Over the holidays, families can connect with one another in more ways than just gathering around the table. Quality time provides countless opportunities for meaningful interaction and shared experiences beyond the traditional family meal. This week, we turn to a family studies expert for some advice on how to make a family gathering more fulfilling. Even when tensions run high, there are practical tools for both hosts and guests to manage expectations, set intentions, and know when to step back.

We’ll talk with Dr. Jessica Troilo about how small shifts in mindset and behavior can help families build stronger, more joyful holiday experiences. She teaches that families don’t have to be perfect, but they should strive to be flexible, emotionally connected, and resilient.

For millions that suffer from back pain, finding relief is an ongoing struggle. Doctors like our guest today, Dr. Edward Yoon, are performing a new procedure that could finally give them a solution. He combines high tech imaging with minimally invasive techniques for effective treatment that takes into account the broader landscape of musculoskeletal care. Unlike temporary treatments like epidural injections, this procedure offers lasting benefits.

Questions about food prices have become more urgent for many Americans, and even more so during the holidays. As families make choices about how to manage their grocery bill, what does food insecurity and scarcity look like? How does it affect the community whether or not people can afford their next meal?

Today we’re talking about it with Professor Parke Wilde, a professor at Tufts, where he studies the economics of nutrition assistance programs. Dr. Wilde, welcome.

Gift-giving can be enjoyable, until we overthink it. 

We stress about being late, choosing the “perfect” present, or getting the timing just right. But research shows that we worry about things that don’t actually matter to the people receiving our gifts.

Dr. Cory Haltman, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, studies the psychology behind gift-giving and many other topics. Dr. Haltman, welcome to the podcast. Please introduce yourself.

Every day, thousands of people are waiting for a life-saving transplant and for many, that wait is years long. While the demand continues to grow, one of the most powerful solutions comes from living donors, people who choose to give a kidney or part of their liver to someone in need.

Today, we’re joined by Dr. Pooja Budhiraja, transplant nephrologist and Living Donor Medical Director at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Her work focuses on protecting the health and well-being of living donors while expanding access to transplantation through education, innovation, and compassion.

Video calls are part of everyday life, and most of us think we’re safe when the camera is off. 

But Dr. Chen Wang, Associate Professor of Computer Science at SMU, discovered that small sounds during a call can reveal details about where a person is, even without video. His research shows why we need better privacy protections in apps like Zoom and Teams.

When it comes to sports injuries, recovery isn’t just physical, it’s mental too.

Dr. Tiana Woolridge, Primary Care Sports Medicine Physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery, studies how sleep, stress, and mindset affect injury risk and recovery in young athletes. Her work bridges physical health and mental resilience, helping athletes heal stronger, inside and out.

Happy Halloween to all our listeners! We talk to a lot of experts on the podcast that have very deep knowledge about big, complex subjects. That’s just the nature of talking to PhDs. But when you want to get a good introduction to a subject, or someone to point you in the right direction to do further reading, talk to a librarian. So today we have a special treat, no tricks, to tell us more about the origins and evolution of one of the most beloved cultural holidays of the year, Halloween. 

When early American settlers from the Celtic regions of Europe brought their pagan traditions to the new world, something truly magical happened. The intersection of seasonal change, harvest festivals, and religious observances created the holiday that we know today as Halloween. Through the mystique of folkloric practices combined with a flair for the playful and dramatic, when we dress up as someone else on Halloween, it becomes an expression of our truest inner selves. 

Imagine being able to reduce your body’s absorption of fat, simply by ingesting micro-beads made from edible plant compounds. That’s the direction of the work by Professor Junling Guo at Sichuan University, whose lab recently developed edible polyphenol-based microbeads that trap dietary fats in the gut, reducing absorption and thereby helping with weight control. 

In tests with rats fed high-fat diets, animals that ingested the beads lost around 17 % of their body weight compared to controls, while also showing reduced fat tissue and liver stress, and increased fat excretion, without the gastrointestinal side effects commonly seen in fat-blocking drugs. 

Does naming a disease help the patient heal? When dealing with a mysterious illness, or difficult diagnosis, research suggests that the feeling of relief after finally identifying the condition can actually help people feel better. Even if there is no clear treatment or cure. 

Dr. Alan Levinovitz, professor of philosophy and religion at James Madison University, explores the surprising relationship between language, belief, science, and medicine. Together with psychiatrist Dr. Awais Aftab, he coined the term “The Rumpelstiltskin Effect.” Their study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry Bulletin, found that patients feel seen, understood, and more connected to a community when they hear an official name for what they’re experiencing.