Science Magazine Podcast

Jacqueline Faherty, an astrophysicist and museum curator who reviews Project Hail Mary and planetary science. Myra Cheng, a Stanford CS Ph.D. candidate studying AI behavior and sycophancy. Jill Farrant, a molecular biologist researching resurrection plants and drought resilience. They discuss desiccation survival in plants, how chatbots overly agree and affect relationships, and scientific realism in Project Hail Mary.

First up on the podcast, we discuss a finding that’s likely to reignite debate over how humans first spread through the Americas. In the late 1990s, a site in southern Chile called Monte Verde forced archaeologists to adjust their views of the peopling of South America because it dated to about 14,500 years before present, which challenged the prevailing idea of when human inhabitants appeared on the continent. Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss new results published in Science that suggest Monte Verde is nowhere near that old. See the paper and related commentary. Next on the show, we talk about groundwater, a vital source of water for both drinking and agriculture that’s often overused and depleted. Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Scott Jasechko, a professor of water resources with the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, about the many different approaches to improving groundwater supplies and what has worked where, which he reviews in this week’s issue of Science. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evan Howell, freelance science journalist and former geologist, reports from Cape Blossom on coastal erosion revealing potentially 350,000-year-old glacier ice. Matthias Loretto, wildlife ecologist, shows Yellowstone ravens revisit remembered wolf-kill hotspots rather than tailing predators. Claire Bedbrook, neuroscience postdoc, tracked turquoise killifish lifespans to link lifelong behaviors with aging-related molecular changes.

First up on the podcast, a peek into the roiling seas of U.S. science policy. ScienceInsider Editor Jocelyn Kaiser talks about shifting leadership at the National Science Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as a dip in funding rates by the National Institutes of Health. Staff Writer Robert F. Service covers proposed restrictions on access by international researchers and students to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall talks about the Department of Energy’s rush to loosen radiation exposure standards. Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone discusses why an accusation of nuclear weapons testing in China could spark a new round of weapons testing in the United States and Russia. Next on the show, this year’s children’s book roundup features everything from a look at space law to a clever wartime spider farmer. Senior Editor Valerie Thompson joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the books and the reviews of them, written by Science staffers (and sometimes their kids). This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warren Cornwall, an environmental reporter who witnessed shrinking bird populations in Brazil, and Raouf Belkhir, an M.D.-Ph.D. student researching awake brain mapping. They discuss quieting tropical forests and which birds are most affected. They also cover refined awake stimulation techniques that track timing effects to better map speech processing during surgery.

Maria Loconsole, postdoc studying cross-modal correspondences, reports that newly hatched chicks show the bouba–kiki effect. Michael Greshko, science reporter, recounts AAAS themes like AI in research and shifting outlook for U.S. science. David Rand, Cornell professor known for misinformation research, discusses using LLMs to combat conspiracy beliefs. Multiple lively conversations tie AI, research trends, and innate perception together.

Kishalay De, astrophysicist who tracked a star’s infrared wink in Andromeda, and David Grimm, science reporter who explores boosting success rates for service dogs. They discuss finding a stellar black hole’s birth through archival infrared searches. They also cover cognitive testing, breeding and genomic tools to predict which puppies will thrive in training.

Adrian Cho, Science staff writer covering physics and life sciences, describes new helmet materials, testing methods, and how data changed rules and drills. John Strang, professor at King’s College London studying opioid dependence, explores the biology of overdose, naloxone dosing, research gaps, and wearable detection ideas.

Ailey Dolgan, freelance science reporter on space radiation, explains shielding strategies, biological countermeasures, and experimental astronaut‑health tech. Joshua Lappin, historian-engineer, and Emily Grubert, civil engineer and environmental sociologist, unpack how shrinking fossil networks can fail, the concept of minimum viable scale, and why planned retirements matter. Short, sharp conversations on protecting people in space and managing energy decline.

First up with Jennie Erin Smith, Science’s new senior biomedicine reporter, we delve into: autobrewery syndrome, when microbes inside the human gut make too much alcohol; how doctors can use a public repository, the Mexican Biobank, to guide patient care; and preliminary findings that surgery on the brain’s plumbing shows promise for Alzheimer’s disease. Next on the show, it’s tough to calculate when and where deorbiting spacecraft might enter the upper atmosphere and then eventually hit the ground. Benjamin Fernando, a seismologist and planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University, has shown that sonic booms created by fast-moving space debris shake seismic sensors, giving clues to angle of re-entry, breakup dynamics, and final location. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices