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.
1
Pinky and the (lab-grown) Brain
It’s not great to be a lab rat.
18 min
2
Why are there lefties and righties?
This week on Unexplainable or Not, we’ve got three scientific mysteries all about left and right.
25 min
3
Placebos work. Why?
For decades, scientists thought that placebos only worked if patients didn’t know they were taking them.
23 min
4
Why is horror so fun?
It makes sense that we run away from scary things.
17 min
5
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
6
Your gut’s feelings
How we feel emotionally may be influenced by unseen troves of microbial life that live inside us.
25 min
7
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
8
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
9
How hot could the world get?
Scientists have lots of ways to try to answer that question, and lots of different predictions.
21 min
10
Should you be eating poison oak?
Probably not.
26 min
11
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
12
You're lost in the wilderness. Now what?
For decades, search and rescue teams followed an accepted playbook.
19 min
13
Viral dark matter
With antibiotic resistance on the rise, some scientists are starting to turn to viruses as a medical tool.
21 min
14
The good virus
Our bodies are teeming with viruses.
17 min
15
Ecstasy therapy
The FDA is about to announce whether it’s going to approve MDMA as a treatment for PTSD.
27 min
16
What did dinosaurs sound like?
They probably didn’t roar like lions.
36 min
17
Do we live inside an enormous black hole?
It’s possible that the entire observable universe is inside a black hole.
22 min
18
Is good posture actually good?
Send this episode to the person who constantly hounds you not to slouch.
18 min
19
Why do we yawn?
People yawn when they’re bored, right?
34 min
20
Embracing economic chaos
Can a physicist predict our messy economy by building an enormous simulation of the entire world?
24 min
21
We still don’t really know how inflation works
Inflation is one of the most significant issues shaping the 2024 election.
28 min
22
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
23
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
24
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
25
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