Curious by Nature

Episoder

• Dr. Brian Southwell – How Does Better Science Communication Save Lives? 03.07.2026 28min

  Dr. Brian Southwell is a Distinguished Fellow at RTI International, where he researches science communication, public trust, and the spread of misinformation. His work focuses on helping researchers and institutions better connect with the communities they serve.
• Professor Michael Schutz – Please Stop the Hospital Beeping 26.06.2026 21min

  Michael Schutz is a Professor of Music, Cognition, and Percussion at McMaster University, where he researches how auditory alerting systems in healthcare can be vastly improved. By applying centuries of musical composition insight and psychophysical research, he is exploring how healthcare sounds can be re-engineered to cut through critical room noise without being unnecessarily jarring.
• Dr. Raihan Khan & Madalynn Nofplot – Does Music Help or Harm Your Studying? 19.06.2026 14min

  Dr. Raihan Khan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at James Madison University, and Madalynn Nofplot is a JMU Honors College alumna and nursing student. They launched a fascinating study to look into how different music genres affect the academic performance and GPAs of college students with and without attention deficit disorder.
• Dr. Iain Boyd – Hypersonics and the Iran War 12.06.2026 18min

  Hypersonic vehicles travel a whole mile of sky in just one second. They can be missiles or aircraft, where the friction gets so ridiculously hot that the air around the vehicle literally turns into a blinding shield of electricity. Dr. Ian Boyd is the Director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he researches multiple aspects of these hypersonic vehicles.
• Dr. John Cooke & Dr. Shuang Li – Delivering mRNA to Reverse Aging 05.06.2026 20min

  Dr. John Cooke, Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at Houston Methodist Hospital, and Research Fellow Dr. Shuang Li are using mRNA technology to heal this process from the inside out. By delivering a temporary molecular recipe, they prompt cells to produce telomerase, which rapidly accelerates DNA repair and restores telomeres. 
• Dr. Mohammad Moghimi – Detecting Skin Cancer from Home 29.05.2026 13min

  Dr. Mohammad Moghimi is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. His team has developed a "chipless patch" that can sense the tiny electrical differences between healthy tissue and a tumor.
• Dr. Josh Currie – Will Humans Ever Be Able to Regrow Limbs? 22.05.2026 18min

  If a salamander loses a leg, it doesn't just heal, it grows a perfect new one. Humans, however, have seemingly lost this "instruction manual" for regeneration over millions of years of evolution.Dr. Josh Currie is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Wake Forest University. He studies axolotls and zebrafish to understand why these animals can regrow limbs and tails while we can't. 
• Dean Sandro Galea – Health Is More Than Doctors, Food, and Exercise 15.05.2026 14min

  Sandro Galea is the Margaret Ryan Dean and the Kahn Professor of Public Health at the Washington University School of Public Health. He shares his unique path and perspective on public health and shares ways that WashU is focusing on improving the health for many people locally and globally. 
• Dr. George Goshua – Iron Deficiency is Common and Detrimental 08.05.2026 31min

  Iron deficiency affects millions of people, especially women, yet many go years without knowing it, even though it’s one of the most treatable conditions.Dr. George Goshua is a physician-scientist and assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine, where he studies how gaps in diagnosis and access to care can leave patients untreated. His work highlights how something as simple as iron levels can have long-term effects on energy, pregnancy, and even the next generation.The episode has also been shared with leadership at the American Society of Hematology (ASH), which is leading national efforts to improve awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of iron deficiency. Learn more through the ASH Iron Deficiency Initiative.
• Professor Shaun Davies – The Real Dangers in the Markets 01.05.2026 28min

  Shaun Davies, Associate Professor of Finance and Faculty Director of the Burridge Center for Finance at the University of Colorado Boulder, explains how financial markets respond to global instability and geopolitical conflict.For many of us, the constant stream of headlines about conflict in the Middle East can feel overwhelming and disheartening. From an economic perspective, consumers often worry about and struggle with rising food and gas prices.Meanwhile, do financial markets have the kind of checks and balances needed to withstand periods of high instability?
• Professor Sebastian Schuetz – Everyone Thinks They Can Spot a Scam, That’s the Problem! 24.04.2026 19min

  With AI now able to mimic voices, write convincing messages, and even fake video calls, telling what’s real online is harder than ever.Sebastian Schuetz is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studies how organizations manage cyber risk like data breaches and ransomware attacks. 
• Professor William Masters – Is the Most Inexpensive Food the Healthiest? 17.04.2026 25min

  Eating healthy doesn’t mean spending more money.We often assume that more expensive food is better for us, but research shows that price has surprisingly little to do with nutrition.Professor William Masters is an economist at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition, where he studies how food prices relate to health and environmental impact. His work reveals that it’s possible to eat both nutritious and climate-friendly meals, without spending more.
• Professor Jeff Brunstrom – Will Nutritional Intelligence Guide You to Whole Instead of Ultra-Processed Foods? 10.04.2026 22min

