Freakonomics, M.D.
Stitcher Podcasts
Each week, physician, economist, and author of "Random Acts of Medicine" Dr. Bapu Jena will dig into a fascinating study at the intersection of economics and healthcare. He takes on questions like: Why do kids with summer birthdays get the flu more often? Can surviving a hurricane help you live longer? What do heart surgery and grocery-store pricing have in common?
Location:
United States
Genres:
Arts & Culture Podcasts
Networks:
Stitcher Podcasts
Description:
Each week, physician, economist, and author of "Random Acts of Medicine" Dr. Bapu Jena will dig into a fascinating study at the intersection of economics and healthcare. He takes on questions like: Why do kids with summer birthdays get the flu more often? Can surviving a hurricane help you live longer? What do heart surgery and grocery-store pricing have in common?
Language:
English
Episodes
The Economics of Everyday Things: Animal Urine
7/20/2023
In the newest show from the Freakonomics Radio Network, host Zachary Crockett explores the hidden side of the things around us. This week: One creature’s trash is another’s cash. (Or, how one man found profit in pee.)
Duration:00:12:57
Tom Brady, A.D.H.D., and a Really Bad Headache (Bonus)
7/11/2023
A sneak peek at Bapu's new book, Random Acts of Medicine, available now from Doubleday, and an announcement about the show.
Duration:00:37:40
78. Do Kids Cause Divorce?
3/30/2023
Couples get divorced for all kinds of reasons. Is having kids one of them? Bapu talks about research that investigates what happens to parents who unexpectedly have twins. Plus, an announcement about the future of the show.
Duration:00:18:50
77. They Make Minimum Wage. They Could Save Your Life.
3/23/2023
Doctors and nurses get most of the attention — but a new study suggests we can improve health care by raising wages for a group of workers who are often overlooked.
Duration:00:18:32
76. Is a Spoonful of Sunlight the Best Medicine?
3/16/2023
In hospitals, a softer pillow or a nicer room might be more than just amenities — they could improve outcomes for patients.
Duration:00:17:34
75. What Is Sugar Really Doing to You?
3/9/2023
Americans eat a lot of sugar — and it’s hard to determine how it affects our health. Bapu explains how a new study uses data from the 1950s to help solve the mystery.
Duration:00:19:47
74. How Does Playing Football Affect Your Health?
3/2/2023
It’s not a new question, but it’s a tricky one to study. Bapu explains why, and talks about how an N.F.L. labor dispute helped him get some answers.
Duration:00:16:52
73. Who Pays for Multimillion-Dollar Miracle Cures?
2/16/2023
The most expensive drugs in the world are treatments for genetic diseases. And more of these cures are on the horizon. How will anyone be able to afford them?
Duration:00:29:28
72. What’s Stopping Us From Curing Rare Diseases?
2/9/2023
Breakthroughs in biotech that seem like science fiction are becoming reality. Why aren’t more patients benefiting from them?
Duration:00:31:35
71. What Do COVID-19 and Cancer Have in Common?
2/2/2023
mRNA vaccines helped bring the pandemic under control. Could they also train the immune system to fight cancer?
Duration:00:26:56
70. Why Are There Still So Few Female Surgeons?
1/26/2023
Success and failure are hard to measure in medicine. Bapu looks at how surgeons are judged after a bad outcome — and whether men and women are treated the same.
Duration:00:29:25
69. Home Sweet … Hospital?
1/19/2023
We take it for granted that, when people are acutely ill, they should be in the hospital. Is there a better way?
Duration:00:27:52
68. The E.R. Doctor’s Dilemma
1/12/2023
Figuring out which patients to hospitalize and which to safely send home can be tricky. Is there a way to make this decision easier for doctors — and get better outcomes, too?
Duration:00:29:54
What Can We Do About the Hardest Patients? (Ep. 51 Replay)
1/5/2023
A small number of patients with multiple chronic conditions use a lot of resources. Dr. Jeffrey Brenner found a way to identify and treat them. Could it reduce health-care spending too?
Duration:00:31:23
67. Why Did This 60-Year-Old Man Collapse at the Supermarket?
12/29/2022
Bapu tries to stump master clinician Dr. Gurpreet Dhaliwal with a medical mystery.
Duration:00:33:39
66. Does Health Insurance Make You Healthier?
12/22/2022
It’s a surprisingly hard question to answer. Bapu talks with a health economist about a natural experiment that led to some unexpected findings.
Duration:00:32:10
65. How Do Pandemics Change Health Care?
12/15/2022
At the start of the 20th century, there weren’t many hospitals in the U.S. That changed in 1918, thanks to the Great Influenza pandemic. Its effects on health care are still being felt today. Which makes us wonder: will the impact of Covid-19 also be felt 100 years from now?
Duration:00:31:49
64. Is Facebook Bad for Your Mental Health?
12/8/2022
Half the world's population uses social media — and a new study suggests that it causes anxiety and depression. Can anything be done, or is it too late?
Duration:00:32:31
63. What Medicine Gets Wrong About Race
12/1/2022
Some diagnostic tests give distorted results for Black patients. How are doctors trying to change that?
Duration:00:33:27
Why Don’t We Have a Cure for Alzheimer’s? (Ep. 49 Update)
11/24/2022
Promising drugs keep failing in trials. Allegations of fraud have cast a shadow over the field. An expert explains why Alzheimer’s treatments have been so hard to find — and why one clue may lie in the Andes Mountains.
Duration:00:33:10