Second Opinion

KCRW

An examination of medical ethics and the practitioners who define them. Sign up to receive the Second Opinion topics in newsletter form at kcrw.com/newsletters .

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20 episodes
weekly
Avg 4 min
English

Episodes 20

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Sunday · 5 min
When Good Enough Is Never Good Enough
An A-minus isn't a crisis. But for some high achievers, it can feel like one. When does striving for excellence become something harmful?
September 13 · 4 min
The Pressure to Succeed
American teens are anxious, exhausted, and getting too little sleep. Are phones really the whole problem—or should we also be looking at our culture of achievement?
September 6 · 4 min
Would You Get Sick for Science?
They were conscientious objectors who refused to fight in World War II. So they found another way to serve: they offered their own bodies for dangerous medical experiments.
August 30 · 5 min
Maybe We've Been Fighting the Wrong Enemy
For 100 years we've been trying to kill mosquitoes. What if the real problem was us?
August 23 · 5 min
Mosquitoes Are Winning
We've spent decades trying to kill mosquitoes. So why do they seem to be getting better at living with us?
August 16 · 4 min
The Missing Ingredient in Fighting Ebola
You can bring doctors, laboratories, and protective equipment to an Ebola outbreak. But you can't ship trust in a box.
August 9 · 5 min
The Choice Dementia Takes Away
Should a diagnosis of dementia automatically strip someone of the right to make one of the most personal decisions of their life?
August 2 · 4 min
Evolution Never Saw this Coming
Your body was built for a world that no longer exists — and that mismatch might be making you sick.
July 26 · 4 min
In The Last Pew
When the family of a longtime patient invited me to her funeral, I found myself wrestling with a question I never addressed in medical school.
July 19 · 5 min
Before You Take That Alzheimer's Test, Ask This Question
New Alzheimer's blood tests are accurate, available, and increasingly advertised — but for healthy people, a positive result is rarely useful.
July 12 · 5 min
Because We've Always Done It That Way
Standard medical practice isn't the same as proven medical practice — and the difference can be deadly.
July 5 · 4 min
The Comfort Premium
It’s the same medicine. So why does the convenient version cost so much more?
June 28 · 4 min
Solving One Problem, Creating Another
From a Pacific island overrun by rats to hospital wards battling superbugs, why our best intentions so often backfire.
June 21 · 5 min
What's Your Pain Worth? The Ethics of Paying Research Subjects
Would you take $5,000 to be in a painful medical study? And should researchers even be allowed to ask?
June 12 · 4 min
Why Is She Being Blamed for Her Cancer?
We'd never ask a breast cancer patient what she did to deserve it. So why do we ask her?
June 8 · 4 min
Gorillas: The Canary in the Jungle
Veterinarians in Central Africa are bracing for an Ebola outbreak among gorillas. It might sound remote. It's not.
May 31 · 5 min
The Power of a Passport and the Privilege to Leave
I packed my bag, crossed the border, and eventually flew home to safety. The health care workers I left behind had no such option.
May 24 · 4 min
We Knew It Was Coming — We Just Didn't Care
From the Uganda-Congo border: a firsthand account of an Ebola outbreak, a failing response, and the political decisions that made it worse.
May 15 · 5 min
A Ship, a Virus, Nine Countries. And We Weren't There. We Built It, And Then We Broke It.
America built the global health system that protects us all — and then walked away from it.
May 10 · 5 min
Cut and No Cure - When Doing Nothing Beats Going Under the Knife
What if one of the most common surgeries performed in the world turned out to be no better than a fake one — and we kept doing it anyway?

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