2023 has been a record-setting year for tornadoes, and these storms came with barely any warning. So to better understand tornadoes, scientists might need to confront more of these storms head-on.
This episode originally ran on July 12, 2021.
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
It’s a great place to view show transcripts and read more about the top ... Show More
Today
Emily St. John Mandel on science in fiction
Science has some really weird, wonderful ideas. Some of them are hard to prove in fact, but Emily St. John Mandel does a great job of playing with them in fiction — in works like Station Eleven, Sea of Tranquility, and her newest novel, Exit Party. Guest: Emily St. John Mandel, a ... Show More
27m 29s
Nov 4
What are you laughing at?
Scientists are trying to figure out what makes something funny. We compare notes with comedians Atsuko Okatsuka, Josh Johnson, Dulcé Sloan, and Chris Fleming (Originally published in 2023) Guests: Allie Volpe, Vox correspondent; Peter McGraw, professor at University o ... Show More
19m 3s
May 2021
Storm Chasers | Tornado Alley | S47-E1
No extreme weather phenomenon fascinates us more than tornadoes. For most of human history, very little was known about how these graceful yet violent columns of swirling air formed or behaved. Then, in the 1950s, a teenager from North Dakota began chasing them, and a scientist f ... Show More
39m 36s
May 2021
Storm Chasers | Tornado Alley | S40-E1
No extreme weather phenomenon fascinates us more than tornadoes. For most of human history, very little was known about how these graceful yet violent columns of swirling air formed or behaved. Then, in the 1950s, a teenager from North Dakota began chasing them, and a scientist f ... Show More
39m 36s
Mar 2025
148 Tornadoes in 18 Hours
April 3, 1974. Across America, many people wake up this morning thinking it will be a normal day. But in the next 24 hours, almost 150 tornadoes will hit the United States. It will be the largest tornado outbreak in the nation's history. Why did so many deadly tornadoes hit on th ... Show More
22m 41s
Sep 2019
The 2011 Tornado Super Outbreak Pt. 1
A tornado touched down in the spring of 2011 near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Over the next five days, hundreds more tornados would ravage the area, in one of the deadliest storm periods in recent memory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
45m 56s
Jul 2024
Windows Devices Go Down, COVID Rates Go Up, and Tornadoes Touchdown on the Ground and on the Big Screen
President Biden is far from the only positive as COVID is experiencing a summer surge. Windows malfunction grounds planes and causes outages for banks, hospitals and emergency services. The Perseid meteor shower gives you plenty of shooting stars to see. Plus, we use the Twisters ... Show More
10m 23s