Health Story Type: Podcast

La crisis de agua potable en Uruguay

This NPR podcast examines a health issue that often goes overlooked: access to potable water. The water crisis plagued a town in Montevideo Uruguay for three months. This coincided with one of the worst droughts in 40 years. This podcast focuses on how the water shortage affected children at a school in Salinas which is a small town. It explores health problems grounded in infrastructure. It features personal stories and experiences of the students through interviews that show the how lack of access to potable water affects children. Transcript available in Spanish will help intermediate learners follow spoken language.

Teaching with “The Nocturnist”

Podcast series created by physician Emily Silverman that focuses on humanizing medical practice through healthcare workers' storytelling. Some topics: interview with author of a book on forced sterilization, "Black Voices in Healthcare" and "Post-Roe America". Episodes run 35-55 minutes; first 10-15 is story, the rest is wide-ranging interviews about (e.g.) why did you become a doctor? With related interview (see Farrell, 2022) could be used both to discuss storytelling as a way to address burnout, and to introduce oral history interviews.

“A lifespan the length of a dog’s”: Illness as loss in the novel So Much for That

"The clinic and the person" is a podcast series that follows Russell Teagarden's blog "According to the Arts," in which he juxtaposes clinical descriptions of illness and disability with literary texts about characters who live with those conditions. In the podcast, he and another medical professional discuss the condition that is the focus of each episode based on their medical experience, and react to the literary text as attentive, sensitive readers. This episode based on the novel, So Much for That, brings discussion of various ways catastrophic illness puts an end to a family's plans: economically, physically, socially. The website describes the goal of the series as: "developed to summon or quicken the attention of health care professionals, their educators, researchers and others to the interests and plights of people with specific health problems aided through knowledge and perspectives the humanities provide. ... The Clinic represents all that Biomedicine brings to bear on disease processes and treatment protocols, and The Person, represents all that people experience from health problems. Our episodes draw from works in the humanities--any genres that relate directly to how people are affected by specific clinical events such as migraine headaches, epileptic seizures, and dementia, and by specific health care situations such as restricted access to care and gut-wrenching, life and death choices. We analyze and interpret featured works and provide thoughts on how they apply in patient care and support; health professions education; clinical and population research; health care policy; and social and cultural influences and reactions."

Healing La Salud Mental

This podcast called "En la Sala" is hosted by singer Becky G. There is also a guest on this episode, Latino rapper J Balvin. Both people speak about their struggles with mental health in their industry and in their culture as well. Their discussion reveals that that mental health is a taboo topic in Latin American culture.

BDD, Fighting the Voice of Imposter Syndrome, and an Act of Power

This 47 minute podcast discusses how three generations of Koreans have experienced mental illness. Joanne details her elders' PTSD and depression, then moves into her own story. Initially, she ignores the little voice in her head, comparing her struggles with her grandparents'. Later, on her honeymoon, she realizes that she is losing a fight with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Joanne describes an up and down journey toward body acceptance. As media become saturated with unrealistic beauty standards, this podcast would fit well in an undergraduate class to discuss how students face body image issues.

The Nocturnists

Meditating on Death

80 minute podcast that discusses Buddhist notions of death and dying. Emphasis is on being happy about life, noticing its impermanence and questioning the value of always seeking more (money, time, status, things). Provides a detailed contrast point to Western perspectives that could be comforting, reassuring or simply intriguing for a discussion of death and dying.

El único intérprete

"El único intérprete" describes a Colombian, Jhon who became a sign language interpreter because he saw an opportunity to improve the legal system from within the prosecutor's office. Could be relevant to (pre-) law students, legal Spanish classes, more general upper division courses, to show the struggles of those with disabilities in systems not designed with them in mind. In Spanish with both Spanish and English transcripts available. 44 minutes.

Call me Francisca

Francisca had always had difficulty getting pregnant. That is why she was exhilarated when she found out the news that she was having a baby. However, after some tests, Francisca was informed that she was HIV positive. Her doctors gave her antivirals and frequent checkups to keep her viral load low, but they did not inform her about much else. She felt guilt-ridden. When the time came for her birth, she had a C-section performed by a different doctor. After her son was born, a nurse informed her that her sterilization went well. Francisca later sued the hospital for a violation of rights. This narrative is available in a Spanish transcription and as an English translation. It originates from Chile in 2002. As a patient, Francisca's trust and rights were violated. Accessible to upper intermediate Spanish readers; transcription helps with audio. Useful for discussion of reproductive rights, women's health.

240 Birds

Juan Pablo Culasso was born blind, but until the age of 5 or 6 this had little effect on him because his family encouraged him to explore and be as active as any other child. Once he started school, an educational system that was unprepared to incorporate him into learning environments built around sighted children created significant barriers to receiving any education at all. His family took over his education and he learned rapidly, including mastering the piano and guitar. One day Pablo informed his father that his guitar is out of tune, off by a hertz or two. This is how they learned he had perfect pitch. He began listening to birds and memorizing each call, eventually being able to identify 240 bird calls. He won a national competition for "The smartest person in Chile" and now works in an ornithology lab in Canada. This podcast can work for upper intermediate learners of Spanish, or higher. The speaker uses a dialect from Uruguay. It could spark discussion on what constitutes a "disability" and how rare talents - like perfect pitch - can be obscured behind that label. Spanish transcript and English translation of the transcript are available.