The Pulse

Skydiving, BASE jumping, climbing the highest peaks, adventuring to remote parts of the world — pushing the boundaries of safety. For thrill-seekers, chasing the rush is what it's all about. Where lots of us would break into a cold sweat, they experience something different: calm, focus, even moments of sublime awe. So what is it that makes thrill-seekers different? On this episode, we investigate...

Freedom sounds great as an idea. Who doesn't want to be free to do what they want? But when you take a closer look, freedom becomes more complicated. What does it really mean to be free — and how free can we be? On this episode, we'll look at freedom from different perspectives. We'll talk with a neuroscientist who says we evolved to have free will — even though it can sometimes feel like our brai...

In October of 1947, a navy reserve pilot named George Earle IV received strange orders: He was to pick up several 55-gallon barrels at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, fly out 100 miles southeast of Atlantic City, and then dump them into the ocean — all in secret, in the dead of night. Earle would repeat the mission twice more without ever being told what he was dumping. But he had a clue. Before leavi...

Health disparities between Black and white Americans run deep in the U.S. Black people are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, or asthma, and their life expectancy is shorter than that of their white peers. The causes for these inequities are far-reaching and include bias and systemic racism in health care and medical treatments, lack of access...

It's a simple question with lots of answers: Who are you? You might answer with your name, age, gender, or race. Or you might define yourself by your family — as a sibling, a parent, or son or daughter. You might choose your profession, your passion, your culture, or values. We hear a lot about embracing our "true selves" — the essential core of our beings; the thing that makes us us. But when you...

The messages we receive around quitting are usually straightforward — don't do it. It's something we hear everywhere — from greats like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky, in movies and TV shows, on motivational posters and in children's books: Go the distance. Never give up. Quitters never win, and winners never quit. But what if giving up really is the best option? What if we're miserable, or burn...

When NPR host Elise Hu moved to South Korea to be an international correspondent, she ended up getting a crash course on Korean beauty and the country's billion-dollar cosmetics industry. She explains the rise of the industry, its appeal, and the high standards it sets for appearance. On this episode, a conversation with Elise Hu about her new book, "Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the...

Humans have long been fascinated by the idea of communicating with other species — not just teaching animals to mimic human words, but truly understanding their calls or cries, and interpreting their meaning. In recent years, new technologies and research are getting us closer to that point. So what are scientists learning about the way animals' minds work — what they think about, care about, and...

We all know how stress — or anger, or pangs of anxiety — can affect the body. Your heart rate increases; your blood pressure rises; maybe your palms feel sweaty, or your stomach feels tight. Likewise, our bodies have a profound impact on our minds. When we experience pleasure, happy chemicals flood our brains, keeping us calm and relaxed. Chronic pain, on the other hand, can cause anxiety, depress...

More than a third of Americans use complementary and alternative medicine, ranging from acupuncture to herbalism, Ayurveda to homeopathy. But despite its growing popularity, complementary and alternative medicine remains, for the most part, outside the Western medical mainstream — regarded by some as fringe, and by others as straight-up quackery. Despite that, many researchers and supporters have...

If you look around for Mother's Day gifts, you'll probably see stuff like bubble baths, spa days, yoga classes — a whole slew of things aimed at promoting "self-care" for tireless (but actually exhausted) moms. But for a lot of overwhelmed mothers, self-care becomes just another box to tick — another item on an endless to-do list that never gets finished. The demands of modern motherhood can be ov...

Have you ever wanted to figure out when you're the most focused? Or how your moods change throughout the day? How "fit" your brain is, or whether your insomnia is really as bad as you think? Neurotech devices promise to deliver insights. These are cutting-edge gadgets that pick up on the electrochemical signals inside of our brains, and are connected to algorithms that analyze and interpret that d...

Rejection, or even the thought of it, can strike fear into our hearts, and leave a bad taste in our mouths. It often leads to a mix of sadness, shame, anxiety, and anger — along with nagging questions. What's wrong with me? Why did this person not like me? Why didn't I win this award? Why didn't I get the job? But it doesn't have to be that way, and there's a lot we can learn from not making the c...

