This is Your Brain on Hormones
Radiolab
06/19/26
•39m
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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 -
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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Bonus: Wild Animal Dads from Terrestrials
June 18
•35m
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
Next Episode
The Gondolier
June 26
•73m
Back in 2017, reporters Kristen Clark and David Conrad came to us with a story that dug into the difficult and often dark places discrimination creates. We start in Venice, Italy, where they meet gondolier Alex Hai. On the winding canals in the hidden parts of Venice, we learn about the nearly 1000-year old tradition of the Venetian Gondolier, and how the global media created a 20-year battle between that tradition and a supposed feminist icon.
We circled back to Alex in 2026, to find out where the canal of life ended up leading after our initial reporting, and we’ve included some heartbreaking and heartwarming updates on Alex’s life at the end of this episode.
Special thanks to Alexis Ungerer, Summer, Alex Hai, Kevin Gotkin, Silvia Del Fabbro, Sandro Mariot, Aldo Rosso and Marta Vannucci, The Longest Shortest Time (Hillary Frank, Peter Clowney and Abigail Keel), Tim Howard, Nick Adams/GLAAD, Valentina Powers, Florence Ursino, Ann Marie Somma, Alex Overington, Jeremy Bloom and the people of Little Italy.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - David Conrad and Kristen Clark.
Produced by - Annie McEwen and Molly Webster.
with help from - Anisa Vietze
Fact-checking for the update by - Angely Mercado
OTHER COOL THINGS:
Books -
- The Gondolier, by Alex Hai
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