Shankar Vedantam, host of NPR’s “Hidden Brain,” joins us to talk about the myriad ways we lie to ourselves on a daily basis and how that might actually help lead to a much happier life.
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Can Hospitals Survive Covid?
Vivian Ho is James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics and director of the Center for Health and Biosciences at Rice University, and she joins us to talk about the knock-on effects of the pandemic, from possible health-care bankruptcies to staffing issues, that hospitals are bracing for after the storm.
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Why Is It Taking So Long To Get Your Covid Shot?
Kaiser Health News correspondent Rachana Pradhan joins us to explain the very complicated process of producing these vaccines – a process money or even executive orders can only do so much to speed up.
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Better Loving Through Chemistry
Brian D. Earp joins us to argue that drugs that can help strengthen – and sever – relationships are out there now, and it’s time to understand the ethics and morals behind their use.
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You Can Achieve So Much More – Here’s How
Steven Kotler, executive director of the Flow Research Collective, joins us to offer accessible strategies for unlocking the potential of our minds and bodies.
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Unfriendly Skies: The Lives Of Flight Attendants
Journalist Darryl Campbell joins us to talk about the modern airline industry and how angry passengers and harsh working conditions are undermining efforts to protect the health and safety of both customers and staff.
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How The Medical Research System Gets Around Informed Consent
Harriet A. Washington, a lecturer in bioethics at Columbia University, joins us to talk about her research into a patient’s right to decline a procedure and the ethics of forcing experiments or new treatments in the name of research.
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The ABC’s Of STD’s
Dr. Ina Park is a medical consultant at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of STD Prevention, and she joins us for an open conversation about how STDs are spread and how they affect the body.
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Why The Nice People You Barely Know Are Important
Amanda Mull joins us to talk about how we’ve traditionally undervalued these acquaintances and how the loss of these occasional interactions has caused our lives to shrink.
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A Post-Mortem On Texas’s Colossal Energy Failure
University of Houston energy fellow Ed Hirs and Texas Water Resources Institute associate director Wendy Jepson join us to explain why one of the toughest weeks in Texas history was likely preventable – and what the state needs to do to make sure an energy disaster doesn’t strike again.
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Egg Freezing: Empowerment Or Impediment
Lucy van de Wiel, research associate at the Reproductive Sociology Research Group, University of Cambridge, joins us to discuss how this reproductive technology offers a chance at parenting but also can lead to a heartbreaking journey into a largely unregulated industry.
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What Is Appalachia Without Coal Mining?
Jeff Young is managing editor of Ohio Valley ReSource, a regional journalism collaborative reporting on economic and social change in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. He joins us to discuss his investigations into the struggles of the people and businesses there, and why they don’t bode well for the future of the nation.
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