Science Magazine Podcast

47:40

A moon heist, lava fountains, and predicting doomsday

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/10/08

First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Robin George Andrews describes Japan’s upcoming Martian Moons eXploration mission that will nab a sample from the surface of Mars’s moon Phobos. The material, due back to Earth in 2031, could reveal the origins of this mysterious moon, the past habitability of Mars, or even hints of life itself.Next on the show, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano started to periodically spew tall fountains of lava in December 2024. Researchers and the public tuned in to

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37:23

Stimulating the brain for women’s health, and the...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/10/01

First up on the podcast, Staff Writer Jennie Erin Smith joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about new research on how noninvasive technologies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation are being used in the context of women’s health to tackle everything from postpartum depression to menstrual pain and fertility issues.Next on the show, we talk with Liisa Galea, Treliving family chair in women’s mental health and professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. In a review in

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48:42

Studying the changing of AI language inside swarms,...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/09/24

First up on the podcast, Staff Reporter Tom Howarth joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the language artificial intelligence agents evolve inside their swarms.Next on the show, producer Elah Feder talks with Revathe Thillaikumar, a behavioral ecologist and postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. The two discuss the value of social learning as baby orangutans learn to find their own food over the longest dependency period of any animal, except humans. Finally, from

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39:57

Can ‘assisted migration’ save forests? And the role...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/09/17

First up on the podcast, as the planet warms and forests burn, can we replant them with new trees that will thrive in the decades ahead? Associate Editor Katie Langin joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss research into “assisted migration” for replenishing forests after wildfires.Next on the show, Susana Monsó, an associate professor in the Department of Logic, History and Philosophy of Science at the Spanish National University of Distance Education, shares her latest Expert Voices column. She

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33:12

Psychoactive substances helped spur Andean...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/09/10

First up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell and freelance journalist Andrew Lawler discuss how psychoactive drugs might have shaped culture in pre-Inca Andean societies. They chat about how technical advances and an increasingly open research environment have allowed scientists to detect traces of substances such as vilca, which contains dimethyltryptamine, the psychoactive compound also found in ayahuasca.Next on the show, host Sarah Crespi is joined by Noam Angrist, academic director of

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27:40

Sex-reversing frogs, and Europe’s rising rates of a...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/09/03

First up on the podcast, Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how climate is pushing the disease-carrying tick Hyalomma marginatum out of its comfort zone. Stone reports from Kosovo, where the tick has long been endemic, on how surveillance can uncover hidden circulation—and help countries prepare before human cases appear.Next on the show, researchers have long known ambient temperatures cause some species of amphibians to reverse sex. In the case of

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49:46

Making drugs in space, the man who fed India, and...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/08/27

First up on the podcast, will it ever make economic sense to produce drugs and biomedical supplies in space? Associate Online News Editor Michael Greshko discusses his story on the researchers attempting to make biomanufacturing in space a reality, with News intern Julia Vaz.Next on the show, producer Kevin McLean chats with Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen, a professor in the department of birds and mammals at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, about how narwhals have helped collect

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28:54

Why tracing cyclosporiasis is so tough, and a...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/08/20

First up on the podcast, the News team’s Diverse Voices in Science Journalism interns Mona Patterson and Laura Martín Agudelo join host Sarah Crespi to talk over some of their reporting from the summer. They chat about several stories, including why it’s so difficult to track the food-borne illness cyclosporiasis and a new map for a major highway of the human nervous system.Check out all of Patterson’s and Martín Agudelo’s stories. Next on the show, Leslie Chan, assistant professor in the Wallace

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26:51

A vest for blocking cosmic rays, and updates on NIH...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/08/13

First up on the podcast, ScienceInsider Editor Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi for the latest science policy news. The two discuss recent grant cancellations by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the likelihood that the agency will spend its budget by the end of its fiscal year on 30 September.Next on the show, crew aboard spacecraft that enter deep space are likely to be exposed to a radiation source we don’t often encounter on Earth’s surface: high-speed protons coming from solar

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38:04

Did meat or fruit give people big brains, and...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/08/06

First up on the podcast, Deputy News Editor Michael Price discusses the history of the North American bison population, its decline, and resurrection—and links to Indigenous cultures. He’s joined by University of California, Santa Cruz evolutionary molecular biologist Beth Shapiro and Greg Wilson, a wildlife ecologist with Parks Canada. They talk about their Science paper on the genetic diversity of modern bison after near extermination during European colonization. Shapiro and Wilson also explain

