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.
From Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
76
Placebos work. Why?
For decades, scientists thought that placebos only worked if patients didn’t know they were taking them.
23 min
77
Why is horror so fun?
It makes sense that we run away from scary things.
17 min
78
Are psychedelics breaking science?
Drugs like ecstasy and mushrooms have shown promise as mental health treatments, but they’re also exposing some major cracks in how scientists study the brain.
22 min
79
Your gut’s feelings
How we feel emotionally may be influenced by unseen troves of microbial life that live inside us.
25 min
80
Is insurance doomed?
As the world gets warmer and storms get worse, insurance companies are jacking up rates — or refusing to cover homeowners altogether. Is the future uninsurable?
26 min
81
My animal heart
Doctors have started transplanting animal organs into people, hoping this experimental procedure could one day solve an organ shortage crisis that kills 17 Americans every day.
22 min
82
How hot could the world get?
Scientists have lots of ways to try to answer that question, and lots of different predictions.
21 min
83
Should you be eating poison oak?
Probably not.
26 min
84
Dark oxygen could rewrite Earth’s history
Scientists just discovered oxygen being produced without sunlight — without photosynthesis — at the bottom of the ocean.
20 min
85
You're lost in the wilderness. Now what?
For decades, search and rescue teams followed an accepted playbook.
19 min
86
Viral dark matter
With antibiotic resistance on the rise, some scientists are starting to turn to viruses as a medical tool.
21 min
87
The good virus
Our bodies are teeming with viruses.
17 min
88
Ecstasy therapy
The FDA is about to announce whether it’s going to approve MDMA as a treatment for PTSD.
27 min
89
What did dinosaurs sound like?
They probably didn’t roar like lions.
36 min
90
Do we live inside an enormous black hole?
It’s possible that the entire observable universe is inside a black hole.
22 min
91
Is good posture actually good?
Send this episode to the person who constantly hounds you not to slouch.
18 min
92
Why do we yawn?
People yawn when they’re bored, right?
34 min
93
Embracing economic chaos
Can a physicist predict our messy economy by building an enormous simulation of the entire world?
24 min
94
We still don’t really know how inflation works
Inflation is one of the most significant issues shaping the 2024 election.
28 min
95
Can you put a price on nature?
It’s hard to figure out the economic value of a wild bat or any other part of the natural world, but some scientists argue that this kind of calculation could help protect our environment.
21 min
96
The deepest spot in the ocean
Seventy-five percent of the seafloor remains unmapped and unexplored, but the first few glimpses scientists have gotten of the ocean’s depths have completely revolutionized our understanding of the planet.
25 min
97
What’s the tallest mountain in the world?
If you just stood up and shouted, “It’s Mount Everest, duh!” then take a seat.
25 min
98
Did trees kill the world?
Way back when forests first evolved on Earth … they might have triggered one of the biggest mass extinctions in the history of the planet.
24 min
99
Can we stop aging?
From blood transfusions to enzyme boosters, our friends at Science Vs dive into the latest research on the search for the fountain of youth.
33 min
100
Who's the daddy? There isn't one.
A snake. A shark. They got pregnant with no male involved.
17 min