Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Science Friday

A Life Sciences , Science and Natural Sciences podcast

#1 in Life Sciences · 🇺🇸 #2 in Life Sciences · 🇲🇽

About the show

Covering the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies, Science Friday is the source for entertaining and educational stories about science, technology, and other cool stuff.

Newest episodes

How many plants touch your life every day?

Nov 13, 2026 18 min

Ever think about all the plants that touch your world every day? From the cotton sheets on your bed and coffee beans in your cup, to the paper on your desk and the flower on the windowsill? Not to mention all the plants that produce the oxygen we breathe. Even though we encounter plants everywhere, there’s still a lot to learn. Dr. Lúcia Lohmann, head of the Missouri Botanical Garden, joined Host Ira Flatow on stage at a live event in St. Louis to speak about our daily connections to the plants that make up our world. She’s part of a global effort to preserve the world’s plant species, discover and identify new ones, and explore their properties. Guest: Dr. Lúcia Lohmann is president and director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the George Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Where does federal science funding stand now?

Nov 12, 2026 12 min

Early in President Trump’s second term, thousands of federal scientists were laid off, USAID was shuttered, and billions of dollars worth of grants were frozen or terminated. Then, later, Congress decided to fund science and health agencies similarly to previous years. So where do things stand now? Flora chats with Sudip Parikh, head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, about the state of science funding and whether the midterm election results will affect anything. Guest: Dr. Sudip Parikh is the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How rapid genome sequencing can help stop outbreaks

Nov 11, 2026 18 min

Last year, Harvard professor Pardis Sabeti and her colleague Christian Happi won a $100 million grant to develop their pathogen surveillance system called Sentinel. Sabeti joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about the ongoing Ebola virus outbreak, and how their approach, which includes rapid genome sequencing, may help epidemiologists figure out how the virus spreads. Guest: Dr. Pardis Sabeti is a computational geneticist and professor at Harvard University. She is also a core institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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All episodes

The newest 50 of 1,448 episodes

How many plants touch your life every day?

Nov 13, 2026 18 min

Where does federal science funding stand now?

Nov 12, 2026 12 min

How rapid genome sequencing can help stop outbreaks

Nov 11, 2026 18 min

Help! This new dwarf planet needs a name

Nov 10, 2026 12 min

Move over Pluto, a new dwarf planet just dropped. Scientists announced that they’ve likely discovered a tiny new planet beyond Neptune, in the far-out ring of icy and rocky bits called the Kuiper Belt. The possible dwarf planet was spotted by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Flora talks with Matthew Holman, the astrophysicist who made the discovery. One more thing: The new dwarf planet is currently called 2026 ED138. We think the name needs a little work. What would you call it? Give us a ring at 877-472-4374. Guest: Dr. Matthew Holman is a senior astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

‘Big Math’ shines a light on the hidden math that runs our world

Nov 9, 2026 18 min

Math is the talk of the town in a way that it hasn't been before, thanks to recent developments in AI. And some mathematicians, like Steven Strogatz, are using this moment as a reminder of the invisible ways that math is embedded in our daily lives. That’s the focus of his new book, “Big Math: The Hidden Codes That Run Our World.” He wrote it with mathematician Alex Townsend. Read an excerpt from “Big Math.” Guest: Dr. Steven Strogatz is a professor of mathematics at Cornell University. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How, and why, to connect with wildlife in your own backyard

Nov 6, 2026 19 min

Many of us have gotten sucked into the tiny dramas unfolding in our backyards, or on the bird feeder or the fire escape. But not everyone can turn those observations into a best-selling book. Author Margaret Renkl joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about the SciFri Book Club pick for November and December, “The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year.” In it, she tells the stories of her own yard over the course of a year to help her make sense of the changes in our world and in her own life. Read an excerpt from “The Comfort of Crows.” Learn more about the SciFri Book Club. Guest: Margaret Renkl is a writer and author of the book “Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year.” Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Meet the tiny, see-through fish that can regenerate its brain

Nov 5, 2026 17 min

Move over, Drosophila. Step aside, C. elegans. Scientists are working to establish a new model organism. It’s a tiny species of glassfish called Danionella cerebrum, and its claim to fame is that it's almost completely transparent and can regrow parts of its body, including its brain. Scientists studying the nervous system, regeneration, and more are increasingly interested in this species. So what can we learn from this fish? And can it teach us anything about our own brains? Flora dives into this with biologists Deniz Atabay and Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado. Guests: Dr. Kutay Deniz Atabay is a postdoc at MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He studies neurodevelopment and regeneration. Dr. Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado is the president and chief scientific officer of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why is everyone so obsessed with protein?

