today's entire vaccine schedule, which she says contains fewer than 160 antigens. 14. Blair's fossil segment starts with ammonites, and Dr. Kiki explains how their shell shape and internal chambers differ from nautiloids. 15. The ammonite story moves to Stevens Klint in Denmark, a 15-kilometer coastal cliff with a visible KPG boundary layer. 16. Researchers used microfacies analysis and sediment inside the shells, including sponge spicules and the absence of bryozoans, to argue that the ammonites lived after the asteroid impact. 17. Dr. Kiki says the timing may place those ammonites about 68,000 years after the impact, which would extend their survival into the Danian. 18. The episode's style is conversational and fast-moving, with side explanations, corrections, and long detours into shell anatomy and fossil dating. 19. People interested in vaccines, paleontology, or human evolution will get the most from this episode. 20. People looking for a short, tightly edited segment may skip it.

As heard by us

A fossil extinction debate that treats deep time as a moving target.

The episode opens in housekeeping and comic banter, then settles into ammonites, filter feeding, plankton, and the harder question of whether their disappearance was a long unraveling after the impact.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If ammonites, extinction timing, and shark eyeballs sound like a decent reset for your brain.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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