Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter Wednesday, June 30, 2021 Dr. Jen Gunter: Just letting you know, this episode discusses mental illness. Take care while listening. When I was a kid, it felt like my dad was obsessed with getting to the airport on time. It would start a week ahead of our flight… sometimes even more. On the day of the flight, if the ...

The many-headed dragon of public anger has a mouthful of fire for parents who don't vaccinate. But such scolding misses the mark, alienating caring parents who just want their kids to be safe. When measles broke out at California’s Disneyland in 2015, sickening nearly 150 people across seven states and spreading to Mexico and Canada, the online...

In ancient Greece, the best-known remedy for a long-standing headache was to drill a small hole in the skull to drain supposedly infected blood. Fortunately, doctors today don't resort to power tools to cure headaches, but we still have a lot to learn about this ancient ailment. Dan Kwartler shares what we know (and don't know) about headaches. ...

What is a concussion? Probably not what you think it is. In this talk from the cutting edge of research, bioengineer (and former football player) David Camarillo shows what really happens during a concussion -- and why standard sports helmets don't prevent it. Here's what the future of concussion prevention looks like.

LA Philharmonic violinist Robert Gupta performs for the homeless and mentally ill. In this interview, he discusses his experiences with the awesome healing power of music. Interactive Fellows Friday Feature: Join the conversation by answering Fellows’ weekly questions via Facebook. This week, Robert asks: With the advent of amazing onli...

From artists to scientists, mothers, mathematicians and business visionaries, people in every corner of the world are dreaming up solutions to our most pressing problems. Whether tackling war and peace or the principles of machine learning, ingenuity starts with one thing: a spark. And regardless of where the spark takes hold, inspiration...

Don’t be misled by the cringing creatures seen in The Lion King. From their biology to their social structure, spotted hyenas are complex creatures like none other on earth, explains author and conservationist Lucy Cooke. In the animal world, the hyena has been censured by more scandalous untruths than even the sloth. They are considered nature...

From tech to self-help via poetry, fiction and graphic novels, here are the books you need to read. What’s the one book you're always thrilled to discover that someone else has read? We posed that question to TED speakers -- and, well, they geeked out, offering us a list of hidden gems that wouldn’t typically crop up on a holiday shopping list....

Trauma silences its victims, says creative arts therapist Melissa Walker, but art can help those suffering from the psychological wounds of war begin to open up and heal. In this inspiring talk, Walker describes how mask-making, in particular, allows afflicted servicemen and women reveal what haunts them -- and, finally, start to let it go.

Roberto D'Angelo and Francesca Fedeli thought their baby boy Mario was healthy -- until at 10 days old, they discovered he'd had a perinatal stroke. With Mario unable to control the left side of his body, they grappled with tough questions: Would he be "normal?” Could he live a full life? The poignant story of parents facing their fears -- and h...

After his son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Billy Samuel Mwape realized that his project management skills might be put to use to support his child's special needs. In this inspiring, personal talk, he describes how project management -- the process of leading a team's work to achieve goals on a tight timeline -- can help you tackle life's ...

On January 8, 2011, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head while meeting constituents in her home town of Tucson, Arizona. Her husband, the astronaut Mark Kelly, immediately flew to be by her side. In this emotional conversation with Pat Mitchell, the pair describe their lives both before and after the incident -- and describe their v...

Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter Wednesday, July 7, 2021 Dr. Jen Gunter: Before we get to the episode, a quick favor. We're doing a listener survey to figure out how we can keep making the podcast better. We'd love your thoughts. So if you have a few minutes, please take the survey at SurveyNerds.com/BodyStuff. That's SurveyNerds.com/BodyStuff — ...

It doesn't matter whether you love or hate guns; it's obvious that the US would be a safer place if there weren't thousands of them sold every day without background checks. Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, makes a passionate, personal appeal for something that more than 90 percent of Americans want: background...

Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter Wednesday, June 16, 2021 Jen Gunter: It was March 2020, and our editor Sara was living in Brooklyn. She had started to hear about the spread of a highly contagious virus, COVID-19. And like many of us, she was very worried... Sara: I went to my local health food store chain, and I got a bunch of groceries. Like ev...

What do you call a veterinarian who can only take care of one species? A physician. In a fascinating talk, Barbara Natterson-Horowitz shares how a species-spanning approach to health can improve medical care of the human animal -- particularly when it comes to mental health.

What if invisibility wasn't just the stuff of epic comic book stories? Is it scientifically possible to be invisible? In this series Joy Lin tackles six superpowers and reveals just how scientifically realistic they can be to us mere mortals. [Directed by Cognitive Media, narrated by James Arnold Taylor].

Our hard-wired stress response is designed to give us the quick burst of heightened alertness and energy needed to perform our best. But stress isn't all good. When activated too long or too often, stress can damage virtually every part of our body. Sharon Horesh Bergquist gives us a look at what goes on inside our body when we are chronically s...

After decades of research and billions spent in clinical trials, we still have a problem with cancer drug delivery, says biomedical engineer Elizabeth Wayne. Chemotherapy kills cancer -- but it kills the rest of your body, too. Instead of using human design to fight cancer, why not use nature's? In this quick talk, Wayne explains how her lab is ...

After a catastrophic car accident that left him in a coma, Simon Lewis found ways to recover -- physically and mentally -- beyond all expectations. At the INK Conference he tells how this remarkable story led him to concern over all threats to consciousness, and how to overcome them.

We have over 600 muscles in our bodies that help bind us together, hold us up, and help us move. Your muscles also need your constant attention, because the way you treat them on a daily basis determines whether they will wither or grow. Jeffrey Siegel illustrates how a good mix of sleep, nutrition and exercise keep your muscles as big and stron...

Many of us will experience some kind of trauma during our lifetime. Sometimes, we escape with no long-term effects. But for millions of people, those experiences linger, causing symptoms like flashbacks, nightmares, and negative thoughts that interfere with everyday life. Joelle Rabow Maletis details the science behind post-traumatic stress diso...

The average person experiences dozens of individual itches each day. We've all experienced the annoyance of an inconvenient itch — but have you ever pondered why we itch in the first place? Is there actually an evolutionary purpose to the itch, or is it simply there to annoy us? Emma Bryce digs deep into the skin to find out. [Directed by Sashko...

Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. How did running help early humans survive -- and what urges from our ancient ancestors spur us on today? McDougall tells the story of the marathoner with a heart of gold, the unlikely ultra-runner, and the hidden tribe in Mexico that runs to live.

Pioneering surgeon Susan Lim performed the first liver transplant in Asia. But a moral concern with transplants (where do donor livers come from ...) led her to look further, and to ask: Could we be transplanting cells, not whole organs? At the INK Conference, she talks through her new research, discovering healing cells in some surprising places.

We have lots in common with our closest primate relatives. But comparatively, humans seem a bit... underdressed. Instead of thick fur covering our bodies, many of us mainly have hair on top of our heads— and a few other places. So, how did we get so naked? And why do we have hair where we do? Nina G. Jablonski explores the evolution of human hai...

Eva Vertes -- only 19 when she gave this talk -- discusses her journey toward studying medicine and her drive to understand the roots of cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs -- from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. At TEDMED, he shows footage of his bio-engineers working with some of its sci-fi gizmos, including an oven-like bioreactor (preheat to 98.6 F) and a machine that "prints" human tissue.

Less than an hour after scrambling out the back door of the Columbine High School library on April 20, 1999, Austin Eubanks was lying in a hospital bed, medicated on a variety of painkillers. That was the beginning of a decade-long addiction that led to a profound realization about the current opioid epidemic: how we manage pain is both the prob...

DNA isn't the only builder in the biological world -- there's also a mysterious bioelectric layer directing cells to work together to grow organs, systems and bodies, says biologist Michael Levin. Sharing unforgettable and groundbreaking footage of two-headed worms, he introduces us to xenobots -- the world's first living robots, created in his ...