The Pulse

By WHYYScience Health & Fitness

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The Pulse episodes

October 29, 2021Health Care at Home
A lot of us had our first taste of remote medical care during the pandemic — telemedicine checkups performed right in our own homes. It has its advantages — no travel time, no waiting room germs, no need to find a babysitter or change out of our jammies. And it can help doctors reach more patients without creating more strain.
Health systems across the country are thinking about bringing care right into patients’ homes, with ideas that go way beyond virtual visits — including everything from primary care check-ups to chemotherapy, and even hospital-level care.
On this episode, we explore what it takes to bring medical services into people’s homes. We hear stories about a new push to provide chemo at home, what it would take to provide high-level care, and what it’s like working as a home health aide.
Chemotherapy can be a time-consuming process — but thanks to COVID-19, some patients have been getting the chance to try it out at home. Jad Sleiman reports.
A doctor coming to your house sounds like something from a bygone era, where the physician arrives on horseback with a leather satchel full of instruments and tinctures. But there is a growing demand for this kind of service. Reporter Irina Zhorov tagged along with a primary care provider in a rural area, as she went to see her patients at home.
David Zaas was a president of a North Carolina hospital, when he himself became a patient at a different hospital. He had cancer, and required specialty care several hundred miles away from home. He missed his family and bed; he felt lonely and afraid. The experience made him wonder: Could high-level care be provided outside of hospital walls? The idea of bringing hospital care home is gaining a lot of traction right now. Dan Gorenstein, host of the health care podcast “Tradeoffs” explored what it would take to make it happen.
We talk with home health aides about what makes their job both difficult and rewarding — and what could be behind the massive projected staff shortages in their field.
Sometimes, health care happens at home without any planning or preparation. We listen back to a story from our archives about a dramatic birth that took place on a couple’s steps — just as they were headed to the birthing center.
49 min
October 22, 2021New fronts in the fight against climate change
The search for solutions to address climate change is urgent. People want action now, something that will move the needle. But every solution that’s on the table has potential unintended consequences or tradeoffs involved. For example, wind power sounds like a great, clean option, but wind farms need space — where should they be located? A plan to construct them in the ocean is upsetting many fishermen and conservationists. Efforts to mine the ocean floor for precious metals needed to make batteries for renewables are scaring marine biologists. And an audacious plan to cool the earth through geo-engineering is making lots of folks very anxious. On this episode, we explore climate solutions, their potential drawbacks, and how we can carefully weigh the risks and benefits.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
We talk with environmental researcher Forrest Fleischman about why planting trees may not be the climate cure-all we think it is. Fleischman is an associate professor of environment and natural resource policy at the University of Minnesota.
How do we cut fossil fuel emissions? One idea from the Biden administration is opening large-scale commercial offshore wind farms. But in New Jersey, Susan Phillips reports the planned wind farms occupy some of the most fertile fishing grounds in the nation, which has sparked a major fight.
Erik Cordes, professor and vice chair of biology at Temple University in Philadelphia, joins us to discuss the pivotal — yet often forgotten — role the deep ocean plays in protecting us from some of the worst effects of climate change, along with a new threat facing it: deep sea mining.
While countries struggle to cut carbon emissions, some scientists say it’s time to study a more controversial, short-term measure — reflecting more sunlight away from the earth to cool the planet. Alan Yu reports.
People spend a lot of time and effort fighting invasive plant species and trying to return landscapes to their previous state. Samantha Chapman, professor of biology at Villanova University and co-director of its Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, joins us to discuss rethinking that approach.
49 min
October 15, 2021Sending Signals
The modern world is made possible by a web of electromagnetic radiation. Your phone, computer, TV, cable box, radio — all depend on millions of signals zipping past each other every second. As more and more devices and inventions rely on these signals, this highway of information is getting crowded. On this encore presentation, we explore this unseen world and some of the new issues that are emerging.
We hear stories about how scientists are dealing with this increasingly crowded radio spectrum; who has access to high-speed internet, and who doesn’t; and our efforts to listen to space to get a better understanding of our universe, and whether or not we’re alone.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
We chat with Nicol Turner Lee, who studies equitable access to technology, about who has access to high-speed internet, and who doesn’t. She explains the need for better broadband infrastructure and the challenges families and communities face in staying connected. Turner Lee is the Director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.
If intelligent life is out there — how would we know? And how would we communicate? Astronomer Derrick Pitts explains our search for intelligent life forms using radio signals. and the limits of this technology.
