This Is Your Brain on Pollution

Positives

• This podcast episode explores an effect of air pollution that is not widely known. 
• It contains a full transcript.
• It contains links to additional information on the sources and the studies mentioned in the episode.

Additional Prerequisites

• This is a follow-up to a previous episode.
• There is a break and ads in the middle from 27:17 to 30:01 and the conversation ends at 45:40, followed by thanks and end credits.
• There are short breaks in between this episode.

Differentiation

• This podcast episode could be used to guide a discussion on the adverse effects of air pollution on human physiology and psychology.
• Section 3:46 to 4:40 could be used to explain particulate matter in health or science classes.
• Section 8:16 to 9:14 discusses the Clean Air Act, which could be used in a civics class or history class to open up a discussion on climate policies worldwide.
• A group discussion concerning pollution and urbanization could be addressed after the podcast, including solutions to reduce pollution that also benefit the climate.
  
• Teachers could use the peppered moth example to explain how air pollution affects ecosystems and populations. Students could be given an assignment to find other instances where pollution has caused species to evolve.
• Teachers could discuss the Huai River Heating Policy in an economics or history class concerning its effects on productivity and labor.