This episode, join us as we explore heat in the city with Dr. Daniel Cumming, a postdoctoral fellow at Queens College. As an urban and environmental historian of the 20th-century United States, Dr. Cumming examines the powerful intersection of housing and heat and the inequalities that emerged in post-World War II New York City. Through his research and his involvement in the international collaborative project Melting Metropolis, we’ll uncover how heat shapes urban environments, influences infrastructure, and deepens social divides. Tune in as we rethink temperature as a force embedded in the history of the modern city. Stay cool, and stay tuned for our next episode. Recorded on Zoom, February 2026.

Check out our show notes here: https://tinyurl.com/hottakesS2-E3

As extreme heat becomes more frequent and severe, certain medications increase vulnerability during these times. Older populations, in particular, continue to face this interference with their thermoregulation, with their layered vulnerability in a warming climate. Using county-level data across California, the Pharma Heat team created a more granular assessment of pharmaceutical risks using demographic and social factors that are not often analyzed together in existing literature. The Hot Takes podcast sits down with UCLA's Heat Lab's Pharmaceutical Heat Team to discuss their research on why older adults face compounded risks shaped by climate change intersecting pharmaceutical use and extreme heat.

As temperatures continue to rise, high school student-athletes are among the populations most vulnerable to extreme heat. In today's episode, the UCLA Heat Lab explores how heat affects athletes across multiple sports through the perspectives of athletes themselves. We discuss football and cross country, where athletes face intense outdoor heat exposure, and explore how heat can also impact indoor spaces through sports like volleyball. We even explore swimming, an unexpected but important context for understanding heat risk. As hot seasons intensify, understanding these challenges is essential to protecting the health and safety of student-athletes.

Check out our show notes here: https://tinyurl.com/hottakesS2-E1