The Pulse

There's nothing funny about a bad, life-altering diagnosis but sometimes you have to use what you have to get through some dark times.

For Black Americans, humor has always been a consistent coping mechanism to deal with trauma. How does humor succeed, and fail, as a healthy way to heal within the Black community?

What’s funny to one person may be weird or not at all not funny at all to another person. This can often be true for many people who have a loved one or friend who’s on the autism spectrum. Autism usually affects people’s communication or social skills that can complicate connecting through humor.

Laughter is universal, we all laugh at a good joke or a comedy, but what happens when that laughter is unfounded? When it comes from a situation that isn’t funny, a situation where it’s inappropriate to laugh? Why do we experience nervous laughter, and how does this reaction help to regulate our emotions?

Things have been extremely stressful lately, to say the least. But through it all, we've been able to find laughter in the little things. On today’s ep, we explore humor what makes us laugh, how it works, and the roles it plays in our lives. Featuring: ... - Sophie Scott, director of the institute for cognitive neuroscience at UCL, and Robert Clewis, professor of philosophy at Gwynedd Mercy University. - Anthony Gramuglia, pop culture writer, and Peter McGraw, psychologists who runs the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. - Margaret Clark, professor of psychology at Yale University, and Oriana Aragón, professor of psychology at Clemson University. - Maja Watkins, educator with Zip Zap Zop Enrichment Non-Profit, and Jason McCormick, clinical psychologist. - Karen and Rod Morrow, hosts of The Black Guy Who Tips podcast, Corliss Outley, professor at Clemson University, Janicia Francis, co-host of the Tea with Queen and J. podcast, and Diamond Stylz, host of Marsha's Plate podcast.

Environmental scientists understand that the global community is not doing enough to curb pollution and energy consumption. But now, some are also thinking twice about how their work is contributing to these issues.

Graduate students in the sciences work really hard on their research to give us new knowledge about the world. But that often comes at a cost to their own mental health. What are universities and labs doing to support these young scientists?

In science, we tend to focus on the destination, not the journey. But for every big breakthrough, every historic discovery, there are countless contributions that no one notices. On today's episode we explore the hidden cost of science the price of doing business that we rarely think about. Featuring:... - J'Nese Williams, historian of Modern Britain and a Mellon Fellow at Stanford University, and Antentor Hinton Jr, a research fellow at the University of Iowa. - Jasmine Childress, ecologist at the UC Santa Barbara, Russell White, professor of astronomy at Georgia State University, Jen Heemstra, professor of chemistry at Emory University. - Ashley Juavinett, neuroscientist at UC San Diego, and Cat Lutz, director of the mouse repository at The Jackson Laboratory. - Stephanie Borelle, conservation biologist, Eli Preston, manager of a developmental genetics lab at the University of Pennsylvania, Kathryn Ramirez-Aquillar, manager of the Green Laboratories program at the University of Colorado Boulder. - Jeff MacKie-Mason, head librarian at UC Berkeley, Peter Walter, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF, and Dyche Mullins, professor of cellular molecular pharmacology at UCSF, Gemma Hersch, VP of open science at Elsevier, and John Pham, editor in chief of Cell at Elsevier.

Social media can feel pretty unwelcoming to many of us. But for one influencer, it's where she learned to be herself, to find a community, and ultimately, to find happiness.

As our lives have been reshaped by the pandemic, many of us have had to reexamine what happiness means to us. In normal times, we think of happiness as a big-picture goal a guiding principle for making decisions. On this episode, we hear from psychologists who study happiness, and explore what contributes to happiness, and what it means to be happy in this unique moment. Featuring:... - Sonja Lyubomirsky, psychologist at UC Riverside. - Brock Bastian, psychologist at the The University of Melbourne. - Lise Deguire, psychologist and author of Flashback Girl: Lessons on Resillience from a Burn Survivor. - Jeanne Tsai, psychologist at Stanford University's Culture and Emotion Lab.

The first Olympian disqualified for doping was a Swede at the 1968 summer games in Mexico City. His drug of choice: two beers that he drank before the pistol portion of the pentathlon. How does booze work as a performance enhancer?

In a secret underground lab, a notorious scientist might just have invented the holy grail: a drink that gets you tipsy with no hangover. At a time when Americans are drinking more, could synthetic alcohol take the edge off, without affecting our health? Or is it too good to be true?

Drinking a lot of alcohol is bad for your health, it’s tied to heart disease, heightened risk for some cancers, addiction, and accidents. But many believe that moderate drinking is fine, or even beneficial, for your health. What does science actually say about the health impact of drinking? Featuring: ... - Roni Rabin, health reporter at the The New York Times, and Vivian Gonzalez, professor of psychology at the UAA: University of Alaska Anchorage. - David Jernigan, alcohol researcher at Boston University, and Thomas Babor, alcohol researcher at UConn. - David Nutt, professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, and Sarah Zemore, senior scientists at the Alcohol Research Group (Public Health Institute). - Bjorn Sandahl, historian and chief adiministrative officer at GIH, Olivier Rabin, science director of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and Andrew Jarosz, a cognition researcher at Mississippi State University. - Teri Johnston - Mayor of Key West.