We all know that exercise is good for us — for both our bodies and our minds — but motivating yourself to hit the gym, take a run, or even go for a walk sometimes feels like the hardest thing in the world. There are constant rebuttals that arise in our minds: We're too busy. We're too tired. We need a break — we'll start next week. At the same time, we're bombarded by messages from people who are...

We hear about the big picture of climate change almost every day — the threats it poses, the effects on our world and lives, the fight to stop it. Across the world, armies of researchers are contributing pieces to that big picture narrative every day. They often travel long distances and brave the elements to collect information, one small data point at a time. How do Antarctic penguins fare when...

On April 3, 1973, an engineer named Martin Cooper stood nervously along a busy midtown Manhattan street, about to make a phone call. It was a call that would change life as we know it: The first cell phone call ever. The phone Cooper used that day — a prototype — was a bulky, 2-pound monster that looked a bit like a shoe with an antenna sticking out of the top. In the half-a-century since, this te...

Science is all about observing the world. But how do you study something you can't see, smell, or hear — like the tiniest particles all around us? How do you test a new energy source when it doesn't really exist yet? These are the challenges that the world of physics often faces. You can come up with theories, using modeling and calculations, and devise some kind of experiment on paper to investig...

Health disparities between Black and white Americans run deep in the U.S. Black people are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, or asthma, and their life expectancy is shorter than that of their white peers. The causes for these inequities are far-reaching and include bias and systemic racism in health care and medical treatments, lack of access...

Finding the right therapist — or, sometimes, any therapist — can be a grueling process. Someone with the right expertise, who is still taking new clients, lives in your area, who accepts your insurance, or whose services you can afford. Over the past few years, online therapy platforms like BetterHelp and Talkspace have seen an explosion in popularity. They promise easy access — anytime you need i...

It's the goosebumps you get at the crescendo of your favorite song; the stupefying wonder that comes with witnessing a birth or a death; the astonishing mystery we feel when gazing at the vast night sky. This is awe — a complex, often overwhelming emotion that can elicit everything from pleasure and connectedness to a crawling sense of uncertainty. Moments of awe can create unforgettable memories...

Pain is powerful — and when it becomes chronic, it can be all-consuming. It takes over our minds, saps our energy, and becomes the focus of our existence. And yet, pain is also invisible. We can try to describe it — stabbing, nagging, dull, achy; we can rate it on a number scale from one to 10, or point to a smiley or frowny face to define it, but it's not something we can ever fully communicate....

It's that time of year when we celebrate something we usually hate: fear. We visit haunted houses and corn mazes or binge-watch the scariest horror movies. But our relationship with fear is complicated. In its most primitive form, fear is about survival — it raises our heart rates, redirects our blood flow, makes us faster and fiercer, all so we can face — or escape — serious threats. In other set...

The modern ICU, or Intensive Care Unit, was born out of a time of crisis. It was 1952, and polio was raging in many places — especially the city of Copenhagen. Patients poured into the hospitals, many of them gasping for air, turning blue, and eventually dying. Then a brilliant doctor tried a radically different approach — pumping air directly into patients' lungs. It was an idea that would requir...

Skydiving, BASE jumping, climbing the highest peaks, adventuring to remote parts of the world — pushing the boundaries of safety. For thrill-seekers, chasing the rush is what it's all about. Where lots of us would break into a cold sweat, they experience something different: calm, focus, even moments of sublime awe. So what is it that makes thrill-seekers different? On this episode, we investigate...

The death of a loved one can be shattering — especially when it's unexpected. It destroys our feeling of safety, warps our sense of reality, and often leaves us feeling lost ... unsure if we'll ever come out on the other side. It's an experience just about everyone goes through at some point in their lives, and yet it can feel profoundly lonely. There's no linear logic or prescribed progression; g...