American science brain drain

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

President Trump's federal cuts and scrutiny of academic institutions are forcing some U.S. scientists to head for the border. On today's show, an entomologist keeping America's farms safe from pests reconsiders America. And a CEO of a Canadian hospital explains how they are benefiting from the exodus.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:02.0	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
0:13.2	I'm Adrian Ma.
0:14.2	And I'm Darym Woods.
0:15.4	And it is Jobs Friday!
0:20.0	The latest jobs numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show us that 177,000 jobs were added
0:26.6	to the U.S. economy in April.
0:28.5	The big drivers were hiring in healthcare, transport, and warehousing.
0:33.5	The unemployment rate stayed the same at 4.2%.
0:37.2	But given all the federal spending cuts we've covered on the show recently,
0:40.9	we wanted to zoom in on one profession in particular, scientists.
0:46.3	Yes, the slashed NIH funding and government layoffs are pushing some scientists abroad.
0:52.9	The job's website, Nature Careers, saw a 32% increase in U.S.-based scientists applying for jobs
0:59.9	elsewhere in the first three months of this year.
1:02.3	Today on the show, stories from the brain drain, how a Hollywood entomologist is reconsidering
1:07.9	America and the Canadian who's seeing an opportunity to attract world-leading
1:12.2	health scientists over the border.
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	...

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