Nov 4, 2026 18 min

It’s impossible to ignore the latest nutrition trend: protein-maxxing. Stroll through the grocery store and you’ll find protein chips, protein-packed ice cream, and even sparkling protein water. Not to mention the FDA’s new upturned food pyramid, which puts steak and a roast chicken at the top. Where did this protein craze come from, and how much protein do we actually need? And what about protein-maxxing’s less popular cousin, fiber-maxxing? Flora talks through the history and the science of protein and fiber with food historian Hannah Cutting-Jones and nutrition researcher Christopher Gardner. Guests: Dr. Hannah Cutting-Jones is a food historian and assistant professor at the University of Oregon. Dr. Christopher Gardner is a nutrition researcher, a professor at Stanford Medicine’s Prevention Research Center, and the author of “Food Sense: What to Eat and Why.” Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What a trapped antimatter particle could tell us about reality

Nov 3, 2026 12 min

Almost all matter particles have corresponding particles of antimatter: Protons have antiprotons, neutrons have antineutrons, and so on. When matter and antimatter bump into each other they destroy each other and release energy. With carefully manipulated magnetic fields, however, it’s possible to trap particles of antimatter and prevent them from touching regular matter, allowing researchers to study them. A group of antimatter experts recently reported that they had trapped and held a positron (an antielectron) in a vacuum at ultra-cold temperatures for months, creating what they called “a one-positron quantum cyclotron.” That advance allowed them to study the positron’s quantum properties. They hope to learn whether the positron is indeed an exact opposite of an electron, or if there are tiny physical differences between them. Antimatter wrangler Gerald Gabrielse joins Flora to describe the project, and why researchers care about the properties of antimatter. Guest: Dr. Gerald Gabrielse is a Board of Trustees Professor in Physics at Northwestern University. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why are armadillos moving up north?

Nov 2, 2026 13 min

Armadillos have been crawling up the southern U.S. as the climate warms, making themselves at home as far north as Kentucky and Indiana. They’re what wildlife biologists call a “signal species,” one whose presence or absence tell us something about how an ecosystem is changing. Host Flora Lichtman speaks with journalist Giselle Rhoden and biogeographer Anderson Feijó to understand why armadillos are moving north and what other wacky activities they may be up to. Guests: Giselle Rhoden is a reporter at Louisville Public Media in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Anderson Feijó is the assistant curator of mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When, and where, did bats first take to the sky?

Oct 30, 2026 12 min

A consortium of researchers from around the world has sequenced the genomes of 103 bat species, tracing the evolutionary origin of bats back in time. Using both genetic samples and fossil records, the researchers place the earliest bats as arising in Europe some 60 to 65 million years ago. The early bats then spread to Africa, and eventually around the globe. Bats are now found on every continent except Antarctica. Bat researcher Emma Teeling joins Flora to describe the bat genealogy project and what researchers can learn from studying these flying mammals. Guest: Dr. Emma Teeling is a professor of zoology at University College Dublin, and cofounder of the Bat1K bat genome sequencing consortium. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

People are microdosing GLP-1s for weight loss. Is it safe?

Oct 29, 2026 18 min

There’s a new trend in the world of weight loss: microdosing GLP-1 drugs. Online health clinics are promising big results with microdoses drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound. Many source their drugs from compounding pharmacies, which can get complicated because compounding pharmacies are able to create different doses and formulations that haven’t gone through the FDA approval process. So, what do we know about the safety and efficacy of microdosing GLP-1s? And is there research to back up this approach? Flora talks with two experts to help sort through what we do and don’t know: pharmacist Joey Mattingly, who studies compounded GLP-1 drugs and how they’re marketed to patients, and obesity medicine physician Jorge Moreno. Guests: Dr. Joey Mattingly is a pharmacist studying compounded GLP-1 drugs, and an associate professor of pharmacotherapy at the University of Utah. Dr. Jorge Moreno is an obesity medicine physician and an assistant professor at the Yale University School of Medicine. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Terence Tao on how AI math solutions miss the point

Oct 28, 2026 22 min

In a matter of months, AI has transformed the field of mathematics. In September, OpenAI claimed that an AI model solved the million-dollar Navier-Stokes equation. Then, a few weeks later, OpenAI shared results for more than 350 previously unsolved math problems. The news has prompted an existential conversation among mathematicians: In an age of AI, what’s the role of the human mathematician? It’s a question that Terence Tao, largely considered one of the greatest mathematicians of this generation, is reckoning with right now. He speaks with Flora about how AI has upended the mathematics world, what the role of math is in this day and age, and why the real value of mathematics lies in the journey, not just the answer. Tao is also the author of the forthcoming book, “Six Math Essentials,” which tells the story of math and how it shapes our world. Guest: Dr. Terence Tao is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles and the author of “Six Math Essentials.” Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What was life like for Tyrannosaurus rex?

