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How To!: Help a Loved One With Dementia Mar 19, 2024

Show notes

Forgetfulness. Repetitiveness. Confusion. Dementia is a long, painful road for both the person living with it, caregivers, and their additional loved ones. Mara’s mom just received her diagnosis and Mara is wondering what is next for their family. She turned to our host Courtney Martin for guidance—since Courtney is going through the same thing with her father.

On this episode of How To!: Courtney and Mara are joined by Tami Anastasia, author of Essential Strategies for the Dementia Caregiver. As a dementia consultant, Tami helps families support each other and find the beautiful moments in this painful journey.

If you liked this episode check out: How To Make Aging Easier for Everyone

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

How To’s executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer. The show is produced by Rosemary Belson.

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What Next TBD: When Private Equity Gets in to Health Care Mar 17, 2024

Show notes

Private equity firms have been buying up doctors’ offices and hospitals around the country. But if profits are the primary goal, what happens to the cost and quality of healthcare for patients?

Guest: Gretchen Morgenson, senior financial reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit and co-author of “These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America”

Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Patrick Fort, and Anna Phillips.

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Well, Now: Life After Lockdown Mar 13, 2024

Show notes

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization named Covid-19 a pandemic, and public health around the globe changed forever.

Countries shut down their borders, businesses closed and furloughed workers, and millions of students went to remote learning. Two years in, more than one million Americans lost their lives.

This week on Well, Now we mark this grim anniversary by talking about what we have and haven’t learned about this world-changing virus with one of the epidemiologists who first began sounding the alarm about Covid-19: Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding.

Podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.

Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com.

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Well, Now: How the Food on Your Plate Can Fight Climate Change Mar 06, 2024

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It’s impossible to ignore the impact of climate change. Sea levels are rising, and natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires are increasing in strength and number each year.

A major contributor to a warming planet is the way we’re processing our food. So on this week’s episode of Well, Now we discuss ways to eat a full, balanced diet while keeping the health of the planet in mind with registered dietitian nutritionist Chris Vogliano.

If you liked this episode, check out: Breaking Up With Diet Culture

Podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.

Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com

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What Next: Florida's Anti-Vaxxers Won. Then the Measles Surged. Mar 04, 2024

Show notes

Measles happens, but this outbreak in Florida is unfolding in a post-pandemic world where mistrust in public health officials and vaccinations is practically the party line.

Guest: Lauren Weber, Washington Post accountability reporter focused on scientific and medical disinformation.

Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Amicus: The IVF Decision We Should Have Seen Coming Mar 02, 2024

Show notes

It was a wild week at the High Court (another seven days crammed with a year’s worth of news). SCOTUS heard cases about bump stocks, and how Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would do as Facebook content moderators. The Supreme Court also finally found the time to put a thumb on the scale for serially indicted alleged insurrector-in-chief former President Donald J Trump. We’ll talk about all those things with Slate’s very own Mark Joseph Stern.

But what we’re really focused on this week is the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision finding that frozen embryos are children, and the unshakeable sense that the coverage of this so far has had a slightly myopic quality, as though this case is purely about IVF, and carving out IVF, when in fact the entire movement for fetal personhood sweeps in many more people and rights than just those seeking assisted reproductive technology. We’re joined by a preeminent expert on matters of law, medicine, reproductive health, and biotechnologies, Dr. Michele Goodwin. Dr. Goodwin is the author of Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and The Criminalization of Motherhood. She explains (again) why we should have seen this decision coming from miles (and centuries) away.

Want more Amicus? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

Later, in the Slate Plus segment, Mark returns to discuss this week’s SCOTUS arguments and the big news that legislative turtle and legal hellscape architect Mitch McConnell will be stepping down from his role as leader of Republicans in the Senate later this year.

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Well, Now: Ending Racism in Healthcare Feb 28, 2024

Show notes

The U.S. healthcare system can split the country into two Americas.

Your zip code, education, class status and more all play a role in the outcome of your health as well as the kind of care you receive.

Fewer markers more clearly define these disparities than race.

On this week’s episode of Well, Now Maya and Kavita talk about racism in American healthcare with Dr. Uché Blackstock.

Her new book Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine gives a historical view of how racism has always played a role in U.S. healthcare.

This book is also a memoir of her own experience as a physician carrying on the legacy of her late mother, Dr. Dale Gloria Blackstock.

Health Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

Podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.

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What Next TBD: Alabama’s IVF Mess Feb 25, 2024

Show notes

Fertility doctors and their patients trying to conceive via in vitro fertilization (IVF) were stopped in their tracks this week, as the Alabama Supreme Court declared that embryos have the same rights as people. The decision has left doctors wondering if they can be sued for carrying out standard IVF procedures, and experts worry the ruling could have ramifications for IVF around the country.

Guest: Dr. Elizabeth Constance, reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist in Omaha, Nebraska.

Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

Check out Compiler here.

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Well, Now: Is it Burnout? Or, Do You Have a Busy Brain? Feb 21, 2024

Show notes

Stress is all around us, but that doesn’t mean it needs to run our entire lives. According to Dr. Romie Mushtaq – a neurologist turned corporate wellness consultant – the main culprit behind our culture of stress is what she calls a “busy brain.”

This week on Well, Now Dr. Kavita Patel and Maya Feller, RDN talk with Dr. Mushtaq about curing our busy brains and her latest book The Busy Brain Cure: The Eight-Week Plan to Find Focus, Tame Anxiety and Sleep Again.

If you liked this episode, check out: What We Get Wrong About Love

Podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.

Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com

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A Word: Ghost in the Medical Machine Feb 16, 2024

Show notes

The promise of artificial intelligence in medicine is that it can reduce the influence of human error and bias in health care. But there’s growing concern that A.I. in medicine –as in other fields– can reflect the biases and lack of diversity among its creators. And that can have life threatening consequences for African American patients. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by Margo Snipe, a health reporter for CapitalB News. They discuss how A.I. can sometimes fuel medical racism, and reasons to hope that it can change.

Guest: Margo Snipe, health journalist for CapitalB News

Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola

You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for $15 for your first three months.

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