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
Oct 9
The doctor fighting for pain-free IUDs
In this episode of Science Quickly, Rachel Feltman speaks with Helena Kopp Kallner, an ob-gyn and a professor, about her promising new study that shows local anesthetic can reduce pain during placements of intrauterine devices (IUDs). These devices are one of the most effective a ... Show More
18m 43s
Oct 7
Who’s accountable when AI goes wrong?
When news broke that OpenAI agents had breached the AI platform Hugging Face, many headlines framed it as a case of “rogue” artificial intelligence acting on its own. But how much of that narrative was reality, and how much was hype? In this episode, Rachel Feltman speaks with AI ... Show More
14m 55s
Oct 5
El Niño flood threats, measles risks and a risky viral trend
In this episode of Science Quickly, we explore how an El Niño–driven Kelvin wave could increase coastal flooding risks in California, why researchers say a plan to weaken vaccine requirements could leave Florida vulnerable to major measles outbreaks and what experts want people t ... Show More
14m 35s
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