  What if your body is quietly guiding your food choices in ways you don’t even realize?Jeff Brunstrom is a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Bristol, where he studies how our brains, behavior, and environment shape the way we eat.His research suggests that we’re not just passively consuming food, we may have “nutritional intelligence,” where our bodies push us toward certain foods to meet our needs. But in today’s world of ultra-processed meals, that system can be disrupted, leading us to eat more without realizing why.
• Dr. Sheila Singh – Advances in Glioblastoma Therapy 03.04.2026 18min

  Why is brain cancer so hard to treat, and what if the brain itself is helping it spread? Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive cancers, not because it forms a single tumor, but because it spreads like invisible threads throughout the brain, making it nearly impossible to remove completely. Dr. Sheila Singh is a Professor of Neuro-Oncology and Neurosurgery at King’s College London, Co-Head of the School of Cancer (with Pharmaceutical Sciences), and Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, while also serving as a part-time Professor of Surgery and Biochemistry at McMaster University. Her research uncovers how brain cells may actually be helping cancer grow and spread, and how existing drugs could be repurposed to stop it.
• Dr. Quan Xie – How Scientists Can Tell Better Stories 27.03.2026 17min

  Every year, researchers publish discoveries that could improve our lives, from health to technology to public policy. But much of that work never reaches the people who could benefit from it. It stays behind paywalls, written in technical language, and shared mostly within academic circles.Dr. Quan Xie is an associate professor of digital advertising at Southern Methodist University. Her research explores how scholars can better share their work using storytelling, digital platforms, and tools like AI to bring research beyond the journal and into the real world.
• Dr. Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez – A Promising Vaccine for People Genetically Prone to Early Adult Cancer 20.03.2026 20min

  How do you know if you have a genetic condition that increases your risk of certain types of cancer? For people with inherited conditions like Lynch syndrome, the risk of cancer is much higher, yet most don’t even know they have it. Dr. Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez is a physician-scientist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, working on new ways to stop cancer early, including a vaccine designed to train the immune system to recognize and fight it. 
• Jessica Johnson – Research on the Road 06.03.2026 6min

  Newswise’s Jessica Johnson shares highlights from a recent trip visiting communications teams and researchers across universities in the southeastern United States.Below are some of the research stories featured in this episode.ARPA-H PRINT Program Supports WFIRM-Led Award to Create on-Demand, Bioprinted Kidneys, Published by Wake Forest UniversityHow Studying Yeast in the Gut Could Lead to Better Drugs, Published by North Carolina State University How health risk communication best practices can improve community flood risk communication, Published by RTI InternationalHealthy habits can make your brain age more slowly, study finds, Published by University of FloridaNew FAU Research Strengthens Evidence Linking Alcohol Use to Cancer, Published by Florida Atlantic UniversityEfficacy of Service Dogs with Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Community Reintegration, Published by Nova Southeastern UniversityThe Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Selected as U.S. Site for Neuralink Clinical Trial, Published by University of Miami – Miller School of MedicineNew Study Could Show How TikTok’s Algorithm Affects Youth Mental Health, Published by Georgia Tech
• Jessica Johnson – February’s Research Curiosities 27.02.2026 4min

  February brought a wide range of compelling research stories from universities across the country. From the University of Utah’s powerful study, “Banning Lead in Gas Worked. The Proof Is in Our Hair,” to the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine’s findings in “Pink Noise Reduces REM Sleep and May Harm Sleep Quality,” scientists are uncovering insights that directly impact our daily lives.We also saw Binghamton University, SUNY publish “Record-Breaking Antarctic Drill Reveals 23 Million Years of Climate History,” the University of Nebraska–Lincoln explore business strategy in “Research Shows Companies Can Gain Advantage by Prioritizing Customer Privacy,” and Johns Hopkins Medicine report on long-term brain health in “Cognitive Speed Training Linked to Lower Dementia Incidence Up to 20 Years Later.”Let’s take a closer look at what made these stories stand out this month.
• Jeff Grabmeier – Communicators Who Make Science Matter 20.02.2026 20min

  Jeff Grabmeier who recently retired as the Senior Director of Research Communications at Ohio State University. Jeff spent decades working to help turn complex research into stories that informed and connected with the media and public readers. Jeff is a goldmine of information and knowledge about research communications. But also, he has changed the lives of many researchers through his amazing communications efforts. If you are a researcher, scholar, or leader in higher education, Jeff is the type of person you want to be close by. 
• Luca Ziegler – The Edge to Perform Under Stress 13.02.2026 29min

  Luca Ziegler, PhD Candidate at West Virginia University and Mental Performance Consultant, studies how psychological flexibility helps athletes and performers succeed under pressure.Everyone tells athletes and performers to “stay calm under pressure.” But what if the secret to peak performance isn’t staying calm at all? High-stakes moments, from championship games to career-defining opportunities, don’t just test skill. They test how well we handle pressure.In this episode, Ziegler explains how psychological flexibility, staying open, aware, and in control during stressful moments, can help athletes reach flow and clutch states when it matters most, offering insights that apply not only to sports but to high-pressure situations in everyday life.