Best Science Friday and WNYC Studios Podcasts (2025)

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African Grey Parrots Are Popular—And It’s Fueling Illegal Trade 13:45

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1d ago13:45

13:45

African grey parrots are internet stars. It’s easy to see why—the charismatic birds sing, tell jokes, and sling profanities. But how do the endangered birds get from African forests to your feed? Wildlife crime reporter Rene Ebersole joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe her investigation into the global parrot trade, and the black market for wild …

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Attention, Trivia Nerds! It’s A Food Science Fact Feast 12:01

2d ago12:01

12:01

After years of getting your emails and phone calls, we know that SciFri listeners are in the 99th percentile when it comes to nerdy knowledge. We’re putting your fact retention skills to the test with the first ever Super Food Science Excellence Trivia Blowout (SFSETBO). Host Flora Lichtman teams up with trivia kingpin Mangesh Hattikudur, co-host o…

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Can Animal Super-Agers Teach Us Their Secrets? 18:40

3d ago18:40

18:40

Some animals have a very different relationship to aging than we do: They don’t get cancer, they never go through menopause, and they live absurdly long lives. For instance, one bat species can live for more than 40 years, which may not sound like very long but that’s about nine times longer than expected based on its size. For comparison, if we ag…

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How Alphafold Has Changed Biology Research, 5 Years On 18:08

4d ago18:08

18:08

Proteins are crucial for life. They're made of amino acids that “fold” into millions of different shapes. And depending on their structure, they do radically different things in our cells. For a long time, predicting those shapes for research was considered a grand biological challenge. But in 2020, Google’s AI lab DeepMind released Alphafold, a to…

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How A Woodpecker Pecks Wood, And How Ants Crown A Queen 18:32

5d ago18:32

18:32

If you’ve heard the hammering of a woodpecker in the woods, you might have wondered how the birds can be so forceful. What does it take to whack your head against a tree repeatedly, hard enough to drill a hole? A team of researchers wondered that too and set out to investigate, by putting tiny muscle monitors on eight downy woodpeckers and recordin…

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Memories Change. But Can We Change Them On Purpose? 18:39

8d ago18:39

18:39

Our memories make us who we are—just ask Barbra Streisand. But despite the lyrics in many popular songs, memories aren’t frozen in time. When we call them up, the details shift and change. And neuroscience research shows that we might be able to take that a step further—to manipulate our memories and even implant false ones. Neuroscientist Steve Ra…

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Bearded Vulture Nests Hold Trove Of Centuries-Old Artifacts 12:41

9d ago12:41

12:41

Bearded vultures build giant, elaborate nests that are passed down from generation to generation. And according to a new study, some of these scavengers have collected bits and bobs of human history over the course of centuries. Scientists picked apart 12 vulture nests preserved in Spain and discovered a museum collection’s worth of objects, includ…

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Why The Bassist From Phish Is Funding Research Into ‘Flow State’ 18:16

10d ago18:16

18:16

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 ba…

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Even Nobel Prize Winners Deal With Imposter Syndrome 35:47

11d ago35:47

35:47

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…

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Study Finds COVID mRNA Vaccines Boost Cancer Treatment 13:07

12d ago13:07

13:07

Over the last five years, billions of people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. New research has found an unanticipated result of these vaccines: Cancer treatments are more effective for some vaccinated patients, and many live longer than their unvaccinated counterparts. This news comes at a time where the federal governmen…

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Were Dinos On Their Way Out Before The Asteroid Hit? Maybe Not 18:49

15d ago18:49

18:49

One of the biggest debates in the dinosaur world is what was happening right before they went extinct. Were they already declining, or would they have thrived if not for the asteroid? Two recent studies shed some light on this question: one that analyzes a trove of fossils from New Mexico and suggests there was more diversity in the Americas than p…

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Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Resolution On A TV? 18:26

16d ago18:26

18:26

As Black Friday approaches, you’re probably being inundated with ads for bigger, better televisions. But just how good is good enough? Are there limits to what our eyes can even make out? Visual perception researcher Maliha Ashraf joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe her new study on display resolution—including a display calculator she and her co…

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Can A Billion-Dollar Barricade Keep Carp Out Of The Great Lakes? 19:00

17d ago19:00

19:00

Decades ago, non-native carp were brought onto fish farms on the Mississippi River to control algae and parasites. They escaped, thrived, and eventually flooded the Illinois River, outcompeting native species and wreaking havoc. If the carp find their way into the Great Lakes, they could do major damage to those vital ecosystems. There’s a proposed…

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Inside The Race To Save Wild Axolotls 12:50

18d ago12:50

12:50

Axolotls are one of the most charismatic and beloved amphibians out there. But did you know that there’s only one place in the whole world where you can find them in the wild? It’s Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City. There, scientists are scrambling to save them from extinction by creating refuges, using environmental DNA to track them down, and tag-te…

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Endometriosis Is Common. Why Is Getting Diagnosed So Hard? 18:25

19d ago18:25

18:25

Endometriosis is a painful disease that occurs when endometrium-like tissue grows outside of the uterus. It’s extremely common—if you have a uterus, you have a 1 in 10 chance of getting it. Yet, it takes seven years on average to receive a formal diagnosis. What does the latest science tell us about the biology of the condition and how to treat it?…

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Why Hasn’t Wave Energy Gotten Its Sea Legs Yet? 18:39

21d ago18:39

18:39

We've figured out how to harness renewable energy from many natural systems, like solar, wind, and geothermal power. But what about the ocean’s waves? It might seem like converting wave power into electricity on a large scale would’ve been figured out by now, but the tech is actually just getting its sea legs. Why has it been so hard to develop? An…

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A Halloween Monster Mashup, And A Spooky Lakes Tour 30:30

22d ago30:30

30:30

For Halloween, we bring you an ode to three quintessentially creepy creatures: bats, arachnids, and snakes. First, bat researcher Elena Tena joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe tracking the greater noctule bat in flight and learning that it can feed on migratory birds. Then, arachnologist Paula Cushing describes the camel spider, which is neither…

Science Friday And WNYC Studios Podcasts

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Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

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Undiscovered

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Universe of Art

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SciFri

SciFri

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Science Diction

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

1
African Grey Parrots Are Popular—And It’s Fueling Illegal Trade 13:45

1
Attention, Trivia Nerds! It’s A Food Science Fact Feast 12:01

1
Can Animal Super-Agers Teach Us Their Secrets? 18:40

1
How Alphafold Has Changed Biology Research, 5 Years On 18:08

1
How A Woodpecker Pecks Wood, And How Ants Crown A Queen 18:32

1
Memories Change. But Can We Change Them On Purpose? 18:39

1
Bearded Vulture Nests Hold Trove Of Centuries-Old Artifacts 12:41

1
Why The Bassist From Phish Is Funding Research Into ‘Flow State’ 18:16

1
Even Nobel Prize Winners Deal With Imposter Syndrome 35:47

1
Study Finds COVID mRNA Vaccines Boost Cancer Treatment 13:07

1
Were Dinos On Their Way Out Before The Asteroid Hit? Maybe Not 18:49

1
Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Resolution On A TV? 18:26

1
Can A Billion-Dollar Barricade Keep Carp Out Of The Great Lakes? 19:00

1
Inside The Race To Save Wild Axolotls 12:50

1
Endometriosis Is Common. Why Is Getting Diagnosed So Hard? 18:25

1
Why Hasn’t Wave Energy Gotten Its Sea Legs Yet? 18:39

1
A Halloween Monster Mashup, And A Spooky Lakes Tour 30:30