Radio Shows
Our award-winning radio show is heard by 200,000 listeners on over 190 public radio stations nationwide. Tune in to find out about everything from home remedies to the latest breakthroughs in medicine. You can find a list of public radio stations that carry The People’s Pharmacy here.
Show 1239: How Can We Prevent Diagnostic Disaste…
It seems obvious that to provide the proper treatment, a doctor first needs to know what is wrong. However, although medical experts have been focusing on improving diagnosis in medicine for more than…
Show 1238: How Is COVID-19 Affecting Mental Heal…
These are stressful times. Many people are grieving the death of a loved one, while others are struggling with working or studying from home. Being separated from loved ones can be emotionally drainin…
Show 1237: Improving Your Mood With Food
Working from home during the pandemic has wrought havoc with a lot of healthy eating habits. It’s harder to shop safely, and minimizing time in the grocery store may mean people have stocked up on s…
Show 1236: The Inside Story on Vaccines Against …
SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, has infected many millions of people both in the United States and around the world. The death toll is horrifying, with more than a quarter of a m…
Show 1234: How Microbes Evolve to Become Enemies…
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus behind COVID-19 is changing. This should not be a surprise, since microbes evolve by nature. What implications might this have for the infection in future months? We speak w…
Show 1233: How Does Your Immune System Overcome …
One of the striking things about the COVID-19 pandemic is how differently people respond. Some people contract the virus but never really have symptoms, while others land in the hospital struggling fo…
Show 1232: What Should People Do to Protect Thei…
Far too many Americans have died of COVID-19 during 2020, but heart disease is still the number one killer. Moreover, people with heart disease are more vulnerable to complications from the coro…
Show 1231: How Can Women Reduce Their Risk for D…
Two out three people with Alzheimer disease are women. Why are they at higher risk for this devastating condition than men? Even more important, how can they reduce their risk for dementia? Many of th…
Show 1230: What Happens When COVID Symptoms Don&…
Experts estimate that 30 million people worldwide have had COVID-19. More than a million have died, and approximately 20 million have recovered. However, while health professionals usually think of th…
Show 1229: The End of Food Allergies
Very likely you have heard of children who are allergic to peanuts. Sometimes the tiniest whiff of peanut dust can trigger a frightening reaction. Food allergies have been increasing dramatically amon…
Show 1228: Why Clinical Trials Matter for COVID-…
Until December of 2019, doctors had no experience with pandemic that has now killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world. As the infection raced from country to country, they tried a lot o…
Show 1148: What Can You Do About Kidney Stones? …
Kidney stones afflict an estimated three million Americans each year, resulting in at least half a million trips to the emergency department. But what are they and what can you do about them? How do t…
Show 1226: The Coronavirus Hunter Gives You an U…
Back in May, 2020, we spoke with a scientist known internationally as the coronavirus hunter. Dr. Ralph Baric has been studying coronaviruses for more than three decades. He was involved in the early …
Show 1170: What Makes Your Immune System an Eleg…
This show first aired in June, 2019, before anyone had heard of SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19. Today, understanding how your immune system works to overcome an infection is more important than ever. Just how…
Show 1225: What Is the Evidence on Vaccines and …
We have had eight months of COVID-19 pandemic, and there is nobody anywhere who isn’t ready for it to be over. That is why there is quite a bit of excitement about the potential for vaccines. Severa…
Show 1222: How Can You Optimize Your Microbiome?
