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.
76
Live show, dead dinosaurs
We did a live show!
34 min
77
Talking trees
Studies suggesting trees communicate through an elaborate underground fungal network have captured imaginations.
21 min
78
Your questions, unexplained
This week, we tackle three listener questions — on sleepwalking, deja vu, and Earth’s magnetic field.
24 min
79
What's so funny?
Scientists are digging into what makes something funny.
16 min
80
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
81
Origins: The first living thing
How did life on Earth start?
25 min
82
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
83
What is love?
Can science help us predict whether a relationship will succeed?
30 min
84
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
85
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
86
Your creepy, crawly roommates
Our houses are homes to hidden worlds of bugs.
24 min
87
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
88
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
89
Unexplainable or Not: Bikes, planes, ice skates
Our game show is back!
27 min
90
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
91
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
92
Basic instinct
How do animals know how to do things like spin a web or build a dam? A neuroscientist argues it's not “instinct.” Something bigger is going on.
26 min
93
Why we cry
Humans seem to be the only animals that cry from emotion. What makes our tears so special?
21 min
94
Can we live in space?
NASA just launched the Artemis program, a series of missions that will eventually take humans back to the moon, and beyond.
29 min
95
Holding on to power
A mountain, a tower, a thermos full of molten salt: These are the batteries that could power our renewable future.
28 min
96
Redefining death
Death used to be fairly self-evident, but new technologies have forced us to ask: When is someone actually dead?
30 min
97
Talking to ghosts
Why do so many people think they can see and hear ghosts, and what does that say about our conscious experience of the world?
29 min
98
Why is everyone getting food allergies?
In the past few decades, the rate of food allergies in both children and adults has dramatically increased.
23 min
99
Introducing The Gray Area
On the first episode of Vox’s new podcast, The Gray Area, host Sean Illing talks with Neil deGrasse Tyson about the limits of both politics and science.
54 min
100
Let’s play Unexplainable or Not
For the first time, we get some answers.
26 min