Marketplace

This is a rough mix of Paul Sullivan's piece on mid-career switchers who learn to code to air on Marketplace Morning Report March 24, 2014. Produced by Kerry Donahue.

Gold can certainly play a part in bulletproofing your portfolio, but it shouldn't be the end-all, be-all. That said there are plenty of gold bugs out there, hoarding sizable chunks of the precious metal. Actual gold, not just gold-related funds. New York Times Wealth Matters columnist Paul Sullivan has that story.

People are living longer with terminal illness. In addition to the often long painful process of dying, the costs for end-of-life care, even for those with insurance, can quickly deplete a life time's worth of savings and more. As part of our special series The New Health Care of Math, the New York Times' Paul Sullivan reports there are some ways you can prepare.

Now a story -- a somewhat complicated one -- about an all too common crisis, an elderly person whose life savings are stolen by a family member. Anna Mae Franklin learned about elder financial abuse the hard way. She's been caring for her 91-one-year-old brother Arthur Cropsey for the past couple of years; he suffers from dementia. Within a few months of Anna Mae moving Arthur into her home, she discovered her daughter had been spending his money. Anna Mae lives with her two small dogs in a mobile home just north of Albany, N.Y.

Through the 1990s, Patrick Quirke’s career was sailing along. Every few years, he would be promoted at the transportation company where he worked and move to another city. He said he had every reason to believe that he would be promoted to the company’s headquarters in a few more moves. Then, his parents’ health started to decline...

PRX Transistor

In her episodes of Transistor, biologist Christina Agapakis is exploring the microbiome: the trillions of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that live in and on our body. She starts with food. Bacteria-rich foods such as tempeh, cheese, pickles and yogurt have long been praised for their probiotic effect. But can you really add enough good bacteria to your digestive system to outnumber the bad?

It still seems hard to believe, but for one disease, poop -- yes, human poop -- is nothing short a miracle cure. Microbiologist Christina Agapakis takes a look at Fecal Microbiota Transplants or FMT and what happens when you take the really complex gut microbiome from a healthy person and transplant it into the gut of a sick person. For patients suffering from a one of the most common and deadly hospital acquired infections, Clostridium Difficile, or C Diff, one poop transplant can cure them, sometimes within hours. But, why?

One of the things we assign to science is that there are true, absolute facts. But scientists are human and, it turns out, as prone to blind spots in their thinking as the rest of us, especially when cultural assumptions and biases get in the way. Biologist Christina Agapakis explores ways these blind spots, especially around gender and sexism, have affected research and women’s careers in science. She talks with one of her heroes, anthropologist Emily Martin, and Emily's husband, biophysicist Richard Cone, about Emily's 1991 article "The Egg & The Sperm." She also talks with anthropologist Kate Clancy, who has spent a lot of time thinking and writing about the ways women’s careers in science are different from men’s.

Your skin is your largest organ and is also is a thriving ecosystem, covered in bacteria. While many of us consider regular showers key to keeping our skin healthy, a group of scientists -- and artists -- are starting to ask: Could the future of skin care not be soap, but bacteria?

Tricycle

For Tricycle Magazine, Amy Gross interviews science journalist Katy Butler on her Buddhist practice and her book, Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death.

Amy Gross talks with Roshi Pat Enyko O'Hara about her latest book, Most Intimate: A Zen Approach to Life's Challenges.

Amy Gross interviews Sharon Salzberg, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts about her latest book, Real Happiness at Work.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, contributing editor Amy Gross talked with Sharon Salzberg about her latest book, Real Happiness at Work.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, assistant editor Alex Caring-Lobel talks with David Urubshurow and Joel McCleary about the legacy of Geshe Wangyal on Tibetan Buddhism in the United States.

This is a remixed version of the Tricycle Magazine conversation between Amy Gross and Mark Epstein about his new book, The Trauma of Everyday Life.

Other work

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff tackle one of the trickiest topics, screen time. Features interviews with Harvard psychologist Susan Linn - Harvard psychologist, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood; Carolyn Danckaert, the co-founder of A Mighty Girl, a website dedicated to recommending all types of media – books, movies, songs, toys – to help raise smart, confident, and courageous girls; and Jocelyn Leavitt, the co-Founder and CEO of Hopscotch, an app that helps kids learn to code.

This is a rough cut (no music or opening montage)of the second episode of Your Other Mothers

This is a rough cut of the third episode of Your Other Mothers with Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff. The topic is screen time, how much is too much and other parenting struggles around our ubiquitous devices. Guests include Susan Linn from the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, Carolyn Danckeart from the website, A Mighty Girl, and Jocelyn Leavitt from Hopscotch, an app that helps children, especially girls, learn to love code.

Stephanie Kuo host track for cicada interview may 3, 2013 with Gene Kritsky is a professor of biology at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio.

This is the guest track for Gene Kritsky's May 3, 2013 interview on Uptown Radio. Kritsky is a professor of biology at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio. Stephanie Kuo conducted the interview.

This is the audio of the piece associated with the new script template.

Three people were pulled from the water after the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River collapsed Thursday, May 23. One of the men pulled from the water will be discharged from Skagit Valley Hospital tonight. Dan Sligh is in the U.S. Navy stationed at Whidbey Island.

NPR Newscast item on I-5 Skagit River Bridge Collapse from May 25, 2013

A pilot for a series PRI and Amazon (Kindle Marketing Team with Amazon Publishing) were contemplated. First episode is hosted by Al Letson. The theme is apocalyptic fiction. David Gordon, author of The Serialist and White Tiger on Snow Mountain joins Al as he talked with novelist Peter Heller (The Dog Stars, The Painter) and Annalee Newitz, founding editor of io9, a blog about science and futurism.