Podcast Episodes

Good news for people who love bad news

Good news can be hard to find, especially when our brains — and the media — are biased against it.

Guest: Bryan Walsh, senior editorial director of Vox, and author of the Good News newsletter

This e…

Published on 2 months, 4 weeks ago

12 tiny worlds

If you went back 500 million years and re-ran evolution, would life be totally different today?

Guests: Richard Lenski and Zachary Blount, evolutionary biologists at Michigan State University

For s…

Published on 3 months ago

How good was Michael Jordan, really?

It's easy to assume there is objective truth in basketball stats. A clear story of what happened in the past. But our friends at Pablo Torre Finds Out uncovered something that throws an entire era in…

Published on 3 months ago

One weird trick to get unlimited clean energy

Is a solution to climate change…pouring water on hot rocks?

Guest: Dylan Matthews, Senior Correspondent at Vox's Future Perfect

This episode was made in partnership with Vox's Future Perfect team.

F…

Published on 3 months, 1 week ago

Who taught beavers to build dams?

How does any animal know what to do? A neuroscientist argues it's not “instinct.” Something bigger is going on. (First published in 2022)

Guest: Mark Blumberg, behavioral neuroscientist at the Univer…

Published on 3 months, 1 week ago

The disease we let win

We have a cure for tuberculosis. Why does it still kill over a million people every year?

GUEST: John Green, podcaster, YouTube creator and award-winning author of Everything is Tuberculosis and man…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Science! Tell me what to eat!

Figuring out the perfect healthy diet remains stubbornly out of reach. Our friends at Gastropod ask: Why?

Guests: Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, co-hosts of Gastropod

For show transcripts, go to …

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

A magical world at the ocean’s edge

In coastal California, researchers grapple with potentially losing a landscape they love.

Guests: Rebecca Johnson, Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Community Science at the California Acad…

Published on 4 months ago

Ruff translation

We love our pets. And think we understand them. Are we fooling ourselves?

Guests: ⁠Alexandra Horowitz⁠, dog cognition researcher at Barnard College; ⁠Holly Molinaro⁠, animal welfare scientist; ⁠Jare…

Published on 4 months ago

Sick of “morning” sickness

If pregnant people need to eat for two, why do so many of us puke morning, noon, and night?

Guests: Marlena Fejzo, Ph.D., geneticist, and Research Director at the HER Foundation.

For show transcrip…

Published on 4 months, 1 week ago