Short Wave

Wed, 30 Apr 2025

In its first 100 days, the Trump administration — specifically, the Department of Government Effic...

Tue, 29 Apr 2025

A good night's sleep makes a big difference to our mental and physical health. Without quality sleep...

Mon, 28 Apr 2025

From starfish and sea slugs to jellyfish and sponges, the ocean's invertebrates are some of the most...

Fri, 25 Apr 2025

Some scientists are convinced that beyond Neptune, there's a planet they've yet to see. This so-call...

Wed, 23 Apr 2025

A fish walks into a pharmacy ... well, not exactly. Fish aren't being prescribed anti-anxiety drugs....

Tue, 22 Apr 2025

Welcome!! This is the first episode of Nature Quest, a monthly Short Wave segment that answers liste...

Mon, 21 Apr 2025

As global warming continues and space technology improves, there is more and more talk about the gro...

Fri, 18 Apr 2025

The male European fiddler crab attracts his mate by performing a courtship dance. New research publi...

Wed, 16 Apr 2025

A recent series of studies suggests that the brains of birds, reptiles and mammals all evolved indep...

Tue, 15 Apr 2025

Plants are blooming right now – and so are people's allergies. And if it feels like those pesky sy...

Mon, 14 Apr 2025

Did you know there's an insect that can fling its pee 40 times faster than a cheetah accelerates? We...

Fri, 11 Apr 2025

Dune. Star Wars. Alien. Science fiction movies love alien worlds, and so do we. But how do scientist...

Wed, 09 Apr 2025

This week, we've heard from researchers trying to untangle the effects of the "trip" that often come...

Tue, 08 Apr 2025

What if you could get all the potential benefits of ketamine without the "trip"? For part two of our...

Mon, 07 Apr 2025

Researchers are studying psychedelics as a possible treatment for conditions like depression, PTSD a...

Fri, 04 Apr 2025

Running an entire marathon takes a lot of energy. Neuroscientist Carlos Matute knows this: he's run ...

Wed, 02 Apr 2025

Each year, the United States has about 1,200 tornadoes. Many of them happen in tornado alley, a very...

Tue, 01 Apr 2025

Most iguanas are indigenous to the Americas. So how did the Fijian species end up on the island, nea...

Mon, 31 Mar 2025

It seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere in our virtual lives. It's in our search results...

Fri, 28 Mar 2025

What are the narwhals up to? Generally, we don't really know! They are mysterious creatures. NPR sci...

Wed, 26 Mar 2025

Microalgae are tiny organisms that convert energy from sunlight into fuel. The arctic ecosystem depe...

Tue, 25 Mar 2025

Baseball season is nigh! From Yankee stadium in New York to Dodger stadium in Los Angeles, teams aro...

Mon, 24 Mar 2025

Early in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists predicted the SARS-CoV-2 virus would mut...

Fri, 21 Mar 2025

Ever diagnosed yourself with a mental health disorder based on a TikTok video? If so, you're not alo...

Wed, 19 Mar 2025

Ever scan the ingredient list of your favorite personal care products like shampoos or lotions and t...

Tue, 18 Mar 2025

Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases known to science – more contagious than ...

Mon, 17 Mar 2025

What if we had the ultimate work-life balance? This fundamental question underlies the hit Apple TV+...

Fri, 14 Mar 2025

Move over, TikTokers. It's time to shine a spotlight on some of the earliest influencers around: din...

Wed, 12 Mar 2025

Biological sex is all over the news lately. Whether it's via President Trump's executive order affec...

Tue, 11 Mar 2025

In its first 50 days, the Trump administration made sweeping changes to scientific arms of the gover...

Mon, 10 Mar 2025

Tourists to Antarctica are fueling research on some of the tiniest, most influential organisms on Ea...

Fri, 07 Mar 2025

Archeologists know early humans used stone to make tools long before the time of Homo sapiens. But a...

Wed, 05 Mar 2025

On their second job ever, Collette Yee and her partner were assigned a difficult job: locate transie...

Tue, 04 Mar 2025

You've heard of the woolly mammoth. But have you heard of woolly mice? These critters were genetical...

Mon, 03 Mar 2025

There are now two fully approved drugs on the market that can, sometimes, slow down the progression ...

Fri, 28 Feb 2025

Batteries are everywhere. They're in our phones, our remote controls, smart-watches, electric cars a...

Wed, 26 Feb 2025

In 1967 Jocelyn Bell Burnell made a discovery that revolutionized the field of astronomy. She detect...

Tue, 25 Feb 2025

A year and a half ago, neuroscientist Kamilla Souza got the call she'd been waiting for: A baby hump...

Mon, 24 Feb 2025

Picture a relaxing scene. Maybe a beach in Tahiti, your toes in the sand, a cold drink in hand. Now ...

Fri, 21 Feb 2025

Ever eat a full meal ... and find you still have room for dessert? If so, you're not alone. Sugar is...

Wed, 19 Feb 2025

What happens when a team of scientists and local Awajún guides go on a 38-day trip into the Alto Ma...

Tue, 18 Feb 2025

Asked ChatGPT anything lately? Talked with a customer service chatbot? Read the results of Google's ...

Mon, 17 Feb 2025

Physics has a bit of a messy problem: There's matter missing in our universe. Something is there tha...

Fri, 14 Feb 2025

For years, scientists have known that oxytocin is important in facilitating the feeling of love in h...

Wed, 12 Feb 2025

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is one of the deadliest tickborne diseases in the United States, often ...

Tue, 11 Feb 2025

The U.S. tested nuclear weapons until the early 1990s. Since then, scientists have been using superc...

Mon, 10 Feb 2025

For people with two hands, one is usually dominant. On a molecular level, life takes this to the ext...

Fri, 07 Feb 2025

What do large crowds of people and water have in common? They both act like fluids. When crowds chee...

Wed, 05 Feb 2025

For a long time, microbes like the ones in Yellowstone's hot springs were studied in isolation. Mole...

Tue, 04 Feb 2025

Black holes are notorious for gobbling up, well, everything. They're icons of destruction, ruthless ...

Mon, 03 Feb 2025

Ecologist Gergana Daskalova moved back to the small Bulgarian town of her childhood. It's a place m...

Fri, 31 Jan 2025

In a world brimming with innovation and limited time, it can be hard to tell what technology has the...

Wed, 29 Jan 2025

Farts are funny and sometimes smelly. But are they a legitimate topic of research? More than 40% of ...

Tue, 28 Jan 2025

Bird flu, or avian influenza, is spreading among livestock and other mammals in the United States, r...

Mon, 27 Jan 2025

Put on your headphones. In today's episode, host Emily Kwong leads us on a night hike in Patuxent Ri...

Fri, 24 Jan 2025

At least, it's contagious among a group of captive chimpanzees at the Kumamoto Sanctuary. How do res...

Wed, 22 Jan 2025

Around the turn of the century, 3.8 million people banded together in a real-time search for aliens ...

Tue, 21 Jan 2025

Forests are the lungs of our planet. Not only do they absorb carbon dioxide and create oxygen, they ...

Mon, 20 Jan 2025

On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration announced it is banning the dye called Red No. 3, a f...

Fri, 17 Jan 2025

Imagine the tree of life. The tip of every branch represents one species, and if you follow any two ...

Wed, 15 Jan 2025

When you picture a dinosaur, what does it look like? For Jingmai O'Connor, paleobiologist and associ...

Tue, 14 Jan 2025

The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine generates enough of an antibody response to protect against severe disease...

Tue, 14 Jan 2025

Air quality in the Los Angeles region has plummeted due to smoke from the ongoing wildfires. With al...

Fri, 10 Jan 2025

Over 29,000 acres in the greater Los Angeles area are on fire right now. The fires emerged after the...

Wed, 08 Jan 2025

Fluoridating the public water supply has been common practice for nearly 80 years in the U.S. It's a...

Tue, 07 Jan 2025

Some weapons used by the U.S. military are so powerful they can pose a threat to the people who fire...

Mon, 06 Jan 2025

There are hundreds of atomic clocks in orbit right now, perched on satellites all over Earth. We dep...

Sat, 04 Jan 2025

Funeral services begin today for former President Jimmy Carter. He died Sunday, at 100-years-old. ...

Fri, 03 Jan 2025

(encore) Snowflakes. These intricate, whimsical crystals are a staple of magical wintry scenes, but ...

Wed, 01 Jan 2025

Happy New Year, Short Wavers! What better time to contemplate the conundrum that is zero than this, ...

Tue, 31 Dec 2024

2024 was full of science news. There was a total solar eclipse, the Paris Olympics, elections in the...

Mon, 30 Dec 2024

The thick-billed parrot is the only surviving parrot species native to the United States. These brig...

Fri, 27 Dec 2024

In pop culture, squirrels are often seen as jerky, excited critters on the hunt for nuts to stuff th...

Wed, 25 Dec 2024

In the early 20th century, a blight fungus wiped out most of the 4 billion American chestnut trees o...

Tue, 24 Dec 2024

On Christmas Eve, scientists at field stations across Antarctica sing carols to one another...via sh...

Mon, 23 Dec 2024

There are many statistics out there that prove that flying on a commercial airplane is safe, that pl...

Fri, 20 Dec 2024

Towana Looney became the first living person in the world to get a kidney from a new kind of genetic...

Wed, 18 Dec 2024

Old mines leave behind a a pressing problem: Huge holes that make the landscape look like a chunk of...

Tue, 17 Dec 2024

AI uses a lot of power. Some of the next generation data centers may use as much power as one millio...

Mon, 16 Dec 2024

Racism is often covered as a political, cultural, or news story. But how is it affecting people's he...

Sat, 14 Dec 2024

The federal government has been tracking the weather for more than 150 years. Yet over the last few ...

Fri, 13 Dec 2024

In the 1950s, scientists exposed a tin of meat to a dose of radiation that they expected would kill ...

Wed, 11 Dec 2024

Thor. Loki. Heimdall. They're not just Norse gods or Marvel characters. They're also the names of va...

Tue, 10 Dec 2024

If you crossed WALL-E with a floor lamp, it might look a little like the PhytoPatholoBot. These robo...

Mon, 09 Dec 2024

The next four years may be challenging for foreign-born scientists who want to work in the United St...

Fri, 06 Dec 2024

Centuries ago, Southwest tribal nations tended vast orchards of peach trees. But in 1863, thousands ...

Wed, 04 Dec 2024

The Vertebrate Genomes Project: It's an ambitious effort by an international group of scientists to ...

Tue, 03 Dec 2024

In neuroscientist Kelly Lambert's lab at the University of Richmond, rats hop into cars, rev their e...

Mon, 02 Dec 2024

This Cyber Monday, a meditation on holiday sales. A quick trip to pick up presents can turn into an ...

Fri, 29 Nov 2024

Beaked hazelnuts are a wild food native to North America. Indigenous peoples in British Columbia ha...

Wed, 27 Nov 2024

This year's United Nations climate talks, COP29, wrapped Saturday. Throughout the talks, it was all ...

Tue, 26 Nov 2024

By the end of the century, more than 40% of the world's estimated 7,000 languages are in danger of d...

Mon, 25 Nov 2024

Monarch butterfly populations have plummeted due to habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change. ...

Fri, 22 Nov 2024

SpaceX's Starship rocket took off again Tuesday for its sixth test flight. Crowds, including Preside...

Wed, 20 Nov 2024

For decades, Coho salmon were turning up dead in urban streams the Pacific Northwest. The salmon wou...

Tue, 19 Nov 2024

Many people are gearing up for holiday conversations with loved ones who may disagree with them — ...

Mon, 18 Nov 2024

Getting enough sleep regularly can be tough — and even harder when you're traveling for the holida...

Fri, 15 Nov 2024

This critter lurks in the ocean's midnight zone, has a voluminous hood, is completely see through an...

Wed, 13 Nov 2024

As global warming continues and space technology improves, there is more and more talk about the gro...

Tue, 12 Nov 2024

One in four U.S. households experiences a power outage each year. Scientists at Oak Ridge National L...

Mon, 11 Nov 2024

In this episode, you're invited to the fermentation party! Join us as we learn about the funk-filled...

Fri, 08 Nov 2024

A pivotal week in Corey Gray's life began with a powwow in Alberta and culminated with a piece of hi...

Wed, 06 Nov 2024

In North-Central New Jersey, there is a backyard teeming with around 200 turtles. Many of these she...

Tue, 05 Nov 2024

It's Election Day in the United States. Across the nation, millions of ballots are being cast. But w...

Mon, 04 Nov 2024

How did life start on Earth? The answer is a big scientific mystery scientists are actively investig...

Fri, 01 Nov 2024

For years, we've been asking, "Which came first: the chicken or the egg?" Maybe what we should have ...

Wed, 30 Oct 2024

NOTE: This episode contains multiple high-pitched noises (human and other animals) that some listene...

Tue, 29 Oct 2024

Humans have seen a significant increase in life expectancy over the past 200 years — but not in ov...

Mon, 28 Oct 2024

What's your favorite apple? Maybe it's the crowd-pleasing Honeycrisp, the tart Granny Smith or the i...

Fri, 25 Oct 2024

More than a million species are at risk of extinction, many within decades, because of human actions...

Wed, 23 Oct 2024

For the past 70 years, schizophrenia treatments all targeted the same chemical: dopamine. While that...

Tue, 22 Oct 2024

Every American red wolf alive right now is descended from only 14 canids. In the 1970s, humans drove...

Mon, 21 Oct 2024

Calling all foragers! The new board game Undergrove, co-designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and Mark Woot...

Fri, 18 Oct 2024

In the humid rainforests of northern and eastern Madagascar reside seven newly described frog specie...

Wed, 16 Oct 2024

NASA's Europa Clipper mission launched Monday, beginning its years-long journey to the distant icy m...

Tue, 15 Oct 2024

In honor of our show turning 5 (!!) today... 5 Short Wave staffersanswer 5(x2) questionsfrom some of...