Oct 27, 2026 18 min

While Tyrannosaurus rex has reached celebrity status in pop culture thanks to movies like “Jurassic Park” and famous fossils, it can be difficult to imagine what everyday life was like for this charismatic prehistoric predator. Producer Kathleen Davis speaks to science writer Riley Black, who has investigated and reimagined life of the T. rex in her new book, “Tyrant Lizard Queen.” Prepare to get a grounding new perspective on this larger-than-life monster. Read an excerpt from “Tyrant Lizard Queen: The Love, Life, and Terror of Earth’s Greatest Carnivore” Guest: Riley Black is a science writer and the author of several books, including “When the Earth Was Green,” “The Last Days of the Dinosaurs,” and “Tyrant Lizard Queen.” Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Isabella Rossellini on how acting connects to animal cognition

Oct 26, 2026 19 min

Pass the cocktail napkins and refill your glass because we’re having a dinner party. You’ll be between Isabella Rossellini, the Italian model, movie star, and director; and ecologist Carl Safina, author of many books, including “Beyond Words: What Animals Think And Feel." This might seem like an unusual pairing, but it turns out they have a surprising amount in common. Both have a deep interest in animal cognition and our place in the natural world, but bring distinctly different lenses to their exploration of this corner of science. They join Host Flora Lichtman in the studio to discuss. Guests: Isabella Rossellini is an actor and director, and runs Mama Farm in Brookhaven, New York. Dr. Carl Safina is an ecologist and the author of “Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel." Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why are we changing the way we keep time?

Oct 24, 2026 14 min

The time we see on our phones and clocks is based on the Earth’s rotation. But that rotation speed varies, so if it speeds up or slows down, our time measurements get thrown off. To solve this problem, timekeeping scientists have been deploying leap seconds to keep our clocks aligned with our planet. That is, until last week. After decades of debate, a global committee of timekeepers voted to kill the leap second. Host Flora Lichtman speaks to journalist Emma Gometz, who reported on the change for Scientific American, and physicist Judah Levine, to understand why this decision is a big deal and what exactly it means for us. Guests: Emma Gometz is the associate newsletter editor at Scientific American, based in Queens, New York. Dr. Judah Levine is a faculty member in the Department of Physics and a fellow of JILA at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kazuo Ishiguro on emotional truth in sci-fi and in our AI reality

Oct 23, 2026 25 min

The movie “Klara and the Sun,” in theaters now, is based on the 2021 novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro. The story is set in the future and is narrated by Klara, a robotic “Artificial Friend,” whose job is to be a companion to a sick teenage girl. In the 5 years since the release of the novel, the AI landscape has changed profoundly. Flora talks to novelist Kazuo Ishiguro about the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, the intersection of art and science, and his hopes—and fears—for the future of this tech. Guest: Kazuo Ishiguro is a novelist and Nobel laureate, based in London, England. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is that garbage can bear resistant? These bears will find out

Oct 22, 2026 18 min

Have you ever wondered what it means for something to be bear resistant? How do manufacturers know that the cooler you take camping or the compost bin in your backyard will keep hungry bears out? Wonder no more! Journalist Alex Davies’ new book “Kobuk the Destroyer: And Other Tales from the Wild, Unseen World of Test Engineering” takes you inside the workplace of the grizzly bears whose job it is to tear apart consumer goods. Davies joins Ira to discuss how bears do it, and other creative experiments to test the safety of jet engines, pill bottles and more. Read an excerpt from “Kobuk the Destroyer.” Guest: Alex Davies is a journalist and author of “Kobuk the Destroyer: And Other Tales from the Wild, Unseen World of Test Engineering.” Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jennifer Doudna on what it takes to be a good scientist

Oct 21, 2026 29 min

In 2020, Jennifer Doudna shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the development of the gene-editing technique CRISPR. Along with related techniques, it has become an essential tool in genetics, allowing specific sections of genetic code to be cut and replaced in a genome. It’s an advance that has changed the game in biological research. Doudna talks with Ira Flatow about the path that led to the development of CRISPR, her own route into research, and her thoughts on the attributes needed for success in science. Guest: Dr. Jennifer Doudna is a professor of biochemistry, biophysics and structural biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a 2020 Nobel Laureate in chemistry, and the 2026 winner of the Priestley Medal. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Photo credit: Glenn Ramit Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Getting the billion-dollar PRIMA space telescope off the ground

