Shows / The Pulse
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.
Episodes
- The Pulse
The Threats Facing Trees — and How to Save Them
We not only love trees for their beauty — we need them for our survival. But around the world, some trees, and even entire forests, are facing numerous…
- The Pulse
Biomimicry: What Nature Can Teach us about Engineering and Design
How does nature make durable materials like corals and seashells without a heat or a kiln? How do peacock feathers get their beautiful colors? Scientists are…
- The Pulse
What Makes Our Circadian Clocks Tick
Circadian rhythms affect more than our sleep — they can shape all aspects of our health, and are in turn shaped by the rhythms of our lives. We explore the…
- The Pulse
How Politics Are Changing Health and Science
With a contested presidential election looming, we explore what's at stake for health and science, from fertility medicine to cyber security with voting…
- The Pulse
Thrills & Chills: The Psychology of Fear
It's that time of year when we celebrate something we usually hate: fear. We visit haunted houses and corn mazes or binge-watch the scariest horror movies. In…
- The Pulse
All the Rage
Your face flushes hot, maybe your fists clench, your heartbeat speeds up and your blood pressure rises. It's rage and it can go from zero to red-hot in…
- The Pulse
When Law Enforcement and Health Care Meet
Police generally aren't trained to deal with mental health crises — and yet they constantly find themselves called to intervene in these challenging…
- The Pulse
When Every Second Counts: Advances in Cardiac Care
Every second counts when it comes to treating patients in cardiac arrest — which is why researchers and health care professionals are working constantly to…
- The Pulse
Navigating Autism in School
What's the best educational setting for my child to learn and grow? It's a question many parents contemplate, but it's an especially difficult question for…
- The Pulse
What It Takes to Treat Serious Mental Illness
We explore what it takes to recover from serious mental illness, with stories about how a patient's decades-long relationship with his psychiatrist helped him…
- The Pulse
The Healing Power of Music
You've heard that music is the language of the soul — but could it also be a treatment for the body? On this episode, we explore some of the latest science on…
- The Pulse
What Teeth Tell us About Survival on Earth
Zoologist Bill Schutt argues that teeth were pivotal to the success of vertebrate animals, they're power tools for survival. His latest book is "Bite: An…
- The Pulse
The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Behavior
There are countless hidden forces that affect how we behave, the choices that we make, and the general shape of our lives. On this episode, we take a deep dive…
- The Pulse
Virtual Worlds, Virtual Lives
On this encore episode of The Pulse - We're in a major technological revolution where artificial intelligence, gaming, and virtual reality are allowing us to…
- The Pulse
The Promise and Future of Psychedelics Research
Interest in using psychedelics for mental health treatments has taken off in recent years — but the field was just dealt a major blow on August 9, when the…
- The Pulse
The Big Chill and the Future of Refrigeration
We've only been able to harness the cold for our benefit for a little over 100 years, but innovations like refrigeration and air conditioning have completely…
- The Pulse
Asking for Help
Asking for help is hard. It can make us feel vulnerable, like we're sharing too much or admitting weakness. It can also stoke fears about our relationships and…
- The Pulse
Sharks — From Fear to Fascination
Before dinosaurs, before trees — even before Saturn had its rings – there were sharks. The fierce predators have been swimming in our oceans for hundreds of…
- The Pulse
How Money Shapes Medicine
Health care is a billion dollar industry in the U.S. — one of the biggest in the country. The business aspect of medicine is an invisible force in the doctor's…
- The Pulse
Unearthing the Secrets of Volcanoes and Rocks
It's easy to forget that the earth below us is always changing and shifting — but sometimes, we get a dramatic demonstration of exactly that, like with the…
- The Pulse
Degrees of Freedom
On this rebroadcast of The Pulse: Freedom sounds great as an idea. Who doesn't want to be free to do what they want? But when you take a closer look, freedom…
- The Pulse
How Amazon Revolutionized Shopping and Changed the World
Amazon caught the wave of the early internet at a time when very few people even understood what the internet was. Launched in a garage 30 years ago, the…
- The Pulse
Making Faces
Imagine looking at a crowd of people, and they either all look vaguely familiar, or like complete strangers. It doesn't matter if this is a group of classmates…
- The Pulse
The DIY Medicine Movement
DIY culture is all about empowerment — teaching yourself new skills to do things on your own, like retiling your bathroom or fixing a leaky faucet. But what…
- The Pulse
The Search for Modern Masculinity
Competent. Capable. Strong. Stoic. Provider. Protector. Leader. Patriarch. These are the kinds of words that we've long associated with masculinity and manhood…
- The Pulse
10th Anniversary Show: The Science Changing Our Lives
When it comes to science, it's often the flashiest stories that grab headlines — the cancer breakthroughs, the tech innovations, the discoveries of new species…
- The Pulse
How Art and Science Intersect
On this rebroadcast of The Pulse - We often think of art and science as existing in different — even opposite — spheres. One revolves around creativity and…
- The Pulse
When Being 'Gifted' No Longer Feels Like a Gift
