Best IFLScience Podcasts (2025)

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Interstellar Object, Cheesy Nightmares, And Smooching Orcas 34:38

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5d ago34:38

34:38

This week on Break It Down: We’ve just seen our third-ever interstellar object whizzing though the Solar System, eating cheese really might give you nightmares (but so might dessert), cavers are rewarded with a treasure trove of blind, mummified invertebrates including the only known cave-adapted wasp, the Neanderthal fat factory is just a deliciou…

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Are We Living Through A Sixth Mass Extinction? 38:07

6d ago38:07

38:07

While climate change, species extinctions, and increasing carbon dioxide levels might feel like media buzzwords at this point, they all remain very real threats to biodiversity across the globe, and by extension, the future of our planet. Some have even argued that these are warning signs that we are living through a sixth mass extinction. Host Ele…

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Wellness Whales, A New Blood Type, And A DJ Set From Space 34:11

12d ago34:11

34:11

This week on Break It Down: feast your eyes on the stunning first images from the world’s largest digital camera, capturing millions of galaxies and thousands of new asteroids. Why killer whales are rubbing each other luxuriously with seaweed, the world’s oldest rocks aren’t that much younger than the planet, mice born from two dads prove they’re f…

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Artificial Eclipse, Dancing Dinosaurs, And 50 Years Of “JAWS” 36:19

20d ago36:19

36:19

This week on Break It Down: Two spacecraft just created the first ever artificial solar eclipse, thanks to some impressive drone photos we know now dancing dinosaurs might have been leaping around to impress females in Colorado, a child from the world's oldest burial site appears to be a Neanderthal-Homo sapiens hybrid, for the first time we know w…

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Would You Rather Go To Space Or The Bottom Of The Sea? 31:23

21d ago31:23

31:23

The expanse of space and the oceanic abyss hold a fascination for humanity; extreme environments where our bodies and technology are pushed to their limits, yet we continue to explore. We take this tongue-in-cheek question seriously and pose it to astronauts and explorers who have done both. Join co-hosts Dr Alfredo Carpineti and Katy Evans as they…

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IFLScience The Big Questions - Season 5 Coming Soon 1:10

26d ago1:10

1:10

We're back! Here's what to expect this season, starting June 19, 2025. If you missed any previous episodes, catch up here: IFLScience The Big QuestionsBy IFLScience

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Ice Age Puppies, Sauropod’s Last Supper, And A First Look At The Sun’s Butt 34:50

27d ago34:50

34:50

This week on Break It Down: Seeing the Sun’s south pole for the first time ever, Ice Age puppies frozen in permafrost turn out to be wolves, a world-first fossil discovery reveals a sauropod’s final meal, “razor blade throat” and a traveling nimbus reveal what to expect from the new COVID variant, the deepest map of the universe now reaches 13.5 bi…

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Space Explosions, Dead Sea Scrolls, And Why It's So Hard To Sex A Dino 41:57

1M ago41:57

41:57

This week on Break It Down: A great big explosion in space is the most energetic since the Big Bang, AI reveals the Dead Sea Scrolls could share the same authors as the Bible, it looks like the Milky Way and Andromeda will not collide in 5 billion years after all, pregnant female mice with low iron levels can lead to the development of male embryos…

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Oldest Fingerprint, AI Decoding Wolf Language, And Injecting Life On Other Worlds? 42:53

1M ago42:53

42:53

This week on Break It Down: The oldest fingerprint in the world might be left by a Neanderthal hoping to complete a face, scientists propose seeding life on Enceladus to see what would happen, we’re starting to understand more about the Incas’ mysterious string writing system, bioacoustics research could pave the way for us to chat to wolves in Yel…

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Capuchin Kidnappers, Spinosaurus Daddy, And A New Member Of The Solar System 37:49

2M ago37:49

37:49

This week on Break It Down: the Solar System just got a new member, capuchins have started stealing howler monkey babies on a remote island, the US ran a solar storm emergency drill and it didn’t go so well, stunning new fossil evidence reveals never-before-seen feathers that indicate Archaeopteryx could fly, a deep dive into Leonardo da Vinci’s DN…

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T. Rex Leather, Glow-In-The-Dark Gas Clouds, And Musical Sea Lions 32:48

