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Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Each week, physician, economist, and author of "Random Acts of Medicine" Dr. Bapu Jena will dig into a fascinating study at the intersection of economics and healthcare. He takes on questions like: Why do kids with summer birthdays get the flu more often? Can surviving a hurricane help you live longer? What do heart surgery and grocery-store pricing have in common?

Freakonomics, M.D.

In this pilot episode of a new “Freakonomics of Medicine” podcast, when host Dr. Bapu Jena misses his wife’s 5K run, he sets out to study how road closures and detours on big race days affect people with medical emergencies.

Marathons Can Be Deadly — But Not For the Reasons You May Think

How can a marathon be dangerous even if you don’t run the race? Does your doctor follow medical advice any better than you do? Just how dangerous was it to go to a birthday party at the height of the pandemic? These are the kinds of questions that intrigue Dr. Bapu Jena, a rare double threat — he’s both an M.D. and a Ph.D. economist. Each week on Freakonomics, M.D., Jena digs into fascinating research to discover the hidden side of healthcare.

Introducing “Freakonomics, M.D.”

Host Bapu Jena is an economist and medical doctor whose latest research measures the link between birthdays and Covid. He explains his team’s findings, explores the role that kids’ parties may have played, reveals whether politics made a difference, and convinces a Zoom magician to reveal the secrets of making virtual parties awesome.

From the Freakonomics Radio Network: Exploring the hidden side of everything.

1. Covid and the “Birthday Effect”

Does having more health information actually change behavior? To test this question, host Bapu Jena explores whether doctors make healthier choices than the rest of us (and he fesses up to an unhealthy habit of his own).

 

From the Freakonomics Radio Network: Exploring the hidden side of everything.

2. Do As Docs Say, Not As They Do

After struggling to schedule a flu shot for his own toddler, host Bapu Jena went down a research rabbit hole. He discovered that the time of year kids are born has an unexpected and dramatic effect on whether they and their families end up getting the flu. Bapu explains his findings and asks a pediatrician and public health expert what could be done about it.

3. Why Are Kids With Summer Birthdays More Likely to Get the Flu?

Humans are hardwired to focus on the left digit in numbers. It’s why products are priced at $3.99 instead of $4.00. But does this left-digit bias also affect medical decisions? Host Bapu Jena is joined by a fellow researcher and a cardiologist to explain how left-digit bias shows up in one of the most important decisions a doctor can make, what it means for patients, and what we can do about it.

4. What Do Grocery Store Prices and Heart Surgery Have in Common?

A woman comes to the emergency room with back pain. She’ll leave with an unexpected diagnosis. How does her doctor figure out what’s wrong? Listen as host Bapu Jena puts master clinician Dr. Gurpreet Dhaliwal on the spot to solve a real medical mystery. Along the way, you’ll learn how doctors think and the most important questions they ask.

5. How to Solve a Medical Mystery

Bapu Jena talks with a barber and a pharmacist whose study brought healthcare to Black men in Los Angeles who were getting haircuts. They discuss its impact on high blood pressure among customers — and how unconventional approaches like this could help build trust.

6. Are Barbershops the Cutting Edge of Healthcare Delivery?

This week, Bapu Jena presents some hot-off-the-presses research exploring the relationship between how many patients a doctor sees, and how well those patients do. Plus, the surprising impact of annual cardiology conferences that prompted Bapu’s first conversation with Stephen Dubner on Freakonomics Radio.

7. What Happens to Patients When Thousands of Cardiologists Leave Town?

We dig into why Covid-19 caught us so unprepared and how we can make sure we’re ready for a future public-health crisis with former FDA director Scott Gottlieb.

8. A Playbook for Beating the Next Pandemic

A small number of patients with multiple chronic conditions use a lot of resources. Dr. Jeffrey Brenner found a way to identify and treat them. Could it reduce health-care spending too?

What Can We Do About the Hardest Patients? (Ep. 51 Replay)

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