Mon, 14 Oct 2024

Host Regina G. Barber talks with Rosalyn LaPier about ethnobotany--what it is and how traditional pl...

Fri, 11 Oct 2024

Even though there are more than 10,000 rock glaciers in the western United States, most people would...

Wed, 09 Oct 2024

In human history, fear kept us safe when running from predators and anxiety kept us from going back ...

Tue, 08 Oct 2024

For over a century, we've been inventing technology to catch liars in the act. To this end, the poly...

Mon, 07 Oct 2024

Fruit fly brains are smaller than a poppy seed, but that doesn't mean they aren't complex. For the f...

Fri, 04 Oct 2024

Lightning: It happens all the time, and yet the exact details of how it's made has long eluded scien...

Wed, 02 Oct 2024

Years ago, astronomy professors started noticing something that troubled them: Many of their student...

Tue, 01 Oct 2024

Over six million fungal species are believed to inhabit planet Earth. Outsmarting them is the work o...

Mon, 30 Sep 2024

Most viruses that become epidemics in humans begin in other animals. It's how scientists suspect COV...

Fri, 27 Sep 2024

Governors across the southeastern United States have declared statewide states of emergency as Hurri...

Wed, 25 Sep 2024

Around 2% of the global population struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. That's roug...

Tue, 24 Sep 2024

At the beginning of the universe, annihilation reigned supreme. Equal amounts of matter and antimatt...

Mon, 23 Sep 2024

Electric vehicle batteries will all, eventually, reach the end of their lives. When that happens, th...

Sat, 21 Sep 2024

Hey, Short Wavers! Today we're sharing an excerpt of the new NPR podcast How To Do Everything. How T...

Fri, 20 Sep 2024

What's scaly, striped and breathes underwater like a scuba diver? Water anoles! These lizards can fo...

Wed, 18 Sep 2024

Evolution keeps making crabs. In fact, it's happened so often that there's a special scientific term...

Tue, 17 Sep 2024

Patrick Anderson is widely recognized as the greatest wheelchair basketball player of all time. He's...

Mon, 16 Sep 2024

Hurricane season is heating up: Hurricane Francine hit Louisiana last week and dumped rain across th...

Fri, 13 Sep 2024

We close out Climate Solutions Week with a look at the final step in the food system: waste. Roughly...

Wed, 11 Sep 2024

Climate change is contributing to erratic weather where cocoa beans are grown and threatening the gl...

Tue, 10 Sep 2024

Since the height of the pandemic, there has been a boom in the use of food delivery services. Day 2 ...

Mon, 09 Sep 2024

In California's Napa Valley, the nation's unofficial wine capital, one varietal reigns supreme: cabe...

Sat, 07 Sep 2024

Hey, Short Wavers! Today, we have a special present for all of you: An episode from our good friends...

Fri, 06 Sep 2024

Last year, a dog named Bunny went viral on TikTok for pressing buttons with words on them to "commun...

Wed, 04 Sep 2024

Short Wave producer Hannah Chinn has adult-onset eczema. They're not the only one. Up to ten percent...

Tue, 03 Sep 2024

Humans hallucinate. Algorithms lie. At least, that's one difference that Joy Buolamwini and Kyle Cha...

Mon, 02 Sep 2024

Just in time for the return of the school year, we're going "Back To School" by revisiting a classic...

Fri, 30 Aug 2024

From Indonesia to Wisconsin, farmers all over the world struggle with a huge problem: pests. On top ...

Wed, 28 Aug 2024

At first glance, the whole narrative of aquatic invasive species may seem straightforward: A bad non...

Tue, 27 Aug 2024

Human beings are hardwired for social connection – so much so that we think of even the most basic...

Mon, 26 Aug 2024

New York: The city that never sleeps, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of and more recently...

Fri, 23 Aug 2024

Have you ever scrolled through a TikTok without finishing it? Switched between YouTube videos halfwa...

Wed, 21 Aug 2024

U.S. health officials now say COVID-19 is an endemic disease. That means it's here to stay – circu...

Tue, 20 Aug 2024

All summer long, we've been on a 10-episode odyssey through the changing universe (check out the ser...

Mon, 19 Aug 2024

For blind and low vision adults, the ability to read braille can be life-changing. Braille literacy ...

Fri, 16 Aug 2024

Some weapons used by the United States military are so powerful, they can pose a threat to the peopl...

Wed, 14 Aug 2024

Over the next week, forecasts project extreme heat across much of the South, Midwest and parts of th...

Tue, 13 Aug 2024

Today, we're bringing you the final installment of our space summer series ... with the end ... of E...

Mon, 12 Aug 2024

Grizzly bears in the contiguous United States have been taken off — then put back on — the endan...

Sat, 10 Aug 2024

We at Short Wave have been following all things Olympics, from the medals and new records to the ugl...

Fri, 09 Aug 2024

How do you study unmapped areas of the ocean and identify critical habitat for an endangered species...

Wed, 07 Aug 2024

In the last week, we've seen swimmers diving headfirst into the 2024 Paris Olympics pool, limbs grac...

Tue, 06 Aug 2024

The Big Bang: The moment when our universe — everything in existence — began....Right? Turns out...

Mon, 05 Aug 2024

Rates of depression and anxiety have risen among teens over the last decade. Amid this ongoing menta...

Fri, 02 Aug 2024

Another Olympics, another set of stellar performances by the U.S. women's artistic gymnastics team. ...

Wed, 31 Jul 2024

The Rubik's Cube was created 50 years ago by Hungarian inventor Ernő Rubik. Since then, over 500 mi...

Tue, 30 Jul 2024

Black holes are one of the most mysterious cosmological phenomena out there. Astrophysicist Priya Na...

Mon, 29 Jul 2024

Generally, we at Short Wave are open-minded to the creepies and the crawlies, but even we must admit...

Fri, 26 Jul 2024

Chimpanzees are humans' closest living relatives. But does much of their communication resembles our...

Wed, 24 Jul 2024

As a kid, Sabrina Imbler loved the ocean. They'd swim and snorkel, following around parrotfish in th...

Tue, 23 Jul 2024

Lower gravity. Higher radiation. No ER access. These are just a few of the challenges that humans fa...

Mon, 22 Jul 2024

Scientists have long studied the relationship between sleep and the brain, and why poor sleep is lin...

Fri, 19 Jul 2024

More than a hundred years ago, a British engineer proposed linking two rivers in India to better irr...

Wed, 17 Jul 2024

Every year for two weeks between mid-May and mid-June, Congaree National Park in South Carolina is h...

Tue, 16 Jul 2024

The universe — everything in existence — is expanding every second! It's only been about a hundr...

Mon, 15 Jul 2024

The Human Genome Project was a massive undertaking that took more than a decade and billions of doll...

Fri, 12 Jul 2024

TikTok is fuel for many trends, including a skin care craze among teens, pre-teens — okay, and us....

Wed, 10 Jul 2024

Some ants herd aphids. Some farm fungi. And now, scientists have realized that when an ant injures i...

Tue, 09 Jul 2024

The universe is so much bigger than what people can see. Visible matter — the ground, the Sun, the...

Mon, 08 Jul 2024

It's that time of the year again: Shark Week. The TV program is so long-running that if you're under...

Fri, 05 Jul 2024

When's the last time you were in a place that was quiet — really quiet? No roadway noise, construc...

Wed, 03 Jul 2024

Black Americans have been underrepresented in most genomic studies of neurological disorders. As a r...

Tue, 02 Jul 2024

Before the '3 Body Problem' became a bestselling book and a smash TV show ... it was a physics conce...

Mon, 01 Jul 2024

Perfecting your grilling technique ahead of the Fourth of July? Chefs will tell you that cooking is ...

Fri, 28 Jun 2024

A brand new species of ceratops, or horned dinosaur, was recently discovered in northern Montana. Th...

Wed, 26 Jun 2024

Humans are hardwired to see faces — even in inanimate objects. We have a lima bean-shaped part of ...

Tue, 25 Jun 2024

This summer, scientists have their eyes and telescopes trained on the small constellation system T C...

Mon, 24 Jun 2024

About ten years ago, science writer Ferris Jabr started contemplating Earth as a living planet rathe...

Fri, 21 Jun 2024

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a record number of hurricanes this...

Wed, 19 Jun 2024

Pixar's new movie, Inside Out 2 came out Friday. It's the sequel to the 2015 movie Inside Out, which...

Tue, 18 Jun 2024

Pluto hasn't been a planet for almost 20 years. In the early 2000s, scientists discovered several ob...

Mon, 17 Jun 2024

To a lot of people, mosquito bites are annoying. But to the rare Hawaiian honeycreepers, they're dea...

Sat, 15 Jun 2024

Hey, Short Wavers! Today, we're sharing a portion of Inheriting, an 8-part limited series hosted by ...

Fri, 14 Jun 2024

Joro spiders are spreading across the east coast. They are an invasive species that most likely arri...

Wed, 12 Jun 2024

Right now, there's a "heat dome" lingering over the southwestern U.S. – a high pressure system tha...

Tue, 11 Jun 2024

It feels like this is the summer of space launches. So, it's only appropriate that we kick off our n...

Mon, 10 Jun 2024

Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest and most profitable crime sectors in the world. The illeg...

Fri, 07 Jun 2024

Kyne Santos was a student at the University of Waterloo when she began her math and her drag careers...

Wed, 05 Jun 2024

June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy and took the Nazis by surprise in the...

Mon, 03 Jun 2024

People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may soon have a new treatment option: MDMA, the ch...

Fri, 31 May 2024

A silky shark named Genie traveled from the Galapagos Islands out to the open ocean and back – ove...

Wed, 29 May 2024

Humans rely on our symbiotic relationship with good microbes—in the gut, the skin and ... the vagi...

Mon, 27 May 2024

Each year 84,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with melanoma. About 90% of these skin cancers are...

Fri, 24 May 2024

After the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 triggered Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousand...

Wed, 22 May 2024

Fibroids are benign uterine tumors. So why does it matter that the majority of people with a uterus ...

Mon, 20 May 2024

Scientists are testing the limits of artificial intelligence when it comes to language learning. One...

Fri, 17 May 2024

Baobabs are sometimes called the "tree of life" with their thick trunks, crown of branches and flowe...

Wed, 15 May 2024

Chocolate may never be the same. The majority of chocolate is made in just two countries and erratic...

Mon, 13 May 2024

As artificial intelligence seeps into some realms of society, it rushes into others. One area it's m...

Fri, 10 May 2024

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed a cluster of sunspots on ...

Fri, 10 May 2024

Sam and John Fetters, 19, are identical twins on different ends of the autism spectrum. Sam is a sop...

Wed, 08 May 2024

Emily gets super nerdy with former host Maddie Sofia get as they dive into the incredible world of n...

Mon, 06 May 2024

It's not unusual for siblings to quibble over ownership of something — a cherished toy, a coveted ...

Fri, 03 May 2024

Wildlife ecologists have seen white-tailed deer expanding their range in North America over many dec...

Wed, 01 May 2024

No matter what you're doing right now – sitting, standing, walking – you're moving. First, becau...

Mon, 29 Apr 2024

Today, we're going full nerd to talk about a new board game — Catan: New Energies. The game's goal...

Fri, 26 Apr 2024

Ten years ago, Flint, Mich. switched water sources to the Flint River. The lack of corrosion control...

Wed, 24 Apr 2024

NPR's Tom Dreisbach is back in the host chair for a day. This time, he reports on a story very close...

Mon, 22 Apr 2024

Roughly 196 million tons of fish were harvested in 2020, according to the Food and Agriculture Organ...

Fri, 19 Apr 2024

When the dinosaurs walked the Earth, massive marine reptiles swam. Among them, a species of Ichthyos...

Wed, 17 Apr 2024

500 million years ago, the world was a very different place. During this period of time, known as th...

Mon, 15 Apr 2024

We've all been there: You sit down for one episode of a reality TV show, and six hours later you're ...

Fri, 12 Apr 2024

Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency announced new drinking water standards to limit people...

Wed, 10 Apr 2024

It's National Siblings Day! To mark the occasion, guest host Selena Simmons-Duffin is exploring a de...

Sun, 07 Apr 2024

It's baseball season! And when we here at Short Wave think of baseball, we naturally think of physic...

Fri, 05 Apr 2024

Tiny, black-capped chickadees have big memories. They stash food in hundreds to thousands of locatio...

Wed, 03 Apr 2024

On April 8, the moon will slip in front of the sun, blocking its light and creating an eerie twiligh...

Mon, 01 Apr 2024

For Guyana the potential wealth from oil development was irresistible — even as the country faces ...

Fri, 29 Mar 2024

Historic numbers of animals across the globe have become endangered or pushed to extinction. But som...

Wed, 27 Mar 2024

According to the CDC, about one in four adults has a fear of needles. Many of those people say the p...

Mon, 25 Mar 2024

Few humans have had the opportunity to see Earth from space, much less live in space. We got to talk...

Fri, 22 Mar 2024

Across the animal kingdom, menopause is something of an evolutionary blip. We humans are one of the ...

Wed, 20 Mar 2024

The number of newborns born with syphilis – a serious sexually transmitted infection – has skyro...

Mon, 18 Mar 2024

When Shohini Ghose was studying physics as a kid, she heard certain names repeated over and over. "E...

Fri, 15 Mar 2024

Nuclear fusion could one day change the world by producing energy at lower costs than we generate it...

Wed, 13 Mar 2024

"Long COVID has affected every part of my life," said Virginia resident Rachel Beale said at a recen...

Mon, 11 Mar 2024

Coming down from the buzz of the Oscars, we're taking a look at Christopher Nolan's award-winning fi...

Fri, 08 Mar 2024

Neuroscientist Nathan Sawtell has spent a lot of time studying the electric elephantnose fish. These...

Wed, 06 Mar 2024

The Voyager 1 space probe is the farthest human-made object in space. It launched in 1977 with a gol...

