The Pulse

Series produced by WHYY

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Weekly subscribable series.

Host Maiken Scott leads this one-hour, weekly tour of the people and places at the heart of health and science.

The Pulse is a show for curious people who ask: "Yeah, why is that?" Often surprising and always captivating, The Pulse makes science and discovery personal. Produced at WHYY in Philadelphia, the show features scientists, doctors, innovators and storytelling from across the country.

For information about The Pulse please contact Steve Martin at steve@sfmconsulting.com or call 703.715.0827.

For help subscribing please contact PRX at prxhelp@prx.org.


373 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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Ever sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, look around at the shining faces of your family, and think to yourself: “How the heck am I related to these p...

  • Added: Nov 15, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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From penicillin to the moon landing, we have science to thank for humanity’s greatest achievements. But science has also helped advance things we c...

  • Added: Nov 08, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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When’s the last time you saw a get-well card for psoriasis or eczema? Skin’s our biggest organ — and does lots of hard work keeping us healthy — bu...

  • Added: Nov 01, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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On this rebroadcast, we're taking on the things that freak us out. There's biology behind the spooky feeling you get when a horror movie soundtrack...

  • Added: Oct 24, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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Climate change could forever alter our planet sooner than we thought. A new report from the United Nations says that just 1.5 degrees Celsius stand...

  • Added: Oct 18, 2018
  • Length: 59:00
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Who has time to read the small print — to go over all the “stuff” that’s in our food, medicine, or supplements? And what’s carrageenan or hexyldecy...

  • Added: Oct 11, 2018
  • Length: 59:00
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Advances in science don’t just happen — sometimes, real progress requires heroic measures. On this show, we explore the lengths people go to in the...

  • Added: Oct 04, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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Medicine, healthcare — even illness — vary from country to country. Those differences are driven by tradition, culture, even politics. On this epis...

  • Added: Sep 27, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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On this rebroadcast, we look at tech's impact on our lives, health, relationships - even our freedom. We start off inside a local casino, to see ho...

  • Added: Sep 19, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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They call it the golden years, but there’s a reason many of us dread old age — it can mean losing our health, our independence, our memories, and l...

  • Added: Sep 13, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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It’s been a year since Hurricane Maria swept through Puerto Rico, destroying lives and reducing many communities to rubble. The storm also affected...

  • Added: Sep 05, 2018
  • Length: 58:58
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It’s Labor Day, which means we’re celebrating the hard-working people who keep the engines of productivity humming. This special production from Th...

  • Added: Aug 28, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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School is a place where kids learn about health — everything from nutrition to avoiding STDs. But increasingly, schools across the country are taki...

  • Added: Aug 23, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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From panic disorders to social phobia, anxiety is the most common mental health condition in the United States. What toll does anxiety take on our ...

  • Added: Aug 16, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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We think of sports as part of a healthy lifestyle — a chance to move our muscles, work up a sweat, release endorphins. Often that’s true… other tim...

  • Added: Aug 09, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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On this rebroadcast of The Pulse, we explore travel — how it changes us and how we change the places we visit. The journey includes a trip to the c...

  • Added: Aug 01, 2018
  • Length: 59:00
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In science and medicine, we often fail to predict the outcomes of our experiments and actions. The result: unintended consequences. Sometimes the s...

  • Added: Jul 26, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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This is a rebroadcast of the Pulse. For a long time disability meant one thing — limitations. Think about the word disabled: its literal meaning is...

  • Added: Jul 16, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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The Pulse explores the ways that genetic instructions can be re-programmed — by the environment, animal breeding, or gene editing. The show begin...

  • Added: Jul 12, 2018
  • Length: 58:59
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As drug overdose deaths continue to soar, cities hit hard by the opioid crisis are considering a controversial new proposal: safe injection sites. ...

  • Added: Jul 05, 2018
  • Length: 50:29