George Ella Lyon is a former Poet Laureate of Kentucky. Her poem “Receiving” is a touching meditation on holding a squirming newborn and the complex emotions it evokes. Martha reads the poem from Lyon’s collection Back to the Light (Bookshop|Amazon)...
John Colapinto’s book This is the Voice (Bookshop|Amazon) is a fascinating look at the miracle of the human voice and how it distinguishes our own species from others. The book is an invigorating mix of science, history, linguistics, and...
Katie in East Thetford, Vermont, shares NICU slang from a neonatal intensive care unit, where a doorbell is an alarm summoning a team and a Giraffe is a brand-name bed that controls heat and humidity for an infant. The PANDA Room is the Preterm and...
Named for anesthesiologist Dr. Virginia Apgar, the Apgar score — a measure of a newborn’s appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration — is both an eponym and an acronym. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Apgar...
Giving your baby an uncommon name may seem like a swell idea. But what if you’re the parent of a newborn and you already have namer’s remorse? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Baby Name Remorse” You’re...
Mike from Manchester, Connecticut, asks about wet behind the ears, meaning inexperienced, and wonders if it has to do with milk trickling behind a nursing baby’s ear. Probably not. A more likely explanation, made clear by Charles Earl Funk of Funk...
