PoisonBoy Podcast

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Toxicology with jokes and teeth.

The gist

PoisonBoy Podcast treats poisoning as both science and strange human behavior. Its conversations jump from antivenom decisions and carbon monoxide physiology to social media challenges, horse medications, music culture, and lead in Flint water.

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About PoisonBoy Podcast

PoisonBoy Podcast takes toxicology out of the quiet lecture hall and puts it in a loud, informal medical conversation. The show is built around poisonous things, dangerous exposures, and the odd ways people meet them. It can talk about a serious snakebite with vials of antivenom, blood pressure changes, swelling, and clotting questions. It can also detour into jokes about codenames before returning to clinical decision-making. That contrast is the point. The register is casual, but the subject matter is precise. Episodes move through venomous bites, carbon monoxide poisoning, Clenbuterol-contaminated pork, phenylbutazone, lead in Flint water, and social media challenges involving Benadryl, cinnamon, and milk. Music shows up too, especially when the conversation turns to drug use in rock and hip hop. The show treats those topics as toxicology material rather than celebrity trivia. Guests and rotating medical learners add questions and side comments, while recurring voices keep the room loose. Nobody sounds like they are trying to produce a sterile hospital explainer. The talk is rough-edged, teasing, and full of clinical shorthand. Still, the show keeps circling back to consequences: what a toxin does, how clinicians measure it, when common assumptions fail, and which warnings actually matter. A carbon monoxide segment, for example, lands on blood gas testing rather than a casual gadget answer. A social media challenge segment turns online spectacle into a discussion of preventable harm. The animal material ranges from alligators and snakes to a major venom case. The public-health material reaches into water contamination and birth-outcome concerns without turning away from uncertainty. PoisonBoy Podcast suits listeners who can handle a messy room, a dark joke, and a sudden dose of biochemistry. Its charm is that the warning label comes with personality.

Made for: Suits a listener who likes medical talk that is informal, specific, and willing to wander through weird cases before landing on practical safety. Best fit for someone comfortable with clinical vocabulary and blunt humor around risk.

What sets it apart: The show stands apart by mixing toxicology detail with rowdy nickname banter and music-culture hazards. It treats venom, contaminated food, drug culture, public-health exposure, and online stunts as one connected world of preventable harm.

In their own words

Welcome to the weird. Gerry O'Malley (a.k.a. Poison Boy) is an ER doctor and toxicologist with an interest in the unusual, the terrifying and the oftentimes hilarious world of poisoning and toxicology. The Poison Boy Podcast is an exploration of poisoning in history, current events and pop culture.

Why you'd press play

The gaboon viper case comes with codenames; you stay for the antivenom details.

Press play if you want

  • to follow a snakebite case through antivenom choices and the patient's response
  • to understand carbon monoxide damage through a researcher's startling rabbit experiment
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
venomous snake bitesantivenom treatmentcarbon monoxide poisoningdrug use in music culturecontaminated meat and animal medicationssocial media challenge injurieslead exposure and public healthtoxicology decisions

Talks about

Best episodes of PoisonBoy Podcast

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

The PoisonBoy PodcastMay 7, 2021

A severe snakebite case becomes a grounded look at antivenom, organ failure, and uncertain bedside dosing.

The PoisonBoy Podcast follows a severe snakebite case as venom turns from a bite-site problem into a whole-body crisis. The Copperhead Kid and Del Olsen, a third-year resident at Grand Strand on a toxicology rotation in Florida, talk through swelling, third spacing, low blood…

The PoisonBoy PodcastMar 15, 2021

A loose, human return that links COVID hospital work with the risks around drugs used in horses.

The Poison Boy Podcast returns from a break with a loose, lived-in account of COVID hospital work in El Paso, moving through chest tubes, dialysis catheters, intubations, central lines, and the strange mix of people drawn into that moment.

The PoisonBoy PodcastNov 19, 2020

A loose, curious look at rock, hip hop, counterculture, and drug use.

The PoisonBoy Podcast turns post-election exhaustion into a wandering but focused conversation about why rock, hip hop, and drug culture so often seem to travel together.

The PoisonBoy PodcastNov 2, 2020

A loose but useful toxicology discussion linking carbon monoxide, mitochondrial injury, rabbit experiments, and unreliable fingertip readings.

The PoisonBoy Podcast uses its annual "Greatest Villains Summary" as a relaxed route into toxicology, with carbon monoxide, mitochondrial injury, and bedside measurement limits doing the real work.

Podcasts like PoisonBoy Podcast

Episodes

  1. 1

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    May 7, 2021·48m
  2. 2

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Hidden gem

    ["A Gaboon viper bite sent a Grand Strand patient to New Hanover Regional in Wilmington on a ventilator and three pressors about three to four hours after the bite.", "Copperhead Kid and Del Olsen, nicknamed Phantom, describe a third-year resident who kept 40 venomous snakes and was bitten on his dominant right hand while cleaning a cage.", "The case turned on Inoserp and Samir antivenoms, with Venom One in Miami, Alligator Adventure, and South of the Border helping move vials to the hospital.", "Later, the trauma team used TEG to steer blood products and debate VIC versus DIC as the patient progressed to dialysis and partial finger amputation."]

