Not so fantastic: is there plastic in my brain?

Doomscroll Remedy

"I think we've been quite naïve in terms of how we've dealt with plastic and how we've let it contaminate every sphere of the environment: from the highest points of the Himalayas to the deep ocean trenches, we find plastic now."

Professor Kevin Thomas has been studying plastic since before it was cool, and he’s right – once it hits the tallest mountain peak and the bottom of the ocean, it gets a bit hard to ignore.

And yeah, it's unsightly and terrible for the environment, but what about the stuff you can’t see?

When plastic breaks down, it doesn’t go away – it just gets smaller. It also leaches chemicals, and we have no idea what either of these things do to our bodies.

Scary, right? It’s why The University of Queensland and the Minderoo Foundation have joined forces to try to find out how tiny pieces of plastic (and the chemicals used to make it) could end up inside us, and what it means for human health.

Travel with us from a beach on the west coast of Wales to a world-first lab in Brisbane to chart the unknown waters of micro and nanoplastics. Should you be using that plastic water bottle that’s been baking in your car over summer? Truth is: we don’t really know yet. But we’re figuring it out for you.

Doomscroll Remedy takes you to the edge of the existential crises that keep us up at night and introduces you to the experts working to solve them.

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Doomscroll Remedy is a University of Queensland podcast, produced by Deadset Studios.

Hosted by Stephen Stockwell. Produced by Grace Pashley, Krissy Miltiadou and Rachel Fountain at Deadset Studios, in partnership with consulting producer Zoe McDonald and commissioning editor Greta Usasz at The University of Queensland.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.