Mon, 04 Mar 2024

Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a first-of-its-kind cancer therapy to treat a...

Fri, 01 Mar 2024

The sci-fi film Dune: Part Two is out in theaters now. The movie takes place on the harsh desert pla...

Wed, 28 Feb 2024

According to the United Nations, about ten percent of the world is undernourished. It's a daunting s...

Mon, 26 Feb 2024

An Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos can be considered "extrauterine children" under ...

Fri, 23 Feb 2024

In the green tree canopies of forested areas in Myanmar, you might wake up to the sounds of gibbons ...

Wed, 21 Feb 2024

We are at the height of the Sun's activity in its eleven year cycle, known to astronomers as the sol...

Mon, 19 Feb 2024

Lately, paleoecologist Audrey Rowe has been a bit preoccupied with a girl named Elma. That's because...

Fri, 16 Feb 2024

Every year, billions of animals across the globe embark on journeys. They fly, crawl, walk or slithe...

Wed, 14 Feb 2024

In a Valentine's Day exclusive report, NPR has learned there is currently a gay anteater couple at S...

Mon, 12 Feb 2024

Happy Lunar New Year! According to the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the new year began Saturday. For ...

Fri, 09 Feb 2024

At least, that's what a group of researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Grad...

Wed, 07 Feb 2024

If you've ever watched part of a professional football game, you've probably seen a tight spiral pas...

Mon, 05 Feb 2024

In 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, releasing radioactive material into northern Ukr...

Fri, 02 Feb 2024

Back in the day, many of us heard that the appendix is a vestigial organ — at best, a body part th...

Wed, 31 Jan 2024

An all-out "naked mole rat war" has broken out at Smithsonian's National Zoo, after the queen of the...

Mon, 29 Jan 2024

Every year, lightning is estimated to cause up to 24,000 deaths globally. It starts forest fires, bu...

Sat, 27 Jan 2024

When the U.S. government and state of Florida unveiled a new plan to save the Everglades in 2000, th...

Fri, 26 Jan 2024

At the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a wildlife preserve in central Kenya, lions and cheetahs mingle with z...

Wed, 24 Jan 2024

Scientists know that Black people are at a greater risk for health problems like heart disease, diab...

Mon, 22 Jan 2024

Honeyguides are wild birds that team up with humans and then lead them to honey. Researchers recentl...

Fri, 19 Jan 2024

At least one in four women — and a much smaller proportion of men — experiences intimate partner...

Wed, 17 Jan 2024

Winter is upon us – and with the holiday travel and time spent indoors comes a triple threat of re...

Mon, 15 Jan 2024

Time is a concept so central to our daily lives. Yet, the closer scientists look at it, the more it ...

Sat, 13 Jan 2024

If you work at home or in an office, you might spend a lot of your day sitting down and staring at a...

Fri, 12 Jan 2024

Since they were discovered in 2019, strange, glowing circles of light in space have mystified resear...

Wed, 10 Jan 2024

Human beings are hardwired for social connection – so much so that we think of even the most basic...

Mon, 08 Jan 2024

A winter storm brought heavy rain and snow to parts of the East Coast this weekend, which got us thi...

Fri, 05 Jan 2024

The winter is usually when insects die or go into a state of paused development, but for tiny specks...

Wed, 03 Jan 2024

In celebration of our 1000th episode, we're wrapping our heads around big numbers. Educational neuro...

Mon, 01 Jan 2024

Ever gotten a scarlet, hot face after drinking? Or know someone who has? Many people felt it as they...

Fri, 29 Dec 2023

2023 was filled with scientific innovation, exploration and new discoveries. A few of the biggest th...

Thu, 28 Dec 2023

As 2023 comes to a close, Short Wave teamed up with our friends at All Things Considered to round up...

Wed, 27 Dec 2023

Are people ever satisfied? Two social psychologists, Ethan Ludwin-Peery and Adam Mastroianni, fell d...

Mon, 25 Dec 2023

Would you survive as a doctor in The Sims 4? What's an appropriate amount of free food to take from ...

Fri, 22 Dec 2023

LED light bulbs are the future. They're better for the environment and the pocket book. But for some...

Thu, 21 Dec 2023

Millions of people in the U.S. are bird watchers. But a couple of years ago a satirical conspiracy t...

Wed, 20 Dec 2023

For the first time in its history, the United Nations climate conference concluded with a call to tr...

Mon, 18 Dec 2023

Does thinking about the trajectory of the climate make you have a panic spiral? If so, we have the p...

Fri, 15 Dec 2023

A team of conservation biologists from Italy recently found that current emoji options are sorely la...

Thu, 14 Dec 2023

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used throughout the world to predict the future. Banks...

Wed, 13 Dec 2023

Malls are designed to overwhelm our brains. Add the stress of holiday shopping, and a quick trip to ...

Mon, 11 Dec 2023

Glaciers like the ones in Greenland are melting due to climate change, causing global sea levels to ...

Fri, 08 Dec 2023

The U.S. is in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. And for a lot of people, the feeling is even more...

Wed, 06 Dec 2023

Soon after the sun sets on winter nights, if you live in the northern hemisphere you can look into t...

Mon, 04 Dec 2023

It's easy to overlook the soil beneath our feet, or to think of it as just dirt to be cleaned up. Bu...

Fri, 01 Dec 2023

Sleep. It's an essential biological function that has long intrigued scientists. Researchers have st...

Wed, 29 Nov 2023

In which we meet the pioneers of one of the most exciting — and controversial — fields of biomed...

Mon, 27 Nov 2023

As kids, some of us dream of multiple careers: being an astronaut AND the next president. Or digging...

Fri, 24 Nov 2023

Walking into Karen Chin's office at the University of Colorado, Boulder, one of the first things you...

Wed, 22 Nov 2023

Turkey is the usual centerpiece of the Thanksgiving dinner, but it's all too easy to end up with a d...

Mon, 20 Nov 2023

Every five years, the United States government releases the National Climate Assessment, a comprehen...

Fri, 17 Nov 2023

How much salt is too much salt? Most likely, the amount you're consuming. A new study published this...

Wed, 15 Nov 2023

Saturday, the entire coastal town of Grindavik, Iceland was evacuated. That's because over the weeke...

Mon, 13 Nov 2023

In the 18th century the world was focused on Venus. Expeditions were launched in pursuit of exact me...

Fri, 10 Nov 2023

AI is popping up everywhere nowadays. From medicine to science to the Hollywood strikes. Today, with...

Wed, 08 Nov 2023

If you've ever looked up at the clouds and wondered where they came from, you're not alone. Atmosphe...

Mon, 06 Nov 2023

Scientists have mapped less than 25% of the world's seafloor. Experts say that getting that number u...

Fri, 03 Nov 2023

What your parents didn't tell you about pulling an all-nighter? It just might ease depression for se...

Wed, 01 Nov 2023

Every year, the USDA drops millions of oral rabies vaccines across fourteen states, mostly along the...

Mon, 30 Oct 2023

Antibiotics have changed the world. They've made it possible to treat diseases that used to mean any...

Fri, 27 Oct 2023

The human brain has more than 170 billion cells. A newly published atlas offers the most detailed m...

Wed, 25 Oct 2023

Some people keep dogs in their backyards. In the Florida Keys, some residents have deer the size of ...

Mon, 23 Oct 2023

As a kid, host Aaron Scott would dress up for Halloween as an older version of himself — complete ...

Fri, 20 Oct 2023

We're about to hit peak Orionid meteor shower! According to NASA, it's one of the most beautiful sho...

Wed, 18 Oct 2023

That spider you squished? It could have been used for science! Today, we're bringing you Halloween a...

Mon, 16 Oct 2023

Artificial intelligence can code computer programs, draw pictures and even take notes for doctors. N...

Fri, 13 Oct 2023

Microbiologist Monsi Roman joined NASA in 1989 to help design the International Space Station. As th...

Wed, 11 Oct 2023

Coral reefs in Florida have lost an estimated 90% of their corals in the last 40 years. And this sum...

Mon, 09 Oct 2023

Ever read those Choose Your Own Adventure books of the '80s and '90s? As a kid, mathematician Pamela...

Sat, 07 Oct 2023

Being inside, hunching in front of a computer screen for hours at a time – these things take a tol...

Fri, 06 Oct 2023

Y'all, it's the most wonderful time of the year: Fat Bear Week! Brown bears in Katmai National Park...

Wed, 04 Oct 2023

Here on Short Wave, we're getting into the Halloween spirit a little early with a look at the world'...

Mon, 02 Oct 2023

A new robot is designed to sink sargassum before the stinky seaweed comes ashore. Blooms of sargassu...

Fri, 29 Sep 2023

A tiny worm that regenerates entire organs. A South American snail that can regrow its eyes. A killi...

Wed, 27 Sep 2023

In 2016, NASA launched a spacecraft to do something rarely attempted before: Collect space rocks fro...

Mon, 25 Sep 2023

Ever had an itch you can't scratch? It can be maddening. And even though itch has a purpose — it's...

Fri, 22 Sep 2023

Today on the show, All Things Considered co-host Mary Louise Kelly joins Regina G. Barber and Maria ...

Wed, 20 Sep 2023

The last several decades have taken a toll on the oceans: Some fish populations are collapsing, plas...

Mon, 18 Sep 2023

We're entering a new era of astrophysics. The James Webb Space Telescope is helping scientists test ...

Fri, 15 Sep 2023

This week, the Food and Drug Administration approved new COVID vaccines this week. It comes at a tim...

Wed, 13 Sep 2023

40 million miles of road unite us. They also cause mass destruction for many species. Today, environ...

Mon, 11 Sep 2023

More than 5,000 square miles of central California coast could soon become the newest national marin...

Fri, 08 Sep 2023

Today on the show, All Things Considered co-host Ari Shapiro joins Aaron Scott and Regina G. Barber ...

Wed, 06 Sep 2023

Have frequent, burning pee? Cramping or the urge to pee even though you just went? If you haven't ye...

Mon, 04 Sep 2023

This year, the hottest July ever was recorded — and parts of the country were hit with heat waves ...

Fri, 01 Sep 2023

Food allergies have risen in the United States over the last few decades. Research suggests that 40 ...

Wed, 30 Aug 2023

Smallpox is a deadly virus. At one point, it killed almost 1 in 3 people who had it. Almost 300 mill...

Mon, 28 Aug 2023

Workers in Japan started releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powe...

Fri, 25 Aug 2023

A journey through some of the latest science stories catching our eyes. This time, we consider the R...

Wed, 23 Aug 2023

One name has been on millions of minds — and all over the news — in the past week: Hilary.It's b...

Mon, 21 Aug 2023

It's no secret that our electric grid is a flaming hot mess — and in order to reduce emissions, th...

Fri, 18 Aug 2023

Today we enter into the plot of a summer blockbuster adventure movie. Regina talks to NPR reporter E...

Wed, 16 Aug 2023

Kids ask, "Why?" all the time. Why does 1+1=2? Why do we memorize multiplication tables? Many of us ...

Mon, 14 Aug 2023

There's the birds and the bees. And then there's what happens after. The process that leads to the b...

Fri, 11 Aug 2023

All Things Considered host Juana Summers joins Regina G. Barber and Berly McCoy to nerd-out on some ...

Wed, 09 Aug 2023

How do we really get happier? In a new review in the journal Nature Human Behavior, researchers Eliz...

Mon, 07 Aug 2023

The ability to create wrought iron cheaply has been called one of the most significant innovations i...

Fri, 04 Aug 2023

Ever felt like you were watching yourself and the rest of the world from outside of your body? Or fl...

Wed, 02 Aug 2023

For decades, humans have harvested the blood of horseshoe crabs, which is used to test whether many ...

Mon, 31 Jul 2023

Would you survive as a doctor in The Sims 4? What's the appropriate amount of free food to take from...

Sat, 29 Jul 2023

In this special episode, we hear from the high school grand prize winner of NPR's Student Podcast Ch...

Fri, 28 Jul 2023

For most infants, introducing peanuts early can help prevent allergies later on — but a new study ...

Wed, 26 Jul 2023

In which we metaphorically enter the UCLA Language Acquisistion Lab's recording castle, guided by li...

Mon, 24 Jul 2023

Scorpions: They're found pretty much everywhere, and new species are being identified all the time. ...

Fri, 21 Jul 2023

Christopher Nolan's new film 'Oppenheimer' chronicles the life and legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, ...

Wed, 19 Jul 2023

For people with endometriosis—a mysterious disease where endometrial tissue grows outside of the u...

Mon, 17 Jul 2023

Trash from humans is constantly spilling into the ocean — so much so that there are five gigantic ...

Fri, 14 Jul 2023

Science in the headlines: An amazingly preserved sea squirt fossil that could tell us something abou...

Wed, 12 Jul 2023

Canada is having its worst fire season in modern history. The fires have burnt more than 20 million ...

Mon, 10 Jul 2023

In the Port of Baltimore, a ship is docked that hasn't transported passengers for more than 50 years...

Fri, 07 Jul 2023

20 years ago, the cult classic movie 'The Core' was released in theaters. From the start, it's clear...

Wed, 05 Jul 2023

We hope you had a restful holiday! Maybe even got outside for some relaxing fresh air. If so, you mi...

Mon, 03 Jul 2023

Chefs will tell you, cooking is not just an art — it's a science. And the spirit of summer barbecu...

Fri, 30 Jun 2023

New gravitational waves, why orcas might be attacking boats and a new robot prototype inspired by an...

Wed, 28 Jun 2023

Salomé Buglass discovered an unexpected kelp forest while studying underwater mountains in the Gala...

Mon, 26 Jun 2023

Sunscreen: we should all be using it, but we might not all be using it the right way. In fact, the t...

Fri, 23 Jun 2023

For generations, scientists have leaned on seven key species, including rats and mice, for research....

