Science History Podcast

02:43:55

Episode 106. The Space Race: Leroy Chiao

Science History Podcast ·

2026/09/10

Those of us who grew up during the Cold War were keenly aware of the space race between the US and USSR. With us to relive the victories and tragedies of the space race is Leroy Chiao. Leroy is a former NASA astronaut and International Space Station commander. A veteran of four space missions, Leroy most recently served as Commander and NASA Science Officer of Expedition 10 aboard the International Space Station. He logged 229 days in space - over 36 hours of which were spent in spacewalks. Leroy

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57:44

Episode 105. Curie's Elements: Dava Sobel

Science History Podcast ·

2026/08/10

Marie Curie was one of the most remarkable scientists in history. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two, and the only person ever to earn Nobel awards in separate fields of science. Today we explore the life and legacy of Marie Curie with the science writer Dava Sobel. Dava is the author of prominent and best-selling science history books, including Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, The Planets, A More Perfect Heaven, and The Glass Universe. Today's conversation is

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01:06:04

Episode 103. Astronomy: Sarah Alam Malik

Science History Podcast ·

2026/06/16

What did the ancient world discover about the cosmos? What were the contributions of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo? How did the science of astronomy advance under Newton? And how did everything change again with the discoveries of special relativity, general relativity, and quantum mechanics? With us to answer these questions is Sarah Alam Malik. Sarah is an expert on dark matter, and her work on large-scale experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider has placed her at the cutting edge of

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01:23:26

Episode 101. Longitude: Emily Akkermans

Science History Podcast ·

2026/04/10

The age of exploration altered the course of human history, but how did early explorers find their way? Calculating their latitude at sea was a relatively straightforward proposition, but calculating longitude presented a vexing problem. Given the big power competition for colonies, conquest, and riches, the search to discover an accurate means of assessing longitude became a scramble. A major piece of the puzzle lay in the accurate assessment of time on a rocking vessel, which tested the ingenuity

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01:53:19

Episode 100. Bohr's Legacy: Tomas Bohr

Science History Podcast ·

2026/03/11

Today we explore the life and legacy of the physicist Niels Bohr through the reflections of his grandson Tomas Bohr. Tomas is an Emeritus Professor at the Technical University of Denmark. He studies fluid dynamics, biophysics, chaos, turbulence and statistical mechanics, and he has a long and distinguished career publishing in these fields. He is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

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01:54:32

Episode 99. Rapa Nui's Collapse: Mike Pitts

Science History Podcast ·

2026/02/11

Often in the history of science, myths overrun scientific findings and take hold with such force that they are difficult or nearly impossible to dislodge from public understanding. Perhaps no example of this phenomenon is more pronounced than that of the societal collapse of Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui. With us to unravel the myth from the science is Mike Pitts. Mike is a writer and broadcaster (a frequent voice on BBC radio), archaeologist (directing excavations at Stonehenge), and

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56:53

Episode 97. Forever Chemicals: Sharon Udasin

Science History Podcast ·

2025/12/10

Today's episode is a discussion on the history of PFAS, or forever chemicals, including their accidental development, incorporation into commercial products, concerns about health effects, and environmental contamination and remediation. My guest is Sharon Udasin. Sharon is a Colorado-based environmental journalist and author of Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America. She was a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2019-2020

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01:03:40

Episode 96. The Weather: Simon Winchester

Science History Podcast ·

2025/11/11

The weather has always been a critical element of the human experience - deadly during storms and droughts, sustaining when aligned with the harvest schedule, beautiful and frightening, and integrated into the myths and religions of all societies. How did a scientific understanding of the weather come about? Here to guide us on this question is Simon Winchester. Simon's articles and approximately 30 books range in topic from travel writing to politics, geography, biography, and science history

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01:24:24

Episode 95. The River War: James Muller

Science History Podcast ·

2025/10/11

In Episodes 10 and 11 of the Science History Podcast, I interviewed James Muller on the role that Winston Churchill played in the unparalleled advancement of science and technology during the first half of the 20th Century, particularly as it related to the two world wars. In today's episode, Jim returns to discuss Churchill and an earlier war fought in the Sudan at the end of the 19th Century. Jim is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Alaska Anchorage and one of the world’s foremost

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01:17:22

Episode 94. Lead Poisoning: Bruce Lanphear

Science History Podcast ·

2025/09/11

Our health, and the health of wildlife, depends on a clean environment. Since the advent of the industrial revolution, our environment has suffered from waves of pollution as different technologies came to the fore, each with its own set of practical benefits and associated chemical waste. Perhaps the most insidious of these environmental pollutants is lead. With us to discuss the history of lead as an environmental contaminant is Bruce Lanphear. For over 30 years, Bruce has investigated how toxic

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01:03:14

Episode 93. Attacks on University Research: Claudia...

