Too often keeping patients alive gets in the way of helping them as they approach death. Dr. Pauline Chen shares her experiences as a medical student and transplant surgeon and how they’ve shaped the way she practices medicine.
Chen is the author of Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality (Vintage, 2008) and the New York Times column “Doctor and Pat ... Show More
Yesterday
Heather Davis, "Plastic Matter" (Duke UP, 2022)
Plastic is ubiquitous. It is in the Arctic, in the depths of the Mariana Trench, and in the high mountaintops of the Pyrenees. It is in the air we breathe and the water we drink. Nanoplastics penetrate our cell walls. Plastic is not just any material—it is emblematic of life in t ... Show More
1h 1m
Yesterday
Tom White, "Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster" (Repeater, 2025)
Once used extensively in schools, hospitals, and housing, asbestos has taken the lives of millions. Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster (Repeater, 2025) by Tom White traces the international history of the asbestos disaster — from mining operations in apartheid South Afr ... Show More
39m 40s
Nov 22
Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy, "Videotape" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
Over the span of a single decade, VHS technology changed the relationship between privacy and entertainment, pried open the closed societies behind the Iron Curtain, and then sank back into oblivion. Its meteoric rise and fall encapsulated the dynamics of the '80s and foreshadowe ... Show More
44m 53s
Mar 2024
Dr. Jack Kruse and Bill Gifford
Dr. Jack Kruse is a neurosurgeon who had an awakening in 2007 after suffering a torn meniscus. This led to his study of physics, light, magnetism, and electricity. He ultimately concluded that modern medicine lacked a deep understanding of how humans function in relation to the n ... Show More
2h 20m
Jun 2022
The Joy of Science, with Jim Al-Khalili
Professor Jim Al-Khalili is the physicist who makes science look easy. He’s the author of several books, the latest of which is The Joy of Science, which offers eight core scientific principles that can be applied to everyday life. As a broadcaster Jim is perhaps best known as th ... Show More
41m 55s
Aug 2023
381. Change Your Mindset, Your Health, Your Life | Dr. Ellen Langer
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson and “The mother of mindfulness,” Dr. Ellen Langer discuss her latest book, The Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way To Chronic Health. From this they explore how intentioned awareness paired with humility allows for a healthier mindset and body, how the perceptio ... Show More
1h 55m