First up on the podcast: the mysterious fate of Europe’s Neolithic farmers . They arrived from Anatolia around 5500 B.C.E. and began farming fertile land across Europe. Five hundred years later, their buildings, cemeteries, and pottery stopped showing up in the archaeological record, and mass graves with headless bodies started to appear across the continent. Contributing Correspondent Andrew Curry talks with host Sarah Crespi about what this strange transition might mean. Next on the show, Edit...
Nov 20, 2025•33 min
First up on the podcast, Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi for a rundown of online news stories. They talk about lichen that dine on dino bones , the physics of the lip-out problem in golf , and a brain-computer interface that can decode a tonal language (Chinese) from brain waves. Next on the show, Jeremy Munday , a professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of California, Davis, talks about generating mechanical power using a heat engine aimed at the ni...
Nov 13, 2025•28 min
First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Sofia Moutinho visited the Xingu Indigenous territory in Brazil to learn about a long-standing collaboration between scientists and the Kuikuro to better understand early Amazon communities . Next on the show, we visit the Pacific pocket mouse recovery program at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance to talk with researchers about the tricky process of increasing genetic diversity in an endangered species . Researcher Aryn Wilder talks about a lo...
Nov 06, 2025•35 min
First up on the podcast, increased carbon dioxide emissions sink more acidity into the ocean, but checking pH all over the world, up and down the water column, is incredibly challenging. Staff Writer Paul Voosen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a technique that takes advantage of how sound moves through the water to detect ocean acidification. Next on the show, we visit the lab of University of California San Diego professor Alysson Muotri at the Sanford Consortium , where he grows human brain...
Oct 30, 2025•45 min
First up on the podcast, the Bering Sea’s snow crabs are bouncing back after a 50-billion-crab die-off in 2020, but scientists are racing to predict what’s going to happen to this important fishery . Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss what’s next for snow crabs. Next on the show, freelance producer Elah Feder talks with Fei Peng , a professor in the department of psychology in the School of Public Health at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, Chin...
Oct 23, 2025•27 min
First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Kai Kupferschmidt takes a trip to Svalbard , an Arctic archipelago where ancient RNA viruses may lie buried in the permafrost . He talks with host Sarah Crespi about why we only have 100 years of evolutionary history for viruses such as coronavirus and influenza, and what we can learn by looking deeper back in time. Next on the show, Nathalie Stroeymeyt , senior lecturer at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol, joins f...
Oct 16, 2025•27 min
First up on the podcast, producer Kevin McLean talks with Associate Online News Editor Michael Greshko about the impact of wildfires on wine ; a couple horse stories, one modern , one ancient ; and why educators are racing to archive government materials. Next on the show, research that took advantage of a natural experiment in unnatural lighting. Host Sarah Crespi talks with Ph.D. student Liz Aguilar and Kimberly Rosvall , an associate professor, both in the department of biology at Indiana Uni...
Oct 09, 2025•37 min
First up on the podcast, Staff Writer Robert F. Service joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a boom in nuclear medicine , from new and more powerful radioisotopes to improved precision in cancer cell targeting. Next on the show, we talk about why we sigh . Maria Clara Novaes-Silva , a doctoral student at ETH Zürich, discusses how deep breaths cause minute rearrangements at the special interface where air meets lung. The lung flexibility granted by these deeper inhalations suggest people on vent...
Oct 02, 2025•35 min
First up on the podcast, Science News Editor Tim Appenzeller joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss why a salty layer of permafrost undergirding Arctic ice is turning frozen landscapes into boggy morasses. Next on the show, glucose isn’t the only molecule in the body that can be monitored in real time; proteins can be, too. Freelancer producer Zakiya Whatley talks with Jane Donnelly , an MD/Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University, about what we could learn from the live monitoring of key proteins...
Sep 25, 2025•46 min
First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Leslie Roberts joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the long journey to a vaccine for group B streptococcus , a microbe that sickens 400,000 babies a year and kills at least 91,000. Next on the show, there are about 250,000 agricultural drones employed on farms in China. Countries such as South Korea, Turkey, and Thailand are swiftly increasing agricultural drone use, whereas the United States and Russia are proceeding more slowly. Food poli...
