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.
176
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
177
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
178
Why we cry
Humans seem to be the only animals that cry from emotion. What makes our tears so special?
21 min
179
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
180
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
181
Redefining death
Death used to be fairly self-evident, but new technologies have forced us to ask: When is someone actually dead?
30 min
182
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
183
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
184
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
185
Let’s play Unexplainable or Not
For the first time, we get some answers.
26 min
186
The math problem that could break the internet
Today's internet is built on a series of locks and keys that protect your private information as it travels through cyberspace. But could all these locks be broken?
35 min
187
Jumping the gun
At the 2022 World Athletics Championships, sprinter TyNia Gaither was disqualified for false starting ... after the gun went off.
30 min
188
An Alzheimer's uproar
This past July, a bombshell report in Science magazine suggested that a key Alzheimer’s study might have contained manipulated evidence.
34 min
189
Salamander search party
One of the world’s most biodiverse aquifers is full of strange, blind creatures that have evolved in isolation for millions of years. But one is missing.
24 min
190
What did dinosaurs sound like?
They probably didn’t roar like lions.
36 min
191
Can ovaries make new eggs?
There's an old story scientists tell about human ovaries: that they are ticking clocks that only lose eggs, never gain them.
26 min
192
Will the eel (slim, shady) please have sex?
Where eels come from is a surprisingly difficult question to answer, in large part because scientists have never actually seen them reproduce in the wild.
44 min
193
Yawn baby yawn
People yawn when they’re bored, right?
34 min
194
What’s the James Webb telescope searching for?
A lava planet, life on other worlds, the very first starlight in the universe — the most powerful space telescope ever built is ready to reveal many mysteries of the cosmos.
46 min
195
Vitamin X
Millions of Americans take dietary supplements — everything from vitamins and minerals to weight loss pills and probiotics.
31 min
196
Lost Worlds: What killed Venus?
Venus is the hottest, scariest place in the solar system, but billions of years ago it may have been a lot like Earth, complete with an ocean of water.
25 min
197
Lost Worlds: Life on Mars?
Mars was once a very different planet, with rivers, lakes, and — potentially — life.
27 min
198
Lost Worlds: Why do we have a moon?
In all our searching of the universe, we’ve never seen another moon like ours.
24 min
199
Lost Worlds: Aliens from Earth?
Was there a technologically advanced species living on Earth long before humans?
24 min
200
Dropping like flies
Insect populations are shrinking all over the world
24 min