In the world of cheesesteaks, Geno Vento stands head and shoulders above the crowd. But a lifetime spent around this delicious, but fattening, delicacy has rendered him one of about 200,000 Americans who attempt a surgical weight-loss procedure each year. He’s lost 100 pounds so far, but the question remains: Can he make the profound lifestyle changes necessary to maintain his new weight? Then we sit down with Dr. David Sarwer, a psychologist who works with patients before and after bariatric surgery to discuss the mental component of weight-loss.

Last year, the U.S. deported over 130,000 undocumented immigrants. In an attempt to get emotional support to those fighting to stay in the country, an interfaith immigrant rights organization called New Sanctuary Movement has been pairing local congregations with families facing deportation. In the secon part of our series on mental health and undocumented immigrants, we visited with one of the program’s pairs to see how it works.

Ever wonder why your mom warned you not to pour used cooking oil down the kitchen sink? Can you say “fatberg”? Yeah, that exists, but it doesn’t have to. With encouragement from the EPA, Philadelphia’s Indonesian population is doing its part to keep both their infrastructure and their environment a bit cleaner by recycling the oil they use to fry meat and vegetables. We go in search of community oil drums.  

How do you improve care for the poorest and sickest among us while simultaneously balancing the books? That’s the trillion-dollar question facing the American health system. But it doesn’t scare a small healthcare team in Camden, N.J. from attempting to reinvent a clinic just for this population.

Also on this week’s show: a health crisis facing bumblebees, the future of blight-resistant potatoes, dogs with OCD, and science cheerleaders. Yeah, they exist, too. Goooooooo science!

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The workplace wellness movement promises benefits to both employees and employers by encouraging and rewarding healthy lifestyle choices. But critics, and some new data, question the effectiveness of these programs. We look at the practical application of workplace wellness, the ethics of tying our health to our paychecks, and how healthy behaviors can go viral in the office.

Undocumented immigrants living in the United States face numerous challenges in their daily lives, from finding and keeping jobs to the constant stress that a misstep could send them back to the home they left. In the first installment of a two-part series, we look at a group that’s trying to understand and effectively treat the mental health of those living in the shadows of the American dream.

With Valentine’s Day upon us, we discuss the challenges of creating and maintaining a healthy sex life with Philadelphia-based clinical sexologist Susana Mayer.

Scientists at Penn State have created tiny engines, called “nanomotors,” small enough to fit inside a human cell. The breakthrough is considered an important early step towards the goal of developing microscopic robots that couple be released into the body to hunt down and treat illness.

In this week’s Patient Files, in which listeners tell us their stories of illness, recovery, and healing, choreographer Brian Sanders describes the hip replacement surgery that reaffirmed his choice of a life and career based in movement.

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On this edition of The Pulse, we explore the question of how kids impact life satisfaction and happiness. We talk with Jennifer Senior about her new book called “All Joy and no Fun” as well as Angus Deaton, a professor of international affairs and economics at Princeton University about his recently published paper on this topic.

In this week’s Patient Files segment, 22-year-old Emma Straub shares her story of living with a rare auto-immune disease called Scleroderma.

Our Citizen Science segment details the launch of this year’s Great American Bird Watch and we head to the library to hear how librarians are taking on a role beyond that of a traditional book caretaker.

We’ll also take a trip to Villanova University, where scientists, art historians and restoration experts are bringing an enormous 17th century painting back to its original glory.

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On this edition of The Pulse, we take a look at Camden’s history as a tech hub. We’ll get a tour of some of the important inventions that came out of Camden – the Victrola, for example – and investigate whether a new generation of discoveries, with a medical focus this time, can bring the struggling city back from the brink.

Later on the show – it’s a rite of passage, a test, and a challenge. We’ll follow a group of first year medical students as they enter their first-ever anatomy lab, and meet their silent teachers.

Science reporter Kerry Grens fills us in on some recent discoveries and research studies, we’ll find out how snakes fly, for example, and contributor Avir Mitra examines new research about grunting. Finally, we hear about an ongoing fight over e-cigarettes, and efforts that are underway to ban them in public places.

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A now-famous map made in 1855 used simple data to trace a cholera outbreak back to a single communal water pump, proving the effectiveness of maps in battling disease and making health outcomes better. So why aren’t maps more widely employed in modern medicine?

The next time an anethesiologist is about to put you under, try not to remember this little factoid: no one actually knows the science behind why anethesia is so effective. We sit down with a researcher on a quest to understand the intricacies of what he calls a medical “miracle.”

Sixty percent of all cancer patients need radiation therapy, and nearly all of them leave the experience with three tiny radiation tattoos. These barely visible marks serve as guides for treatment and permanent reminders of the struggle against the disease. 

Politicians looking to score points with their base make the relationship between the government and the healthcare sector seem black and white, but we sit down with a health policy professor who argues that the complicated relationship between government and private industry is more like a thousand shades of gray.

“Goldilocks planets” are what astronomers like John Bochanski call distant planets with the same “just right” conditions that make life on Earth possible. According to him, finding that needle in the haystack of the universe is just a matter of time.

Prominent Philadelphia psychologist Cynthia Baum-Baicker tells us about how a combination of reading Freud and her love for music sparked her desire to create better mental health treatment.

Paleontologist Ted Daeschler takes us to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences to check out a fossil of an ancient half fish-half crocodile whose hind legs offer clues on how millions of years ago, life made the transition from water to land.

