Lauren Silverman
Lauren Silverman is the Health, Science & Technology reporter/blogger at KERA News. She is also the primary backup host for KERA’s Think and the statewide newsmagazine Texas Standard. In 2016, Lauren was recognized as Texas Health Journalist of the Year by the Texas Medical Association. She was part of the Peabody Award-winning team that covered Ebola for NPR in 2014. She also hosted "Surviving Ebola," a special that won Best Long Documentary honors from the Public Radio News Directors Inc. (PRNDI). And she's won a number of regional awards, including an honorable mention for Edward R. Murrow award (for her project “The Broken Hip”), as well as the Texas Veterans Commission’s Excellence in Media Awards in the radio category.
Before joining KERA, Lauren worked at NPR’s weekend All Things Considered in Washington, D.C. There, she produced national stories on everything from the politics of climate change to the future of online education. While at All Things Considered, Lauren also produced a piece on neighborhood farms in Compton, Calif., that won a National Association of Black Journalism’s Salute to Excellence Award.
As a freelance reporter, Lauren has written and recorded stories in English and Spanish for a variety of news outlets, including NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Here & Now; American Public Media’s Marketplace; Sound Medicine and Latino USA.
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Trying to prevent gun violence by tying it to mental health legislation began in 1966 when a young gunman killed 16 people in Austin, Texas. But some believe the approach is misguided. -
Women scientists get first-author credit on medical studies much less often than their male coauthors. That has career implications and could even be skewing the study of women's health. -
They're called doctors of pastoral medicine and tout certificates to prove it. But they don't have real medical degrees, and critics worry that patients don't understand what those titles really mean. -
Despite the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, Texas still has 6 million uninsured people, low Medicaid reimbursement rates and narrow choices of doctors and hospitals for many who are insured. -
Ben Lecomte wants to be the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean — a 5,500-mile journey. Doctors will monitor his heart remotely to see how intensive exercise affects this vital muscle. -
Service dogs help veterans with physical disabilities, and there's increased interest in using dogs for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, too. A study is underway to see whether that helps. -
At least 19 young football players have died so far in 2015. Pediatricians are calling for changes in the way the game is played, including a move to non-tackle games.
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Medical school applications have gone way up in the past few decades. But one group of applicants has not grown: black men. -
Instead of having to go to the doctors, how about a physical, every day, without having to do anything at all? We visit a live-in laboratory in Fort Worth, Texas, designed for senior citizens.
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In a state where 185 of 254 counties have no psychiatrist, how do you get students to want to become one — and then go to work in underserved areas? A loan repayment program may not be enough.
