Best Science Friday and WNYC Studios Podcasts (2025)

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What Does It Mean To Have A Chatbot Companion? 19:36

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1h ago19:36

19:36

AI is not just for automating tasks or coming up with new recipe ideas. Increasingly, people are turning to AI chatbots for companionship. Roughly half a billion people worldwide have downloaded chatbots designed specifically to provide users with emotional and social support. And while these human-chatbot relationships might ease loneliness or sim…

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The Leap: Mars? It Was A Miracle We Got To Florida 23:43

1d ago23:43

23:43

Geologist Steve Squyres risked his career and millions of dollars to get two rovers roaming on Mars. But the mission almost didn’t make it to the launch pad. Steve and NASA engineer Jennifer Trosper describe the many obstacles the team faced in getting Spirit and Opportunity ready, from ripped parachutes to fuzzy camera feeds, and the problem-solvi…

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After Her Grants Got Cut, This Researcher Is Suing The NIH 13:07

4d ago13:07

13:07

Since January, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has made sweeping cuts to science. It's hard to keep track of how many research grants were canceled, but they add up to hundreds of millions—possibly billions—of dollars of research funding lost. Some scientists, like Dr. Katie Edwards, are taking the fight to the courts. Edwards studies inter…

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New Telescope Captures The Cosmos In Groundbreaking Detail 12:38

5d ago12:38

12:38

The first images from the brand new Vera C. Rubin Observatory have finally been unveiled, and they show us the cosmos like never before. The camera captures so much detail that its first complete image contains about 10 million galaxies. Host Flora Lichtman talks with Dr. Federica Bianco about our dazzling new view of the night sky, how the camera …

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How Scientists Made The First Gene-Editing Treatment For A Baby 18:56

6d ago18:56

18:56

Last month, scientists reported a historic first: they gave the first personalized gene-editing treatment to a baby who was born with a rare life-threatening genetic disorder. Before the treatment, his prognosis was grim. But after three doses, the baby’s health improved. So how does it work? What are the risks? And what could this breakthrough mea…

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Ancient Bone Proteins May Offer Insight On Megafauna Extinction 19:23

7d ago19:23

19:23

Australia is known for its unusual animal life, from koalas to kangaroos. But once upon a time, the Australian landscape had even weirder fauna, like Palorchestes azael, a marsupial with immense claws and a small trunk. There was Protemnodon mamkurra, a massive, slow-moving, kangaroo-like creature. And Zygomaturus trilobus, a wombat the size of a h…

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The Leap: You Do Realize… That’s Impossible 23:47

8d ago23:47

23:47

As a grad student, Suchitra Sebastian wasn’t sure she wanted to be a physicist. But when one of her experiments gave an unexpected result, she was hooked. Suchitra’s former PhD student Beng Sing Tan describes the late-night experiments that led to an “impossible” finding—a potentially new state of matter. Theoretical physicist Piers Coleman tells u…

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What We’re Learning From The James Webb Space Telescope 17:47

11d ago17:47

17:47

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) started collecting data nearly three years ago, and it has already transformed our understanding of the universe. It has spotted the earliest galaxies ever seen, and, closer to home, captured auroras around Jupiter. So what’s the latest from the JWST? In this live broadcast, Hosts Flora Lichtman and Ira Flatow …

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How ‘Super Agers’ Stay Sharp And Active Longer Than Their Peers 30:49

12d ago30:49

30:49

Ever noticed how some people get to their 80s and 90s and continue to be healthy and active? They spend their days playing mahjong, driving to lunch, learning shuffle dancing, and practicing Portuguese. Those are “super agers,” seniors who stay fit well into old age. How do they do it? Is it luck or genetics? In this live broadcast, Hosts Flora Lic…

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A Dino’s Last Dinner And Eavesdropping Birds 20:46

13d ago20:46

20:46

While there are a lot of dinosaur fossils, and a lot of plant fossils, the precise connection between the two has been something of a mystery. Now, researchers report that they’ve found what’s called a cololite, fossilized gut contents, in the remains of a sauropod—a massive, long-necked plant-eater. The dino’s last meal dates back 95 to 100 millio…

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EPA Moves To Accelerate Superfund Cleanup Amid Cuts 12:25

