Science History Podcast
Episodes
Episode 101. Longitude: Emily Akkermans
10 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The age of exploration altered the course of human history, but how did early explorers find their way? Calculating their latitude at sea was a relat...
Episode 100. Bohr's Legacy: Tomas Bohr
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today we explore the life and legacy of the physicist Niels Bohr through the reflections of his grandson Tomas Bohr. Tomas is an Emeritus Professor at...
Episode 99. Rapa Nui's Collapse: Mike Pitts
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Often in the history of science, myths overrun scientific findings and take hold with such force that they are difficult or nearly impossible to dislo...
Episode 98. Retrospective: Tom Lehrer's Mathematics
10 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Science History Podcast, now in its 9th year, has spanned Trump's first term in office, four years of the Biden Administration, and a year of the ...
Episode 97. Forever Chemicals: Sharon Udasin
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode is a discussion on the history of PFAS, or forever chemicals, including their accidental development, incorporation into commercial pr...
Episode 96. The Weather: Simon Winchester
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The weather has always been a critical element of the human experience - deadly during storms and droughts, sustaining when aligned with the harvest ...
Episode 95. The River War: James Muller
11 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Episodes 10 and 11 of the Science History Podcast, I interviewed James Muller on the role that Winston Churchill played in the unparalleled advance...
Episode 94. Lead Poisoning: Bruce Lanphear
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our health, and the health of wildlife, depends on a clean environment. Since the advent of the industrial revolution, our environment has suffered fr...
Episode 93. Attacks on University Research: Claudia Polsky
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The year 2025 has seen the most aggressive moves ever by the US executive branch against scientific research as the Trump Administration has gutted fe...
Episode 92. ATSDR: Jaimi Dowdell
12 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Episode 62, I interviewed two Reuters journalists about how industry and government in the United States use conservation easements to avoid rigoro...
Episode 91. Political Bias: Bill von Hippel
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In prior episodes, we examined political interference and bias in science in a few contexts, including episode 3 on the history of U.S. congressional...
Episode 90. Physicists as Biologists: William Lanouette
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In prior episodes, I have interviewed many people about the history of physics and physics-adjacent topics such as nuclear disarmament. Many of the ph...
Episode 89. Göttingen Physics: Tim Salditt, Kurt Schönhammer, & Sarah Köster
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Prior to the rise of Nazism, the University of Göttingen hosted most of the top physicists in the world, either as resident or visiting scientists. W...
Episode 88. Polymerase Chain Reaction: Henry Erlich
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The history of science is punctuated by moments of technological innovation that produce a paradigm shift and a subsequent flurry of discovery. A rec...
Episode 87. Meitner's Atom: Marissa Moss
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lise Meitner was the most important female physicist of the 20th century. She made fundamental discoveries on the atom, including, most famously, bein...
Episode 86. Quantum Mechanics: Jim Baggott
12 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Humanity's understanding of the universe radically altered with the advent of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century. The theory of quantum mecha...
Episode 85. SWOPSI: Joel Primack & Robert Jaffe
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Societal problems big and small typically have a scientific element, often in a central way, yet most scientists are not directly involved in policy. ...
Episode 84. Antisemitism and the Academy: Bret Stephens
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Institutions of higher education, especially in the United States, have received a great deal of attention over the past two generations regarding the...
Episode 83. Hebrew: Shalom Goldman
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What was the Western World's understanding of the origins of humanity prior to the Enlightenment? Why did Christopher Columbus have a Hebrew speaker o...
Episode 82. Jerusalem Archeology: Jodi Magness
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Archeology is the science that most directly connects us with our past, and no city in the world has been subject to more archeological interest than ...
Episode 81. Nuclear Disarmament: Steve Fetter
11 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today I speak with Steve Fetter about his work on a variety of nuclear disarmament efforts, including the Black Sea Experiment, nuclear archeology, th...
Episode 80. Soviet Nuclear Program: Thomas Cochran
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today we focus on the Soviet nuclear program with Thomas Cochran. Tom directed nuclear disarmament projects at the Natural Resources Defense Council f...
Episode 79. Endocrine Disruption: Patricia Hunt
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today we explore the history of the field of endocrine disruption with Patricia Hunt. Pat is a Regents Professor in the School of Molecular Bioscience...
Episode 78. Szilard After The War: William Lanouette
12 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In episode 77, I interviewed William Lanouette about Leo Szilard's work on the atom bomb, with a discussion of the roles that Szilard played until the...
Episode 77. Szilard's Chain Reaction: William Lanouette
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Perhaps the most overlooked scientist who played critical roles in the development of the atomic bomb was Leo Szilard. With us to explore Szilard's nu...
