After reading something that said her menstrual cycle changes her brain each month, Senior Correspondent Molly Webster goes on a reporting mission to see if that’s true, and, if so, how.
This journey into sex hormones and the brain involves females and males, and exacting self-experimentation. It gets into PTSD, and ends with a new twist on self-care (hint: it’s biological). And, it starts to reveal a sneaky truth: that each one of us is at the mercy of a crashing sea of chemicals inside of us – those things we call hormones.
Special thanks to Emily Jacobs, Laura Pritschet, Pavel Shapturenka, and Dr. Catherine Woolley.EPISODE CREDITS:
Hosted by - Molly Webster
Reported by - Molly Webster
Produced by - Mona Madgavkar
with help from - Molly Webster
Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
**The experiments we feature in this episode are called: 28andMe, 28andOC, and 28andHe, all of which took place at Emily Jacobs lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara.**
The 28 Project (https://zpr.io/CSx6MnwZjRvp), background from the Jacobs lab
For more on how much variability there is between female and male animals, check out this “groundbreaking” study, referenced by Emily Jacobs in our episode
Sex Bias in Neuroscience and Biomedical Research(https://zpr.io/ZRgKZzdNejUA), by Beery AK, Zucker I., Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2011
Dr. Catherine Woolley has revolutionized the field of neuroscience and sex hormones, here’s more about her work …
Sex Differences in the Brain Get Down to the Molecular Level Sex (https://zpr.io/UNCLE9J782N5), by Stephanie DeMarco, PhD, The Scientist.com
Hormonal Effects on the Brain (https://zpr.io/DvNM9EkXdtGG), by Woolley, C.S. and Schwartzkroin, P.A. Epilepsia
Data sets -
28andMe and 28andOC (https://zpr.io/hbXVNTVp2Q7j):
28andHe (https://zpr.io/sZXhfMbMwKb7)
Audio -
In the episode, we mention Dr. Russ Poldrack and the Midnight Scan Club, as inspo for self-experimentation
The Midnight Scan Club (https://zpr.io/CLBhNQSxK844), by Science Friday.
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New York is the latest state to legalize medical aid in dying. Stephen Dubner speaks with the governor who signed the law, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, a death doula — and an ethicist who thinks the very idea is wrong.
SOURCES:
Kathy Hochul, governor of New York.
Suzanne O'Brien, death doula, founder of Doulagivers Institute.
Al Roth, economist at Stanford University.
Daniel Sulmasy, physician, philosopher, director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.
RESOURCES:
Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work, by Al Roth (2026).
"New York Moves to Allow Terminally Ill People to Die on Their Own Terms," by Grace Ashford (New York Times, 2025).
The Good Death: A Guide for Supporting Your Loved One through the End of Life, by Suzanne O'Brien (2025).
The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, by Neil Gorsuch (2009).
EXTRAS:
"Make Me a Match (Update)," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
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First up on the podcast, wrangling wolves in Europe. After near extermination in much of the continent, wolf numbers have surged up to about 20,000 individuals. Contributing Correspondent Gretchen Vogel joins podcast host Sarah Crespi to discuss the conflicts that have risen as the wolf population grows.
Next on the show, Ph.D. student Carla Bassil talks about designing an e-nose that can hone in on important food smells such as chicken that has gone bad or the presence of allergens including peanuts.
Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Erika Berg, director and senior editor of custom publishing, interviews professors Eimear Kenny and Alex Charney about how genomic medicine, artificial intelligence, and large-scale sequencing are transforming the future of patient care. This segment is sponsored by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
About the Science Podcast
Image credit: Lorenzo Shoubridge
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In honor of Father's Day, here is a family friendly bonus episode from our kids' podcast Terrestrials.
What does it really mean to be a dad? In the animal world, fathers have long been painted as aggressive or absent. At best providers and protectors, but certainly not caregivers. And yet for every tale of a lion or chimp dad eating its own young (yikes!), there’s another creature who tells a sweeter story.
Two HUMAN dads bring us on this DADventure: Dr. Eduardo Fernandez-Duque, who has spent decades studying owl monkey dads in the forests of Argentina, and Michael Feigelson, who once worried he wasn't cut out for the softer side of parenting.
They introduce us to seahorse dads who get pregnant, poison dart frog dads who give piggyback rides to their tadpoles, Darwin frogs who swallow their eggs to keep them safe, burying beetles who build "corpse cribs," jacana birds who do all the egg-sitting, and stickleback fish who construct intricate underwater nests for their young. Along the way, we learn that nature doesn’t offer just one model of fatherhood. Alongside Mother Nature... there just might be a Father Nature, too.
Special thanks to the Van Leer Foundation for the support of this episode.
Resources on Animal fatherhood
Eduardo Duque's Owl Monkey Project: https://www.owlmonkeyproject.com/
An interview with Eduardo in Yale News
Lauren O’Connell lab – frog behaviour
Short explainer: frog parenting research
Stickleback fish parenting study (Alison Bell)
Alison Bell lab video
Human fatherhood
Fathertime by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
ECM interview: evolution of “man the nurturer”
Lee Gettler – biology of fatherhood (video)
Lee Gettler article in Early Childhood Matters
Darby Saxbe book: Dad Brain
Darby Saxbe Article in Early Childhood Matters
Talks, films & convenings
Yale Conference on Fatherhood
Live Recording of Yale Conference:
Fathers and Fatherhood: From Molecules to Modern Families
Fathertime documentary
Campaigns & global perspectives
Equimundo's State of World's fathers report
Men Care Changemakers Journey
Parenting Out Loud (Elliot Rae)
Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC studios. This episode was produced by Tanya Chawla, with sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sarah Sandbach is our Executive Producer. Our team also includes Ana González, Alan Goffinski, Natalia Ramirez, and Joe Plourde. Fact checking by Angely Mercado.
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Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.
Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
We all have moments in our lives when we see someone who could use a helping hand. It could be a friend who recently went through a breakup, or an older person trying to load groceries into their car. We tell ourselves we should help, but then something stops us. This week, psychologist Amit Kumar helps us understand what keeps us from taking a moment to be kind, and how to overcome these barriers to create stronger, happier connections. Then, on Your Questions Answered, psychologist Gordon Flett returns to respond to listener comments about the importance of feeling that we matter.
Have you ever heard someone describe themselves as "left-brained" or "right-brained?" Don't miss Shankar's video breaking down one of the most pervasive — and incorrect — ideas from pop psychology.
Hidden Brain is back on the road this summer! Go to hiddenbrain.org/tour to find out where we're headed next.
Episode illustration by Masantocreative for Unsplash+ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
This is the abbreviated version of Checkup's call-in on the trend of Canadian crowds booing the U.S anthem and flag at sporting events. We hear perspectives from Canadian fans, sports journalists on both sides of the border, along with a Canadian mayor on why booing worries him at a time of tense U.S.-Canada relations.
Just before Canada’s first World Cup match, flag bearers from host nations walked out. The US flag appeared, and then boos started from the crowd. The episode follows a trend that started last year at sporting events after Trump's repeated threats to annex Canada and U.S. tariffs came into effect. We speak to sports journalists on both sides of the border about the the politics of protest at sporting events. We also hear from a Canadian politician discouraging fans from booing as U.S.-Canada relations remain strained.
