Episode notes
Standard medical practice isn't the same as proven medical practice — and the difference can be deadly.
Podcast
Second Opinion
<p>An examination of medical ethics and the practitioners who define them. Sign up to receive the Second Opinion topics in newsletter form at kcrw.com/newsletters .</p>
More from Second Opinion All episodes →
-
16 Aug 2026 · 5 min
The Missing Ingredient in Fighting Ebola
You can bring doctors, laboratories, and protective equipment to an Ebola outbreak. But you can't ship trust in a box.
-
9 Aug 2026 · 5 min
The Choice Dementia Takes Away
Who should make the final decision about your death? You, your family, your doctor...or a disease that slowly takes away your mind?
-
2 Aug 2026 · 5 min
Evolution Never Saw this Coming
Your body was built for a world that no longer exists — and that mismatch might be making you sick.
-
26 Jul 2026 · 4 min
In The Last Pew
When the family of a longtime patient invited me to her funeral, I found myself wrestling with a question I never addressed in medical school.
-
19 Jul 2026 · 5 min
Before You Take That Alzheimer's Test, Ask This Question
New Alzheimer's blood tests are accurate, available, and increasingly advertised — but for healthy people, a positive result is rarely useful.
-
5 Jul 2026 · 5 min
The Comfort Premium
It’s the same medicine. So why does the convenient version cost so much more?
-
28 Jun 2026 · 5 min
Solving One Problem, Creating Another
From a Pacific island overrun by rats to hospital wards battling superbugs, why our best intentions so often backfire.
-
21 Jun 2026 · 5 min
What's Your Pain Worth? The Ethics of Paying Research Subjects
Would you take $5,000 to be in a painful medical study? And should researchers even be allowed to ask?
-
12 Jun 2026 · 5 min
Why Is She Being Blamed for Her Cancer?
We'd never ask a breast cancer patient what she did to deserve it. So why do we ask her?
-
8 Jun 2026 · 5 min
Gorillas: The Canary in the Jungle
Veterinarians in Central Africa are bracing for an Ebola outbreak among gorillas. It might sound remote. It's not.
Take it with you
The Melo app keeps playing with the screen off, works in the car and on your watch, wakes you to your station, and browses the whole catalogue offline. Free, no ads, no account.
