Stay ConnectedNew discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines — in just under 15 minutes. It’s science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor. Join hosts Emily Kwong and Regina Barber for science on a different wavelength.
Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including sponsor-free listening for Short Wave.
Copyright: © Copyright 2019-2026 NPR - For Personal Use Only
Peru’s anchovy industry, the largest single-species fishery in the world, is being rocked by the ongoing El Niño . It’s not the first time the fishery has been impacted by the natural weather phenomenon — El Niño gets its name from Peruvian fishermen. And it’s a stark reminder of the reverberating economic consequences of El Niño events, which can cost the global economy trillions of dollars.
Interested in more news and weather-related science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
The explosion of GLP-1 drugs has created a gray zone for pregnancy. That recently prompted the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to issue its first ever guidance on the topic. In a twist, the drugs may boost fertility for some, leading to more pregnancies – a phenomenon known on social media as “Ozempic babies”. But doctors caution against using the drugs during pregnancy itself. In fact, the more we looked into this story, the more twists and nuances we found. So, we brought Dr. Amy Valent of Oregon Health and Science University onto the show to break down the latest on what’s known about how these drugs affect fertility and pregnancy.
Interested in more health news? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Famously, polls got the 2016 election wrong. And they’d been off for multiple elections since. So, Monday night, political scientist Jack Rametta nervously refreshed his Senate forecasting model for the final time. Would it be right this time? Or would it yet again cast doubt on whether modeling, statistics and forecasting can still help us understand what motivates people to vote? Now that the results are in, so is Jack – to tell us how he did, and what his and other researchers’ predictions tell us about the evolving science of polling and forecasting.
Interested in more science behind the news? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Math has created some of humanity's oldest intellectual challenges. And AI is completely changing the game. This year AI solved one of math’s most difficult problems. Since then, OpenAI published hundreds of new math results. So is this the end for the people who’ve dedicated their careers to pushing forward math? We get into it with NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfel, who weighs the risks and rewards of AI’s math takeover.
Interested in more technology and AI news? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Check out NPR’s newest podcast, Machine Gods. It’s the official podcast of the singularity, meaning — the hypothetical future when machines will outpace our own intelligence…and our control. Whether you think that future is coming or not, hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton are here to help you understand the people trying to build it… and how their technology works.
On this episode, listen to their exclusive interview with safety researchers who were fired by OpenAI.
Interested in more technology and AI news? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Does swinging a lightsaber help us learn? New research from Florida Atlantic University and Brown University found that movement dramatically helps with certain kinds of complex learning. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.
Interested in more science involving video games? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
If you’ve ever seen a crime show, you probably know how the plot unfolds: A victim is found, an investigation ensues and police conduct a high-stakes search for the culprit. Detectives and crime lab techs collect hair, examine bullet casings and photograph bloodstains. But just how reliable are these clues – and does science back them up? Well, today on the show, with the help of legal expert Chris Fabricant, we’re diving into which of these forensic techniques are junk “science”, which we should be more cautious about – and why all of them haunt the legal system.
Interested in more crime and pop science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
It’s been just over two years since the rise of Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA. The movement united a coalition of moms, wellness influencers and voters across the political spectrum over concerns about chronic illness and childhood diseases. And when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over as Secretary of Health and Human Services, it seemed like MAHA would be front and center in Washington.
But as we approach the midterm elections, has the Trump administration made good on the MAHA agenda? On today’s episode, we dig into what’s changed, what hasn’t and what that means for your health.
Interested in more health science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
It feels like everyone we know is talking about the new documentary You Can See Everything. It tracks the effort of comedian and documentarian Nathan Fielder to suss out how deceptive Elizabeth Holmes, disgraced founder of the company Theranos, is. And after watching the film, we all left the theater wondering -- what could we see? How possible is it to ever really spot someone lying? So we of course called up an expert in deception and counter-deception research, Maria Hartwig, a professor of psychology at CUNY, the City University of New York.
For more on sussing out a liar, check out our episode about what's wrong with the polygraph.
Interested in more deep dives on the science behind pop culture blockbusters? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
At the beginning of our universe, in addition to matter, there was also an equal amount of antimatter, matter's opposite. But today, there's lots more matter than antimatter. So how did that happen? Well, the answer might have to do with neutrinos, a very mysterious, elusive particle. They're incredibly difficult to catch and study because they don't really interact with anything. But a group of scientists is now betting that one specific, hypothetical type of neutrino might have played a very important role in getting matter to win the war against antimatter. Today, we go galaxy brain and delight in getting to spend a little time pondering this hypothetical, long ignored particle.
Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