14d ago12:25

12:25

EPA Moves To Accelerate Superfund Cleanup Amid Cuts by SciFriBy SciFri

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What Are The Best Practices For Prostate Cancer Screening? 18:46

14d ago18:46

18:46

Last month, former President Joe Biden announced that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. The news sparked a larger conversation about what exactly the best practices are to screen for prostate cancer. Turns out, it’s more complicated than it might seem. Host Ira Flatow is joined by oncologist Matthew Cooperberg and st…

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The Leap: Garbage In, Garbage Out 29:38

15d ago29:38

29:38

Biochemist Virginia Man-Yee Lee has spent a lifetime in the lab, figuring out what happens in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases. She’s made key discoveries about Parkinson's, ALS, and Alzheimer's.The secret to her success? Happiness. “If you're not happy, you don’t know what you’re capable of,” Lee says. Neurologist Ken Kosick re…

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RFK Jr. Reshuffles CDC Vaccine Panel With Vaccine Skeptics 25:26

18d ago25:26

25:26

On Monday, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the panel that advises the CDC on who should get certain vaccines and when. Then on Thursday, he appointed eight new members, some of whom have been critical of vaccines in the past. So who exactly is new on the panel and how are medical experts reacting? Sophie Bushwick f…

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What’s Next For China’s Space Program? 19:24

19d ago19:24

19:24

This week, China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft sent back its first image from space. It’s headed to a rendezvous with the asteroid Kamoʻoalewa, one of Earth’s “quasi-moons,” where it will collect samples in 2026. The mission comes after several successful lunar missions, including a lunar rover and a sample return mission from the far side of the moon. Ho…

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The Ruin And Redemption Of The American Prairie 18:31

20d ago18:31

18:31

The prairie might just be the most underappreciated landscape in the United States. Beginning in the early 1800s, the majority of these grasslands were converted into big industrial farms. Now, some unaffectionately refer to it as “flyover country.” Host Ira Flatow talks with Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty, authors of Sea of Grass: The Conquest, …

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Bedbugs Have Been Bugging Us Since Before Beds 18:48

21d ago18:48

18:48

Bedbug infestations are not just a modern problem—these pests have been with early human ancestors for 245,000 years, causing problems long before the invention of beds. Lindsay Miles, an entomologist at Virginia Tech, has found that changes in bedbug population size mirrored those of humans, proving they might be our first pest. Miles talks with H…

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The Leap: A Scientist’s Quest To See Every Organism On Earth 25:55

22d ago25:55

25:55

Manu Prakash is many things—biologist, engineer, inventor, philosopher—but what he isn’t is conventional. Following his instincts has led Manu to his most ambitious project yet: mapping the whole tree of life, with the help of everyone on this planet. Step one: make a cheap microscope anyone can use. Foldscope co-inventor Jim Cybulski describes the…

Science Friday And WNYC Studios Podcasts

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Universe of Art

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Undiscovered

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Science Diction

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

1
What Does It Mean To Have A Chatbot Companion? 19:36

1
The Leap: Mars? It Was A Miracle We Got To Florida 23:43

1
After Her Grants Got Cut, This Researcher Is Suing The NIH 13:07

1
New Telescope Captures The Cosmos In Groundbreaking Detail 12:38

1
How Scientists Made The First Gene-Editing Treatment For A Baby 18:56

1
Ancient Bone Proteins May Offer Insight On Megafauna Extinction 19:23

1
The Leap: You Do Realize… That’s Impossible 23:47

1
What We’re Learning From The James Webb Space Telescope 17:47

1
How ‘Super Agers’ Stay Sharp And Active Longer Than Their Peers 30:49

1
A Dino’s Last Dinner And Eavesdropping Birds 20:46

1
EPA Moves To Accelerate Superfund Cleanup Amid Cuts 12:25

1
What Are The Best Practices For Prostate Cancer Screening? 18:46

1
The Leap: Garbage In, Garbage Out 29:38

1
RFK Jr. Reshuffles CDC Vaccine Panel With Vaccine Skeptics 25:26

1
What’s Next For China’s Space Program? 19:24

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The Ruin And Redemption Of The American Prairie 18:31

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Bedbugs Have Been Bugging Us Since Before Beds 18:48

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The Leap: A Scientist’s Quest To See Every Organism On Earth 25:55