Saving Gunshot Victims With Hypothermia, The Great Smog, & Video Games in 2017

Weather events and disasters can be ferocious - but in December of 1952, London, England was struck by a much quieter calamity - a heavy blanket of smog so thick, that thousands died. Today, stories from The Great Smog of 1952.  

Then, for most people who sustain traumatic injuries from bullets or car crashes death occurs within an hour. Now, what seems like a miracle cure is freighted with questions of consent, ethics and racism in a country with a sordid history of medical experiments on African Americans.

Listen to the full show. 

Almost two weeks into 2017, there have been 1322 gun-related incidents and 342 deaths - that's according to the gun violence archive. For most people who sustain traumatic injuries from bullets or car crashes death occurs within an hour. A trial at one of the country's leading trauma centers aims to keep victims alive longer using profound hypothermia - basically freezing circulation of critically wounded victims when every second counts.

The experiment at Baltimore's Shock Trauma Center has been called 'blasphemy’ by some in the medical community. It also raises questions of consent, ethics and racism in a country with a sordid history of medical experiments on African Americans. Nicola Twilley is co-host of the Gastropod  podcast and contributing writer for the New Yorker – that’s where she reported on the story.   

Talking about death and dying is a subject most people shy away from. The first “Before I Die” festival took place in Wales in 2013 and was designed to give people an opportunity to talk about how they want to approach the end of life. Producer Jake Harper attended the first “Before I Die” festival held in the United States last spring along with Side Effects Public Media, a reporting collaborative focused on public health.     

You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.

Weather events and disasters can be ferocious - tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis - these sudden forces strike quickly and leave destruction in their wake.  In December of 1952, London, England was struck by a much quieter calamity - a heavy blanket of smog so thick, that thousands died. In a city known for "pea-soupers" - the event came to be known as "The Great Smog" - recently remembered on the Netflix series, The Crown.

Dr. Christine Corton is author of London Fog: the Biography and joined us now to talk about The Great Smog. 

The holidays are behind us, which in New England means we're staring down the barrel of several uninterrupted cold, dark, and snowy months. Perfect weather for curling up at home with a good book, TV show or...video game?

Chris Suellentropis a contributing video game critic for the New York Times and host of the podcast Shall We Play a Game? He’s here to tell us about what's on the horizon for 2017's most anticipated video games.