The obesity epidemic has spread throughout much of the world and is one of the leading drivers of impaired health and skyrocketing healthcare costs.  In today’s episode, we are focusing on a neglected aspect of the obesity epidemic – the role played by exposure to toxic chemicals in our food, water, and the environment.  Walking us through the history of this new field of research – investigations on obesogenic chemicals – is one of the leading researchers of the field, Bruce Blumberg.  Bruce is a professor in the Departments of Developmental and Cell Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  This episode is also coincident with the publication of Bruce’s new book, The Obesogen Effect.