Unwell: A Health and Society Podcast

In partnership with the Medical Humanities Research Institute at Rice University, this academically-grounded podcast explores issues of health and wellbeing through conversations with emerging and leading scholars in the social sciences and medical humanities.

In recent years, the health and wellness movement, aimed at optimizing wellbeing, has led to an abundance of new products and treatments marketed as the key to a healthy and happy life. For example, novel fertility treatments and genetic testing have ushered in a new frontier of reproductive optimization. GLP-1 medications are changing the landscape of weight loss, and applications of artificial intelligence in medicine are increasingly portrayed as the solution for efficiency in healthcare systems. Amid such fast-moving changes, we need to keep asking critical questions. What are the risks and benefits of innovations aimed at improving health and health care? How does the wellness movement interface with persistent social inequalities? What happens when health optimization doesn’t go well? What does wellbeing look like then? Is it possible that the path to wellness could make us unwell?

This show highlights how social, cultural, and structural forces shape experiences of health and illness. Each episode of Unwell features in-depth discussions with researchers about recently published or forthcoming work. Our goal is to broaden the reach of great scholarship and better understand health and wellness in society today.

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