Short Wave
Episodes
Hurricane Helene Is Here And Powerful
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Governors across the southeastern United States have declared statewide states of emergency as Hurricane Helene continues its ascent. After forming in...
The Reality Of OCD
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Around 2% of the global population struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. That's roughly 163 million people who go through cycles of ob...
Harnessing The Ghost Particles Blasting Through You
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the beginning of the universe, annihilation reigned supreme. Equal amounts of matter and antimatter collided. There should have been nothing left. ...
Solving The EV Battery Recycling Puzzle
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Electric vehicle batteries will all, eventually, reach the end of their lives. When that happens, they should be recycled. But what breakthroughs coul...
How To Get A Haircut In Space
21 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hey, Short Wavers! Today we're sharing an excerpt of the new NPR podcast How To Do Everything. How To Do Everything is half advice show, half survival...
The Scuba Diving Lizards Breathing By Bubble
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What's scaly, striped and breathes underwater like a scuba diver? Water anoles! These lizards can form a bubble over their head to support breathing u...
Are Crabs The Final Form?
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Evolution keeps making crabs. In fact, it's happened so often that there's a special scientific term for an organism turning crab-like: carcinization....
The physics of wheelchair basketball, from a Paralympian
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick Anderson is widely recognized as the greatest wheelchair basketball player of all time. He's represented Canada at the Paralympics six times a...
What's Up With The Hot Ocean Temperatures?
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hurricane season is heating up: Hurricane Francine hit Louisiana last week and dumped rain across the South, and forecasters expect more stormy activi...
Solutions Week: Reducing The Food Waste Problem
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We close out Climate Solutions Week with a look at the final step in the food system: waste. Roughly 30-40% of all food produced globally gets thrown ...
Solutions Week: Reinventing Chocolate
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Climate change is contributing to erratic weather where cocoa beans are grown and threatening the global chocolate supply. Record rainfall last year l...
Solutions Week: The Cost Of Food Delivery
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since the height of the pandemic, there has been a boom in the use of food delivery services. Day 2 of NPR's Climate Solutions Week is all about the e...
Solutions Week: Climate Change Is Coming For Your Wine
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In California's Napa Valley, the nation's unofficial wine capital, one varietal reigns supreme: cabernet sauvignon. But climate change is threatening ...
Body Electric: How AI Is Changing Our Relationships
07 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hey, Short Wavers! Today, we have a special present for all of you: An episode from our good friends at NPR's Body Electric podcast all a bout artific...
Dogs Go Viral For 'Talking' To Humans — But Can They?
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, a dog named Bunny went viral on TikTok for pressing buttons with words on them to "communicate" with her owner. But can dogs even understan...
Feeling Itchy? Air Pollution Might Be Making It Worse
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Short Wave producer Hannah Chinn has adult-onset eczema. They're not the only one. Up to ten percent of people in the United States have it, according...
Are You Overestimating The Algorithm?
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Humans hallucinate. Algorithms lie. At least, that's one difference that Joy Buolamwini and Kyle Chayka want to make clear. When ChatGPT tells you tha...
Batteries: The Lemonade Of Life
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Just in time for the return of the school year, we're going "Back To School" by revisiting a classic at-home experiment that turns lemons into batteri...
Detecting Pests By Eavesdropping On Insects
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From Indonesia to Wisconsin, farmers all over the world struggle with a huge problem: pests. On top of that, it's tough for farmers to identify where ...
What's Missing From The Invasive Species Narrative?
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At first glance, the whole narrative of aquatic invasive species may seem straightforward: A bad non-native species comes into a new ecosystem and ove...
Preserving Your Humanity In The Age Of Robots
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Human beings are hardwired for social connection – so much so that we think of even the most basic objects as having feelings or experiences. (Yup, ...
This Unremarkable Ant From Europe Quietly Conquered NYC
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New York: The city that never sleeps, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of and more recently ... home to a mysterious ant spreading across the...
Feeling Bored? Stop Swiping
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever scrolled through a TikTok without finishing it? Switched between YouTube videos halfway through one or the other? Pressed "fast forward"...
What COVID Going Endemic Means For You
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
U.S. health officials now say COVID-19 is an endemic disease. That means it's here to stay – circulating fairly regularly like the flu. Even though ...
Solve A Moon Mystery! With Radiolab
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
All summer long, we've been on a 10-episode odyssey through the changing universe (check out the series). But there was one big set of objects that we...
The Power Of Braille Literacy
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For blind and low vision adults, the ability to read braille can be life-changing. Braille literacy is directly linked to higher rates of academic suc...
Firing A Weapon Might Hurt Your Brain
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some weapons used by the United States military are so powerful, they can pose a threat to the people who fire them — even in training. When weapons...
