When a seasoned magazine editor took her daughter to the bookstore, they found scientists and explorers in magazines for boys. For girls: princesses, cover girls in make-up and tips for shinier hair.
On today’s show a new magazine for girls has plenty of creative, inspiring ideas, and no lipstick!
Also today, aspiring doctors get all they can from med school, for the rest, they turn to actors. We'll find out how playing sick is helping to make better doctors. And the 5-second rule gets the science treatment.
Listen to the full show:
Kazoo - A Magazine for Girls
When Erin Bried and her 5-year-old daughter went to the bookstore together, they hit a wall. There were plenty of princesses and dolls and pink lipstick on girls’ magazines, but where were the pirates, or the space explorers? So, with Erin's experience in publishing and her daughter's enthusiasm, they decided to start a different kind of magazine for girls. Others agreed. Within 30 days the Kickstarter campaign to launch kazoo magazine became the most successful journalism project in crowdfunding history. Turns out there's a lot of interest for the 5-10 set that promises cool, fun, imaginative stories & activities developed and inspired by creative women and girls.
Erin Bried is a former Condé Nast editor, author of three books, and most recently the founder and editor in chief of Kazoo - "A magazine for girls who aren't afraid to make some noise."
Mary Walker Would Wear What She Wanted
We move from a pioneer in magazines for kids to the story of a woman who would fit quite well within those pages. Nate DiMeo, creator and host of The Memory Palace podcast brings us her story.
You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.
Getting Paid to Act Sick
You don't become a doctor by watching Gray's Anatomy. It takes years of pre-med and med school study, at least a year-long internship, and--depending on one's specialty--residencies, fellowships and board certification. Some med schools are adding theater to the mix: giving med students the chance to think on their feet by simulating interactions with patients and colleagues played by actors. Elizabeth Zimmer, is not a medical patient, she just plays one for aspiring and practicing doctors. She's wrote in the Village Voice about the experience of playing sick.
Related "Playing Sick: How Actors are Making Better Doctors"
The Wong-Baker Pain Scale
Almost everyone who has been to a hospital has had this experience: the doctor brings out a chart with those little faces and a 1 to 10 scale on it and asks you what your level of pain is. But are a row of cartoon faces and numbers enough to explain how you feel? This story comes to us from health and science reporter Elana Gordon from WHYY’s podcast “The Pulse.”
The 5-Second Rule
The longer food has touched the floor - the grosser it is, right? That's the premise of the 5-second rule - a frequently-quoted “law” that makes it ok to eat dropped food as long as you pick it up within 5 seconds.
Donald Schaffner is a professor of food science at Rutgers University where he recently put the rule to the test and discovered that bacteria does not play by the clock.