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Rising cases, not enough testing, and not enough people taking the virus seriously. NPR science correspondent Richard Harris explains why the virus is surging again, what's causing lower fatality rates, and how to think about the future of the pandemic.
For more on death rates in the latest surge, read: "COVID-19 Cases Are Rising, So Why Are Deaths Flatlining?"
Follow Maddie at @maddie_sofia and Richard @rrichardh. Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.
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The human brain can process 11 million bits of information every second. But our conscious minds can handle only 40 to 50 bits of information a second. So our brains sometimes take cognitive shortcuts that can lead to unconscious or implicit bias, with serious consequences for how we perceive and act toward other people. Where does unconscious bias come from? How does it work in the brain and ultimately impact society?
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Some snakes can fly, and we don't mean on a plane. Certain snakes that live in South and Southeast Asia can leap off branches, undulating through the air, onto another tree. But why do they wiggle? NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce shares one researcher's quest to find out.
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Climate change and this year's weather patterns are behind the record-breaking heat in Siberia. NPR Climate Reporter Rebecca Hersher tells us how it's contributed to all sorts of problems there — mosquito swarms, buckling roads, wildfires. And we'll hear how these high temps are threatening the livelihoods of Indigenous Russians.
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Encore episode. Humans have a long history of inventions that shape the world around us: electricity, telephones, computers, music — the list goes on. But as Ainissa Ramirez explains in her new book, The Alchemy of Us, those inventions are shaping us, too.
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Encore episode. Jean-Jacques Muyembe is a Congolese doctor who headed up the response to the recent Ebola outbreak in Congo. Back in 1976, he was the first doctor to collect a sample of the virus. But his crucial role in discovering Ebola is often overlooked. NPR's East Africa correspondent Eyder Peralta helps us correct the record.
Follow Eyder on Twitter — he's @eyderp and Maddie's @maddie_sofia.
You can always reach the show by emailing shortwave@npr.org.
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Encore episode. NASA engineer Dajae Williams is using hip hop to make math and science more accessible to young people of color. We talk with Dajae about her path to NASA, and how music helped her fall in love with math and science when she was a teenager.
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Encore episode. A deadly triangle of factors is killing off U.S. honeybees. Last year, forty percent of honeybee colonies died in the U.S., continuing an alarming trend. Entomologist Sammy Ramsey tells host Maddie Sofia about the "three P's" and what listeners can do to help our fuzzy-flighted friends.
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Though Black Americans make up 13% of the U.S. population, they represent only 5% of physicians. How does that lack of diversity in the physician workforce impact Black patients' health and well-being? Dr. Owen Garrick, the CEO and President of Bridge Clinical Research, wanted to know.
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A special episode from our colleagues at NPR's history podcast Throughline.
When a cook who carried typhoid fever showed no symptoms and refused to stop working, authorities forcibly quarantined her for nearly three decades. Was she a perfect villain? Or a woman scapegoated because of her background?
Throughline hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei tell the story of Typhoid Mary — a story about journalism, the powers of the state, and the tension between personal freedom and public health.
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