Human stories from health and science.
The Pulse connects medical and scientific questions to intimate, carefully reported scenes. Its episodes move from phone cravings and perfectionism to menopause, organ donation, caregiving, dream science, and an old fascination with Mars.
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The Pulse is a reported health and science show that favors people, scenes, and consequences over abstract explanation. It often starts with a moment that feels small until the science behind it gets larger. A parent checks her phone again and again on a beach with her daughter. A birthday party goodie bag becomes a window into perfectionism, shame, sleep trouble, and the fear of making mistakes. A love story turns into a caregiving story when illness changes the shape of a relationship. The show is strongest when it lets those human details carry the listener into bigger questions. Why do devices keep pulling attention back? What happens when standards become so high that they damage the mind and body? How do couples navigate desire, duty, disability, and loneliness when chronic illness enters the home? The range is broad, but the editorial rhythm stays steady. Episodes move through behavioral health, medical ethics, women’s health, sleep science, productivity, and the history of scientific belief. Menopause is treated not as a punchline or a vague life stage, but as a cluster of symptoms, questions, treatment paths, and overlooked experiences. Dream science arrives through sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming, and the possibility of changing nightmares from inside the dream. Even a story about Mars mania works as a science story about evidence, imagination, authority, and public fascination. The show also knows when science gets uncomfortable. Its organ donation reporting follows a medical tragedy with restraint, keeping attention on the family, the process, and the ethical stakes. Across episodes, The Pulse feels carefully produced and accessible without becoming simplistic. It is curious, empathetic, and precise enough for listeners who want science with narrative weight.
Made for: For listeners who like science reporting anchored in real lives, medical choices, behavioral puzzles, and historical context. It especially suits people drawn to public-radio storytelling with a practical, humane edge.
What sets it apart: The show turns research and medicine into narrative scenes before broadening into expert context. Its range lets dopamine, caregiving, menopause, sleep paralysis, organ donation, and Mars mythology sit inside the same curious editorial frame.
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.
A first birthday goodie bag becomes the alarm bell for perfectionism you didn't know was running the party.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A first-birthday goodie bag opens into a sharp look at perfectionism, fear, and the cost of impossible standards.
Perfectionism takes shape as a first-birthday goodie bag: treats, trinkets, and stickers arranged with care, then agitation when a helper packs them differently.
Plain talk for messy healthcare decisions.
Practical coaching for real-life fitness.
Insight-led wellbeing for inner change.
The Pulse host Maiken Scott interviews science journalist and chemist Michaelene Ducliff about why phones, social media, and ultra-processed foods can create craving without satisfaction.
A journalist explores Greenland's history of Viking disappearance and current geopolitical tensions involving NATO, the US, Russia, and China.
This episode explores the rise of urgent care centers in the U.S.
A gastroenterologist explains why using plain language like 'poop' instead of medical terms helps patients feel more comfortable discussing digestive issues.
The Pulse examines perfectionism through the story of Gitanjali Travari Seymour, who snapped at a relative over improperly folded birthday goodie bags before a severe health crisis years later forced her to confront her need for control.
Journalist Katie Hafner searches for lost documents about pioneering female scientist Katherine Burr Blodgett, who invented non-reflecting glass.
The Pulse host Maiken Scott interviews sociologist Laura Malden about becoming Jay's primary caregiver after Jay's leukemia recurred and required a bone marrow transplant.
On The Pulse, Maiken Scott interviews productivity writer Chris Bailey about why 92% of people fail at New Year’s resolutions and how values shape follow-through.
The Pulse marks 150 years since Bell's March 10, 1876 call ("Mr.
Baboon Bear bared his teeth at primatologist Christine Webb, and she read it as a pacifying gesture showing theory of mind.
The Pulse host Maiken Scott recounts brain fog, body pain, dizziness, nausea, and nighttime panic that doctors eventually connected to perimenopause.
Michelle Carr shares her experience with sleep paralysis and how lucid dreaming helped her overcome it.
This episode explores the early 1900s obsession with Mars, driven by astronomer Percival Lowell's claims of an advanced Martian civilization with irrigation canals.
An investigative report on a case where organ donation went wrong after a woman was declared dead but may have still been alive.