# What is diabetes?

An episode of [Science for Kids / Science's Not Boring: The Kids Science Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896928296), 23 Jul 2026, 12 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2624612/episodes/19502280-what-is-diabetes.mp3

Have you ever wondered what happens to the food you eat, like a delicious slice of birthday cake? Your body turns it into a super-fuel called glucose! In this amazing episode, we are exploring the 37 trillion tiny engines inside you that run on this special sugar. But wait, how does the sugar get inside your cells? You need a key! Join Mira and Finn as they uncover the secrets of a 6-inch pear-shaped organ called the pancreas, which makes special keys called insulin. We’ll learn what happens when the key factory stops working, which is called Type 1 Diabetes, and how it creates a giant traffic jam of sugar in your blood! Travel back to a stuffy 1920s laboratory to hear the incredible story of the scientists who discovered how to extract insulin and save lives. Plus, discover the mind-blowing "cyborg" gadgets that kids with diabetes use today, like robotic pumps and continuous monitors that check their blood sugar 288 times a day! Get ready to unlock the awesome science of your human body!

## Transcript

[0:46] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Science Is Not Boring by Kidopoly.com.
[0:49] SPEAKER_00: I'm Mira.
[0:51] SPEAKER_00: And I'm Finn.
[0:52] SPEAKER_00: Before we dive into today's awesome science adventure, we have a very special announcement.
[0:58] SPEAKER_00: A huge, massive, happy seventh birthday shout-out to twins Noah and Ollie.
[1:04] SPEAKER_01: Happy birthday, Noah and Ollie! We heard you guys listen every single night before bed, so this entire episode is just for you both.
[1:12] SPEAKER_00: Exactly! And since it's your birthday, Noah and Ollie, you're probably going to have some delicious birthday cake today, which is absolutely perfect for today's topic.
[1:23] SPEAKER_01: Wait, we're doing an episode about cake?
[1:25] SPEAKER_01: That sounds amazing.
[1:27] SPEAKER_00: Close! We are talking about what your body does with all the food you eat, including cake.
[1:33] SPEAKER_00: Finn, did you know that inside your body right now you have about 37 trillion tiny engines that all run on the exact same kind of fuel?
[1:43] SPEAKER_01: 37 trillion?
[1:45] SPEAKER_01: That's.
[1:46] SPEAKER_01: Wait, how many zeros is that?
[1:49] SPEAKER_00: It's a 37 with 12 zeros after it.
[1:52] SPEAKER_00: That's how many cells make up your body.
[1:55] SPEAKER_00: And every single one of them needs energy to keep you running, jumping, and breathing.
[2:00] SPEAKER_01: So what kind of fuel do these 37 trillion engines use?
[2:04] SPEAKER_01: Is it like gasoline for a car?
[2:07] SPEAKER_00: Nope, it's a special kind of sugar called glucose.
[2:10] SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to learn exactly how your body uses it, what happens when the fuel system needs a little extra help, and the mind-blowing cyborg gadgets that kids with type 1 diabetes use every day.
[2:23] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's start with the basics.
[2:26] SPEAKER_00: Every time you eat a meal, whether it's an apple, a sandwich, or birthday cake, your stomach and intestines break that food down into tiny molecules.
[2:35] SPEAKER_01: And those tiny molecules are the fuel?
[2:38] SPEAKER_01: The glucose.
[2:39] SPEAKER_00: Exactly! Glucose is basically your body's ultimate superfuel.
[2:44] SPEAKER_00: Once the food turns into glucose, it goes right into your bloodstream.
[2:48] SPEAKER_01: So the blood is like a giant delivery highway.
[2:51] SPEAKER_00: You got it! A highway that is 60,000 miles long.
[2:56] SPEAKER_00: If you unrolled all your blood vessels, they would wrap around the entire planet Earth more than twice.
[3:03] SPEAKER_00: The blood carries the glucose to all 37 trillion cells.
[3:10] SPEAKER_01: That's inside me right now.
[3:13] SPEAKER_01: Wow.
[3:14] SPEAKER_01: But wait, if the glucose gets to the cell, how does it get inside to power the engine?
[3:20] SPEAKER_01: Ah, that's the tricky part.
[3:22] SPEAKER_00: The cells are locked.
[3:24] SPEAKER_00: Think of every cell like a house with a locked front door.
[3:28] SPEAKER_00: The glucose is standing on the porch, knocking, but it can't get in.
[3:33] SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
[3:34] SPEAKER_01: If the sugar can't get in, the engine can't run.
[3:38] SPEAKER_01: We need a key.
[3:39] SPEAKER_01: Dingo!