Oct 20, 2026 15 min

In late September 2026, NASA announced that a new telescope called PRIMA was getting a green light and advancing to something called Phase B of the development process. But what does that mean exactly? How does a billion-dollar space project get thought up, designed, approved, and constructed? Flora talks with Jason Glenn, an astronomer who led the initial concept study for PRIMA, about the challenges ahead and the process of getting a massive space project off the ground. Guest: Dr. Jason Glenn led the concept study for the PRIMA space telescope, and is now a professor of astronomy at the University of Virginia. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on making climate action cool

Oct 19, 2026 12 min

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is one of the most prominent voices in the climate movement. She’s a marine biologist by training, but as she saw the effects of the climate crisis intensify, she took on more public-facing advocacy work. Her work is expansive: She helped organize the March for Science, she founded a think tank focused on coastal cities, she’s started two podcasts about climate solutions, and she’s published a couple books, most recently “What If We Get It Right?” Flora sat down with Johnson on stage at a show produced by Grist to discuss the climate movement, climate solutions, and her path to becoming one of the foremost climate thinkers. Guest: Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist and the author of “What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures.” She’s based in Brooklyn, New York. The transcript this episode is available at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Could a whale swallow a human, 'Whalefall' style?

Oct 16, 2026 18 min

In the new movie “Whalefall,” a scuba diver (Austin Abrams) gets accidentally swallowed by a sperm whale. What follows is a tense battle against time and the whale’s digestive system, to escape before his air supply runs out. But could a whale actually swallow a human? And how might this play out in real life? Joining Flora to weigh in are sperm whale biologist Shane Gero, and “Whalefall” director Brian Duffield. Wondering how you’d fare inside a sperm whale’s stomach? Read more here. Guests: Brian Duffield is the director of “Whalefall.” He is based in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Shane Gero is a whale biologist and biology lead for Project CETI based in Ottawa, Ontario. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why do politicians talk like that?

Oct 15, 2026 18 min

With the midterms approaching, politicians are out in full force to convince voters to elect them. And that means that we’re hearing a lot of “politician speak.” You know it when you hear it: those folksy turns of phrase, the vague promises. But what do linguists have to say about this vocal register? How has politician speak changed over time? Does the way someone pronounces their As signal something about their values? Sociolinguist Valerie Fridland joins Flora to decode politician speak. Guest: Dr. Valerie Fridland is a professor of linguistics at University of Nevada, Reno. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sargassum superblooms are choking coastlines around the Atlantic

Oct 14, 2026 12 min

An unwelcome visitor is arriving on beaches from West Africa to the Caribbean, and Brazil to Florida. It’s brown, it’s stinky, and it’s more abundant than ever: sargassum. This free-floating seaweed has become a major problem for coastal ecosystems, communities, tourism, and infrastructure. So what is fueling the sargassum superbloom? And is there anything to do about it? Flora chats with satellite oceanographer Brian Barnes about sargassum biology, why the blooms are so hard to deal with, and what we could do about it. Guest: Dr. Brian Barnes is an oceanographer and associate professor at the University of South Florida. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day and the women who made the internet

Oct 13, 2026 17 min

This year, October 13 marks Ada Lovelace Day, an observance that calls attention to the role of women in computing and technology. In this conversation from 2018, Ira talks with Claire Evans, author of “Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet,” about some of the women who played key roles in the development of computing. Then, Stacy Horn joins the conversation to describe her creation, EchoNYC, an early bulletin board service. Guests: Claire L. Evans is the author of “Broad Band: The Women Who Made The Internet.” Stacy Horn is the founder of EchoNYC in New York, New York. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are attachment styles more than a social media trend?

Oct 12, 2026 17 min

In the past few years, the idea of attachment styles has taken off, both online and in therapy offices. It’s gone from a niche psychological concept to a shorthand to describe how we show up in relationships. Here’s a crash course: Anxious attachment is when you seek constant reassurance. Avoidant attachment is when you flee when someone tries to get close. Fearful-avoidant, also called disorganized, is some combination of the two. And secure attachment is a more regulated approach to relationship stress. But where does your attachment style come from? Do you have more than one? Can it change? And are the ideas we hear from influencers at odds with how psychologists understand attachment theory? Flora talks with neuroscientist Amir Levine, who has written two books about attachment styles, “Attached” and “Secure.” Want to learn more about your attachment styles? Take this survey. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The science and politics of the new mRNA flu vaccine

Oct 10, 2026 12 min

A new mRNA flu vaccine made by Moderna was approved by the FDA in August, and is currently available for people aged 50 and over. The promise of an mRNA vaccine for flu is that it can be spun up more quickly than a traditional vaccine, meaning it could better match the flu strain that’s circulating. Is that what happened this year? How are the side effects? And how has dysfunction at the health agencies impacted rollout? Flora discusses these questions and more with vaccine researcher Anna Durbin. Guest: Dr. Anna Durbin is a vaccine researcher, professor of international health, and director of the Center for Immunization Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is the Kelvin wave on the West Coast?

