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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Some Olympic athletes prepared for Paris with a technique for acclimatizing to hot weather. Healthy people can take a cue from them, medical experts say, to build up tolerance for heat. -
Most states currently don't have age limits for buying zero-proof beverages that look and taste like beer, wine and liquor. But some researchers argue they could be a gateway into drinking for kids. -
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns of an increased risk of dengue infections in the U.S. this summer. The mosquito-borne virus is surging, and human travel is expanding its reach. -
Chemical companies and water utilities are challenging the EPA’s recent rule putting limits on six PFAS chemicals in drinking water. -
Around 1 in 6 U.S. adults practice yoga. The mind-body activity has grown and evolved over recent decades, into more accessible versions that reflect a current focus on mental health and mobility training, researchers say. -
For a few weeks in late spring, thousands of fireflies emerge at the Congaree National Park in South Carolina to blink in synchrony. Scientists are trying to learn their secrets and to protect them. -
An avian flu outbreak in dairy herds has stoked tensions between the federal government and raw milk advocates. Milk testing could provide assurances and useful data, but some farmers oppose it. -
An outbreak of avian flu in dairy cow herds has resurfaced long-simmering tensions between the federal government and raw milk advocates, who downplay concerns that health officials have raised.
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Studies have found fragments of bird flu virus in about 20% of the milk supply. It's not expected to pose a threat to humans, but may indicate the outbreak is more widespread than previously thought.
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Thousands of years ago, there was a ceremony to bind close friends together as sworn siblings. Could the practice be resurrected today to strengthen modern friendships? Two women did just that.
