The Pulse

This week on The Pulse, we take a look back at September 11th, 2001 and how that day has reverberated throughout so many lives, in so many ways. A lot of research was done in the years following the attacks, and one area of interest has been emergency responses—how do humans react in this kind of crisis when every moment counts? 

Then, when you’re in your hospital room, you’re beseiged by the never-ending din of beeping monitors. An alarm is supposed to mean that something is going wrong, but a lot of times, that isn’t the case. 

Today’s show is about moments. Life-changing moments, moments that offered new insights into age-old questions, and “a ha!” moments. If you’re a regular listener, you may have heard some of these stories before, but we think listening to them as a series of important moments casts them in a new, insightful light.

Scientific discoveries are often fueled by sudden insights—when the light bulb goes on in your head. Or in this case, a blue LED light bulb. In 2014, a group of researchers won a Nobel prize for developing blue LED lights, out it turns out the blue LED was much older. We return to the moment it was actually discovered.

That lightbulb going off in our heads, that’s been the recent focus of Drexel University psychology professor John Kounios. In his new book, he explores that “eureka moment” phenomenon. He joins us to discuss how and why we get sudden bursts of insight.

When Kounios talked about forcing “a ha” moments to happen in our brains, he mentioned factors like mood, sleep, and distance from a problem. But is there a way to hack our brain to make creative thinking happen…perhaps through brain stimulation? Pulse contributor Avir Mitra volunteers to have his brain hot-wired.

Sometimes asking simple questions is an effective way to achieve “a ha” moments, and this week we reflect on stories inspired by queries like: “‘Should scrubs be worn outside the hospital?’ ‘Why do we love round numbers?’ And, ‘What exactly is a doctor listening for when they place a stethoscope on your chest?'”

Also on this week’s show, we look at the moment a deadly overdose is reversed by the drug Narcan, the birth of a son that one couple will never forget, and a lovely musical moment caught in the strangest of places…a hospital lobby.

We spend large portions of our lives in and around our homes. It’s where we eat, sleep, and heal. Some of us were born in our homes, others will die in theirs, but the point is, there’s a lot happening at our home addresses, and not just social stuff—medical and astronomical breakthroughs happen under our own roofs every day. So, with the mercury bottoming out in the dog days of winter, we decided to dedicate this episode of the show to our homes.

How’s this for a prescription from your doctor: 10 days of no cognitive stimulation—no phone, no TV, no loud noises…nothing! That’s what Theo Balcomb was prescribed after she suffered a severe concussion when she slipped while getting out of bed one morning. Disoriented and exhausted from her the aftermath of her fall, Theo’s sister Hallie swooped in to help her on the journey back to health. The sisters tell us their story. This got us wondering what is the best course of action after a concussion? To answer that question and others, we are joined by Sarah Allen, a pediatric neuropsychologist at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

When you’re in the hospital, “home” is where you want to be, so being discharged is the goal. The thing is, a lot of recently discharged patients end up not staying home for long, and, instead, they wind up back in the hospital. Reporter Elana Gordon spends a day with a nurse whose sole mission is to keep discharged patients from becoming readmissions.

The expression “weight loss” harkens images of broccoli and 7-minute workouts, right? But did you know the configuration of your kitchen may be having a big effect on your waistline as well? It does, according to author and researcher Brian Wansink, who, for years, has been studying how our kitchens affect our weight. Brian joins us to impart some fascinating and eye-opening weight-loss advice.

In the 1950s, the Dupont chemical company, based in Delaware, came out with a product that might have made the biggest impact on how you live in your home—acrylic paint in every color of the rainbow. Oil paint required a crew of professionals, and it took forever to dry. With Dupont’s invention, you could suddenly redesign the look of your home yourself…in a day! And with this invention came the idea of “color psychology”…the idea that specific colors can make you feel certain ways. But as Peter Crimmins reports, linking wall colors and our psyches is not an easy science.

Dragging a telescope to some far-away mountaintop is no longer necessary if your goal is to make meaningful contributions to the field of astronomy. As reporter Todd Bookman discovered, an explosion of publicly available space data means hobbyists can make discoveries that matter and advance the breadth of human knowledge without ever getting off the couch.

Also on this week’s show: how the Xbox changed Paul Ballas’ life and the dangers of radon…that colorless, odorless gas that’s oh so 1983. Stay home with us this week!

A decade after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, much of the physical damage the storm caused has been repaired—neighborhoods and communities have been rebuilt, schools and businesses have re-opened. But a deeper, invisible wound brought by the storm remains. We bring you the story of a young man for whom the storm unleashed a torrent of difficulties that persist ten years later, and we hear from an expert on how the field of emergency mental health care grew in the wake of Katrina.

