The 60-Second Podcast Takes a Short Break--But Wait, There's More

Scientific American’s short-form podcast has been going for 16 years, three months and seven days, counting today. But it’s time for us to evolve.

Dec 2022

Is Your Phone Actually Draining Your Brain?

A new study puts the “brain drain hypothesis”—the idea that just having a phone next to you impacts your cognition—to the test to see if the science passes muster.

Dec 2022

Why Your Dog Might Think You're a Bonehead

The verdict is in: female dogs actively evaluate human competence.

Dec 2022

Alaska's Protective Sea Ice Wall Is Crumbling because of the Climate Crisis

A massive storm slammed into Alaska’s western coast, and there was no ice to stop it.

Dec 2022

It's the Bass That Makes Us Boogie

Concertgoers danced more when music was supplemented with low-frequency bass tones.

Dec 2022

How Vaccines Saved Money and Lives, and China's Zero-COVID Protests: COVID, Quickly Podcast, Episode 44

Vaccines saved New York City billions of dollars, and China faces public fury over its strict virus-control policies.

Dec 2022

'Chatty Turtles' Flip the Script on the Evolutionary Origins of Vocalization in Animals

Recordings of more than 50 species of turtles and other animals help scientists reassess the origins of acoustic communication in vertebrates.

Dec 2022

Tardrigrades, an Unlikely Sleeping Beauty

Researchers put this ancient critter through a subzero gauntlet to learn more about what happens to their internal clock while surviving the extreme.

Nov 2022

A Burned Redwood Forest Tells a Story of Climate Change, Past, Present and Future

From the ashes of the giants of Big Basin Redwoods State Park arise a history of fire suppression and real questions about what happens to the forests in a drought-stricken West Coast going forward.

Nov 2022

Antivirals Could Reduce Long COVID Risk, and How Well the New Boosters Work: COVID, Quickly Podcast, Episode 43

In this new episode of our coronavirus podcast, we discuss a study that looked at the effects of Paxlovid on long COVID symptoms, and we also talk new bivalent boosters and immunity.

Nov 2022