PFAS Is in That, Too

PFAS Is in That, Too

July 6, 2026 · 34 min · Episode 127

About this episode

Stuart and Natty discuss declining PFAS levels in Great Lakes fish with Dr. Sarah Balgooyen.

In this episode, Stuart and Natty talk with Dr. Sarah Balgooyen of PFAS@Mines at the Colorado School of Mines about her team's surprisingly good news: PFAS levels in Great Lakes fish have been declining since the mid-2000s. They get into how you actually find that out — freeze-drying and blending 50-year-old lake trout pulled out of an EPA freezer — and how Teflon went from a failed refrigerant experiment to a key material in the Manhattan Project. PLUS: a New Yorker cartoon pitch! Warren Dunes State Park, Michigan Bob's Atomic Burgers , Golden, CO Sarah's paper — Journal of Great Lakes Research PFAS@Mines research group EPA Great Lakes Fish Monitoring and Surveillance Program iiseagrant.org

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