Each week Inquiring Minds brings you a new, in-depth exploration of the places where science, politics, and society collide. We’re committed to the idea that making an effort to understand the world around you though science and critical thinking can benefit everyone—and lead to better decisions. We endeavor to find out what’s true, what’s left to discover, and why it all matters with weekly coverage of the latest headlines and probing discussions with leading scientists and thinkers. Inquiring Minds is hosted by neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas and science educator Kishore Hari. It’s produced by Adam Isaak in partnership with Climate Desk, a journalistic collaboration dedicated to exploring the impact of a changing climate and consisting of The Atlantic, Center for Investigative Reporting, Grist, The Guardian, The Huffington Post Mother Jones, Slate, and Wired. Our music is provided by award-winning producer Rhian Sheehan. RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-minds iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-minds
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11 Maryn McKenna - Our Scary Post-Antibiotic Future
It's flu season. And we're all about to crisscross the country to exchange hugs, kisses and germs. We're going to get sick. And when we do, many of us will run to our doctors and, hoping to get better, demand antibiotics. And that's the problem: Antibiotics don't cure the flu (which is viral, not bacterial), but the over-prescription of antibiotics imperils us all by driving antibiotic resistance. This threat is growing, so much so that in a recent widely read Medium article, Wired science blogger and self-described "scary disease girl" Maryn McKenna painted a disturbingly plausible picture of a world in which antibiotics have become markedly less effective. That future is the focus of the interview in this week's show. This episode also features a discussion of the surprising reasons that US students are so bad at math (just 26th in the world, in a recent study). Plus, Indre takes apart a highly controversial new study purporting to show that male-female gender stereotypes are rooted in different wiring of our brains. Subscribe: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943 feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-minds