Science Talk
Scientific American
300 episodes
Science Talk is a podcast of longer-form audio experiments from Scientific American--from immersive sonic journeys into nature to deep dives into research with leading experts.
Episodes page 1 of 6
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Episode 5: How Do We Know Anything?
On this show, we’ve been talking about uncertainty from a variety of different angles. We’ve heard how uncertainty can be a spark for creativity and scientific discovery. We’ve discussed how uncertainty can go unseen…
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Episode 4: This Simple Strategy Might Be the Key to Advancing Science Faster
Science is an iterative process. Progress comes from people coming up with ideas that are sort of right and then new evidence and ideas coming in to update them to become even more correct. Underlying this process is…
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Episode 3: When Uncertainty Hides in the Blindspot of Overconfidence
Today’s episode of Uncertain is about the ways that studies can leave us overconfident and how “just-so stories” can make us feel overly certain about results that are still a work in progress. And sometimes studies…
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Episode 2: Think Seeing is Believing? Think Again
In this episode, we’ll talk with two researchers whose work probes the uncertainty surrounding how we perceive the world around us. It turns out that what we see may not always be a perfect reflection of reality.…
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Episode 1: Uncertainty is Science's Super Power. Make It Yours, Too
Welcome to Uncertain, a five-part podcast miniseries from Scientific American. Here we will dive head first into the possibilities of the unknowing. Over the next five episodes, I’ll be talking with people like her:…
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Coming Soon: 'Uncertain' - A New Short Series on the Thrill of Not Knowing
Does the word "uncertainty" make you nervous? Does it rule your life? Would you say it kinda describes the state of the world these days? Enter Uncertain, a new limited podcast series from Scientific American. In…
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Racism in Health: The Roots of the U.S. Black Maternal Mortality Crisis
What is behind the Black maternal mortality crisis, and what needs to change? In this podcast from Nature and Scientific American, leading academics unpack the racism at the heart of the system. Learn more about your…
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Love Computers? Love History? Listen to This Podcast
In the newest season of Lost Women of Science, we enter a world of secrecy, computers and nuclear weapons—and see how Klára Dán von Neumann was a part of all of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
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Top 10 Emerging Tech of 2021
The World Economic Forum and Scientific American team up to highlight technological advances that could change the world—including self-fertilizing crops, on-demand drug manufacturing, breath-sensing diagnostics and…
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Listen to This New Podcast: The Lost Women of Science
A new podcast is on a mission to retrieve unsung female scientists from oblivion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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An Unblinking History of the Conservation Movement
In her new book Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, science journalist Michelle Nijhuis looks into the past of the wildlife conservation field, warts and all, to try to chart its future. Learn…
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Inside the Nail-Biting Quest to Find the 'Loneliest Whale'
It is a tale of sound: the song of a solitary whale that vocalizes at a unique frequency of 52 hertz, which no other whale—as the story goes—can seemingly understand. It is also a tale about science and ocean life,…
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Listen to This: 'Hope Lies in Dreams,' a New Podcast from Nature Biotechnology
This is a story of desperation, anger, poverty—and triumph over long odds to crack the code of a degenerative disease that had been stealing the lives of children since it was first discovered more than a century ago.…
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Summer of Science Reading, Episode 4: Navigating Loss and Hope with Nature
In Science Book Talk, a new four-part podcast miniseries, host Deboki Chakravarti acts as literary guide to two science books that share a beautiful and sometimes deeply resonant entanglement. In this week’s show:…
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Summer of Science Reading, Episode 3: Abandoned and Underground but Not Lost
In Science Book Talk, a new four-part podcast miniseries, host Deboki Chakravarti acts as literary guide to two science books that share a beautiful and sometimes deeply resonant entanglement. In this week’s show:…
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Summer of Science Reading, Episode 2: Life beneath Our Feet
In Science Book Talk, a new four-part podcast miniseries, host Deboki Chakravarti acts as literary guide to two science books that share a beautiful and sometimes deeply resonant entanglement. In this week’s show:…
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Summer of Science Reading, Episode 1: The Many Mysteries of Fish
In Science Book Talk, a new four-part podcast miniseries, host Deboki Chakravarti acts as literary guide to two science books that share a beautiful and sometimes deeply resonant entanglement. In this week’s show: Why…
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National Park Nature Walks, Episode 10: The Otherworldly Sounds of an Elk Rut
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, brings you inches away from a multitude of creatures,…
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National Park Nature Walks, Episode 9: Inside a Migratory Bird Sanctuary
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, brings you inches away from a multitude of creatures,…
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National Park Nature Walks, Episode 8: The Blue Oaks of Sequoia
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, brings you inches away from a multitude of creatures,…
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National Park Nature Walks, Episode 7: Into the Wilderness by Canoe
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, brings you inches away from a multitude of creatures,…
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National Park Nature Walks, Episode 6: Yellowstone Bison and Marsh Birds
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, brings you inches away from a multitude of creatures,…
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The Deepest Dive to Find the Secrets of the Whales
On Earth Day, Scientific American sits down with National Geographic underwater photographer Brian Skerry to talk about free diving with whales and filming the giant mammals within five meters or less. “We have to get…
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National Park Nature Walks, Episode 5: A Northwoods Voyage
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, brings you inches away from a multitude of creatures,…
