Ouch! Ah! Aïe! The words we use when we stub our toe or receive a pinch may point to a common way to express pain across languages. Associate news editor Allison Parshall explores what linguistic commonalities in expressions of pain and joy might mean for our shared biology. Plus, Parshall and host Rachel Feltman chat about onomatopoeias, the “bouba-kiki” ef ... Show More
Today
Space weapons are here, and AI experts are sounding alarms
In this episode of Science Quickly, we discuss newly revealed U.S. space weapons, growing artificial intelligence safety concerns and the Environmental Protection Agency’s rollback of power plant emissions limits before we end with a look at the tiny sand hoppers reshaping Califo ... Show More
15m 16s
Sep 18
Can you hear a forest disappear?
In this episode of Science Quickly, filmmaker and journalist Leah Varjacques takes us to a Bornean rainforest area, where centuries-old patterns of human and wildlife behavior are being disrupted by the construction of a new capital city. In the midst of all this change, Varjacqu ... Show More
19m 46s
Sep 16
Unexplainable: What happened before the big bang?
In this special crossover episode, Science Quickly shares an appearance by host Rachel Feltman on Vox’s Unexplainable. Together with host Noam Hassenfeld, she explores Scientific American’s special issue on impossible questions, diving into some of science’s biggest mysteries, fr ... Show More
26m 14s
Mar 2022
Why Pain Hurts So Good, Growing Mutant Gardens, Emo Teen Puppies
Leigh Cowart, science reporter and author of Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose, joins Weirdest Thing for the season finale! The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is a podcast by Popular Science. Share your weirdest facts and stories with us in our Faceboo ... Show More
52m 53s
Jul 2021
Routine Checkup: The Science Of Pain
Pain researchers have a joke that when someone is asked to rate their pain from 1 to 10, the most common response is 11. Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, a neuroscientist and pain researcher interested in how genetics, social factors and sex differences affect pain, believes this joke to be ba ... Show More
47m 9s
Jul 2022
Spice, Spice, Baby! Why Some Of Us Enjoy The Pain Of Spicy Foods
Today, we talk about spicy food and its intersection with pleasure and pain as part of our "Taste Buddies" series — Short Wave's ode to "taste." In this episode, Host Emily Kwong talks to food reporter Ruth Tam and researchers Julie Yu and Nadia Byrnes about the science behind ou ... Show More
14m 15s