Petrie Dish

Latest Episodes:

Science & Medicine: Training a new front line for Texas mental health care Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

Only about 30% of Texans who need mental health support are getting it, and the shortage of providers is projected to worsen dramatically over the next decade. A UT Health San Antonio psychologist has developed a program that teaches counseling skills to non-specialists like community health workers, faith-based practitioners, and even doulas.

Petrie Dish: 'Checking out' connection Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

A visit to a neighborhood library reveals what a loneliness researcher calls a "third place" in action: ESL classes, new parents bringing their toddlers to storytime, remote workers on their laptops, and neighbors who show up just to be around other people. It's one solution to the crisis explored in our two-part series on loneliness that you can 'check out' with nothing more than a library card.

Science & Medicine: Studying the 'form and function' of prostate cancer's main driver leads to a breakthrough Sep 20, 2026

Show notes

A San Antonio scientist thinks of the protein that drives most prostate cancers as a machine, and pioneers a method to visualize it for the first time. This could lead to much better treatments and, someday, prevention.

Petrie Dish: The lonely body and the social cure Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

In the second part of Petrie Dish’s exploration of loneliness, host Bonnie Petrie looks at what it takes to fight isolation, from teen gathering spaces to libraries and “chatty cafes,” and how communities can be designed to bring people together.

Science & Medicine: AI tool aims to cut deadly delays in Texas trauma care Sep 13, 2026

Show notes

In rural Texas, severely injured patients often wait more than two hours to reach specialized trauma care. A UT Health San Antonio trauma surgeon is co-leading an effort to change that with an AI tool designed to help emergency doctors make faster transfer decisions that can mean the difference between life and death.

Science & Medicine: Increasing vaccine rates to eliminate cervical cancer Sep 06, 2026

Show notes

The UT Health San Antonio professor who is leading an effort to increase the number of South Texas teens who are vaccinated against the human papillomavirus hopes to see cervical cancer eliminated in the United States in her lifetime.

Petrie Dish: Summer COVID wave climbing as flu season looms Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

The annual summer COVID wave hasn't peaked yet, and flu season is on the way, but this year brings new options to fight back. From a prophylactic pill you can take after exposure to COVID to a faster-made mRNA flu shot, Dr. Jason Bowling of UT Health San Antonio breaks down the new options.

Science & Medicine: The circadian clock that controls fat-burning Aug 30, 2026

Show notes

Every organ in your body keeps its own internal clock, and UT Health San Antonio researcher Kevin Koronowski is studying how that clock controls fat metabolism. His lab is investigating a protein pair that decides when the body burns fat and when it stores it, work that could eventually improve treatments for metabolic disease.

Science & Medicine: Communicating with Aphasia Aug 23, 2026

Show notes

When Bruce Willis, an action movie star known for his way with words, started to lose his language skills, it made news. He had aphasia.

Science & Medicine: San Antonio's fungus lab is on the front line of a growing drug-resistance crisis Aug 16, 2026

Show notes

When doctors can't identify a fungal infection, they often turn to UT Health San Antonio's Fungus Testing Laboratory, which has discovered more than 60 new species since 2013. The lab is now racing to fight drug-resistant fungi while helping bring new antifungal treatments to market.

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