This week we're talking about racial disparities in health and medicine. Ian and Deborah present research focusing on differences in cancer treatments for Black patients in contrast to White patients, and also discuss athlete head trauma and concussion education in the US.
Music by Solomon Krause-Imlach.
- Black patients in the U.S. are less likely to receive surgery as treatment for esophageal cancer, making them more likely to die from this type of cancer than white patients.
- Even though 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, survival rates have been improving over the last three decades. However, black women are still 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women in the U.S.
- Assessing Differences in Concussion Symptom Knowledge and Sources of Information Among Black and White Collegiate-Athletes

Ian Mahar
Ian is a postdoctoral researcher at Boston University, studying neuropsychiatric features of chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other neurodegenerative conditions. He did his PhD in Neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal, doing neuropsychiatry research in the McGill Group for Suicide Studies at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. He also does science writing and outreach, and his primary interests for all three are how the brain regulates emotions, and what happens when this regulation goes awry.

Deborah Adedoja
Deborah is an up-and-coming physician with an interest in the science behind everyday life experiences. Deborah received a masters in public health from the University of Edinburgh. She enjoys new adventures, jogging, biking, music, theatre, painting, playing the harp, and participating in meaningful and fun gatherings.