Science for the People

This week, we’ll look at how society and geography affect people’s access to healthcare, and the quality of care they receive. We’re joined by Dr. Sasha Mullally, professor at the University of New Brunswick, to discuss her research into the social history of rural medicine and medical practices. And for the podcast, we’ll speak to Aaron Acharya, Project Manager at HealthRight International, and Dr. Gary Stadtmauer, about their work on healthcare and human rights.

This week, it’s an hour on the brain, and the diseases and conditions unique to this amazing organ. We’re joined by Dr. Richard J. McNally, researcher in the psychology department at Harvard University, and author of What Is Mental Illness? And we’re joined by Maia Szalavitz, author and editor at Time.com’s Healthland blog, to discuss the chemistry and controversy of antidepressant medications.

Researcher and Scientopia blogger Scicurious returns to discuss the fact and fiction of mobile phones. What effect do they have on brain cells? What about sperm cells? And do they have anything to do with declining populations of bees? And we’re joined by medical physicist Dr. Marc MacKenzie, to discuss the science of microwave radiation.

What exactly is “wisdom,” and how can we apply it in our daily lives? We’re joined by Barry Schwartz,  Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College, and Kenneth Sharpe, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College. They’ll discuss their new book Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do The Right Thing. And we’re joined by Brendan O’Brien, to learn about :60 Second Science, the international science video competition.

What is science-based medicine, and how does the media (perhaps unwittingly) distort it? Our guest this week is Dr. Steven Novella, academic clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine, Executive Editor of the website Science-Based Medicine, and a senior fellow and Director of Science-Based Medicine at the James Randi Educational Foundation. And we’re joined by Maria Walters, to talk about the Grassroots Skepticism Workshop at SkepchickCon.

We look at the cutting edge science and old-fashioned wonder of the hunt for planets circling other stars. We’ll talk to Ray Jayawardhana, Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, and author of Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System. And we’re joined by Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, to discuss the current progress, and the uncertain future, of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

We’ll look at the practical advantages, and the ethical pitfalls, of using animals in scientific and medical research. We’re joined by Janet Stemwedel, Associate Professor of Philosophy at San Jose State University, and author of the blog Adventures in Ethics and Science. And we’ll talk to Bill Barry, Chief Historian at NASA, about the history of animals and spaceflight.

The study mentioned in tonight’s episode is available here: Differences between chimpanzees and bonobos in neural systems supporting social cognition.

We explore the changing ways that medicine and culture have treated pregnancy and childbirth. We’ll talk with doctor and medical journalist Randi Hutter Epstein, about her book Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth From the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank. And on another edition of Everything You Know is Sort Of Wrong, Greg Laden looks at common misconceptions about life expectancy.

We'll get the scientific perspective on the causes and effects of aging, and how they change over a lifetime. We'll speak with Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, about the biology and genetics of aging. And we're joined by Professor Diana Kuh, to discuss her work as the head of the UK's National Survey for Health and Development.

We ask professional magicians how the study and practice of magic can help teach critical thinking skills. We'll talk to sleight-of-hand master Jamy Ian Swiss, and Scam School creator Brian Brushwood, about the ways that magic can demonstrate - and help us overcome - our cognitive limitations. And we're joined by Michael Goudeau, to talk about his career as a performer, and his work on Penn & Teller's television projects.