Alle afleveringen
703 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Earth's Misunderstood Molecule
2 november 2026 · 59 min
Carbon dioxide is more than an industrial pollutant driving climate change. The gas also played a pivotal part in the dramatic story of the beginning of all life. Starting in the ocean depths, dissolved CO2 commingled in a turbulent mix of chemicals heated by hydrothermal vents may have kickstarted carbon-based life. As the planet’s thermostat, carbon dioxide has taken the Earth on wild temperature swings, from sweltering toxic hothouses that drove mass extinctions to the frigid Snowball Earth from which early life barely escaped. With life’s growing complexity, CO2’s role evolved. Exhaled by animals and enlisted by plants in photosynthesis, the gas eventually earned its discordant reputation when belched by industrial chimneys. Now, burning fossil fuels have us playing with fire as we test the limit of our stable climate upon which human civilization has flourished. Lees meer
Guest:
Peter Brannen – science journalist and author of “The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything; How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World.”
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Particle Accelerators, from In Our Time
29 oktober 2026 · 6 min
How did scientists learn to peer inside the atom? In this preview from the BBC's In Our Time, physicist Harry Cliff tells the story of the birth of the particle accelerator, from Ernest Rutherford's challenge to unlock the secrets of matter to the race to build the first machines capable of doing it. Lees meer
Featuring homemade high-voltage experiments, scientific rivalry, and one memorable encounter involving a dead rat and a lot of electricity, it's a fascinating glimpse into the early days of modern particle physics.In Our Time delivers a world-class seminar, every week. From Philosophy to Physics, Pre-Raphaelites to Pharaohs, each week Misha Glenny is joined by a team of expert guests to discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.
If you enjoy what you hear, find In Our Time, from the BBC, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Scoping Out the Universe
26 oktober 2026 · 54 min
Telescopes are like light buckets. The bigger the telescope, the more light collected for astronomers to observe. With recent advances in technology, amateur astronomers can join professionals for a chance to observe stellar nurseries and exoplanets many light-years away. But as our capabilities increase, so do the mysteries, including those around high-energy bursts coming from an otherwise unremarkable part of the universe. Understanding fast radio bursts could turn physics on its head. Lees meer
From the Vera Rubin Telescope in Chile to the backyard instruments of amateur astronomers, we share what new things we might learn about stars, the Earth, exoplanets, and the potential for life on other worlds.
Guests:
Clare Higgs – Astronomer working with the public outreach team for the Vera Rubin Observatory
Franck Marchis – Senior astronomer and director of citizen science at the SETI Institute, chief science officer and co-founder of Unistellar
Amanda Cook – Postdoctoral fellow at McGill University and member of the CHIME/FRB Collaboration
Descripción en español
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Our Floral Planet
19 oktober 2026 · 1 uur
We admire the ornamental beauty of flowers in a garden, but those blooms are more than lush color. The seemingly fragile, delicate petals are part of a resilient, adaptive innovation that arrived on the scene 250 million years ago and transformed life on the planet. Much life, including us, would not have evolved without flowering planets. Yet the power of the petal is often overlooked. How does our perspective on nature’s web change if we give flowers the credit they deserve? Celebrated biologist David Haskell shares the story of how nature’s revolutionaries evolved their vibrant hues and intoxicating scents to lure bees, butterflies and other animals into cooperative partnerships. Lees meer
Guest:
David George Haskell – biologist, professor at Emory University, and author of “How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries"
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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On a Collision Course
12 oktober 2026 · 54 min
Breakthroughs around the detection of cosmic neutrinos — the “ghost” particles that may reveal why matter, not antimatter, fills the universe — recently earned a physicist the Nobel Prize in Physics. But one group of neutrino hunters isn’t waiting for supernovae to churn up these high-energy particles. A massive new experiment that spans three states will create neutrinos and fire them into liquid argon to better understand their mysterious behavior. And after the better part of a century, scientists may finally have glimpsed the primary component of nearly all matter: dark matter. Are we close to understanding what it is? Finally, we glimpse the proton-smashing at the Large Hadron Collider as it hints at undiscovered physics and puts a stress test on the Standard Model. Lees meer
Guests:
Kate Shaw – experimental particle physicist at the University of Sussex who works on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, DUNE
Kimberly Palladino – astrophysicist, professor of physics at the University of Oxford, and the project scientist for LUX- ZEPLIN an international collaboration searching for dark matter
Harry Cliff – particle physicist at the University of Cambridge and a researcher with the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Skeptic Check: Sunny Daze
5 oktober 2026 · 54 min
A growing online movement of sunscreen skeptics believes that sunblock is toxic, even suggesting that it might cause skin cancer. Medical experts, concerned by rising skin cancer rates, are rushing to push back against these claims. Meanwhile, new research suggests that too little sunlight could be detrimental to health and links it to some cardiovascular disease and cancer. How do we navigate through the darkness of these seemingly conflicting messages about sunlight? We enter the slippery world of skin care to break down the science of sunlight and sunscreen and uncover some surprising effects that UV rays have on our bodies. Lees meer
Guests:
Brian Underwood – journalist and Beauty and Grooming Director of Men’s Health and Women’s Health, and author of the article, The Anti-Sunscreen Movement is Coming for You
Rowan Jacobsen – science writer and the author of “In Defense of Sunlight”
Dr. Michelle Henry – cosmetic dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon, Clinical Instructor of Dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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The Rights of Rivers
28 september 2026 · 54 min
Healthy rivers and riparian ecosystems are teaming with life, but should rivers themselves be considered alive? The question is central to the growing rights-of-nature movement that claims that ecosystems and entities, like rivers, have legal rights. After Ecuador enshrined the rights of nature in its constitution, lawyers employed the new personhood status to stop mining companies from clearing a section of the Los Cedros River and its surrounding biodiverse cloud forest. Granting rivers moral standing comes as over-damming, pollution, and climate change have put them in crisis globally. Writer Robert Macfarlane explores how seeing rivers as living beings rather than just resources – a change he calls “a great act of moral imagination” – could help save our watersheds and rivers, upon which all life depends. Lees meer
Guest:
Robert Macfarlane – Writer and Professor of Literature and Environmental Humanities at the University of Cambridge, and author of “Is a River Alive?”