Sep 18, 2025•35 min
First up on the podcast, aggressive tumors have a secret cache of DNA that may help them beat current drug treatments. Freelance journalist Elie Dolgin joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about targeting so-called extrachromosomal DNA—little gene-bearing loops of DNA—that help difficult-to-treat cancers break the laws of inheritance. Next on the show, producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Weidong Sun , director of the Center of Deep Sea Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, about the discovery ...
Sep 11, 2025•35 min
First up on the podcast, despite so many advances in treatment, HIV drugs can suppress the virus but can’t cure the infection. Where does suppressed HIV hide within the body? Staff Writer Jon Cohen joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the Last Gift Study , in which people with HIV donate their bodies for rapid autopsy to help find the last reservoirs of the virus. Next on the show, Christine Elliott , a doctoral candidate in the department of entomology at Purdue University, talks about the Bug...
Sep 04, 2025•33 min
First up on the podcast, Staff Writer Rodrigo Pérez Ortega joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a megafauna megafind that rivals the La Brea Tar Pits. In addition to revealing tens of thousands of bones from everything from dire wolves to an ancient human, the site has yielded the first DNA from ammoths that lived in a warm climate . Next on the show, the Tijuana River crosses the U.S.-Mexican border from Tijuana to San Diego—bringing with it sewage, industrial waste, and stinky smells. News In...
Aug 28, 2025•55 min
First up on the podcast, Staff Writer Meredith Wadman joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss recent advances in understanding endometriosis —a disease where tissue that resembles the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, causing pain and other health effects. The pair talk about how investigating the role of the immune system in this disease is leading researchers to new potential diagnostic tools and treatments. Next on the show, why are there good dengue years and bad dengue years? This w...
Aug 21, 2025•32 min
First up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell and Contributing Correspondent Sara Reardon discuss alternative approaches to animal testing , from a heart on a chip to a miniorgan in a dish. Next on the show, Expert Voices columnist Melanie Mitchell and host Sarah Crespi dig into AI lies. Why do chatbots fabricate answers and pretend to do math? Mitchell describes the stress tests large language models undergo—called red teaming—and the steps needed to better understand how they “think.” Mela...
Aug 14, 2025•32 min
First up on the podcast, Online News Editor David Grimm brings stories on peacock feathers ’ ability to emit laser light, how anteaters have evolved at least 12 times , and why we should be thanking ketchup for our French fries. Next on the show, rorqual whales, such as the massive blue whale, use a lunging strategy to fill their monster maws with seawater and prey, then filter out the tasty parts with baleen sieves. Lunging for food when you weigh 100 tons seems like it would be an energeticall...
Aug 07, 2025•28 min
First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the toll of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and how researchers have been mobilized to help the war effort. In June, Stone visited the basement labs where Ukrainian students modify off-the-shelf drones for war fighting and the facilities where biomedical researchers develop implants and bandages for wounded soldiers. Next on the show, the isotopic ratios in our teeth and bones record the chemi...
Jul 31, 2025•52 min
First up on the podcast, South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind is home to the world’s greatest concentration of ancestral human remains, including our own genus, Homo , Australopithecus , and a more robust hominin called Paranthropus . Proving they were there at the same time is challenging, but new fossil evidence seems to point to coexistence . Producer Kevin McLean discusses what a multihominin landscape might have looked like with Contributing Correspondent Ann Gibbons. Next on the show, should...
Jul 24, 2025•35 min
First up on the podcast, Réunion Island had a shark attack crisis in 2011 and closed its beaches for more than a decade. Former News Intern Alexa Robles-Gil joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about how researchers have used that time to study the island’s shark populations and test techniques for preventing attacks, in the hopes of protecting lives and reopening the island’s shores. Next on the show, engineering gut microbes to break down the precursors of kidney stones. Weston Whitaker , a researc...
Jul 17, 2025•37 min
First up on the podcast, Newsletter Editor Christie Wilcox joins host Sarah Crespi to celebrate the 2-year anniversary of Science Adviser with many stories about the amazing water bear. They also discuss links between climate change, melting glaciers, and earthquakes in the Alps, as well as what is probably the first edible laser . Next on the show, freelance producer Elah Feder talks with Tatiana Feuerborn , a postdoctoral fellow in the cancer genetics and comparative genomics branch of the Nat...
