Pien Huang
Pien Huang is a health reporter on the Science desk. She was NPR's first Reflect America Fellow, working with shows, desks and podcasts to bring more diverse voices to air and online.
She's a former producer for WBUR/NPR's On Point and was a 2018 Environmental Reporting Fellow with The GroundTruth Project at WCAI in Cape Cod, covering the human impact on climate change. As a freelance audio and digital reporter, Huang's stories on the environment, arts and culture have been featured on NPR, the BBC and PRI's The World.
Huang's experiences span categories and continents. She was executive producer of Data Made to Matter, a podcast from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and was also an adjunct instructor in podcasting and audio journalism at Northeastern University. She worked as a project manager for public artist Ralph Helmick to help plan and execute The Founder's Memorial in Abu Dhabi and with Stoltze Design to tell visual stories through graphic design. Huang has traveled with scientists looking for signs of environmental change in Cameroon's frogs, in Panama's plants and in the ocean water off the ice edge of Antarctica. She has a degree in environmental science and public policy from Harvard.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning of yet another respiratory virus in the back-to-school season. The virus is associated with a facial rash in children.
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Water utilities and chemical companies are mounting legal challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency's recent rule putting limits on six “forever chemicals” in drinking water.
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About 1,200 people die from extreme heat each year. As temperatures soar, the CDC is unveiling plans to help people deal with potentially record summer heat.
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PFAS chemicals have been used for decades to waterproof and stain-proof consumer products and are linked to health problems. -
In the latest story in the NPR's series The Science of Siblings, we hear about a practice that dates back to ancient times that allows people to turn a friend into a sibling.
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The COVID guidelines were used by millions of doctors to guide care during the pandemic. Scientists say the development of new COVID treatments has slowed to a drip.
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For years, a cancer-preventing vaccine reached vulnerable teens at rates that exceeded the baseline. Since the pandemic, researchers have seen a worrying drop in coverage among Medicaid recipients.
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Mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety and loneliness. And it benefits school kids too. One elementary school in Florida is using a daily mindfulness program with great success.
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Experts warn that new tropical viruses are headed for the U.S. – and the country should take active measures to fend them off. -
A CDC analysis of 2022 data finds that U.S. life expectancy is improving after being knocked backwards during the COVID emergency. But it's still lower than it was pre-pandemic.