Originally posted June 23, 2025
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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How Hot is Too Hot?
21 september 2026 · 56 min
Extreme heat is taking its toll on the natural world. We use words like “heat domes” and “freakish” to describe our everyday existence. These high temperatures aren’t only uncomfortable - they are lethal to humans, animals, and crops. In search of an answer to our episode’s question, we discuss the dilemma of an ever-hotter world with an author who has covered climate change for more than twenty years. Lees meer
Guest:
Jeff Goodell – author of “The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.”
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Originally aired October 2, 2023
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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A Coup De Grace in Space
14 september 2026 · 57 min
A new space telescope will soon give us an expanded field of view of some of the strangest phenomena in the cosmos. The launch of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will initiate this instrument’s contributions to the understanding of black holes, dark matter, and dark energy. It will also further the search for exoplanets. The project’s principal and deputy investigators join us to describe the telescope’s science goals, and astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson provides his big picture view of the most exciting recent discoveries in astronomy and cosmology. Lees meer
Guests:
Julie McEnery – Astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center and senior project scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Jason Rhodes – JPL project scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, focusing on dark energy, dark matter, and cosmic evolution.
Neil deGrasse Tyson – Astrophysicist and director of New York City’s Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, and author of "Lost in Space: 5,000 Facts for Navigating the Universe".
Anna de Graaff – Astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Malawi: A Path Forward
7 september 2026 · 55 min
The abrupt defunding of USAID in 2025 caused global shockwaves. The cuts thrust recipient countries who were dependent on foreign aid for medical care into health crises. One area that has been particularly hard hit is Malawi, a country in southeastern Africa where doctors and community organizers are struggling to fill the gaps in essential services left in the wake of the USAID cuts. The loss of local outreach clinics and lack of fuel for ambulances has caused severe delays—and sometimes tragic outcomes—in providing care to mothers and children. A year out from the cuts, we look at how Malawi is rethinking its relationship to foreign aid as it considers how to continue providing vital health services. Lees meer
In the first of a series supported by the nonprofit Pulitzer Center and in collaboration with Science Magazine, we provide an on-the-ground look at the impact of USAID defunding on health services in key spots across the globe.
Guests:
Catherine Offord – journalist, Science Magazine. Her article, “An Uncertain Path,” appeared in the July 16 issue of the magazine
Voices heard in the show:
Fanizo Simenti – community health worker at Katenje Health Post, Kasungu district
Emily Mvula – former recipient of services provided by USAID MOMENTUM
Issah Omar Nicks – nursing officer overseeing the maternity ward at the Makiyoni Health Center, Salima District
Aran Nkhata – medical clinician in charge of Makiyoni Health Center, Salima District
Flywell Elenesto – cold chain technician for Salima District, Malawi
Sungeni Thole – nurse midwife technician at Makiyoni Health Center, Salima District
Anthony Masamba – MP and chair of The Parliamentary Committee on Health
Show theme by Jun Miyake. Episode image by Thoko Chikondi.
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertis…
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Leave it to Beavers
31 augustus 2026 · 59 min
They are known for holding branches in their paws and gnawing on them like corn cobs. They build lodges and dams which occasionally flood roads. Cute, comical, and considered pests, beavers were nearly hunted to extinction for their pelts before conservation efforts allowed their populations to rebound. Now environmentalists and engineers are reintroducing North America’s largest rodent to drought-prone habitats across the country. As the paddle-tailed animals’ dam-building has revealed itself to be a potent bulwark against climate change-induced water scarcity, the beaver is being hailed as an ecological hero. Lees meer
Join us as we stomp through soggy meadows getting to know the OG geoengineers. From their water pressure-sensing tails to their intricate branch-weaving, find out why, as our nation’s wetlands disappear, and new federal policies strip protection for many of those that remain, many think that partnership with a wild species could help build ecological resiliency.
Guests:
Leila Philip – Journalist and author of “Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America”
Denise Burchsted – research scientist, and engineer, Keene State College
Clay Frazer – restoration ecologist with Native Range Ecological
Michael Waasegiizhig Price – traditional ecological knowledge specialist at the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. He is Anishinaabe and a longtime tribal college educator serving at Leech Lake Tribal College and White Earth Tribal and Community College.
