Episode
How chemistry underpins every area of our lives
- Podcast
- Instant Genius
- Published
- Apr 9, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2115
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/instant-genius-226559/episodes/how-chemistry-underpins-every-area-of-our-lives/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-genius-226559/how-chemistry-underpins-every-area-of-our-lives.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
While we may not always be consciously aware of it, chemical processes are busy whirring away every second of every day, no matter what we’re doing or where we look. Be it the reactions that continuously occur in our own bodies to keep us alive, the manufacturing processes used to make the clothes we wear, the homes we live in and the products we rely on to make our lives more comfortable, or even in the development of the medicines we use to treat disease. In this episode, we’re joined by Prof Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, professor of pharmaceutical neuroscience at University College London, and president of Wolfson College, Cambridge, to talk about her latest book, Chain Reaction – The Wondrous Chemistry of Everyday Life. She tells us how all of the bodily functions we take for granted are grounded in the chemistry of the atoms and molecules we’re made of, how we’ve harnessed the processes of chemistry to create the materials we rely on for our survival every single day, and how taking a moment or two to think about these fascinating processes can open us up to a whole new way of looking, not only at ourselves, but also at the world we live in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices