Science Magazine Podcast
- Episodes
- 665
- Released
- weekly
- Latest episode
- Oct 22, 2026
About the podcast
Weekly podcasts from Science Magazine, the world's leading journal of original scientific research, global news, and commentary.
Episodes 665
Birds make decisions faster than we do, rewriting DNA’s history, and combining science and poetry
First up on the podcast, News Editor Tim Appenzeller joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about an x-ray image that is upsetting the narrative of DNA’s discovery as told by James Watson. A newly resurfaced photo …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, News Editor Tim Appenzeller joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about an x-ray image that is upsetting the narrative of DNA’s discovery as told by James Watson. A newly resurfaced photo taken by Rosalind Franklin—photo 49—shows she was aware of the helical structure of DNA and explains why her published image—photo 51—does not have indications of her understanding of its shape.
Next on the show, producer Elah Feder chats with Andreas Nieder, professor of animal physiology and director of the Institute for Neurobiology at the University of Tübingen, about the high speed of bird cognition. It turns out in experimental settings carrion crows make decisions twice as fast as primates. The conversation delves into what could make avian brains ultrafast and the evolutionary advantages of speedy thinking.
Last up this week, poets and scientists get together in books and in real life. Phil Levin and David Hassler discuss their collaboration on a joint effort to create a poetry anthology and a scientific report on the state of nature. They explain how they see science and poetry are connected, and how their ideas will be put into action at an upcoming conference on poetry and science in November.
Also in this segment, Lara Volski reads her poem “The Monarch Bear.”
People in this segment
- Phil Levin, professor in sustainability science and director of the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington (UW)
- David Hassler, executive director of the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University
- Lara Volski, Ph.D. candidate in the People and Wildlife Lab at UW
Works mentioned
- The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America’s Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders
- The Nature Record
Conference details
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image: Franklin: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
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Cheese history, redating the Inca empire, and the source of the breath’s rhythm
First up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell and Newsletter Editor Christie Wilcox discuss a few stories from ScienceAdviser, including why Nazi Germany was unlikely to ever make an atomic bomb, a gene …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell and Newsletter Editor Christie Wilcox discuss a few stories from ScienceAdviser, including why Nazi Germany was unlikely to ever make an atomic bomb, a gene that might prevent gray hairs, and 140 years of cheese history from a Swiss basement.
Next on the show, Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how archaeologists are revisiting the standard Inca chronology as radiocarbon dates mix up the timeline for the empire’s inception and growth.
Last up this week, the neural basis of our breath’s rhythm. Nicholas Bush, a staff research scientist at Epsilon, talks about using modern neuronal recording techniques and computing to describe the generation of rhythmic breathing.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image: Lizzie Wade
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A moon heist, lava fountains, and predicting doomsday
First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Robin George Andrews describes Japan’s upcoming Martian Moons eXploration mission that will nab a sample from the surface of Mars’s moon Phobos. The …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Robin George Andrews describes Japan’s upcoming Martian Moons eXploration mission that will nab a sample from the surface of Mars’s moon Phobos. The material, due back to Earth in 2031, could reveal the origins of this mysterious moon, the past habitability of Mars, or even hints of life itself.
Next on the show, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano started to periodically spew tall fountains of lava in December 2024. Researchers and the public tuned in to watch more than 50 fountaining events steaming live online. Ashton Flinders, a research geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about how observations from the cameras plus geochemical, geophysical, and geologic monitoring revealed a predictable pattern in these usually rare events.
Last up this week, Javier Birchenall, professor of economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discusses predictions of world-ending crises—starting with a prediction published in a Science paper in 1960 that suggested Earth’s population would reach a singularity on 13 November 2026. We are still here and the global population is headed for a decline. What happened to the singularity and what else are we not predicting very well?
Heinz von Foerster et al., Science 1960
Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026
“At this date human population will approach infinity if it grows as it has grown in the last two millenia[sic].”
Image: ESA Mars Express/Andrea Luck
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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Stimulating the brain for women’s health, and the long-term implications of menopausal symptoms
First up on the podcast, Staff Writer Jennie Erin Smith joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about new research on how noninvasive technologies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation are being used in the context …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, Staff Writer Jennie Erin Smith joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about new research on how noninvasive technologies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation are being used in the context of women’s health to tackle everything from postpartum depression to menstrual pain and fertility issues.
Next on the show, we talk with Liisa Galea, Treliving family chair in women’s mental health and professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. In a review in this week’s special issue on women’s health, Galea discusses the state of research on hormone therapy during perimenopause and the links between menopausal symptoms and long-term concerns such as dementia and cardiovascular disease.
See the whole women’s health special issue here.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: Chiara Vercesi
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Studying the changing of AI language inside swarms, how orangutans learn to forage, and an astrophysicist talks about loss
First up on the podcast, Staff Reporter Tom Howarth joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the language artificial intelligence agents evolve inside their swarms. Next on the show, producer Elah Feder talks with …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, Staff Reporter Tom Howarth joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the language artificial intelligence agents evolve inside their swarms.
Next on the show, producer Elah Feder talks with Revathe Thillaikumar, a behavioral ecologist and postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. The two discuss the value of social learning as baby orangutans learn to find their own food over the longest dependency period of any animal, except humans.
Finally, from our series on scientific autobiographies, books host Angela Saini talks with astrophysicist Sara Seager about the moving account of life after losing her husband in her book, The Smallest Lights in the Universe.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image: inkoly/istock
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Can ‘assisted migration’ save forests? And the role of philosophy in science
First up on the podcast, as the planet warms and forests burn, can we replant them with new trees that will thrive in the decades ahead? Associate Editor Katie Langin joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss research …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, as the planet warms and forests burn, can we replant them with new trees that will thrive in the decades ahead? Associate Editor Katie Langin joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss research into “assisted migration” for replenishing forests after wildfires.
Next on the show, Susana Monsó, an associate professor in the Department of Logic, History and Philosophy of Science at the Spanish National University of Distance Education, shares her latest Expert Voices column. She discusses how philosophy can play a role in the scientific process—from defining terms to formulating questions.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image: Dirk Hobman
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Psychoactive substances helped spur Andean civilization, and breaking barriers to education
First up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell and freelance journalist Andrew Lawler discuss how psychoactive drugs might have shaped culture in pre-Inca Andean societies. They chat about how technical …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell and freelance journalist Andrew Lawler discuss how psychoactive drugs might have shaped culture in pre-Inca Andean societies. They chat about how technical advances and an increasingly open research environment have allowed scientists to detect traces of substances such as vilca, which contains dimethyltryptamine, the psychoactive compound also found in ayahuasca.
Next on the show, host Sarah Crespi is joined by Noam Angrist, academic director of the What Works Hub for Global Education at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. Angrist wrote a Policy Forum piece on the need to move on from small, controlled trials of education interventions to better address educational needs in lower and middle-income countries. To move forward, he explains, we need to learn how to make sure these interventions work at scale and that governments can readily implement them.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: John Bigelow Taylor/Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History/Catalog number 41.2/7768
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Sex-reversing frogs, and Europe’s rising rates of a deadly tick-borne disease
First up on the podcast, Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how climate is pushing the disease-carrying tick Hyalomma marginatum out of its comfort zone. Stone …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how climate is pushing the disease-carrying tick Hyalomma marginatum out of its comfort zone. Stone reports from Kosovo, where the tick has long been endemic, on how surveillance can uncover hidden circulation—and help countries prepare before human cases appear.
Next on the show, researchers have long known ambient temperatures cause some species of amphibians to reverse sex. In the case of the agile frog (Rana dalmatina), genetically female frogs take on male characteristics at elevated temperatures—including the ability to sire offspring. Veronika Bókony, an evolutionary ecologist at the Center for Agricultural Science in Hungary, examined what happens to the offspring of sex-reversed agile frogs, which will probably make up more of the species’ population as the planet warms.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image: Danny Laps/NiS/Minden Pictures
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Making drugs in space, the man who fed India, and what narwhals can teach us about changing seas
First up on the podcast, will it ever make economic sense to produce drugs and biomedical supplies in space? Associate Online News Editor Michael Greshko discusses his story on the researchers attempting to …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, will it ever make economic sense to produce drugs and biomedical supplies in space? Associate Online News Editor Michael Greshko discusses his story on the researchers attempting to make biomanufacturing in space a reality, with News intern Julia Vaz.
