The Pulse

By WHYYScience Health & Fitness

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The Pulse episodes

August 25, 2021 The Pulse Presents: Half Vaxxed — The Rise and Fall of Philly Fighting COVID
The first episode looks at the promise of the nimble, young startup that pledged to vaccinate Philadelphia.
26 min
August 20, 2021Kids and Mental Health
We’ve heard it again and again — kids are resilient. But they’re also sensitive, with social and emotional needs every bit as complex as adults’. They’re still figuring out how the world works, and they depend on structure and stability — along with love and support — to feel safe and confident as they learn to navigate the world. Which is why the pandemic and the lockdowns have been especially tough for many kids, taking a major toll on their mental health.
On this episode, we look at kids and mental health, asking how they’ve made it through the past year-and-a-half, and what lessons they’ve learned.
We hear stories about dealing with the grief of losing loved ones, how virtual school is affecting kids’ social development, and why we’re seeing a rising suicide rate among Black children.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
Kids don’t just learn academic skills in school— it’s a place for them to develop social skills and a sense of how the world works. Reporter Jad Sleiman explores how remote learning could be affecting kids’ social development.
WHYY student reporters Trinity Hunt and Mya Blackwood get the lowdown on why 70% of teens aren’t getting enough sleep.
We talk with psychologist Teresa Hsu-Walklet about how the pandemic has affected children’s mental health. Hsu-Walklet is the Assistant Director for pediatric behavioral health at the Montefiore Medical Group in the Bronx, in New York City.
This episode was produced in collaboration with students from WHYY’s Pathways to Media Careers, Youth Employment Program. Our student reporters were Mya Blackwood, Trinity Hunt, Ana Mercado, and Jacob Smollen. Special thanks to WHYY Media Lab instructor Gabriel Perez Setright and youth employment specialist Colleen Cassidy.
49 min
August 13, 2021Changing Appearances
We’ve all heard the saying: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” The problem is that’s not how the world works. Just about everything, from the way people treat us, to the opportunities we have in life, is affected in some way by our appearance. That’s especially true when it comes to how we feel about ourselves. When we look good, we feel good. When we don’t — all bets are off.
Appearance can be an anchor for our sense of self, or a catalyst for transformation. It can make us love ourselves, hate ourselves, find ourselves, and lose ourselves. On today’s episode, we explore changing appearances, and the many ways they affect people’s lives. We hear stories about the psychological effects of losing weight, gaining muscle mass, dealing with alopecia, and how age affects women’s feelings about their bodies.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
When Marta Rusek shed 80 pounds, it felt like a huge victory — but Shai Ben Yaacov reports she didn’t anticipate how it would affect the way people treated her.
We chat with Shane Duquette about his transformation from beanpole to beefcake. Shane’s website, which is aimed at helping skinny guys gain muscle mass, is called Bony to Beastly.
Psychotherapist Edie Weinstein explains how she helps women reframe the way they feel about aging and how they view their bodies.
We spend so much time, energy, effort and sometimes money on our appearance. What’s driving us to do this? We put that question to David Puts, a biological anthropologist at Penn State, who looks at the world through the lens of evolution.
48 min
August 06, 2021Who We Are at Core
Who are you? There are dozens of ways to answer that question, from your name and nationality, to your relationships and job, all the way down to the nature of your soul. But the more we zoom in, the more the self can feel like an impressionist painting — from afar, you see distinct shapes, but the closer you look, the more it dissolves into a million tiny pieces. So what is the self really? What is it that makes us who we are?
On this week’s episode, we explore what scientists are learning about the concept of the “self,” and how deep it truly runs. We hear stories about the eroding effects of Alzheimer’s — and whether our memories make us who we are; what diaries can tell us about our best and worst selves; and what it really means to be self-aware.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist and researcher, found that although 95 percent of people believe that they are self-aware, only about 10-15 percent really are. We talk with Eurich about why self-awareness is beneficial, and how to gain more.
Once a bully, always a bully — or maybe not. We talk with reformed bully Brittany Brady about how she came to realize she’d been a bully, and how that shadow version of herself affects her life now.
We chat with Iris Berent, a cognitive psychologist at Northeastern University, who studies human nature, and the moral implications of our “true selves.”
Read the full episode transcript.
49 min
July 30, 2021The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Medicine
Every time you go to see a new doctor, you have to fill out forms that ask your name, your age, your family history — and your race and ethnicity. You have to check a box — pick a category.
Less than 100 years ago, mainstream scientists believed that race was a biological fact — one that determined everything from pain tolerance to disease susceptibility. Today, most scientists agree that those ideas were dead wrong — that race isn’t a biomedical category, but a social construct.
So why do we still ask about race and ethnicity in medicine and research? When and where does it matter — and how should this information be used?
On this episode, we dive into the changing conversation about race and ethnicity in medicine. We hear stories about why it’s harder for Black Americans to get kidney transplants, why “Asian” is too broad of a category when it comes to public health, and how we could collect better, more meaningful data.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
Johns Hopkins oncologist and researcher Otis Brawley explains why race shouldn’t matter in medicine.
In a recent study, Jaya Aysola, who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school, made a startling finding — that even now, medical education often discusses race as a biological category rather than a social construct. We talk with Aysola about using information on race and ethnicity in meaningful ways. Aysola is the founder and director of Penn Medicine’s Center for Health Equity Advancement.
We hear from NYU Langone epidemiologist Stella Yi about getting more accurate data on people’s race and ethnicity, and why it matters for public health.
As a Black man, poet and playwright John Johnson had always been skeptical of doctors and medical institutions — then he was diagnosed with colon cancer. He tells the story of how his relationship with one doctor helped save his life.
