The labs and clinics of WashU Medicine, in conversation.
Show Me the Science, produced by WashU Medicine Marketing and Communications, is built on conversations with the people of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Researchers explain new treatments and studies in plain terms, and other episodes turn to medical training, clinician burnout and public health.
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Show Me the Science is a production of WashU Medicine Marketing and Communications, and its subject is the school itself. Episodes open the same way, promising conversations about science and health with the people of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, the Show Me State. From there, it is an interview. A researcher or clinician lays out the work, and the follow-up questions stay practical: what one copy of a gene actually changes, whether anyone yet knows the answer. The FDA's full approval of an amyloid-targeting Alzheimer's drug, tested in trials involving the school's Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, leads into a discussion of ApoE4, a gene linked to Alzheimer's risk and to a higher chance of serious side effects in people with two copies. The clinic's plan is to test for the gene and advise patients on the risk when they consider the drug. Mental illness is another thread. One episode looks at the school's psilocybin research, part of renewed study at a few dozen U.S. medical centers of drugs examined as far back as the 1950s. A guest describes sessions that can be physical and alarming, and argues that a challenging experience is not necessarily a bad one when someone is there to help interpret it. Another follows efforts to identify young people at risk of schizophrenia before their illness grows harder to treat, including a collaboration with a group in Kenya. Asked whether rates of psychotic illness there resemble those in St. Louis, a guest is candid that epidemiological studies in Africa have been few. Public health gets the same direct treatment. The maternal mortality episode starts from a National Center for Health Statistics report that U.S. maternal mortality rose 40 percent in 2021, to a rate last seen in 1965, and a guest traces the root causes to discrimination, racism and sexism. Limited to one intervention, a guest would choose health insurance and access for everyone, while warning that doing only that would miss the mark. The show also looks inward. It revisits the 2023 graduation ceremony for the school's new doctors, where Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke about data and evidence as the stepping stones of science, and adds talk of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments such as Paxlovid, and whether the virus will evolve around them. Another episode visits In Our Words Connection, a Becker Medical Library event where faculty, medical students and trainees could tell stories, read poems or even sing about life in medicine, meant to help people feel less alone and to reduce burnout. One clinician who cares for cancer patients describes the strange space just before entering a room, when the clinicians know and the patient does not. The Alzheimer's episode and the storytelling one make a useful pair: one about what a new drug changes in the clinic, the other about what the work asks of the people doing it. Jim Dryden closes each episode with the same sign-off: stay safe.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants medical research explained by the people doing it, and who cares how a finding plays out in an actual clinic visit, such as a gene test before a new drug. It also fits someone curious about the human side of medicine, from graduation day to burnout.
What sets it apart: It is anchored to a single institution, so instead of a roundup of health headlines it works as a guided tour of one medical school's labs, clinics and community. Research news shares space with the school's own occasions, such as a graduation address and a library storytelling event.
Show Me the Science is the new podcast from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Our podcast features stories that highlight the latest in groundbreaking research, clinical care and education at Washington University.
A sleeping ER patient may change how you think about what counts as a medical emergency.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, measured review of what Alzheimer's drug approval changes for mild disease, and what decisions still need care.
An Alzheimer's drug moves from trial buzz into the more difficult territory of early treatment. The focus is practical: who might benefit, how much progression can be slowed, and what the risks ask of patients and clinicians.
A measured look at psychedelic therapy as a practice shaped by preparation, interpretation, and renewed research.
Psilocybin arrives in the clinic with a complicated history still attached. Psychedelic drugs were studied as possible treatments as far back as the 1950s, with research suggesting potential help for anxiety, depression, PTSD, and addiction, before Schedule I classification…
A clear, practical look at delirium, dementia screening, and emergency care for older patients.
A busy January morning at Barnes-Jewish Hospital gives the episode a grounded way into a hard emergency department problem: caring for older patients with dementia when delirium may be easy to miss. Dr.
Oncology evidence translated into clinical decisions.
Critical care evidence, carefully talked through.
Clinical research, reduced to its practical signal.
Show Me the Science examines Leqembi, the FDA-approved Alzheimer’s treatment described by Dr.
Show Me the Science examines Washington University researchers Ginger Nickell and Josh Siegel using precision functional mapping to study psilocybin's rapid effects on the brain.
Anthony Fauci tells Washington University medical graduates that the COVID-19 emergency ended in 2023, but vulnerable people still face risk.
Amy Rick recounts receiving a breast-cancer diagnosis at 37 while pregnant with her second daughter and finding support by speaking openly.
The National Center for Health Statistics reported that U.S.
Show Me the Science examines Daniel Mama's effort to identify young people at risk for schizophrenia in St.
["Up to 57% of people living with dementia in the United States have at least one emergency department visit each year, and Dr.
Robin Klein’s research found blood-brain barrier disruption in specific brain areas after COVID-19, but no evidence that the virus enters and replicates in neural tissue.
This episode discusses COVID-19 booster shots, vaccine effectiveness against variants, and immune responses in immunocompromised patients.
Dr.
This episode discusses the promising results of COVID-19 vaccine trials and the importance of flu vaccination during the pandemic.
This episode discusses the challenges of COVID-19 transmission during the holiday season, particularly among college students returning home, with insights from infectious disease specialists.