The Invisible System Keeping Us Healthy

Do you roll your eyes at dogs invading the grocery store? Cringe at music blasting during your morning commute? Or recoil at the smell of cigarette smoke wafting down the street? For many, behaviors like these are part of the perception that the way we treat each other in public has become less polite. In fact, almost half of U.S adults say the way people behave in public today is ruder than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, we speak to John Gramlich, associate director of short reads at Pew Research Center, to hear about the latest data on how Americans perceive rudeness in their daily lives. We'll also explore how the conversation around rudeness fits into broader challenges in the United States, such as political polarization and declining trust in the nation's institutions and with each other.

This past summer, at least 20,000 people throughout the United States became sick from cyclospora, a parasite linked to contaminated produce that can cause severe gastrointestinal illness. But how did public health officials go from hearing about a single case to sounding the alarm on a much larger outbreak? Lettuce explain. In this episode, we speak to Margaret Arnesen, who works on Pew's public health data improvement project, to learn how officials use public health data to detect and respond to outbreaks. We also discuss how effective policies, such as improving electronic reporting and data sharing between states, can make the system faster and more efficient to help keep our communities healthy. 

This year, suicide reentered the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States. And although it can be a difficult topic to discuss, speaking openly about suicide risk can be the first step toward reducing stigma and connecting people to the help they need. In this episode, we'll hear about who may be most at risk, including student athletes, and how tailored prevention programs can offer hope and support. And we'll learn about how mental health resources at the University of Washington helped members of the women's soccer team support each other through grief and loss. If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or visit 988lifeline.org and click on the chat button.

How can what's happening in the ocean directly affect the environment, the food we eat, and our health? In this episode, the "After the Fact" team travels to San Francisco to hear about harmful algal blooms (or "red tides"), which occur when certain algae grow out of control and create dangerous toxins. The effects of these blooms can harm the health of humans and marine life and affect the livelihoods of people living in coastal communities. Matthew Gribble — an environmental health scientist at the University of California, San Francisco — dives into the research behind these harmful algal blooms and shares ways that the health of people, wildlife, and the ocean are all interconnected. We also hear from a fisher about how the red tides can shorten or delay the fishing season, as well as people who rescue marine mammals that have been poisoned by these toxins.

Americans' views of religion have been changing for decades. And in 2026, the share of people who identify as "religious nones" (people who say they have no religious affiliation) is holding steady at 28%. This episode, originally released in 2019, focuses on the shifts in perspectives across generations and the nation's changing religious landscape.

The fertility rate in the U.S. hit another record low in 2025, with 20% fewer babies born that year compared to 20 years ago, indicating that women are continuing to wait longer to have children. This was a growing trend when this episode originally aired in 2019, where a Pew researcher explains the data behind this change in the American family and two mothers share why they waited to have children.

Nearly 800 million people around the world live within 62 miles of a volcano. But what if scientists could better predict a volcanic eruption before it begins? In this re-release from our "Scientists at Work" series, originally published in 2020, we go behind the scenes at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History to talk with geologist and volcanologist Ben Andrews. His job is to answer three key questions about volcanoes around the world: When will an eruption happen, how big could the eruption be, and how fast?

This summer, we're revisiting the ways that scientists are using artificial intelligence in their health research. Keyla Sá, a researcher at Yale University School of Medicine, discusses her work tracking how long COVID develops and an AI tool that can identify its wide variety of symptoms and patterns. Since this episode originally aired in 2024, researchers are still learning about the ways long COVID continues to affect millions of people.

America has a milestone birthday coming up: This July, the nation will turn 250. As many pause to reflect on the past 250 years, there's also an opportunity to think about our shared future. While political polarization remains one of the greatest challenges to our democracy, with 65% of Americans saying that they feel exhausted when thinking about politics because of deep partisan divisions, we have more in common than current politics suggest. According to a 2025 Gallup poll, 8 in 10 Americans support compromise between political leaders, and two-thirds agree that democracy—despite its flaws—remains the best form of government.  In this episode of "After the Fact," we speak to Pew's CEO, Susan K. Urahn, and curiosity expert Scott Shigeoka, fresh from the TED Democracy Philadelphia: Founding Futures event, about how the American "experiment" is going, the state of democracy today, and how we can collectively strengthen the foundation of our nation for the next 250 years.   

The U.S. housing shortage has rapidly increased rents in lower-income neighborhoods—making secure housing hard to find. But how does building high-end apartments address availability across income brackets? This episode of "After the Fact" explores new housing's ripple effects and its impact on affordability. The podcast team traces a chain of vacancies, starting with a new luxury apartment unit in Washington, D.C. Its opening spurred the availability of middle-income units and ultimately led to an available unit for a single mother who was able to move out of a shelter and build a new life with her son.