You open a medical bill, thinking ‘okay, how bad can it be?’ Sometimes it’s bad, very bad. Elana Gordon brings us a story about one man who received a $32,000 bill after getting a procedure done by an out-of-network doctor at an in-network hospital.

Couldn’t somebody develop an “are you in my network?” app that we could access right in the ER? Perhaps Google and its newly formed parent company Alphabet can lead the charge. We talk with Farzad Mostashari, a physician and head of the health tech company Aledade, about the implications this change could have in the health and technology world.  

What color is your ribbon, your pin, your rubber bracelet? We hear about the economics of awareness campaigns, the story behind the color of breast cancer awareness campaigns, why big business gets involved, and why some of the marketing tactics annoy survivors and their family members.

Sometimes reporters venture into dangerous territories in war-torn regions. Even though they are on the front lines, they have little or no training in emergency first aid. Cary Barbor reports on a program that’s designed to remedy this knowledge gap.

This week on The Pulse: a look at failure as both a stumbling and building block for the human race. We fear, loathe and avoid failure. We feel shame when it happens, but it’s a necessary and important ingredient in our evolution.

We take a look at failure’s role in the scientific process, and we wonder why—even when we know that failing is key to advancing knowledge—we hate it so much. Then we explore what happens when the desire not to fail turns criminal.

There is a subsection of humanity who has no problem failing…they’re called toddlers, and they fail all day every day without a care in the world. What’s up with that? We look into the secret of having big successes by learning from past failures.

Paleontologist Ted Daeschler is no toddler, but he certainly turned a big failure into a success, and we’ll hear how. We’ll also meet professional investor Armen Karamanian, who uses his background in science to help him calculate the odds of failure for the companies he considers investing in.

Finally on the show, scientists and investors might find clever ways to use failure to their advantage, but doctors often view failure as unacceptable. Afterall, when they fail, people die. Dr. Erin Lockhardt struggled with this idea while caring for her dying mother and came to a new understanding of what it means to fail.

The sun is blazing, the humidity is the highest it’s been all summer and your dog is panting nonstop. Could a summer haircut bring relief to your four-legged friend? Some experts say no, cutting is not the answer. Peter Crimmins finds out why.

Plus, why do some patients cry after waking up from anesthesia? Maiken Scott talks to patients and doctors who’ve experienced or witnessed this firsthand and looks at potential reasons for the sudden outbursts.

Scalpels, suction tubes, heart monitors—these are some of the instruments you will find in an operating room. But when you, the patient, goes under, many doctors take out another tool: music. Melodies play an important role in the O.R., so what do surgeons listen to? Classical? Yes. Rock ‘n’ roll? Check. Country western? Uh huh. Heavy metal? Believe it or not…yes. We take you on a sonic journey through the playlists of operating rooms around the country.

In the wake of the 1994 genocide that left a million dead, rates of mental illness in Rwanda are significantly higher than in other nations. The government is trying to respond to the need for mental health care, but with only six psychiatrists in the entire country, progress is slow. But one organization is trying to address this issue in a surprising way—mental illness tourism.

Yoga during lunch and nutrition counseling right in your office sound like a good deal. But as workplace wellness programs become more popular, some people are having second thoughts about the bargain they’ve made. We hear one woman’s story of having to participate in mandatory health coaching through her work and talk with experts about whether or not workplace wellness is hitting the mark.

So much of staying healthy sounds like a total drag, right? Chris McDougall, author of the best seller “Born to Run” wants to return the fun and joy into fitness and exercising. His new book “Natural Born Heroes” explores what we can learn from everyday super humans and we invited him into the studio to explain.

The medical field has been notoriously slow to embrace technology when it comes to patients’ health records. The Affordable Care Act brought a $30 billion cash infusion from the federal government that has helped move things along. Now, about 70 percent of Americans’ medical files are digitized, which has posed many new questions – among them, what should providers do with people’s mental health records? Should they be part of the equation? Kept separately? Maiken Scott looked for answers. 

It’s in your shampoo, your deodorant, your granola, your cookies and Nutella. Palm oil is made from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm and it’s come under fire for being a bad actor in terms of the environment. Calen May-Tobin leads the palm oil campaign for the advocacy organization Union for Concerned Scientists and we asked him to explain some of the issues around palm oil.

For our series Patient Files, your stories of illness, healing and coping, we meet a 10-year-old girl whose family went seven years before receiving a diagnosis for her rare genetic disorder. Carolyn Beeler visited her and her mom in their suburban Philadelphia home and recorded their story.

Also on the show, emerging emergency technology, sharing brainpower among wasps and combining neuroscience with art and light.