October 11, 1995. Professor Mario Molina is at his desk at MIT when he gets a long distance call from Sweden. It’s the Nobel Committee, telling him he’s won that year’s prize in chemistry, making this chemistry prize the first awarded to a Mexican-born scientist and the first recognizing environmental science work. The Nobel Committee thanks Molina and the o ... Show More
Yesterday
The *Other* Declaration of Independence (Part II)
July, 1845. Dr. Smith Boughton, the man behind the mask of "Big Thunder," is sitting in a Hudson jail after a trial that ended in a hung jury.The Anti-Renters had to celebrate Independence Day with cannon fire and readings of the Declaration, but without their leader. The rebelli ... Show More
22m 43s
Oct 2019
An environmental history special
<p>A pioneer of climate change science, UK's Windscale nuclear accident, Kenya's Green Belt heroine who won the Nobel Peace Prize, the man "who fed the world", and banning cars in Mexico City.</p><p>(Photo: Thick black smoke blowing out of an industrial chimney. Credit: John Gile ... Show More
50m 49s
Oct 2024
First reactions | James Robinson, prize in economic sciences 2024 | Telephone interview
“Get up, you need to get up! You’ve won the Nobel Prize.” That’s how James Robinson discovered he was a 2024 economic sciences laureate, as his wife, Maria Angélica Bautista, woke him up. In this brief call with the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith he talks about the root causes of pover ... Show More
4m 46s
Oct 2024
First reactions | Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 | Telephone interview
“How could I be sure it wasn’t a spoof call?” 2024 physics laureate Geoffrey Hinton received the phone call from Stockholm at around 2am in a hotel room in California, and multiple Swedish accents helped reassure him that his Nobel Prize in Physics was real. Greatly surprised, he ... Show More
6m 47s
Mar 2025
A strange signal from space
This week on Unexplainable or Not, the newest member of our team, Julia Longoria, tries to figure out which of three scientific mysteries about the sea, the land, and the sky has actually been solved.
Guest: Admir Masic, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering ... Show More
34m 56s
Feb 2025
Uncharted: The golden spike
At a conference in Mexico, one scientist’s outburst sparks a global quest to find a ‘golden spike’ - the boundary marking the shift into a new geological period dominated by humans, not volcanoes or asteroids. From plastics and concrete to nuclear fallout, the data they uncover r ... Show More
26m 29s