Wed, 21 Jun 2023

In pockets across the U.S., communities are struggling with polluted air — often in neighborhoods ...

Mon, 19 Jun 2023

Season 2 of the critically acclaimed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered June 15 (streaming on P...

Fri, 16 Jun 2023

All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro returns to nerd-our with Short Wave hosts Emily Kwong and Reg...

Wed, 14 Jun 2023

With much of California's massive snowpack yet to melt, downstream communities remain on high alert ...

Mon, 12 Jun 2023

For many scientists, science isn't something they check in and out of — it permeates their whole l...

Fri, 09 Jun 2023

Smoke from Canadian wildfires is causing poor air quality in parts of the U.S. This smoke can have d...

Wed, 07 Jun 2023

Teppei Katori loves two things: particle physics and music. Naturally, he combined the two. Today on...

Mon, 05 Jun 2023

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for many millions of years, but only after a mass extinction took out most...

Fri, 02 Jun 2023

This week's science news roundup reunites All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang with Short Wave hos...

Wed, 31 May 2023

Ice in Antarctica is melting really quickly because of climate change. That's driving sea level rise...

Mon, 29 May 2023

Mora Leeb was 9 months old when surgeons removed half her brain. Now 15, she plays soccer and tells ...

Fri, 26 May 2023

If you ask a physicist or cosmologist about the beginnings of the universe, they'll probably point y...

Wed, 24 May 2023

In February 2021, pandemic restrictions were just starting to ease in Hawaii, and Leila Mirhaydari w...

Mon, 22 May 2023

Kwasi Wrensford studies two related species: the Alpine chipmunk and the Lodgepole chipmunk. The two...

Fri, 19 May 2023

This week for our science news roundup, superstar host of All Things Considered Ari Shapiro joins Sh...

Wed, 17 May 2023

Race is a social construct — so why are DNA test kits like the ones from 23andMe coded like they r...

Mon, 15 May 2023

The COVID-19 public health emergency has ended, but millions across the globe continue to deal with ...

Fri, 12 May 2023

There's a lot for scientists to learn about the origins of humans' musical abilities. In the last fe...

Wed, 10 May 2023

This week, the American Psychological Association issued its first-of-kind guidelines for parents to...

Mon, 08 May 2023

Today on the show, we meet a prosthetic designer and a neuroscientist fascinated with understanding ...

Fri, 05 May 2023

Another week comes by, and luckily so does our roundup of science news. This time, we've got some qu...

Tue, 02 May 2023

A doctor's job is to help patients. With that help, often comes lots and lots of paperwork. That's w...

Mon, 01 May 2023

Today on the show, next-generation energy innovators Bill David and Serena Cussen challenged us to t...

Fri, 28 Apr 2023

California's wet winter has devastated many local communities. It has also benefited some of the sta...

Wed, 26 Apr 2023

In the toxic waters of Sulphur Cave in Steamboat Springs, Colo. live blood-red worm blobs that have ...

Mon, 24 Apr 2023

It's our latest roundup of science news! This time, with Ailsa Chang of NPR's All Things Considered,...

Fri, 21 Apr 2023

In the Arctic Ocean, sea ice is shrinking as the climate heats up. In the Western U.S., wildfires ar...

Wed, 19 Apr 2023

Melting glaciers are leaving behind large, unstable lakes that can cause dangerous flash floods. Mil...

Mon, 17 Apr 2023

Endangered North Atlantic right whales are disappearing from their native waters, a serious danger f...

Fri, 14 Apr 2023

This week, New York City crowned Kathleen Corradi its first rat czar. The new position is part of a ...

Wed, 12 Apr 2023

When Tove Danovich decided to dabble in backyard chicken keeping, she embraced a tried and true jour...

Mon, 10 Apr 2023

In 1957, the Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Since then,...

Fri, 07 Apr 2023

In this Friday round up of science news we can't let go, not everything is as it seems. Meatballs ar...

Wed, 05 Apr 2023

Katie Wu is a bona fide cat person. She has two of them: twin boys named Calvin and Hobbes. Every ni...

Mon, 03 Apr 2023

The phenomenon of zoonotic spillover — of viruses jumping from animals to people — is incredibl...

Fri, 31 Mar 2023

Today, most climate science is done with satellites, sensors and complicated computer models. But it...

Wed, 29 Mar 2023

To really understand the human brain, scientists say you'd have to map its wiring. The only problem:...

Mon, 27 Mar 2023

Rice is arguably the world's most important staple crop. About half of the global population depends...

Fri, 24 Mar 2023

After reading the science headlines this week, we have A LOT of questions. Why did the Virgin Island...

Thu, 23 Mar 2023

A few weeks ago, raw data gathered in Janaury 2020 from Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Ch...

Wed, 22 Mar 2023

From text churned out by ChatGPT to the artistic renderings of Midjourney, people have been taking n...

Tue, 21 Mar 2023

Dotted across the Great Basin of the American West are salty, smelly lakes. The largest of these, by...

Mon, 20 Mar 2023

Planetary scientists announced some big news this week about our next-door neighbor, Venus. For the ...

Sat, 18 Mar 2023

Our friends at NPR's TED Radio Hour podcast have been pondering some BIG things — specifically, th...

Fri, 17 Mar 2023

For the past few winters, researchers have been intentionally flying into snowstorms. And high in th...

Thu, 16 Mar 2023

As a leading expert on paleogenomics, Beth Shapiro has been hearing the same question ever since she...

Wed, 15 Mar 2023

Research into very, very old DNA has made huge leaps forward over the last two decades. That has all...

Tue, 14 Mar 2023

This March 14, Short Wave is celebrating pi ... and pie! We do that with the help of mathematician E...

Mon, 13 Mar 2023

A new drug for Alzheimer's disease, called lecanemab, got a lot of attention earlier this year for g...

Fri, 10 Mar 2023

Reading the science headlines this week, we have A LOT of questions. Why are more animals than just ...

Thu, 09 Mar 2023

Have you ever wondered how biologists choose what animal to use in their research? Since scientists ...

Wed, 08 Mar 2023

The whitebark pine is a hardy tree that grows in an area stretching from British Columbia, Canada so...

Tue, 07 Mar 2023

Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of coal for electricity. And it's also an emerging econom...

Mon, 06 Mar 2023

The Roman Colosseum is a giant, oval amphitheater built almost two thousand years ago. Despite its a...

Fri, 03 Mar 2023

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a theoretical physicist at the University of New Hampshire. It's her job...

Thu, 02 Mar 2023

When Abra Lee became the landscape manager at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, she ...

Wed, 01 Mar 2023

As a kid, Clarice Phelps dreamed of being an astronaut, or maybe an explorer like the characters on ...

Tue, 28 Feb 2023

Population geneticist Dr. Janina Jeff is the host and executive producer of In Those Genes, a hip-ho...

Mon, 27 Feb 2023

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a public hearing about its remediatio...

Fri, 24 Feb 2023

In the Bekaa Valley region of Lebanon, there is a giant walk-in fridge housing tens of thousands of ...

Thu, 23 Feb 2023

In this Back To School episode we consider the "List of Life": the criteria that define what it is t...

Wed, 22 Feb 2023

Monday another earthquake struck southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border. This time, the quake r...

Tue, 21 Feb 2023

The video game series that spawned the new hit HBO drama, The Last of Us, is the zombie genre with a...

Mon, 20 Feb 2023

Many of us are off today for President's Day. In the meantime, we want to share this episode from ou...

Fri, 17 Feb 2023

After reading the science headlines this week, we have A LOT of questions. Is chocolate really that ...

Thu, 16 Feb 2023

In Disney's new animated feature 'Strange World,' a band of multigenerational explorers journeys to ...

Wed, 15 Feb 2023

A few years ago, a team of scientists set out on a field expedition in the rugged, dry Northern Terr...

Tue, 14 Feb 2023

You may have heard of the "love hormone," or oxytocin. But you may not know that scientists have rel...

Mon, 13 Feb 2023

During the COVID-19 pandemic, one measurement became more important than almost any other: blood oxy...

Fri, 10 Feb 2023

Every year, lightning is estimated to cause up to 24,000 deaths globally. It starts forest fires, bu...

Thu, 09 Feb 2023

One of the most important tools the federal government has for cracking down on greenhouse gas emiss...

Wed, 08 Feb 2023

In the wake of the massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria, many scientists have been saying this are...

Tue, 07 Feb 2023

The James Webb Space Telescope is by far the most powerful space-based telescope ever deployed by th...

Mon, 06 Feb 2023

Everyone sees the world differently. Exactly which colors you see and which of your eyes is doing mo...

Fri, 03 Feb 2023

A green comet, cancer-sniffing ants, stealthy moons ... hang out with us as we dish on some of the c...

Thu, 02 Feb 2023

The Nipah virus is on the World Health Organization's short list of diseases that have pandemic pote...

Wed, 01 Feb 2023

Moiya McTier says the night sky has been fueling humans' stories about the universe for a very long ...

Tue, 31 Jan 2023

Over the past decade, AI has moved right into our houses - onto our phones and smart speakers - and ...

Mon, 30 Jan 2023

Gas stoves are found in around 40% of homes in the United States, and they've been getting a lot of ...

Fri, 27 Jan 2023

Yi-Kai Tea, a biodiversity research fellow at the Australian Museum in Sydney, has amassed a social ...

Thu, 26 Jan 2023

As an emergency physician at Western Health, in Melbourne, Australia, Dr. Andy Tagg says he meets a ...

Wed, 25 Jan 2023

Film directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively: Daniels) reimagined the multiverse mo...

Tue, 24 Jan 2023

Most people are focused on the present: today, tomorrow, maybe next year. Fixing your flat tire is m...

Mon, 23 Jan 2023

This mystery begins in 1952, in the Nevada desert, when a self-taught geologist came across the skel...

Fri, 20 Jan 2023

About three million people in the United States have epilepsy, including about a million who can't r...

Thu, 19 Jan 2023

Winter storms have flooded parts of California, broken levees and forced thousands to evacuate. Clim...

Wed, 18 Jan 2023

Time is a concept so central to our daily lives. Yet, the closer scientists look at it, the more it ...

Tue, 17 Jan 2023

Historic drought in the west and water diversion for human use are causing stretches of the Colorado...

Mon, 16 Jan 2023

We're off today in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In the meantime, we want to share this...

Fri, 13 Jan 2023

Are humans ever satisfied? Two social psychologists, Ethan Ludwin-Peery and Adam Mastroianni, fell d...

Thu, 12 Jan 2023

Inside the mountaintop glaciers of the Pacific Northwest lives a mysterious, and often, overlooked c...

Wed, 11 Jan 2023

There's always a moment of intense isolation when Jessica Mejía gets dropped off on the Greenland i...

Tue, 10 Jan 2023

The mineral zircon is the oldest known piece of Earth existing on the surface today. The oldest bits...

Mon, 09 Jan 2023

When Dr. Chloé Schmidt was a PhD student in Winnepeg, Canada, she was studying wildlife in urban ar...

Fri, 06 Jan 2023

From space, it looks almost elegant: a narrow plume cascading off the Pacific Ocean, spilling gently...

Thu, 05 Jan 2023

Every month, 1.8 billion people menstruate globally. For those people, managing periods is essential...

Wed, 04 Jan 2023

Speaking to Short Wave from about 250 miles above the Earth, Josh Cassada outlined his typical day a...

Tue, 03 Jan 2023

Time is woven into our personal memories. If you recall a childhood fall from a bike, your brain rep...

Mon, 02 Jan 2023

To ring in the new year, producer Berly McCoy brings host Emily Kwong this homemade science mad lib!...

Fri, 30 Dec 2022

From misty eyeballs to full-on waterworks, what are tears? Why do we shed them? And what makes human...

Thu, 29 Dec 2022

In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell made a discovery that revolutionized astronomy. She detected the radio...

Wed, 28 Dec 2022

Being small has its advantages - and some limitations. One organism that intimately knows the pros a...

Tue, 27 Dec 2022

Mamadou Ndiaye uses comedy to teach animal facts, but there's nothing funny about these deadly ones....

Mon, 26 Dec 2022

Host Emily Kwong and editor Gisele Grayson exchange the gift of facts - in this quick hello from us ...

Fri, 23 Dec 2022

Kwasi Wrensford describes the subjects of his research as "elfin": skittish little squirrel-cousins ...

Thu, 22 Dec 2022

This week, the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) wrapped up in Montreal, Canada. Nations from arou...

Wed, 21 Dec 2022

Psychedelic drugs – like LSD, salvia, ayahuasca, Ibogaine, MDMA (AKA ecstasy), or psilocybin (AKA ...

Tue, 20 Dec 2022

Math is a complex, beautiful language that can help people understand the world. And sometimes math ...

Mon, 19 Dec 2022

Dietary supplements — the vitamins, herbs and botanicals that you'll find in most grocery stores —...

Fri, 16 Dec 2022

Brazil's president-elect, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is renewing calls to protect the Amazon and rei...

Thu, 15 Dec 2022

On Dec. 5 at 1 o'clock in the morning local time, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab...

Wed, 14 Dec 2022

Gene editing was a new idea in the mid-1970s. So when Harvard and MIT planned new research in recomb...

Tue, 13 Dec 2022

TFW when you're so excited you get those butterflies in your stomach - or maybe when you see somethi...

Mon, 12 Dec 2022

For many, recycling feels like a tangible way to personally combat climate change and to positively ...

Fri, 09 Dec 2022

If an asteroid were hurling through space, making a beeline straight to Earth, how would humans prev...

Thu, 08 Dec 2022

The human body is made up of more than 30 trillion cells, but how do they all work together? It's al...

Wed, 07 Dec 2022

Just after Thanksgiving, for the first time in almost 40 years, Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano erupted. ...

Tue, 06 Dec 2022

When lightning strikes a giant tree in the tropical rainforest, there's usually no fire, no blackene...