Next on the show, producer Kevin McLean chats with Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen, a professor in the department of birds and mammals at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, about how narwhals have helped collect hard-to-reach oceanographic samples. Data collected by these long-toothed cetaceans revealed far more warm Atlantic water is pressing into the fjords of East Greenland than previously thought.
Finally, the latest in our book series on biographies. This month, books host Angela Saini talks with writer Priyambada Jayakumar about her biography of M. S. Swaminathan.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: Vast
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Why tracing cyclosporiasis is so tough, and a digestible probe for the microbiome
First up on the podcast, the News team’s Diverse Voices in Science Journalism interns Mona Patterson and Laura Martín Agudelo join host Sarah Crespi to talk over some of their reporting from the summer. They …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, the News team’s Diverse Voices in Science Journalism interns Mona Patterson and Laura Martín Agudelo join host Sarah Crespi to talk over some of their reporting from the summer. They chat about several stories, including why it’s so difficult to track the food-borne illness cyclosporiasis and a new map for a major highway of the human nervous system.
Check out all of Patterson’s and Martín Agudelo’s stories.
Next on the show, Leslie Chan, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Emory School of Medicine, describes an ingestible metabolic probe for the gut microbiome. Her team tested the pill in mice and showed they could detect an enzyme made by the microbiome that causes toxicity during some chemotherapy treatments. The signal is read from volatiles in the breath, making the test a noninvasive way to check on the activity of gut microbes.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: Melanie Moser/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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A vest for blocking cosmic rays, and updates on NIH funding
First up on the podcast, ScienceInsider Editor Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi for the latest science policy news. The two discuss recent grant cancellations by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, ScienceInsider Editor Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi for the latest science policy news. The two discuss recent grant cancellations by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the likelihood that the agency will spend its budget by the end of its fiscal year on 30 September.
Next on the show, crew aboard spacecraft that enter deep space are likely to be exposed to a radiation source we don’t often encounter on Earth’s surface: high-speed protons coming from solar storms or cosmic rays. So to protect astronauts, researchers are using plastics to defend against this dangerous form of radiation. Jordan Houri, lead scientist for space exploration at StemRad, talks about testing the protective capabilities of specially designed vests aboard NASA’s Artemis I mission.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin/DLR/StemRad
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Did meat or fruit give people big brains, and protecting bison diversity using ancient DNA
First up on the podcast, Deputy News Editor Michael Price discusses the history of the North American bison population, its decline, and resurrection—and links to Indigenous cultures. He’s joined by University …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, Deputy News Editor Michael Price discusses the history of the North American bison population, its decline, and resurrection—and links to Indigenous cultures. He’s joined by University of California, Santa Cruz evolutionary molecular biologist Beth Shapiro and Greg Wilson, a wildlife ecologist with Parks Canada. They talk about their Science paper on the genetic diversity of modern bison after near extermination during European colonization. Shapiro and Wilson also explain how these findings can be used to inform conservation efforts.
Next on the show, Jennie Brand-Miller, professor emeritus in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about what our ancient ancestors were eating and a big question—was hunting key to evolving big brains? Brand-Miller argues instead that fruit was the key factor in the expansion of hominin brains. She points to the high sugar demands of large brains, about 100 to 120 grams per day, and how this level of sugar intake was likely only achievable by consuming things such as fruit and honey before our ancestors’ mastery of cooking and fire.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: Mike Price
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AI’s influence on society, measuring muscles, and a Crick biography
First up on the podcast, we catch up with Celina Zhao, a staff reporter for Science’s AI In Science reporting initiative. She talks with host Sarah Crespi about artificial intelligence’s knack for finding legal …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, we catch up with Celina Zhao, a staff reporter for Science’s AI In Science reporting initiative. She talks with host Sarah Crespi about artificial intelligence’s knack for finding legal loopholes and how philosophers are navigating conflicts of interest around advising companies on AI.
