Afleveringen
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The band Phish has toured for over 40 years. One of the draws of their legendary live shows—which can go on for 8 hours—is finding moments of “flow,” when the band members lock into an improvised jam, finding new musical ideas in real time.
Phish fans live for these transcendent moments, but so do the musicians—to the point that Mike Gordon, the band’s bass player, is funding scientific research to better understand flow state.
In November 2025, Host Flora Lichtman sat down with Mike and his research collaborator, neuroscientist Greg Appelbaum, to unpack their research so far and how it’s helping to inform other neuroscience.
Guests:
Mike Gordon is bassist and co-founder of the seminal improvisational rock band Phish.
Dr. Greg Appelbaum is a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego.
A transcript for this episode is available at sciencefriday.com.
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Americans pay roughly three times as much for prescription meds as people in other wealthy nations. But why?
Tahir Amin argues it’s largely to do with how our patent systems work. He’s been on both sides of the issue: He spent a decade as an intellectual property lawyer, helping corporations use patents to protect their bottom lines. Then he moved to India and saw firsthand how the global patent system hampered access to HIV drugs.
That led him to shift gears and create an advocacy organization aimed at changing the patent system to make access to medicines more equitable. He chats with Flora about how it all works, and his new book, “Pharma Monopoly.”
Read an excerpt from “Pharma Monopoly: The Battle for the Future of Medicines.”
Guest:
Tahir Amin is a co-author of “Pharma Monopoly: The Battle for the Future of Medicines” and a founder and CEO of Initiatives for Medicine Access and Knowledge (I-MAK).
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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If you hear “colonial America” and “science,” one name probably comes to mind: Benjamin Franklin. But he wasn’t the only one thinking big thoughts and asking big questions. Many other natural philosophers were also looking at the world in new ways, and trying to make sense of how it worked.
In honor of the nation’s 250th birthday, Host Ira Flatow traveled to Boston, the birthplace of the American Revolution, for a conversation with historian Robert Allison about scientific thought in early America.
Guest:
Dr. Robert Allison is a professor of history at Suffolk University, chair of Revolution 250, and president of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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Researchers have engineered an artificial cell out of chemicals and biomolecules that, at a basic level, can eat, grow, duplicate its own genetic code, and reproduce itself. The cell, dubbed SpudCell, is aimed at creating a chassis that can be adapted to create biological factories for the chemicals humans rely on for modern life, from fuels to pharmaceuticals. But it also raises the question of what it means for something to be “alive.”
Synthetic biologist Kate Adamala joins Host Ira Flatow to talk about the technological advance, the possibilities for the artificial cell, and a nonprofit organization she hopes will allow the SpudCell to spark an innovation in biotechnology.
Guest:
Dr. Kate Adamala is a synthetic biologist and an associate professor of genetics, cell biology, and development at the University of Minnesota.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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Imagine this: You’re an astronaut, you’ve landed on the moon, and as you’re taking one small step for mankind, you kick up a bunch of lunar dirt. Now, tiny, jagged particles of dust are on your spacesuit, sticking to the spacecraft, getting in the machinery, and into your lungs. These are the kinds of problems planetary geologist Erica Jawin is trying to solve as NASA prepares for future moon bases.
And what will you eat as an astronaut on the moon? Turns out that lunar dirt, or regolith, can be used to grow potatoes and other crops, just like Matt Damon did in “The Martian.” Flora talks to space biologist David Handy to learn more.
Guests:
Dr. Erica Jawin is a planetary geologist at the National Air and Space Museum and a participating scientist on NASA's Artemis science team.
Dr. David Handy is a space biologist studying how to grow potatoes in moon dirt at Oregon State University.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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Around 25 years ago, Ardem Patapoutian set out to investigate the fundamental biology behind our sense of touch. Through a long process of gene elimination, he identified a class of sensors in the cell membrane that turn physical pressure into an electrical signal. He changed the game in the field of sensation and perception, and in 2021 shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work.
He joined Host Flora Lichtman in November 2025 to talk about his research, the odd jobs he worked along the way, and how he found a sense of belonging in science.
Guests:
Dr. Ardem Patapoutian is a professor and the Presidential Endowed Chair in Neurobiology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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Hundreds of thousands of years ago, deep in the mountains of the Yukon, a ground squirrel pooped. That scat stayed frozen for millenia—until very recently, when researchers thawed it out and realized it was a literal data dump. They found traces of a surprising number of animals and plants, providing a detailed snapshot of life during the last ice age. Flora talks with biomolecular archaeologist Tyler Murchie about the gold mine that is ancient squirrel poop.
And, if you liked our poop jokes, you’ll want to hear how two different types of laughter are processed in the brain. Think big belly laughs versus polite chuckles in conversation. Ira chats with neuroscientist Sophie Scott about how these laughs originate and why we need them both.
Guests:
Dr. Tyler Murchie is a biomolecular archaeologist at the Hakai Institute in British Columbia and McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
Dr. Sophie Scott is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London in England.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly forms of cancer, and it can be difficult to catch early. But there’s some good news: Clinical trials of a new drug called daraxonrasib found that it doubled the survival time of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. And some oncologists are calling it a game changer—not just for pancreatic cancer, but potentially other forms of cancer too. Ira talks with oncologist Zev Wainberg, who led a clinical trial for the drug.