The microbiome–the genome of our collective microbiota–has become a trendy topic in medicine lately. With more microbial than human cells in our bodies, it’s becoming clear we should think of ou…
Show 1221: What Explains the Recent Increase in …
A couple of decades ago, most people had never heard of celiac disease. Many doctors had never diagnosed a case, and they had often learned it was an extremely rare condition. Following a gluten-free …
Show 1220: How We Can Learn Faster and Better an…
When Jim Kwik was a little boy, he had a bad fall that resulted in a concussion. He struggled with learning problems throughout elementary school and even later. But he eventually learned to stop thin…
Show 1219: How to Achieve Maximum Memory Fitness
In these challenging times, keeping our brains healthy and working well is important. Social isolation can be debilitating, but there are approaches that can help counteract these difficulties. Resear…
Show 1155: Can Bacteriophages Save Your Life? (A…
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been cropping up around the world. These superbugs cause serious problems, especially when they fail to respond to increasingly potent medications. One approach may …
Show 1218: How Industry Manipulates Science to D…
For decades, the tobacco industry was able to ward off anti-smoking policy by claiming that science did not support it. In hindsight, it is clear that most epidemiologists came to the conclusion that …
Show 1217: Natural Ways to Keep Your Immune Syst…
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of having a healthy immune system. It appears that more than three-fourths of the people who contract the infection recover without hospitalization…
Show 1216: How Sugar Interferes With Healthy Dec…
The telomeres that cap our chromosomes are a good way to gauge biological aging. Dr. Elissa Epel, who studies aging and metabolism at UCSF, has found a link between soda consumption and cellular aging…
Show 1215: Chasing a Cure for the Cytokine Storm…
Dr. David Fajgenbaum was a medical student in excellent health when he was struck with a mysterious disease. He nearly died before his doctors finally diagnosed him with a rare condition known as idio…
Show 1214: How to Defend Your Brain During the P…
For decades, neurologists have been telling us that Alzheimer disease is driven largely by the accumulation of beta-amyloid plaque in the brain. They have suspected that this is determined in large me…
Show 1213: How Does COVID-19 Affect Your Heart?
What comes to mind when you think of COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus? Chances are, you think of the lungs. There’s been a tremendous amount of attention to the breathing difficu…
Show 1211: A Conversation With the Coronavirus H…
Dr. Ralph Baric has been studying coronaviruses for 35 years and is one of the world’s leading experts on these pathogens. In this interview, you will learn how the virus jumped from bats to people …
Show 1210: What Are the Health Benefits of Tea, …
Are you drinking too much coffee? Is coffee actually bad for you anyway, or might a few cups have health benefits? Have you heard about the health benefits of tea? Dr. Tieraona Low Dog delves into the…
Show 1209: How a Doctor Confronts Medical Error
When hospitals are overstressed and understaffed, as they have been during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical errors are hardly surprising. Back in 2016, a group of doctors published an analysis in the BM…
Show 1208: Keeping Kids Healthy in the Age of Co…
Schools are closed and kids are home so that they don’t catch COVID-19 and spread it to family members. Of course, parents don’t want their children to get sick, either. How are we keeping kids he…
Show 1132: Are Infections to Blame for Alzheimer…
With nearly six million Americans living with Alzheimer disease, this condition is a serious public health problem. It robs people of their memories, their ability to function independently and even t…
Show 1207: Can You Use Your Patient Portal for B…
Staying at home and maintaining safe physical distance means that some primary care practices are not functioning normally during the pandemic. However, you may still want to connect with your doctor.…
Show 1206: Live Coronavirus Update to Answer You…
Information on the coronavirus pandemic is changing hourly. The US now has more COVID-19 cases than any other country. For this live coronavirus update on March 28, 2020, we have asked infectious dise…
Show 1205: How Do Patients’ Stories Shape …
How do doctors figure out what is wrong with a person and how they can be treated effectively? Traditionally, medicine has put great emphasis on the patient’s history, which usually means the patien…
Show 1204: How Brain Function Affects Mental Ill…
Mental health problems cause widespread disability in today’s world. Large numbers of people suffer with depression or severe anxiety. While these ailments are real, we may not be considering their …
Show 1203: How Yoga Can Help You Age Gracefully
Stress is nearly ubiquitous in modern life. We all know it isn’t healthy, but we may not have a lot of tools for escaping or alleviating it. People under stress may feel they don’t have enough tim…
Show 1202: How Can We Fix Our Broken Food System…
In our modern world, many people have become disconnected from the source of their food. Unlike our distant ancestors, who hunted and foraged for their meals, or even our great-grandparents who raised…
Show 1201: Hard-to-Diagnose Conditions Can Be De…
Diagnosis is a crucial first step for medical treatment. In some situations, recognizing the condition as soon as possible makes a big difference in the outcome. However, doctors may have difficulty w…
Show 1200: Making Sense of Changing Nutritional …
Why is nutrition advice so controversial? Often, it seems as if food fights are the fiercest disagreements in medicine. Have you had trouble making sense of changing nutritional guidelines? Changing N…
Show 1197: How You Can Save Money on Medicines
Have your pharmacy bills been going up? When Consumer Reports surveyed its readers, 30 percent of them reported that their cost for a drug they take on a regular basis rose during 2019. About 12 perce…