Tech expert Sean Gallagher explains how efforts to jam GPS signals have led to the return of an older navigation system called Loran-C. Gallagher is the Senior Threat Researcher at SophosLabs.
50 min
October 08, 2021 Finding Hope in an Experimental Treatment
Jessie Flynn decided she’d had enough. For years, multiple sclerosis had taken more and more away from her life — her ability to move, her freedom, the job she loved, even her marriage. Now it seemed like medical treatments and physical therapy were no longer halting the illness’ progression — it seemed like she was on a rapid slide toward immobility. She wanted hope, and she wanted options. So she decided to try an experimental treatment called HSCT, which is not yet approved in the U.S. It came with great risks and a staggering price tag — which Jessie was willing to take on against her medical team’s advice.
Many patients find themselves in a similar place; a new treatment promises results, some experts call it a breakthrough — others caution that it’s not as good as it seems, or worse yet, a scam that takes advantage of vulnerable people.
On this episode, we examine the crossroads where desperate patients and experimental treatments meet.
50 min
October 01, 2021What Will It Take to Diversify Medicine?
Who becomes a physician in this country — and who never gets that chance? On this encore presentation, we explore this question a lot of medical schools are grappling with, as groups like Black people and Latinos remain especially underrepresented among students. What would it take to attract and retain a more diverse group of students? On this episode, we hear stories about people’s path to med school, and the challenges they face along the way. We learn about a major push to increase diversity that happened in the 90s — and what happened to it; why some are rallying to do away with a tough entry exam applicants have to take; and the challenges of being the only person of color in your class.
Also featured on this week’s episode:
University of Chicago Medicine OB-GYN Pierre Johnson describes his path toward becoming a physician, and the burden of often being the only Black student in the room. His book and nonprofit are called “Pulse of Perseverance.”
We talk with Jaya Aysola, the founder and executive director of Penn Medicine’s Center for Health Equity Advancement. She says more diversity in med schools would bring positive change – but beyond that, the entire health care delivery system has to change as well.
As a kid — growing up in the Bay area, the son of Mexican immigrants — Cesar Padilla didn’t imagine becoming a doctor. His school was bad, and his grades were failing. He tells the story of what changed along the way that guided him into medicine. Padilla is an obstetric anesthesiologist, and he will be joining Stanford University School of Medicine this May.
We talk with Madi Sinha, a physician and author, about her novel “The White Coat Diaries,” which explores the competing pressures of doing a medical residency — while also being a “good Indian daughter.”
51 min
September 24, 2021Handmade Tales
As a materials scientist, Anna Ploszajski was trained to analyze materials on a number of levels — their atomic structure, their chemical properties, their ability to conduct or resist electricity, their magnetism, hardness, ductility, and more.
But Ploszajski quickly realized there was a hole in her knowledge — in terms of what it feels like to work with materials hands-on. She set out to understand things differently, learning by doing. Along the way, she met craftspeople who built their own body of knowledge about everything from glass and steel, to sugar and wool, using only their eyes, their instincts, and their hands. Her new book is called “Handmade: A Scientist’s Search for Meaning Through Making.”
On this episode, we follow Ploszajski and others on their journeys to understand everyday materials through the process of creating. We also hear why making things can feel so empowering and soothing, and learn about a movement that wants all of us to learn how to fix our belongings.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
Appliances like toasters and dishwashers have become so advanced in recent years, that most people can’t repair them without expert help. But now, the “right to repair” movement is trying to change that. Alan Yu reports.
Physicist Clifford Johnson talks about his hobby: baking, and why he loves the feeling of creating order from chaos (while making pie crusts).
Making something by hand allows a creator to be uniquely in touch with the way a material feels, its balance and even how it smells. Producer Diana Opong got a chance to see a Washington-based master bowyer in action. He describes the materials he uses to make English longbows, and the strength and effort it takes for him to get the wood to bend into that perfect arc.
In Portland, Oregon, Julie Wilson is known as “the cast iron lady.” You can find her at street fairs and pop-up events all around the city with shelves full of cast iron cookware that she restored by hand. Producer Joel Shupack caught up with her at her home, as she describes how to bring neglected pots and pans back to life.
49 min
September 17, 2021Criminology Under the Microscope
It’s one of the first questions we hear on detective shows after a heinous crime has occurred: “What’s the motive?” For hundreds of years, criminologists, politicians, and law enforcement have been asking a bigger version of that question: What causes crime? What makes criminals — criminals?
People have turned to everything from appearance to biology and environment for answers, and they’ve tried to use science to address this question.
On this episode, we look at science, crime, and the sometimes ill-fated attempt to use one to address or explain the other. We hear stories about the use of plastic surgery to prevent people in prison from reoffending, a recent case involving the “warrior gene defense” — and whether there’s anything to it — and the origins and evolution of criminology.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