Originally aired July 28, 2025
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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Measure for Measure
24 augustus 2026 · 54 min
Whether in miles or pounds, meters or kilograms, we take daily measure out our lives. But how did these units ever come to be, and why do we want to change them? From light-years to leap seconds, we look at the history of efforts to quantify our lives and why there’s always room for greater precision. Plus, we debate the virtues of staying imperial measurements vs. going metric. Lees meer
Guest:
James Vincent - Author of Beyond Measure, the Hidden History of Measurement
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Originally aired March 24, 2023
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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Calling All Aliens
17 augustus 2026 · 54 min
Are we alone in the universe? Is there other intelligence out there? COSMIC, the most ambitious SETI search yet, hopes to answer that. We hear updates on this novel signal detection project being conducted on the Very Large Array in the desert of New Mexico. Also, we chat with award-winning science fiction writer Ted Chiang about how he envisions making contact with aliens in his stories, including the one that was the basis for the movie Arrival. And find out why some scientists don’t want only to listen for signals, they want to deliberately transmit messages to aliens. Is that wise and, if we did it, what would we say? Lees meer
Guests:
Chenoa Tremblay – Postdoc researcher in radio astronomy for the SETI Institute and member of COSMIC science team
Ted Chiang – Nebula and Hugo award-winning science fiction writer, best known for his collections, Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation
Douglas Vakoch – Founder and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Originally aired April 3, 2023
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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What Moves Us
10 augustus 2026 · 55 min
What physical activity gives you joy? Whether it’s walking, running, dancing or swimming, your body evolved to do it. We are made for movement. But there’s a cost, as anyone with a sore neck or aching back knows. From the tiny muscles in our skin, which raise the hair on our arms, to the intricate mix of bone, blood vessels, and nerves in our neck, natural selection has struck a delicate and sometimes wacky balance between utility and form. In this episode, we explore how parts of the body - our muscles, neck and feet - came to be, and what forces prompted the evolution of efficient yet imperfect bodies. Lees meer
Guests:
Kent Dunlap - Professor of biology at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and author of “The Neck: A Natural and Cultural History”
Bonnie Tsui - Journalist and author of “On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters”
Jeremy DeSilva - Anthropologist at Dartmouth College and author of “First Steps, How Upright Walking Made Us Human”
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Originally aired June 30, 2025
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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Skeptic Check: The Body Electric
3 augustus 2026 · 55 min
Electricity plays an important role in our everyday lives, including allowing our bodies to communicate internally. But some research claims electricity may be used to diagnose and treat disease? Could electric pulses one day replace medications? Lees meer
We speak with experts about the growing field of bioelectric medicine and the evidence for electricity’s healing abilities. Their comments may shock you.
Guests:
Sally Adee – Science journalist, author of “We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body’s Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds"
Samantha Payne – Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences at University of Guelph
Kevin Tracey – Neurosurgeon and President of the Feinstein Institutes at Northwell Health
Descripción en español
originally aired June 5, 2023
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Worms of Endearment
27 juli 2026 · 1 uur 2 min
Earthworms may be small, limbless, and blind but, as Darwin observed nearly 150 years ago, they play a critical role in soil ecology. Darwin’s 19th century insights about the slimy invertebrates are far-reaching, serving as the backbone of modern ecology as a whole. In recent years, scientists are putting their ears to the ground, listening to worms to monitor soil health. Meanwhile, laboratory studies on another kind of worms—flatworms—are providing insights about how memories are stored, and how stem cells self-renew. We get our hands dirty for this episode about the biology and ecology of worms. Lees meer
Guests:
Philip Ball – science reporter, author of “Beautiful Experiments: An Illustrated History of Experimental Science”
Jacqueline Stroud – soil scientist, University of Warwick, U.K.
Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado – molecular biologist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, whose focus is on stem cells and regeneration
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Arctic Dispatch
20 juli 2026 · 55 min
The Arctic serves as the world’s refrigerator, keeping the planet cool. But temperatures in the Arctic are rising nearly four times faster than the rest of the world and its sea ice is near a historic low. We put out a call to scientists aboard research vessels currently sailing in the Arctic Ocean, and two answered “aye.” Hear our ship-to-shore conversations with them about how warmer temperatures affect life on land and sea. Plus, a biologist who recently returned from the field describes how he inadvertently stumbled upon surprising data during his decades-long study of polar bears. Lees meer
Guests:
Autun Purser – Marine biologist at the Alfred- Wegener Institute and the current Chief Scientist on the Arctic research vessel, the Polarstern
Andrew Derocher – Zoologist at the University of Alberta in Canada who is leading a decades-long study on polar bears of the West Hudson Bay region, in the high Canadian North
Jonathan Nash – Oceanographer, Oregon State University, and member of the GIANT team sailing near Greenland aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough
Descripción en español
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Cold Comfort
13 juli 2026 · 54 min
Another scorching summer has us blasting the AC and grabbing a chilled drink. Air conditioning and refrigeration may beat the heat, but they also present a dilemma. The more we use them, the more greenhouse gases we emit, the hotter the planet becomes, and the more we require artificial cooling. Can we escape this feedback loop? We look at the origins of these chilling technologies, tour the extensive chain of cold that keeps food from perishing, and consider how a desert city like Phoenix could not exist without AC. Lees meer
Guests:
Nicola Twilley – co-host of the Gastropod podcast, a contributing writer at The New Yorker, and the author of “Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves”
Erik Morrison – Chief cooling engineer at Transaera, Somerville, Massachusetts
Stan Cox – Lead scientist at the Land Institute, author of “Losing Our Cool: The Uncomfortable Truths about our Air-Conditioned World”
Descripción en español
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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CRISPR Mosquitoes
6 juli 2026 · 54 min
The powerful gene editing tool CRISPR is already being tested on animal and plant cells. It has even been used on humans. How might this revolutionary tool change our lives? On the one hand, it could cure inherited diseases and rid the world of malaria-spreading mosquitoes. On the other hand, scientists using it are accelerating evolution and introducing novel genetic combinations that could transform our biological landscape in unforeseen ways. We explore the ramifications of this revolutionary technology. Lees meer
Guests:
Nathan Rose – Molecular biologist and head of malaria programs at U.K. based biotech company, Oxitec.
