If you still think pregnancy nausea is just a sitcom punch-line, spend 25 minutes with the latest Unexplainable podcast. Host Julia Longoria opens the episode mid-heave — yes, that is her actual retching in the first 10 seconds, immediately followed by the rueful line, “That is the sound of me, about to hurl.” It’s a visceral reminder that this story starts in her bathroom, not a sterile studio.
Julia is pregnant and decidedly not just queasy in the morning. By week 15 she’d “just puked everything [she’d] eaten that day,” she admits, after which the pregnancy-tracker apps cheerfully told her the nausea should be over.
From there the episode becomes an irresistible detective tale. Geneticist Marlena Fejzo turns a 30-page DIY survey and hundreds of mailed-in spit samples into the first large-scale data set on extreme pregnancy nausea. Her breakthrough: a single gene — GDF-15, nicknamed the “vomiting hormone” gene — lights up in not one but two independent analyses. One statistic stops Julia (and the listener) cold: if your sister had hyperemesis gravidarum, your own odds of suffering it jump 17-fold.
What makes the episode sing is the mix of raw personal tape and rigorous science journalism: Julia’s bathroom floor meets Fejzo’s freezer full of samples, and together they crack a mystery that has literally been puked about since 2000 BC.
If this episode leaves you a little awed, a lot smarter, and extra empathetic toward anyone clutching ginger chews, please share it — and become a member to support more stories like this. Vox Members get access to ad-free podcasts and unlimited access to all Vox stories.
—Bryan Walsh, senior editorial director