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46:56

AI’s influence on society, measuring muscles, and a...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/07/30

First up on the podcast, we catch up with Celina Zhao, a staff reporter for Science’s AI In Science reporting initiative. She talks with host Sarah Crespi about artificial intelligence’s knack for finding legal loopholes and how philosophers are navigating conflicts of interest around advising companies on AI.Next on the show, it’s hard to figure out how much force a muscle is exerting without sticking invasive probes into the body. Christopher Bird, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Biomedical

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37:24

Death in a gene-editing trial, and insect larvae...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/07/23

First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Brendan Borrell talks about his work reporting on the previously undisclosed death of a 6-year-old girl in a gene-editing clinical trial in China and the reasons her parents came forward.This story was produced in collaboration with Retraction Watch and supported by the Science Fund for Investigative Reporting. Next on the show, Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Evan McKenzie, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, about an

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41:53

Health care in Malawi after USAID’s end, and a rocky...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/07/16

First up on the podcast, we continue our coverage of the fallout from cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), this time focusing on how one of the largest recipients of aid is coping 18 months later. Contributing Correspondent Catherine Offord talks about her trip to Malawi and the efforts to strengthen their health infrastructure in the wake of funding shocks. Next on the show, Collin Cherubim, Ph.D. candidate in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at Harvard

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35:10

Owl wars and the immune system’s memory

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/07/09

First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall goes on an owl hunt in the woods of Northern California. After surviving logging and habitat destruction in the 1990s, the endangered Northern spotted owl has put conservationists in a bind: In order to protect the spotted owl, the only solution may be shooting barred owls. Next on the show, looking back at the first 10 years of the journal Science Immunology. Editor Seth Thomas Scanlon explores how the field has changed since the

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32:46

How Antarctica got its ice sheets, and what happens...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/07/02

First up on the podcast, relationships turn chilly in the polar research haven of Svalbard in Norway. Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the impacts of geopolitical shifts on the scientific output of this region so important to the study of climate change. Next on the show, producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Thomas Gernon, a geologist at the University of Southampton, about how ice sheets formed in Antarctica during a time when the temperatures were

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45:06

Cracking color vision, U.S. science policy changes,...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/06/25

First up on the podcast, ScienceInsider editor Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss big policy stories from the past month, including a proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration to increase the involvement of politicians in grantmaking. Next on the show, Science Senior Editor Michael Funk joins to discuss a trio of papers on the light-detecting proteins responsible for color vision. Ohashi et al., Science 2026 Peng et al., Science 2026 Schmidt et al.,

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46:56

An electronic nose that detects spoiled chicken, and...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/06/18

First up on the podcast, wrangling wolves in Europe. After near extermination in much of the continent, wolf numbers have surged up to about 20,000 individuals. Contributing Correspondent Gretchen Vogel joins podcast host Sarah Crespi to discuss the conflicts that have risen as the wolf population grows.Next on the show, Ph.D. student Carla Bassil talks about designing an e-nose that can hone in on important food smells such as chicken that has gone bad or the presence of allergens including

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31:32

How childhood environments shape the brain, and how...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/06/11

First up on the podcast, producer Kevin McLean talks with Staff Writer Paul Voosen about the latest on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC. Researchers have long been concerned that global warming could cause a collapse in the AMOC, which would trigger dramatic cooling in Northern Europe. But recent data and models suggest the AMOC may be more resilient than previously thought.Next on the show, Scott Marek, assistant professor in the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at

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50:03

Will AI replace astronomers, how healthy are...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/06/04

First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Joshua Sokol talks about the intense discussion happening in the astrophysics community as artificial intelligence and machine learning become increasingly powerful—could “astronomer” stop being a job one day?Next on the show, as the Trump administration makes moves to regulate ultraprocessed foods, host Sarah Crespi talks with Faidon Magkos, a professor in obesity and metabolism in the department of nutrition, exercise, and sports at the

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45:22

Disembodied human brains, immortal bits of sea...

Science Magazine Podcast ·

2026/05/28

First up on the podcast, a company is using whole brains—maintained with specialized life support—to study new drugs. Freelance science journalist Sara Reardon joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the advantages and ethical considerations of keeping brains intact but inactive.Next on the show, when some lizards lose their tails, they might regenerate new ones. But what happens to the old tail? Whereas a castoff lizard tail quickly decomposes, this isn’t the case for the castoff tube feet of the

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