AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them
Humans are building meaningful relationships with AI chatbots. What will the consequences be? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Episodes
Science Quickly
Host Rachel Feltman, alongside leading science and tech journalists, dives into the rich world of scientific discovery in this bite-size science variety show.
Episodes
A Mission to Jupiter's Strange Moons Is Finally on Its Way
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) and Europa Clipper missions will search for signs of habitability on three of Jupiter’s potentially ocean-bearing moons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Surprising Backstory behind Witch Hunts and Reproductive Labor
Two of the foremost experts on witch hunts talk about the link between the formation of domestic labor and the rise of witch hunting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What You Need to Know about GPT-4
The AI GPT-4 has emergent abilities—but that’s not why it’s scary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Good News for Coffee Lovers
A careful new study reveals coffee is generally safe for your heart and may boost your daily step count. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Meet the Magnificent Microbes of the Deep Unknown
These two researchers journey toward the center of Earth—via windows to the crust—to find bacteria that can breathe iron, arsenic and other metals that would kill us pretty quickly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Zombifying Fungi Became Master Manipulators
The real-life fungi that inspired The Last of Us hijack the bodies of ants, wasps, cicadas, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Science Has New Ideas about 'Oumuamua's Weirdness
Our first known interstellar visitor is now long gone, but new research has some ideas about why it moved the way it did while it was in our cosmic neighborhood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Open Offices Aren't Working, so How Do We Design an Office That Does?
Insights from Deaf and autistic communities could finally make office spaces better for everyone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cosmos, Quickly: Remembering the Genius of Vera Rubin
Vera Rubin went from a teenager with a cardboard telescope to the “mother of dark matter.” Some of her colleagues and mentees weigh in on her fascinating life and how she was a champion for women in astronomy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Long COVID's Roots in the Brain: Your Health, Quickly, Episode 3
Post-COVID symptoms can linger for months or years, and more and more evidence points to problems with the nervous system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If AI Starts Making Music on Its Own, What Happens to Musicians?
Music made with artificial intelligence could upend the music industry. Here’s what that might look like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Music-Making Artificial Intelligence Is Getting Scary Good
Google’s new AI model can generate entirely new music from text prompts. Here’s what they sound like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Artificial Intelligence Helped Make the Coolest Song You've Heard This Week
Machine-learning algorithms are getting so good that they can translate Western instruments into Thai ones with ease. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Space Force Humor, Laser Dazzlers, and the Havoc a War in Space Would Actually Wreak
In the inaugural episode of Cosmos, Quickly, we blast off with Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno of the Space Force, who is charged with protecting our space in space, particularly from Russia and China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Squeak Squeak, Buzz Buzz: How Researchers Are Using AI to Talk to Animals
The burgeoning field of “digital bioacoustics” is helping us understand animals like never before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
RSV Vaccines Are Coming At Last: Your Health, Quickly, Episode 2
A vaccine pioneer tells us that shots to protect against RSV—a dangerous virus for babies and older people—are finally nearing approval. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If the Mathematical Constant Pi Was a Song, What Would It Sound Like?
Every year on Pi Day, we have a reason to celebrate one of math’s most famous symbols. But this year we speak to someone who has captured it in song. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How To Stop a (Potentially Killer) Asteroid
We slammed a $330-million spaceship the size of a dairy cow into an asteroid the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Here’s what we’re learning about how our first step in planetary defense could save us in the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Scientific Secret to Soothing Fussy Babies
Some animals’ babies physically relax when their parents whisk them away from danger. The same thing works for tiny, wailing humans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Helper Sharks Discovered the World's Largest Seagrass Ecosystem
Scientists partnered with tiger sharks to map seagrass—the unsung hero of ocean conservation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How the Woolly Bear Caterpillar Turns into a Popsicle to Survive the Winter
Some caterpillars have evolved with antifreeze in their body cavity, allowing them to become cater-Popsicles to survive cold winters. But climate change could threaten that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Pandemic's Mental Toll, and Does Telehealth Work? Your Health, Quickly, Episode 1
Hosts Josh Fischman and Tanya Lewis explore the pandemic’s mental health toll on teens and young adults. They also delve into the effectiveness of telehealth, which has been booming since the start of the pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Does Not Being Able to Picture Something in Your Mind Affect Your Creativity?
Researchers who study aphantasia, or the inability to visualize something in your “mind’s eye,” are starting to get a sense of how to accurately measure the condition and what it may mean for those who have it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sorry, UFO Hunters--You Might Just Be Looking at a Spy Balloon
From space aliens to foreign surveillance, we spoke to experts to find out what’s really going on with the balloon brouhaha. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Building Resilience in the Face of Climate Change [Sponsored]
Successfully mitigating the impacts of climate change will rely heavily on innovation in science and technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Do We Find Aliens? Maybe Unlearn What We Know About 'Life' First
Science might be redefining what “life out there” really means. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Love and the Brain: Do Partnerships Really Make Us Happy? Here's What the Science Says
How romance affects our well-being is a lot more complicated than “they lived happily ever after.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Love and the Brain: The Animal Matchmaker and the Panda Romeo and Juliet
In fair zoo-ona, a pair of star-cross’d pandas take their life. And we learn about whether or not animals can fall in love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Love and the Brain: How Attached Are We to Attachment Styles?
Are you “anxious,” “avoidant” or “disorganized?” So-called attachment styles have taken the Internet by storm. But it turns out there’s a lot more to unpack than people think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices