Sep 10

Psychoactive substances helped spur Andean civilization, and breaking barriers to education

First up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell and freelance journalist Andrew Lawler discuss how psychoactive drugs might have shaped culture in pre-Inca Andean societies. They chat about how technical advances and an increasingly open research environment have allowed scient ... Show More

33m 12s

Sep 3

Sex-reversing frogs, and Europe’s rising rates of a deadly tick-borne disease

First up on the podcast, Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how climate is pushing the disease-carrying tick Hyalomma marginatum out of its comfort zone. Stone reports from Kosovo, where the tick has long been endemic, on how surve ... Show More

27m 40s

Aug 27

Making drugs in space, the man who fed India, and what narwhals can teach us about changing seas

First up on the podcast, will it ever make economic sense to produce drugs and biomedical supplies in space? Associate Online News Editor Michael Greshko discusses his story on the researchers attempting to make biomanufacturing in space a reality, with News intern Julia Vaz. Nex ... Show More

49m 46s

Aug 2023

Old Things Considered: La Brea, Megalodon, Dino Footprints, Surviving History. Aug 25, 2023, Part 2

<h2>How Early Humans May Have Transformed L.A.’s Landscape Forever</h2><p>Join us on a time traveling adventure, as we go back 15,000 years to visit what’s now southern California. During the last Ice Age, saber-toothed cats, wooly mammoths, and dire wolves prowled the landscape, ... Show More

47m 16s

Jun 2023

The Rise Of The Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for many millions of years, but only after a mass extinction took out most of their rivals. Just how that happened remains a mystery — sounds like a case for paleoclimatologist Celina Suarez! This encore episode, Suarez walks us through her scientific de ... Show More

14m 25s

Aug 2023

A Tale Of Two Lunar Landing Attempts

A journey through some of the latest science stories catching our eyes. This time, we consider the Russian and Indian lunar landing attempts, how scientists are reconstructing music from people's brains and lessons from wildfires that contributed to a mass extinction of North Ame ... Show More

9m 42s

Mar 2023

Ocean World Tour: Whale Vocal Fry, Fossilizing Plankton and A Treaty

Reading the science headlines this week, we have A LOT of questions. Why are more animals than just humans saddled — er, blessed — with vocal fry? Why should we care if 8 million year old plankton fossils are in different locations than plankton living today? And is humanity fina ... Show More

10m 37s

Sep 2022

Rise Of The Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for many millions of years, but only after a mass extinction took out most of their rivals. Just how that happened remains a mystery — sounds like a case for paleoclimatologist Celina Suarez! Suarez walks us through her scientific detective work, with a ... Show More

14m 27s

May 2019

T8: How will humans die out?

A talk for episode 8, an ode to Theia. Anthropologist Michael Rivera on our evolutionary history compared to other less successful species who became extinct. Are we heading in the same direction? Produced by Eliza Lomas and Becky Ripley. Don’t forget to take part in our Forest 4 ... Show More

10m 3s

Jun 2020

A Kazoo And The Evolution Of Speech

Encore episode. Researchers discovered that this simple instrument could offer insights into the evolution of human speech. Short Wave reporter Emily Kwong talks with primatologist Adriano Lameira about a growing body of evidence that humans may not be the only great apes with vo ... Show More

12m 40s

May 2024

Did trees kill the world?

Way back when forests first evolved on Earth … they might have triggered one of the biggest mass extinctions in the history of the planet. What can we learn from this ancient climate apocalypse? For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts For more, go to vox.com/unexplaina ... Show More

26m 56s

Jun 2021

#70: Coronavirus origin story; Big Oil’s nightmare; history of the gender pain gap

From a bat… or from a lab? It seemed the question of where SARS-CoV-2 originated had been settled, but recently it's been reignited. Amid lots of conflicting and confusing news stories, the team explores what we really know about the origins of covid-19. They then mark a historic ... Show More

26m 36s

Aug 2025

Animals in the year 20202025

What do scientists think animals might be like millions of years from now? (First published in 2021) Guests: Benji Jones, senior correspondent at Vox; David Willard, ornithologist at Chicago's Field Museum; Liz Alter, marine biologist at San José State University; Jingmai O'Conno ... Show More

27m 19s

What killed off North American megafauna...