Have We Thrown Too Much Shade on Sunlight?

The sun has always been a hot topic. For centuries, we’ve flip-flopped over whether our health depends on soaking up its rays—or shielding ourselves from them. The current conventional wisdom is clear: Avoid sunburns at all costs, using shade, hats, long sleeves, and the highest SPF sunscreen your drugstore has to offer. But in a historical sense, that advice is pretty new. Not long ago, doctors told parents to slather babies in oil and let them roast in the afternoon sun. Tanning was once medically prescribed. Though we’ve lived under it for all of human history, we’ve never quite figured out how much sun is actually good for us. So where has the pendulum landed today? And why does it keep swinging in the first place? In this episode of Decoder Ring, Willa talks to Rowan Jacobsen, author of the new book In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure, who argues that our current guidelines have gone too far in emphasizing the risks of the sun. She also speaks with Catherine Cocks, the director of the Syracuse University Press and author of Tropical Whites: The Rise of the Tourist South in the Americas, about how race drove our cultural obsession with suntanning. This episode was written by Willa Paskin and our supervising producer, Evan Chung, who also produced this episode. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Our intern is Phoebe Mulder. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281. Sources for This Episode Adams, Mildred. “Modern Worshipers of That Old God, The Sun,” The New York Times, July 7, 1929. Bell, Debra. “Can Jogging Kill You? In 1969, a Leading Medical Expert Thought So,” US News, May 23, 2013. Carter, Simon. Rise and Shine: Sunlight, Technology, and Health, Berg, 2007. Cocks, Catherine. Tropical Whites: The Rise of the Tourist South in the Americas, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Davey, Melissa. “Australia’s sun safety guidelines updated to take account of diverse skin types,” The Guardian, Feb. 12, 2024. Jacobsen, Rowan. In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure, Scribner, 2026. Jacobsen, Rowan. “Is Sunscreen the New Margarine?” Outside, May 31, 2024. McCright, Aaron M. and Phillip Vannini. “To Die For: The Semiotic Seductive Power of the Tanned Body,” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 21, 2004. McGrath, Kara. “A New Book Says We Need to Get More Sun. Could There Be Something to It?” Allure, June 16, 2026. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Review of Fate, Exposure, and Effects of Sunscreens in Aquatic Environments and Implications for Sunscreen Usage and Human Health, The National Academies Press, 2022. Randle, Henry W. “Suntanning: Differences in Perceptions Throughout History,” Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 1997. Segrave, Kerry. Suntanning in 21st Century America, McFarland, 2005. “Sunscreen: A History,” The New York Times, June 23, 2010. Walvin, James, “Selling the Sun: Tourism and Material Consumption,” Revista/Review Interamerica, vol. 22, Spring/Summer 1992. Y.Y. “The Sun: A Doubt,” The New Statesman and Nation, Sep. 10, 1932.