Best Work It Bird Studios Podcasts (2025)

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

Play Pause

2h 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

1d 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

2d 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

3d 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

6d 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

7d 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

8d 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

9d 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

10d 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

12d 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

13d 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…

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What Happens To Your Digital Presence After You Die? 18:45

14d ago18:45

18:45

There’s an established playbook for getting one’s affairs in order before death—create a will, name legal guardians, and so on. But there’s also a newer consideration: what will happen to our digital presences, like social media accounts, files, photos, videos, and more. So how do we manage them, and make sure we’re not turned into AI chatbots with…

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Why Morbid Curiosity Is So Common—And So Fun 17:55

15d ago17:55

17:55

At first blush, the plots of many horror movies don’t seem particularly appealing. Take “The Shining”: A murderous psychopath tries to kill his family in a haunted, secluded hotel. But horror movies have had devoted fans for as long as they’ve been around, and lately, scary movies and television shows like “Sinners” or “The Walking Dead” have made …

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Peanut Allergies In Kids Are Finally On The Decline 12:24

16d ago12:24

12:24

For decades, peanut allergies were on the rise in the US. But a study released on October 20 found that peanut allergies in babies and young children are now decreasing. This drop correlates with a change in guidance from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In 2017, the agency started recommending exposing children to peanuts…

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How Do Bacteria Talk To Each Other? 23:28

17d ago23:28

23:28

Bacteria have been around for billions of years. Could they have come up with complex behaviors that we just don’t understand yet? Could they have their own language? Their own culture? Their own complex societies playing out right under, and in, our noses? Microbiologist Bonnie Bassler has been studying these questions for more than 30 years. She …

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A Lab-Grown Salmon Taste Test And More Foodie Innovations 30:19

20d ago30:19

30:19

After years of development, lab-grown fish is taste-test ready for the public. Four restaurants in the US are serving up cultivated salmon made by the company Wildtype. Producer Kathleen Davis gives Host Flora Lichtman a rundown on how Wildtype tastes, initial public perception, and the upstream battle to take cultivated meat mainstream. Plus, SciF…

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What Did It Feel Like To Be An Early Human? 18:47

21d ago18:47

18:47

Do science documentaries need a refresh? What if the goal wasn’t just teaching you something, but making you feel something? A new series from the BBC, airing on PBS, called “Human” tries to do just that. It tells the tale of our ancient family tree, embracing the complex and dramatic sides of the story. It asks: Who were the different species of h…

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TikTok Is Shaping How We Think About ADHD 18:27

22d ago18:27

18:27

TikTok and other social media sites are full of mental health content—often short, grabby, first-person videos detailing symptoms for conditions like ADHD and autism. But what does this mean for teens and young adults who spend hours a day scrolling? A new study published in PLOS One analyzes the 100 most viewed TikTok videos about ADHD to assess b…

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Footage Shows How Narwhals Use Tusks To Hunt And Play 12:55

23d ago12:55

12:55

We’re taking a polar plunge into the science of sea unicorns, also known as narwhals! Narwhals are mysterious arctic whales with long, twirly tusks protruding from their foreheads, like a creature out of a fairy tale. And it turns out that we don’t know too much about them, partly because they live so far north in the remote Arctic. An internationa…

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Have Astrophysicists Spotted Evidence For ‘Dark Stars’? 13:04

24d ago13:04

13:04

Astrophysicists may have spotted evidence for “dark stars,” an unusual type of star that could possibly have existed in the earliest days of the universe, in data from the James Webb Space Telescope. Instead of being powered by nuclear fusion as current stars are, the controversial theory says that these ancient dark stars would have formed by mixi…

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AI Was Supposed To Discover New Drugs. Where Are They? 17:59

27d ago17:59

17:59

AI is everywhere these days, and though there’s debate about how useful it is, one area where experts think it could be game-changing is scientific research. It promised to be particularly useful for speeding up drug discovery, an expensive and time-consuming process that can take decades. But so far, it hasn’t panned out. The few AI-designed drugs…

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How Math Helps Us Map The World 18:11

28d ago18:11

18:11

It’s easy to take maps for granted. After all, most of us have a pretty good map in our pockets at all times, ready to show us how to get anywhere on the globe. But to make a map useful, you have to decide what to keep in and what to leave out—and, most importantly, which mathematical equations to use. Beyond navigating from point A to point B, mat…

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The Science Of Replacing Body Parts, From Hair To Hearts 18:38

29d ago18:38

18:38

It seems like every week, there’s a new headline about some kind of sci-fi-esque organ transplant. Think eyeballs, 3D-printed kidneys, pig hearts. In her new book, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, science writer Mary Roach chronicles the effort to fabricate human body parts—and where that effort sometimes breaks down. Host Flora Lichtm…

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It’s Not Just You—Bad Food Habits Are Hard To Shake 18:36

1M ago18:36

18:36

Remember “The Biggest Loser”—the show where people tried to lose as much weight as quickly as possible for a big cash prize? The premise of the show was that weight loss was about willpower: With enough discipline, anyone can have the body they want. The show’s approach was problematic, but how does its attitude toward weight loss match our current…

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100 Years Later, Quantum Science Is Still Weird 18:39

1M ago18:39

18:39

In July 1925, physicist Werner Heisenberg wrote a letter to Wolfgang Pauli sharing his new ideas about what would eventually become known as quantum theory. A hundred years later, that theory has been expanded into a field of science that explains aspects of chemical behavior, has become the basis of a new type of computing, and more. But it’s stil…

Work It Bird Studios Podcasts

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Work It Bird Sessions Podcast

Music Podcast by Christopher Wright

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Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

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

1
What Happens To Your Digital Presence After You Die? 18:45

1
Why Morbid Curiosity Is So Common—And So Fun 17:55

1
Peanut Allergies In Kids Are Finally On The Decline 12:24

1
How Do Bacteria Talk To Each Other? 23:28

1
A Lab-Grown Salmon Taste Test And More Foodie Innovations 30:19

1
What Did It Feel Like To Be An Early Human? 18:47

1
TikTok Is Shaping How We Think About ADHD 18:27

1
Footage Shows How Narwhals Use Tusks To Hunt And Play 12:55

1
Have Astrophysicists Spotted Evidence For ‘Dark Stars’? 13:04

1
AI Was Supposed To Discover New Drugs. Where Are They? 17:59

1
How Math Helps Us Map The World 18:11

1
The Science Of Replacing Body Parts, From Hair To Hearts 18:38

1
It’s Not Just You—Bad Food Habits Are Hard To Shake 18:36

1
100 Years Later, Quantum Science Is Still Weird 18:39