The Forensic Lens Podcast

Would your beloved cat or dog eat you if you died alone at home? Forensic science suggests that even our most affectionate companions may eventually become scavengers. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore how animal scavenging alters human remains after death. Drawing from documented cases and a recent Greek forensic anthropology study, I examine how scavengers consume soft tiss...

Can refrigeration stop decomposition? Not quite. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine what happens when a body is placed in cold storage—and why refrigeration can complicate rather than simplify estimates of time since death. Using a recent decomposition study and the case of a woman found inside a refrigerator in Rodriguez, Rizal, I explore how microbial activity, insect devel...

What if a crime scene could be sampled not only from the objects inside it, but from the air itself? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine a new study on airborne environmental DNA, or eDNA, and its potential use in short-duration crime scenes. Researchers staged fifteen-minute residential burglaries and then tested whether intruders could still be detected genetically after the...

How much of a person’s life can survive in a single tooth? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine a 2026 study showing how one mandibular premolar can preserve multiple kinds of forensic information. Through radiocarbon analysis, amino-acid racemization, stable isotopes, DNA profiling, and toxicology, a tooth can help estimate birth period and age at death, reveal aspects of chil...

Serial killers remain fixtures of popular culture, but the historical numbers tell a different story. In the United States, known serial murder peaked in the late twentieth century and has declined substantially since. So what changed? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine the changing ecology of serial murder—from demographic shifts, childhood adversity, lead exposure, mobility...

What happens when a forensic examination does not merely reveal evidence, but may help create it? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine the case of Jimmie “Chris” Duncan, who spent 27 years on death row after bite-mark evidence was used to link him to the death of a child. Years later, video footage showed forensic dentist Michael West pressing and scraping a dental mold against...

What makes evidence trustworthy is not the reputation of the institution presenting it, but whether its source, handling, corrections, and interpretation can be independently examined. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I explore evidence integrity through documentary errors, photocopied records, marked exhibits, and official conclusions. A typo does not automatically invalidate evidenc...

What qualifies someone to testify as a forensic expert? A government position, institutional affiliation, professional experience, or certificate may support a claim to expertise—but none of these is sufficient on its own. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine why forensic expertise must be demonstrated through sustained preparation, specialized competence, and methods that can...

A blood alcohol test may look objective, but forensic evidence does not begin in the laboratory. It begins earlier—in the human act of observing, recording, and interpreting signs of impairment. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I examine a recent study showing how medical evaluations conducted during forensic blood sampling can introduce systematic bias even before laboratory analysis...

The Tacloban school shooting lasted only minutes, but the warning signs may have developed over weeks. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine how grievance can harden into revenge, how violent intentions may leak through messages and online behaviour, and how access to firearms can turn fantasy into lethal capability. The discussion explores why mass violence rarely has a single...

Popular culture often portrays bloodstain pattern analysis as a near-infallible way to reconstruct violence. But blood may obey physics while its interpretation remains vulnerable to human judgment, uncertainty, and error. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine a new study testing HemoVision, a system that reconstructs the three-dimensional path of a blood-bearing object during c...

When a physical confrontation between Senator Robin Padilla and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla became a viral clip, screenshot, and meme, the moment seemed almost too absurd for a week already overflowing with Senate drama. But beneath the humor was something more serious: a visual fragment that functioned as digital evidence. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine how video,...

When gunfire echoed inside the Philippine Senate during an attempted arrest involving an ICC warrant, competing narratives quickly took over: was it a siege, a security response, political theater, or a calculated distortion of events? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine how digital evidence can cut through politically charged claims and counterclaims. From CCTV footage and sm...

What happens when humanity becomes one mind? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I explore the sci-fi series Pluribus (created by Vince Gilligan) through a biocultural and forensic lens. The show imagines a world where an extraterrestrial signal transforms humanity into a unified collective consciousness—peaceful, cooperative, and eerily harmonious. But beneath that calm lies a deeper q...

When a Los Angeles jury held Meta Platforms and YouTube liable for the addictive design of their platforms, the ruling marked a shift in how we understand harm in the digital age—not as a problem of content, but of architecture. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine how social media platforms function not just as spaces for interaction, but as engineered environments that shape...

The passing of Henry C. Lee marks the end of an era in forensic science—one defined not only by technical mastery, but by the ability to bring science into the courtroom and into public consciousness. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I reflect on Lee’s life and legacy, from his beginnings in China and Taiwan to his rise as one of the most influential forensic scientists in the world....

Kurt Cobain’s death has long existed at the intersection of music, myth, and speculation. But what happens when the case is revisited through a forensic lens grounded in method rather than narrative? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine a recent multidisciplinary analysis of the Cobain case using the Daubert framework—focusing on testability, reliability, error rates, and scien...

Artificial intelligence is rapidly entering forensic laboratories—but what exactly is it changing? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine how AI is transforming forensic science from a tool that enhances observation into one that increasingly assists interpretation. From fingerprint matching and DNA mixture analysis to video and ballistic comparisons, AI systems are reshaping how...

Public discussions of war often unfold through maps, strategy, and the language of geopolitics. But what does war look like from the ground—from the perspective of those who encounter its aftermath? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I reflect on conflict through the lens of forensic science. Drawing on experiences from recovery missions in post-conflict environments, the episode explo...

Detached feet washing ashore along the Salish Sea have fueled years of speculation, online theories, and true-crime narratives. But from a forensic perspective, these discoveries are not messages of violence—they are the predictable outcomes of biology, footwear design, and aquatic taphonomy. In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine how modern shoes float, protect soft tissue, and...

Is “older listening age” really a sign of nostalgia—or cognitive growth? In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I revisit the idea of musical novelty in the streaming era. When younger listeners discover Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Buckley, or Radiohead for the first time, are they looking backward—or forming entirely new emotional timelines? Drawing from neuroscience research on music, memory, an...

In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I unpack what “intelligence” actually means—and why the term has become dangerously imprecise in the age of artificial intelligence. Drawing from anthropology and psychology, I revisit how intelligence has traditionally been defined: not as output, speed, or fluency, but as the capacity to learn from experience and adapt to real environments over time...

In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast , I examine a persistent structural problem in Philippine forensic science education: the widening gap between what universities prepare students for and what operational forensic agencies are realistically designed to provide. Drawing from years of teaching, mentorship, and professional experience in the Philippines, the UK, and Australia, I discuss wh...

This episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast examines a homicide case from Camarines Norte that briefly captured public attention for its shocking imagery—but was ultimately solved through something far less dramatic: methodical forensic thinking. Moving beyond spectacle, I unpack how ordinary tools like retail barcodes, CCTV footage, and contextual background information were used patiently and corr...

As a new year begins, this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast turns to an unexpected subject: music—and what listening habits reveal about the human brain. Drawing from neuroscience, evolutionary theory, and personal reflection, I explore how music evolved as cognitive infrastructure, why unfamiliar sounds activate learning and neuroplasticity, and how novelty in listening keeps the brain flexib...