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Skin cancer comes from the sun. But so do many good things, according to author Rowan Jacobsen. Jacobsen talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the health benefits of sunshine and makes the case for prudent sun exposure. Topics discussed include the “heliotherapy” movement that peaked in the early 1900s in response to rickets and tuberculosis, why diagnosing skin cancer is on the rise, and why yesterday’s sunscreens may have done more harm than good.
Transcript will be available here.
Resources
Gu, Jiayue; Stevenson, Andrew C.; Brady, Annie R.; Cowan, Graeme J.M.; Dibben, Chris; Weller, Richard B. “Risk–Benefit Balance of Habitual Ultraviolet Exposure for Cardiovascular, Cancer, and Skin Cancer Mortality: UK Biobank Cohort Study.” medRxiv, 2026.
Jacobsen, Rowan. In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2025.
Jacobsen, Rowan. “Rowan Jacobsen on Truffle Hound.” Interview by Russ Roberts. EconTalk, October 18, 2021.
Kittler, Harald. “Evolution of the Clinical, Dermoscopic and Pathologic Diagnosis of Melanoma.” Dermatology Practical & Conceptual 11, no. 3, 2021.
Manson, JoAnn E.; Cook, Nancy R.; Lee, I-Min; Christen, William; Bassuk, Shari S.; Mora, Samia; Gibson, Heike; et. al. “Vitamin D Supplements and Prevention of Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease.” New England Journal of Medicine 380, no. 1, 2019: 33–44.
“Professor Richard Weller.” Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh.
“Rowan Jacobsen.” Official website.
Weller, Richard. “Could the Sun Be Good for Your Heart?” TED Talk, March 2012.
About the Speakers
Rowan Jacobsen’s award-winning books, features, and talks explore the edges of what it means to be experiencing intelligence in a world of other related intelligences, from the familiar to the exotic, and how our greater well-being depends on successfully surfing these relationships. He has received awards from the James Beard Foundation, the Society of American Travel Writers, and the Overseas Press Club. He has been an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow, writing about endangered diversity on the borderlands between India, Myanmar, and China; a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, focusing on the promises and perils of synthetic biology; and a Media Fellow at the Nova Institute for Health, researching the science of sun exposure. His books include the James Beard finalist Wild Chocolate, the James Beard winner A Geography of Oysters, and the 2026 hit In Defense of Sunlight.
Russ Roberts is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and president of Shalem College in Jerusalem. In 2006, he founded the award-winning weekly podcast EconTalk, which has featured guests including Milton Friedman, Martha Nussbaum, Christopher Hitchens, Agnes Callard, Bill James, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Amor Towles, and Emily Oster. All 875+ episodes remain available free of charge at EconTalk.org and reach an audience of more than 125,000 listeners in 200 countries.