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PODCAST

What The If?

Learn how to think like EINSTEIN! Every week we learn science running imaginative thought experiments. Our brilliant guests are some of the world’s greatest science fiction writers, scientists & science communicators. Leap into a journey to answer the most fascinating question in the universe: What The IF?

science & medicine history

All Episodes

00:38:34

ANTIMATTER On Demand!

What The If? ·

2026/06/17

ANTIMATTER On Demand! by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia

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00:43:15

WHO The If - GABY!

What The If? ·

2026/06/09

Behind every voice you've come to love on this show is a life full of stories you've never heard. With our eighth anniversary just around the corner, we're doing something we've never done: each of us takes a turn in the guest's chair to answer all the questions the rest of us have always wondered about. First up is Gaby, a microbiologist at Harvard. What's it really like to spend your days in her world? Step into a lab alive with invisible wonders, head out to a beach where secret animal rituals

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00:39:54

TOO SOCIAL Media!

What The If? ·

2026/06/03

Listener Kevin Towers asks: what the if the internet made everyone use their real, traceable name? No usernames. No masks. No hiding behind a clever handle at 2am. In this universe, every comment you fire off comes permanently stapled to your actual identity, your job, and your reputation. Would all that sunlight finally make us kind? Or would we go quiet, too nervous to ever post again? There's a crash course in why we turn feral online, a trip back to the dial-up Stone Age, and a rowdy brawl over

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00:54:42

The Other Theory of EVOLUTION!

What The If? ·

2026/05/20

What the if Lamarck was right? Stanford historian Jessica Riskin, author of "The Power of Life," is our guide into a universe where living things aren't passive passengers waiting for evolution to happen to them, but the active architects of their own bodies, their offspring, and the world around them. The line between creature and environment dissolves. Even the smallest beings turn out to be busy reshaping the planet. Stretch your neck. Reshape your descendants. Welcome to the Lamarckian

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00:43:38

Moon Babies Meet EARTH - Part 2!

What The If? ·

2026/05/16

What the if you were born on the Moon and Earth was the alien planet? Picking up from last month's cliffhanger, our travelers from the lunar surface finally touch down — and nothing about this place is what they expected. There's some physics, some biology, a detour through ancient Greece, and a first encounter with the locals that nobody could have prepared for. The view from another world makes home look stranger than it has any right to. Settle in for the second half of a two-part thought

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00:28:37

Moon Babies Meet EARTH!

What The If? ·

2026/04/17

Picture this: you're a moon baby, born and raised underground on Luna, and you've just landed on Earth for the very first time. Meet the loonies, a civilization of moon-born humans who cook up rocket fuel from lunar ice and travel between worlds in spacecraft that might just include a pickleball court. Along the way we dig into the real science of rocket propulsion, tidal locking, G-forces on the human body, and why atmospheric reentry is the single hardest part of coming home. Where will the first

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00:44:16

Microbe Grudge Match!

What The If? ·

2026/04/03

What the if microbes held a grudge? We're thrilled to welcome Ethan Rappaport, theoretical ecologist at the University of Maryland, to take us inside the tiny turf wars happening in your gut. We imagine bacteria sharing grudges like social media reposts, passing weaponized DNA to their neighbors through tiny genetic pamphlets called plasmids. Before you know it, whole microbial nations could be declaring war on your intestinal lining until you hand over the cotton candy. So maybe skip the diet and

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00:41:44

Telepathy!

What The If? ·

2026/03/17

What the if you could read minds — but only when someone's nearby? Congratulations, your subway commute just became a psychic nightmare. Babies would blast unfiltered emotional chaos straight into your skull, your dog would telepathically loop images of a full food bowl at you around the clock, and predators might evolve to psychically lure prey into their mouths. But here's the thing — telepathy might also unlock a kind of empathy we've never experienced before, letting us truly feel the world

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00:42:31

The Buddy System Run AMOK!

What The If? ·

2026/02/27

What the if humans moved in schools — not classrooms, but like fish? Inspired by Carl Zimmer's New York Times article on how misinformation spreads among schooling fish, this episode explores a world where you can't go anywhere without your tightly synchronized pod. From navigating modern city life to figuring out what spooks a school of humans in the first place, things get weird fast. And the real science behind why fish school — and what happens when one of them panics for no reason — might just

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00:40:34

The Day Gravity QUIT!

What The If? ·

2026/02/13

A conspiracy theory went viral claiming that on August 12th, 2026, Earth will lose gravity for seven seconds. The internet did what the internet does, and millions of people started talking about it. So we decided to take the question seriously — what the if gravity actually clocked out for seven seconds? Let's just say you might want to start shopping for bungee cords now. And maybe a bouncy castle. This episode was inspired by an Instagram post from the now-mysteriously-vanished user Mr. Donya OF,

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00:30:17

GROUND HOG Day PHYSICS!

