Mike Massimino, a NASA astronaut, joins us to talk about how he learned to adapt to a confined space while in space.
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Our 100-Year Battle With Pandemics
Medical historian Mark Honigsbaum joins us to talk about why bacterial and viral disasters continue to take us by surprise.
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Vaccine Science, Race And Mathematical Modeling
On today’s show, experts explain some of the more mysterious elements of the coronavirus, including what it will take to develop a vaccine, how epidemiological models work and why black and Latino patients are disproportionately affected.
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Why There’s Not Enough Public Transit
Aaron W. Gordon, senior writer for Motherboard, joins us to talk about why public transportation is broken and how, especially now, it’s time to rethink how people get places.
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The Trial And (Mostly) Error Of Medieval Science
Jack Hartnell, lecturer in art history at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, joins us to talk about the physical body in the medieval worldview and the fantastical tales created to justify medicinal practices.
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The Role Of Animals In Human Pandemics
Science writer David Quammen joins us to talk about why an animal-to-human zoonotic transmission happens and what the risk is, now and in the future.
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An Astrophysicist Searches The Cosmos For Meaning
Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics and director of Columbia University’s Center for Theoretical Physics, joins us to talk about the many ways we contemplate our existence.
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The Mathematics of Luck
Wall Street Journal sports reporter Ben Cohen joins us to talk about the algorithms that can keep us on a roll, and the myths that prove they can’t.
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The Function (And Dysfunction) Of Fear
Chapman University sociology professor Christopher Bader joins us to talk about the anxiety we’re feeling and how social ties are severed when we fear too much.
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How VR Connects Us To Real Feelings
Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips joins us to talk about how we should think about using social media – and about the pluses and minuses of substituting in-person connections for virtual ones.
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The Man Who Invented CSI
UT-Austin journalism teacher Kate Winkler Dawson joins us to talk about an early criminologist who developed the forensic science we still use today: blood splatter evidence and fingerprinting, among other techniques.
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Pandemics: Then And Now
Frank M. Snowden, the Andrew Downey Orrick Professor Emeritus of History and History of Medicine at Yale University, joins us to talk about how infectious outbreaks — both terrifying and romanticized — have shaped our world.
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