How To Beat The Heat, Olympian-Style
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the next week, forecasts project extreme heat across much of the South, Midwest and parts of the West. So, this episode, health correspondent Pie...
How Will the Universe End?
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we're bringing you the final installment of our space summer series ... with the end ... of EVERYTHING. Will the universe end in a huge cosmic ...
To Save The Grizzly Bear, You Gotta Think Like One
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Grizzly bears in the contiguous United States have been taken off — then put back on — the endangered species list twice since they were first lab...
What Is An Unfair Advantage In Sports?
10 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We at Short Wave have been following all things Olympics, from the medals and new records to the ugly accusations that two women boxers aren't really ...
These Sea Lions Are Basically Scientists
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do you study unmapped areas of the ocean and identify critical habitat for an endangered species? You include the study animal in the scientific p...
Was The Paris Olympic Pool Slow?
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the last week, we've seen swimmers diving headfirst into the 2024 Paris Olympics pool, limbs gracefully slicing through the water. And yet, world a...
We're All Swimming In Big Bang Juice
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Big Bang: The moment when our universe — everything in existence — began....Right? Turns out, it's not quite that simple. Today, when scientis...
The Toll Of Social Media On Mental Health
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rates of depression and anxiety have risen among teens over the last decade. Amid this ongoing mental health crisis, the American Psychological Associ...
What Makes Simone Biles The GOAT, Scientifically
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Another Olympics, another set of stellar performances by the U.S. women's artistic gymnastics team. Thursday, the team won two medals in the women's a...
The Mathematical Marvel Of The Rubik's Cube
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Rubik's Cube was created 50 years ago by Hungarian inventor Ernő Rubik. Since then, over 500 million of them have been sold. We dive into this gl...
The Curious Case Of The Supermassive Black Hole
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Black holes are one of the most mysterious cosmological phenomena out there. Astrophysicist Priya Natarajan calls them "the point where all known laws...
We Hate To Tell You This, But Some Leeches Can Jump
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Generally, we at Short Wave are open-minded to the creepies and the crawlies, but even we must admit that leeches are already the stuff of nightmares....
What Chimpanzee Gestures Reveal About Human Communication
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chimpanzees are humans' closest living relatives. But does much of their communication resembles ours? According to a new study published earlier this...
Dancing Yeti Crabs, Morphing Cuttlefish, Other Stories From The Deep Sea
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a kid, Sabrina Imbler loved the ocean. They'd swim and snorkel, following around parrotfish in the water. Later, they tried to learn everything the...
Outer Space Changes You, Literally. Here's What It Does To The Human Body
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lower gravity. Higher radiation. No ER access. These are just a few of the challenges that humans face in outer space. Emily and Regina talk to a NASA...
The Brain Makes A Lot Of Waste. Here's How It Cleans Itself Up
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists have long studied the relationship between sleep and the brain, and why poor sleep is linked to neurological diseases like Alzheimer's. NPR...
How An Ambitious River Rerouting Plan Could Change India's Weather
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More than a hundred years ago, a British engineer proposed linking two rivers in India to better irrigate the area and cheaply move goods. The link ne...
The Magic — And Science — Of Synchronous Firefly Displays
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every year for two weeks between mid-May and mid-June, Congaree National Park in South Carolina is home to a fairy-tale-like display of flashing light...
This Mysterious Energy Is Everywhere. Scientists Still Don't Know What It Is
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The universe — everything in existence — is expanding every second! It's only been about a hundred years that humanity has known this, too — tha...
The Dubious Consent Question At The Heart Of The Human Genome Project
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Human Genome Project was a massive undertaking that took more than a decade and billions of dollars to complete. For it, scientists collected DNA ...
Teens Are Following Skincare Trends On TikTok. Some Dermatologists Are Wary
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
TikTok is fuel for many trends, including a skin care craze among teens, pre-teens — okay, and us. The "glass skin" trend calls for a multi-step rou...
Like Humans, These Ants Can Perform Leg Amputations To Save Lives
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some ants herd aphids. Some farm fungi. And now, scientists have realized that when an ant injures its leg, it sometimes will turn to a buddy to perfo...
The Invisible Substance That Structures Our Universe
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The universe is so much bigger than what people can see. Visible matter — the ground, the Sun, the screen you're reading this on — makes up only a...
Sharks Often Get A Bad Rap, But Oceans Need Them
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's that time of the year again: Shark Week. The TV program is so long-running that if you're under 37, you've never known a life without it. In hono...
From Cars To Leaf Blowers: Noise Pollution's Toll On Human Health
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When's the last time you were in a place that was quiet — really quiet? No roadway noise, construction work or even the hum of a refrigerator. Our w...
