It’s summer! In my world, that means road trips and beach days. One of my favorite ways to pass the time on a road trip or long lazy day at the beach is to catch up on podcasts.
Podcasts — the name derives from iPod + broadcast — are audio or video transmissions, often produced on a regular schedule, and usually available online for streaming on demand or downloading for offline listening.
For those of you who have yet to venture into the podcast world, it’s easy! Most can be accessed for free, and many can be found with the Podcast app that comes with the iPhone or equivalent apps on Android and other smartphones. Most podcasts also have a website where you can listen for free from any device, along with a feed that can be subscribed to using one of the many web-based podcast aggregator services (aka “podcatchers”). Many are also available on iTunes, Spotify, and similar platforms. Subscribe to the ones you like for an endless stream of new content!
Here’s a brief round-up of a few health and medicine podcasts you may enjoy.
Review of Systems
Tagline: Conversations about the changing healthcare landscape
Editor and Host: TMCB’s own Audrey Provenzano, MD, MPH, a general internist in the Boston area
Co-hosts: Thomas Kim, a family practice physician in Chicago, and David Rosenthal, an internist in Connecticut
Sponsored by: Harvard Center for Primary Care
Schedule: Several per month (subscribe here)
Length: about 30 minutes
Content: Mostly interviews with clinicians, researchers, and other health professionals doing interesting and innovative work in primary care or public health. Audrey particularly recommends this episode, featuring Shreya Kangovi and Lisa Kidd from the Penn Center for Community Health Workers in Philadelphia. About one episode per month is a journal club discussion of a recent manuscript of interest to the audience.
AJPH Podcast
Editor and Host: Alfredo Morabia, MD, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Public Health (released in both English and Spanish; occasional episodes are also released in Chinese and hosted by Associate Editor Stella Yu)
Sponsored by: American Journal of Public Health
Schedule: Monthly (subscribe here)
Length: about 30 minutes
Content: Each podcast discusses an important public health issue – the July episode focuses on gun violence, for example.
The Measure of Everyday Life
Tagline: Stories from Social Science
Editor and Host: Brian Southwell, PhD, director of the Science in the Public Sphere program in the Center for Communication Science at RTI International
Sponsored by: WNCU and RTI International
Schedule: Weekly (airs each Sunday night from 6:30 – 7 p.m. in the Durham, NC, listening area on WNCU, and a podcast of each show is available online the week following the original airing. Subscribe here)
Length: about 30 minutes
Content: Each podcast is an interview with social scientists, commenters, researchers, and practitioners about a topic in the social science realm. Recent past episodes have discussed opioid use, infectious disease, water contamination, and school shootings, among other topics.
Overprescribed
Tagline: Raising America’s awareness on pharmaceutical medications
Editor and Host: Mika Pollack, MPH
Schedule: varies (subscribe on iTunes | Google Play Music | Stitcher | Soundcloud)
Length: about 20 minutes
Content: Focused on prescription medication safety, efficacy, and prescribing. Hosted by a former pharmaceutical researcher with “firsthand knowledge and experiences with pharmaceutical medications, both personally and professionally, that propelled her to the mic.”
What the Health?
Hosts/Panelists: Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Health News, along with top health policy reporters from the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico and other media outlets
Sponsored by: Kaiser Health News
Schedule: Weekly (subscribe on ITunes | Stitcher | SoundCloud)
Length: 40-55 minutes
Content: Panel discussion featuring top health reporters talking about the important health-related news of the week.
Pulse Check from Politico
Tagline: Weekly conversations with some of the most interesting and influential people in healthcare
Hosts/Panelists: Dan Diamond, journalist
Sponsored by: Politico
Schedule: Weekly (subscribe on ITunes)
Length: about an hour
Content: Interviews with prominent guests about important healthcare topics, with a focus on policy, politics, and economics.
Lisa M. Lines