logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
35m 31s

Revenge of the Miasma

Wnyc Studios
About this episode
Today we uncover an invisible killer hidden, for over a hundred years, by reasonable disbelief. Science journalist extraordinaire Carl Zimmer tells us the story of a centuries-long battle of ideas that came to a head, with tragic consequences, in the very recent past. His latest book, called Airborne, details a  largely forgotten history of science that neve ... Show More
Up next
Yesterday
Grass Apes
When you think about grass, what do you think of? Pool parties? Suburbs? Allergies? What about: human history? It turns out, unassuming grass, which exists on every continent, has an epic story to tell. One of transforming the planet, and … us. From what we eat, to how our body m ... Show More
22m 5s
Sep 18
The Sweetest Thing
“What is the sweetest thing in the world?” After co-host Latif Nasser’s sons ask him this deceptively simple question, he goes on a quest to find it. Is it a West African Katemfe berry? Or an industrial sugar substitute cooked up in a lab? Or an ingredient hiding in plain sight i ... Show More
31m 2s
Sep 11
23 Weeks 6 Days
When Kelley Benham and her husband Tom French finally got pregnant, after many attempts and a good deal of technological help, everything was perfect. Until it wasn't. Their story raises questions that, until recently, no parent had to face… and that are still nearly impossible t ... Show More
1h 3m
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2025
From Hippocrates to COVID-19: the scientific fight to prove diseases can be airborne
Science writer and New York Times columnist Carl Zimmer's latest book Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life we Breathe dives into the invisible maelstrom of microbial life swirling in the air around us — examining how it helped shape our world, and the implications that breat ... Show More
32m 27s
Feb 2025
Exploring the Hidden Life in the Air around Us with Carl Zimmer
Scientists now agree that COVID spreads via airborne transmission. But during the early days of the disease, public health officials suggested that it mainly did so via close contact. The subsequent back-and-forth over how COVID spread brought science journalist Carl Zimmer into ... Show More
16m 47s
Mar 2025
Carl Zimmer on the Hidden Life in the Air We Breathe
<p>Carl Zimmer is one of the finest science communicators of our time, having spent decades writing about biology, evolution, and heredity. His latest (and 16<sup>th</sup>) book, <em><span style= "mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;" ... Show More
51m 43s
Aug 2025
Special Episode: Carl Zimmer & Airborne
In the first years of the COVID pandemic, a debate raged: was the virus transmitted via respiratory droplets, or was it airborne? For some, this distinction seemed overly technical, pedantic even. But for others, it represented decades of dismissal and missed opportunities - oppo ... Show More
49m 4s
Apr 2021
How Science Created Morons
REBROADCAST: This episode looks at how one of the worst ideas in science got a big push from a bad study… and intellectuals of the day lapped it up. We speak to science writer Carl Zimmer and Prof. J. David Smith, whose research helped get to the bottom of this messed-up story. C ... Show More
35m 52s
Aug 2019
The Obscure Virus Club
Throughout the 1960s, a biologist named Howard Temin became convinced that something wasn’t right in science’s understanding of viruses. His colleagues dismissed him as a heretic. He turned out to be right — and you're alive today as a result.  Season Four ends with a bedtime sto ... Show More
36m 3s
Oct 1998
Science's Revelations
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss whether the mass of scientific understanding and knowledge we have accumulated has destroyed our sense of poetic wonder at the world. Has our sense of awe at how the world works obscured our desire to know why it works the way it does? With Richard ... Show More
28 m
Jan 2021
Presenting Science Vs.: Hunting A Killer Virus
An adventuring Swedish doctor takes on a decades-long medical mystery: What exactly was the 1918 flu? This week, we’re sharing an episode of Science Vs, a podcast from Gimlet, a Spotify Studio. They talk to Dr. Johan Hultin, Eileen Hultin, Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger, Ann Reid, Rita ... Show More
35m 24s
Dec 2023
173 - Science You Missed in 2023
<p dir="ltr">On today’s episode: The plants have been screaming all this time and we haven’t been listening! A millenia-old mystery has been solved! Long COVID… what have scientists figured out about it so far? And the superstar of 2023 has made strides toward better outcomes for ... Show More
1h 9m