Episode 76. Malaria & Reminiscences: Nobel Laureate Peter Agre
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Agre received the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of aquaporins. Peter is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in Molecular Micro...
Episode 75. Retrospective: Oliver Sacks
11 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1994, while attending graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, I had the pleasure of seeing a lecture by Oliver Sacks in which he...
Episode 74. Novichok: Vil Mirzayanov
12 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Novichok is the most deadly chemical weapon ever developed. With us to discuss the history of Novichok is Vil Mirzayanov. Vil worked in the secret Sov...
Episode 73. Pascual Jordan's Duplicity: Ryan Dahn
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How could a brilliant scientist and mathematician, an innovator in quantum theory, who worked closely with Jewish colleagues, become an ardent Nazi? H...
Episode 72. Scientific Espionage: Eli Lake
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Many of the most important secrets held in international contests are technological or scientific in nature, and wars are often settled due to technol...
Episode 71. Retrospective: The Franck-Hertz Experiment
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A retrospective on the Franck-Hertz experiment, which resulted in James Franck and Gustav Hertz receiving the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics. Image credi...
Episode 70. Retrospective: James Franck
11 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A retrospective on James Franck, recipient of the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Episode 69. Ancient DNA: Maanasa Raghavan
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The ability to extract DNA from ancient fragments of biological material has revolutionized our understanding of recent evolutionary history, includi...
Episode 68. Pandemics: Leslie Reperant
11 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The world just experienced a devastating pandemic, yet in the context of historical pandemics, COVID-19 was a relatively minor event in the history of...
Episode 67. Lazaretto: David Barnes
11 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Before the advent of the germ theory of disease in the 1870s, quarantine provided one of the few effective means to prevent or alleviate epidemics. Th...
Episode 66. Climbing, Chemistry & Policy: Arlene Blum
12 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What are the commonalities between scaling the world's highest peaks and tackling the most challenging pollution problems? What was it like to enter t...
Episode 65. Ideology & Science: Lee Jussim
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Any intellectual endeavor runs the risk of bias. Today we explore ways in which political ideology interferes with scholarship, particularly in the so...
Episode 64. Environmental Diplomacy: Mark Lytle
17 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The world's environmental problems demand solutions for the common good, which in turn necessitate environmental diplomacy. With us to untangle the me...
Episode 63. Paleoanthropology: Evan Hadingham
11 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Certain fields of science attract broad interest because of what they tell us about humanity, and no field does this more directly than paleoanthropol...
Episode 62. Conservation Easement or Easy Pollution? Jaimi Dowdell and Andrea Januta
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How could a conservation easement be anything other than a great thing? With us to answer this question are Jaimi Dowdell and Andrea Januta, both of w...
Episode 61. Foresight: Thomas Suddendorf
11 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For thousands of years, scholars have struggled with what it means to be human. One critical dimension of humanity is foresight, and with us to deciph...
Episode 60. Planetary Boundary Threats: Bethanie Carney Almroth
11 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Johan Rockström and colleagues first proposed the concept in 2009 of planetary boundary threats and a safe operating space for humanity. This concept...
Episode 59. The Civilian Conservation Corps: Neil Maher
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the ensuing worldwide Great Depression left families in economic shock and despair. International trade collapsed to...
Episode 58. Subtraction: Leidy Klotz
11 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The ways people think about matters both big and small, from climate change to daily tasks, impact the outcomes. Throughout the history of science and...
Episode 57. Bias: Jim Zimring
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
No matter our claims to the contrary, we are all biased in our perceptions and beliefs. But bias is not random and its directions relate to our evolut...
Episode 56. Marine Pollution: David Valentine
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The oceans have been used as the dumping grounds for all manner of toxic waste. Outrage over such dumping led to the Marine Protection, Research, and ...
Episode 55. DDT: Elena Conis
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Many landmarks of environmental history share a connection with a single molecule: DDT. During and after the Second World War, it was broadcast into t...
Episode 54. Bohr's Atom: John Heilbron
11 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
At the start of the 20th century, physicists probed the structure of nature. Their discoveries changed our fundamental understanding of matter, of lif...
Episode 53. Industrial Agriculture: Helen Anne Curry
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The advent of agriculture over 10,000 years ago forever altered the trajectory of humanity. Communities grew larger until cities and nations dotted th...
Episode 52. Neurological Disorders: Sara Manning Peskin
11 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The brain is the most mysterious and complex organ of the body, and when things go awry, we may be confronted with personal tragedy and we may gain in...
