Particles of Thought
Episodes
How Many Leaves Are on a Tree? | Kirk Johnson
29 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Need to know how many leaves are on that tree? Paleobotanist Dr. Kirk Johnson shares the surprisingly nerdy method—because you never know when leaf ...
The Air You Breathe Is Bacteria Poop | Peter Girguis
22 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Long before trees and grass, microbes were shaping our atmosphere. Evolutionary biologist Peter Girguis explains how ancient bacteria learned to split...
The Fish That Could Walk | Sean B. Carrol
15 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How did animals first make the giant step from water to land? Evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll explains how the discovery of Tiktaalik—a fossi...
How Close Can You Safely Get to a Black Hole? | Janna Levin
08 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Black holes aren’t the cosmic monsters Hollywood makes them out to be. Astrophysicist Janna Levin explains why they’re so hard to detect, why they...
A New Law of Nature? | Robert Hazen & Michael Wong
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Could the universe be governed by a law we haven’t discovered yet? Mineralogist Robert Hazen and astrobiologist Michael Wong propose a new rule—th...
AI Is Coming for Blue Collar Jobs | Hany Farid
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
AI isn’t just coming for office jobs—it’s coming for some hands-on blue collar professions, too. AI expert Hany Farid explains which jobs are sa...
What Species Can We De-Extinct? | Beth Shapiro
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists claimed in 2024 that they "de-extincted" the dire wolf… so what’s next, and what determines whether a species can be brought back? Evol...
Were Dinosaurs Able to Sing? | Erich Jarvis
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Dinosaurs might not have been the roaring beasts many imagine. Neuroscientist Erich Jarvis explains why modern birds—living dinosaurs—offer clues ...
Space-Time Expansion, Explained | Adam Riess
04 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If the universe is expanding, why aren’t galaxies stretching apart? Cosmologist Adam Riess breaks down the physics behind cosmic expansion, the forc...
Your Brain’s Peak Performance Mode | Heather Berlin
25 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why does thinking too hard ruin your rhythm? Neuroscientist Heather Berlin unpacks the science of flow states, explaining why mastery means trusting y...
Title: Black Hole Geometry Will Warp Your Brain | Janna Levin
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Black holes can be bigger on the inside than they are on the outside. Astrophysicist Janna Levin explains how this is possible, and what that means ab...
What Exactly Is a Law of Nature? | Robert Hazen & Michael Wong
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What’s the difference between a fact, a law, and a theory? Mineralogist Robert Hazen and astrobiologist Michael Wong unpack the hierarchy of scienti...
How Many Microbes Live on Earth? | Peter Girguis
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Sorry, Beyoncé, it turns out microbes rule the world. Microbiologist Peter Girguis explains how to conceptualize just how many microbes are on Earth…...
Why Tropical Trees Don’t Have Rings | Kirk Johnson
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Growth rings on trees can measure time, allowing scientists to date things from the deep past. But, paleobotantist Dr. Kirk Johnson explains why, in t...
How Weight Loss Drugs Were Inspired by Gila Monsters | Sean B. Carroll
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Nature has been solving problems for billions of years. Evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll reveals why scientists still turn to evolution’s inve...
De-Extincted” Dire Wolf Pups Are Growing Up | Beth Shapiro
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 2024, scientists claimed they achieved the unthinkable: the birth of dire wolf pups, reviving a species that vanished thousands of years ago. Now, ...
How AI Is Taking “Future-Proof” Jobs | Hany Farid
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Is AI coming for your job? AI Expert Hany Farid breaks down how AI is taking jobs once considered “future-proof” and shares his advice to prepare ...
Discovering Dark Energy and the Hubble Tension | Extended Interview with Nobel Prize Winner Adam Riess
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does it feel like to make one of the biggest discoveries in physics? Adam Riess knows — because his work revealed that the universe isn’t jus...
Hubble Tension, Explained | Adam Riess
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The universe isn’t adding up—and it’s creating a crisis in cosmology. Nobel Prize winner Adam Riess explains why measurements of the universe’...
Einstein’s “Biggest Blunder” | Adam Riess
15 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Discovering dark energy wasn’t just thrilling—it was terrifying. Nobel Prize Winner Adam Riess explains the nerve-wracking process behind confirmi...
How Fame Affects the Brain | Heather Berlin
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fame can hijack the brain like a drug—activating the same reward circuits that fuel a relentless chase for dopamine highs. Neuroscientist Heather Be...
How Fossils Form and How to Find Them | Kirk Johnson
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fossilization isn’t luck - it’s geology. Paleobotanist Kirk Johnson explains how fossils only form in certain conditions, the tricks to finding th...
