360 Live: Dr. Rachel Yehuda Misses Her Rats

Rachel Yehuda is a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. For years, Dr. Yehuda researched PTSD by measuring stress hormones in lab rats. But when she began investigating PTSD in Holocaust survivors, she found that her methods were hitting a little close to home:

“A man got up, and he said, ‘biologic science? Are you trying to give Hitler a posthumous victory?’…He was so angry. And all I could think of at that moment was that I missed my rats.”

Her story was part of a live event hosted by Studio 360 and The Story Collider at WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, where scientists and comedians told true stories about their encounters with science.  You can hear Aparna Nancherla’s tale of cheating her way to science fair glory in our September 1, 2016 episode.

Produced with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.