Michaeleen Doucleff
Michaeleen Doucleff, PhD, is a correspondent for NPR's Science Desk. For nearly a decade, she has been reporting for the radio and the web for NPR's global health outlet, Goats and Soda. Doucleff focuses on disease outbreaks, cross-cultural parenting, and women and children's health.
In 2014, Doucleff was part of the team that earned a George Foster Peabody award for its coverage of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. For the series, Doucleff reported on how the epidemic ravaged maternal health and how the virus spreads through the air. In 2019, Doucleff and Senior Producer Jane Greenhalgh produced a story about how Inuit parents teach children to control their anger. That story was the most popular one on NPR.org for the year; altogether readers have spent more than 16 years worth of time reading it.
In 2021, Doucleff published a book, called Hunt, Gather, Parent, stemming from her reporting at NPR. That book became a New York Times bestseller.
Before coming to NPR in 2012, Doucleff was an editor at the journal Cell, where she wrote about the science behind pop culture. Doucleff has a bachelor degree in biology from Caltech, a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Berkeley, California, and a master's degree in viticulture and enology from the University of California, Davis.
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Chair design shifted dramatically about a hundred years ago, and it hasn't been good for our backs. Our daily lives are filled with chairs that make our posture worse. Luckily, we've got hacks. -
In the past century, many Americans have lost the ability to sit in a way that doesn't strain their backs. Specialists say we could take a lesson from excellent sitters from other cultures.
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In villages in Mexico, parents have accomplished what every mom and dad dreams of: Figured out a way to get to their kids to be helpful around the house. What's their secret? -
What can other cultures tell us about raising kids? Non-Western societies have a lot to teach us, from reducing the stress of parenting to raising more independent kids.
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Parenting doesn't have to be so stressful. Just ask a Maya mom. -
No, we're not talking about squatting. We're talking about a way to bend over that has nearly disappeared in our culture. And it could be one reason why back pain is so common in the U.S. -
Her story was so inspirational to readers that they literally sprung into verse, with a Dr. Seuss-inspired poem. What they created is the most joyful poem about eye worms ever written.
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Mosquitoes find some people way more delicious than others. Now scientists have found a way to make you less attractive, no chemicals needed.
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There's a new fear from climate change: bacteria and viruses buried in frozen ground coming back to life as the Arctic warms up. We went digging in permafrost to find out how worried we should be.
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This year, the world came tantalizingly close to wiping out two human diseases: Guinea worm and polio. But right at the finish line, both eradication projects have run into surprising roadblocks.
