Wellness, Actually with Emily Oster & Perry Wilson, MD

This week, Emily and Perry dive into the here, there, and everywhere of microplastics. We know they're in the air we breathe and the water we drink, but how bad are they for us, really? How do our bodies respond to them, and how long do they even stay inside us? And can they be avoided?

Plus: Leucovorin approved to treat autism, whether ChatGPT is a trustworthy triage nurse, and curious reports of painful sex in college students.&n...

This week, Emily and Perry shine a light on red light therapy: its origins, its heroic use of the mighty mitochondria, and the supposed countless benefits (better mood, wound healing, facial rejuvenation, hair regrowth?) of sitting in front of a hot red light that may or may not even be able to penetrate your skin.

Plus: the disturbing return of polio, whether multivitamins have an effect on epigenetic aging, and if the pitch clock...

This week, Emily and Perry discuss GLP-1s, those blockbuster weight-loss drugs that have taken the world by storm -- and not just what you already know about them. From the origins in Gila monster venom to the surprisingly long history of their use, they explore their effectiveness, side effects, lingering questions about long-term usage, and the weird knock-on effects in both the brain (libido?) and our society (protein water?). T...

This week, Emily and Perry plunge, as it were, into the temperature extremes: cold plunges and saunas. Is there any actual value to shocking your body with ice water or sweating out an ocean? Or are we just gluttons for punishment? 

Plus: soaring measles rates, Jay Bhattacharya's double federal appointment, and pandemics lurking under the ice.

Submit a question for our weekly mailbag at wellnessactually.fm.

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This week, Emily and Perry tackle peptides, the purported panacea for all health ailments. Can an injection of these tiny bits of protein actually boost your metabolism, plump up your skin, heal your injuries, and overall prolong your life? And what could possibly go wrong when you inject a peptide stack of dubious origin anyway?

Plus: mRNA flu vaccines, hormone replacement therapy, and the optimal time to hoard condoms at the Olym...

In our inaugural episode, Emily and Perry talk all things sperm: if it's on the decline, how to juice its quality, the perils of tight underwear, and what a high sperm count says about your manliness (spoiler: absolutely nothing).

Plus, vitamin K shots at birth, the keto diet to treat schizophrenia, and, in honor of the Olympics, whether penis pumping helps your air time.

Submit a question for our weekly mailbag at wellnessactually...

GLP-1s. Colostrum. Microplastics. Red light therapy. Vaccines. There’s a staggering amount of health and wellness news and information, and it’s bombarding us everywhere we look. Who’s got time to parse it out, to verify it, and then to actually do the work of improving our health? And what if those wellness influencers actually knew how to read a medical study?

That’s why we’re here. We are Emily Oste...

For many people, when we start thinking about a family, we assume it'll just happen nine months from the moment we start trying. But that isn't the way it happens for all of us. And fertility can often be a journey that's more winding and more complicated and more confusing than we expected it to be. That's why ParentData has launched a new content vertical, Trying to Conceive (TTC), covering everything from ovulation windows to do...

When you look at the data, it is true that after people have kids, marital satisfaction declines. Having a baby drastically changes everything in your partnership that was familiar, that was predictable, that you got used to. And some of those are the reasons you got into the relationship in the first place. 

That’s the reality of having kids. And as much as we love them, it can be an incredible shock to the system. There were date ...

Shots are never a fun experience. Even if you are enthusiastic about vaccines, holding your kids as they get them is not usually a high point of parenting. And right now, the conversation about vaccines is increasingly fraught - and not just because our kids are sometimes afraid of needles.

Because we're living in a moment where vaccines, long one of the most trusted and studied preventative medical treatments in existence, are sudd...

In the last month, we've aired podcast conversations with Dr. Nathan Fox and Dr. Bapu Jena, and though the content is different, there’s an underlying thread that connects them both: what it means to deal with risk, and uncertainty. And not lose your mind.

Economists deal with this constantly, and so do parents, but not in the same way. Economists learn not to panic in ways that parents, understandably, have a really hard time with....

For many of us, our first exposure to our pelvic floors is through the Kegel exercises we learned about in Cosmo, promising us great sex. The reality of our pelvic floors comes roaring back in pregnancy, when they are are more taxed than they've ever been. The pelvic floor turns out to have a hand in many things, including peeing, pooping, sex, pregnancy, labor, birth, postpartum, and menopause. And like with all muscles, the more ...

Today on ParentData, we're welcoming back Dr. Nathan Fox, Emily's co-author for The Unexpected- a book about when things go wrong, or at least get complicated, in a pregnancy. Nate is an OB-GYN and a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, and he is one of our favorite returning podcast guests, not just because he’s a great talker but also because it’s really nice to have a doctor who can both provide medical answers to questions that ...

Today on ParentData, we're airing an episode from Raising Parents, Emily's limited series podcast in partnership with The Free Press. The episode is the last in the series, but the first question we all need to grapple with before engaging with all the others: should you have kids?

For most of human history, having kids wasn’t much of a choice. Social expectations, lack of birth control, and limited autonomy for women presented a co...

Here at ParentData, we talk a lot about panic headlines. You know, the headlines that cycle through your feed about coffee and wine and sleep and lead and the causes of autism, many of which contradict the last panic headline, and almost all of them turning out to be not nearly as bad as they seem. But in the moment, they feel so scary and urgent. And if you're a parent just trying to follow the science, do what's best for your kid...

If you spend any time in parenting circles, it’s hard to avoid being inundated with “types” of parenting. Parenting labels are not neutral. Some are positive, some negative, but they’re never just descriptive. And lately, the most ink has been spilled over "gentle" parenting (also called permissive or respectful parenting). Gentle parenting, at its core, is an approach to behavior characterized by acknowledging a child’s feelings a...

The United States is one of the only countries in the world that doesn’t guarantee paid parental leave. We point out this fact a lot, but what does it really mean when a family doesn't have the ability to take time off when a baby is born?

It means a lot of things. It means moms going back to work while still recovering from childbirth, it means parents struggling to figure out child care for their baby, and it often means babies go...