#399 The Sugar Pill

Published: Dec. 9, 2016, 4 a.m.

b'This week, we\'re taking on the science of the sugar pill. We\'re talking about the placebo effect, its potential benefits and its pitfalls. We speak with Erik Vance about his new book "Suggestible You: The Curious Science of your Brain\'s Ability to Deceive, Transform and Heal". And we\'ll talk with Kathryn Hall, a genetic epidemiologist at Brigham and Women\'s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, about why we experience the placebo effect, why some people are more open to suggestion than others, and why that might not be a weakness. This episode is hosted by Bethany Brookshire, science writer from Science...'