Podcast Episodes

Polar bears are thriving in Svalbard, and more...

Scientists spent nearly 25 years studying close to 800 polar bears in the Barents Sea region and discovered that those polar bears seem to be doing j…

8 months, 3 weeks ago

'Gifted' dogs learn from eavesdropping, and more...

Some dogs are more adept at learning language than others. Researchers studying these special dogs discovered that, much like toddlers, these smart f…

9 months ago

The reason chimps can reason, and more…

We may share a common ancestor with chimpanzees, but somewhere along the evolutionary line to us, our brains took a major detour. New research sugges…

9 months, 1 week ago

New dino species in another dino's vomit, and more

An unassuming fossilized slab in the basement of a museum in Brazil turned out to be 110-million-year-old dinosaur vomit, and inside that vomit were …

9 months, 2 weeks ago

Dust? Tongues? Uranus? It’s our Holiday Question Show!

On this week’s episode of Quirks & Quarks, it's our ever-popular and always satisfying Holiday Listener Question Show that includes: 

Why did a Canadi…

9 months, 3 weeks ago

Predictions about science in 2025, recorded 25 years ago

In 2000, Quirks & Quarks celebrated its 25th anniversary by travelling forward in time — to 2025 — to find out how science had changed in the years s…

9 months, 4 weeks ago

Whales, sex, and rocks — it's our holiday book show!

We talk to authors of some of this year’s most fascinating science books in our annual Holiday Book Show.

INCLUDING: 

10 months ago

How Jeremy Hansen is prepping for the moon, and more…

Next stop - the moon! Jeremy Hansen stops by our studio to chat about how he’s prepping to be the first Canadian to go to the moon.

Plus:

Santa’s reind…

10 months, 1 week ago

Cleveland’s ancient car-sized sea monster had bony fangs, and more…

Scientists are shedding light on the strange, car-sized, armoured fish that lived 360 million years ago in what is now Cleveland.

Plus:

The cosmic co…

10 months, 2 weeks ago

The environmental costs of nation-building, and more…

On this week’s episode: a mini tyrannosaur is a new species, ants redesign to avoid illness, toxic lead gave humans the edge over Neanderthals, invas…

10 months, 3 weeks ago