Slate Health

When John Fetterman checked himself into a hospital for clinical depression in mid-February, he was praised by both parties and public health officials for his bravery. But not long ago, being diagnosed with depression or taking time for your mental health were seen as disqualifying for those seeking public office.  Guest: Jason Kander, President of National Expansion at Veterans Community Project...

New understandings of how our brains develop are changing how the law considers who is mature and who isn’t. But If our brains are still developing, when can the law treat us like adults?  Guest: Jane C. Hu, independent science journalist. Host: Lizzie O’Leary If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonu...

The tech-laden, luxury bassinet “Snoo” has been presented as preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, helping babies sleep longer, and a totally reasonable way to spend $1,700. Is any of that true? Guest: Kate Taylor, senior features correspondent for Business Insider John Collins, Lizzie’s husband. Host: Lizzie O’Leary If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus...

A judge in north Texas is considering a lawsuit that could make access to abortion pills more difficult across the country. While anti-abortion activists can point to a string of recent successes, the existence of another, widely-used abortion medication would make medical abortions nearly impossible to ban outright.  Guest: Christina Cauterucci, Slate senior writer and host of Outward. If you enj...

Why does someone become a mass shooter? Researchers are interviewing perpetrators and their victims—and those who narrowly averted committing a mass shooting—and discovering a common thread of psychological despair. Can their work be applied to the prevention of future violence? Guest: Jillian Peterson, forensic psychologist, violence researcher, and author of The Violence Project.  If you enjoy t...

On today’s episode, Rachelle speaks with writer and cultural critic Casey Johnston about weight lifting. They discuss what led Casey to pick up the barbell, how she found her way into the online weight lifting space and the following she built there, and the ways weight lifting might be able to break us out of diet culture’s torturous cycle. This podcast is produced by Daniel Schroeder and Rachell...

On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate supervising producer Daisy Rosario is joined by stand-up comic Blaire Postman to discuss their journeys as women with ADHD, from receiving a diagnosis to the many ways it affects their everyday lives.  In Slate Plus, how Blaire navigated living with ADHD in the pandemic-era social media boom of all things ADHD content.   Podcast production by Cheyna Roth...

This week, former Slate Money host Cathy O’Neill joins Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers to discuss the technical glitch at the New York Stock Exchange. They also talk about a new study that found the IRS disproportionately audits Black taxpayers, and about Ozempic, a shockingly effective – and expensive – weight loss drug.   In the Plus segment: a debate over Slack etiquette.   Podca...

Last fall it seemed like everyone got sick—not just with COVID, but from a slew of respiratory diseases, from the mild to the severe. Researchers are trying to untangle how our immune systems have changed in the COVID era, and if we’re paying back an “immunity debt” or are victims of “immunity theft.”  Guest: Tim Requarth, contributing writer to Slate.  Host: Lizzie O’Leary If you enjoy this show,...

Earlier this year, our listener, Rell, nearly failed a promotion. Not because she was unprepared or unqualified, but because she didn’t maintain enough eye contact with the interviewers. Rell’s eye hasn’t been fully receiving information since she was born, a condition that’s outwardly visible and known colloquially as a “lazy eye.” It’s beginning to affect her self-confidence and is this “ugly th...

On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate Money co-host Emily Peck is joined by New York Times writer, Amy Larocca to discuss, as Amy says, the “menopause gold rush.” They dig into when exactly menopause starts, how younger women embracing their bodies has trickled up to their moms, and the companies that have started aggressively targeting menopausal women - for better and for worse.   In Slate...

January is barely two weeks old and already some of our ambitious New Year’s resolutions may be starting to fade. No shame! Approximately 90% of resolution makers don’t reach their goal. Which means there’s gotta be a better way. Our listener this week, Emily, is discouraged about her unhealthy eating and lack of exercise and wants to form better habits that last long after the new year. On this e...

The idea that COVID-19 vaccines are linked to sudden deaths among young people has no scientific support, but the theory nevertheless has a lot of traction on social media.  How can public health officials educate the public—especially on subject like vaccines, where their effectiveness renders them effectively invisible?  Guest: Katelyn Jetelina, epidemiologist and data scientist Host: Lizzie O’L...

In the final episode of Trumpcare Tracker, Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann ponder the latest, mysterious developments in the Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. Senate leadership is still pushing for a vote next week, even though nobody knows which bill they’ll be considering. On Thursday, Sen. John Cornyn told reporters that senators knowing what’s in the bill before it goes to the...

Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann recall the sudden collapse of the Republican health care bill on Monday night and wonder if master tactician Mitch McConnell can still bring it back from the dead. Could President Donald Trump change senators’ minds, and is there any hope for a bipartisan compromise? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann discuss the latest developments in the Republican attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare. They ask whether John McCain’s surgery makes the bill more or less likely to pass; they analyze the incentives administration officials are offering to moderates; and they break down Vice President Mike Pence’s spectacularly ineffective (and thoroughly debunked) pitch for the...

Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann discuss the latest draft of the health care legislation, which Republicans released on Thursday. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s bold tactic was to try to sway conservatives with policy concessions and to throw money at moderate holdouts. They ask why Senate moderates still haven’t definitively come out against the bill and whether Republican leadership will use a partisan s...

Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann discuss the latest developments in the Republicans’ quest to repeal and replace Obamacare. Will Ted Cruz’s amendment pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian? Does this legislative saga prove that politics are local once again? And can Lindsey Graham craft a bipartisan compromise to fix Obamacare? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Newell is joined by Vox reporter Dylan Scott to discuss how a week in their home states affected Republican senators’ attitudes toward the health-care bill. Is there any hope for the legislation when the most common feelings are ambivalence or fervent opposition? (Jordan Weissmann is on vacation.) Email: trumpcaretracker@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jordan Weissmann talks with Harold Pollack, a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago, about the devastating effects the Republican health care bill will have on disabled Americans and other vulnerable citizens. In recent weeks Pollack has written about how Trumpcare will probably kill thousands every year and why Americans with disabilities should be ter...

Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann discuss the latest developments in the Republicans’ efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. Ted Cruz has a plan that could break the legislative logjam, President Donald Trump puts repeal and delay back on the table, and moderate Republicans aren’t falling for it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann discuss Mitch McConnell’s surprise decision to delay the Senate vote on health care reform. Was the CBO score the final nail in the coffin? What side deals can McConnell make to persuade the holdouts in his party? And should Democrats be nervous that Obamacare is about to be repealed? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann read the entrails of GOP senators’ statements in an attempt to calculate if Republicans have enough votes to get their health care bill passed. Then they look at waivers—might they really allow states to use health care funds on stadiums or anything else?—and assess the effectiveness of the Republicans’ six-month lockout to encourage young, healthy people to maintai...

Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann take a close look at the health-care bill Republican senators released on Thursday. Jim describes the scene on Capitol Hill, then they talk about what surprised them about the proposed legislation and assess its chances of passage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann hash out the latest rumors about the secretive Republican health-care reform process. Could the Senate parliamentarian halt the legislation’s progress? If so, might Republican leaders simply ignore her? How does Sen. Mitch McConnell’s abiding affection for the filibuster come into play, and will abortion politics scuttle the entire project?  Learn more about your ad...