Next on the show, it’s hard to figure out how much force a muscle is exerting without sticking invasive probes into the body. Christopher Bird, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland, discusses a new way to use ultrawideband radar to measure muscle forces that could prove useful for assistive devices and rehabilitation.
Finally, the third in our limited six-part series on scientific biographies. This month, host Angela Saini talks with zoologist Matthew Cobb about his new book on the life of Francis Crick, Crick: A Mind in Motion.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: Chiara Vercesi
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Death in a gene-editing trial, and insect larvae surviving in deep waters
First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Brendan Borrell talks about his work reporting on the previously undisclosed death of a 6-year-old girl in a gene-editing clinical trial in China and the …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Brendan Borrell talks about his work reporting on the previously undisclosed death of a 6-year-old girl in a gene-editing clinical trial in China and the reasons her parents came forward.
This story was produced in collaboration with Retraction Watch and supported by the Science Fund for Investigative Reporting.
Next on the show, Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Evan McKenzie, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, about an insect that evolved to avoid predators by modifying its respiratory system to withstand high pressure at depth.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: Daria Lada
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Health care in Malawi after USAID’s end, and a rocky exoplanet with an atmosphere
First up on the podcast, we continue our coverage of the fallout from cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), this time focusing on how one of the largest recipients of aid is coping 18 …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, we continue our coverage of the fallout from cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), this time focusing on how one of the largest recipients of aid is coping 18 months later. Contributing Correspondent Catherine Offord talks about her trip to Malawi and the efforts to strengthen their health infrastructure in the wake of funding shocks.
Next on the show, Collin Cherubim, Ph.D. candidate in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at Harvard University, discusses what it means to find helium escaping from the atmosphere of a rocky planet in the habitable zone of a nearby red dwarf.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: Thoko Chikondi
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Owl wars and the immune system’s memory
First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall goes on an owl hunt in the woods of Northern California. After surviving logging and habitat destruction in the 1990s, the endangered Northern …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall goes on an owl hunt in the woods of Northern California. After surviving logging and habitat destruction in the 1990s, the endangered Northern spotted owl has put conservationists in a bind: In order to protect the spotted owl, the only solution may be shooting barred owls.
Next on the show, looking back at the first 10 years of the journal Science Immunology. Editor Seth Thomas Scanlon explores how the field has changed since the inception of the journal and talks about a special series of reviews on immune memory.
Check out the special issue cover here.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: Danny Hofstadter
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How Antarctica got its ice sheets, and what happens when geopolitical relationships turn chilly in the Arctic
First up on the podcast, relationships turn chilly in the polar research haven of Svalbard in Norway. Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the impacts of …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, relationships turn chilly in the polar research haven of Svalbard in Norway. Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the impacts of geopolitical shifts on the scientific output of this region so important to the study of climate change.
Next on the show, producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Thomas Gernon, a geologist at the University of Southampton, about how ice sheets formed in Antarctica during a time when the temperatures were relatively warm.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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Cracking color vision, U.S. science policy changes, and a trailblazing biography
First up on the podcast, ScienceInsider editor Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss big policy stories from the past month, including a proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration to …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, ScienceInsider editor Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss big policy stories from the past month, including a proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration to increase the involvement of politicians in grantmaking.
Next on the show, Science Senior Editor Michael Funk joins to discuss a trio of papers on the light-detecting proteins responsible for color vision.
Finally, in our books segment for this month, host Angela Saini talks with science writer Georgina Ferry, who wrote a biography about crystallographer Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, the first and only woman scientist from the United Kingdom to win a Nobel Prize.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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An electronic nose that detects spoiled chicken, and wolves make a spectacular comeback in Europe
First up on the podcast, wrangling wolves in Europe. After near extermination in much of the continent, wolf numbers have surged up to about 20,000 individuals. Contributing Correspondent Gretchen Vogel joins …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, wrangling wolves in Europe. After near extermination in much of the continent, wolf numbers have surged up to about 20,000 individuals. Contributing Correspondent Gretchen Vogel joins podcast host Sarah Crespi to discuss the conflicts that have risen as the wolf population grows.
