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.
151
What causes Alzheimer’s?
For decades, Alzheimer’s researchers have been stubbornly pursuing a single theory, but they’re starting to wonder: is this narrow focus the reason we still don’t have a cure?
27 min
152
Havana syndrome
Several years after US diplomats in Cuba claimed they were attacked by an invisible weapon, similar incidents continue to be reported around the world.
25 min
153
Getting to the bottom of butts
Once upon a time, there were no anuses.
23 min
154
The mysteries of endometriosis
This common chronic condition — where tissue that normally grows in the uterus grows elsewhere in the body — is barely understood.
27 min
155
A 150-year-old human
Two scientists. A billion-dollar wager. One unanswered question: Is the first human who will live to 150 already alive?
27 min
156
How low can you go?
Earlier this year, Nicole Yamase explored the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest place in the ocean, where few people have ever been.
25 min
157
The tornado problem
8 minutes, 24 seconds.
21 min
158
Moon poop
Astronauts left something on the moon that could help unlock the origins of life itself.
21 min
159
Hot pink flying squirrels
An accidental discovery on a nighttime walk led one scientist and his team to wonder: How many mammals glow under ultraviolet light?
27 min
160
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.
28 min
161
How do animals know where to go?
25 min
162
Invasion of the jumping worms
These worms are fast, they’re mysterious, and they’re quickly changing North American ecosystems.
23 min
163
The many heights of Mount Everest
How tall is the world’s tallest mountain?
26 min
164
Unexplainable Flying Objects
UFOs are real, but that doesn’t mean they’re aliens.
29 min
165
The hunt for a new Pluto
Something strange is going on at the outer reaches of the solar system.
30 min
166
Cloudy with a chance of chaos
It’s surprisingly hard to predict how clouds form, move, and change.
25 min
167
A new force of nature?
Last month, physicists at Fermilab in Illinois found that tiny subatomic particles called muons were wobbling strangely.
22 min
168
Placebos work. Why?
For decades, scientists thought that placebos only worked if patients didn’t know they were taking them.
23 min
169
A virus that could heal people
In 2016, the UN declared antibiotic-resistant bacteria the “greatest and most urgent global risk.” Our best hope just might be phages,
21 min
170
The Twilight Zone of the ocean
A dive into its mysterious depths
24 min
171
The viral ghosts of long Covid
Scientists don’t understand why so many people suffer from Covid-19 symptoms for months, long after they stop testing positive.
22 min
172
Is a ton of psychology just ... wrong?
Psych!
27 min
173
It’s ball lightning!
A perfect sphere of crackling light
23 min
174
Skeleton Lake
When scientists examined the DNA of ancient bones found near a Himalayan lake, they were forced to confront a seemingly impossible conclusion.
25 min
175
Journey Toward the Center of the Earth
What lies beneath our feet?
25 min