2M ago32:48

32:48

This week on Break It Down: a new kind of leather is borrowing its foundations from fossil T. rex collagen, we’ve just discovered an enormous glow-in-the-dark gas cloud surprisingly close to Earth, a musical sea lion has shown it can keep beat better than some humans, a new-to-science embalming technique has been discovered in Austria, man who let …

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Tattooed Tardigrades, Doomed Lava Planet, And Meet The “Bone Collector” 36:06

3M ago36:06

36:06

This week, on Break It Down: a planet with a very rare tail is being boiled apart, the first physical evidence of a gladiator fighting a lion discovered in Britain, scientists are tattooing tardigrades (for science), what’s happening in your brain during a mind blank, the grim fashion of “bone collector” caterpillars, and five health risks associat…

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Dire Wolves, Intersex Whales, And That Dangerous Asteroid’s Unusual Origin 39:01

3M ago39:01

39:01

This week on Break It Down: old skin samples have revealed the first-ever evidence for an intersex Southern right whale, a dangerous asteroid that might hit the Moon has an unusual origin, what dire wolf “de-extinction” really means and how it’s helping red wolves, a mushroom that contains one of the most bitter compounds known to humans, a promisi…

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Near-Death Experiences, Loch Ness Camera Trap, And Why No Frozen Dinosaurs? 36:23

3M ago36:23

36:23

This week on Break It Down: study uncovers the biological basis of near-death experiences, what a camera trap captured after 55 years in Loch Ness, why it’s taken humans so long to orbit over Earth’s poles, what a sediment core from the “Great Blue Hole” can tell us about the Caribbean’s climatic past and future, why you shouldn’t offer cola to iso…

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Magic Mushroom Medicine, Neptune’s Aurora Confirmed, And First-Ever Shark Sounds 37:09

3M ago37:09

37:09

This week on Break It Down: a new study has become the first to document what sound a shark makes, Neptune has been confirmed to have an aurora thanks to the best telescope ever, a pipeline construction site turned up the terrifying claw of a new species of therizinosaur, why people are trying to prevent measles with Vitamin A (and why it won’t wor…

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Unknown Lifeforms, How To Live To 117, And Handstanding Sauropods? 39:14

4M ago39:14

39:14

This week on Break It Down: An unknown lifeform has been making micro-burrows in the Namibian desert, the secret to living until 117 has been revealed, sauropods were not doing handstands in Texas 100 million years ago (boooo), should we be attempting to de-extinct animals, an Australian man achieves a double world-first with a titanium heart trans…

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Woolly Mice, 3D-Printed Penises, And The World’s Worst Sting 38:52

4M ago38:52

38:52

This week on Break It Down: Colossal Biosciences creates the “woolly mouse” in their mission to de-extinct the mammoth, scientists 3D-print functional penises (and have the babies to prove their efficacy), that gaping hole in the ozone layer really is repairing, IFLScience asks why so few international organizations have responded to Trump and Musk…

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Rat Sommeliers, Glass Brain, And Internet On Mars 31:58

4M ago31:58

31:58

This week on Break It Down: the curious tale of a lump of glass that turned out to be a human brain, the US sees its first measles death in 10 years, rats make great sommeliers, the evolutionary origins of feathers in dinosaurs, AI bots start speaking a secret language to each other, and could we get internet on Mars? Quite possible. So, sit back, …

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Most Dangerous Animal, Tomb Discovery, And How To Break Habits 35:30

5M ago35:30

35:30

This week on Break It Down: the first ancient Egyptian royal tomb has been discovered since Tutankhamun over 100 years ago, a brand new ‘dangerous animal’ scale reveals the realistic threat of different creatures, architects are operating on land and at the deepest parts of the ocean (they just don’t look how you imagine), a Paralympian becomes the…

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Dolphin Pee Party, Inside Asteroid Response, And That Ancient Mummy Smell 40:39

5M ago40:39

40:39

This week on Break It Down: Amazon river dolphins are saying it with urine proudly sprayed directly into the air, an inside look at the planetary defense response to asteroid 2024 YR4 (and no, it isn’t too late), find out what mummies smell like thanks to a team of “sniffers”, whale song follows Zipf’s Law, red light therapy – does it actually work…