Why Only Some Species Can Talk—and Dance | Erich Jarvis
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Speech is rare in the animal kingdom because it requires a very specific brain architecture. Neuroscientist Erich Jarvis explains how duplicating neur...
Evolution of New Species, Venom, Wings, and More | Extended Interview with Sean B. Carroll
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How does evolution invent entirely new things, like limbs, wings, and venom? Evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll joins us to reveal the hidden rule...
How the Fruit Fly Revolutionized Biology | Sean B. Carroll
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From legs on heads to missing eyes, fruit fly mutations exposed the genetic toolkit that builds all animals. Evolutionary Biologist Sean B. Carroll sh...
The Evolution of Venom & Antivenom | Sean B. Carroll
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From snakes to jellyfish, venom is one of evolution’s most lethal inventions. Evolutionary Biologist Sean B. Carroll reveals how this deadly innovat...
A Black Hole Is a Place, Not a Thing | Janna Levin
30 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The edge of a black hole isn’t what you think. Astrophysicist Janna Levin dives into the event horizon, the one-way transition where space and time ...
How To Recognize Alien Life | Peter Girguis
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There’s no single ‘smoking gun’ for life beyond Earth. Microbiologist Peter Girguis explains the subtle fingerprints scientists hunt for—and w...
Can We Make Animals Talk? | Erich Jarvis
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists are editing genes for human speech into mice to see if they can learn vocal patterns. Neuroscientist Erich Jarvis explains how this could u...
Extended Interview: De-Extinction, Dire Wolves, and Jurassic Park with Beth Shapiro
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can we bring extinct species back to life? Evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro claims we just did. As Chief Science Officer at Colossal, her team made...
De-Extinction: A How-To Guide | Beth Shapiro
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jurassic Park got it all wrong. Beth Shapiro would know… she’s Chief Science Officer at Colossal, the genetic engineering company that recently ma...
How AI Deepfakes Are Really Made | Hany Farid
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The deepfake game is getting real. Deepfake detective Hany Farid gets under the hood of AI and explains exactly how it can now make such convincing fa...
What's My Brain Doing? Goosebumps & Other Strange Phenomena | Heather Berlin
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wonder why you get déjà vu? Or why you keep losing your keys? Your brain does some weird stuff. Neuroscientist Heather Berlin explains the surp...
When Black Holes Collide | Janna Levin
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Space itself rings with gravitational waves when black holes collide—the most powerful events detected since the Big Bang. Astrophysicist Janna Levi...
Leopard Spots on Mars? NASA’s Big Discovery, Explained | Peter Girguis
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Could a Martian rock hold the most promising sign of life beyond Earth? Microbiologist Peter Girguis unpacks NASA’s stunning discovery of ‘leopard...
Sinkholes in Florida Reveal Amazing Fossils | Kirk Johnson
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A sinkhole can become a time capsule full of skeletons - layers upon layers of beasts that once walked the Earth - and Florida’s landscape is full o...
How to Detect Deepfakes: Recognizing AI-Generated Content | Hany Farid
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a world flooded with fake videos and voice recordings that seem real, how can you detect deepfakes? Turns out, there are some aspects of the physic...
Extended Interview: Extremophiles, the Deep Sea, and Alien Life with Peter Girguis
03 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do deep-sea microbes and Martian “leopard spots” have in common? Marine biologist Peter Girguis thinks they might both hold clues to finding ...
Extended Interview: Bird Song and the Evolution of Language with Erich Jarvis
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Talking, singing, even dancing — they all trace back to a rare superpower: vocal learning. But humans aren’t the only animals that have it. Neuros...
Extended Interview: Neuroscience of Consciousness, Personality, and Creativity with Heather Berlin
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Your brain does all kinds of strange things — and neuroscientist Heather Berlin wants to explain how it works. In this episode, she joins Hakeem to ...
Extended Interview: A Missing Law of Nature with Bob Hazen and Mike Wong
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The universe loves making things complicated. From minerals and microbes to languages and societies, complexity keeps showing up — but why? Astrobio...
Extended Interview: Black Holes and Quantum Weirdness with Janna Levin
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Black holes get a bad rap. They’ve been cast as the monsters of the cosmos — gobbling up stars and stretching anything that gets too close into co...
Extended Interview: Deepfake Detection and the Future of AI with Hany Farid
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a world flooded with fake images, manipulated videos, and AI-generated voices, how do we know what’s real anymore? Hany Farid has made it his mis...
Extended Interview: Fossil Hunting, Sinkholes, and Paleobotany with Kirk Johnson
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do fossilized leaves, an asteroid, and Florida sinkholes have in common? Dr. Kirk Johnson oversees one of the largest natural history collections...
Introducing Particles of Thought
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when brilliant minds collide? In Particles of Thought, astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi is obsessed with understanding not just what the wor...