The Methods Section

Superintendent Michael Hynes has a new equation for creating successful students. What's it take? For starters, mindfulness, empowerment + play should be part of the mission. It's called a "whole child" approach and it's working well for the Patchogue-Medford School District on Long Island.  

A new global database created by researchers at UCLA's WORLD Policy Analysis Center provides a clearer picture of early education opportunities for children in 166 countries. Senior research scientist Dr. Alison Earle talks about the importance of knowing the numbers.

On Sundays in a parish hall in Pompano Beach, Florida, as many as 200 homeless men, women and children share a warm meal in a safe space where volunteers know them by name. Sometimes these guests get sober, find work, and find God -- and often they don't. Program co-founder Rich Storts says the key is to keep showing up. 

How R U Feeling? If there's something on your mind, a qualified therapist could be just a text away. Dr. Nicole Cook talks about the value of telepsychiatry for teens and people who may not have access to quality mental healthcare and how the expanding field of telemedicine is bridging gaps in patient care for specialities including dermatology and neurology.

In September 2017, South Florida braced itself for the arrival of Hurricane Irma, the fiercest hurricane in recorded history. Within a week, the news had moved on. If natural disaster is the new normal, what does it mean for millions of Americans who are still suffering long after the storm has passed? Disaster case manager Rachel Bruno talks about her work to make sure they are not forgotten.

Straight talk is more important than ever in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape. Content strategist Leigh Curtin-Wilding talks about the future of health communications, her role as director of Boston University's online graduate program in Health Communication and her appreciation of plain language.

Moms in the U.S. are dying at higher rates than any other developed country, with maternal death rates up nearly 30 percent over the last decade. For Black women, the statistics are even more dire. Public health social worker and maternal/child health expert Dr. Sarah Verbiest talks about a pathway to better health for moms and babies through an approach called Life Course Theory. 

HIV and the opioid epidemic are inextricably linked. In South Florida, where there are more new cases of HIV infection than anywhere else in the U.S., a needle exchange program is doing its part to prevent spread of the disease and curb opioid-related deaths. Dr. Hansel Tookes talks about the fight to have the program expanded throughout the state.

The future of cancer screening could be in your mailbox...in part thanks to our guest Dr. Erin Kobetz. When she found cervical cancer rates in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood were four times greater than rest of the country, she couldn't stop until she understood why. We talk to her about how her early research paved the way for at-home screening kits for conditions like cervical cancer.