Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
A Clean Energy Future: How Hawaii Is Sparking The Push
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sixty percent of electricity in the U.S. comes from fossil fuels, like natural gas and coal. Today o...
When Tracking Your Period Lets Companies Track You
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Health apps can be a great way to stay on top of your health. They let users keep track of things li...
The Debate About Pablo Escobar's Hippos
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Pablo Escobar had a private zoo at his estate in Colombia, with zebras, giraffes, flamingoes - and f...
How COVID Is Affecting Kids' Mental Health
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's likely the last week has been rough if you're either going to school or in a family with kids t...
Wingspan! It's Got Birds, Science, Caterpillars - An Ideal Night In
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Wingspan is a board game that brings the world of ornithology into the living room. The game comes w...
Pondering A New Normal As The Omicron Surge Continues
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. is experiencing a viral blizzard which will likely continue through January, 2022. The omic...
The Electric Car Race! Vroom, Vroom!
10 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Electric cars can help reduce greenhouse gases and companies are taking note — racing to become th...
Man's Best Friend Is Healing Veterans
07 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Service dogs have long helped veterans with physical disabilities. While there have been stories abo...
How To Talk About The COVID-19 Vaccine With People Who Are Hesitant
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Jasmine Marcelin has spent the last year talking to a lot of peopl...
Doctor Finds Hope In Helping Inform And Vaccinate Her Community
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On today's show, Emily Kwong checks in with infectious disease physician Dr. Jasmine Marcelin at the...
An Ode To The Manta Ray
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A few months ago, on a trip to Hawaii, Short Wave host Emily Kwong encountered manta rays for the fi...
The Science Of The Delta-8 Craze
03 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The cannabis industry is where the chemistry lab meets agriculture. Delta-8-THC is chemically derive...
This New Year - Slow Down, It Doesn't Mean You're Lazy
31 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Social Psychologist Devon Price says instead of viewing "laziness" as a deficit or something people ...
2021: Celebrating The Joy Of Birds
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lot of people took up bird watching in some form during the pandemic, including Short Wave editor Gi...
Meet the Dermatologists Changing Their Field
29 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Many skin conditions, from rashes to Lyme disease to various cancers, present differently on dark sk...
Our Favorite Things: Math And Community In The Classroom
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
That's right — Day 2 of Short Wave's Favorite Episodes Week is pure math goodness! This encore epi...
Our Favorite Things, Short Wave-style
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's "My Favorite Things" week on Short Wave! Through December 30th, we'll dive into our archive to ...
Octavia Butler: Visionary Fiction
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are wrapping up Science Fiction Week with a very special episode from our friends at NPR's ...
Want To Start Reading Sci-Fi And Fantasy? Here's A Beginner's Guide
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're bringing you a beginner's guide to reading science fiction and fantasy from our friends ...
Sci-Fi Movie Club: 'Contact'
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're throwing back to one of our favorite Science Movie Club episodes: 'Contact' featuring Jo...
Happy Science Fiction Week, Earthlings!
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's Science Fiction Week on Short Wave, earthlings! So strap on your zero gravity suits and polish ...
Ellen Ochoa's Extraordinary NASA Career
19 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ellen Ochoa didn't get picked the first time she applied to become an astronaut--nor the second. Bu...
Safety Precautions For The Holiday Season
18 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Omicron variant is spreading across the U.S. as the holidays are upon us. Science Desk reporter...
The James Webb Space Telescope Is About To Launch
17 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Soon the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope will blast off into space, hurtling almost a ...
Striving To Make Space Accessible For People With Disabilities
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As spaceflight inches closer to becoming a reality for some private citizens, science correspondent ...
NIH Director Talks The Pandemic, Vaccine Hesitancy And Americans' Health
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Francis Collins talks with health correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin about Americans' overall h...
The Winter Twindemic: Flu And COVID
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. is approaching 800,000 COVID-19 deaths as the Omicron variant spreads and the Delta varian...
Concussions: How A Mild Brain Injury Can Alter Our Perception Of Sound
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Headaches, nausea, dizziness, and confusion are among the most common symptoms of a concussion. But ...
What Does A Healthy Rainforest Sound Like? (encore)
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On a rapidly changing planet, there are many ways to measure the health of an ecosystem. Can sound b...
What's Driving The Political Divide Over Vaccinations
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
An NPR analysis shows that since the vaccine rollout, counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump h...
Seeking Answers To The Universe Deep In A Gold Mine
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
An underground lab is opening early next year in Australia. Its quest: to help detect dark matter an...
What A New Antiviral Drug Could Mean For The Future Of COVID
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has voted to recommend tha...
