The Pulse
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 some of the world's foremost scientists, and back in time to explore life-changing innovations. The Pulse delivers stories in ways that matter to you, and answers questions you never knew you had.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 48 minutes
- Episodes
- 151
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
Changing Tastes
What we make for dinner, grab as a snack, or have for breakfast changes all the time — and there are some major forces at play: consumer tastes and marketing, but also climate change, global supply c…
00:55:09 |
Fri 17 Nov 2023
Salty, Crunchy, and Addictive: A Physician's Fight Against Ultra-Processed Foods
Sugary cereals for breakfast, a protein bar as a snack, a microwave lasagna for lunch, and a frozen pizza for dinner sounds like a teenager's dream diet, but these are the types of foods physician Ch…
00:33:00 |
Wed 15 Nov 2023
Getting Better at Resolving Conflicts
In March of 2022, the war in Ukraine was weighing heavily on Fabian Falch, a Norwegian tech entrepreneur. The Russian government had started to censor news stories and social media posts about the wa…
00:49:14 |
Fri 10 Nov 2023
Why Rejection Hurts So Much — And How to Cope
Rejection, or even the thought of it, can strike fear into our hearts, and leave a bad taste in our mouths. It often leads to a mix of sadness, shame, anxiety, and anger — along with nagging question…
00:49:33 |
Fri 03 Nov 2023
How We Talk About Death
For most of the big moments in life, we have rituals — proposals, weddings, births, graduations, and anniversaries. We know how to talk about them, how to celebrate them, how to honor them. But there…
00:53:41 |
Fri 27 Oct 2023
How UFOs Went from Fringe to Mainstream
Flying saucers, little green men, and the X-Files — for years, that's what most people associated with unidentified flying objects, or UFOs. They were the stuff of sci-fi and supermarket tabloids, co…
00:50:05 |
Fri 20 Oct 2023
Shame and Blame: How Stigma Impacts Health
Dealing with a serious or chronic health condition is hard enough — but what happens when that condition comes with moral judgment? That's the case for millions of people around the world. From obesi…
00:49:28 |
Fri 13 Oct 2023
How Science is Transforming Weight Loss
Most of us have been there — feeling our jeans get tighter, watching the numbers on the scale creep up, declaring that this time we're going to lose the weight and keep it off.
For a lot of people, …
00:49:21 |
Fri 06 Oct 2023
Space Pioneers
In 1978, NASA recruited six candidates out of thousands of applicants for a special, groundbreaking mission: to become the first American women in space. Over the next few years, the six women would …
00:49:07 |
Fri 29 Sep 2023
Boredom in the Age of Information Overload
It sneaks up on us while we're sitting in traffic, or waiting at the doctor's office, or doing our taxes — boredom, that restless feeling of dissatisfaction that arises when we harbor "the desire for…
00:52:12 |
Fri 22 Sep 2023
Face Recognition and What it Means for our Privacy
In November of 2019, New York Times tech reporter Kashmir Hill got a tip that immediately had her on high alert. It was about a secretive tech company called Clearview AI, that claimed to have develo…
00:41:11 |
Wed 20 Sep 2023
How Art and Science Intersect
We often think of art and science as existing in different — even opposite — spheres. One revolves around creativity and imagination; the other around observable facts and data — and never the twain …
00:49:19 |
Fri 15 Sep 2023
Finding Happiness
We spend a lot of time thinking about happiness. Wondering if we are truly happy, and how we could get there. We try to predict what will make us happy in the future, or what might lead to misery dow…
00:59:37 |
Fri 08 Sep 2023
Helping Teens Navigate Mental Health Challenges
The teenage years can be an emotional rollercoaster. One moment everything is great, it's amazing, then suddenly life is terrible, and all is ruined. But - it seems like something else is going on ri…
00:53:39 |
Fri 01 Sep 2023
Remote Working vs. the Office — Which is Better?
Over the past few years, remote working has transformed millions of people's lives — giving them more time for family, more control over their schedules, and a better work-life balance. But now, a gr…
00:49:20 |
Fri 25 Aug 2023
Bringing Physics from Theory to Practice
Science is all about observing the world. But how do you study something you can't see, smell, or hear — like the tiniest particles all around us? How do you test a new energy source when it doesn't …
00:49:26 |
Fri 18 Aug 2023
Will A.I. Take Your Job — or Make It Better?
Whether you're a student or a doctor, a plumber or a truck driver, a university lecturer or a radio reporter, artificial intelligence is changing the way we work. For some workers, A.I. is taking ove…
00:49:35 |
Fri 11 Aug 2023
Skin Care and the Quest for Eternal Youth
It seems like every day, new skin care products hit the market: lotions, serums, collagen boosters, light therapy, at-home lasers — potions and procedures designed to coax our skin into peeling and h…
00:49:15 |
Fri 04 Aug 2023
What's Behind Health Care Shortages?
If you've tried to book a doctor's appointment lately, chances are, it's been challenging. Many practices are not taking new patients, or open slots are weeks or months away. For some patients, it ha…
00:51:14 |
Fri 28 Jul 2023
Searching for Utopia
For centuries, writers and philosophers have imagined what a perfect world might look like — if only we had a chance to start over, build it all from scratch. The term "utopia" comes from ancient Gre…
00:49:26 |
Fri 21 Jul 2023
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are the property of WHYY ([email protected]). This content is not affiliated with or endorsed by eachpod.com.