Episode 51. Ecological Economics: Herman Daly
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nothing is so intertwined with human success and folly as economics. The economy, for better or for worse, drives much of our fate from our household ...
Episode 50. Space & the Sixties: Neil Maher
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 60s hosted the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, which occurred in the midst of the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and civil ...
Episode 49. Armament & Disarmament: Richard Garwin
11 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode marks the four-year anniversary of the Science History Podcast, where we have explored all manner of science and relevant policy spann...
Episode 48. Nuclear Disarmament: Zia Mian
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we explore the history of nuclear disarmament with Zia Mian. Zia is a physicist and co-director of Princeton's Program on Science and Global Sec...
Episode 47. The Demarcation Problem: Michael Gordin
10 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How do we distinguish real science from hogwash? How does real science evolve over time into pseudoscience? Why will science always be plagued with si...
Episode 46. Unsettled Research: Mark Lytle
11 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Uncertainty is inherent to science and exploited by those who wish to stymie regulations that would promote environmental quality and public health. C...
Episode 45. Wildlife Biology: George Schaller
11 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The study of wildlife has a history full of adventures in remote corners of the Earth, discoveries of remarkable behaviors, and achievements in conser...
Episode 44. Chemical Sense & Nonsense: Joe Schwarcz
11 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The history of science is punctuated by both the greatest achievements and the greatest tragedies of human endeavors. The development of organic chemi...
Episode 43. Number Theory: Bryden Cais
11 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The history of mathematics extends back millennia. The needs of trade, taxation, and time-keeping drove the development of principles of arithmetic, a...
Episode 42. Euclid's Elements: David Acheson
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The most important book in the history of mathematics is Euclid's Elements. The book – really 13 short books bound together into a single treatise –...
Episode 41. Galileo's Dialogue: John Heilbron
11 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Galileo occupies an inflection point in the history of science and society. Born in 1564, Galileo changed the trajectory of science though his work in...
Episode 40. H.M.S. Challenger: Doug Macdougall
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The creation of a new discipline based upon a single scientific expedition is a rare occurrence, but this is what resulted from the 1872-1876 expediti...
Episode 39. Reproductive Health: Shanna Swan
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 1990s, scientists discovered that sperm counts in industrialized countries had declined precipitously over the previous half century. It ...
Episode 38. Falsifiability: Sean Carroll
11 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The boundaries of science are clear, and can be demarcated by the concept of falsifiability. Or so we learn in our science classes. But with some area...
Episode 37. Environmental Health: Linda Birnbaum
11 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Human health and environmental health are inextricably linked. We are negatively impacted by the same pollutants that harm other organisms, and we all...
Episode 36. Dark Money: David Michaels
11 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How is it that corporations routinely and successfully obfuscate science and seed public doubt on issues of paramount importance, ranging from climate...
Episode 35. The Pentagon Papers: Daniel Ellsberg
11 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Whistleblowers are admired or vilified. They are saviors of democracy or traitors to their country. They confront those in power and drive the news, a...
Episode 34. The Chemical Age: Pete Myers & Frank von Hippel
11 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Pete Myers interviews me about my new book, The Chemical Age, published this month by the University of Chicago Press.
Episode 33. Industrial Denial: Barbara Freese
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why is it that decades after scientists discover problems of paramount importance, such as global climate change or lead pollution, those problems sti...
Episode 32. Materials Science: Ainissa Ramirez
11 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Discoveries in basic science often translate into material goods, and frequently in surprising ways. Material goods, in turn, facilitate scientific pr...
Episode 31. Science & Poetry: Dava Sobel
11 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today we explore what mathematicians would refer to as the non-trivial intersection between science and poetry. Guiding us through these overlapping s...
Episode 30. Global Amphibian Declines: David Wake
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Frogs have hopped around this planet for 200 million years. In comparison, anatomically modern humans have only been around for 200 thousand years. Bu...
Episode 29. Green Chemistry: Terry Collins
11 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chemistry has given the world the incredible diversity of fuels, pharmaceuticals, and household products that we rely on every day, along with tremend...
Episode 28. Environmentalism: Paul Ehrlich
11 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rachel Carson alerted the world to the dangers of pollution with the publication of her book Silent Spring in 1962, and in the process, she helped to ...
Episode 27. Biodiversity: Thomas Lovejoy
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Global biodiversity is in the midst of a mass extinction driven by rapid human population growth and over-consumption of resources. These forces drive...
Episode 26. Linguistics: Noam Chomsky
11 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nothing is more human than language, and no one has done more to advance the science of linguistics than Noam Chomsky. Noam was born in 1928, and comp...
