The Pulse

It’s a story that’s unfolding across America, from Texas to Tennessee, Kansas to the Rust Belt — rural hospitals are struggling or closing, leaving residents, towns, and entire regions without access to important healthcare services, from cancer screenings to maternity care. For some people, it can even mean a several-hour drive to the nearest emergency room — and in life-or-death situations, those extra miles can make a big difference. 

On this episode, we explore the rural healthcare crisis, and emerging solutions aimed at increasing — or at least preserving — access to care. We visit communities in rural Pennsylvania where residents are fighting to save their hospitals. We find out how other systemic pressures, like prior authorization, are squeezing rural healthcare systems. And we hear about potential solutions, ranging from state-funded reimbursement programs, to sophisticated “hospitals on wheels” aimed at bringing healthcare to the people.

SHOW NOTES:

On this encore episode, we explore the world of color — from how we perceive it, to our efforts to describe and differentiate its many shades. We talk with a lexicographer about efforts to standardize synthetic colors, and how we describe them, and investigate how we know that the colors we see are the same as the ones everyone else sees.

Cereal was born as a health food — but quickly, sweet, crunchy flavor, bright colors, and fun shapes became more important than the nutritional value. That didn’t stop cereal companies from leaning into health claims, though.  From Cheerios to Frosted Flakes and Wheaties, brands made bold promises to lower cholesterol, promote weight loss, boost fiber and even help prevent cancer. These healthy messages were also paired with eye-catching designs and beloved mascots. It was all a powerful marketing formula, one that sold a dream to buyers — that indulging in sugary cereal could also be a healthy choice. But, over the years, the healthy veneer has chipped off the cereal box.

On this episode, public health nutritionist Marion Nestle and former Vice President of Nutrition at Kellogg Company Lisa Sutherland discuss their new book, “Sugar Coated: Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping America’s Favorite Breakfast Food.”  

We all know we’re supposed to eat healthy — but what exactly does that mean? On this episode, what’s on your plate, why it matters, and how to make sense of conflicting nutrition advice. We talk with paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman about what human evolution can teach us about how we should eat, look at a typical teen’s sugar intake, and explore barriers to serving healthy and fresh school lunches.

As summer winds down, some people are celebrating the approach of fall, while others are dreading the shorter, colder days. We know that weather can affect our mood — maybe we're extra irritable when it's hot, or gloomy when it's gray — but it can also influence our overall health. On this episode, a look at how weather affects well-being and health, from its impact on menstrual cycles to chronic conditions like asthma and pain.

A judge declared a mistrial in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy after jurors said they were deadlocked over whether she should be held criminally responsible for strangling her three children in January 2023: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, who was just 8 months old. 

The shocking case touched a nerve with millions of people who have been following the trial and asking: How could a mother kill her three young children? 

British journalist Katinka Blackford Newman also followed the trial closely, but she has a different perspective. She says her own story could have ended up like Clancy’s. Newman describes how she became completely delusional after experiencing adverse effects to psychiatric medications. Quickly, her perfectly ordinary life went completely off the rails and teetered on the edge of catastrophe. 

Later, we’ll discuss postpartum psychosis, a condition Clancy’s defense team said she was experiencing at the time of the murders. Susan Hatters-Friedman, a psychiatrist specializing in maternal mental health, weighs in on diagnosis and treatment of postpartum psychosis and the conversations happening around the trial.

On this episode, a look back at our search for life on Mars. We hear about the Viking mission to Mars — the first to land a craft on the Red Planet — and the controversy over what it discovered, what drove a national obsession with the “Martian civilization” in the early 1900s, and how NASA repairs its rovers from millions of miles away.

• Back in the early 1900s, a strange phenomenon was sweeping the nation — “Mars Mania,” a belief shared by scientists and the public alike that Mars was home to a sophisticated civilization poised to guide us into the future. We talk with science writer David Baron about what was behind these beliefs, why it became a nationwide obsession, and what happened when scientists discovered the truth. Baron’s book is “The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America.” 

Journalist Jon Ronson's new book starts with a series of panicked text messages from his son — who had been lured to a massive, gothic-looking castle in Connecticut. A female friend had been invited to a party by a wealthy older man from Tinder. But there was no party. Instead, they were asked to join a reality show that was going to be called "101 Princesses" where women compete for the castle owner’s affection. Ronson tracked down the castle's owner and found a much bigger story waiting inside. He joins us to talk about "The Castle" and men searching for purpose in all the wrong places. He also tells us about the millions of men who've quietly dropped out of work and life altogether and profiles influencers who chase clicks and purpose online to disastrous consequences.

Sometimes, modern life can feel like an endless cacophony of distractions. We spend our days being inundated with noise and traffic, news and emails, obligations and hectic schedules. Many of us long to escape to nature or the wilderness — someplace simpler, quieter — where we can find peace and reconnect with what's really important. But can we ever truly get away? We tend to think of the wilderness as land that's untouched by human hands — vast, and pristine. But the more you seek out that version of nature, the blurrier the idea seems to become. Even the most remote landscapes on Earth carry traces of human history and human borders. And preserving the wilderness, and having access to it, also means managing it. On this episode, the paradox of the wilderness — how we try to protect and control the wild. 

Do animals feel love, anger, or empathy? Researchers have long dismissed such ideas as anthropomorphism, arguing that attributing human emotions to animals was unscientific.

But as we learn more about animal sentience, that’s starting to change — and, in the process, we’re learning more than ever about the complex inner lives of animals, including why we may be more alike than we once thought.

On this encore episode, we explore what researchers have discovered about what’s really going on inside other species’ heads. We talk with a primatologist about why she believes baboons and other animals possess a theory of mind; investigate whether crabs, lobsters, and shrimp are capable of experiencing pain; and hear about one beagle’s journey from lab subject to pet.