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Bedbugs have made a comeback in recent years, spawning stress and anxiety for those combatting home infestations. We hear from the scientists trying to learn more about their “M-O” and stop their advance, as well as individuals battling the bugs in their home.

We go on the job with some highly trained dogs that can sniff out deadly cancers. Hopes are high that these “super dogs” will guide scientists toward more readily available and easily affordable ovarian cancer screening tests.

A former Philadelphia medical examiner decided to apply his 18 years of experience stitching up holes in dead bodies to patching up holes in your wall. We take you behind the scenes as he pitches his big idea to potential investors.

In this week’s citizen science segment, we go outside to measure local ice in hopes of contributing to global solutions to climate change.

Scientists could be on the verge of 3D printing living human organs. We look at the motivations driving these advances in biotechnology and the ethics behind actually applying them.

In this week’s Patient Files, 25-year-old Scott Clifford had broken 50 bones by the time he was just eight. Then he stopped counting. Clifford talks about living with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or brittle bone disease.

And WHYY’s Peter Crimmins reviews a play written by and starring former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Mike Boryla about his brief stint in football’s elite and the epiphany that convinced him to abandon a promising career in the NFL.

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It’s a very uncomfortable decision – how do you want to die? A Philadelphia pilot program is offering very sick patients a chance to bring their end of life care to the place they’re most comfortable, their home. We talk with one mother who enrolled in the program after deciding to stop chemotherapy treatments.

Marketplace health care reporter Dan Gorenstein joins us to share his research on whether doctors are any more prepared than the rest of us when it comes to end of life decisions. 

We also visit a Philadelphia building that tells a story about a Yellow Fever crisis that almost wiped out Philadelphia and we get the details on a pioneering cancer therapy, developed here Philadelphia, that is caught up in a legal battle among some of the biggest names in cancer treatment.

The Scientist’s Kerry Grens joins us to talk about new research linking fiber to reduced asthma rates in mice, the rotting teeth of hunter-gatherers and an exercise molecule that targets fat.

Our new series, The Spark, launches with an audio essay from medical ethicist Art Caplan on the childhood illness that propelled his lifelong vocation.

In this week’s “So, What Do You Do segment,” Entomologist Isa Betancourt tries to convince us to eat chocolate-covered crickets and our new segment “Whatever Happened to?” revisits the 2009 mammogram screening guidelines released by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to find out where we stand on those rules today.

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As the NFL enters its post-season march toward the Super Bowl, we take a look into the science behind sports-related concussions. Can new and improved helmets save the brains of the next generation? How can we measure the impact of a concussion on a young athlete’s mind? And how to heal yourself if you suspect you’ve suffered a severe blow to the head. 

We associate coral reefs with TV commercials for far-flung destinations, but experts see them as barometers of oceanic health. The Pulse spends an afternoon in a laboratory where researchers are trying to unlock the secrets of how these massive organisms are able to live for up to 4,000 years, and why they’re dying off at an alarming rate. 

Double cheeseburger with extra bacon, or kale salad with no dressing? The answer seems obvious until you see how many calories you’ll be ingesting. We take a look at the effectiveness of posting calorie counts on menus at fast food and chain restaurants.

Also, a conversation with a scientist who sees the future of energy production not underground but in the clouds where strong winds could be the answer to the question: So what happens when we run out of coal, natural gas, and oil?

Plus, the return of the chemistry set, the complicated science of predicting sea level rise, and how a gaggle of young journalists are trying to make an impact on the health and well-being of the communities they report on.

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Two decades after the release of the Oscar-winning movie “Philadelphia,” we take a look back at the film’s legacy, its impact on Philadelphians living with AIDS, and the distance traveled in fighting HIV and AIDS in the last twenty years.

Along the way we meet Sue Ellen Kehler, an HIV patient who was chosen to be an extra in the film, and we talk with Dr. Michael Braffman, and infectious disease specialist who remembers how AIDS impacted the city of Philadelphia.

Also on the show, Austin Seraphin can’t see, but with the click of his tongue he’s unlocked a way to experience a world hidden from most of us. The technique is called echolocation, and Seraphin sees it as a valuable tool for the blind community.

It’s hard to find anything funny about being diagnosed with celiac disease, unless you’re seeing it through the eyes of Philadelphia comedian, Valerie DiMambro. She recounts the story of finding out she had celiac disease and how its changed her life.

Christmas trees beware! A furry little pest called the wooly adelgid has been turning up all over Eastern Pennsylvania and sucking the life force out of deciduous evergreens. But you can play a part in helping to keep these beloved evergreens alive. Tune in to find out how.

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On The Pulse this week, we take a look at a new law in the state of Delaware that calls for stiffer penalties for non-nurse midwives working without a permit and we’ll explore the varying perspectives on the safety of home birth.

We’ll take you on a tour of a bucolic farm in Chester County to see the science behind growing mushrooms and into the MRI tube for a sound-rich journey through the anxiety-inducing experience.

We’ll also hear from a local scientist about his quest to make vaccines and other medications more available in developing countries. His secret weapon: lettuce. 

Kerry Grens, an associate editor at The Scientist and a regular Pulse contributor, joins us to talk about a lake found on Mars, new dyslexia research and a possible link between lead exposure and Alzheimer’s.

We’ll also introduce a new segment, called Pain in the Neck, in which we hear from patients about their complaints about how things tend to happen in health care. We look into why the system operates the way it does – and whether anyone has a fix. This week’s pet peeve: getting inaccurate recovery time estimates from your doctor.

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