Episode 25. Space Science: Pam Melroy
11 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Space exploration thrills kids and adults alike. Today I discuss the history of NASA and space science with Pam Melroy. Pam piloted the Space Shuttle ...
Episode 24. Conservation of Freshwater Ecosystems: Ian Harrison
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Freshwater ecosystems and their resident species have declined more rapidly than either terrestrial or marine systems and their species. Freshwater ec...
Episode 23. Human Evolutionary Genetics: Jason Wilder
11 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Due to recent technological advances, scientists have revolutionized our understanding of human evolutionary history. What appeared to be a relatively...
Episode 22. Sex Differences in the Brain: Margaret McCarthy
11 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The brain is the most enigmatic of organs – it is really a collection of organs that undergoes a remarkable coordinated development that is driven i...
Episode 21. Plutonium: Frank N. von Hippel
11 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today we explore the history of plutonium with Frank von Hippel, a retired but always active professor at Princeton University, where, in 1975, he co-...
Episode 20. Gravitational Waves: Nobel Laureate Rai Weiss
11 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We explore the history of the discovery of gravitational waves with Rai Weiss, including the relevance to special and general relativity, pulsars, sup...
Episode 19. Yellow Rain: Matthew Meselson
11 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this supplemental episode with Matthew Meselson, I accepted his invitation to visit him in his office at Harvard, where we discussed yellow rain in...
Episode 18. Herbicidal Warfare: Matthew Meselson
11 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew Meselson organized the Herbicide Assessment Commission in 1970, which investigated the use of Agent Orange and other defoliants in Vietnam. Th...
Episode 17. Cooperation: Robert Axelrod
11 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We live in a surreal and dangerous time – autocrats are on the rise and societies are regressing toward ethnic competition. Given this political mom...
Episode 16. Forensic Science: Bruce Budowle
11 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How did modern molecular biology become an integral component of forensic science? My guest, Bruce Budowle, played key roles in the development of gen...
Episode 15. Bioterrorism: Paul Keim
11 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Shortly after the al-Qaida terror attacks of September 11, 2001, a second wave of terror swept the United States – this time bioterrorism with anthr...
Episode 14. Aquaporins: Nobel Laureate Peter Agre
11 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the greatest mysteries in biology, until 1991, was how water moves across cell membranes. Today's episode focuses on the history of the discove...
Episode 13. Water Sanitation: Dennis Warner
11 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 1854, in the Soho district of London, cholera swept through the population. The physician John Snow investigated the cause of the outbreak and hypo...
Episode 12. Climate Change: John Matthews
11 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The effects of human induced climate change, predicted over a century ago, are already with us. My guest, John Matthews, is the coordinator at the All...
Episode 11. Winston Churchill's Science, Part 2: James Muller
11 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Winston Churchill's outsized role and oratory in wartime, from the Great Boer War at the turn of the century to World War II, are well known. Beyond p...
Episode 10. Winston Churchill's Science, Part 1: James Muller
11 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The 20th century was a time of unparalleled advancement in science and technology, along with the associated destruction caused by two world wars. I...
Episode 9. British Explorers, Part 2: Andrea Hart and Max Barclay
11 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Natural History Museum in London houses the greatest collection of natural history specimens in the world, collected for centuries by British expl...
Episode 8. British Explorers, Part 1: Ian Owens
11 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Natural History Museum in London houses the greatest collection of natural history specimens in the world, collected for centuries by British expl...
Episode 7. Animal Intelligence: Irene Pepperberg
11 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For over half a century, innovative scientists have tested the abilities of animals to learn to communicate using human systems, such as American Sign...
Episode 6. Chemical Causes of Obesity: Bruce Blumberg
11 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The obesity epidemic has spread throughout much of the world and is one of the leading drivers of impaired health and skyrocketing healthcare costs. ...
Episode 5. Explorers and Extinction in Hawaii: Dan Lewis
11 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are exploring natural history investigations in the Hawaiian archipelago. My guest, Dan Lewis, is a research professor of history at Claremon...
Episode 4. Finding Pluto: Kevin Schindler and Will Grundy
11 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The discovery and subsequent study of Pluto has captivated the public for nearly a century. Even the question of whether Pluto should be categorized...
Episode 3. U.S. Congressional Attacks on Science: Melinda Baldwin and Josh Shiode
11 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Attacks on science and scientists have been a hallmark of the Trump administration, but such attacks emanating from the U.S. federal government are no...
Episode 2. Nuclear Weapons and the Cold War: Jose Goldemberg and Frank N. von Hippel
11 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The possibility that world annihilation rests with the twitching fingertips of a dictator in North Korea and a narcissist in Washington motivated me t...