
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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Some parents swear by it. They say it's the only way they and their babies get any sleep. Others parents say it's harmful. So what does the science say? Here we separate fiction from fact.
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Last fall, Merck said it would stop selling its rotavirus vaccine to West Africa and redirect its supply to China at a higher price. After NPR broke the story, the situation changed — for the good.
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For the first time, the World Health Organization has estimated how well the world is doing to prevent low-weight births. The progress is too slow, researchers say.
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A dengue vaccine put thousands of kids at risk for a deadly condition. Some scientists say the manufacturer and health officials did too little to warn parents in the Philippines.
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It took more than 30 years to develop. The hope is it will eventually save tens of thousands of lives each year. But there are a few issues.
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Our readers share ways to get your children to listen without raising your voice — sometimes without saying a word.
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This year, the U.S. has confirmed 550 measles cases so far. A recent spike is connected to outbreaks in New York, but there are outbreaks in four other states too.
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After learning how parents in the Canadian Arctic address a child's misbehavior, I changed my tactics when my toddler would slap my face in anger.
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At the top of the world, the Inuit culture has developed a sophisticated way to sculpt kids' behavior without yelling or scolding. Could discipline actually be playful?
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Teaching children to control their emotions, especially anger, is difficult. We look at how another culture accomplishes this and learn about a powerful tool that American parents may be overlooking.