Episode 163: Limitless

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Laura, Lauren, and Gem discuss people who push their bodies to the limit, including saturation divers, ultramarathoners, mountaineers, and stratospheric skydivers.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Additional Music: “Friends” by Dragon Sound, “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service

Saturation Diving: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver (Atlas Obscura) | Nutritional considerations during prolonged exposure to a confined, hyperbaric, hyperoxic environment: recommendations for saturation divers (Extreme Physiology & Medicine) | What It’s Like to be a Saturation Diver (ScubaDiving.com) | High Pressure Diving Nervous Syndrome (NCBI Bookshelf) | Saturation diving (Wikipedia) | SEALAB (Wikipedia) | Saturation diving; physiology and pathophysiology (PubMed)

Ultramarathons: 120 Minutes Over 26.2 Miles: A Statistical Approach (FloTrack.org) | The new Vaporfly NEXT% (Nike) | Eliud Kipchoge Two-Hour Nike Shoes (Runner’s World Inside Look) | What happens to your body during an ultramarathon (Washington Post) | Why ultramarathons are easier than you think (RedBull.com) | Eliud Kipchoge Marathon Strategy (Runner’s World) | The sub-2 hour marathon attempt: The pacing strategy (The Science of Sport) | Craziest Ultramarathon Races (Men’s Journal) | Barkley Marathons (Wikipedia) | Nike Vaporfly Shoes Controversy (NPR) | LZR Racer (Wikipedia)

Such Great Heights: 14 Fast Facts about Mount Everest (The Explorer’s Passage) | There Are Over 200 Bodies on Mount Everest, And They’re Used as Landmarks (Smithsonian Magazine) | Climbing Mount Everest, explained (National Geographic) | Edmund Hillary (Wikipedia) | Tenzing Norgay (Wikipedia) | Tourism, Waste, and the Effects of Climate Change on Everest (National Geographic) | The Problem (Mount Everest Biogas Project) | Reinhold Messner (Wikipedia) | Peter Habeler (Wikipedia) | Mountaineering (Wikipedia) | Interview with Climbers About Reaching Mount Everest Summit Without Oxygen (National Geographic) | Norton Couloir (Wikipedia) | Astronauts Hail Skydiver Felix Baumgartner’s Record-Breaking Supersonic Jump (Space) | Alan Eustace Jumps From Stratosphere, Breaking Felix Baumgartner’s World Record (The New York Times) | Space diving (Wikipedia) | Red Bull Stratos (Wikipedia) | World’s Highest Skydive! Daredevil Felix Baumgartner Makes Record-Breaking Supersonic ‘Space Jump’ (Space) | Skydiving From the Edge of Space (The Atlantic) | All About Stratosphere Jumps (Skydive Taft) | Ask the Captain: Highest altitudes for planes (USA Today) | The Composition of the Stratosphere (Encyklopedia klimatologiczna) | Helium shortage: Why the world’s supply is drying up (CNBC)

Something Nice: Whoops! We forgot to actually say the name of the show that Ashlyn recommended (or maybe I accidentally cut it out)! It’s called Taskmaster.

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