Science History Podcast ·

2025/08/11

The year 2025 has seen the most aggressive moves ever by the US executive branch against scientific research as the Trump Administration has gutted federal science and regulatory agencies and cancelled billions of dollars in research grants that had already been awarded to universities. With me to discuss the Trump Administration attacks on university research is Claudia Polsky. Claudia is a clinical professor of law and the founding director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of

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58:44

Episode 92. ATSDR: Jaimi Dowdell

Science History Podcast ·

2025/07/12

In Episode 62, I interviewed two Reuters journalists about how industry and government in the United States use conservation easements to avoid rigorous cleanup of contaminated sites. Today, one of those journalists, Jaimi Dowdell, is back to discuss how a federal agency responsible for community health assessments has a history of failing to protect the communities that seek its aid. Jaimi was part of the Reuters team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. Today we discuss the

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01:29:48

Episode 91. Political Bias: Bill von Hippel

Science History Podcast ·

2025/06/11

In prior episodes, we examined political interference and bias in science in a few contexts, including episode 3 on the history of U.S. congressional attacks on science, episode 57 on types of bias, episode 65 on ideology and science, and episode 84 on the academy's ideological march to the left and antisemitism on American college campuses. Since those episodes, America went back to the future with the election for the second time of Donald Trump, and the Trump Administration has attacked elite

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02:15:56

Episode 86. Quantum Mechanics: Jim Baggott

Science History Podcast ·

2025/01/12

Humanity's understanding of the universe radically altered with the advent of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century. The theory of quantum mechanics describes how nature behaves at or below the scale of atoms, and the road to that theory was littered with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. With us to discuss the development of quantum mechanics, and the major schools of thought represented by Neils Bohr and Albert Einstein, is Jim Baggott. Today we discuss many of the key players in the

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01:51:22

Episode 84. The Academy: Bret Stephens

Science History Podcast ·

2024/11/11

Institutions of higher education, especially in the United States, have received a great deal of attention over the past two generations regarding their ideological march to the left, and the impacts, real or imagined, on society at large. Criticism of American universities has sharpened since Oct. 7, 2023, as the Hamas attack on Israel was closely followed by campus protests against Israel. The ensuing turmoil resulted in the temporary closure of campuses, the resignations of college presidents,

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01:45:37

Episode 83. Hebrew: Shalom Goldman

Science History Podcast ·

2024/10/11

What was the Western World's understanding of the origins of humanity prior to the Enlightenment? Why did Christopher Columbus have a Hebrew speaker on his voyages of exploration? Why did the American universities founded before the Revolution have Hebrew in their curriculum? What role did linguistics play in the late 19th century modernization of the Hebrew language? What does the literary critic Edmund Wilson have to do with the science of archeology? Finally, and unrelated to science, how did the

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01:42:51

Episode 82. Jerusalem Archeology: Jodi Magness

Science History Podcast ·

2024/09/11

Archeology is the science that most directly connects us with our past, and no city in the world has been subject to more archeological interest than Jerusalem. With us to explore the archeology of Jerusalem is Jodi Magness. Jodi is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since 2002, she has been the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jodi's research interests

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01:40:27

Episode 81. Nuclear Disarmament: Steve Fetter

Science History Podcast ·

2024/08/11

Today I speak with Steve Fetter about his work on a variety of nuclear disarmament efforts, including the Black Sea Experiment, nuclear archeology, the risks associated with a single person having the ability to start a nuclear war, ballistic missile defense, the weaponization of space, nuclear energy, and climate change. Steve received an SB in physics from MIT in 1981 and a PhD in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley in 1985. Steve has been a professor in the School of

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46:56

Episode 78. Szilard After The War: William Lanouette

Science History Podcast ·

2024/05/12

In episode 77, I interviewed William Lanouette about Leo Szilard's work on the atom bomb, with a discussion of the roles that Szilard played until the end of World War II. Today, in part two of my interview with Bill, we focus on Szilard's achievements after the war. Bill is a writer and public policy analyst who has specialized in the history of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. He received an A.B. in English with a minor in Philosophy at Fordham College in 1963, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in

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01:44:37

Episode 77. Szilard's Chain Reaction: William Lanouette

Science History Podcast ·

2024/04/11

Perhaps the most overlooked scientist who played critical roles in the development of the atomic bomb was Leo Szilard. With us to explore Szilard's numerous contributions to science and society is William Lanouette. Bill is a writer and public policy analyst who has specialized in the history of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. He received an A.B. in English with a minor in Philosophy at Fordham College in 1963, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science at the London School of Economics

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