Emily Kwong

But we know you won't let public media go away.

We rely on your support to bring you shortwave now more than ever.

This year, we have loved bringing you stories about, among many other things, what happens inside a top-secret nuclear facility, whether kids should be taking melatonin, why flowers are blooming early, how nightmares work, and what happens when AI cannibalizes its own data.

And we cannot wait to bring you more episodes like that in 2026.

So...

Thank you if you already go the extra mile as an NPR Plus supporter.

If not, you can join the Plus community now.

There has never been a better time.

You get a bunch of perks like bonus episodes and more from across NPR's podcasts.

Support public media by signing up for NPR Plus today at plus.npr.org.

Thank you so much.

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

will complicate the saga of the Black Death with a story of how it may have been driven by volcanoes.

What?

All right, Elsa, where do you want to start?

That's Sukrit Ranjan, the lead author of a recent study about TRAPPIST-1e published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Now, what Sukrit is saying is that we have the best chances of finding life there in the Goldilocks zone as opposed to some of these other exoplanet systems.

Well, the reason this zone is important is because it's not too hot such that water evaporates off the surface and not too cold such that the planet would be covered in ice.

Another key ingredient for life on a planet is having an atmosphere.

Drum roll.