Plus, ALS is a degenerative disease that causes patients to lose their ability to walk, swallow and eventually to breathe. Now, there’s a drug for a rare genetic form of ALS that can slow the progression or even reverse some of these symptoms. Ira talks with New York Times health and science reporter Pam Belluck about this new treatment.
Guests:
Dr. Zev Wainberg is a co-director of UCLA Health’s GI Oncology Program.
Pam Belluck is a health and science reporter for The New York Times.
Other episodes you may enjoy:
mRNA Vaccine For Pancreatic Cancer Continues To Show Promise How do clinical trials work, and who can participate?Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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On a hot summer day, there’s nothing better than a dip in a cold pool. But you know who can ruin that for you? A scientist who studies pool chemistry. What chemical reactions are happening in that swimming pool when the water comes into contact with our bodily fluids and skin products?
Environmental engineer Ernest Blatchley sits down with Flora Lichtman to discuss his findings after two decades of research, including how urine in a pool makes that chlorine smell, and his work to make the air of the Paris Olympics’ indoor pools less toxic.
Guest:
Dr. Ernest Blatchley is a professor of environmental engineering at Purdue University, based in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Other episodes you may enjoy:
A ‘Dune’-Inspired Space Suit To Turn Astronaut Pee Into Water The Evolution Of An Enzyme Engineer Who Changed ChemistryTranscripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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The federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has proposed rule changes that would bring a major shift in how scientific grants are awarded by U.S. government agencies. Under the current process, researchers submit grant proposals that are then vetted and scored by a committee of experts in that scientific field, with top-scoring proposals recommended for funding.
If its proposed changes are enacted, the OMB would insert a political review into the process, allowing administration officials to determine whether grant proposals are aligned with administration priorities, regardless of their scientific merit. Those proposed rules are now in a public comment period. Holden Thorp, editor in chief of the Science family of journals, joins Ira to explain why he called the change “another red alert for American science” in a recent editorial.
Guest:
Dr. Holden Thorp is editor in chief of the Science family of journals, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Other episodes you may enjoy:
A Science Historian Tackles Ghostwriting In Scientific Papers
What Do mRNA Funding Cuts Mean For Future US Research?Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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If you have arachnophobia, consider this your opportunity to try exposure therapy: A new study suggests that 415 million years ago, in modern-day England and Wales, a scorpion the length of a golden retriever was scurrying around, complete with 6-inch pincers. Flora talks with lead study author Richie Howard about the finding.
If you’re grossed out by a 3-foot scorpion, you’re not alone. But, scorpion researcher Lauren Esposito says we’ve got it all wrong—scorpions are wonderful and caring creatures.
Guests:
Dr. Richie Howard is an invertebrate paleontologist and curator of fossil arthropods at the Natural History Museum in London, England.Dr. Lauren Esposito is a scorpion researcher and director of the non-profit Islands and Seas and founder of 500 Queer Scientists.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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The FDA recently approved a sunscreen ingredient called bemotrizinol, or BEMT, that’s been used in Europe and Asia for years. This is the first new sunscreen ingredient approved in the United States in over two decades. Meanwhile, skin cancer has become the most common cancer in the U.S.
Flora discusses the chemistry of sunblock with a sunscreen chemist AJ Addae, and the regulatory process that led to this approval with health journalist Michael Scaturro.
Guests:
Michael Scaturro is a health journalist based in New York City.
AJ Addae is a chemistry PhD student at UCLA and founder of SULA Labs.
Other episodes you may enjoy:
Understanding Sunscreen Ingredients And Which Ones You NeedTranscripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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If you watch sports, whether the recent NBA finals or the ongoing World Cup matches, you may have noticed that the athletes aren’t the only ones putting on a show. The announcers seem to be playing a beautiful game of their own, capturing the excitement and play-by-play of the game in a unique blend of sentence structure, elocution, and pitch. Linguists have even given this speech pattern a name: sports announcer talk.
Sociolinguist and dialectologist Valerie Fridland joins Host Flora Lichtman to break down the patterns and rules of this register.
Guest:
Dr. Valerie Fridland is a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada, Reno, and author of “Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents.”
Other episodes you may enjoy:
The Art And Science Of Trash Talk What The Sigma Is Algospeak?Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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There is a murderous crime spree happening right under—and perhaps inside—our noses. Killer microbes armed with weapons are eviscerating, assassinating, and detonating their fellow microbes. And the newest culprit? A protist that morphs into a cannibilastic supergiant when times get tough.
Host Flora Lichtman talks with Glen D’Souza and Ben Larson, two detectives who study these micro-murders. They chat about why microbes kill, how they choose their victims, and whether we can harness those weapons for good.
Guests:
Dr. Glen D’Souza is a microbiologist and assistant professor at Arizona State University in Tempe.
