Health Wanted: CTE
Health Wanted, a weekly radio show and podcast produced in collaboration with WABE, brings need-to-know public health headlines and breaks down the science behind trending topics.
February 27, 2026
The Episode
Let’s be honest, Americans love to watch contact sports. We cheer at hockey fights, make highlight reels of the most brutal football tackles, and yell “kill him!” when our favorite wrestler gets their opponent in a headlock. We know massive hits can take a toll on the old noggin, but it might be the lesser hits that happen over and over again that cause more damage for most people.
This week on Health Wanted, we’re talking to an expert about chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Catch the full episode of Health Wanted by:
- Streaming at wabe.org or the WABE app
- Subscribing on Apple or Spotify
- Watching on WABE's YouTube channel
Show Notes
Want to dive deeper into this week's topic? Find Laurel's sources here.
- Persistent Post-Concussive Symptoms (Post-Concussion Syndrome)
- History of Concussion Including Contributions of 1940s Boston City Hospital Researchers
- Axons: The Cable Transmission of Neurons
- Tracking Tau
- Researchers Discover Hidden Differences Between Pathology of CTE and Alzheimer’s Disease
- Head Impact Exposure in Youth Football
- Comparing Head Impacts in Youth Tackle and Flag Football
- The Questionable Science Behind the Odd-Looking Football Helmets
- The Doctor the NFL Tried to Silence
- NFL Acknowledges, for First Time, Link Between Football, Brain Disease
- As a Scientist and NFL Widow, I Am Furious About a Recent NFL Players Association-Funded CTE Study
- Bettman Responds to CTE Concerns
- Doctors Said Hockey Enforcer Todd Ewen Did Not Have CTE But He Did.
- Study Suggests Brain Damage May Have Affected Benoit
- WWE Funds Research into Treatment of Chronic Brain Trauma
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