49 min
July 23, 2021The Building Blocks of Language
Language is how we connect — to each other, to the past, to the future — how we create culture, communicate ideas, and make decisions. Scientists are keen to discover more about how language works, and how we actually learn to talk. On this episode — why do some species have language, and others don’t? What can bird whistles teach us about the mechanics of language? What happens when the ability to communicate is disrupted? Also, a look at language itself, and how the internet is changing the way we communicate.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
We listen back to a story about aphasia reported by Elana Gordon. The neuroscientist she interviewed, Roy Hamilton, is currently studying the use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to help people with post-stroke aphasia. This is a large, clinical trial supported by the NIH. You can find more information here.
Language is changing faster and faster thanks to the internet. We talk with linguist Gretchen McCulloch about how those changes are happening, and how she keeps up. Gretchen is the author of “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language.”
Erich Jarvis studies how language works in human and other species. He joins us to talk about everything from regional “dialects” in some birds, to the relationship between dance and language.
49 min
July 16, 2021New Developments in Cancer Treatment
It seems like every week, we hear about new breakthroughs in cancer treatment — new discoveries, new medications, new hopes for a cure. The war on cancer has been a slow and steady grind, with incremental progress that’s been built one study, one breakthrough at a time.
Behind each of those small but meaningful victories are years of unseen work — lifetimes spent studying specific cells, protein structures, gene mutations, and more.
On this episode, we take a look at some of the latest breakthroughs in cancer treatment, and the personal stories behind them. We hear about the tradeoffs with new lung cancer screenings, find out how immunotherapy is advancing, and talk with a veteran of cancer research about the big wins and grating frustrations.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
Veteran oncologist and researcher Otis Brawley offers an overview of America’s war on cancer. Brawley, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, explains where we’ve made progress — and where we haven’t.
Screening people who are at high risk for lung cancer can lead to earlier detection, and much better outcomes. Dan Gorenstein from the podcast Tradeoffs looks into why not enough people are getting screened, and what doctors are doing to change that.
49 min
July 09, 2021The Aftermath of Viruses
Left to their own devices, viruses are pretty much helpless. They need cells to infect in order to replicate. But they’re sneaky — many of them also manage to stick around long after we think they’re gone. When the immune system sets out to kill infected cells, many viruses hide and continue to cause problems. This aspect has come into much sharper focus during the pandemic, with thousands of people suffering serious symptoms months after first being diagnosed with COVID-19.
On this episode, we explore viruses — how they affect our bodies, and what happens when they stick around. We hear from a physician who’s treating long-haul COVID-19 patients, and find out from an immunologist how viruses manage to avoid and evade our body’s defense system. We’ll also explore how new research into the after-effects of viruses could benefit many people who are suffering with other little-understood conditions.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
What fascinated immunologist Carolina Lopez about viruses is how they are simultaneously so powerless and mighty. They can’t do anything without cells to infect — but once they manage to do that, they can inflict so much damage. Carolina explains what we know about how viruses manage to evade the body’s immune system, and what their continued presence could mean.
What can be done for the long-suffering COVID-19 long-haulers? We talk with internist Neda Frayha about how she is helping patients who are coming to her with this post-viral illness.
Viruses are always inside of our bodies, infecting our cells. Researcher Eric Delwart explains how sometimes that can work to our advantage.
50 min
July 06, 2021 The Secret History of Mars Exploration
Humans have been obsessed with Mars for thousands of years, but it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that we began to have actual breakthroughs in our journey to Mars. In July of 1965, NASA’s Mariner 4 captured high-definition pictures of Mars. It was at this point that we began to better observe and explore the red planet. But there is a hidden and sinister history of how NASA got here.
Jordan Bimm, historian of science technology and medicine, joins us to talk about Mars jars, the Cold War space race, and the German scientists with Nazi ties who helped the United States in the early days of NASA’s space program.
14 min
July 02, 2021Destination: Mars
For thousands of years, humans have obsessed over Mars from afar. At first, maybe it was the fact that Mars stands out in the night sky because of its reddish color. But as we learned more about Mars and the conditions there, it was the possibility of life on this distant planet that captured our collective imagination. At its closest, Mars is nearly 40 million miles away from Earth — and we’ve tried for centuries to bridge that distance, using everything from telescopes to flybys and probes. Mars has inspired wild fantasies about distant civilizations and little green men. It’s put a spell on many observers, who hope to unlock its mysteries. On this special episode of The Pulse, we explore what we are learning about Mars, and when we can expect to actually see humans set foot on the red planet.
Also heard on this week’s episode:
Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, talks about our attempts to get closer and closer to the red planet, the important work that’s being done by the Mars rovers, and what it would take to land humans on Mars.
Some people called it the next great leap in space exploration — others, a suicide mission. But for Dan Carey and Leila Zucker, Mars One was a dream come true. Spearheaded by a Dutch company, Mars One aimed to land ordinary people on Mars by the year 2023, where they’d start the red planet’s first human colony. There was just one catch — it was a one-way trip … and survival was not guaranteed. Reporter Liz Tung talks with Carey and Zucker about what made them want to leave their lives on Earth, and start new ones on Mars.
We talk with science historian Jordan Bimm about “Mars jars” and the group of exobiologists — scientists who study extraterrestrial biology — who spearheaded early research about life on Mars.
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…