When psychologist Lewis Terman launched his decades-long study of high-IQ children in 1921, he had a specific goal in mind: to prove that "gifted" people were…
- The Pulse
Lightening the Load of Motherhood
We hear all the time about the joys of motherhood — the incomparable sense of love, the magic of watching your kids discover the world, the pride and…
- The Pulse
Rediscovering America's War on Bad Posture
In January 1995, the New York Times Magazine published a bombshell story with the headline: "THE GREAT IVY LEAGUE NUDE POSTURE PHOTO SCANDAL." The article…
- The Pulse
Breaking the Silence on Medical Mistakes
When medical mistakes happen, patients and their families often find themselves at a loss trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. Something bad happened…
- The Pulse
Living Greener — One Decision at a Time
Every day, we hear about countless environmental threats — from air pollution and microplastics, to deforestation and global warming. And a lot of us feel…
- The Pulse
Bridging the Gaps for Latino Health
Over the past few decades, Latinos have become the largest racial or ethnic minority in the United States, making up nearly 20 percent of the country's…
- The Pulse
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…
- The Pulse
Chasing the Eclipse
On April 8, a swath of North America will be treated to a rare and spectacular sight — a total solar eclipse; in some places, the first in more than a century…
- The Pulse
Discovering your True Identity
Identity's a complicated thing — a mixture of nurture and nature, ethnicity, gender, culture, conscious decisions, coincidences, and more. In many ways…
- The Pulse
The Lasting Impacts of COVID-19
It's been four years since COVID-19 struck, transforming our modern world in ways we'd never seen before — and we're still processing the aftershocks. The…
- The Pulse
The New Mental Health Landscape
Know the signs of depression. Recognize symptoms of anxiety. Pay attention to your friend's changing moods. There's been a push to raise mental health…
- The Pulse
Atomic Angst and the Teenage Spy
In 1944, a brilliant, young Harvard physics student named Ted Hall was recruited to work on the super-secret mission that had already assembled the country's…
- The Pulse
Bodies for Science
If you're training to become a physician, your first patient is usually dead. In fact, "first patient" is what med students call the human cadavers that they…
- The Pulse
All the Rage
You can feel it coming on — your face flushes hot, maybe your fists clench, your heartbeat speeds up and blood pressure rises. It's rage — and it can go from…
- The Pulse
The Mysteries of Attraction
It can show up as a spark or a lightning bolt; a glance or a touch; an easy rapport or butterflies in your stomach. Attraction — it's a feeling we know when we…
- The Pulse
Setting the Medical Record Straight
Medical records are an important part of health care. They create a history of past issues, test results, and medications. They paint a picture of somebody's…
- The Pulse
Inside Facebook: A Conversation with Jeff Horwitz
After covering the 2016 U.S. presidential election, reporter Jeff Horwitz knew that "something really weird was going on," that social media sites, especially…
- The Pulse
Facebook at 20
Twenty years ago, a group of college sophomores created a website that would end up changing the world — fundamentally altering how we connect with other…
- The Pulse
When Healing Happens But We Don't Know Why
More than a third of Americans use complementary and alternative medicine, ranging from acupuncture to herbalism, Ayurveda to homeopathy. But despite its…
- The Pulse
How to Live with Uncertainty
Humans crave certainty — in science and politics, in our lives and our leaders, in our decisions and our futures. We find comfort in knowing the facts, and we…
- The Pulse
Virtual Worlds, Virtual Lives
We're in a major technological revolution where artificial intelligence, gaming, and virtual reality allow us to create and enter totally new spaces and have…
- The Pulse
Why We Love and Hate Exercising — And How to Do It Either Way
We all know that exercise is good for us — for both our bodies and our minds — but motivating yourself to hit the gym, take a run, or even go for a walk…
- The Pulse
The Transformative Power of Awe
It's the goosebumps you get at the crescendo of your favorite song; the stupefying wonder that comes with witnessing a birth or a death; the astonishing…
- The Pulse
The Blurred Line Between Life and Death
We think of life and death as clear cut — you're alive or you're not; your heart's beating or it isn't; your brain functions or it doesn't. But when you look a…
- The Pulse
Lowering Barriers to Care
Lots of things can get in the way of taking care of your health, catching medical issues early on, and getting treatment. Navigating insurance woes, trouble…
- The Pulse
Uncovering the Inner Workings of the Oceans
What comes to mind when you think of the ocean? Maybe a day at the beach — swimming in the waves, snorkeling through coral reefs, fishing, surfing, and sunsets…
- The Pulse
How Gene Therapy is Offering Hope — Once Again
For decades, the idea that you could attack genetic illnesses right at the root — that you could modify people's genes to treat or cure disease — sounded like…
- The Pulse
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…
- The Pulse
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…
- The Pulse
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…
- The Pulse
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…
- The Pulse
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…
- The Pulse
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…