Researchers Are Figuring Out How African Ancestry Can Affect Certain Brain Disorders
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Black Americans have been underrepresented in most genomic studies of neurological disorders. As a result, scientists don't know much about whether Af...
Could '3 Body Problem's Aliens Exist? The Science Behind Netflix's New Hit
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Before the '3 Body Problem' became a bestselling book and a smash TV show ... it was a physics concept, with big implications for how we understand pl...
Want Juicy Barbecue This Fourth Of July? Cook Low And Slow
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Perfecting your grilling technique ahead of the Fourth of July? Chefs will tell you that cooking is not just an art — it's a science. And the spirit...
Move Over Norse Mythology, There's A New Loki In Town — A Dinosaur
28 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A brand new species of ceratops, or horned dinosaur, was recently discovered in northern Montana. The dinosaur is called Lokiceratops rangiformis, aft...
The Human Brain Is Hardwired To Recognize Faces. But What If You Can't?
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Humans are hardwired to see faces — even in inanimate objects. We have a lima bean-shaped part of our brains dedicated to facial recognition. But th...
Some Stars Explode As They Die. We Look At Their Life Cycle
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This summer, scientists have their eyes and telescopes trained on the small constellation system T Coronae Borealis. They think it will explode as par...
Earth Is More Than A Planet With Life On It. It's A "Living Planet"
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
About ten years ago, science writer Ferris Jabr started contemplating Earth as a living planet rather than a planet with life on it. It began when he ...
We're In For A Brutal Hurricane Season, According To Predictions
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a record number of hurricanes this season, which began on June 1 and runs through No...
What 'Inside Out 2' Got Right About Anxiety, Per A Psychologist
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pixar's new movie, Inside Out 2 came out Friday. It's the sequel to the 2015 movie Inside Out, which follows the life of 11-year-old Riley and her fam...
Pluto Isn't A Planet — But It Gives Us Clues For How The Solar System Formed
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pluto hasn't been a planet for almost 20 years. In the early 2000s, scientists discovered several objects of a similar size to Pluto. So, during the s...
How Millions Of Mosquitoes Could Save Hawaii's Endangered Birds
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To a lot of people, mosquito bites are annoying. But to the rare Hawaiian honeycreepers, they're deadly. Scientists in Maui are racing against time to...
Inheriting: Leah & Japanese American Incarceration
15 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hey, Short Wavers! Today, we're sharing a portion of Inheriting, an 8-part limited series hosted by Emily Kwong about Asian American and Pacific Islan...
Why You Shouldn't Worry About Invasive Joro Spiders
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joro spiders are spreading across the east coast. They are an invasive species that most likely arrived in shipping containers from eastern Asia. Toda...
How The Current Heat Dome Can Affect Human Health
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Right now, there's a "heat dome" lingering over the southwestern U.S. – a high pressure system that pushes hot air down and traps it, raising the te...
From The Physics Of G-Force To Weightlessness: How It Feels To Launch Into Space
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It feels like this is the summer of space launches. So, it's only appropriate that we kick off our new series Space Camp with a look at space launches...
Illegal Wildlife Trade Is Booming. What Does That Mean For The Confiscated Animals?
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest and most profitable crime sectors in the world. The illegal trade estimated to be a multi-billion dollar in...
'Math In Drag' Explores The Creativity And Beauty In Numbers
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kyne Santos was a student at the University of Waterloo when she began her math and her drag careers. She compares her double life to Hannah Montana, ...
Why The Science Of Tides Was Crucial For D-Day
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy and took the Nazis by surprise in the largest sea-to-land invasion in history. This wou...
Psychedelic Treatment For PTSD Faces Misconduct Hurdle
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may soon have a new treatment option: MDMA, the chemical found in ecstasy. In August, the Food and D...
A Silky Shark Named Genie Swam 17,000 Miles, a Record-Breaking Migration
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A silky shark named Genie traveled from the Galapagos Islands out to the open ocean and back – over 17,000 miles – over the course of a year and a...
A Vaginal Microbiome Transplant Could Help People With BV
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Humans rely on our symbiotic relationship with good microbes—in the gut, the skin and ... the vagina. Fatima Aysha Hussain studies what makes a heal...
With Summer Approaching, Here's A Smarter Way To Use Sunscreen
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Each year 84,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with melanoma. About 90% of these skin cancers are linked to the ultraviolet radiation from the sun....
How Israel Is Using Facial Recognition In Gaza
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 triggered Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began fleeing from the North of ...
Who's At Risk For Uterine Fibroids? Most Women
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fibroids are benign uterine tumors. So why does it matter that the majority of people with a uterus will have one before they are 50 years old? Physic...
