On this week’s show: What we can learn from two supermassive black holes that appear to be on a collision course with each other, and the brave new online world in which social media dominates and gatekeeps public access to scientific information
First up, Staff Writer Daniel Clery talks with host Sarah Crespi about the possibly imminent merger of two super ... Show More
Jul 3
Losing years of progress against HIV, and farming plastic on Mars
First up on the podcast, U.S. aid helped two African countries rein in HIV. Then came President Donald Trump. Senior News Correspondent Jon Cohen talks with producer Kevin McLean about how in Lesotho and Eswatini, treatment and prevention cutbacks are hitting pregnant people, chi ... Show More
31m 12s
Jun 26
Will your family turn you into a chatbot after you die? Plus, synthetic squid skin, and the sway of matriarchs in ancient Anatolia
First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Andrew Curry joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a pair of Science papers on kinship and culture in Neolithic Anatolia. The researchers used ancient DNA and isotopes from 8000 to 9000 years ago to show how maternal lines were imp ... Show More
45m 57s
Jun 19
How effective are plastic bag bans? And a whole new way to do astronomy
First up on the podcast, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is just coming online, and once fully operational, it will take a snapshot of the entire southern sky every 3 days. Producer Meagan Cantwell guides us through Staff Writer Daniel Clery’s trip to the site of the largest camera ... Show More
38m 25s
Aug 2023
Gary Smith, "Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science" (Oxford UP, 2023)
There is no doubt science is currently suffering from a credibility crisis. Gary Smith's book Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science (Oxford UP, 2023) argues that, ironically, science's credibility is being undermined by tools created by scientists themsel ... Show More
36m 48s
Jul 2022
Cosmic Queries – Intergalactic Impacts
What happens when three black holes collide? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice explore even more cosmic collisions in space, in the quantum realm, and more!NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: htt ... Show More
44m 49s
Jul 2023
Little Black Holes Everywhere
In 1908, on a sunny, clear, quiet morning in Siberia, witnesses recall seeing a blinding light streak across the sky, and then… the earth shook, a forest was flattened, fish were thrown from streams, and roofs were blown off houses. The “Tunguska event,” as it came to be known, w ... Show More
34m 57s