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Science Under Attack, Dino-Era Ducks, And Do We Own Our Bodies? 41:33

5M ago41:33

41:33

This week on Break It Down: the world's oldest runestone might have been carved by a woman in a language that predates the Vikings, asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 2.3 percent chance of hitting Earth in 2032 (but we’re not panicking yet), an ancient jawbone might reveal a new branch of the hominid family tree, science in the US is under attack after a slew…

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Covid Lab Leak, Mouse With Two Dads, And Are We Living In A Simulation? 44:20

5M ago44:20

44:20

This week on Break It Down: A CIA report says the origins of COVID being a lab leak is “likely” but what does that really mean? The Doomsday Clock ticks closer to humanity's destruction, asteroid Bennu’s sample contains the building blocks of life (but not aliens), the oldest poison arrow dates back 7,000 years, a mouse with two male parents surviv…

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Pompeii’s Worst Day, Peeing Together, And The GOAT Dinosaur Movie? 37:17

6M ago37:17

37:17

This week on Break It Down: a new timeline shows exactly when and how the eruption of Vesuvius spread, chimps have been observed going to the bathroom together all at the same time, trust in science remains high worldwide despite recent global events, sex differences between male and female brains are present as early as newborn babies, and did COV…

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Thylacine De-Extinction, Tattooed Mummies, And A Meteorite World-First 29:43

6M ago29:43

29:43

This week on Break It Down: lasers revealed 1,200-year-old mummies’ sweet tats, the mission to de-extinct the thylacine takes a leap forward, video footage of a meteorite hitting someone’s garden might be a world first, China announces plans to build the solar power station equivalent of “Three Gorges Dam” in space, researchers discover an Iron Age…

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Precious Penis Bone, North America’s Oldest Dino, And The Mystical Metal Of "Atlantis" 28:16

6M ago28:16

28:16

This week on Break It Down: unexpected and unexplained structures have been discovered hiding under the Pacific Ocean, the oldest equatorial dinosaur fossil in the world dates back a whopping 230 million years, a painted dog penis bone has been found in a ritual shaft in England (some puns write themselves), cave art from France could be the oldest…

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Saiga Mega Victory, 2025 Predictions, And A Coming Star Explosion 17:08

6M ago17:08

17:08

This week on Break It Down: one of the most significant mammal recoveries ever recorded (and four other wildlife wins), a once-in-a-lifetime event is about to kick off in space, spookily accurate predictions made by a “professor” 100 years ago, an undersea volcano is about to erupt, scientists achieve a world-first embryo milestone on the path to g…

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A New North Pole, Bubble-Butt Turtles, And Testing Ancient Hangover Cures 30:58

7M ago30:58

30:58

This week on Break It Down: Earth’s magnetic pole is in a new position, the second most cited paper to ever be withdrawn is finally retracted, Charlotte the bubble-butted turtle gets a special swimming harness, The Blob’s legacy marks the worst single-species mortality event in modern history, a Roman solution to Mars suggests blood makes for great…

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Why Do Humans Love Playing Competitive Games? 25:34

7M ago25:34

25:34

It’s the holiday season, and what better time to gather your loved ones together and absolutely trounce them in an hours-long board game marathon? Humans have been playing and enjoying competitive games for centuries. For this special episode of The Big Questions, host Laura Simmons sat down with Kelly Clancy, neuroscientist and physicist, and auth…

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Deep-Sea Creep, Jupiter's New Ring, And Inter-Hominid Hook-Ups 34:49

7M ago34:49

34:49

This week on Break It Down: fishers discover a mysterious tablet bearing an unknown language, sequencing the oldest human genome reveals when we first bred with Neanderthals, Jupiter’s got a shiny new ring, a new predator captured in the darkest depths of the Atacama Trench, working out the rules to an ancient boardgame, and can donor organs transf…

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Cannibal Paddington, Glowing Wood, And A New Human Species? 33:59

7M ago33:59

33:59

This week on Break It Down: scientists may have discovered a new ancient relative of humans, collar cameras from Andean bears reveal Paddington may have a taste for cubs, we’ve been paying the salmon tax to dogs for 2,000 years more than thought, new biohybrid wood glows green in the dark, diamond batteries could last for thousands of years, and it…