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First in Space: New Yuri Gagarin Biography Shares Hidden Side of Cosmonaut
It’s been 60 years, to the day, since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel to space in a tiny capsule attached to an R-7 ballistic missile, a powerful rocket originally designed to carry a three-…
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National Park Nature Walks, Episode 4: Beautiful Swamp
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, brings you inches away from a multitude of creatures,…
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National Park Nature Walks, Episode 3: Where Lewis and Clark Trod
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, brings you inches away from a multitude of creatures,…
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National Park Nature Walks, Episode 2: Sequoia Heights
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, brings you inches away from a multitude of creatures,…
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National Park Nature Walks, Episode 1: Rocky Mountains
Today we launch a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, brings you inches away from a multitude of creatures, great and small,…
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AI Can Now Debate with Humans and Sometimes Convince Them, Too
Today on the Science Talk podcast, Noam Slonim of IBM Research speaks to Scientific American about an impressive feat of computer engineering: an AI-powered autonomous system that can engage in complex debate with…
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Climate Change Could Shred Guitars Known for Shredding
It is the wood that the rock greats have sworn by—swamp ash, in the form of their Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars—for more than 70 years. If you have ever listened to rock, you have probably heard a…
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On Finding Yourself in a Butterfly's Wings
Today on the Science Talk podcast, Alexis Gambis, a New York University biologist and independent filmmaker, speaks about making Son of Monarchs, which won the 2021 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Sundance…
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A Breakdown of Beavers
Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb talks about his book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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America on Dialysis
Kidney disease affects millions of Americans, but corporate capture of dialysis, along with disparities in treatment and transplant access, mean that not everyone's journey is the same. On this Science Talk podcast,…
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What Science Has Learned about the Coronavirus One Year On
About a year ago, SARS-CoV-2 (which wasn’t called that yet) was just beginning to emerge in a cluster of cases inside China. We know what has happened since then, but it bears repeating: there have been 69 million…
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2020's Top 10 Tech Innovations
Scientific American and the World Economic Forum sifted through more than 75 nominations for the most innovative and potentially game-changing technologies in 2020. The final top 10 span the fields of medicine,…
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Inventing Us: How Inventions Shaped Humanity
Materials scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez talks about her latest book The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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175 Years of Scientific American: The Good, the Bad and the Debunking
We look back at some highlights, midlights and lowlights of the history of Scientific American, featuring former editor in chief John Rennie. Astrophysicist Alan Guth also appears in a sponsored segment. Learn more…
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Bread Science: A Yeasty Conversation
“Baking is applied microbiology,” according to the book Modernist Bread. During pandemic lockdowns, many people started baking their own bread. Scientific American contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs talks about…
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The Coming or Possibly Nearly Here Storm
Former Scientific American editor Mark Alpert talks about his latest sci-fi thriller The Coming Storm, which warns about the consequences of unethical scientific research and of ignoring the scientific findings you…
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COVID-19 Vaccine Ethics: Who Gets It First and Other Issues
Contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs spoke with Arthur Caplan, head of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s division of medical ethics, about some of the ethical issues that researchers have to consider in testing and…
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How Your Homes and Buildings Affect You
Journalist and author Emily Anthes talks about her book The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
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African-Americans, Nature and Environmental Justice
Journalist Bob Hirshon reports from the Taking Nature Black conference, reporter Shahla Farzan talks about tracking copperhead snakes, and nanoscientist Ondrej Krivanek discusses microscopes with subangstrom…
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How Nature Helps Body and Soul
Journalist and author Florence Williams talks about her book The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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The Messenger Is the Message
Behavioral scientist Stephen Martin and psychologist Joseph Marks talk about their book Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don’t, and Why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Air, Sea and Space: Ocean Health, Atmosphere Insights and Black Holes
Biological oceanography expert Miriam Goldstein talks about issues facing the oceans. Reporter Adam Levy discusses air pollution info available because of the pandemic. And astrophysicist Andrew Fabian chats about…
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Science on the Hill: Calculating Climate
For the fourth Science on the Hill event, Future Climate: What We Know, What We Don’t, experts talked with Scientific American senior editor Mark Fischetti about what goes into modeling our climate—and how such models…
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Your Brain, Free Will and the Law
Stanford University neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky talks about human behavior, the penal system and the question of free will. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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No, No Nobel: How to Lose the Prize
Physicist Brian Keating talks about his book Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Galileo's Fight against Science Denial
Astrophysicist and author Mario Livio talks about his latest book, Galileo: And the Science Deniers, and how the legendary scientist’s battles are still relevant today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
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Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.