What Are Sperm Whales Saying? Researchers Find A Complex 'Alphabet'
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists are testing the limits of artificial intelligence when it comes to language learning. One recent challenge? Learning ... whale! Researchers...
Scientists Reveal Mysterious Origin of Baobab Trees, Rafiki's Home in 'The Lion King'
17 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Baobabs are sometimes called the "tree of life" with their thick trunks, crown of branches and flowers that only open at twilight. But theories about ...
Climate Change Is Coming For Your Chocolate
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chocolate may never be the same. The majority of chocolate is made in just two countries and erratic weather from climate change is decreasing cocoa p...
How AI Is Cracking The Biology Code
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As artificial intelligence seeps into some realms of society, it rushes into others. One area it's making a big difference is protein science — as i...
NEWS: NOAA Issues First Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch Since 2005
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed a cluster of sunspots on the surface of the sun this week. With them came s...
How Autism Can Look Very Different, Even In Identical Twins
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sam and John Fetters, 19, are identical twins on different ends of the autism spectrum. Sam is a sophomore at Amherst College and runs marathons in hi...
The Wonderous World Of Nudibranchs
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Emily gets super nerdy with former host Maddie Sofia get as they dive into the incredible world of nudibranchs in this encore episode. Not only are th...
'Stealing The Past': A Spat Between Twins Leads To A Theory Of Disputed Memories
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's not unusual for siblings to quibble over ownership of something — a cherished toy, a coveted seat in the car — or whose fault something is. I...
Deer Are Expanding North. That Could Hurt Some Species Like Boreal Caribou
03 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wildlife ecologists have seen white-tailed deer expanding their range in North America over many decades. And since the early-2000s these deer have mo...
The Mysterious "Great Attractor" Pulling Our Galaxy Off Course
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
No matter what you're doing right now – sitting, standing, walking – you're moving. First, because Earth is spinning around on its axis. This rota...
How The New Catan Board Game Can Spark Conversations On Climate Change
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we're going full nerd to talk about a new board game — Catan: New Energies. The game's goal is simple: Build and develop a modern-day island ...
10 Years After Flint, The Fight To Replace Lead Pipes Continues
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ten years ago, Flint, Mich. switched water sources to the Flint River. The lack of corrosion control in the pipes caused lead to leach into the water ...
Beavers Can Help With Climate Change. So How Do We Get Along?
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
NPR's Tom Dreisbach is back in the host chair for a day. This time, he reports on a story very close to home: The years-long battle his parents have b...
Sustainable Seafood Is All Around You — If You Know Where To Look
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Roughly 196 million tons of fish were harvested in 2020, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The organization al...
An 11-Year-old Unearthed Fossils Of The Largest Known Marine Reptile
19 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When the dinosaurs walked the Earth, massive marine reptiles swam. Among them, a species of Ichthyosaur that measured over 80 feet long. Today, we loo...
The Nightmarish Worm That Lived 25 Million Years Longer Than Researchers Thought
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
500 million years ago, the world was a very different place. During this period of time, known as the Cambrian period, basically all life was in the w...
How The Brain Experiences Pleasure — Even The Kind That Makes Us Feel Guilty
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We've all been there: You sit down for one episode of a reality TV show, and six hours later you're sitting guiltily on the couch, blinking the screen...
What To Know About The New EPA Rule Limiting 'Forever Chemicals' In Tap Water
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency announced new drinking water standards to limit people's exposure to some PFAS chemicals. For decades, P...
The Order Your Siblings Were Born In May Play A Role In Identity And Sexuality
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's National Siblings Day! To mark the occasion, guest host Selena Simmons-Duffin is exploring a detail very personal to her: How the number of older...
How Climate Change And Physics Affect Baseball
07 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's baseball season! And when we here at Short Wave think of baseball, we naturally think of physics. To get the inside scoop on the physics of baseb...
The "Barcodes" Powering These Tiny Songbirds' Memories May Also Help Human Memory
05 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tiny, black-capped chickadees have big memories. They stash food in hundreds to thousands of locations in the wild – and then come back to these sta...
How To Make The Most Of Next Week's Solar Eclipse
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On April 8, the moon will slip in front of the sun, blocking its light and creating an eerie twilight in the middle of the day. Stars will come out, t...
The Two Sides Of Guyana: A Green Champion And An Oil Producer
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For Guyana the potential wealth from oil development was irresistible — even as the country faces rising seas. Today on the show, host Emily Kwong t...
The Shy Rodents Lost To Science
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Historic numbers of animals across the globe have become endangered or pushed to extinction. But some of these species sit in limbo — not definitive...