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Prognosis: Misconception

Prognosis: Misconception

Bloomberg · Brad Stone

258 episodesEN-USserial

Show overview

Prognosis: Misconception has been publishing since 2018, and across the 7 years since has built a catalogue of 258 episodes, alongside 10 trailers or bonus episodes. That works out to roughly 70 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a fortnightly cadence, with the show now in its 9th season.

Episodes typically run ten to twenty minutes — most land between 12 min and 17 min — though episode length varies meaningfully from one episode to the next. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-US-language Science show.

The catalogue appears to be on hiatus or wound down — the most recent episode landed 1.1 years ago, with no new episodes in over a year. The busiest year was 2020, with 158 episodes published. Published by Brad Stone.

Episodes
258
Running
2018–2025 · 7y
Median length
14 min
Cadence
Fortnightly

From the publisher

Reality TV stars are freezing their eggs on camera. Lawmakers in DC are debating federal protection for IVF. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in slick startups that market fertility treatments for all. But this rapid growth has revealed cracks in the system. Misconception, a new series from Bloomberg’s Prognosis, follows reporter Kristen V. Brown on her own intimate journey as she uncovers the business of fertility. Along the way, she finds a fractured industry — a profit-driven field of medicine that thrives on dueling messages of hope and fear as people gamble everything for a chance at a baby.

Latest Episodes

View all 258 episodes

Introducing: Levittown

When dozens of young women discover manipulated photos of themselves have been posted on a porn site, they fight back – joining up with a global band of investigators and hackers to battle the AI-fueled rise of deepfakes. Listen to episodes starting March 21.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 28, 20253 min

Listen Now: Beak Capitalism from Odd Lots

In this limited series, Odd Lots explains some of the thorniest issues facing the US economy through the medium of … chicken. Chicken occupies a unique position in the US diet, but issues facing the poultry industry illustrate wider points about the development of the US economy and the decisions being made about how it's structured and who benefits from it. So why has the chicken industry evolved in the way that it has? What’s been driving the price increases in eggs and meat? And what does it all say about things like inflation, the labor market and the nature of American capitalism? Check out Beak Capitalism on Odd Lots wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nov 24, 20241 min

S9 Ep 4Misconception: Great Expectations

At long last, it's the day of Kristen’s retrieval. As she waits to find out her results, she investigates why so many people are freezing their eggs now — and whether there is any science on the horizon that could make things easier for future generations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 13, 202418 min

S9 Ep 3Misconception: Big Baby

Kristen is trying to figure out where to freeze. While trying to pick a clinic, she uncovers how an influx of private equity and other funding hasn’t actually made things better for fertility patients. She learns about fertility mishaps, mistakes and how labs and clinics are really run.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 6, 202424 min

S9 Ep 2Misconception: Money Money Money

As Kristen stresses about how to pay for fertility treatment, she meets people who had to go extreme lengths to afford the services in a system where insurance coverage is spotty. And she travels to Oklahoma to check out one company that’s trying to make the treatment accessible for all.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 30, 202426 min

S9 Ep 1Misconception: The Baby Boom

Reporter Kristen V. Brown visits a fertility clinic to find out whether she can still have kids. And she explores the moment the fertility industry really exploded: when doctors realized they could sell egg freezing as a preventative service, not just as a medical treatment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 23, 202423 min

Introducing: Misconception

trailer

Reality TV stars are freezing their eggs on camera. Lawmakers in DC are debating federal protection for IVF. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in slick startups that market fertility treatments for all. But this rapid growth has revealed cracks in the system. Misconception, a new series from Bloomberg’s Prognosis, follows reporter Kristen V. Brown on her own intimate journey as she uncovers the business of fertility. Along the way, she finds a fractured industry — a profit-driven field of medicine that thrives on dueling messages of hope and fear as people gamble everything for a chance at a baby.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 23, 20241 min

Introducing: Bloomberg News Now

Bloomberg News Now is a comprehensive audio report on today's top stories. Listen for the latest news, whenever you want it, covering global business stories around the world. on Apple: trib.al/Mx9TCh1 on Spotify: trib.al/T4BG8s4 Anywhere: trib.al/O4EX6BA See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dec 15, 20230 min

Introducing: Elon, Inc.

