Podcast
Science Friday
Hosted by Science Friday and WNYC Studios · EN
Covering the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies, Science Friday is the source for entertaining and educational stories about science, technology, and other cool stuff.
96episodes
Episodes
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Can the shingles vaccine stave off dementia?
2d ago00:17:38Tap to summarizeThe benefits of getting a shingles vaccine seem relatively straightforward: It will prevent you from getting shingles, a painful rash caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. But researchers have found a surprising link between getting the shingles vaccine and a lower risk of developing dementia. And that’s not the only vaccine that seems to have additional benefits. So what’s going on here? To help explain this research are epidemiologist Pascal Geldsetzer, who studies the association between the shingles vaccine and lower rates of dementia; and physician and epidemiologist Helen Chu, who studies the Flu, RSV and COVID-19 viruses. Guests: Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer is an assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology and population health at Stanford University. Dr. Helen Chu is a professor of epidemiology, allergy and infectious diseases at the University of Washington. Other episodes you may enjoy: Study Finds COVID mRNA Vaccines Boost Cancer Treatment As Cervical Cancer Deaths Plummet, Experts Credit HPV Vaccine Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Inside the Nebraska quarantine facility responding to hantavirus
5d ago00:12:13Tap to summarizeTwo disease outbreaks are dominating the news: Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and hantavirus, which started spreading on a cruise ship. The U.S. has a one-of-a-kind medical facility that exists just for emergencies like this. It’s called the National Quarantine Unit, and it’s in Omaha, Nebraska. Right now, 18 Americans from the cruise ship where hantavirus broke out are in quarantine there. Host Flora Lichtman chats with Angie Vasa, a nurse and administrator who has worked at this emergency center for the last 17 years. They discuss how the facility works, what’s happening with the travelers exposed to hantavirus, and how they’re preparing for the possibility of Ebola-exposed individuals. Guest: Angie Vasa is the director of emergency preparedness and special pathogens programs at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska. Other episodes you may enjoy: Mapping Out How Viruses Jump Between Species How Viruses Have Shaped Our World Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Surveying wildlife along Lewis and Clark's route, 220 years later
6d ago00:17:00Tap to summarizeWhen Lewis and Clark crossed the United States in the early 1800s, they recorded their wildlife observations along the way. Now, more than 200 years later, an expedition is following the same route and partnering with scientists across the U.S. to catalog animals and track the changes. Expedition leader Roland Kays joins Host Flora Lichtman to share some highlights. Plus, using cell phone data and GPS collars, ecologists were able to see how animals moved (or not) when people were around. Ecologist Ruth Oliver tells us about her findings. Guests: Dr. Roland Kays is research professor at NC State University and director of the Biodiversity & Earth Observation Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Dr. Ruth Oliver is an ecologist and assistant professor at UC Santa Barbara. Other episodes you may enjoy: Are Raccoons On The Road To Domestication? Teamwork Between Species Is The Key To Life Itself Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Pope Leo's encyclical on AI, and the Vatican science advisors
1w ago00:18:31Tap to summarizeOn Monday, Pope Leo XIV presented his encyclical, an open letter from the church, on AI. The 42,000-word document covers a lot of terrain—from screen time to resource extraction to job loss—but the core message is summed up in the title: “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding The Human Person In The Time Of Artificial Intelligence.” How did the pope arrive at these views? Among those advising him on issues like AI are scientists and other experts. Host Flora Lichtman talks with a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, anthropologist Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, about the encyclical and what it’s like to advise the pope. Guest: Dr. Marcelo Suárez-Orozco is an anthropologist and chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Other episodes you may enjoy: How Is AI Being Used In The Iran War? An AI Leader’s Human-Centered Approach To Artificial Intelligence Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Bizarre exoplanet clouds + Counting insects with weather radar
1w ago00:20:16Tap to summarizeAstronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have observed clouds on a hot gas giant exoplanet called WASP-94A b, some 700 light-years away. But these clouds aren’t your usual wisps of water vapor—they’re vaporized sand. Astronomer David Sing joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe the planetary weather, and how the researchers were able to observe it. Then, ecologist Elske Tielens joins Flora to describe how ecologists using weather radar data counted the insects aloft in U.S. skies: around 100 trillion of them on an average summer day. Guests: Dr. David Sing is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Elske Tielens is an ecologist with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research. Other episodes you may enjoy: How Insects Changed The World—And Human Cultures Not Just Dying Stars: A Black Hole That Came From Gas Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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A trailblazing geneticist reflects on her life and work
1w ago00:47:13Tap to summarizeIt’s common knowledge that many diseases and conditions have some kind of genetic link. But that wasn't always the case. In 1990, long before the Human Genome Project tied so many health issues to differences in genetics, researchers identified a gene called BRCA1. It was the first gene linked to a hereditary form of any common cancer. People with certain variants of BRCA1 stood a higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer than those without those mutations. Geneticist Mary-Claire King and her lab were the first to identify that gene. She joined Host Flora Lichtman in September 2025 to talk about her background, her research, and her approach to science. Guest: Dr. Mary-Claire King is an American Cancer Society Professor in the departments of Genome Sciences and Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. Other episodes you may enjoy: A Nagasaki Survivor And Physician Recounts His Life’s Work I Was Considered A Nobody Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Is that spooky old house full of ghosts, or just infrasound?