Mon, 05 Dec 2022

It's easy to overlook the soil beneath our feet, or to think of it as just dirt to be cleaned up. Bu...

Fri, 02 Dec 2022

Julia Ruth's job takes a lot of strength, a lot of balance, and a surprising amount of physics. She'...

Thu, 01 Dec 2022

An exhibit that blended science and technology for an immersive art experience went on display in Wa...

Wed, 30 Nov 2022

New York's Bellevue Hospital is the oldest public hospital in the country, serving patients from all...

Tue, 29 Nov 2022

Arts therapies appear to ease a host of brain disorders from Parkinson's to PTSD. But these treatmen...

Mon, 28 Nov 2022

Pull out your art supplies because it's time to get crafty—with agar! We're beginning Arts Week at...

Thu, 24 Nov 2022

Emily and Aaron wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and explain how you can help the show. Hint: It's giv...

Wed, 23 Nov 2022

The climate meeting known as COP27 has wrapped. Representatives from almost 200 countries attended t...

Tue, 22 Nov 2022

The idea came to Uma Valeti while he was working on regrowing human tissue to help heart attack pati...

Mon, 21 Nov 2022

In the mornings, Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel's first job is to get their two garrulous kids awake...

Fri, 18 Nov 2022

The first time Sonia Vallabh understood something was very wrong with her mother Kamni was on the ph...

Thu, 17 Nov 2022

Prions are biological anomalies – self-replicating, not-alive little particles that can misfold in...

Wed, 16 Nov 2022

Climate negotiations continue at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Tens of thousands of attendees fro...

Tue, 15 Nov 2022

Today, we pass the mic to our colleagues at All Things Considered to share the first piece in their ...

Mon, 14 Nov 2022

A pivotal week in Corey Gray's life began with a powwow in Alberta and culminated with a piece of hi...

Fri, 11 Nov 2022

If Earth heats up beyond 1.5 degrees, the impacts don't get just slightly worse--scientists warn tha...

Thu, 10 Nov 2022

Researchers are launching a make-or-break study to test the conventional wisdom about what causes Al...

Wed, 09 Nov 2022

Last month, Short Wave explored the evolutionary purpose of laughter. Now, we're talking tears. From...

Tue, 08 Nov 2022

Regina G. Barber talks with Dr. Rosalyn LaPier about ethnobotany--what it is and how traditional pla...

Mon, 07 Nov 2022

World leaders have gathered in Egypt this week to begin climate talks at the 27th Conference of the ...

Fri, 04 Nov 2022

In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, a book about the evolution of non-human ...

Thu, 03 Nov 2022

Correspondent Allison Aubrey talks to host Emily Kwong about the pros and cons of adopting permanent...

Wed, 02 Nov 2022

Katie Wu is a cat person. She has two of them: twin boys named Calvin and Hobbes. But up until grad ...

Tue, 01 Nov 2022

Pacific lamprey have lived on Earth for about 450 million years. When humans came along, a deep rela...

Mon, 31 Oct 2022

Halloween calls to mind graveyards and the walking dead, so, naturally, Short Wave wanted to know wh...

Fri, 28 Oct 2022

The common box turtle is found just about anywhere in the continental United States east of Colorado...

Thu, 27 Oct 2022

When Steve Gosser heard the song of a scarlet tanager in the woods, he knew to look for a bright-red...

Wed, 26 Oct 2022

The civil war in Ethiopia is destroying the medical system in the northern Tigray region, which serv...

Tue, 25 Oct 2022

Botanist and founder of #BlackBotanistsWeek Tanisha Williams explains why some leaves change color d...

Mon, 24 Oct 2022

Plants living underwater can't count on pollinating insects to get it on. The prevailing theory has ...

Fri, 21 Oct 2022

The world of brain research had two incredible developments last week. Researchers have taught a dis...

Thu, 20 Oct 2022

The natural world is filled with treats ... and tricks. Today, Internet zoologist and TikTok star Ma...

Wed, 19 Oct 2022

Contraceptive research has historically prioritized women because they bear the burden of pregnancy ...

Tue, 18 Oct 2022

Ever read those Choose Your Own Adventure books of the 80s and 90s? As a kid, Dr. Pamela Harris was ...

Mon, 17 Oct 2022

Perimenopause, the period of transition to menopause, is still a largely misunderstood chapter of re...

Fri, 14 Oct 2022

Short Wave hosts Aaron Scott and Emily Kwong quiz All Things Considered hosts Mary Louise Kelly and ...

Thu, 13 Oct 2022

Laughter: We do it spontaneously, we do it forcefully, we do it with each other and by ourselves. Bu...

Wed, 12 Oct 2022

Of course we have to have cake for Short Wave's third birthday! Sugar-ologist and biochemist Adriana...

Tue, 11 Oct 2022

The California condor used to soar across the western skies of North America, but by the 1980s, the ...

Fri, 07 Oct 2022

Since the first successful in vitro fertilization pregnancy and live birth in 1978, nearly half a mi...

Thu, 06 Oct 2022

Scorpions: They're found pretty much everywhere, and new species are being identified all the time. ...

Wed, 05 Oct 2022

ALS is a disease that destroys the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord we need for voluntary mo...

Tue, 04 Oct 2022

When a disaster like Hurricane Ian destroys a house, the clock starts ticking. It gets harder for si...

Mon, 03 Oct 2022

On August 18, 2015, in Sitka, Alaska, a slope above a subdivision of homes under construction gave w...

Fri, 30 Sep 2022

The last several decades have taken a toll on the oceans: Some fish populations are collapsing, plas...

Thu, 29 Sep 2022

When's the last time you thought about your bladder? We're going there today! In this Short Wave epi...

Wed, 28 Sep 2022

What's in a grassland? There are all sorts of wildflowers, many insects, animals like prairie dogs, ...

Tue, 27 Sep 2022

It's easy to take city parks for granted, or to think of them as separate from nature and from the E...

Mon, 26 Sep 2022

In movies, asteroids careening towards Earth are confronted by determined humans with nuclear weapon...

Fri, 23 Sep 2022

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for many millions of years, but only after a mass extinction took out most...

Thu, 22 Sep 2022

In the final episode of Short Wave's Summer Road Trip series exploring the science happening in nati...

Wed, 21 Sep 2022

The water advice is everywhere - how much to drink (8 cups a day - really?), what to drink, when to ...

Tue, 20 Sep 2022

Nearly a decade ago, Karen Douthitt and her sisters June Ward and Susie Gilliam set out to learn why...

Mon, 19 Sep 2022

Last week, Lauren Sommer talked with Short Wave about the dangerous combination of heat and humidity...

Fri, 16 Sep 2022

The world has been warily watching the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. The nuclear complex is...

Thu, 15 Sep 2022

Heat—it's common in summer in much of the world, but it's getting increasingly more lethal as clim...

Wed, 14 Sep 2022

A century ago, astronomers were locked in a debate about the scope of our universe. Were we it? The ...

Tue, 13 Sep 2022

Updated COVID boosters are now available that target the Omicron subvariant and many Americans 12 an...

Mon, 12 Sep 2022

Why do some songs can stick with us for a long time, even when other memories start to fade? Science...

Fri, 09 Sep 2022

Big Bend National Park in Texas is home to the only remaining Guadalupe fescue in the United States....

Thu, 08 Sep 2022

Julia Ruth has a pretty cool job: it takes a lot of strength, a lot of balance, and a surprising amo...

Wed, 07 Sep 2022

Scientists in the UK have discovered that if they take a pot meant for catching crabs and just add s...

Tue, 06 Sep 2022

Some of the world's best artificial waves are happening hundreds of miles from the ocean—in Waco, ...

Mon, 05 Sep 2022

We're taking the day off for the Labor Day holiday! We hope you're also able to get some rest. We'll...

Fri, 02 Sep 2022

In the toxic waters of Sulphur Cave in Steamboat Springs, Colo. lives blood-red worm blobs that have...

Thu, 01 Sep 2022

It may seem obvious now that other galaxies lie beyond the Milky Way, but less than 100 years ago, s...

Wed, 31 Aug 2022

Do worms feel pain? How do otters experience the world? What are those pink appendages on the face o...

Tue, 30 Aug 2022

NASA's Artemis Moon mission was supposed to launch Monday. But it was delayed due to a problem one o...

Mon, 29 Aug 2022

People experiencing a mental health crisis have a new way to reach out for help in the U.S. — call...

Fri, 26 Aug 2022

In a crater at the top of a dormant volcano lies a place so quiet, the ambient sound is right near t...

Thu, 25 Aug 2022

Humans haven't set foot on the moon in 50 years, but NASA hopes to take one step closer with the lau...

Wed, 24 Aug 2022

Plunge into the ocean off the west coast of Ireland...and then keep plunging, down to where there's ...

Tue, 23 Aug 2022

Sweating can be unpleasant, but consider the alternatives: You could roll around in mud. You could s...

Mon, 22 Aug 2022

Grab your towels and flip flops, because we're heading to the beach. Whether you love playing in the...

Fri, 19 Aug 2022

Volcanoes are "talking" to us all the time. Scientists say the sooner we learn to interpret their no...

Thu, 18 Aug 2022

Demand for coal in Europe is rising as Russia's invasion of Ukraine threatens the country's vast nat...

Wed, 17 Aug 2022

On a trip to Hawaii, Short Wave host Emily Kwong encountered manta rays for the first time. The expe...

Tue, 16 Aug 2022

The perfect cup of joe might be a matter of taste, but knowing the science behind the coffee-making ...

Mon, 15 Aug 2022

In 1967 Jocelyn Bell Burnell made a discovery that revolutionized the field of astronomy. She detect...

Fri, 12 Aug 2022

Short Wave is going outside every Friday this summer! In this second episode of our series on the Na...

Thu, 11 Aug 2022

When Moderna and Pfizer first came out with their mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, supply was limited to ...

Wed, 10 Aug 2022

Ahead of the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, we're re-airing our first episode with Scientist in ...

Tue, 09 Aug 2022

The White House officially declared monkeypox a public health emergency in the United States last we...

Mon, 08 Aug 2022

Math is a complex, beautiful language that can help us understand the world. And sometimes ... math ...

Fri, 05 Aug 2022

Buckle up! Short Wave is going on a road trip every Friday this summer. In this first episode of our...

Thu, 04 Aug 2022

New abortion bans have made some doctors hesitant to provide care for pregnancy complications. That'...

Wed, 03 Aug 2022

It's been over 150 years since the first article was published about the molecular key to life as we...

Tue, 02 Aug 2022

Under a 1971 Congressional Act, the Bureau of Land Management has the right to round up wild horses ...

Mon, 01 Aug 2022

Not much is known about why people experience tastes differently and why some people can detect cert...

Fri, 29 Jul 2022

Today, we talk about spicy food and its intersection with pleasure and pain as part of our "Taste Bu...

Thu, 28 Jul 2022

Our ancestors evolved the ability to taste the sweet goodness of foods like pastries and creamy choc...

Wed, 27 Jul 2022

Today, we're getting salty as we continue our series "Taste Buddies" — Short Wave's ode to taste b...

Tue, 26 Jul 2022

We're continuing our celebration of taste with another episode in our "Taste Buddies" series. Today:...

Mon, 25 Jul 2022

This week Short Wave is celebrating our sense of taste with an entire week of themed episodes, cover...

Fri, 22 Jul 2022

The Food and Drug Administration allows faster drug approvals based on preliminary study data if the...

Thu, 21 Jul 2022

The war in Ukraine is devastating that nation's rich, natural environment - from chemical leaks pois...

Wed, 20 Jul 2022

Host Emily Kwong wants to keep an eye on her carbon footprint. Most of it consists of greenhouse gas...

Tue, 19 Jul 2022

In the 18th century the world was focused on Venus. Expeditions were launched in pursuit of exact me...

Mon, 18 Jul 2022

As a kid, Clarice Phelps dreamed of being an astronaut, or maybe an explorer like the characters on ...

Fri, 15 Jul 2022

Earlier this week we got a look at one of the highest-profile scientific photo dumps of all time. Th...

Thu, 14 Jul 2022

This week NASA released some of the sharpest images of space ever from the James Webb Space Telescop...

Wed, 13 Jul 2022

For centuries, mysterious blocks of beeswax and Chinese porcelain have washed up on the Oregon coast...

Tue, 12 Jul 2022

BA.5 is now the dominant SARS-CoV-2 subvariant in the United States. It's driving up COVID cases and...

Mon, 11 Jul 2022

Directing Duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, (collectively: Daniels) are known for their first fe...

Fri, 08 Jul 2022

We're wrapping up Tiny Critter Week with a reprise of one of our favorite episodes — nudibranchs. ...

Thu, 07 Jul 2022

Honey bees know a lot about honey, and humans are starting to catch up. Scientists are now looking a...

Wed, 06 Jul 2022

If you're not so fond of spiders, you may find kindred spirits in other spiders! Researcher Daniela ...

Tue, 05 Jul 2022

Being small has its advantages ... and some limitations. One organism that intimately knows the pros...

Mon, 04 Jul 2022

Hey, Short Wavers!We're off today, but wanted to give you a sneak peek into this week's episodes. To...

Fri, 01 Jul 2022

... Could a monkey host this podcast?Aaron Scott and Resident Neuroscience Nerd Jon Hamilton discuss...

Thu, 30 Jun 2022

The Caribbean is home to gorgeous beaches, mangroves and ... the biggest bacteria known to humankind...

Wed, 29 Jun 2022

A majority of people say they have experienced extreme weather in the last five years, according to ...

Tue, 28 Jun 2022

Historically, the California condor soared across the western skies of North America. But by the 198...

Mon, 27 Jun 2022

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday. We're revisiting an episode that may give us ins...

Fri, 24 Jun 2022

Pull out your art supplies because it's time to get crafty--with agar! At the intersection of biolog...

Thu, 23 Jun 2022

Move over, T-Rex. There are new, (mostly) more accurate dinosaurs to squeal over in 'Jurassic World:...

Wed, 22 Jun 2022

A Massachusetts elementary school welcomes "Huntah," the COVID-sniffing dog. Scientist-in-residence ...

Tue, 21 Jun 2022

Do you ever feel better after walking down a street that's lined with lush, green trees? You're not ...

Mon, 20 Jun 2022

Hi Short Wavers, The team is off today in continued commemoration of Juneteenth, a holiday honoring ...

Fri, 17 Jun 2022

Cylita Guy was a curious child who enjoyed exploring the beaches, parks and animals that shared her ...

Thu, 16 Jun 2022

The Uvalde school shooting has renewed questions of how to prevent the next shooting. For many who'v...

Wed, 15 Jun 2022

For decades, U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have lived side-by-side aboard the International...

Tue, 14 Jun 2022

Political polarization is affecting Americans' health, according to a new study. Researchers find hi...

Mon, 13 Jun 2022

What's the most versatile pan in the kitchen? According to chef and cookbook author J. Kenji López-...

Fri, 10 Jun 2022

Sex can be a nerve-racking experience no matter what. That's especially true if you have no clue wha...

Thu, 09 Jun 2022

As a kid, Ariana Remmel had a hard time figuring out where they fit in. They found comfort in the ce...

Wed, 08 Jun 2022

Medical transition-related treatments like hormone replacement therapy are associated with overwhelm...

Tue, 07 Jun 2022

Kyne is the stage name of Kyne Santos, a math communicator and a drag queen. The former Canada's Dra...

Mon, 06 Jun 2022

Tam O'Shaughnessy and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, met as kids in the early 1960s ...

Fri, 03 Jun 2022

Today, we're passing the mic to our friends at It's Been A Minute. Recently, they dug into how the a...

Thu, 02 Jun 2022

How do you make the perfect stir-fry chicken without drying it out? Today, we answer that question w...

Wed, 01 Jun 2022

Parkland, Fla. Buffalo, NY. Uvalde, Texas. Every mass shooting in the U.S. raises calls for better p...

Tue, 31 May 2022

Recent rule changes have increased access to abortion pills through the mail, using telehealth servi...

Fri, 27 May 2022

The first all-black team of climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest last week, including the fi...

Thu, 26 May 2022

Is your border collie a lethargic couch potato? Is your golden retriever bad with kids? Is your Germ...

Wed, 25 May 2022

Depending how the Supreme Court votes on a pending case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organizatio...

Tue, 24 May 2022

Abortion access has been leading political news in recent weeks. But what happens when we look at ab...

Mon, 23 May 2022

Growing up, Jada Yuan didn't realize how famous her grandmother was in the world of physics. In this...

Fri, 20 May 2022

In the 1950's, a particle physicist made a landmark discovery that changed what was known about how ...

Thu, 19 May 2022

Love the bitter bite of dark chocolate, leafy greens or black licorice? Your genetics may be the rea...

Wed, 18 May 2022

Apps can be a great way to stay on top of your health. They let users keep track of things like exer...

Tue, 17 May 2022

Any hour now, the U.S. is expected to officially mark one million lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemi...

Mon, 16 May 2022

Today on Short Wave, researcher Fatima Aysha Hussain talks to host Emily Kwong about how microbes in...

Fri, 13 May 2022

If the U.S. Supreme Court rules in line with the draft decision leaked in early May, the decision to...

Thu, 12 May 2022

In 1992, diplomats and scientists at the United Nations negotiated the first-ever treaty intended to...

Wed, 11 May 2022

In 1992, diplomats and scientists at the United Nations negotiated the first-ever treaty intended to...

Tue, 10 May 2022

Stephanie was usually careful about her health and regular vaccinations. But then she got into shari...

Mon, 09 May 2022

A leaked draft opinion in the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization has pl...

Fri, 06 May 2022

The world has come a long way since the COVID-19 pandemic began. There are now vaccines, at-home tes...

Thu, 05 May 2022

In 1859, astronomer Richard Carrington was studying the Sun when he witnessed the most intense geoma...

Wed, 04 May 2022

Scientists have discovered the underpinnings of animal emotions. As NPR brain correspondent Jon Hami...

Tue, 03 May 2022

Beavers have long been considered pests by landowners and government agencies. But now, many are st...

Mon, 02 May 2022

When Kasha Patel decided to try out stand-up comedy, she was told to joke about what she knew. For h...

Fri, 29 Apr 2022

Climbing enthusiast and producer Thomas Lu has long wondered what makes knots such a powerful tool. ...

Thu, 28 Apr 2022

Probes to Uranus and to one of Jupiter's moons where conditions might support life; a better plan hi...

Wed, 27 Apr 2022

COVID cases are up due to the Omicron sub-variants and masking is likely to remain optional as the c...

Tue, 26 Apr 2022

Cryptocurrencies may exist only in the virtual world, but their impact on our natural resources is h...

Mon, 25 Apr 2022

As cryptocurrencies become increasingly popular, the environmental impact of the technology is gaini...

Fri, 22 Apr 2022

Dr. Jessica Hernandez's new book examines the role of displacement — Indigenous peoples like her f...

Thu, 21 Apr 2022

The United States has a goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Without serious changes to lifest...

Wed, 20 Apr 2022

In the cannabis industry, the chemistry lab meets agriculture. A cannabis product called Delta-8 has...

Tue, 19 Apr 2022

Salt has such a rich history that it was once (and is perhaps still) a sign of wealth. In this lates...

Mon, 18 Apr 2022

A recent study found that working surge after surge in the pandemic, a majority of American health c...

Fri, 15 Apr 2022

Climate change poses an existential threat to the ski industry. A warmer climate means less snow and...

Thu, 14 Apr 2022

Ranalda Tsosie grew up in the Navajo Nation, close to a number of abandoned uranium mines. The urani...

Wed, 13 Apr 2022

In the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv at least half a dozen hospitals have been damaged by Rus...

Tue, 12 Apr 2022

Today we share the mic with our colleagues at Planet Money to talk about one of our favorite aquatic...

Mon, 11 Apr 2022

There's a lot for scientists to learn about the origins of humans' musical abilities. In the last fe...

Fri, 08 Apr 2022

According to the World Health Organization, Ukraine has the fourth highest incidence of tuberculosis...

Thu, 07 Apr 2022

A Japanese chemist identified umami in the early 1900s, but it took a century for his work to be tra...

Wed, 06 Apr 2022

Today, we present an episode of NPR's daily economics podcast, The Indicator from Planet Money. It's...

Tue, 05 Apr 2022

This week, U.S. Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisors will meet to discuss long-term COVID v...

Mon, 04 Apr 2022

For many of us, seeing stars in the night sky is challenging because of light pollution. But there a...

Fri, 01 Apr 2022

Octopuses! They are escape artists, they camouflage in all kinds of surroundings, and they are incr...

Thu, 31 Mar 2022

Shall we play a game - of Wiffle ball? Invented in 1953, this lightweight alternative to a baseball ...

Wed, 30 Mar 2022

When a team of exoplanetary treasure hunters joined forces with professional astronomers, they disco...

Tue, 29 Mar 2022

This month, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a bill to make daylight saving time permanent. Now ...

Mon, 28 Mar 2022

The benefits of indoor air quality in schools are substantial, but American school buildings are old...

Fri, 25 Mar 2022

In addition to flying, landing, and returning from the moon in 1969 — NASA's Apollo 11 crew helped...

Thu, 24 Mar 2022

A struggling Wyoming coal town may soon go nuclear with help from an unlikely partner, billionaire p...

Wed, 23 Mar 2022

Cute, wrinkly faces aside, bulldogs have myriad health problems. Science points to purebred breeding...

Tue, 22 Mar 2022

The omicron outbreak has slowed dramatically in the U.S. But cases are rising in Britain due to an o...

Mon, 21 Mar 2022

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed the state's Department of Family and Protective Services to ...

Fri, 18 Mar 2022

Arts therapies appear to ease a host of brain disorders from Parkinson's to PTSD. But these treatmen...

Thu, 17 Mar 2022

On December 31, 2021, The Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Spotify posted an episode with an intervie...

Wed, 16 Mar 2022

Understanding how life survives in extreme Earth environments could point to ways life can survive o...

Tue, 15 Mar 2022

Over the last 24 hours, some of us Short Wavers celebrated Pi Day the only way we know how: eating s...

Mon, 14 Mar 2022

Geneticist Janina Jeff is back on the show to talk with host Emily Kwong about season 2 of her podca...

Fri, 11 Mar 2022

Growing up, Jada Yuan didn't realize how famous her grandmother was in the world of physics. In this...

Thu, 10 Mar 2022

In the 1950's, a particle physicist made a landmark discovery that changed what we thought we knew a...

Wed, 09 Mar 2022

Pucker up, duderinos! Short Wave's kicking off a series on taste we're calling, "Taste Buddies." In ...

Tue, 08 Mar 2022

Over the last few years, we've all found different ways to cope with the pandemic. Some people start...

Mon, 07 Mar 2022

For over a decade, Dr. Thomas Insel headed the National Institute of Mental Health and directed bill...

Fri, 04 Mar 2022

In 2021, Short Wave host Emily Kwong ran her first marathon. In collaboration with our colleagues a...

Thu, 03 Mar 2022

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released the second of thre...

Wed, 02 Mar 2022

What bird has a ten-foot wingspan and breeds almost exclusively on a single island in the Pacific Oc...

Tue, 01 Mar 2022

NPR science correspondent Lauren Sommer joins Short Wave host Emily Kwong to talk about a team of re...

Mon, 28 Feb 2022

Scientists are piecing together what led up to a massive volcanic eruption in Tonga last month. NPR ...

Fri, 25 Feb 2022

One of the video games that Short Wave's Scientist in Residence has been playing a lot in the pandem...

Thu, 24 Feb 2022

The pandemic is at a turning point. Hospitalizations in this country are down. Deaths are starting t...

Wed, 23 Feb 2022

Everyone sees the world differently. Exactly which colors you see and which of your eyes is doing mo...

Tue, 22 Feb 2022

A few years ago, ecologist Elizabeth Clare had an idea--what if she could study rare or endangered a...

Fri, 18 Feb 2022

Raychelle Burks is a forensic chemist and an associate professor at American University. She's also ...

Thu, 17 Feb 2022

As a kid, Jasmin Graham was endlessly curious about the ocean. That eventually led her to a career i...

Wed, 16 Feb 2022

You're likely familiar with touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing - but there are actually more th...

Tue, 15 Feb 2022

When Abra Lee became the landscape manager at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, she ...

Mon, 14 Feb 2022

Humans have scalp hair. But why is human scalp hair so varied? Biological anthropologist Tina Lasisi...

Fri, 11 Feb 2022

Deep below our city streets lie intricate networks of underground piping built to carry away excess ...

Thu, 10 Feb 2022

Kyne is the stage name of Kyne Santos, a drag queen math communicator. The former Canada's Drag Race...

Wed, 09 Feb 2022

For Black History Month, Short Wave is celebrating Black voices in STEM - bringing back some of our...

Tue, 08 Feb 2022

At Short Wave, it's an unspoken goal to ask and answer every question under the sun — after all, s...

Mon, 07 Feb 2022

Triple axel, double lutz, toe loops, salchows — it's time to fall in love again with the sport of ...

Fri, 04 Feb 2022

In 2015, the National Institutes of Health ended invasive biomedical research on its hundreds of chi...

Thu, 03 Feb 2022

Cylita Guy was a curious child who enjoyed exploring the beaches, parks and animals that shared her ...

Wed, 02 Feb 2022

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is deciding whether a Baltimore case against more than a dozen o...

Tue, 01 Feb 2022

As COVID-19 cases in the U.S. drop, the hospitalization rate remains high — as does the death rate...

Mon, 31 Jan 2022

Today we're bringing you an episode from our friends at NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. They review th...

Fri, 28 Jan 2022

The Omicron surge may have peaked in the U.S., but parts of the world are seeing crippling levels of...

Thu, 27 Jan 2022

A few years back, a radio telescope in Australia picked up a radio signal that seemed to be coming f...

Wed, 26 Jan 2022

In the 1960s, the Bureau of Reclamation built a dam that flooded a celebrated canyon on the Utah-Ari...

Tue, 25 Jan 2022

Many experts warn there will be more infections on the downslope of the omicron surge, but the U.S. ...

Mon, 24 Jan 2022

Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder that leads to difficulty with walking, balance and coordinat...

Fri, 21 Jan 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope's mirrors are almost in place and soon it'll be a million miles away ...

Thu, 20 Jan 2022

The U.S. government has launched a website where people can request up to four free coronavirus test...

Wed, 19 Jan 2022

Sixty percent of electricity in the U.S. comes from fossil fuels, like natural gas and coal. Today o...

Tue, 18 Jan 2022

Health apps can be a great way to stay on top of your health. They let users keep track of things li...

Fri, 14 Jan 2022

Pablo Escobar had a private zoo at his estate in Colombia, with zebras, giraffes, flamingoes - and f...

Thu, 13 Jan 2022

It's likely the last week has been rough if you're either going to school or in a family with kids t...

Wed, 12 Jan 2022

Wingspan is a board game that brings the world of ornithology into the living room. The game comes w...

Tue, 11 Jan 2022

The U.S. is experiencing a viral blizzard which will likely continue through January, 2022. The omic...

Mon, 10 Jan 2022

Electric cars can help reduce greenhouse gases and companies are taking note — racing to become th...

Fri, 07 Jan 2022

Service dogs have long helped veterans with physical disabilities. While there have been stories abo...

Thu, 06 Jan 2022

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Jasmine Marcelin has spent the last year talking to a lot of peopl...

Wed, 05 Jan 2022

On today's show, Emily Kwong checks in with infectious disease physician Dr. Jasmine Marcelin at the...

Tue, 04 Jan 2022

A few months ago, on a trip to Hawaii, Short Wave host Emily Kwong encountered manta rays for the fi...