Next on the show, Ph.D. student Carla Bassil talks about designing an e-nose that can hone in on important food smells such as chicken that has gone bad or the presence of allergens including peanuts.
Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Erika Berg, director and senior editor of custom publishing, interviews professors Eimear Kenny and Alex Charney about how genomic medicine, artificial intelligence, and large-scale sequencing are transforming the future of patient care. This segment is sponsored by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: Lorenzo Shoubridge
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How childhood environments shape the brain, and how susceptible is the Atlantic Ocean’s current to climate change?
First up on the podcast, producer Kevin McLean talks with Staff Writer Paul Voosen about the latest on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC. Researchers have long been concerned that global …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, producer Kevin McLean talks with Staff Writer Paul Voosen about the latest on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC. Researchers have long been concerned that global warming could cause a collapse in the AMOC, which would trigger dramatic cooling in Northern Europe. But recent data and models suggest the AMOC may be more resilient than previously thought.
Next on the show, Scott Marek, assistant professor in the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine, talks with host Sarah Crespi about brainwide association studies (BWAS) for childhood brain development. BWAS measure structure and function across many brains and look for correlations between these measures and behavior, disease, and environment. In this work, Marek and colleagues focus on how socioeconomic factors—captured by zip code—are strongly correlated with certain brain differences in more than 4000 children ages 9.5 to 11. The work also suggests lack of sleep and excess screen time could mediate the influence of socioeconomic conditions on differences in brain structure and function.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Photo: P. Voosen/Science
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Will AI replace astronomers, how healthy are ultraprocessed foods, and a peek behind the scenes of ‘The Normals’
First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Joshua Sokol talks about the intense discussion happening in the astrophysics community as artificial intelligence and machine learning become increasingly …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Joshua Sokol talks about the intense discussion happening in the astrophysics community as artificial intelligence and machine learning become increasingly powerful—could “astronomer” stop being a job one day?
Next on the show, as the Trump administration makes moves to regulate ultraprocessed foods, host Sarah Crespi talks with Faidon Magkos, a professor in obesity and metabolism in the department of nutrition, exercise, and sports at the University of Copenhagen, about what studies say about their health effects.
Finally this week, a behind-the-scenes look at our recent limited series “The normals.” Producer Kevin McLean talks about the experience of joining a study as a healthy subject, and Crespi talks about what didn’t make it into the episodes. Listen to “The normals” here.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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Disembodied human brains, immortal bits of sea cucumber, and fame in Galileo’s time
First up on the podcast, a company is using whole brains—maintained with specialized life support—to study new drugs. Freelance science journalist Sara Reardon joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, a company is using whole brains—maintained with specialized life support—to study new drugs. Freelance science journalist Sara Reardon joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the advantages and ethical considerations of keeping brains intact but inactive.
Next on the show, when some lizards lose their tails, they might regenerate new ones. But what happens to the old tail? Whereas a castoff lizard tail quickly decomposes, this isn’t the case for the castoff tube feet of the sea cucumber, Psolus fabricii. Sara Miller Jobson, a Ph.D. student at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, describes how these “living” limbs healed after amputation and then survived for more than 3 years in just seawater. Their survival in such simple conditions, while maintaining a complex tissue with a functioning immune response, could make amputated tube feet a useful model system for studying regeneration.
Finally this week, the first in our book series on science biographies. Books host Angela Saini talks with historian Anna-Luna Post about her recent book, Galileo’s Fame: Science, Credibility, and Memory in the Seventeenth Century, which explores how fame shaped the scientific fortunes of Galileo Galilei.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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USAID cuts linked to violence, unexpected parallels between humans and bacteria, and how to rule the world
First up on the podcast, Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the surprising commonalities between our immune systems and the tools bacteria use to defend …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the surprising commonalities between our immune systems and the tools bacteria use to defend themselves against viruses. These unexpected parallels have become rich ground for researchers investigating new molecular biology tools and model systems for immune research.