[3:40] SPEAKER_00: And your body has a special key factory called the pancreas.
[3:44] SPEAKER_00: It's an organ about six inches long, shaped kind of like a flat pear, sitting right behind your stomach.
[3:52] SPEAKER_01: A six-inch pear behind my stomach.
[3:55] SPEAKER_01: Okay, and this pancreas makes the keys.
[3:58] SPEAKER_00: Yes, the key is a special hormone called insulin.
[4:02] SPEAKER_00: When you eat, the pancreas sensors the glucose in your blood and squirts out the exact right amount of insulin.
[4:10] SPEAKER_00: The insulin travels to the cells, unlocks the doors, and whoosh, the glucose rushes in, giving you energy to play.
[4:19] SPEAKER_01: Okay, so food turns the glucose, glucose goes in the blood, the pancreas makes insulin keys, the keys open the cell doors, and we get energy.
[4:29] SPEAKER_01: That's an amazing system.
[4:31] SPEAKER_01: But what happens if the key factory breaks?
[4:35] SPEAKER_00: That is a brilliant question, Finn.
[4:37] SPEAKER_00: For about 9 million people in the world who have type 1 diabetes, their pancreas stops making those insulin keys.
[4:45] SPEAKER_01: Wait, no keys at all?
[4:47] SPEAKER_01: But if there are no keys, the cell doors stay locked.
[4:50] SPEAKER_01: What happens to all the sugar fuel stuck out on the porch?
[4:53] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[4:54] SPEAKER_00: The glucose just piles up in the bloodstream like a massive traffic jam.
[4:59] SPEAKER_00: The blood sugar levels get higher and higher.
[5:02] SPEAKER_00: The normal level of sugar in your blood is about 70 to 100 milligrams per deciliter.
[5:08] SPEAKER_00: But without insulin, it can skyrocket to 300, 400, or even higher.
[5:15] SPEAKER_01: That sounds bad.
[5:17] SPEAKER_01: The cells must be starving for energy while the blood is totally stuffed with sugar.
[5:22] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it makes kids feel super tired, really thirsty, and just awful.
[5:27] SPEAKER_00: And for a long time in history, doctors had no idea how to fix it.
[5:32] SPEAKER_00: They couldn't just give them more keys.
[5:34] SPEAKER_00: They didn't know what the keys were yet.
[5:36] SPEAKER_00: But that all changed in the summer of 1921.
[5:40] SPEAKER_00: Picture this: it's a boiling hot summer in Toronto, Canada.
[5:45] SPEAKER_00: A doctor named Frederick Banting and a 22-year-old student named Charles Best are working day and night in a tiny, stuffy laboratory.
[5:55] SPEAKER_00: Ooh, I love a laboratory story.
[5:57] SPEAKER_00: What were they doing?
[5:58] SPEAKER_00: They were trying to extract the secret keys from the pancreas.
[6:02] SPEAKER_00: After months of messy experiments, they finally managed to isolate insulin.
[6:08] SPEAKER_00: They purified it so they could give it to people who couldn't make their own.
[6:12] SPEAKER_00: Did it work?
[6:14] SPEAKER_00: Did they test it on someone?
[6:16] SPEAKER_00: They did! In January 1922, they gave their first shot of insulin to a 14-year-old boy named Leonard Thompson.
[6:25] SPEAKER_00: He was incredibly sick because his cells were starving.
[6:29] SPEAKER_00: But when they gave him the insulin.
[6:32] SPEAKER_00: What happened next?
[6:33] SPEAKER_00: It was like a miracle! The insulin unlocked his cells, the glucose rushed in, and he got his energy back.
[6:41] SPEAKER_00: It was one of the greatest medical breakthroughs in history.
[6:44] SPEAKER_00: Dr.
[6:45] SPEAKER_00: Banting even won the Nobel Prize, and he shared his prize money with Charles Best because they did it as a team.
[6:52] SPEAKER_01: Phew, that is so awesome.
[6:55] SPEAKER_01: But wait, if someone has type 1 diabetes today, they don't have to go to a 1920s laboratory, right?
[7:02] SPEAKER_00: No way! Today, the science is basically science fiction.
[7:08] SPEAKER_00: Kids with type 1 diabetes use incredible technology to give their bodies the insulin keys they need.
[7:15] SPEAKER_00: What kind of technology?
[7:17] SPEAKER_00: First, they have something called a CGM, which stands for Continuous Glucose Monitor.
[7:24] SPEAKER_00: It's a tiny sensor worn on the arm or stomach with a wire thinner than a human hair that goes just under the skin.
[7:32] SPEAKER_00: It tests their blood sugar levels automatically every five minutes.
[7:37] SPEAKER_01: Every five minutes?
[7:38] SPEAKER_01: That's 288 times a day.
[7:41] SPEAKER_00: Exactly! And it sends a Bluetooth signal right to their smartphone so they can look at a screen and see exactly how much sugar is in their blood traffic jam.
[7:51] SPEAKER_01: It even draws a graph.
[7:53] SPEAKER_01: Okay, so the monitor tells them the sugar is high.