Mon, 03 Jan 2022

The cannabis industry is where the chemistry lab meets agriculture. Delta-8-THC is chemically derive...

Fri, 31 Dec 2021

Social Psychologist Devon Price says instead of viewing "laziness" as a deficit or something people ...

Thu, 30 Dec 2021

Lot of people took up bird watching in some form during the pandemic, including Short Wave editor Gi...

Wed, 29 Dec 2021

Many skin conditions, from rashes to Lyme disease to various cancers, present differently on dark sk...

Tue, 28 Dec 2021

That's right — Day 2 of Short Wave's Favorite Episodes Week is pure math goodness! This encore epi...

Mon, 27 Dec 2021

It's "My Favorite Things" week on Short Wave! Through December 30th, we'll dive into our archive to ...

Thu, 23 Dec 2021

Today we are wrapping up Science Fiction Week with a very special episode from our friends at NPR's ...

Wed, 22 Dec 2021

Today we're bringing you a beginner's guide to reading science fiction and fantasy from our friends ...

Tue, 21 Dec 2021

Today we're throwing back to one of our favorite Science Movie Club episodes: 'Contact' featuring Jo...

Mon, 20 Dec 2021

It's Science Fiction Week on Short Wave, earthlings! So strap on your zero gravity suits and polish ...

Sun, 19 Dec 2021

Ellen Ochoa didn't get picked the first time she applied to become an astronaut--nor the second. Bu...

Sat, 18 Dec 2021

The Omicron variant is spreading across the U.S. as the holidays are upon us. Science Desk reporter...

Fri, 17 Dec 2021

Soon the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope will blast off into space, hurtling almost a ...

Thu, 16 Dec 2021

As spaceflight inches closer to becoming a reality for some private citizens, science correspondent ...

Wed, 15 Dec 2021

Dr. Francis Collins talks with health correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin about Americans' overall h...

Tue, 14 Dec 2021

The U.S. is approaching 800,000 COVID-19 deaths as the Omicron variant spreads and the Delta varian...

Mon, 13 Dec 2021

Headaches, nausea, dizziness, and confusion are among the most common symptoms of a concussion. But ...

Fri, 10 Dec 2021

On a rapidly changing planet, there are many ways to measure the health of an ecosystem. Can sound b...

Thu, 09 Dec 2021

An NPR analysis shows that since the vaccine rollout, counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump h...

Wed, 08 Dec 2021

An underground lab is opening early next year in Australia. Its quest: to help detect dark matter an...

Tue, 07 Dec 2021

An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has voted to recommend tha...

Mon, 06 Dec 2021

The end of the 2021 hurricane season was officially November 30. This year, there was a lot of hurri...

Fri, 03 Dec 2021

Jane Goodall is a renowned naturalist and scientist. She's made a career studying primates and chimp...

Thu, 02 Dec 2021

Scientists have discovered that some female condors don't need males to reproduce. This phenomenon i...

Wed, 01 Dec 2021

Gender is infused in many aspects of our world — but should that be the case? According to mathe...

Tue, 30 Nov 2021

The coronavirus is still circulating and mutating — case in point, the World Health Organization h...

Mon, 29 Nov 2021

Puerto Rico was still recovering from Hurricane Maria and a string of earthquakes when the pandemic ...

Wed, 24 Nov 2021

Health insurance can be tremendously confusing, with its complexity, jargon and acronyms. But puttin...

Tue, 23 Nov 2021

Millions of Americans are planning to travel this week and gather inside for Thanksgiving — many i...

Mon, 22 Nov 2021

In movies, asteroids careening towards Earth confront determined humans with nuclear weapons to save...

Fri, 19 Nov 2021

For Guyana the potential wealth from oil development was irresistible — even as the country faces ...

Thu, 18 Nov 2021

Honey bees know a lot about honey, and humans are starting to catch up. Scientists are now looking a...

Wed, 17 Nov 2021

Turkey is the usual centerpiece of the Thanksgiving dinner, but it's all too easy to end up with a d...

Tue, 16 Nov 2021

Now that the Pfizer COVID vaccine is authorized for children five to eleven years old, a lot of pare...

Mon, 15 Nov 2021

A new exhibit in Washington, DC, mixes science and technology for an immersive art experience — ta...

Fri, 12 Nov 2021

Camilla Pang talks with Short Wave host Emily Kwong about her award-winning memoir, "An Outsider's G...

Thu, 11 Nov 2021

It's been 150 years since the first article was published about the molecule key to life as we know ...

Wed, 10 Nov 2021

A coalition of wealthier countries have promised that they'll provide $100 billion each year to help...

Tue, 09 Nov 2021

In the first week of COP26, the UN climate conference, world leaders took to the podium to talk abou...

Mon, 08 Nov 2021

When we lose someone or something we love, it can feel like we've lost a part of ourselves. And for ...

Fri, 05 Nov 2021

Aduhelm, known generically as aducanumab, is the first drug to actually affect the underlying diseas...

Thu, 04 Nov 2021

When people can't afford rent, they often end up in closer quarters. NPR health policy correspondent...

Wed, 03 Nov 2021

In 1977, NASA sent out two Voyager probes to study Jupiter and Saturn. The spacecrafts were designed...

Tue, 02 Nov 2021

Scientists have been trying to figure out how to eradicate malaria for decades. Globally, a child un...

Mon, 01 Nov 2021

(Encore) The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are the first authorized vaccines in hist...

Fri, 29 Oct 2021

NPR climate correspondents Lauren Sommer and Dan Charles join the show before the UN Climate Change ...

Thu, 28 Oct 2021

New York's Bellevue Hospital is the oldest public hospital in the country, serving patients from all...

Wed, 27 Oct 2021

If you're not so fond of spiders, you may find kindred spirits in other spiders! Researcher Daniela...

Tue, 26 Oct 2021

Over the last 25 years, the opioid epidemic has been devastating to families and communities all ove...

Mon, 25 Oct 2021

The idea of human zombies probably seems pretty far-fetched. But there are real zombies out there in...

Fri, 22 Oct 2021

Today, we present a special episode from our colleagues at Code Switch, NPR's podcast about race and...

Thu, 21 Oct 2021

Pacific lamprey may have lived on Earth for about 450 million years. When humans came along, a deep ...

Wed, 20 Oct 2021

There's a biodiesel boom happening! It's fueled by incentives and policies intended to cut greenhous...

Tue, 19 Oct 2021

The United States is on the verge of dramatically expanding the availability of COVID-19 vaccine boo...

Mon, 18 Oct 2021

Our colleagues at All Things Considered chatted with neuroscientist Nina Kraus about her new book Of...

Fri, 15 Oct 2021

Along certain coastlines near the equator, you can find a tree with superpowers. Mangroves provide a...

Thu, 14 Oct 2021

A box of Twinkies, left alone for eight years, held some surprises for Colin Purrington. Upon having...

Wed, 13 Oct 2021

The COVID-19 has exposed longstanding and massive health disparities in the U.S., resulting in peopl...

Tue, 12 Oct 2021

Cockroaches - do they get a bad rap? Producer Thomas Lu teams up with self-proclaimed lesbian cockr...

Fri, 08 Oct 2021

How did humans evolve some key cooperative behaviors like sharing? NPR Science Correspondent Jon Ham...

Thu, 07 Oct 2021

Why do some songs can stick with us for a long time, even when other memories start to fade? Science...

Wed, 06 Oct 2021

Humans have scalp hair. But why is human scalp hair so varied? Biological anthropologist Tina Lasisi...

Tue, 05 Oct 2021

Our colleagues at the TED Radio Hour introduce us to forager and TikTok influencer Alexis Nikole Nel...

Mon, 04 Oct 2021

Burnout has long been a problem among health care workers. The pandemic has only made it worse. Some...

Fri, 01 Oct 2021

A paper published recently in the journal Science finds similarities between the babbling of human i...

Thu, 30 Sep 2021

People are likely to be confused by common climate change terms like "mitigation" and "carbon neutra...

Wed, 29 Sep 2021

Suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, according to the most current data....

Tue, 28 Sep 2021

Based on early estimates, as many as 10,600 large sequoias were killed in last year's Castle Fire —...

Mon, 27 Sep 2021

Will Stone is a science reporter for NPR. He's been reporting about the pandemic for a while now, so...

Fri, 24 Sep 2021

In December, NASA is scheduled to launch the huge $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is s...

Thu, 23 Sep 2021

Some of the world's best artificial waves are happening hundreds of miles from the ocean—in Waco, ...

Wed, 22 Sep 2021

In the early 1900s, the Whitney South Sea expedition gathered 40,000 bird specimens for the American...

Tue, 21 Sep 2021

With booster shots on the horizon for some people, one of the biggest questions is: Am I still prot...

Mon, 20 Sep 2021

Many people are afraid of needles in some capacity — about 1 in 10 experience a "high level" of ne...

Fri, 17 Sep 2021

Fatima's Great Outdoors, a new children's book, centers on a girl named Fatima, who's struggling to ...

Thu, 16 Sep 2021

It is found in only one lake in the world, never grows up, and occasionally takes bites of its frien...

Wed, 15 Sep 2021

Millions of people rely on subways for transportation. But as the world warms, climate-driven floodi...

Tue, 14 Sep 2021

In rare cases, the delta variant of the coronavirus is causing vaccinated people to get sick — so-...

Mon, 13 Sep 2021

A new report from the Center for American Progress finds that nearly half of transgender people have...

Fri, 10 Sep 2021

Twenty years later, first responders during the 9/11 attacks have an increased risk of getting some ...

Thu, 09 Sep 2021

Another destructive fire season has Western states searching for ways to prevent it. As climate corr...

Wed, 08 Sep 2021

Manufacturers can expect to face unforeseen hurdles when they begin to mass-produce a brand new phar...

Tue, 07 Sep 2021

The universe is so much bigger than what people can see, and astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan is ...

Fri, 03 Sep 2021

Today, we bid farewell to our founding host, Maddie Sofia! In this special episode, the Short Wave t...

Thu, 02 Sep 2021

Maddie and Emily get super nerdy one last time as they dive into the incredible world of nudibranchs...

Wed, 01 Sep 2021

We're marking Maddie's last week on Short Wave! Today, Maddie wanted to highlight a COVID-related ep...

Tue, 31 Aug 2021

It's Day 2 of our trip down Maddie Sofia memory lane! Today's encore episode is all about how you're...

Mon, 30 Aug 2021

This week is our last with Maddie as a host, so we're spending it with a trip down memory lane. The ...

Fri, 27 Aug 2021

Going on a run and curious about how muggy it's going to be out? Maddie Sofia chats with producer Th...

Thu, 26 Aug 2021

Sunflower sea stars play a key role in ocean ecosystems on the West Coast - and they are disappearin...

Wed, 25 Aug 2021

Medical transition-related treatments like hormone replacement therapy are associated with overwhelm...

Tue, 24 Aug 2021

(Encore episode) Class is back in session. We're going "back to school" to dig a little deeper on a ...

Mon, 23 Aug 2021

NPR climate correspondent Lauren Sommer talks with Emily about a dilemma facing many local governmen...

Fri, 20 Aug 2021

It's summer, which for some means spare time at the beach, splashing in the waves and...building san...

Thu, 19 Aug 2021

Facebook's campus on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay is at risk from rising sea levels. So is a n...

Wed, 18 Aug 2021

(Encore episode) We chat with National Geographic Explorer and paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim about hi...

Tue, 17 Aug 2021

In the last two weeks or so, the number of new daily COVID-19 cases in the United States has increas...

Mon, 16 Aug 2021

Last week, the U.N. published a landmark report — detailing the current state of global climate ch...

Fri, 13 Aug 2021

(Encore episode) The mirror self-recognition test has been around for decades. Only a few species ha...

Thu, 12 Aug 2021

(Encore episode) It's another installment of our series, "Animal Slander," where we take a common ph...

Wed, 11 Aug 2021

(Encore episode) Joey Ramp's service dog, Sampson, is with her at all times, even when she has to wo...

Tue, 10 Aug 2021

(Encore episode) Clive Wynne, founding director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State...

Mon, 09 Aug 2021

Ever wonder why we call it the Dog Days of Summer? Today on the show — Emily gives Maddie an astro...

Fri, 06 Aug 2021

Science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce gives us the latest in gravitational waves and shares wha...

Thu, 05 Aug 2021

(Encore episode) The World Health Organization has called the spread of misinformation around the co...

Wed, 04 Aug 2021

The Alzheimer's Association International Conference took place in Denver this year. Today on the sh...

Tue, 03 Aug 2021

Whales are more than just beautiful creatures — they play a vital role in the ocean's ecosystem. T...

Mon, 02 Aug 2021

Caregivers in the "Sandwich Generation" have reported a steep decline in mental health, as did other...

Fri, 30 Jul 2021

There are thousands of species of lightning bug and they live all over the world except in Antarctic...

Thu, 29 Jul 2021

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidance on wearing masks. Sh...

Wed, 28 Jul 2021

Fire has always been part of California's landscape. But long before the vast blazes of recent years...

Tue, 27 Jul 2021

Sweating is critical to helping humans avoid overheating, and it's different than how most animals c...

Mon, 26 Jul 2021

It's a listener questions episode! Chuck, Short Wave fan, asks, "What is the current state of earthq...

Fri, 23 Jul 2021

California is in the middle of a terrible drought. The rivers are running low, and most of its farme...

Thu, 22 Jul 2021

Squirrels are everywhere — living in our suburban neighborhoods to our city centers to our surroun...

Wed, 21 Jul 2021

We talk to NPR's India correspondent Lauren Frayer about the ridiculously complicated science involv...

Tue, 20 Jul 2021

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in the last month due to the Delta variant. NPR correspondent Allison...

Mon, 19 Jul 2021

As a kid, Jasmin Graham was endlessly curious about the ocean. Her constant questioning eventually l...