Hank Greely – Law professor and director of the Center for Law in the Biosciences at Stanford University and author of “CRISPR People: The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans.”
Antonio Regalado – Senior Editor for Biomedicine, MIT Technology Review.
originally posted April 17, 2023
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Skeptic Check: Blue Light Special
29 juni 2026 · 58 min
Many of us know the feeling: we intend to go to bed but pull out our phones for one last scroll. Setting them aside hours later, we’re wide awake, unable to fall asleep. For years, scientists have singled out blue light emitted from our devices as the key culprit behind our post-scrolling insomnia, but the scientific consensus is shifting. Although blue light signals to brains that its daytime, surprising new research suggests that our glowing screens may play a smaller role than previously thought. Lees meer
We present the fascinating science around biological mechanisms of sleep and wakefulness, why circadian rhythms have more in common with your grandfather’s clock than you might think, and why scientists who question the role of blue light in causing nighttime restlessness, still don’t let our phones off the hook completely.
Guests:
Michael Gradisar – clinical psychologist and sleep researcher, former professor at Flinders University in Australia. Currently serves a head of Sleep Science at Sleep Cycle, a sleep tracking app company
Jay Dunlap – geneticist and molecular geneticist at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth who works the molecular basis of circadian rhythms
Mariana Figueiro – photobiologist, Director of the Light and Health Research Center and Professor of Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Make Space for Animals
22 juni 2026 · 54 min
Long before Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space, Laika, a stray dog, crossed the final frontier. Find out what other surprising species were drafted into the astronaut corps. Lees meer
They may be our best friends, but we still balk at giving other creatures moral standing. And why are humans so reluctant to accept the fact that we too are animals?
Guests:
Jo Wimpenny - Zoologist and writer. Author of “Aesop’s Animals”
Taylor Maggiacomo - Associate Graphic Editor at National Geographic
Alexander Stegmaier - Freelance Graphic Editor at National Geographic
Melanie Challenger - An author who writes on nature, environment and human history. Her latest book: “How to be Animal: A New History of What it Means to be Human”
Descripción en español
If you have a subscription to National Geographic, check out Taylor and Alex's feature providing a visual timeline of every animal that has gone into space.
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
originally aired January 24, 2022
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Skeptic Check: Disclosure Day
15 juni 2026 · 55 min
The latest Hollywood romp through the world of aliens has landed in theaters. Steven Spielberg’s movie Disclosure Day suggests that our government has been hiding a cache of evidence about alien visitation that spans decades. It’s fun fiction but does it mesh with reality? Officials have made a series of public disclosures containing information about the government’s UAP program over the years, releasing massive amounts of declassified documents along with audio and video files. Will the most recent data dump finally provide evidence that aliens are here? We look at the extended history of public desire to believe in extraterrestrial visitation, plus the scientific efforts to detect intelligent or microbial life on other worlds. Lees meer
Guests:
Adam Kirsch – Senior editor at The Atlantic, and author of, “We Want to Believe: How Aliens Went Mainstream and Why It Matters”
Sarah Rugheimer – Astrophysicist at the University of Edinburgh and author of “Searching for Extraterrestrial Life”
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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Vroom!
8 juni 2026 · 54 min
Self-driving cars, once a thing of science fiction, have become a reality in a handful of cities across the country. As our vehicles gain autonomy, they may provoke a profound shift not unlike the introduction of the first car in the late1800s and raise the question of whether the human driver will soon be obsolete. For a glimpse into the future of self-driving cars, we take a spin through the history of the automobile, from the Model T to the driverless taxi-cab. Along the way, we explore the rise of American manufacturing and the unmistakable but unexpected way in which we have bonded to our four-wheeled companions. Lees meer
Guests:
Witold Rybczynski – Professor emeritus of architecture and design at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book, The Driving Machine: A Design History of the Car
Timothy B Lee – Technology journalist and writer of the newsletter, Understanding AI
Descripción en español
Originally aired April 7, 2025
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Outside of Our Minds
1 juni 2026 · 54 min
Since humans first chiseled marks into stone, we have externalized our thoughts and ideas. Our tools may have evolved—now we clack away at computer keyboards—but written communication remains a bedrock of modern society. Now that the pace of information creation is exponentially increasing with the advent of artificial intelligence, many are asking what the next frontier of human communication may look like. We look at how we got here, where the latest tools are headed—including brain-machine-interface—and how our brains and culture may be altered in the process. Lees meer
Guests:
Alex Bentley – professor of anthropology, archeology, and computational social science at University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and co-author of “Collaborators Through Time: How Humans Partnered with Nature, Technology, and Each Other”
Michael O’Brien – anthropologist at the Texas A&M University, San Antonio, and co-author of “Collaborators Through Time: How Humans Partnered with Nature, Technology, and Each Other”
Tom Mullaney – professor of Chinese history at Stanford University, and author of “The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age”
Betts Peters – Brain computer interface researcher at Oregon Health and Science University, treasurer of the Brain Computer Interface Society
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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Skeptic Check: Cryptids
25 mei 2026 · 54 min
Bigfoot could get official status if proposed legislation passes making it the state cryptid of California. If nothing else, the effort shows that fascination with cryptids has an outsized footprint on our culture. We look at why mythical creatures continue to capture imaginations - as well as passions - of die-hard believers, despite no evidence for their existence. An author uncovers the origin of a beloved hoax in the American West and its unexpected ties to a real animal and historical medical breakthrough. But are we looking for creature delights in all the wrong places? A tally of Earth’s species reveals that far more remain unidentified than are currently known. Newly discovered critters such as the Yeti crab and an organism dubbed the Flying Spaghetti Monster are so strange, it challenges us to separate fauna fact from folktale. Lees meer
Guests:
Chris Rogers – Assemblymember, California’s 2nd Assembly District
Benjamin Radford – Deputy Editor of Skeptical Inquirer Science Magazine, author, and co-host of Squaring the Strange podcast
Michael Branch – Writer, humorist, and author of On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World’s Imagination and Helped Us Cure Cancer
Boris Worm – Marine ecologist, Professor of Biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Originally released April 14, 2025
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Allergy Reason
18 mei 2026 · 54 min
Runny nose. Itchy, watery eyes. Sneezing. If you don’t have allergies, you probably know someone who does. The number of people with allergies, including food allergies and eczema, is increasing. What is going on? A medical anthropologist describes how our hygiene habits, our diets, and our polluted environment are irritating our bodies. Also, the case for skipping your shower. Is skin healthier when we stop lathering? Lees meer
Guests:
James Hamblin – Preventive medicine physician and a lecturer in public health at Yale and author of Clean: the New Science of Skin
Theresa MacPhail – medical anthropologist, professor of science and technology studies at Stevens Institute of Technology and author of Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World.