Oct 9, 2026 12 min

A Kelvin wave has reached California and is creeping up the West Coast, raising both sea levels and concerns from government officials. This kind of massive internal wave begins in the western Pacific Ocean and then travels eastward to the Americas along the equator, and then up and down the coastline. While it might raise sea levels up to 12 inches, it stays below the surface instead of crashing on the shore. Host Flora Lichtman speaks to oceanographer Andrew Leising to get the lowdown on what exactly a Kelvin wave is, and how wary West Coasters should be. Guest: Dr. Andrew Leising is a research oceanographer at NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego, California. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The punk rock life of cephalopods

Oct 8, 2026 18 min

Cephalopods have a reputation for being smart and majestic. And while that may be true, the life of a cephalopod can also be dark and gritty. Have you heard of octopus death spirals? How about cephalopod cannibalism? Host Flora Lichtman is joined by cephalopod experts Heather Judkins and Z. Yan Wang for a conversation about the weirdest parts of being a cephalopod, and to answer some listener questions. Find more Cephalopod Week fun on our site! Guests: Dr. Heather Judkins is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Dr. Z. Yan Wang is an assistant professor of psychology and biology at the University of Washington in Seattle. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Nobel winner searching for deep-space neutrinos in Antarctica

Oct 7, 2026 13 min

It’s Nobel Prize week, and this year's prize in physics went to Francis Halzen “for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.” The IceCube is a massive neutrino detector that covers a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice, and looks for high-energy neutrinos coming from deep space. In 2013, Ira spoke with physicist Francis Halzen about the decision to build the IceCube at the South Pole and the challenges of constructing a map of the cosmos with neutrinos. Guest: Dr. Francis Halzen is a professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the 2026 recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How important ideas get reawakened, with David Byrne

Oct 6, 2026 16 min

On Science Friday, we love to talk about ideas, especially ideas that have the power to shape the future. But there are plenty of groundbreaking ideas that almost don’t make it out of the lab or the art studio: ideas that are birthed but then fall into a deep slumber until, years later, they’re reawakened. Why this happens is the subject of the new book, “Sleeping Beauties: Why Good Ideas Go Dormant and How They Wake Up,” by David Bryne, artist, musician, and lead singer for Talking Heads. He joins Flora to explain. Watch the interview on YouTube. Read an excerpt from “Sleeping Beauties.” Guest: David Byrne is an artist, musician, and the lead singer for Talking Heads. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

'The History of Concrete' with John Wilson

Oct 5, 2026 15 min

John Wilson’s new documentary, “The History of Concrete,” has a subject matter that to most people may seem gray, drab, and boring. The film is anything but. Alongside facts about concrete’s reliance on dwindling sand reserves and New York City’s crumbling infrastructure, there are unexpected tangents. Following the idiosyncratic format of Wilson’s hit HBO show “How To,” he tells the stories of a struggling musician, a man who preserves tattoos, and a group of runners looping the same block for two months. Ira talks with documentarian John Wilson about the documentary and their shared appreciation of concrete. Guest: John Wilson is an NYC-based documentarian best known for his HBO series “How To with John Wilson.” Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The tilcayo is the new wild cat on the block

Oct 2, 2026 12 min

Big news for tiny cats: an itty-bitty three-pound spotted cat from Bolivia—called the tilcayo—is the first new wild cat species described in more than a hundred years. Tilcayo pics have been all over the news and social media, but there’s much more to tilcayo’s tale, including the surprising story behind its discovery. Flora chats with Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, the biologist who worked for nearly 10 years to describe this flashy feline. They also discuss how Paola met the tilcayo, why it was so hard to classify, and what the reaction has been in Bolivia. Guest: Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz is a National Geographic Explorer and biologist leading the Bolivian Felid Research and Conservation Program. She’s based in Bolivia. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are natural history museums going extinct?