    May 7, 2021·35m·2 clips
  3. 3

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Hidden gem

    A veterinary anti-helminthic that may contaminate up to 80% of U.S.

    Mar 15, 2021·30m·2 clips
  4. 4

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Hidden gem

    ["The PoisonBoy Podcast uses election fatigue to pivot into Jimi Hendrix, and Derek Martinez says Hendrix overdosed on Vesperex after an aspiration event.", "The discussion then moves to Brian Jones, whom the speakers describe as a Rolling Stones founder blocked from the U.S.

    Nov 19, 2020·32m·2 clips
  5. 5

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Hidden gem

    PoisonBoy Podcast frames carbon monoxide as Poison Boy’s most hated poison, then uses a detector joke and a news story about a mother who tried to poison her 19- and 21-year-old children with barbecue pans to explain why the gas kills entire families.

    Nov 2, 2020·41m·2 clips
  6. 6

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Hidden gem

    Poison Boy and Michaela Ramsey examine the Benadryl Challenge, where teens and young adults take 10 to 20 diphenhydramine tablets to induce hallucinations.

    Oct 7, 2020·24m·1 clip
  7. 7

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Sep 13, 2020·43m
  8. 8

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Aug 31, 2020·42m
  9. 9

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Aug 22, 2020·38m
  10. 10

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    The host and a new safety ranger discuss codenames and the impending hurricane.

    Aug 14, 2020·41m
  11. 11

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Aug 4, 2020·45m
  12. 12

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Jul 21, 2020·32m
  13. 13

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Jul 13, 2020·48m
  14. 14

    Cells Suffocating Under a Blanket of Blue

    Jun 7, 2020·39m
  15. 15

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    May 8, 2020·45m
  16. 16

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Apr 9, 2020·45m
  17. 17

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Mar 29, 2020·35m
  18. 18

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Mar 14, 2020·44m
  19. 19

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Mar 1, 2020·51m
  20. 20

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Feb 15, 2020·41m
  21. 21

    An Unsettling Itchy Tingle on Your Neck

    Feb 4, 2020·41m
  22. 22

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Jan 15, 2020·53m
  23. 23

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    The host interviews a medical student about her past work at an alligator zoo, tying it to toxicology.

    Jan 3, 2020·54m
  24. 24

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Dec 23, 2019·35m
  25. 25

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Dec 18, 2019·27m
  26. 26

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Dec 4, 2019·30m
  27. 27

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Nov 26, 2019·37m
  28. 28

    The PoisonBoy Podcast: Fish Paste - Only the Strong Survive

    Nov 12, 2019·29m
  29. 29

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Oct 29, 2019·43m
  30. 30

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Oct 20, 2019·29m
  31. 31

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Sep 15, 2019·30m
  32. 32

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Sep 8, 2019·27m
  33. 33

    PBP064: Dog Days and Horse Latitudes

    Aug 28, 2019·51m
  34. 34

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Aug 16, 2019·59m
  35. 35

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Aug 7, 2019·1h 5m
  36. 36

    The PoisonBoy Podcast

    Jul 19, 2019·1h
  37. 37

    Finding a Foothold but Losing the Line of Sight

    Jul 5, 2019·51m
  38. 38

    The Poison Boy Podcast: PBP059: The City at Sunrise and Dusk

    An ER doctor and toxicologist discusses an unpublished study on the effects of lead in Flint's water on fertility and birth outcomes.

    Oct 20, 2017·32m
  39. 39

    The Poison Boy Podcast - PBP058

    Sep 23, 2017·28m
  40. 40

    The Poison Boy Podcast: PBP057

    Aug 18, 2017·51m
  41. 41

    The Poison Boy Podcast: PBP 056 - In the Undertow of a Memory

    Aug 8, 2017·44m
  42. 42

    The Poison Boy Podcast: PBP055

    Aug 2, 2017·32m
  43. 43

    The Poison Boy Podcast

    Jul 16, 2017·35m
  44. 44

    The Poison Boy Podcast

    Jul 9, 2017·39m
  45. 45

    The Poison Boy Podcast

    The host, an ER doctor and toxicologist, introduces the show and shares a personal anecdote about meeting Cindy Lauper.

    Jan 11, 2017·30m
  46. 46

    The Poison Boy Podcast

    The host discusses his busy schedule, a manuscript on airway management, and his work with cadavers in an airway workshop.

    Dec 22, 2016·31m
  47. 47

    The Poison Boy Podcast

    Dec 1, 2016·13m
  48. 48

    The Poison Boy Podcast

    The host, an ER doctor and toxicologist, shares a personal anecdote about working on Thanksgiving and his wife's cultural differences regarding the holiday.

    Nov 21, 2016·28m
  49. 49

    The Poison Boy Podcast

    The host discusses a death by hydrogen sulfide gas in a Japanese hot springs bath, exploring the science and history of toxicology.

    Nov 15, 2016·31m
  50. 50

    The Poison Boy Podcast

    The host lists classic horror films as an introduction to a podcast about poisoning in history and pop culture.

    Nov 1, 2016·30m