Descripción en español
originally aired July 3, 2023
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Preventing Future Pandemics
11 mei 2026 · 1 uur
We may not want to think about another pandemic, but, as epidemiologists say, it is once again a “when,” not “if,” scenario. For his latest book, journalist Jon Cohen, who has written extensively about infectious disease for the magazine Science, interviewed top epidemiologists around the world and followed virus hunters into damp and daunting bat caves to assess our pandemic preparedness readiness. Jon and Molly sit down before an audience in Los Angeles to talk about worrisome cuts to science funding and our ability (or inability) to be vigilant and respond quickly to emerging disease. There is good news: we know how to stop outbreaks. The question is, will we put our tools and vast knowledge to use? Lees meer
Guest:
Jon Cohen – senior correspondent with Science Magazine, author of “Planning Miracles: How to Prevent Future Pandemics”
Reading: The Trump Administration is Dismantling Efforts to Fight the Next Pandemic
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Shadow of Chernobyl
4 mei 2026 · 58 min
Forty years later, the exclusion zone surrounding the infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant remains uninhabited by humans. But among the radioactive remnants, wildlife is flourishing, including endangered species. In the second of our two-part series, we look at the state of the disaster site today, consider what lessons we’ve learned during clean up efforts, hear about a strange story about radioactive shellfish, and consider whether small modular reactors could reinvigorate dreams of a nuclear-powered future and bring nuclear energy out of Chernobyl’s shadow. Lees meer
Guests:
Steven Biegalski – Chair of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics program at Georgia Institute of Technology
Tom Scott – Professor of Nuclear Materials and Devices at the University of Bristol
Jacopo Buongiorno – Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, Director of the Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems (CANES), and Director of Science and Technology of the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory
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40 Years After Chernobyl
27 april 2026 · 1 uur 3 min
On April 26th, 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union blasted a plume of radioactive debris a half mile into the sky, blanketing Europe. Witnesses described a laser of blue light eerily shooting up from the reactor core. Built to represent the bright future of nuclear power, Chernobyl instead became the biggest nuclear disaster in history. In the first of a two-part series, we retell the story of the accident, the role that design flaws and human error played, and the futile attempts at radiation containment. We also consider the long shadow the catastrophe cast over nuclear power, and the significant political fallout of the Soviet coverup; the Ukrainian vote for independence and the fall of the U.S.S.R. Lees meer
Guest:
Adam Higginbotham – Journalist and author of “Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster”
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Skeptic Check: Feeling Risky
20 april 2026 · 54 min
It’s not just facts that inform our decisions. They’re also guided by how those facts feel. From deciding whether to buckle our seat belts to addressing climate change, how we regard risk is subjective. In this extended conversation with an expert on the psychology of risk, find out about our exaggerated fears, as well as risks we don’t take seriously enough. Meanwhile, while experts warn society about the dangers of self-aware AI – are those warnings being heeded? Lees meer
Guest:
David Ropeik – Retired Harvard University instructor, and expert on the psychology of risk
Descripción en Español
Originally aired April 10, 2023
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Old School
13 april 2026 · 1 uur 5 min
Great news! We've been nominated for a Webby Award! Lees meer
Our three-part Katrina series is a finalist for Best News &
Politics limited series podcast. Now, we need your help.
Voting ends Thursday, April 16!Cast your vote at bit.ly/webbybipisci
Antarctic scientists have long known the region’s ice sheet holds clues to the planet’s ancient past. Yet even the field’s foremost experts were shocked when they extracted a six-million-year-old ice core — twice as old as expected and the oldest recorded so far. Researchers say it will provide one of our best looks ever into Earth's climatological record. In a relatively more recent past, the discovery of 40,000-year-old notches and lines carved into artifacts and cave walls in Germany, examples of protowriting, suggest humans began documenting ideas thousands of years earlier than thought. Those timescales pale however, when compared to the age of the Earth’s most ancient rocks, which have a story to tell too. Find out how the planet’s most venerable rocks, formed billions of years ago, reveal the geological conditions that allowed life to get a foothold.
Guests:
Huw Groucutt – Archeologist, Department of Classics and Archeology, University of Malta
Ed Brook – Paleoclimatologist and professor of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University
Simon Lamb – Earth scientist and professor of geography in the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University at Wellington, New Zealand. Author of “The Oldest Rocks on Earth: A Search for the Origins of Our World.”
