Unexplainable
Unexplainable takes listeners right up to the edge of what we know … and then keeps on going. Host Noam Hassenfeld and an all-star team of reporters — Byrd Pinkerton, Meradith Hoddinott, and Mandy Nguyen — tackle scientific mysteries, unanswered questions, and everything we learn by diving into the unknown. New episodes drop every Wednesday.
51
Do animals grieve?
A dog on its owner’s grave. A killer whale carrying around its dead calf. A goose that isolates when its mate dies.
24 min
52
Why do we dream?
Dreams are weird, but can they be a scientific tool?
20 min
53
Cracking the Indus code
The Indus Valley civilization was one of the largest, most advanced civilizations in the ancient world.
21 min
54
Awestruck
Awe is what takes our breath away when we face a sky full of stars or listen to a moving piece of music.
22 min
55
Expecting: Weed and pregnancy
Many states have extremely punitive policies around cannabis and pregnancy.
30 min
56
Expecting: Baby brain
Caring for a child seems to change parents’ brains.
25 min
57
Expecting: Pregnancy souvenirs
Fetuses leave cells behind in their parents' bodies, where they braid themselves into tissues, and remain, for years.
34 min
58
The tornado problem
2023 has been a record-setting year for tornadoes, and these storms came with barely any warning.
22 min
59
How to resurrect a mammoth
Scientists are hard at work trying to bring back woolly mammoths (and dodos).
30 min
60
Live show, dead dinosaurs
We did a live show!
34 min
61
Talking trees
Studies suggesting trees communicate through an elaborate underground fungal network have captured imaginations.
21 min
62
Your questions, unexplained
This week, we tackle three listener questions — on sleepwalking, deja vu, and Earth’s magnetic field.
24 min
63
What's so funny?
Scientists are digging into what makes something funny.
16 min
64
Origins: The meaning of “life”
For every definition of life, there’s a creature that sends us right back to the drawing board.
23 min
65
Origins: The first living thing
How did life on Earth start?
25 min
66
Origins: How did Earth get its water?
Life as we know it needs water, but scientists can’t figure out where Earth’s water came from.
23 min
67
What is love?
Can science help us predict whether a relationship will succeed?
30 min
68
Why we hiccup
Listeners told us that eating baby carrots or telling lies can bring on the hiccups. Burping or kissing can make them stop. Um, what?
27 min
69
We booped an asteroid
Last fall, a NASA spacecraft slammed into an asteroid to test a way to avert a disaster on Earth. So are we safe now?
20 min
70
Your creepy, crawly roommates
Our houses are homes to hidden worlds of bugs.
24 min
71
Henrietta Leavitt and the end of the universe
In the early 1900s, Henrietta Leavitt made one of the most important discoveries in the history of astronomy: a yardstick to measure distances to faraway stars.
29 min
72
Plants with eyes?
In the temperate rainforests of Chile, there is a vine that can shapeshift to copy the look of other plants.
24 min
73
Unexplainable or Not: Bikes, planes, ice skates
Our game show is back!
27 min
74
Your gut's feelings
How we feel emotionally may be influenced by unseen troves of microbial life that live inside us. Is it possible to harness this gut power?
26 min
75
Nuclear fusion breaks through
Back in January, we spoke to a scientist at the National Ignition Facility about how close they were to achieving what’s been called “one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.”
28 min