Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, people with severe mental illness who receive psychiatric services from Dr. Fumi Mitsuishi’s clinic in San Francisco are dying at a rate 13 times higher than that of the general population. After the death of one of her own patients, Dr. Mitsuishi struggles to process the loss of a life that reminds her in many ways of her own. Her journey leads her deeper inside herself, where she confronts the common humanity that fuels her life’s work.

Bedridden by an infection, 7-year-old Sue Lynch discovers the wondrous world of microbes in the pages of her family encyclopedia. Her fascination with fungi, bacteria, and other microscopic organisms leads her from her childhood home in rural Ireland to California to study microbiology and its impact on human health. Frustrated by the field’s limitations, however, she forges her own path to become a pioneer in the burgeoning field of microbiome medicine.

Moments before flying home from a family vacation, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong receives devastating news: A protégé and former student of his has been killed in a shooting. Paralyzed by grief, Dr. Chin-Hong struggles to once again open his heart to the students and trainees he cares so deeply about.

Tissue biologist Sarah Knox has long been fascinated with saliva and how the glands that make it develop. Just when she begins to doubt whether her singular passion will lead to real-world impact, an old family friend reaches out to her with a problem only she may be able to solve.

During a pilgrimage to Alabama, Judy Young confronts hard truths about our country’s history of racial trauma. Judy’s relatives, Henry Corbin and Simon Garnett, were lynched by white mobs in Oxford, Ohio more than a century ago. In searching for her relatives' names at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which honors Black victims of lynching, Judy redefines her purpose and deepens her commitment to her own work toward racial justice and health equity.

In this episode, we hear from a psychiatrist, an immunologist, and an engineer with three very different stories about refusing to take “no” for an answer.