Laundry, skin, and lungs
From Growing up WEIRD Podcast by Guen Bradbury and Greg Dickens
May 26, 2026 · 40 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the impact of early environmental exposures on adult health, the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status and physical health, and the effects of laundry practices on skin health.
In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on how environmental exposures in early childhood affect adulthood health, and on the link between low socioeconomic status in childhood and worse physical health in adulthood. We talk about muscular strength and how it influences cognitive and psychological health. We then discuss last week’s article on laundry and health. Finally, we discuss the tradeoffs between washing harmful chemicals off the skin and damaging the skin barrier. For more information on how to do laundry in a way that reduces harms to health, see this article: https://guenbradbury.substack.com/p/weird-laundry-habits-can-increase For more information on how often to wash children, see this article: https://guenbradbury.substack.com/p/how-clean-should-children-be My veterinary degree taught me about mammalian body systems. My career in health research taught me about Western health and Western bodies. Spending 18 months living with my three children in remote African and South American communities taught me about human health and human bodies in other cultural environments. I share what I’ve learned about child physical health and development in weekly…
People in this episode
Hosts: Guen Bradbury, Greg Dickens
Topics covered
- environmental exposures
- childhood health
- socioeconomic status
- muscular strength
- cognitive health
- laundry and health
- skin barrier
Keywords
- environmental health
- child development
- socioeconomic factors
- muscular strength
- cognitive health
- laundry practices
- skin barrier
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Western health, Western bodies
Places: remote African and South American communities
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- How bad is salt? · February 24, 2026 · 33 min
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