Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
What can extreme cold teach us about the human body—and ourselves?
In this episode, Director of the Human Energetics Laboratory and anthropologist Cara Ocobock takes listeners inside her research on human adaptation, from subzero fieldwork in Finland with reindeer herders to lab studies on metabolism, cold exposure, and hunting unicorns.
She also unpacks popular cold-plunge trends, what science actually says about them, and how lessons from our ancestors can help us understand resilience, wellness, and the remarkable ways humans have survived across time.
Show links:
• Episode page (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/cold-plunges-and-unicorns/)
• The Winter Olympics, equality in sports, and exercising in the cold (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/the-winter-olympics-equality-in-sports-and-exercising-in-the-cold/)
• ‘Woman the hunter’: Studies aim to correct history (https://news.nd.edu/news/woman-the-hunter-studies-aim-to-correct-history/)
• Women’s higher resting metabolic rates in cold environments could be thyroid requirements for pregnancy, researcher says (https://news.nd.edu/news/womens-higher-resting-metabolic-rates-in-cold-environments-could-be-thyroid-requirements-for-pregnancy-researcher-says/)
What can extreme cold teach us about the human body—and ourselves?
In this episode, Director of the Human Energetics Laboratory and anthropologist Cara Ocobock takes listeners inside her research on human adaptation, from subzero fieldwork in Finland with reindeer herders to lab studies on metabolism, cold exposure, and hunting unicorns.
She also unpacks popular cold-plunge trends, what science actually says about them, and how lessons from our ancestors can help us understand resilience, wellness, and the remarkable ways humans have survived across time.
Show links:
• Episode page (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/cold-plunges-and-unicorns/)
• The Winter Olympics, equality in sports, and exercising in the cold (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/the-winter-olympics-equality-in-sports-and-exercising-in-the-cold/)
• ‘Woman the hunter’: Studies aim to correct history (https://news.nd.edu/news/woman-the-hunter-studies-aim-to-correct-history/)
• Women’s higher resting metabolic rates in cold environments could be thyroid requirements for pregnancy, researcher says (https://news.nd.edu/news/womens-higher-resting-metabolic-rates-in-cold-environments-could-be-thyroid-requirements-for-pregnancy-researcher-says/)
