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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Studies of ancient bones show that women's physical labor was crucial to driving the agricultural revolution in Europe. These women's upper bodies were stronger than that of elite athletes today.
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For decades, scientists have predicted how climate change will hurt people's health. Now an international team of researchers say they're already seeing some of the damage. -
Talking to a device that talks back can be entertaining and educational for children. But psychologists say children can develop relationships with these devices that can be different than adults. -
For the first time, scientists have carefully analyzed all the critters in a kitchen sponge. There turns out to be a huge number. Despite recent news reports, there is something you can do about it. -
NPR listeners had lots of questions after our story about diastasis recti, a medical condition of abdominal muscles that's common among new moms. Many wanted to know more about how to fix the problem. -
The technical term is diastasis recti, and it affects many new moms. The growing fetus pushes apart the abdominal muscles, and the separation often stays open. But science suggests this fix can work. -
Rodents, primates and bats likely carry hundreds of thousands of viruses we haven't yet identified. But how do you know which ones might infect humans? -
Bats, birds and tourists love a good cave. And so do viruses. Scientists say this mixture could trigger a deadly outbreak. -
If you think there are more dangerous infectious diseases than ever, you're right. One big reason: pushing animals like this one out of their homes. -
Two studies show that Ebola virus mutated early in the West Africa outbreak, becoming much more infectious and thus able to kill more people.