Dr. Ben Larson is an assistant professor and cell biologist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Do you ever hear a song that transports you to a specific place and time? This auditory wormhole has a name: musical daydreams. Music cognition expert Elizabeth Margulis studies why they happen, and what they tell us about our brains. She joins Host Flora Lichtman to discuss this phenomenon.
Guest:
Dr. Elizabeth Margulis is a professor and director of Princeton’s Music Cognition Lab. She’s also the author of “Transported: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams.”
Other episodes you may enjoy:
A Neurologist Investigates His Own Musical Hallucinations Oliver Sacks Searched The Brain For The Origins Of MusicTranscripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Researchers just published details of a massive undersea graveyard of whales deep in the Indian Ocean. Spanning about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles), it contains whale remains dating back more than 5 million years—and at least five active whale fall sites still teeming with life. Fossil whale expert Nick Pyenson joins Host Flora Lichtman to discuss these findings.
Then, marine biologists Rachel Sipler and Sara Jobson join Ira Flatow to describe an unusual discovery in certain species of sea cucumbers: If a foot or tentacle becomes detached, the parts don’t wither up and rot away. Even without a stomach, these parts appear to directly extract nutrients from the surrounding seawater. “Zombie” sea cucumber parts have been observed surviving for more than three years.
Guests:
Dr. Nick Pyenson is curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Dr. Rachel Sipler is a senior research scientist in the Bigelow Laboratory in East Boothbay, Maine.
Sara Jobson a PhD student at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. Johns, Canada.
Other episodes you may enjoy:
Remembering Roger Payne, Who Helped Save The Whales Can A Microbe Conservation Movement Take Off?Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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Big cats used to roam the entire United States. You might know them as mountain lions, pumas, cougars, or catamounts. Though they go by many names, they're actually all the same species.
Their current population is mostly confined to the West, and part of Florida, though in recent years they’ve been spotted in other areas east of the Mississippi River. Most cougars were gone from the Northeast by the 1800s, with the last verified accounts in the 1930s.
Mountain lion ecologist Mark Elbroch hopes to reintroduce these big cats back into their previous habitats in New England. But, should we? What are the benefits and drawbacks of reintroducing the apex predator into an ecosystem it's been away from for so long?
Guest:
Dr. Mark Elbroch is the director of the puma program at Panthera, a big cat conservation organization.
Other episodes you may enjoy:
Surveying wildlife along Lewis and Clark’s route, 220 years later Are Raccoons On The Road To Domestication?Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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When Blue Origin’s New Glenn spacecraft exploded in an enormous fireball during a ground test a couple weeks ago, it sent shockwaves not only through the air, but through NASA’s timeline for the upcoming Artemis missions.
It also came at an especially bad time for Jeff Bezos’ rocket company—just days after it was awarded a slew of NASA contracts to deliver equipment to the moon. Blue Origin had also been expected to play a major role in the upcoming Artemis III and IV missions, but that’s now more up in the air depending on how soon the company can rebuild its only launchpad.
And with NASA’s Artemis III crew announcement this week, Guest Host Jane Lindholm sits down with space reporters Ken Chang and Brendan Byrne to break it all down and what’s next for the space program.
Guests:
Ken Chang is a science reporter at the New York Times, where he covers NASA and the solar system.
Brendan Byrne is a space reporter for Central Florida Public Media and host of the podcast “Are We There Yet.”
Other episodes you may enjoy:
Planning your photo ops for a trip around the moon The new frontier of cancer research is in spaceTranscripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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‘Tis the season for porch beers and happy hours, and we’re taking on listener questions about how alcohol affects us. Like, is a glass of wine at dinner really good for you? And why do sugary drinks give us hangovers?
Joining Guest Host Jane Lindholm to answer these questions and more are brewer and chemist Tom Shellhammer and neuroscientist Jacqui Barker.
Guests:
Dr. Jacqui Barker is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology at Drexel University College of Medicine.
Dr. Tom Shellhammer is a brewer and the Nor’Wester Professor of Fermentation Science at Oregon State University.
Other episodes you may enjoy:
What Causes Red Wine Headaches? It May Be Quercetin The Physics That Makes Swing-Top Bottles ‘Pop’Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The 2026 World Cup will be the largest one yet, and FIFA is trying to make it the most high-tech, too. The federation has partnered with tech giant Lenovo to launch Football AI Pro, which is designed to analyze over 2,000 different metrics and deliver real-time insights to coaches, players, and analysts. Guest Host Jane Lindholm chats with ESPN writer Ryan O’Hanlon about how AI analytics actually play out in soccer.
Plus, how a team of researchers grew 16 stadiums’ worth of FIFA-class turf. Turfgrass scientist Jackie Lyn Guevara breaks down the importance of perfectly uniform turf, how the turf was designed, and what she’ll be looking out for during the matches.
Guests:
Ryan O’Hanlon is a staff writer at ESPN and the author of “Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game's Analytics Revolution.”
Dr. Jackie Lyn "Jack" Guevara is an assistant professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University.
Other episodes you may enjoy:
We’re All Being Played By Metrics The Surprising Science Of Why Sneakers SqueakTranscripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
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