Rebecca Ramirez
Rebecca Ramirez (she/her) is the founding producer of NPR's daily science podcast, Short Wave. It's a meditation in how to be a Swiss Army Knife, in that it involves a little of everything — background research, finding and booking sources, interviewing guests, writing, cutting the tape, editing, scoring ... you get the idea.
Ramirez's journey to radio producer was a happy accident. At the University of Southern California, she pursued a double major in history and neuroscience. It was fun and engaging, but with no obvious career path. She answered an ad for an internship while playing an NPR podcast, and got hired! After graduation, she began an internship for Invisibilia, NPR's podcast about the unseeable forces that control human behavior. From there, she dove head-first into a completely different job - producing daily news on Morning Edition, NPR's daily morning news magazine. After a year, she jumped at the chance to help start a new NPR podcast. Aside from the joy of the hard work, Ramirez is involved in increasing NPR's diversity, both in its journalism through source diversity efforts and on staff as a leader of the Marginialized Genders and Intersex People of Color (MGIPOC) Mentorship Program.
Ramirez hails from Florida and lives in Washington, D.C.
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Worldwide, populations of scavenging animals that feed on rotting carcasses are declining. Scientists are finding that this can seriously hurt human health. NPR science reporter Jonathan Lambert has been looking into how human health is intertwined with scavenging animals and why these animals’ decline could lead to more human disease. Today, he brings all he learned, including how conservation could help, to your earholes. Check out more of Jon’s reporting on scavengers and human health. Interested in more science behind skincare products? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
Since the age of nine or ten, Katie Burns has had debilitating pain from endometriosis, a condition where tissue resembling the uterine lining grows outside the uterus. For years, Katie was in the dark about what was causing her pain. Even after a diagnosis at age 20 it was hard to find relief, or even answers about her condition. Her search for better care is part of what led her to a career studying the disease, which affects tens of millions of people worldwide. And in 2012, she discovered something new about its origins. Today, we talk to Katie and science reporter Meredith Wadman about that discovery, which points to a surprising culprit of endometriosis — the immune system. Read Meredith’s full piece in Science Magazine HERE. Interested in more health science ? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
Food allergies have risen in the United States over the last few decades. Research suggests that 40 years ago the prevalence of food allergies was less than 1%. But today that number is closer to 6%. But this trend is not present in all countries — and what people are allergic to varies globally. Today, we dive into the complex world of food allergies with Dr. Waheeda Samady. She's the director of clinical research at Northwestern University's Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research. Have a food science question? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
The anti-aging product market was worth roughly 53 BILLION dollars in 2024. One of the latest big trends: red light therapy. Social media is rampant with claims about all sorts of purported health benefits to using directed red light regularly … but does the research really live up to all the hype? For answers, we turn to cosmetic chemist and science communicator Michelle Wong. Together, she and host Regina G. Barber sift through the thin (albeit growing) research on red light therapy to find out which claims are clearly backed by the literature – and which still need a bit more experimental data. Interested in more science behind skincare products? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
Rhinoplasty is one of the most common facial plastic surgeries performed today. And it turns out, the ability to reconstruct a nose with living tissue has been known for a very long time – over 2500 years! But what spurred our ancestors to master this reconstructive technique? Well, there’s quite a range of answers – everything from adultery to duels and syphilis. Short Wave host Regina G. Barber speaks with bioengineer and Princeton University professor Daniel Cohen about the surprisingly long history of rhinoplasty – and how this art was lost and found throughout the ages.Want more tales of science throughout time? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are surgically implanted devices that link the brain to a computer. They can be helpful for people who’ve lost the ability to move or speak. And they’re making progress. New generations of BCIs could go as far as to detect a person’s inner monologue. But that progress is raising questions about the future privacy of our brains, and has some scientists asking, “What happens when you want to keep some things to yourself?” NPR brain correspondent Jon Hamilton talks to Short Wave’s Emily Kwong about the future of BCIs. Read more of Jon’s reporting on brain implants. Interested in more on the future of brain science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it in an upcoming episode! Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar was a phenomenon in 2014. Set in the future, Earth has been struck by a global crop blight. Former NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is pulled into a NASA mission to transport the human race to a new planet, via wormhole. Back on Earth, Cooper’s daughter, Murph (Jessica Chastain), attempts to complete an equation that will allow this mass-transport of humanity from Earth. Many scientists praised the film, particularly for its depiction of black holes. In this episode co-hosts Regina G. Barber and Emily Kwong talk about Interstellar with Star Trek scientific advisor and astrophysicist Erin Macdonald. They walk through wormholes, black holes and all the ways space-time stretches in the film. Interested in more on the science behind science fiction? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it in an upcoming episode! Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
U.S. consumers spend more than $10 billion a year on sports drinks, according to Beverage Industry, a trade publication. And we can’t lie that sometimes a Gatorade or electrolyte tablet sounds really appealing in the quest to hydrate daily – especially since it’s been a very hot, long summer. But the question is: Are we even sweating enough to warrant all these sugary electrolyte-filled drinks? NPR health correspondent Pien Huang has been on the case, and she brings us answers she’s racked up in her reporting today. Read more of Pien’s reporting on electrolytes and hydration. Interested in more consumer health or human biology stories? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it in an upcoming episode! Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
For a long time, scientists have suspected that stuttering — a common speech condition that affects an estimated 1 in every 100 people — could be heritable. Despite how common it is, it's still a remarkably understudied condition. Geneticists Piper Below and Dillon Pruett were determined to fix that. With the help of 23andMe data, they recently identified 57 genetic regions linked to stuttering in the human genome. Their findings represent a new breakthrough in how researchers think about speech conditions, genetics and the conditions that are linked to them. They're what some are calling a "quantum leap" in the field. Interested in more human biology and genetics episodes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
More than 1 in 10 people in the United States take an antidepressant. And the most commonly prescribed type of antidepressant are SSRIs — or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. That includes drugs like Zoloft, Prozac and Lexapro. But what happens when some patients decide they want to stop taking their SSRIs? While doctors know stopping SSRIs can sometimes cause unpleasant short-term side effects – like dizziness, anxiety, insomnia and nausea – some people report symptoms that last months, even years. So, with investigative reporter Emily Corwin and professor of clinical psychology Michael Hengartner, we’re diving into the research around the long-term effects of going off your antidepressants – what it shows and its limits. Read more of Emily Corwin’s reporting on the topic here. Want more stories on mental health? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
