Driven to Discover

Inspired by his grandfather’s service as a volunteer fire chief, Joshua Lynch joined the fire department at 18 and was soon patrolling the streets of Buffalo as an EMT. At the same time, he was pursuing a path to medical school as a psychology major at UB. That blend of frontline emergency response and human-centered health care became the hallmark of his career. Today, Lynch is a professor of emergency medicine at UB, a medical director for Mercy Flight and several volunteer fire departments, and the founder and chief medical officer of MATTERS—a multistate program that has transformed the delivery of care to people with opioid use disorder. In this episode, Lynch talks with host Laura Silverman about the personal losses that fueled his commitment to addiction medicine, why quick, barrier-free access to treatment is essential, and how MATTERS has grown from a Buffalo-based pilot into a national model for tackling the opioid epidemic.

Nick Henshue was a classic “nature kid” as a child. Now he’s an associate teaching professor of ecology and an expert in all things earthworm. In this episode, he explains why earthworms are a menace to forests, how trees talk to each other, and what’s behind the “jumping” earthworm’s name.

When it was Jeff Scott’s turn to choose an instrument, the sixth grader picked the French horn because no one else had. Today, he is one of the nation’s premier French hornists and a Grammy-winning composer. In this engaging episode, Scott shares his unexpected path to success and how his multicultural Queens upbringing shaped the wildly eclectic music he writes today.

Obsessed with true crime shows as a teen, Mary Bush naturally gravitated toward forensics as a young dental school professor. In this episode, she talks about her efforts to banish bitemark evidence from the U.S. court system, how she copes with the emotional toll of victim identification, and what it was like to appear on Netflix’s hit show “Unsolved Mysteries.”

A childhood fascination with the fish and crabs in the river near his home led Vincent Lynch to a career as an evolutionary biologist, studying the genetic history of various species to better understand human health. In this episode, he explains why human pregnancy is a mystery, why elephants don’t get cancer and why bringing the woolly mammoth back to life is a terrible idea.

Working as a bouncer during college, Mark Frank found he could learn a lot about people by observing their gestures and expressions. Today the communications professor is a globally recognized expert on nonverbal communication who advises the FBI and the CIA. In this episode, Frank explains how he’s able to get the truth out of even the most practiced liars.

After seeing the river she swam in as a child turn black with pollution, Diana Aga became determined to help clean up the planet. In this episode, the renowned environmental chemist talks to host Cory Nealon about PFAS, or forever chemicals: what they are, why they're so dangerous, and what she's doing to take the "forever" out of them.

As a child, Stephanie Poindexter loved watching the apes at the zoo. Now she's an expert in the slow loris, a noctural primate that inhabits Southeast Asia. In this episode of Driven to Discover, Poindexter tells host Vicky Santos what it's like to track down this shy creature in a Thai jungle in the middle of the night, and why she does it.