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Amazing Arctic
6 april 2026 · 54 min
What’s it like to live on a block of ice, especially when it thaws? An environment writer shares his forty-year experience in the Arctic, including the time a paddling polar bear tracked him on a river. He describes the stunning beauty of America’s last truly wild place and the dramatic changes to the landscape he recently witnessed. Recent research has backed up his eyewitness accounts, as an arctic scientist presents the latest data collected from a part of world warming four times faster than the rest of the planet. Lees meer
Guests:
Jon Waterman – Author of Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis
Twila Moon – Deputy Lead Scientist and Science Communication Liaison at the National Snow and Ice Data Center
Descripción en español
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Originally aired March 17, 2025
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Flower Power
30 maart 2026 · 54 min
Before everything could come up roses, there had to be a primordial flower – the mother, and father, of all flowers. Now scientists are on the hunt for it. The eFlower project aims to explain the sudden appearance of flowering plants in the fossil record, what Darwin called an “abominable mystery.” Lees meer
Meanwhile, ancient flowers encased in amber or preserved in tar are providing clues about how ecosystems might respond to changing climates. And, although it was honed by evolution for billions of years, can we make photosynthesis more efficient and help forestall a global food crisis?
Guests:
Eva-Maria Sadowski - Post doctoral paleobotanist at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Regan Dunn - Paleobotanist and assistant Curator at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum
Royal Krieger - Rosarian and volunteer at the Morcom Rose Garden, Oakland, California
Ruby Stephens - Plant ecology PhD candidate at Macquarie University in Australia, and member of the eFlower Project
Stephen Long - Professor of Plant Science, University of Illinois
Descripción en español
Originally aired March 13, 2023
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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Fantastic-er Voyage
23 maart 2026 · 54 min
Thinking small can sometimes achieve big things. A new generation of diminutive robots can enter our bodies and deal with medical problems such as intestinal blockages. But do we really want them swimming inside us, even if they’re promising to help? You might change your mind when you hear what else is cruising through our bloodstream: microplastics! Lees meer
We take a trip into the human body, beginning with the story of those who first dared to open it up for medical purposes. But were the first surgeons really cavemen?
Guests:
Ira Rutkow – Surgeon and writer, and author of “Empire of the Scalpel: The History of Surgery”
Dick Vethaak – Emeritus professor of ecotoxicology, water quality and health at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University, Amsterdam) in The Netherlands
Li Zhang – Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Michael LaBarbera - Professor in organismal biology, anatomy and geophysical sciences, University of Chicago
Descripción en español
originally aired June 20, 2022
Opening theme by Jun Miyake
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Skeptic Check: Project Hail Mary
16 maart 2026 · 59 min
As protagonist Ryland Grace fights to save Earth - and possibly the universe - in Project Hail Mary, author Andy Weir discusses the science behind his sci-fi story and what it’s like to see it adapted for the big screen. From a diversity of aliens thriving in extreme environments, to our sun’s shortening lifespan, to the conundrum of keeping astronauts alive during intergalactic missions, we consider the possibility of science fiction becoming future reality. A NASA astrobiologist who consulted on the book weighs in on how Earthly creatures have inspired some of our favorite science fiction aliens. Plus, science fiction author Becky Chambers discusses how she balances science fact with fiction in her work. Lees meer
Guests:
Andy Weir – science fiction writer, author of Project Hail Mary, The Martian, and Artemis
Andy Fraknoi – professor of astronomy at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco
Becky Chambers – science fiction writer, author of To Be Taught if Fortunate, the Wayfinders series, and the Monk and Robot novellas
Shawn Domagal-Goldman – NASA acting director, astrophysics division
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Skeptic Check: Moon Conspiracy
9 maart 2026 · 57 min
As NASA’s Artemis program promises to take us back to the moon for the first time in fifty years, we consider what it means that as many as 10% of Americans don’t believe we went there in the first place. Why, despite all the evidence, has the faked moon landing conspiracy persisted? We explore why this falsehood has such staying power and what it reveals about our relationship with science and its findings. Lees meer
Meanwhile, lunar science continues unabated. Scientists open a lunar soil sample that’s been vacuumed sealed for a half-century and receive a blast of four and a half billion-year-old solar wind.
Guests:
Peter Knight – professor of American Studies, English and American Studies and conspiracy expert at the University of Manchester, U.K.
