We think of sports as part of a healthy lifestyle — a chance to move our muscles, work up a sweat, release endorphins. Often that’s true… other times, not so much. In this show, The Pulse explores how sports affect our health — when they help, and when they hurt.
Also heard on this week’s episode:

Reporter Anders Kelto brings us the story of Josh Anderson — a prodigious soccer player on the cusp of making it big. Until a mental health condition got in the way. You can find a longer version of this piece on “Gamebreaker with Keith Olbermann.”
For talented young athletes, college can be a springboard to the big leagues. Ivy league football champ Cameron Countryman discusses the stresses of being a student-athlete.
KQED’s Laura Klivans reports on an effort by the Washoe people — native to California and Nevada — to revive indigenous sports.
Think gamers can’t get injured? Think again. Physical therapist Caitlin McGee specializes in treating injuries common among professional e-sports players.
In an audio postcard from Louisville reporter Lisa Gillespie, jockey Miguel Mena discusses the dangers of horse-racing.
Adaptive surfing lets people with disabilities catch a wave.


Sports and Health

Go on an adventure into unexpected corners of the health and science world each week with award-winning host Maiken Scott. The Pulse takes you behind the doors of operating rooms, into the lab with some of the world's foremost scientists, and back in time to explore life-changing innovations. The Pulse delivers stories in ways that matter to you, and answers questions you never knew you had.

Technology

Tech News

Podcasting

Gadgets

Software How-To

Science

Health & Fitness

In January 1995, the New York Times Magazine published a bombshell story with the headline: "THE GREAT IVY LEAGUE NUDE POSTURE PHOTO SCANDAL." The article revealed that, from the 1940s through the 1960s, elite colleges had taken naked photos of thousands of freshmen, including future luminaries like George Bush, Bob Woodward, Meryl Streep, and Hillary Rodham. For years, the schools had teemed with anxious, tawdry rumors about both the purpose and fate of the photos. Who had them? What were they really for? And where did they end up?
On this episode, we get the real story behind the photos from science historian Beth Linker, whose new book, "Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America," dives deep into the era's widespread obsession with standing up straight, and how researchers tried to connect posture to people's health and character. We also hear from historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela about how America came to be both more obsessed with exercise than ever — and, yet, also unhealthier. Her book is "Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession"

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Rediscovering America's War on Bad Posture

When medical mistakes happen, patients and their families often find themselves at a loss trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. Something bad happened. And then, communication drops; there's no real explanation, and no apology. Suddenly, everybody seems on guard. Health care providers can often feel bound by an imposed cone of silence that's designed to protect them and their institution, but makes it impossible to fully face up to their mistake, or have open conversations about preventing future ones.
On this episode, we explore the breaking of that silence, along with new solutions to avoid medical errors. We hear stories about what prompted one surgeon to go public after performing the wrong procedure, how the death of a young woman prompted her parents to try and change the system, and an investigation into an OB-GYN and the trail of injured women left in his wake.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Breaking the Silence on Medical Mistakes

Every day, we hear about countless environmental threats — from air pollution and microplastics, to deforestation and global warming. And a lot of us feel overwhelmed by the scale of these problems, and helpless to enact global big-picture solutions.
 
But small, everyday decisions matter too — and they add up. How you do your laundry, how warm or cool you keep your home, what you eat for lunch, what kinds of products you buy and or how you sort your trash — all of them have the potential to make a big difference.

On this special Earth Day episode, we look at everyday choices that can lead to greener living. We hear stories about laundry detergents, and how we can clean our clothes without hurting the planet, what it'll take for plant-based meat to make it to the big leagues, and an innovation that could revolutionize recycling as we know it.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Living Greener — One Decision at a Time

Over the past few decades, Latinos have become the largest racial or ethnic minority in the United States, making up nearly 20 percent of the country's population. Despite that, many Latinos feel alienated by our medical system, due to cultural and language barriers, and a lack of Latino physicians — and those barriers can have a real impact on their overall health.
On this episode, we look for solutions to provide better care to Latino communities and patients. We hear stories about one physician's bold initiative to bridge the language gap between doctors and farmworkers, new approaches to help victims of gun violence, and a national effort to increase the number of Latino physicians.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Bridging the Gaps for Latino Health

It sneaks up on us while we're sitting in traffic, or waiting at the doctor's office, or doing our taxes — boredom, that restless feeling of dissatisfaction that arises when we harbor "the desire for desires," as Leo Tolstoy said.
At the same time, we're living in an age of never-ending stimulation, all at our fingertips — texting, social media, 24-hour news, and streaming galore. But despite this constant content consumption, we're still getting bored — maybe even more so than ever. We find ourselves hopping from tab to tab, scrolling through Instagram while watching a show, tuning out of meetings to check our email. And now some researchers are worried that all this stimulation could be changing our brains.

On this rebroadcast episode, we look at boredom in the age of information overload, and whether or not it's really good for us and our brains. We hear stories about what happened when two reporters quit their digital addictions for four weeks, a monk who took his search for boredom to the ultimate extreme, and why there's value to the slow pace of baseball.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Sports and Health

Download our free app to listen on your phone