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Killer Whale Fashion, Dinosaur Poop, And Pluto’s Birthday 21:56

7M ago21:56

21:56

This week on Break It Down: killer whales have been wearing salmon hats (again) and sucking out the livers of the world’s largest shark, 1.5-million-year-old footprints reveal Homo erectus co-existed with a now-extinct protohuman, fossil dinosaur poop and vomit indicate their rise to power began with plants, we have a date for when Pluto will compl…

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World’s Thinnest Spaghetto, Earth’s Frozen Core, And A Shark-Hunting Dog? 29:54

8M ago29:54

29:54

This week on Break It Down, astronomers have taken the first-ever close-up photo of a star outside of the Milky Way, putting weight back on after losing it could be down to your fat cells' “memories”, the mystery surrounding the Earth’s inner core “freezing”, footage shows a “giant” virus infecting a cell for the first time, the world’s thinnest sp…

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Uranus Is Windy, Saber-Toothed Baby, And Is Animal Testing Necessary? 32:29

8M ago32:29

32:29

This week on Break It Down: turns out the one time we saw Uranus it was having an uncharacteristically windy moment, new meanings behind the Amazon’s most incredible rock art, the world’s largest coral found lurking off the Solomon Islands, a ~35,000-year-old saber-toothed baby comes complete with fur, whiskers, and toe beans, and amber found in An…

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A Murder Solved From The Grave, Chernobyl Frogs, and Cat Physics 31:41

8M ago31:41

31:41

This week in Break It Down: clues inside Pompeii victims' casts reveal they're not who we thought they were, the frogs of Chernobyl are doing just fine, cat physics and a crime of authorship, the North Atlantic is getting saltier and saltier, good news for double jabs, and a DNA scientist who picked up the research that would solve her own murder. …

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Quantum Cats, Drunk Monkeys, And Happy Birthday Godzilla 40:18

8M ago40:18

40:18

This week on Break It Down: a quantum cat experiment breaks a record for surviving over 23 minutes, Voyager 1 encountered a glitch but fixed itself with some old school tech, fossils from the Ordovician are a glittering new species, animals are getting drunk more than we thought, though we’re not quite sure why, kyawthuite is the rarest gemstone of…

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Britain’s Most Haunted Castle: IFLScience Takes On The Supernatural 1:05:13

8M ago1:05:13

1:05:13

Welcome to IFLScience’s first-ever Halloween podcast special, bringing you a feature-length episode of The Big Questions as we take on the UK’s most haunted castle. We journeyed to Northumberland up by the Anglo-Scottish border to spend the night in Chillingham Castle, a place that allegedly boasts an above-average number of ghosts. We wanted to ex…

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Tiniest Dino Eggs, Hungry Black Holes, And Why People Believe In Ghosts 34:07

9M ago34:07

34:07

This week on Break It Down: the discovery of the smallest-ever dinosaur eggs reveals teeny tiny bones, first black hole triple is changing our understanding of giant star death, the longest venomous snake is now four separate species, a rare bit of positive carbon capture news, how a new overdose implant can save lives, and why do people believe in…

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Solar Storm Season, Dolphin Breath, And Resurrecting The Thylacine 34:09

9M ago34:09

34:09

This week on Break It Down: the Sun has entered its solar maximum bringing new auroras and geomagnetic storms, a chance find of a thylacine head in a jar could be the next step in the de-extinction of the species, microplastics have been discovered in the breath of wild dolphins for the first time, why Neanderthals never improved their spear-throwi…

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Are Octopuses Sentient? 32:19

9M ago32:19

32:19

It’s no secret that octopuses are intelligent – but are they sentient? And how is that reflected in the way that they’re treated? Host Rachael Funnell is joined by Sy Montgomery, author of Secrets of the Octopus, and Sophika Kostyniuk, Managing Director at the Aquatic Life Institute, to discuss the evidence for octopuses’ sentience, and how that co…

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Fusing Jellies, Bad Robot Jokes, And Elephants Evolve Before Our Eyes 36:40

9M ago36:40

36:40

This week on Break It Down: two comb jellies become one, how Hurricane Milton grew so intense, superpowered scans reveal COVID’s impact on the brain, a humanlike robot’s jokes fail to impress his friend, Lucy the Australopithecine might have used tools 3.2 million years ago, and Mozambique’s elephants offer modern-day proof of evolution. So, sit ba…

