First up on the podcast, Staff Writer Robert F. Service joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a boom in nuclear medicine, from new and more powerful radioisotopes to improved precision in cancer cell targeting.
Next on the show, we talk about why we sigh. Maria Clara Novaes-Silva, a doctoral student at ETH Zürich, discusses how deep breaths cause minute ... Show More
Yesterday
How birds reacted to a solar eclipse, and keeping wildfire smoke out of wine
First up on the podcast, producer Kevin McLean talks with Associate Online News Editor Michael Greshko about the impact of wildfires on wine; a couple horse stories, one modern, one ancient; and why educators are racing to archive government materials. Next on the show, research ... Show More
37 m
Sep 25
Salty permafrost’s role in Arctic melting, the promise of continuous protein monitoring, and death in the ancient world
First up on the podcast, Science News Editor Tim Appenzeller joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss why a salty layer of permafrost undergirding Arctic ice is turning frozen landscapes into boggy morasses. Next on the show, glucose isn’t the only molecule in the body that can be moni ... Show More
46m 22s
Sep 18
Protecting newborns from an invisible killer, the rise of drones for farming, and a Druid mystery
First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Leslie Roberts joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the long journey to a vaccine for group B streptococcus, a microbe that sickens 400,000 babies a year and kills at least 91,000. Next on the show, there are about 250,000 ag ... Show More
35 m
Feb 2025
Hippopotomology (HIPPOS) with Rebecca Lewison
Do they sweat blood? Will one kill you? What are cocaine hippos? Is Moo Deng… okay? Actual real life Hippopotomologist Dr. Rebecca Lewison explains how hippos have some of the best – and worst – PR. We chat about pet hippos, subspecies, daily diets, the current state of hippo co ... Show More
1h 6m
Oct 2022
Nadine Weidman, "Killer Instinct: The Popular Science of Human Nature in Twentieth-Century America" (Harvard UP, 2021)
A historian of science examines key public debates about the fundamental nature of humans to ask why a polarized discourse about nature versus nurture became so entrenched in the popular sciences of animal and human behavior. Are humans innately aggressive or innately cooperative ... Show More
1h 9m
May 2023
Selcen Küçüküstel, "Embracing Landscape: Living with Reindeer and Hunting among Spirits in South Siberia" (Berghahn, 2021)
Examining human-animal relations among the reindeer hunting and herding Dukha community in northern Mongolia, Embracing Landscape: Living with Reindeer and Hunting among Spirits in South Siberia (Berghahn Books, 2021), focuses on concepts of domestication and wildness from an ind ... Show More
1h 3m
Oct 2022
Flirting Cats, Walking Sharks, Preventing Cerebral Palsy
We discuss a new app that can translate a cat’s meow into human languages, how the Epaulette shark is teaching us about climate change, and a potential treatment that might prevent cerebral palsy.Flirting Cats “Did My Cat Just Hit On Me? An Adventure in Pet Translation” by Emily ... Show More
14m 27s
May 2023
Daniel Ruiz-Serna, "When Forests Run Amok: War and Its Afterlives in Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Territories" (Duke UP, 2023)
In When Forests Run Amok: War and Its Afterlives in Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Territories (Duke University Press, 2023) Daniel Ruiz-Serna follows the afterlives of war, showing how they affect the variety of human and nonhuman beings that compose the region of Bajo Atrato: th ... Show More
1h 15m
Apr 2025
Talk Tracks Ep 7: Telepathy Between Species
This week on The Talk Tracks, Ky sits down with Anna Breytenbach, an inter-species communicator who bridges the language divide between humans, animals, insects and plants. From tracking wild creatures across remote landscapes to helping captive lions return to the wild, Anna has ... Show More
1h 2m