August Hiatus Episodes
August 2021
Photo via Canva
The Tradeoffs team is taking August off from producing new episodes. We’ll miss you, but we’re thrilled to get a chance to catch our breaths and get ahead on some stories we’re excited to bring you this fall.
We didn’t want to leave your feed empty, so each week in August we’ll air an episode from another health care podcast we admire or an episode from our own archive. You can stream those episodes and learn more about them below.
We’ll also still be producing our weekly newsletter throughout the month (except for on August 6), so subscribe now to get our unique blend of health policy news, pop culture picks and recipe recommendations.
August 5: The Pulse
Hosted by Maiken Scott and aired weekly on WHYY and other NPR member stations, The Pulse tells stories at the heart of health, science and innovation.
This story, reported by Alan Yu and Nina Feldman, looks at a crisis of maternity ward closures that recently hit the city of Philadelphia and the surprising alliances and unexpected outcomes that it catalyzed.
Listen to the story below and explore the data and reporting behind the episode on the show’s website.
August 12: The Nocturnists
Through both live shows and a podcast, The Nocturnists cultivates a vibrant community of health care workers celebrating their humanity through storytelling.
In response to the extraordinary events of 2020, The Nocturnists podcast produced two special audio diary series: “Stories from a Pandemic” and “Black Voices in Healthcare.” This episode comes from the “Stories from a Pandemic” series, which features select excerpts from more than 700 audio diaries submitted by health care workers across the U.S. during the pandemic.
Listen to the story below and find a full transcript plus more content from The Nocturnists on the show’s website.
August 19: Revisiting Employer Vaccine Mandates
With the delta variant circulating and 40% of eligible adults still not vaccinated against COVID-19, more and more employers are requiring their workers get vaccinated. As of August 17, dozens of large companies, hundreds of colleges and universities and around 1,850 hospitals have required some or all of their employees to get vaccinated.
So we’re revisiting our episode from May, “Calling the Shots: Should Employers Mandate COVID Vaccines?” Tradeoffs Contributing Research Editor and University of Minnesota health economist Sayeh Nikpay walks us through the research on the pros and cons of employer mandates.
Listen to the story below and find a full transcript plus more on the research cited in the episode here.
August 26: Catching America's Top Cancer Killer
Earlier this spring, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommended nearly doubling the number of Americans eligible for lung cancer screening — a move that could save thousands of lives. But the test comes with some real risks, and uptake was abysmal even before the pandemic tanked cancer screening rates.
This week, we’re revisiting “Catching America’s Top Cancer Killer,” our story from May on the promise and perils of screening for lung cancer — a disease that kills more Americans every year than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined.
Listen to the episode below, read a full transcript or explore bonus content and resources.