Ever heard of valley fever? I hadn't, not until I started digging into this story. Turns out it's a fungal infection that lives in soil across the West, and it can wreck your life if you're unlucky enough to inhale the wrong spore.

That's exactly what a UC Davis Health podcast called Unfold decided to explore. And it just picked up two national Signal Awards for doing it.

The episode, "Just One Spore," earned a silver award in science and education and a bronze in health and wellness. Not bad company. The Signal Awards judged this one against productions from CNN, NPR, and even Amy Poehler. Think about that for a second. A health system podcast, going toe-to-toe with some of the biggest names in audio, and coming out with hardware.

A Story About Two People, Not a Disease

The episode didn't just explain valley fever. It introduced listeners to two people living with it.

Kyleigh Cooyar and Rex Dangerfield both got hit hard. Dangerfield put it simply in the episode: "I don't feel normal anymore. I used to be able to play, you know, run around. I used to be able to play basketball. I used to love to bowl. I can't do that anymore."

That's the kind of line that sticks with you. One day you're bowling with friends, the next you're fighting a fungus that most people have never even heard of.

Both patients ended up under the care of Dr. George Thompson, co-director of the UC Davis Center for Valley Fever. He's an infectious diseases specialist who's spent years figuring out how to treat this thing, and that's not easy. Cooyar put it bluntly: "He's the one that got it under control, and I think he saved my life."

Why a Journalist's Ear Made the Difference

The episode was reported and produced by Amy Quinton, a news and media relations specialist at UC Davis, and edited by Marianne Russ Sharp, UC Davis Health's managing editor for news. Both co-hosted it. Both came up through public radio, and you can tell. This wasn't a corporate explainer dressed up as a podcast. It was a real story, told by people who know how to find one.

Quinton said it best: "We were judged by some of the best audio storytellers in the business and competed with podcast companies whose budgets far exceed ours. We are extraordinarily grateful for this recognition and to be in the company of such talented people creating incredible podcasts."

The judging panel included folks from Netflix, NPR, TED, iHeart Media, PRX, and YouTube's podcast division. That's a serious bar to clear with what's likely a fraction of the budget those outfits work with.

A Disease That's Moving

Here's the part that caught my attention most. Thompson isn't just treating patients. He's also researching how climate change is pushing valley fever into places that have never dealt with it before.

Sharp said working on the episode was "a real eye-opener in terms of the potential spread of valley fever and its impact on humans, and the importance of the work that physician-scientists like Dr. Thompson are doing."

I've spent years traveling full-time, moving through deserts and dry regions where soil gets kicked up by wind, construction, even a hard rainstorm after a drought. Valley fever thrives in exactly those conditions. If it's spreading beyond its old boundaries, that's not just a California or Arizona problem anymore. It's worth knowing about no matter where you live or where you're headed next.

Quinton and Sharp didn't stop there, either. They also produced a second episode looking at how valley fever is affecting dogs, which tells you this isn't some rare medical footnote. It's a growing issue that touches families, pets, and entire regions that thought they were in the clear.

So here's my question for you: when's the last time a health podcast actually taught you something you didn't know you needed to know? Maybe it's time to hit play on Unfold and find out what else is out there waiting to be discovered.

Source: UC Davis Health

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