We talk with science journalist Douglas Starr about how the field of criminology came to be, and the rise of junk science used to solve crimes — including some still in use today. Starr’s book is “The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science.”
Earlier this year, a case about genetic predisposition made its way to the New Mexico Supreme Court: The defense argued that their client was genetically predisposed toward his actions. Reporters Sojourner Ahébée and Alan Yu investigate this DNA defense — what scientists are saying about it, and why some are worried it’s a dangerous road to take.
You’ve heard of math prodigies, and musical prodigies — how about criminology prodigies? That’s the reputation Eric Schubert got when, as a high school student, local police enlisted him to help solve a cold case using genealogy. Now in college, Schubert is helping people across the country hunt down relatives, and investigators solve crimes. He explains how he uses distant family connections and public databases to puzzle together genetic mysteries.
49 min
September 10, 2021The Lessons of 9/11
The passing of 20 years since the 9/11 terror attacks has meant that some of the wounds cut by that day have closed — others have not. Thousands of families lost loved ones in the attacks, and their grief became part of a national tragedy. Many more have since gotten sick or even died from illnesses related to exposure to dust and debris. The attacks changed how we think about the long-lasting impact of environmental hazards, what we know about grief and trauma, and how we build. On this episode, we explore some of the lasting effects of the 9/11 attacks, and what we’ve learned from them.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
When we think of who suffered the greatest health effects of 9/11, most of us think of first responders — the brave police officers, firemen, and volunteers who risked their lives rushing into Ground Zero. In the years since, many of those first responders have become sick and died from illnesses related to the toxic dust and debris. Stories of their heroism and sacrifice helped fuel the creation of a victims’ compensation fund to help with medical costs. But as it turns out, first responders weren’t the only ones affected — scores of others in Lower Manhattan have also suffered consequences, ranging from cancer to autoimmune diseases. Alan Yu reports on their fight for recognition — and access to government help.
Trauma can change our bodies and minds, and those changes can even be passed on to the next generation. Columbia University neuroscientist Bianca Jones Marlin is trying to figure out what is passed on, and how.
Journalist Tim Lambert’s professional life became intertwined with the story of Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers and crew attempted to take back control. His family owned part of the land where Flight 93 crashed before it became a national memorial. He joins us to discuss his connection to the land and to the family members of Flight 93, and how they have grieved over the years. Lambert and NPR reporter Scott Detrow have produced an audio documentary for the 20th anniversary called Sacred Ground.
1 hr 1 min
September 03, 2021The Evolving Nature of Work
Sometimes, work can feel like Groundhog Day — different variations of the same thing, day after day. Same commute, same hours, same people, same conversations, same cubicle, same complaints. But then, everything changed because of COVID-19.
The pandemic disrupted the way we do our jobs, whether you work at a cubicle, a diner, or a hospital. Many workers were laid off. Others started working from home instead of the office. Some realized they hated their jobs and quit. People learned new skills and found new passions. We started doing things differently, thinking differently — and it has had an impact on our work culture overall.
On this Labor Day edition of The Pulse, we look into the evolving nature of work. We dig into some of the big changes that are happening right now, and ask what might follow over the next few years. We hear about the challenges of staying focused on the job and the case for a four-day workweek.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
Staying focused can be hard in the best of times — but thanks to our omnipresent devices, it can feel downright impossible when we’re at work. We talk with psychologist Larry Rosen about the neuroscience of distraction, and strategies we can try to fight against it.
48 min
August 27, 2021The Magic of Energy
Energy fuels our lives in ways that seem almost magical. It can transform darkness into light, cold into warmth, water into ice. Of course, it’s science — not magic — but like magic, there are rules that must be followed. One of the fundamental laws of physics is that energy can never be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another. On this episode, we explore what these rules mean for our quest to create new power sources, and for life on earth.
We hear stories about what makes batteries a feat of engineering — and sometimes its Achilles’ heel. We also hear about the ongoing quest to create “fusion energy,” and the roadblocks standing in the way.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
Esther Takeuchi — one of the world’s top energy storage scientists — explains the science behind medical batteries. Takeuchi holds a joint appointment at Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Clifford Johnson, a professor in the physics and astronomy department at the University of Southern California, explains the framework that defines and limits our quest for energy sources. Check out his graphic novel about science called The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe.
50 min

About The Pulse

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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…