Make Science Make Sense

Dr. Jennifer J. Carroll heard the same story in her interviews with people who overdosed on opioids and were being treated in emergency departments: their supplier was arrested. In Episode 6, Dr. Jennifer J. Carroll discusses research measuring the relationship between police drug seizures and drug overdoses in the city of Indianapolis. Using police records of overdose and public records of overdo...

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and alcohol or drug problems often co-occur, or exist together, and military veterans experience these challenges at higher rates than civilians. For years, research has suggested that veterans don’t always benefit from PTSD treatments in the same way that civilians do, pointing to a need to learn more about the treatments that work for them. Today, we talk...

In our media-saturated world, our kids are impressionable targets for advertisements for foods that are “high in” ingredients linked to obesity and nutrition-related disease: saturated fats, sodium, sugar, and calories. Children who see these ads have poorer health trajectories and higher rates of obesity. Unhealthy food ads contradict every parent’s best intentions to provide their child with a n...

In today’s world, children are surrounded by stressors that can jeopardize their mental health. National statistics show a troubling increase in mental health disorders and a growing incidence of suicide among younger populations over the past decade. Many parents and caretakers hesitate to discuss critical topics like death and suicide, fearing that such conversations may do more harm than good....

It’s easy to think of climate change as a simple story: rising temperatures and sea levels driven by human activity. But the reality is far more complex. Changes in the natural world are often uneven, unpredictable, and difficult to forecast. As oceanographer Nick Record explains in this episode, climate change unfolds in “fits and spurts” rather than in a smooth, linear trend. That complexity is...

Air pollution isn’t just about what you breathe in today. It’s about how our bodies process toxins and the invisible changes that lead to diseases over time.  In this episode, we talk to molecular and cell biologist Dr. Shaun McCullough to unpack how repeated exposure to pollutants can change how our cells respond, and why those effects aren’t the same for everyone. His laboratory group is develop...

How We Met and Why We Started Make Science Make Sense While translating complex research for broader audiences—and covering for each other as new moms—we noticed a pattern: incredible scientific work was being published every day, but much of it never reached the people who could benefit from it. That’s why we created @MakeScienceMakeSense, a podcast where each episode takes one scientific paper a...

Make Science Make Sense is a new podcast that turns scientific evidence into meaningful insights for everyday life. The hosts, Elizabeth and Mia, focus on unpacking recent scientific research and drawing connections between evidence and actions related to our health, our food, our living environments, our behaviors, and other aspects of practical life. Takeaways Unpacking scientific research for e...