At Bloomberg, we’re always talking about the biggest business stories, and no one is bigger than Elon Musk. In this new chat weekly show, host David Papadopoulos and a panel of guests including Businessweek’s Max Chafkin, Tesla reporter Dana Hull, Big Tech editor Sarah Frier, and more, will break down the most important stories on Musk and his empire. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nov 13, 20230 min

Covid Cures and Conspiracies Introducing: The Deadly Cure

bonus

Smoke Screen: Deadly Cure is a podcast about a family on the fringe who convinced tens of thousands of people across the globe to buy a miracle liquid made of poison, the international conspiracy they ignited, and the people who fought to take them down. Smoke Screen: Deadly Cure is a Neon Hum Media, Bloomberg & Sony Music Entertainment production.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 1, 20236 min

Introducing: Crash Course

trailer

Hosted by Bloomberg Opinion senior executive editor Tim O'Brien, Crash Course will bring listeners directly into the arenas where epic business and social upheavals occur. Every week, Crash Course will explore the lessons to be learned when creativity and ambition collide with competition and power -- on Wall Street and Main Street, and in Hollywood and Washington.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jan 5, 20231 min

Targeting the Toughest Diseases (Sponsored Content)

bonus

The battle against humanity’s most challenging diseases is happening at the intersection of business and medicine. A new six-episode podcast called Targeting the Toughest Diseases explores how Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a Boston-based biotech company, is using innovative tools, methods, and a unique philosophy to search for treatments and cures. Produced by Bloomberg Media Studios and Vertex, the podcast’s latest episode features NBA great Alonzo Mourning recounting his fight against kidney disease, and how future generations of patients may have an easier time of it. You can subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nov 7, 202217 min

S8 Ep 7Losing It: Gut Instinct

If you’re like many people, there’s a good chance that your weight and calorie considerations play a big role in food decisions. Intuitive eating, an Internet-famous movement all about healing people’s relationships with food, says it shouldn’t be that way. The final episode of “Losing It” explores what it means to eat intuitively, and asks the question: Does it work? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 16, 202256 min

S8 Ep 6Losing It: The Truth About Health and Weight

What if the dangers of being heavy have been overstated, or misrepresented? This new episode of the podcast series “Losing It” explores the relationship between health and weight, and the argument that we focus on the scale too much and not enough on healthy behaviors.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 9, 202253 min

S8 Ep 5Losing It: Just Don’t Call it A Diet

Companies like WW, formerly Weight Watchers, and Noom, which makes a popular weight-loss app, have a new pitch for would-be members: that they can lose weight with a holistic lifestyle approach instead of dieting. This new episode of podcast series “Losing It” explores why the backlash against dieting is happening, how companies are getting in on the action, and whether we're actually over dieting and losing weight. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 2, 202247 min

S8 Ep 4Losing It: A Weight-Loss Mecca’s Secrets

We all think we know the basics of weight loss. It is all about consuming fewer calories than you burn. Eat less, move more. Calories in, calories out. But there’s much more to it than these simple equations, as a trip to the enormous Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana - a hub of such research - shows. In this episode, we break down the science of why it’s so hard to lose weight, and look at what the kinds of stories heralded as a weight-loss success really look like in practice. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 26, 202253 min

S8 Ep 3Losing It: How to Launch a Diet Empire

The South Beach Diet became an incredible success in the early 2000s, blowing past booksellers’ expectations, dominating the cultural moment and becoming a huge business. In the third episode of Losing It, we fly down to glamorous Miami to tell the story of the South Beach Diet and break down the formula for a hit diet. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 19, 202243 min

S8 Ep 2Losing It: Once Upon a Diet

When it comes to dieting, what’s old is new again. In the second episode of Losing we take a trip back in time through diet history — and explore why we keep falling for these absurd-sounding regimens decade after decade. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 12, 202246 min

S8 Ep 1Losing It: When a Calorie Isn’t A Calorie

Calorie counts are everywhere from food packages to weight-loss apps. But calories aren’t all that they appear to be. In the series premiere of Losing it, we dive into how we got the calorie so wrong – and pretty much everything else about weight.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 12, 202237 min

Introducing: Losing It

trailer

For much of human history, we’ve turned to diets to lose weight and improve our health. But it’s mostly been in vain. Because no matter how much the number on the scale drops, chances are the weight will come back. That’s just what the science says. But when it comes to our weight, the facts don’t seem to make much difference. Dieting still has a grip on all of us. Losing It, a new series from Bloomberg’s Prognosis, investigates how we got weight loss so wrong — and whether there’s a better way forward. Losing It launches on July 12. Subscribe to Prognosis today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 2, 20222 min
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