Ryan Zeigler – planetary scientist and NASA’s Lunar Sample Curator at Johnson Space Center
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Chasing an Asteroid
2 maart 2026 · 56 min
Everyone knows that a big rock wiped out the dinosaurs. But the danger from an asteroid hitting Earth is not limited to ancient history. To deal with this threat, scientists recently ran an experiment to deflect a potential “city killer.” We’ll hear the results of that experiment, and about a visit to another asteroid. In the dusty material NASA brought back from the asteroid Bennu, scientists found the chemical building blocks of life, including many of the amino acids that are found in our cells. Could an asteroid have brought the ingredients for life to ancient Earth? In this episode, we look at our paradoxical relationship with the space rocks that taketh way – and may help giveth - life. Lees meer
Guests:
Scott Sandford - Astrophysicist and Research Scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center
Robin George Andrews - Science journalist, volcanologist, and author of "How to Kill an Asteroid: The Real Science of Planetary Defense"
Descripción en español
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Birds of a Feather
23 februari 2026 · 54 min
With only a microscope and a collection of birds, taxidermist Roxie Laybourne became the world’s first forensic ornithologist. The “feather detective” was on the case, examining pieces of plumage to solve mysteries. From bird strikes that caused plane accidents to homicide investigations, no case was too big. In the process, Roxie changed the world of aviation safety and crime investigation forever. Even now, feathers are unraveling a new type of mystery, as scientists from the Bird Genoscape Project use them to map the migratory routes of birds. Lees meer
Guests:
Chris Sweeney – Journalist and author of “The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne”
Kristen Ruegg – Co-Director of the Bird Genoscape Project and Associate Professor of Biology at Colorado State University
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Celestial Shake-Up
16 februari 2026 · 54 min
We’re going back to the Moon. The planned March 2026 launch of Artemis II is the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972. Historic as it is, it isn’t the only lunar event creating a stir at NASA. Two seismometers are to be delivered to Schrödinger’s Crater in a mission called The Farside Seismic Suite, in which the instruments will measure moonquakes and record the possible impact of asteroid 2024 YR4 on lunar surface. Meanwhile, studies of the sun are heating up. The so-called PUNCH mission, a four-satellite constellation that will create an image of the sun’s corona and solar winds, may help us better understand what drives solar storms and how we can protect Earth from their energetic blasts. Lees meer
Guests:
Eugene Cernan – Apollo 17 astronaut
Harrison "Jack" Schmitt – Geologist and Apollo 17 astronaut
Andrew Rivkin – Planetary astronomer at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University
Ceri Nunn – Lunar seismologist and planetary scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Ryan French – solar physicist, at the Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics, Boulder, Colorado, and author of “Space Hazards: Asteroids, Solar Flares and Cosmic Threats”
Craig DeForest – Heliophysicist, Southwest Research Institute, principal investigator on NASA’s PUNCH mission
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
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Hot to Cold
9 februari 2026 · 55 min
There are benefits to chilling out. When we cool superconductors to 460℉ degrees below zero, they acquire extraordinary properties that help run quantum computers. Can artificially cooling human bodies also provide profound benefit? Some cryonics startup companies say yes, promising “life after death” through cryogenic freezing. While it’s one thing to freeze all the cells in a body, it is another to revive them. What happens, for instance, to memories when brains thaw? While we gauge how low human body temperatures can go, new research suggests another form of life could find home in the cooler temperatures of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Find out how NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will investigate whether that moon could support alien microbes. Lees meer
Guests:
Steve Austad – Distinguished Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Scientific Director of the American Federation for Aging Research
Olivia Lanes – Global Lead for Quantum Content and Education at IBM Quantum
Austin Green – Post doctoral research associate at Virginia Tech University, and former JPL postdoctoral fellow and affiliate scientist on Europa Clipper
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
Correction: An editing error caused a mistake in describing how cold affects inflammation. Contrary to popular belief, at least one study found that cold increases inflammation, at least in the short term.
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Like Lightning
2 februari 2026 · 54 min
Every second, lightning strikes 50 to 100 times somewhere. It can wreak havoc by starting wildfires and sometimes killing people. But lightning also produces a form of nitrogen that’s essential to vegetation. In this episode, we talk about the nature of these dramatic sparks. Ben Franklin established their electric origin, so what do we still not know? Also, why the frequency of lightning strikes is increasing in some parts of the world. And, what to do if you find someone hit by lightning. Lees meer
Guests:
Thomas Yeadaker – Resident of Oakland, California
Chris Davis – Medical doctor and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Wake Forest University and Medical Director for the National Center for Outdoor Adventure Education
Jonathan Martin –Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Steve Ackerman – Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Peter Bieniek – Professor of Atmospheric and Space Science, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Descripción en español
Originally aired September 12, 2022
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Cold to Hot
26 januari 2026 · 1 uur
The icy-white crust of Arctic permafrost is melting, and increased plant growth is turning the glacial north green. Metals like iron, once locked inside the ice, are leaching into hundreds of Arctic rivers, giving them an orange hue. Vivid changes may catch our eye, yet invisible shifts are also afoot. Microbes locked in the frozen ground since the age of the mammoths can now be revived when they thaw. We’re exploring the consequences of changes in permafrost, how AI may help us better understand Greenland ice loss, and get reactions from scientists about the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), one of the premier climate and weather researcher centers in the world. Lees meer
Guests:
Tristan Caro – Postdoctoral Fellow, Geological and Planetary Sciences Division, California Institute of Technology
Twila Moon – Glaciologist and deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, within the cooperative Institute for Research and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Abagael Pruitt – Biochemist and ecosystem ecologist, postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Davis
Karina Zikan – Glaciologist and snow hydrologist, PhD candidate at Boise State University
Roland Pease – Science writer and broadcaster often heard on the BBC World Service, and former presenter and host of its program Science in Action
Alan Sealls – Retired broadcast meteorologist, adjust professor at the University of South Alabama and president of the American Meteorological Society
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Where the Wind Blows
19 januari 2026 · 55 min
It’s omnipresent on Earth and absent on the Moon. When it’s blowing sand in our eyes or frigid air down our necks, we may curse the wind, but living on a planet without it would be stultifying. Join us as we sail through a discussion with journalist and author Simon Winchester about the many practical and playful uses of wind – from boats to turbines to kites – and how it has shaped history, including the growth of civilization itself. Lees meer
Guest:
Simon Winchester – Journalist and author of “The Breath Of The Gods: The History and Future of the Wind”
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Life in the Solar System
12 januari 2026 · 54 min
Spewing lava and belching noxious fumes, volcanoes seem hostile to biology. But the search for life off-Earth includes the hunt for these hotheads on other moons and planets, and we tour some of the most imposing volcanoes in the Solar System. Lees meer
Plus, a look at how tectonic forces reshape bodies from the moon to Venus to Earth. And a journey to the center of our planet reveals a surprising layer of material at the core-mantle boundary. Find out where this layer was at the time of the dinosaurs and what powerful forces drove it deep below.