Jul 10, 2025•26 min
First up on the podcast, U.S. aid helped two African countries rein in HIV. Then came President Donald Trump. Senior News Correspondent Jon Cohen talks with producer Kevin McLean about how in Lesotho and Eswatini, treatment and prevention cutbacks are hitting pregnant people, children, and teens especially hard. This story is part of a series about the impacts of U.S. funding cuts on global health, supported by the Pulitzer Center. Next on the show, host Sarah Crespi is joined by Robin Wordswort...
Jul 03, 2025•31 min
First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Andrew Curry joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a pair of Science papers on kinship and culture in Neolithic Anatolia. The researchers used ancient DNA and isotopes from 8000 to 9000 years ago to show how maternal lines were important in Çatalhöyük culture. ● E. Yüncü et al ., Female lineages and changing kinship patterns in Neolithic Çatalhöyük , 2025 ● D. Koptekin et al ., Out-of-Anatolia: Cultural and genetic interactions during the Neolithi...
Jun 26, 2025•45 min
First up on the podcast, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is just coming online , and once fully operational, it will take a snapshot of the entire southern sky every 3 days. Producer Meagan Cantwell guides us through Staff Writer Daniel Clery’s trip to the site of the largest camera ever made for astronomy. Next on the show, probing the impact of plastic bag regulations . Environmental economist Anna Papp joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss her work comparing litter collected by shore cleanup effor...
Jun 19, 2025•37 min
First up on the podcast, Staff Writer Erik Stokstad talks with host Sarah Crespi about how scientists are probing the world’s hottest forests to better understand how plants will cope with climate change. His story is part of a special issue on plants and heat , which includes reviews and perspectives on the fate of plants in a warming world. Next on the show, “convergent” antibodies may underlie the growing number of people allergic to peanuts . Sarita Patil , co-director of the Food Allergy Ce...
Jun 12, 2025•37 min
First up on the podcast, we hear from Staff Writer Paul Voosen about the tricky problem of regional climate prediction . Although global climate change models have held up for the most part, predicting what will happen at smaller scales, such as the level of a city, is proving a stubborn challenge. Just increasing the resolution of global models requires intense computing power, so researchers and city planners are looking to other approaches to find out what’s in store for cities. Next on the s...
Jun 05, 2025•42 min
First up on the podcast, Online News Editor Michael Greshko joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about stories set high above our heads. They discuss capturing fungal spores high in the stratosphere, the debate over signs of life on the exoplanet K2-18b, and a Chinese contender for world’s oldest star catalog . Next on the show, a look into long-standing questions on why and how our bodies respond to tickling. Producer Meagan Cantwell talks to Konstantina Kilteni , an assistant professor at the Donde...
May 29, 2025•53 min
First up on the podcast, freelance journalist Zack Savitsky joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the strange metal state . Physicists are probing the behavior of electrons in these materials, which appear to behave like a thick soup rather than discrete charged particles. Many suspect insights into strange metals might lead to the creation of room-temperature superconductors, highly desired materials that promise lossless energy delivery and floating trains. A few years ago, researcher Nora Zan...
May 22, 2025•40 min
First up on the podcast, freelance journalist Jonathan Moens talks with host Sarah Crespi about a forensic test called brain electrical oscillation signature (BEOS) profiling, which police in India are using along with other techniques to try to tell whether a suspect participated in a crime, despite these technologies’ extremely shaky scientific grounding . Next on the show, scientists have recently made strides in our understanding of horses, from identifying the mutations that make horses ama...
May 15, 2025•30 min
First up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell worked with the Science News team to review how the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s administration have impacted science . In the segment, originally produced for video, we hear about how the workforce, biomedical research, and global health initiatives all face widespread, perhaps permanent damage, with News staffers David Malakoff, Jocelyn Kaiser, and Rachel Bernstein. Next on the show, acoustical analysis of ancient music from Greec...
May 08, 2025•33 min
First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Andrew Curry talks with host Sarah Crespi about his visit to 17th century crypts under an old hospital in Italy. Researchers are examining tooth plaque, bone lesions, and mummified brains to learn more about the health, diet, and drug habits of Milan’s working poor 400 years ago. Next on the show, a mechanism for driving growth in fat stores with age. Or, the source of the “dad bod” trope. Producer Zakiya Whatley talks with Qiong “Annabel” Wang...
May 01, 2025•32 min
