Aug 6

Former NASA Leaders Are Sounding the Alarm on Budget Cuts

The White House has proposed sharp cuts to NASA’s science budget, potentially reducing it to historic lows not seen since the early Apollo era. Beyond space exploration, NASA’s work influences daily life—from accurate weather forecasting to essential climate data for agriculture. ... Show More

16m 33s

Aug 4

Russia’s Earthquake, Wonders of Walking and Surprising Plant Genetics

Host Rachel Feltman talks with Andrea Thompson, Scientific American’s senior sustainability editor, to discuss the massive Russian earthquake and the reason it produced such relatively minor tsunami waves. Plus, we discuss the lowdown on the Environmental Protection Agency’s move ... Show More

11m 2s

Aug 1

Is AI Conscious? Claude 4 Raises the Question

Host Rachel Feltman talks with Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American’s senior tech reporter, about his recent exchange with Claude 4, an artificial intelligence chatbot that seemed to suggest it might be conscious. They unpack what that moment reveals about the state of AI, why ... Show More

22m 6s

Jul 25

Greenland’s Ice Sheet Is at Risk—And So Are We

Chief multimedia editor Jeffery DelViscio ventured to Greenland for a month to learn from the scientists studying the country’s ice sheet. He speaks with host Rachel Feltman about his time in the field and his takeaways from conversations with climate scientists. This story was s ... Show More

22m 5s

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

Jul 28

Summer Meteor Showers, Short Summer Days and Ancient Arthropods

If last Tuesday seemed to fly by, you can blame the rotation of Earth. Try to look up this week to see the Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids meteor showers. Plus, we discuss FEMA cuts and ancient arthropods. Recommended reading: Texas Failed to Spend Millions in ... Show More

8m 49s

Jan 2025

Combatting Climate Anxiety through Community Science

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the news these days and to fear for the future. What if you could interrupt doomscrolling and contribute to conservation at the same time? That’s the idea behind programs like Adventure Scientists, eBird and iNaturalist. Guest Gregg Treinish, fo ... Show More

14m 34s

Jul 21

Time Travel to Tide Pool 101 from Our July 1925 Issue

Time travel to an introduction to tide pools, the start of commercial air travel and an intercontinental aviation museum dispute. Host Rachel Feltman is taking a look at a 1925 issue of Scientific American for this archival episode. If you don’t find the past to be a blast, don’t ... Show More

8m 57s

May 16

Could Freezing Arctic Sea Ice Combat Climate Change?

The year-round sea ice in the Arctic is melting and has shrunk by nearly 40 percent over the past four decades. Geoengineering companies such as Real Ice are betting big on refreezing it. That may sound ridiculous, impractical or risky—but proponents say we have to try. The U.K. ... Show More

25m 29s

Jan 2025

Science Will Stare Directly Into the Sun--And Love It

The sun is in the middle of its solar maximum, the part of its 11-year solar cycle that was responsible for the stunning auroras seen across the globe last year. This year is looking equally exciting, with more incoming space weather and a handful of science missions to study the ... Show More

12m 4s

Jul 30

Your Guide to Summer’s Extreme Weather, from Corn Sweat to Flash Floods

The summer of 2025 has been a doozy in the U.S., with extreme weather across the country. Flash flooding caused destruction and death in Texas. Corn sweat made a heat wave in the eastern half of the U.S. worse in the Midwest. Senior editor for sustainability Andrea Thompson takes ... Show More

9m 4s

Jul 9

What Does an Ailing Coral Reef Sound Like?

Sick coral reefs are visually striking—bleached and lifeless, far from the vibrancy we’ve come to expect. But what does an unhealthy coral system sound like? In this rerun, conservation bioacoustics researcher Isla Keesje Davidson tells Science Quickly all about the changing soun ... Show More

16m 51s

May 21

Do Mitochondria Talk to Each Other? A New Look at the Cell’s Powerhouse

Mitochondria are known as the powerhouse of the cell—but new research suggests they might be far more complex. Columbia University’s Martin Picard joins Scientific American’s Rachel Feltman to explore how these tiny organelles could be communicating and what that might mean for e ... Show More

27m 4s

Summer Meteor Showers, Short Summer Days...