Guests:
Samantha Hansen – Geologist at the University of Alabama
Paul Byrne – Associate professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
Robin George Andrews – Science journalist and author of “Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond”
Originally aired May 29, 2023
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
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Skeptic Check: Hypnosis
5 januari 2026 · 54 min
You are getting sleeeepy and open to suggestion. But is that how hypnotism works? And does it really open up a portal to the unconscious mind? Hypnotism can be an effective therapeutic tool, and some scientists suggest replacing opioids with hypnosis for pain relief. And yet, the performance aspect of hypnotism often seems at odds with the idea of it being an effective treatment. Lees meer
In our regular look at critical thinking, Skeptic Check, we ask what part of hypnotism is real and what is an illusion. Plus, we discuss how the swinging watch became hypnotism’s irksome trademark.
Guests:
David Spiegel – Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine
Devin Terhune – Reader in the Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths University of London
Originally aired June 27, 2002
Graphic by Shannon Rose Geary
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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Beyond the Periodic Table
29 december 2025 · 56 min
You interact with about two-thirds of the elements of the periodic table every day. Some, like carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, make up our bodies and the air we breathe. Yet there is also a class of elements so unstable they can only be made in a lab. These superheavy elements are the purview of a small group stretching the boundaries of chemistry. Can they extend the periodic table beyond the 118 in it now? Find out scientists are using particle accelerators to create element 120 and why they’ve skipped over element 119. Plus, if an element exists for only a fraction of a second in the lab, can we still say that counts as existing? Lees meer
Guests:
Mark Miodownik – professor of materials and society at the University of College London and the author of “It’s a Gas: The Sublime and Elusive Elements That Expand Our World.”
Kit Chapman – Science historian at Falmouth University, author of “Superheavy; Making and Breaking the Periodic Table.”
Jennifer Pore – Research Scientist of Heavy Elements at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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Movie Mayhem
22 december 2025 · 56 min
Science fiction movies force us to face a multitude of end-of-the-world scenarios. Whether the final curtain is dropped by rampaging aliens, killer rocks from space, or virus-infected zombies, these big screen glimpses of a dystopian future are as tantalizing as they are frightening. But one American city seems to be a favorite backdrop for stories of mass destruction. We speak with a cultural critic about why New York City is often the chosen setting for disaster films, and what dystopian fiction reveals about our shifting anxieties about humanity’s future no matter where we live. Lees meer
Movies discussed include Deep Impact, Escape from New York, Planet of the Apes, King Kong, Cloverfield, Deluge, Failsafe, The Day After Tomorrow, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Contagion, I Am Legend, and Seth’s very own short film: The Turkey that Ate St. Louis
Guest:
Dan Saltzstein – Deputy Editor for Projects and Collaborations, New York Times
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
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The Best Things in Life are Tree(s)
15 december 2025 · 58 min
While humans were leaving the Stone Age and entering the Bronze, some Bristlecone pine trees grew from seeds to sprouts. They’ve been growing ever since. These 5,000-year-old pines are among the oldest organisms on Earth. Superlatives are also appropriate for the towering redwoods. Lees meer
Trees are amazing in many ways. They provide us with timber and cool us with shade, they sequester carbon and release oxygen, and are home to countless species. But they are also marvels of evolutionary adaptation. We consider the beauty and diversity of trees, and learn why their future is intertwined with ours.
Guests:
Kevin Dixon - Naturalist at The East Bay Regional Park District, Oakland, California
Daniel Lewis - Environmental historian and senior curator for the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library, art museum and botanical gardens in Pasadena, California, professor of the natural sciences and the environment at Caltech, and author of “Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of our Future”
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Originally aired January 25, 2025
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A Real Gas
8 december 2025 · 57 min
Just because something is invisible doesn’t mean it isn’t there. We can’t see gases in our atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen, but we benefit from their presence with every breath we take. From the bubbles that effervesce in soda to the vapors that turn engines, gases are part of our lives. They fill our lungs, give birth to stars, and… well, how would we spot a good diner without glowing neon? In this episode, a materials scientist shares the history of some gaseous substances that we don’t usually see, but that make up our world. Lees meer
Guest:
Mark Miodownik – Professor of materials and society at the University College London and the author of “It’s a Gas: The Sublime and Elusive Elements That Expand Our World.”
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Originally aired December 9, 2024
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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Amazing Amazonia
1 december 2025 · 1 uur 13 min
The Amazon is often described as an ecosystem under dire threat due to climate change and deliberate deforestation. Yet there is still considerable hope that these threats can be mitigated. In the face of these threats, indigenous conservationists are attempting to strike a balance between tradition and preserving Amazonia. Meanwhile, two river journeys more than 100 years apart – one by a contemporary National Geographic reporter and another by “The Lewis and Clark of Brazil”— draw attention to the beauty and diversity of one of the world’s most important ecosystems. Lees meer
Guests:
Cynthia Gorney – Contributing writer at the National Geographic Society, former bureau chief for South America at The Washington Post
Larry Rohter – Reporter and correspondent in Rio de Janeiro for fourteen years for Newsweek and as The New York Times bureau chief. Author of Into the Amazon: The Life of Cândido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist
João Campos-Silva – Brazilian researcher and conservationist, and cofounder of Instituto Jura, a conservation organization. His work, along with that of other conservationists, is featured in the National Geographic issue devoted to the Amazon.
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices