Cool off like an Olympian: Here's how athletes cope with intense heat

Over the next week, forecasts project extreme heat across much of the South, Midwest and parts of the West. So, this episode, health correspondent Pien Huang helps us take heat training cues from Olympians, many of whom spent weeks preparing for a sweltering Paris Olympics, by training in the heat to get their bodies used to hot, humid weather.

But heat training is not just for competitive athletes. It's recommended for people in the military and those who work outdoors in hot weather — and it could even be useful for generally healthy members of the public.

Plus, we get into some important caveats about who is best positioned to heat train — and why doing so doesn't minimize the problems of a warming climate.

Check out more of Pien's reporting on heat training.

Questions or ideas you want us to consider for a future episode? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!

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This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn and edited by our showrunner, Rebecca Ramirez. Pien and Hannah checked the facts. The engineer was Kwesi Lee.