[7:56] SPEAKER_01: But how do they get the insulin keys inside?
[7:59] SPEAKER_00: Some kids use an insulin pen, which is a super clever tool that gives a tiny shot.
[8:05] SPEAKER_00: But lots of kids wear an insulin pump.
[8:08] SPEAKER_00: It's a little robotic device that acts like an artificial pancreas.
[8:12] SPEAKER_01: A robot pancreas?
[8:14] SPEAKER_01: That makes them sound like actual cyborgs.
[8:17] SPEAKER_00: They basically are.
[8:18] SPEAKER_00: The CGM talks to the pump, and the pump automatically delivers the exact right amount of insulin keys 24 hours a day.
[8:27] SPEAKER_00: It's amazing! With these tools, people with type 1 diabetes do everything.
[8:33] SPEAKER_00: They are Olympic gold medalists, famous musicians like Nick Jonas, and even mountain climbers.
[8:40] SPEAKER_01: That is so cool! Are there any other wild facts about the pancreas?
[8:44] SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely! Here is a mind-blowing one.
[8:48] SPEAKER_00: The specific cells inside the pancreas that make the insulinques live in tiny clusters.
[8:55] SPEAKER_00: In 1869, a 21-year-old medical student named Paul Langerhans discovered them looking through a microscope.
[9:03] SPEAKER_00: So they name them after him.
[9:05] SPEAKER_00: What are they called?
[9:06] SPEAKER_00: The islets of Langerhans.
[9:09] SPEAKER_00: Islet means little island.
[9:11] SPEAKER_00: And in a healthy human pancreas, there are about one million of these tiny islands, all working together to pump out insulin.
[9:20] SPEAKER_01: A million little islands inside a six-inch pear.
[9:24] SPEAKER_01: Science is completely wild.
[9:25] SPEAKER_01: Alright, Thin, time for the quiz.
[9:28] SPEAKER_01: Let's see how much you remember.
[9:29] SPEAKER_01: Are ready?
[9:30] SPEAKER_01: Oh boy, okay, I'm ready.
[9:33] SPEAKER_00: Bring it on.
[9:34] SPEAKER_00: Okay, first question.
[9:36] SPEAKER_00: About how many tiny cells make up the human body?
[9:43] SPEAKER_00: Next one, what is the special sugar fuel that your body uses for energy?
[9:52] SPEAKER_00: Question three.
[9:53] SPEAKER_00: What is the six-inch organ behind the stomach that produces the insulin keys?
[10:02] SPEAKER_00: Alright, here's number four.
[10:04] SPEAKER_00: What year did Dr.
[10:05] SPEAKER_00: Bunting and Charles Best finally discover how to extract insulin?
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: Last question.
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: What are the tiny clusters of insulin-making cells called, named after the student who found them?
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: Great job! Let's go through the answers and see how you did.
[10:29] SPEAKER_00: The answer to question one is about 37 trillion cells.
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: For question two, the special sugar fuel is called glucose.
[10:40] SPEAKER_00: Number three, the answer is the pancreas.
[10:44] SPEAKER_00: Question four.
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: They discovered it in the summer of 1921.
[10:50] SPEAKER_00: And the final answer is the eyelets of Langhans.
[10:54] SPEAKER_01: Wow! Learning about the pancreas and glucose was incredible.
[10:58] SPEAKER_01: I still can't get over the fact that some kids walk around with actual robotic pancreas technology attached to their arms.
[11:05] SPEAKER_00: I know, right?
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: Science doesn't just figure out how the body works, it invents amazing tools to help when things need a little teamwork.
[11:13] SPEAKER_01: Hey, if you loved learning about 37 trillion cells and cyborg gadgets with us, please leave us a five-star review.
[11:22] SPEAKER_01: Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap those five stars.
[11:26] SPEAKER_00: Yes! Tell us your favourite fact about the eyelets of Langerhands in your review.
[11:31] SPEAKER_00: Oh, and don't forget to check out our site kidopoly.com.
[11:35] SPEAKER_00: We have tons of awesome learning games and activities waiting for you over there.
[11:40] SPEAKER_01: And if you want a special birthday shout out on the show, just like Noah and Ollie got today, send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.
[11:49] SPEAKER_01: We'd love to say hi to you.
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: Thanks for exploring the human body with us today.
[11:53] SPEAKER_00: See you next time on Science is Not Boring.
[11:57] SPEAKER_00: Bye everyone! Happy birthday again, Noah and Ollie!

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