Stay ConnectedUnexplainable takes listeners right up to the edge of what we know…and then keeps on going. The Unexplainable team — Noam Hassenfeld, Julia Longoria, Byrd Pinkerton, and Meradith Hoddinott — tackles scientific mysteries, unanswered questions, and everything we learn diving into the unknown. New episodes Mondays and Wednesdays.
From Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Copyright: © 2021 Vox Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Yellowstone can be a deadly place... but not for the reasons you might think.
Guest: Mike Poland, scientist in charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory
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A two-time Nobel Prize-winning scientist changed chemistry, biology, and the politics of science. But when he pushed vitamin C as a cure-all, did he go too far?
Guest: Daniel M. Davis, head of the department of life sciences and professor of immunology at Imperial College London. He is the author of Self-Defense: A Myth-Busting Guide to Immune Health.
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This episode is a follow-up to The Sound Barrier series, which explores our brain's relationship to sound. In our third episode of the series, we asked listeners to try to experience silence and record what they heard. Today, we share the sounds of quiet from across the world in a tribute to John Cage’s 4’33”. Plus, Tinnitus researcher and Unexplainable guest Dan Polley answers your questions from the series.
Guest: Dan Polley, tinnitus researcher at Mass Eye and Ear.
Thank you to everyone who wrote in and shared their silences. If you still have thoughts or questions about the series, write us!
We also heard from a few teachers who plan to use the series as a part of their curriculum. Is this you? Let us know!
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As our brains develop throughout our childhood and teens, they form connections and then prune back the ones that aren't used. What can we learn from them?
Guests: Alison Barth, professor in the life sciences at Carnegie Mellon University; Saket Navlakha, associate professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
This series was made possible by support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Vox had full discretion over the content of this reporting.
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What's going on in teens' heads? Scientists working on a country-wide study following thousands of young people have spent the last decade trying to answer that question.
Guests: Raul Gonzalez Jr., psychology professor at Florida International University
This series was made possible by support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Vox had full discretion over the content of this reporting.
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Way back when forests first evolved on Earth... they might have triggered one of the biggest mass extinctions in the history of the planet. (Originally aired in 2024)
Guests: Charles Ver Straeten, curator of sedimentary rocks at the New York State Museum; Lisa Amati, curator of invertebrate paleontology at the New York State Museum; Thomas Algeo, professor of geochemistry at the University of Cincinnati
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It's a quasi-moon. Or, a quasi-satellite. Whatever you want to call it, it's hanging out near Earth. And it could be the source of some fascinating new science.
Guests: Nick Moskovitz, astronomer at Lowell Observatory
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So many of us have been told that meditation can make us less stressed, more productive, and happier. But for a small group of people, it has a dark side. What’s going on?
Guests: Willoughby Britton, associate professor at Brown University; Richard Davidson, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Pierce Salguero, professor at the Abington College of Pennsylvania State University
This episode was made in partnership with Vox’s Future Perfect team.
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A dog on its owner’s grave. A killer whale carrying around its dead calf. A goose that isolates when its mate dies. These behaviors in animals may look like human mourning, but should scientists call them "grief"? (First published in 2023)
Guests: Jennifer Vonk, comparative/cognitive psychologist at Oakland University; Jessica Pierce, bioethicist and author of several books about animals; Susana Monsó, animal ethicist and a philosopher and author of Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death
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When Wanda Diáz-Merced lost her sight as a college student, she thought her dreams of becoming an astronomer were over — until she learned to listen to space instead.
Wanda is one of several pioneering scientists listening to space. For this episode, we also spoke to Robert Wilson, who used sound to help him discover the first direct evidence of the Big Bang, and Kim Arcand, who plays us what the center of the Milky Way sounds like.
This is the fourth episode in our of our new four-part series, The Sound Barrier.
Guests: Wanda Diáz-Merced, astronomer; Robert Wilson, Nobel laureate and senior scientist at at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Kim Arcand, emerging tech lead at NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
You can find Kim’s sonification of the center of the Milky Way (with visuals) here: https://chandra.si.edu/sound/gcenter.html
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