Next on the show, Dominic Rohner, a professor of economics at the Geneva Graduate Institute and University of Lausanne, talks about the impact of cuts in international aid on violent conflict in Africa. His team harnessed the natural experiment of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) work stoppage ordered by the Trump administration in early 2025 to find links between the sudden withdrawal of high levels of aid to increases in conflict.
See also Science’s 2025 news series on the impact of USAID cuts on children.
Finally, Valerie Thompson, Science’s books and media editor, interviews undergraduate student and author Theo Baker. Baker wrote the book How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, which covers the heavy involvement of Silicon Valley investors in Stanford University and his investigation of research misconduct by former Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. See the full review here.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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Fighting deepfakes, and using bacteria to deliver medicine inside the body
First up on the podcast, Meagan Cantwell produced a segment with Contributing Correspondent Kai Kupferschmidt on the fight against deepfakes. Kupferschmidt talks with Hany Farid, professor at the University of …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, Meagan Cantwell produced a segment with Contributing Correspondent Kai Kupferschmidt on the fight against deepfakes. Kupferschmidt talks with Hany Farid, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, about the never-ending battle against fake imagery and why Farid is not giving up.
Next on the show, building a tough, bio-compatible capsule for engineered bacteria. Tetsuhiro Harimoto talks about the challenges of keeping living bacteria inside a hydrogel capsule and the advantages of using engineered bacteria as sensors and medicine dispensers inside the body. (Harimoto completed this work as a postdoc at Harvard University and will start as a professor at Cornell University in the fall.)
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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A team effort to save a giant fish, the power of moonlight, and how scientists can navigate a tough political environment
First up on the podcast, along Brazil’s Juruá River, local residents have been working with scientists to manage a giant fish called the arapaima—affecting the land, the people, and the economy. Contributing …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, along Brazil’s Juruá River, local residents have been working with scientists to manage a giant fish called the arapaima—affecting the land, the people, and the economy. Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about this collaborative effort.
Next on the show, how moonlight affects nocturnal animals. Carlos Camacho, a researcher at the Doñana Biological Station, talks about the Moon-inflected habits of a nighttime foraging bird, the red-necked nightjar. His team found that the extra light provided by the full Moon allows these birds to consume more insects at night. And the timing of their long-haul migration between Europe and Africa is linked to the cycles of the Moon.
Last up this week, Science Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp talks with Timothy Snyder, historian and author of the book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. They discuss the role of institutions, professional ethics, and personal beliefs for scientists in tough political times.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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Watching a spiders’ heart beat, epigenetic ethics, and what science biographies reveal about fame
First up on the podcast, Online News Editor David Grimm shares a batch of fun stories with podcast host Sarah Crespi—from spider hearts racing when traffic gets loud to a disease-preventing house. Staff Writer …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, Online News Editor David Grimm shares a batch of fun stories with podcast host Sarah Crespi—from spider hearts racing when traffic gets loud to a disease-preventing house. Staff Writer Adrian Cho hops in to help discuss the possibility of black holes without singularities at their center.
Next on the show, epigenetics has become a hot topic in pop science but the ethical conversation is not keeping up. The idea that parents can pass down epigenetic marks from environmental toxins or trauma to their children—without changes in DNA—has been around for decades but the research in people is lacking. Jackie Leach Scully, a professor of bioethics and director of the Disability Innovation Institute at the University of New South Wales, discusses where the research actually is and the concerns that may arise if such marks do appear to impact the young.
Last up this week, we are launching our 2026 biography books series with books host Angela Saini and Science books editor Valerie Thompson. The pair discusses the difficulty of picking biographies and what can be learned about science, fame, and researchers as people from reading these types of books.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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Cleaning up uranium mining, and how the heart avoids cancer
First up on the podcast, freelance science and environmental journalist Quentin Septer joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a controversial uranium mine getting fast-tracked in South Dakota. Septer chatted …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, freelance science and environmental journalist Quentin Septer joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a controversial uranium mine getting fast-tracked in South Dakota. Septer chatted with locals, scientists, and regulators to learn more about the geology of the region and the promise of cleanup after the miners go home.