Fri, 16 Jul 2021

July is National Ice Cream Month — and Sunday, July 18 is National Ice Cream Day (in the US)! Flav...

Thu, 15 Jul 2021

Delta is quickly becoming the dominant coronavirus variant in multiple countries. The variant has sp...

Wed, 14 Jul 2021

Contrary to sci-fi depictions in shows like Iron Man and Star Wars, getting from point A to point B ...

Tue, 13 Jul 2021

At the height of the pandemic, routine cancer screenings declined by 90 percent. Screenings are resu...

Mon, 12 Jul 2021

On the mountaintop glaciers of the Pacific Northwest lives a mysterious, and often, overlooked creat...

Fri, 09 Jul 2021

Summer's here. Time for a cool treat. So, you grab a popsicle from the freezer. Ahh ... that's bette...

Thu, 08 Jul 2021

FEMA acknowledges that the way it distributes aid often benefits some people more than others--and t...

Wed, 07 Jul 2021

People between the ages of 12 and 17 are now eligible to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and health ...

Mon, 05 Jul 2021

With the help of ecologist Rodrigo Medellín, the "Bat Man of Mexico," Rasha Aridi (former Short Wav...

Fri, 02 Jul 2021

(Encore episode) The 2016 movie Arrival, an adaptation of Ted Chiang's novella Story of Your Life, c...

Thu, 01 Jul 2021

When a disaster like a hurricane or wildfire destroys a house, the clock starts ticking. It gets har...

Wed, 30 Jun 2021

A recent study published in Nature found that 37 percent of heat-related deaths are due to climate c...

Tue, 29 Jun 2021

As a kid, Ariana Remmel had a hard time figuring out where they fit in. So they found comfort in the...

Mon, 28 Jun 2021

Early in the pandemic, contact tracing was viewed as one of the best options to quell the spread of ...

Fri, 25 Jun 2021

The FDA has approved a new drug for Alzheimer's. But a lot of experts are skeptical about whether th...

Thu, 24 Jun 2021

The past year has been the driest or second driest in most Southwestern U.S. states since record-kee...

Wed, 23 Jun 2021

Tam O'Shaughnessy and Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, shared a passion for get...

Tue, 22 Jun 2021

Health Correspondent Allison Aubrey updates us on the Biden Administration's goal to have 70 percent...

Mon, 21 Jun 2021

The anus is an evolutionary marvel. But how and when did this organ evolve into what it is today? To...

Sun, 20 Jun 2021

Nearly 1 billion people speak Mandarin Chinese. But Short Wave host Emily Kwong is not among them. A...

Fri, 18 Jun 2021

Hey, Nerd! NPR takes Juneteenth off. We'll be back Sunday with a special episode from NPR's Where We...

Thu, 17 Jun 2021

#BlackBirdersWeek emerged last year from a groundswell of support for Christian Cooper, a Black man ...

Wed, 16 Jun 2021

Becoming fluent in a second language is difficult. But for adults, is it impossible? Short Wave host...

Tue, 15 Jun 2021

Maddie talks with physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein about her new book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Jo...

Mon, 14 Jun 2021

It is one of the Earth's great migrations: each year, millions of monarch butterflies fly some 3,000...

Fri, 11 Jun 2021

After hearing a vicious rumor on the internet that vegetables aren't real, Maddie goes looking for a...

Thu, 10 Jun 2021

(Encore episode.) Scientists have known for decades that one of the main causes of the smell of fres...

Wed, 09 Jun 2021

The Biden Administration is working to fight climate change in a way that also address the country's...

Tue, 08 Jun 2021

Nationwide, almost 65% of adults have had at least one vaccine shot, but vaccination rates vary sign...

Mon, 07 Jun 2021

Paleontologist Yara Haridy looks at fossilized bones for a living. When she randomly walked by a sci...

Fri, 04 Jun 2021

There's big change that's happening in the field of artificial limbs: artificial limbs that both mov...

Thu, 03 Jun 2021

Short Wave reporter Emily Kwong speaks with Janina Jeff, the host and executive producer of In Those...

Wed, 02 Jun 2021

Researchers say the concept of achieving herd immunity threshold isn't the right finish line to end ...

Tue, 01 Jun 2021

Happy Pride, Short Wave Listeners! Here's a fun episode from our archives to celebrate the month!It'...

Fri, 28 May 2021

Scientists and students with disabilities are often excluded from laboratories — in part because o...

Thu, 27 May 2021

Juul Labs seemingly started out with the aim to reduce smoking, but the company's e-cigarettes came ...

Wed, 26 May 2021

Researchers report in the journal Science that they appear to have some clues about the origin of Ea...

Tue, 25 May 2021

Eight states have passed an important milestone: getting 70% of all adults vaccinated with at least ...

Mon, 24 May 2021

**Heads up. This episode discusses addiction and alcoholism.**Some doctors are seeing a disturbing s...

Fri, 21 May 2021

Solar geoengineering--the human attempt to cool the planet by reflecting sunlight away from Earth--i...

Thu, 20 May 2021

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation C...

Wed, 19 May 2021

In general, there are more men in STEMM fields than women. Representation in science, technology, en...

Tue, 18 May 2021

Many Americans are baring their faces in public again, following new CDC recommendations that fully ...

Mon, 17 May 2021

(Encore.) Drug overdose deaths are on the rise all around the country, including in Chicago, Illinoi...

Fri, 14 May 2021

It's the latest installment of our series, "Animal Slander," where we take a common saying about ani...

Thu, 13 May 2021

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the proportion of emergency depar...

Wed, 12 May 2021

Mud and dirt have often been treated as waste products from excavation or dredging sites. But these ...

Tue, 11 May 2021

Some colleges and universities have announced that COVID vaccination will be mandatory (with some ex...

Mon, 10 May 2021

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are the first authorized vaccines in history to us...

Fri, 07 May 2021

The numbers are staggering. India has been reporting more than 300,000 COVID-19 cases each day for t...

Thu, 06 May 2021

Katie Clapp and Michael Tranfaglia's son was born with a genetic disorder that affects brain develop...

Wed, 05 May 2021

We've been talking a lot about COVID in the US. Now, we want to look at how things are going in some...

Tue, 04 May 2021

The rate of vaccination in the U.S. continues to slow. Maddie Sofia talks with NPR health correspond...

Mon, 03 May 2021

Today, NPR's mental health correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee guests hosts Short Wave. She talks to Dr. ...

Fri, 30 Apr 2021

We at Short Wave are sometimes a little too aware of how difficult it can be to explain science to a...

Thu, 29 Apr 2021

In 2011, villages and towns around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant in Japan were evacuated becau...

Wed, 28 Apr 2021

Feeling green? If you'd like to do something to slow down climate change, even if it's just a small ...

Tue, 27 Apr 2021

Short Wave's Emily Kwong talks with NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey about some of the latest...

Mon, 26 Apr 2021

On April 15, at four o'clock in the morning, a small group of scientists found their way to a secret...

Fri, 23 Apr 2021

President Biden is hosting dozens of world leaders for a virtual climate summit on Thursday and Frid...

Thu, 22 Apr 2021

Horseshoe crabs have been around for 450 million years — nearly unchanged. And their blood has hel...

Wed, 21 Apr 2021

Why does hair turn gray? Stress? Age? Genetics? We turn to dermatologist Dr. Jenna Lester for answer...

Tue, 20 Apr 2021

Today, NPR Health Correspondent Allison Aubrey offers perspective on how to think about the latest c...

Mon, 19 Apr 2021

When you think of mathematicians, do you think of lone geniuses scribbling away at complex equations...

Fri, 16 Apr 2021

(Encore episode.) Archival records may help researchers figure out how fast the sea level is rising ...

Thu, 15 Apr 2021

(Encore episode.) Earlier this year, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought by the city...

Wed, 14 Apr 2021

(Encore episode.) Global Witness documented that 212 environmental and land activists were murdered ...

Tue, 13 Apr 2021

(Encore episode.) As sea levels rise from climate change, coastal communities face a greater risk of...

Mon, 12 Apr 2021

Humans have changed the Earth in such profound ways that scientists say we have entered a new geolog...

Fri, 09 Apr 2021

Psychedelics like ketamine and psilocybin are getting a second look as a way to treat psychiatric pr...

Thu, 08 Apr 2021

A curious symptom of COVID-19 that can stick with patients for a long time is loss of smell. Researc...

Wed, 07 Apr 2021

"Dialects" is one of those words tossed around a lot when talking about human language. They indicat...

Tue, 06 Apr 2021

More than 61 million people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. We're also now averag...

Mon, 05 Apr 2021

Currently, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US. But research shows that suicide is ...

Fri, 02 Apr 2021

We ask allergy expert Dr. Juanita Mora if seasonal allergies are getting worse. Plus, some quick tip...

Thu, 01 Apr 2021

Many skin conditions, from rashes to Lyme disease to various cancers, present differently on dark sk...

Wed, 31 Mar 2021

When lightning strikes the ground, it can leave behind a root-like rock called a fulgurite. Host Mad...

Tue, 30 Mar 2021

Our colleagues at the TED Radio Hour introduce us to wildlife filmmaker Ariel Waldman. She says the ...

Mon, 29 Mar 2021

NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel takes us to IonQ, one of the companies betting on a quantum...

Fri, 26 Mar 2021

NPR climate correspondent Lauren Sommer explains how scientists are getting creative to deal with th...

Thu, 25 Mar 2021

The cicadas are coming! After 17 years, Brood X is emerging this spring to mate. If you're in the ea...

Wed, 24 Mar 2021

(Encore episode.) In 2006, while hiking around the Root Glacier in Alaska, glaciologist Tim Bartholo...

Tue, 23 Mar 2021

NPR's international correspondent Lauren Frayer takes us on a tour of the factory of the world's lar...

Mon, 22 Mar 2021

In North Carolina, a rural electric cooperative is reliving its New Deal history, bringing technolog...

Fri, 19 Mar 2021

(Encore episode.) The coronavirus is all over the headlines these days. Accompanying those headlines...

Thu, 18 Mar 2021

It's been about a year since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic. The ...

Wed, 17 Mar 2021

Submarines can descend thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean, but to do so, they have to ...

Tue, 16 Mar 2021

Encore episode. The surface of the Earth is constantly recycled through the motion of plate tectonic...

Mon, 15 Mar 2021

It's been about a year since the coronavirus pandemic started to take hold in the United States. Rec...

Fri, 12 Mar 2021

In the year since the pandemic began, the coronavirus has severely impacted inmates and staff in U.S...

Thu, 11 Mar 2021

Alzheimer's disease affects more than 6 million Americans and a disproportionate number are Black. N...

Wed, 10 Mar 2021

The CDC released new guidance Monday, allowing people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to resume so...

Tue, 09 Mar 2021

Shark scientist Melissa Christina Marquez explains just how important sharks are to keeping the ocea...

Mon, 08 Mar 2021

More than 4 million U.S. homes face substantial risk of expensive flood damage, according to new res...

Fri, 05 Mar 2021

A lot of us were taught that conception happens with a survivor-style sperm race — the fastest and...

Thu, 04 Mar 2021

A growing number of cities are looking at restricting the use of gas in new buildings to reduce clim...

Wed, 03 Mar 2021

The coronavirus has disrupted all of our lives, and that's especially true for healthcare workers. W...

Tue, 02 Mar 2021

The Biden Administration has prioritized speed in its COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Also, a priority...d...

Mon, 01 Mar 2021

Today, we present a special episode from our colleagues at Code Switch, NPR's podcast about race and...

Fri, 26 Feb 2021

There are lots of misconceptions around urine. Can urine cure athlete's foot? Or really treat a jell...

Thu, 25 Feb 2021

Descendants of trauma victims seem to have worse health outcomes. Could epigenetics help explain why...

Wed, 24 Feb 2021

It's likely there's a magnet wherever you're looking right now. In fact, the device you're using to ...

Tue, 23 Feb 2021

James West has been a curious tinkerer since he was a child, always wondering how things worked. Thr...

Mon, 22 Feb 2021

Can people who are vaccinated still carry and transmit the coronavirus to other people? How effectiv...

Sat, 20 Feb 2021

To round out our celebration of Black History Month, we're bringing you a special episode featuring ...

Fri, 19 Feb 2021

Today, what happens in your brain when you notice a semantic or grammatical mistake, according to ne...

Thu, 18 Feb 2021

In June 2020, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM announced that they were limiting some uses of their facial ...

Wed, 17 Feb 2021

Some of the most prestigious scientists in history advanced racist and eugenicist views, but that is...

Tue, 16 Feb 2021

Author and neuroscientist Theanne Griffith talks with Maddie about her children's book series, The M...

Mon, 15 Feb 2021

In honor of Black History Month, Short Wave is focusing on Black scientists and educators — people...

Fri, 12 Feb 2021

Happy Valentine's Day from Short Wave! We've got something special for the holiday, Maddie and Emily...

Thu, 11 Feb 2021

Archival records may help researchers figure out how fast the sea level is rising in certain places....

Wed, 10 Feb 2021

Global Witness documented that 212 environmental and land activists were murdered in 2019. Over half...

Tue, 09 Feb 2021

Why is it so hard to feel the difference between 400,000 and 500,000 COVID-19 deaths—and how might...

Mon, 08 Feb 2021

Three in 10 people in America have a tattoo, and those in the 18 - 34 age bracket, it's almost 40 pe...

Fri, 05 Feb 2021

We're going "Back To School" today, revisiting a classic at-home experiment that turns lemons into b...

Thu, 04 Feb 2021

People of color experience more air and water pollution than white people and suffer the health impa...

Wed, 03 Feb 2021

Drug overdose deaths are on the rise all around the country, including in Chicago, Illinois. ProPubl...

Tue, 02 Feb 2021

With a lot of us stuck at home, trying to physically distance from each other, one part of daily lif...

Mon, 01 Feb 2021