What The If? ·

2026/02/05

What the if a groundhog could actually predict the weather? Turns out Punxsutawney Phil would need way more than a shadow — we're talking a full groundhog space program, weather satellites, underground supercomputers, and a solar shade the size of western Pennsylvania. Welcome to the groundhog deep state, where fuzzy bureaucrats run atmospheric circulation models and control whether the sun shines on command. And here's the kicker — the whole setup might actually teach you why the weather forecast

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00:51:31

HAGFISH - Champion Of The SLIMER BOWL!

What The If? ·

2026/01/30

We first shared this one on Super Bowl Sunday 2019 — what better weekend to bring back nature's ultimate underdog? Enjoy this encore presentation!---- The HAGFISH, little known, little respected... greatly feared... by sharks! Is the hagfish the Spiderman of the Sea? This little slimy fish can spit out a slimy blob that BLOWS UP REAL BIG. What the if... WE could defend ourselves like that? Imagine the sport! In celebration of the SUPER BOWL, we present a special episode: The SLIME BOWL. Let the

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00:58:47

Walking on IO with Robin Andrews! (Encore)

What The If? ·

2026/01/08

We're taking a break this week while Philip recovers from the 'double-whammy' of flu and COVID boosters. (Science works, but sometimes it makes you nap!)However, we couldn't let January 7th pass unnoticed. On this day in 1610, Galileo first spotted Jupiter's moon, Io. To celebrate, we’ve unlocked the vault for an encore of one of our most popular episodes ever. Strap in for a tour of a lava-covered world with Robin Andrews in... "Walking on IO". ---- DR. ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS, science writer for

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00:32:00

BIOLOGICAL New Year's Resolutions!

What The If? ·

2025/12/30

What the if your New Year's resolution became a biological compulsion you literally could not ignore? Imagine waking up on January 1st with the same unstoppable urge that drives salmon to swim upstream, except instead of spawning, you absolutely must get to the gym three times a week. In this world, the darkness of winter triggers something deep in our ancient brain, locking us into whatever commitment we scribbled down at midnight. You'd have to rules-lawyer your own resolutions like a contract

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00:39:32

Time REVERSAL with Ian Durham!

What The If? ·

2025/12/26

What the if time suddenly started running backwards? Your breakfast un-eats itself, LEGO sets come pre-assembled, and you get younger every day. The dead have unfunerals, your room cleans itself, and teenagers slowly regress through middle school—backwards. Professor Ian Durham of Saint Anselm College stops by to explain the real physics behind time reversal and why photons might start shooting out of your eyeballs.Want to see time reversal in action? Check out The Palindrome Paradox, the

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00:40:08

Green SUN Apocalypse!

What The If? ·

2025/12/05

What the if the Sun suddenly turned green? Your pizza now looks like charcoal because all red things go black. Stop signs become invisible. The sky shifts from cheerful blue to permanent dusk. And plants? They absolutely despise green light—they reflect it because green photons are the M&Ms they pick out of the bowl. So with a green Sun, photosynthesis grinds to a halt, oxygen tanks, and everything that breathes is in serious trouble. The only potential survivors might be weird microbes at deep

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00:36:09

Two BABIES, Two SPECIES!

What The If? ·

2025/11/19

Scientists just discovered ant queens that give birth to two completely different species - not twins, but actual separate species hatching from the same mother. But what the if every animal on Earth reproduced this way? Suddenly every pregnancy becomes a species reveal party, dairy farms need to manage herds where some cows give birth to regular calves while others pop out Ice Age yaks, and your family reunions include relatives from entirely different species sitting around the same table. Pet

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00:59:34

CHINA vs NASA

What The If? ·

2025/11/14

This week we're trading hypothetical fungi and exploding planets for something scarier: actual government budgets. But don't worry - watching America accidentally hand the space race to China is just as entertaining as any sci-fi disaster scenario, and way more preventable. Think "For All Mankind" but with spreadsheets instead of heroic astronauts. What happens when NASA's budget gets slashed in half while China's space program keeps climbing? Chris Carberry from Explore Mars joins to explore a

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00:41:12

Animals Train YOU!

What The If? ·

2025/10/15

Honey guide birds in Africa respond to culturally distinct human calls and lead hunters to beehives, where humans crack them open and birds feast on the exposed beeswax. But what the if humans could whistle for any wild animal to help with tasks? Call a deer to haul your Costco groceries home (extra cabbage as payment), summon crows to find your lost earring for peanuts, or live in a Viking village where bears help with the salmon harvest then hibernate in someone's hut all winter. From turkey

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00:49:54

Gravity Waves Go WIGGLE

What The If? ·

2025/09/19

What the if gravitational waves were big enough to see and feel? Instead of measuring distortions smaller than a proton, imagine watching your coffee table accordion in and out as ripples from distant black hole collisions pass through your local cafe. Every time Charlie the cat bats a toy mouse in Greenwich Village, sugar cubes scrunch in Williamsburg cafes. Brain surgeons would need to ask all of New York to sit perfectly still during operations to avoid gravitational interference. Even parking

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