The 2021 Hurricane Season Wrapped
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The end of the 2021 hurricane season was officially November 30. This year, there was a lot of hurri...
Jane Goodall Says There's Hope For Our Planet. Act Now, Despair Later!
03 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Goodall is a renowned naturalist and scientist. She's made a career studying primates and chimp...
No sperm? No problem.
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists have discovered that some female condors don't need males to reproduce. This phenomenon i...
Using Math To Rethink Gender (encore)
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gender is infused in many aspects of our world — but should that be the case? According to mathe...
Omicron's Arrival Is 'Wake-Up Call' That The Pandemic Is Ongoing
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The coronavirus is still circulating and mutating — case in point, the World Health Organization h...
Why Puerto Rico Is A Leader In Vaccinating Against COVID-19
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Puerto Rico was still recovering from Hurricane Maria and a string of earthquakes when the pandemic ...
How To Choose A Health Insurance Plan
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Health insurance can be tremendously confusing, with its complexity, jargon and acronyms. But puttin...
Celebrate The Holidays Safely This Pandemic
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of Americans are planning to travel this week and gather inside for Thanksgiving — many i...
A Mission To Redirect An Asteroid
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In movies, asteroids careening towards Earth confront determined humans with nuclear weapons to save...
Two Sides Of Guyana: A Green Champion And An Oil Producer
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For Guyana the potential wealth from oil development was irresistible — even as the country faces ...
Bee Superfood: Exploring Honey's Chemical Complexities
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Honey bees know a lot about honey, and humans are starting to catch up. Scientists are now looking a...
One Woman's Quest For The (Scientifically) Best Turkey
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Turkey is the usual centerpiece of the Thanksgiving dinner, but it's all too easy to end up with a d...
Parents, We're Here To Help! Answers To Your COVID Vaccine Questions
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Now that the Pfizer COVID vaccine is authorized for children five to eleven years old, a lot of pare...
Experiencing The Emergence, Life And Death of A Neuron
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A new exhibit in Washington, DC, mixes science and technology for an immersive art experience — ta...
Camilla Pang On Turning Fear Into Light
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Camilla Pang talks with Short Wave host Emily Kwong about her award-winning memoir, "An Outsider's G...
The secret history of DNA: Pus, fish sperm, life as we know it
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's been 150 years since the first article was published about the molecule key to life as we know ...
Who pays for climate change?
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A coalition of wealthier countries have promised that they'll provide $100 billion each year to help...
Can climate talk turn into climate action?
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the first week of COP26, the UN climate conference, world leaders took to the podium to talk abou...
What happens in the brain when we grieve
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When we lose someone or something we love, it can feel like we've lost a part of ourselves. And for ...
Why Aduhelm, a new Alzheimer's treatment, isn't reaching many patients
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Aduhelm, known generically as aducanumab, is the first drug to actually affect the underlying diseas...
Housing and COVID: Why helping people pay rent can help fight the pandemic
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When people can't afford rent, they often end up in closer quarters. NPR health policy correspondent...
Planning for a space mission to last more than 50 years
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1977, NASA sent out two Voyager probes to study Jupiter and Saturn. The spacecrafts were designed...
A new step toward ending 'the wrath of malaria'
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists have been trying to figure out how to eradicate malaria for decades. Globally, a child un...
The history and future of mRNA vaccine technology (encore)
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
(Encore) The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are the first authorized vaccines in hist...
The countries left behind in climate negotiations
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
NPR climate correspondents Lauren Sommer and Dan Charles join the show before the UN Climate Change ...
How metaphors and stories are integral to science and healing
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
New York's Bellevue Hospital is the oldest public hospital in the country, serving patients from all...
Spiders can have arachnophobia!
27 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you're not so fond of spiders, you may find kindred spirits in other spiders! Researcher Daniela...
The opioid epidemic
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last 25 years, the opioid epidemic has been devastating to families and communities all ove...
The zombies living in our midst
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The idea of human zombies probably seems pretty far-fetched. But there are real zombies out there in...
Code Switch: Archaeological skeletons in the closet
22 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we present a special episode from our colleagues at Code Switch, NPR's podcast about race and...
An ode to the Pacific lamprey
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Pacific lamprey may have lived on Earth for about 450 million years. When humans came along, a deep ...
A biodiesel boom (and conundrum)
20 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There's a biodiesel boom happening! It's fueled by incentives and policies intended to cut greenhous...
COVID-19 boosters are here
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The United States is on the verge of dramatically expanding the availability of COVID-19 vaccine boo...
How do we make sense of the sounds around us?
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our colleagues at All Things Considered chatted with neuroscientist Nina Kraus about her new book Of...