2w ago00:17:47Tap to summarizeOld creepy houses are a horror cliche, but why? Why do they freak us out? According to new research, it might have something to do with infrasound: a sound that’s below the range of human hearing, potentially emitted by low-rumbling pipes or old boilers more common in older houses. Psychologist and pseudoscience researcher Rodney Schmaltz explains his new study, and what role infrasound could play in leading people to feel unsettled in “haunted” places. Then, infrasound researcher Milton Garcés breaks down the infrasound that’s produced by volcanoes and asteroid impacts, and how it serves as a “keep away” signal in nature. Guests: Dr. Rodney Schmaltz is a professor of psychology at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta. Dr. Milton Garcés is a research scientist at the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology and director of the Infrasound Laboratory at the University of Hawai’i in Honolulu. Other episodes you may enjoy: What The Sounds Of Melting Glaciers Can Tell Us The World According To Sound: A Sonic History Of Astronomy Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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How do clinical trials work, and who can participate?
2w ago00:21:44Tap to summarizeWe recently got a call from a SciFri listener in Florida who has autoimmune arthritis. He told us that over the years he’d taken 10 drugs, and each out eventually stopped working. He then tried to enroll in a clinical trial for a new drug for his condition, but he was rejected specifically because he was on his 10th drug. Today we’re digging into clinical trials and how they work. Are there incentives for drug developers to leave out “problem children”? Or is it more complicated than that? Flora talks with lawyer and bioethicist Holly Fernandez Lynch about what clinical trials are designed to do, how participants are chosen, and where FDA regulation comes into play. Guest: Dr. Holly Fernandez Lynch is an associate professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Other episodes you may enjoy: Why so many studies can’t be replicatedCan ‘Suggestion-Box Science’ Make Public Health More Useful? Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Use of herbicide linked to Parkinson's is on the rise in the US
2w ago00:12:29Tap to summarizeThe herbicide paraquat is so toxic it’s banned in over 70 countries. But its use in the U.S. is growing, despite known links to Parkinson’s disease. In southeastern Mississippi, an industrial plant is leaking tens of thousands of pounds of the chemical into the air. Environmental reporter Delaney Nolan and epidemiologist Beate Ritz join Host Flora Lichtman to discuss the implications of this leak, and what we know about how paraquat affects the body. Guests: Delaney Nolan is an environmental reporter based in New Orleans. She reported this story for The Lens and the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. Dr. Beate Ritz is a professor of epidemiology at UCLA in Los Angeles. Other episodes you may enjoy: Teasing Apart The Causes And Early Signs Of Parkinson’s Workout Worms May Reveal New Parkinson’s Treatments Want SciFri gear? Check out our new shop! Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Why does fashion repeat in 20-year cycles? Math has the answer
2w ago00:15:17Tap to summarizeBucket hats. Low-rise jeans. Track suits. As you might’ve noticed, Y2K fashion is in right now. People say that fashion moves in 20-year cycles, and it turns out…it does! At least according to math. Host Flora Lichtman sits down with mathematician Emma Zajdela to figure out how she analyzed over 35,000 images of women's clothing dating all the way back to the 1860s to confirm this theory. Guest: Dr. Emma Zajdela is a Franco-American mathematician and science diplomacy activist. Other episodes you may enjoy: The Many, Many Ways Tuberculosis Shaped Human Life Functional Fashion From An Artist And A Caterpillar Want SciFri gear? Check out our new shop! Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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