Next on the show, looking at cells that don’t get cancer. Giulio Ciucci, a postdoctoral researcher at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, talks about the infrequency of heart cancer and how the mechanical load that heart cells endure makes them resist turning cancerous.
*CORRECTION: In the on this site summary in this episode, the book author in the review by Kai Kupferschmidt was listed incorrectly. The correct information is: True Color by Kory Stamper, Knopf, 2026.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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The normals | Episode 3
The final of a three-part limited Science Podcast series that looks at the history of normal human subjects in research In episode two, we heard what happened to the normals program after church volunteers came …
Show notes
The final of a three-part limited Science Podcast series that looks at the history of normal human subjects in research
In episode two, we heard what happened to the normals program after church volunteers came to the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center—and were surprisingly happy despite going through sometimes-painful procedures. In the decades to follow, the program got bigger as government funding expanded and started to recruit more broadly, stepping away from specific religious groups toward recruiting from colleges, universities, and unions.
In this episode, we hear about how normal human subjects experience research today and the ways the normals project influenced oversight and safety for these sometimes vulnerable people.
Appearing in this episode:
- Laura Stark, history professor at the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University
- Jill Fisher, professor of social medicine in the Center for Bioethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Kaviya Manoharan, lecturer and clinical research program manager in the Centre for Clinical Pharmacology, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre
- Martin Enserink, deputy news editor at Science
- Kevin McLean, Science multimedia managing producer
- Sarah Crespi, Science Podcast senior host and producer
Additional resources:
BOOKS
- The Normals: A People’s History of Modern America in Five Human Experiments by Laura Stark
- Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals by Jill Fisher
NEWS STORIES
- Global effort aims to protect health and safety of human ‘guinea pigs’ in drug trials by Martin Enserink
- Key global bioethics guidelines get ‘dramatic’ update by Cathleen O’Grady
WEBSITES
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How to keep quantum computers cool, whether prediction markets harm public health, and podcasting on podcasting
First up on the podcast, quantum computers require extremely low temperatures—less than 1°C away from absolute zero. But getting down to those temperatures has usually required dilution fridges using the …
Show notes
First up on the podcast, quantum computers require extremely low temperatures—less than 1°C away from absolute zero. But getting down to those temperatures has usually required dilution fridges using the extremely rare and increasingly expensive isotope helium-3. Freelance science journalist Zack Savitsky joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss up-and-coming technologies that can drive down temperatures while staying helium-3–free.
Next on the show, Nizan Packin, a professor of law at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, talks about prediction markets as a public health threat. Early on, prediction markets were proposed as a way to make reliable forecasts from crowdsourced wisdom. With the appearance of commercial, for-profit prediction markets linked with cryptocurrency and sports betting, Nizan and colleagues ask what studies should be done to better understand potential harms to the public.
Finally, in a Working Life column this week, recent Ph.D. graduate Filippo Dall’Armellina wrote about how his foray into science podcasting helped him regain enjoyment of research. He talks about why having a science-adjacent hobby was life changing.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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The Normals | Episode 2
Last time on The Normals, we learned that in the 1950s, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) wanted to recruit many healthy volunteers for basic research. Two peace churches, the Mennonites and the Church of …
Show notes
Last time on The Normals, we learned that in the 1950s, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) wanted to recruit many healthy volunteers for basic research. Two peace churches, the Mennonites and the Church of the Brethren, had an excess of healthy human volunteers. The “Normals” recruited from these Anabaptist churches were surprisingly happy, even as they went through sometimes painful procedures.
In this follow-up episode, we hear about how the sources of normal human subjects changed in the 1960s and why NIH researchers felt they needed to expand their search for normal people. We also learn about the first death in the program and the shifting motives on the parts of the researchers and volunteers. Final episode drops next Tuesday, April 21.
In this episode:
- Laura Stark, history professor at the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University
- Ken Naas, former Normal patient
- Cindy Jansen, former Normal patient
- Dale Horst, former Normal patient
- Sarah Crespi, Science Podcast senior host and producer
Additional resources:
The Normals: A People’s History of Modern America in Five Human Experiments by Laura Stark
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These are the latest 100 of 665 episodes. You’ll find older episodes in the podcast’s feed.