The Mighty Mangrove
15 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Along certain coastlines near the equator, you can find a tree with superpowers. Mangroves provide a...
The mystery of the mummified Twinkie
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A box of Twinkies, left alone for eight years, held some surprises for Colin Purrington. Upon having...
White scholars can complicate research into health disparities
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The COVID-19 has exposed longstanding and massive health disparities in the U.S., resulting in peopl...
Cockroaches are cool!
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cockroaches - do they get a bad rap? Producer Thomas Lu teams up with self-proclaimed lesbian cockr...
Bonobos and the Evolution of Nice
08 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How did humans evolve some key cooperative behaviors like sharing? NPR Science Correspondent Jon Ham...
Why Music Sticks in Our Brains
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why do some songs can stick with us for a long time, even when other memories start to fade? Science...
Here's a better way to talk about hair
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Humans have scalp hair. But why is human scalp hair so varied? Biological anthropologist Tina Lasisi...
How foraging reconnected Alexis Nikole Nelson with food and her culture
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our colleagues at the TED Radio Hour introduce us to forager and TikTok influencer Alexis Nikole Nel...
The Toll Of Burnout On Medical Workers — And Their Patients
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Burnout has long been a problem among health care workers. The pandemic has only made it worse. Some...
SURPRISE! It's A...Babbling Baby Bat?
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A paper published recently in the journal Science finds similarities between the babbling of human i...
Goodbye, Climate Jargon. Hello, Simplicity!
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
People are likely to be confused by common climate change terms like "mitigation" and "carbon neutra...
How To Help Someone At Risk Of Suicide
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, according to the most current data....
Scientists Are Racing To Save Sequoias
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Based on early estimates, as many as 10,600 large sequoias were killed in last year's Castle Fire —...
A Science Reporter And A 'Mild' Case Of Breakthrough COVID
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Will Stone is a science reporter for NPR. He's been reporting about the pandemic for a while now, so...
After Years Of Delays, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope To Launch In December
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In December, NASA is scheduled to launch the huge $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is s...
The Surf's Always Up — In Waco, Texas
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the world's best artificial waves are happening hundreds of miles from the ocean—in Waco, ...
Mapping The Birds Of Bougainville Island
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 1900s, the Whitney South Sea expedition gathered 40,000 bird specimens for the American...
How Long Does COVID Immunity Last Anyway?
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With booster shots on the horizon for some people, one of the biggest questions is: Am I still prot...
Afraid of Needles? You're Not Alone
20 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Many people are afraid of needles in some capacity — about 1 in 10 experience a "high level" of ne...
A Great Outdoors For Everyone
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Fatima's Great Outdoors, a new children's book, centers on a girl named Fatima, who's struggling to ...
A Lotl Love For The Axolotl
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It is found in only one lake in the world, never grows up, and occasionally takes bites of its frien...
Climate Change Means More Subway Floods; How Cities Are Adapting
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of people rely on subways for transportation. But as the world warms, climate-driven floodi...
Breakthrough Infections, Long COVID And You
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In rare cases, the delta variant of the coronavirus is causing vaccinated people to get sick — so-...
The Pervasiveness Of Transgender Health Care Discrimination
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A new report from the Center for American Progress finds that nearly half of transgender people have...
9/11 First Responders Have Higher Cancer Risks But Better Survival Rates
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty years later, first responders during the 9/11 attacks have an increased risk of getting some ...
For Successful Wildfire Prevention, Look To The Southeast
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Another destructive fire season has Western states searching for ways to prevent it. As climate corr...
Fewer COVID Vaccine Doses Materialized Last Fall Than The U.S. Government Hoped
08 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Manufacturers can expect to face unforeseen hurdles when they begin to mass-produce a brand new phar...
The Peculiar Case Of Dark Matter
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The universe is so much bigger than what people can see, and astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan is ...
So Long, Sofia
03 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we bid farewell to our founding host, Maddie Sofia! In this special episode, the Short Wave t...
Nudibranchs Do It Better
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Maddie and Emily get super nerdy one last time as they dive into the incredible world of nudibranchs...
Pandemic Dispatches From The ER
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're marking Maddie's last week on Short Wave! Today, Maddie wanted to highlight a COVID-related ep...
You Mite Want To Shower After This
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's Day 2 of our trip down Maddie Sofia memory lane! Today's encore episode is all about how you're...
Why A Good Scare Is Sometimes The Right Call
30 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week is our last with Maddie as a host, so we're spending it with a trip down memory lane. The ...
Is It Muggy Out? Check The Dew Point!
27 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Going on a run and curious about how muggy it's going to be out? Maddie Sofia chats with producer Th...