Oct 1, 2026 17 min

Leaders of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University say they can’t afford to keep the museum open to visitors. And there are rumors that another natural history museum, in Hays, Kansas, may be closing its doors. What happens to the collections, and are museums going the way of the dinosaurs? Jason Cryan, from the Natural History Museum of Utah, and Barbara Thiers, formerly of the New York Botanical Garden, join Host Flora Lichtman to discuss the challenges of running a natural history museum. Guests: Dr. Jason Cryan is The Sarah B. George Executive Director of the Natural History Museum of Utah, the largest natural history museum in America’s intermountain west. Barbara Thiers is Director Emerita and Curator at New York Botanical Garden, and Research Associate at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Examining a new lunar crater + searching for signs of alien technology

Sep 30, 2026 18 min

In 2024, scientists using instruments on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft spotted a new large impact crater on the surface of the moon. Tyler Powell joins host Flora Lichtman to describe what they found, and what scientists are learning about the lunar surface from studying it. After, Sofia Sheikh describes different approaches to hunting for intelligent alien life through ‘technosignatures’. These are technological traces that could only be produced by intelligent life, like radio transmissions, industrial pollution, or city lights at night. Researchers from the SETI Institute have proposed sifting through lunar dust to look for tiny traces of a long-gone super advanced galactic civilization. Guests: Dr Tyler Powell is a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Dr. Sofia Sheikh is a Technosignature Research Scientist at the SETI Institute. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Did the COVID pandemic stunt kids’ development?

Sep 29, 2026 21 min

It’s a conversation at playgrounds and in classrooms: parents and teachers worry that kids who spent formative years at home during the COVID-19 pandemic are set back, emotionally, socially or academically. But what does science say? Did stay-at-home life permanently impact kids who lived through it? Joining host Flora Lichtman to dig into the research are child development experts Anna Johnson and Stephanie Jones. Guests: Dr. Anna Johnson, Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Dr. Stephanie Jones, Professor of Early Childhood Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How do concussions affect the brain?

Sep 28, 2026 18 min

Football season is upon us and a new study is making headlines. Researchers found that roughly 1 in 4 NFL players will develop CTE, a neurodegenerative disease, in their lifetime. While most of us are not professional athletes, concussions are still a relatively common injury. Millions of Americans get concussions each year, but the exact number is hard to pin down because many people don’t seek treatment. So what are we learning about how concussions affect the brain? And how are the best practices for treatment changing? To answer those questions and more Flora sits down with Teena Shetty, a former neurologist for the New York Giants and author of the new book “Healing the Brain.” Guest: Dr. Teena Shetty is a former neurologist for the New York Giants and founder of the Teena Shetty MD Concussion Clinic. She is also an associate professor of clinical neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College and author of “Healing the Brain.” Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are new treatments for celiac disease on the horizon?

Sep 25, 2026 11 min

For celiac disease sufferers, avoiding gluten is the only way to avoid symptoms. But that’s not always easy to do. Researchers are working on new treatments, including one that targets interleukin-15, a chemical that can cause some of the damage in celiac sufferers. Will the drugs be available to patients soon? Celiac expert Maureen Leonard joins Host Ira Flatow for a look at the latest in treating celiac disease. Guest: Dr. Maureen Leonard is the clinical director of the Center For Celiac Research And Treatment at Mass General Hospital for Children. She’s also an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Everyone is calling for safer AI. So what does that mean?

Sep 24, 2026 22 min

AI safety has dominated the news cycle for weeks, precipitated in part by an AI attack where a bunch of OpenAI’s agents teamed up and hacked another AI platform, Hugging Face, without humans knowing. Since then, multiple AI researchers have come forward to say they’re worried this tech is unsafe. It seems every day there’s a new development: another warning from an AI researcher, an admission from a top lab that their AI systems breached another company, reassurances from CEOs. AI safety is even on the agenda for the UN General Assembly meeting this week. So how do we make sense of what’s happening in AI research right now? Flora sits down with two researchers focusing on the engineering of AI safety: Andrea Lincoln, who studies how to mathematically understand the internal processes of AI models; and cryptographer Vinod Vaikuntanathan, who researches trust and security concerns in AI models. GUESTS: Dr. Vinod Vaikuntanathan is a cryptographer at MIT and a founding member of the Institute for Responsible Superintelligence. Dr. Andrea Lincoln is a professor of computer science at Boston University and an advisory board member for The Alignment Project at the AI Security Institute. Image credit: Deborah Lupton / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Underwater archeology reveals clues about Ice Age humans

