Unexplainable
Unexplainable 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.
76
The data vigilantes
Data sleuths are working outside the system to keep science honest.
29 min
77
Trouble on Pickles Reef
Coral reefs are an essential ecosystem undeniably threatened by climate change.
24 min
78
Redefining death
This Halloween, we look at how technology is forcing us to ask: When is someone actually dead?
31 min
79
The Orcanizing
Over the last few years, orcas have been targeting boats, often leaving them stranded at sea.
19 min
80
Unexplainable or Not with Wyatt Cenac
Our game show is back!
31 min
81
Rogue waves
Towering walls of water sometimes appear in the ocean without warning or apparent cause.
25 min
82
Does garlic break magnets?
What would an episode of Unexplainable have sounded like if it had been made in 100 CE?
28 min
83
How to decode a thought
Can researchers decipher what people are thinking about just by looking at brain scans?
29 min
84
It’s getting harder to see
Something about modern life is leading to higher rates of nearsightedness across the world.
19 min
85
Jumping the gun
At last year’s World Athletics Championships, sprinter TyNia Gaither was disqualified for false starting... after the gun went off.
31 min
86
Can we talk to animals?
Two scientists explain how AI might help us translate animal communication, and what we might learn from their squawks, chirps, songs, and chatter.
31 min
87
Unexplainable or Not: Beach day!
Sam Sanders, host of Vulture’s Into It podcast, is in the hot seat for a new episode of our game show.
27 min
88
Who let the wolves in?
Dogs were the first domesticated animal in history, emerging from wolves some 20,000 years ago.
22 min
89
Why do we have a moon?
In all our searching of the universe, we’ve never seen another moon like ours.
24 min
90
The Black Box: In AI we trust?
AI can often solve problems in unexpected, undesirable ways.
28 min
91
The Black Box: Even AI’s creators don’t underst...
AI has the potential to impact our society in dramatic ways, but researchers can’t explain precisely how it works or how it might evolve.
32 min
92
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
93
Why do we dream?
Dreams are weird, but can they be a scientific tool?
20 min
94
Cracking the Indus code
The Indus Valley civilization was one of the largest, most advanced civilizations in the ancient world.
21 min
95
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
96
Expecting: Weed and pregnancy
Many states have extremely punitive policies around cannabis and pregnancy.
30 min
97
Expecting: Baby brain
Caring for a child seems to change parents’ brains.
25 min
98
Expecting: Pregnancy souvenirs
Fetuses leave cells behind in their parents' bodies, where they braid themselves into tissues, and remain, for years.
34 min
99
The tornado problem
2023 has been a record-setting year for tornadoes, and these storms came with barely any warning.
22 min
100
How to resurrect a mammoth
Scientists are hard at work trying to bring back woolly mammoths (and dodos).
30 min