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Glowing Crystals, Radioactive Storms, And A “Google Maps” For The Brain 34:59

9M ago34:59

34:59

This week on Break It Down: resurrecting Cold War spy planes to explore radioactive storms, the most detailed brain wiring diagram we've ever seen, mystery “skyquake” sounds have the world perplexed, plus grinning dolphins, glow-in-the-dark gemstones, and can you really feel when you’re being watched? So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down… R…

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What Would A Human On Mars Look Like? 31:50

9M ago31:50

31:50

Are humans done evolving – or could settling on an alien world with an environment unlike Earth’s take us on a different evolutionary trajectory? Host Tom Hale is joined by Scott Solomon, author and professor of bioscience at Rice University, to discuss the myriad ways Homo sapiens may continue to evolve on Earth, and how future human settlements o…

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Biblical Seeds, World’s Oldest Cheese, And A Fish With Tongues For Legs 35:45

10M ago35:45

35:45

This week on Break It Down: the major African civilization the world forgot, the world’s oldest cheese gets found on mummies, blasting asteroids with X-rays, a fish that’s basically got tongues for legs, the resurrection of a biblical seed, and why no one can decide how fast the universe is expanding. So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down… L…

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Gorilla Dicks, Life After Death, And Earth's New (Mini) Moon 30:47

10M ago30:47

30:47

This week in Break It Down: Earth's about to get a new mini-moon (if only for a while), ancient rock art may have been based on a fossil, "third state" identified between life and death, a truly supermassive black hole with jets spanning 23 million light-years, there's a new blood group, and the remarkable reason why giant gorillas have tiny penise…

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Are The Drugs Of The Future Coming From The Deep Ocean? 28:49

10M ago28:49

28:49

Antibiotic resistance is a major health concern. We now have several harmful microbes that have evolved into versions unaffected by common treatments. To find new antibiotics scientists are looking further afield, including in the ocean. Host Dr Alfredo Carpineti speaks to Dr Sam Afoullouss, a marine scientist at the University of South Florida, ab…

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Pyramid Plasma, “Killer” Whales, And An Illegal Spacewalk? 25:07

10M ago25:07

25:07

This week on Break It Down, the first-ever private spacewalk makes history and also maybe a crime, a plasma bubble over the pyramids is spotted by snazzy Chinese tech, a new Neanderthal lineage lived in isolation for 50,000 years, a chance encounter on Google Maps leads to a new discovery, the recipient of a face and eye transplant has a major brea…

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Introducing 'We Have Questions' Our New Science Podcast 1:58

10M ago1:58

1:58

Coming soon: join IFLScience as we explore the questions nobody thought to ask but everyone wants the answers to. Get the behind-the-scenes conversations from CURIOUS magazine’s We Have Questions interviews, as we hunt down the experts to answer some of science’s stranger questions. Until then, catch up with the E-magazine here: https://www.iflscie…

1
Introducing 'We Have Questions' Our New Science Podcast 1:58

10M ago1:58

1:58

Coming soon: join IFLScience as we explore the questions nobody thought to ask but everyone wants the answers to. Get the behind-the-scenes conversations from CURIOUS magazine’s We Have Questions interviews, as we hunt down the experts to answer some of science’s stranger questions. Until then, catch up with the E-magazine here: https://www.iflscie…

1
Tossing Puffins, Python Vs Python, And Homeopathy. Is. Not. Science. 38:31

10M ago38:31

38:31

This week on Break It Down, “dangerous” asteroid Apophis has a slightly increased risk of hitting Earth, a pig in Hong Kong undergoes an operation by a team in Switzerland, people in Iceland are throwing puffins off cliffs, an asteroid impact over the Philippines just made history, a python somehow managed to ingest another python, and we take a cl…

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How Did Dinosaurs Have Sex? 33:19

10M ago33:19

33:19

Where do baby dinosaurs come from? It’s a question that’s been burning in the collective brain of the IFLScience team for some time. In this episode, host Rachael Funnell speaks with science writer and palaeontologist Riley Black to find out what science has discovered so far about the sex lives of dinosaurs.…