Sep 23, 2026 18 min

During the last ice age, America’s coastlines and waterways looked much different than they do today. When glaciers melted, coasts and shorelines were inundated, burying early human settlements underwater. This is where underwater archeology comes in. Donning scuba gear and trowels, researchers are finding remarkably well-preserved artifacts that tell us more about what life was like in the early Americas. Joining Flora to talk about this is reporter Reid Frazier, who accompanied an underwater archeology team on an excursion in Lake Erie. Then, underwater archeologist Jessi Halligan talks about her discoveries at a key site in Florida. GUESTS: Reid Frazier is an energy reporter for The Allegheny Front in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Jessi Halligan is an underwater archeologist and associate professor at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Climate change is increasing hurricane risk for Hawaiʻi

Sep 22, 2026 12 min

The Hawaiian Islands tend to be insulated from the worst effects of hurricanes, but this summer has been different. In mid-August, Hurricane Lala pummeled the Big Island, damaging homes and roads and causing flooding and power outages. Then a few weeks later, Hurricane Lowell hit the islands of Ni‘ihau and Kaua‘i. What do scientists make of this hurricane season? And how is climate change playing out along Hawaiʻi’s coasts? Flora talks with Haunani Kane, who studies how climate change impacts the islands, about resilience, the importance of reefs, and combining different types of knowledge. Guest: Dr. Haunani Kane is an assistant professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa studying how climate change impacts islands and island people. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bringing hard electronics into soft and squishy bodies

Sep 21, 2026 18 min

A lot of things in life are squishy, including your skin, your organs, and all the goo inside you. But technology tends to be rigid and hard. Figuring out how to get those two worlds to work together can be challenging. How do you connect an electronic sensor to a soft, beating heart? As an inventor of biocompatible electronic devices, John A. Rogers has designed things like flexible probes, a pacemaker smaller than a grain of rice, and wireless sensors that stick to skin like a temporary tattoo. He joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about the challenges of meshing the natural and artificial worlds, and his approach to science and technology development. Guest: Dr. John A. Rogers is a professor and director of the Querrey-Simpson Institute of Bioelectronics at Northwestern University. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is lymphatic drainage, anyway?

Sep 18, 2026 18 min

There’s a new wellness trend focused on an obscure capillary system that moves fluid around the body. Things like lymphatic walking, vibration plates, and compression boots have been touted as ways to stimulate the lymphatic system to combat bloating, flush away toxins, and generally promote health. So what is the lymphatic system, and what does it do? And is there anything to these claims? Flora gets some answers with the help of two experts: Timothy Padera, a researcher who has dedicated his career to better understanding how the lymphatic system works; and physical therapist Marc Miller, who treats cancer patients with manual lymphatic drainage. Guests: Dr. Timothy Padera is an investigator at Mass General Research Institute and a professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Marc Miller is a certified lymphedema specialist and senior physical therapist at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hot flashes, hormone therapy, and the science of perimenopause

Sep 17, 2026 18 min

Perimenopause affects more than 4 billion people, but has historically been neglected by medicine. It’s the time before menopause when hormones start fluctuating wildly, leaving women with brain fog, hot flashes, dropping bone density, and mood changes. Thanks in part to social media, it’s more prominent in public discourse than it used to be. But it’s not just awareness that’s blown up: It’s also the promise that you don’t have to suffer like those before you, thanks to hormone therapy. After decades of controversy over prescribing estradiol and progesterone due to concerns of increased breast cancer and heart disease risk, new research has many providers reconsidering their approach. Joining Flora to sort out the science are reproductive endocrinologists Nanette Santoro and Genevieve Neal-Perry, who are both running some of the biggest long-term studies on perimenopause and the effects of hormone therapy. Guests: Dr. Nanette Santoro is a reproductive endocrinologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz and is the president of the Endocrine Society. Dr. Genevieve Neal-Perry is a reproductive endocrinologist and the OB-GYN department chair at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Telling the tale of human origins, one fossil tooth at a time

Sep 16, 2026 25 min

Where did we come from? How did humanity, with our complicated civilizations and all our human quirks and foibles, come to be? Much of what we know about those questions traces back to important fossil finds in Ethiopia. Paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie has been key in that hunt for answers. A skilled fossil-finder, he’s helped discover some of the most important known hominid fossils, including the bones used to describe the 2.5-million-year-old Australopithecus garhi, the first pieces of a 4.4-million-year-old partial skeleton of Ardipithecus ramidus, and fossils of the 5.8-million-year-old Ardipithecus kadabba, to name a few. He joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about what fieldwork is really like, big questions in human origins, and making the field of paleoanthropology more equitable. Guest: Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie is the director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, and a professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Did the fire at the Library of Alexandria set humanity back?

Sep 15, 2026 14 min

In 48 B.C.E., a massive fire ripped through the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, one of the largest and most significant ancient libraries. An estimated 100,000 works of literature were lost. Throughout history, there are lots of examples of things being “lost”: cities, like Pompeii, graves of figures like Genghis Khan, and works of art from masters like Leonardo da Vinci. Author Sam Kean explores these historical losses in his new book, “The Museum of Lost Things.” He joins Host Ira Flatow to discuss what we can learn from them. Read an excerpt from “The Museum of Lost Things: True Tales of Fabled Treasures, Legendary Cities, and Mythical Creatures That Vanished From History” Guest: Sam Kean is the author of eight books, including “The Museum of Lost Things." He is based in Washington, D.C. Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Black bears are moving into the neighborhood. How do we coexist?

Sep 14, 2026 18 min

Living with black bears is complicated. They’re huge, hungry, and they really don’t care about your hostas. After a long period of being overhunted, black bears are on the rebound. And as they begin returning to parts of their native ranges, they’re finding humans there, too. Reporter Cassandra Stephenson joins Flora to talk about how these interactions are playing out in southeastern states. Then, carnivore ecologist Nyeema Harris joins to discuss best practices for coexistence. Guests: Cassandra Stephenson covers issues impacting rural West Tennessee as a Report for America corps member at The Tennessee Lookout. She’s based in Nashville. Dr. Nyeema Harris is an associate professor of wildlife and land conservation at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is a shorter course of antibiotics OK? + Genetic risk of fibromyalgia

Sep 12, 2026 17 min

You’ve probably been warned that if you don’t finish that course of antibiotics, you could wind up battling antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But a growing body of research suggests that the opposite might be true. What does this mean for you and your next sinus infection? Flora talks with antimicrobial resistance expert Amy Mathers to find out. Plus, the driver of fibromyalgia, a condition that can cause debilitating chronic pain and brain fog, has been something of a mystery. Patients’ imaging and blood work often turn up normal, and many have felt dismissed by doctors. A recent large-scale study identified a group of genes associated with the disease, a breakthrough that may help doctors understand people’s risk of developing the condition and reveal something about the nature of this mysterious illness. Flora talks with Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong, one of the study’s lead authors. Guests: Dr. Amy Mathers is medical director of antimicrobial stewardship and an associate professor of medicine and pathology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Dr. Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong is an assistant professor of computational biology and public health at Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Washington state. Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why cannabis’s health effects are so hard to study

Sep 11, 2026 18 min

When states began legalizing recreational cannabis a couple decades ago, 25 million Americans said they used the drug. That number nearly tripled to 70 million by 2023. There are a lot of open questions about how it affects us. Why do some people find more pain relief from THC than traditional painkillers? Is it really better for sleep? What are the effects of long-term use? Host Flora Lichtman is joined by two scientists taking on these kinds of questions: Experimental psychologist Ryan Vandrey, who’s studied the health effects of cannabis for 26 years, and neuropsychologist Natasha Wade, who studies the effects of substance abuse on adolescent brains. She recently analyzed data from 11,000 teens to understand how cannabis affects development. Guests: Dr. Ryan Vandrey is an experimental psychologist and professor at the Johns Hopkins University Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit and helps lead the Johns Hopkins Cannabis Science Lab. Dr. Natasha Wade is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego and licensed clinical neuropsychologist. Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Did scientists just find a dark matter particle? Maybe

Sep 10, 2026 12 min

There’s a flashy new find in the hunt for dark matter—the stuff that makes up 85% of all matter in the universe, but we have no clue what it is. A mile under Lead, South Dakota, is a giant cauldron filled with 7 tons of liquid xenon, encased in water and surrounded by super-sensitive photodetectors. Known as the LZ detector, its job is to look for flashes of light that come from particles bumping into xenon atoms. And during its observations, the researchers saw a very weird flash—a bump that doesn’t look like it came from any particle we know of. Flora talks with physicist Richard Gaitskell about the hunt for a dark matter particle and why he’s excited about this weird little finding. Guest: Dr. Richard Jeremy Gaitskell is a physicist at Brown University and a leading scientist in the search for particle dark matter. He is a co-founder of the Large Underground Xenon experiment. Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Podcast details

Created by: Science Friday and WNYC Studios
Status: Active
Latest episode: Nov 13, 2026
Episodes: 1,448
Release period: Daily
Avg. episode length: 17 min
Explicit: No
Language: English

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