Unexplainable
Unexplainable takes listeners right up to the edge of what we know and then keeps on going. The team tackles scientific mysteries, unanswered questions, and everything we learn diving into the unknown. New episodes Mondays and Wednesdays. From Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Episodes
A new species in New York
Around 90% of life on Earth is unknown. Can Benji find a new species in his backyard?
Guests: Benji Jones, Vox senior correspondent, and the NYC species project.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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The disaster problem
Climate change is making hurricanes, floods, and wildfires harder to prepare for just as confidence in the government’s disaster response is collapsing. Our friends at On the Media explore how FEMA became a target of conspiracy theories, political attacks, and a growing crisis of trust.
Guests: Eloise Blondiau, senior producer at On The Media; Micah Loewinger, co-host of On the Media
For show
The lost Lyme vaccine
Vijay Sikand is a family doctor in the Connecticut town that gave Lyme disease its name. When a pharmaceutical company came to town to test a vaccine, he built a career and a community around the trial. Then the Lyme vaccine became a cautionary tale.
Guest: Vijay Sikand, MD, family medicine and pediatrics
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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The cells we share
Fetuses leave cells behind in their parents' bodies, where they braid themselves into tissues, and remain, for years. What are they doing in there?
Guests: Amy Boddy, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Lee Nelson, Professor Emeritus at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
The man who bet against humanity — and lost
Paul Ehrlich was famous for predicting a population explosion that would destroy the planet, but he didn't count on human ingenuity.
Guest: Bryan Walsh, Vox senior editorial director
This episode was made in partnership with Vox’s Future Perfect team.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainabl
The aftermath
What would life look like after a global nuclear war? Would underground bunkers work? What would we do for food? What about radioactive snow?! In this episode of Are We Doomed?, reporter Ben Bradford tries to find out.
Guest: Ben Bradford, host of Are We Doomed?
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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A better Black Death story
What happens when researchers reexamine some of the basic facts about the Black Death? They start rewriting history and rethinking blame.
Guests: Hannah Barker, professor at Arizona State University; Ulf Büntgen, professor at the University of Cambridge; Martin Bauch, historian at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe
For show transcripts, go to vox.c
The hunt for a lost species
One of the world’s most biodiverse aquifers is full of strange, blind creatures that have evolved in isolation for millions of years. But one is missing. (Originally aired in 2022)
Guests: Benji Jones, Vox senior correspondent; Andy Gluesenkamp, Conservation biologist and herpetologist (a reptiles and amphibians guy)
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
Dark matter music
Pioneering musicians Beatie Wolfe and Brian Eno released their latest album Liminal by broadcasting it from a 50-foot microwave antenna. Noam talks to Beatie about why “dark matter music” was the perfect sound to beam into deep space, and how music can take us places that are even harder to reach.
Guest: Beatie Wolfe, composer and conceptual artist
For show transcripts, go to
I glow, therefore I am
Today on the show: a double feature — two mysteries in one episode. First, it seems like all living things emit a faint glow that disappears when they die. Then, is the International Space Station ... too clean?
Guests: Daniel Oblak, professor of physics at the University of Calgary; Rodolfo Antonio Salido Benítez, scientist at SPT Labtech
Links: Daniel's paper with mouse and leaf images; Rodolf
Is everything inflammation?
To hear some people tell it — especially people on TikTok — inflammation is the root of all disease. It's... not that simple. But inflammation does have a lot to teach us about why modern life can make us feel so bad, and even what we might be able to do about it.
Guest: Dylan Scott, senior correspondent at Vox
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
A show about nothing
A few months ago, we put out an episode about what silence sounds like, and it caught the attention of Rob Rosenthal, who hosts a podcast called Sound School about the craft of audio storytelling. So he called up host Noam Hassenfeld to ask him a question he couldn't stop thinking about: How do you make something that sounds like nothing?Host: Rob Rosenthal, host of Sound School PodcastGuest: Noam
The Hitchhiking Microbe’s Guide to the Galaxy
Can microbes travel through space on meteorites? It’s an idea called “lithopanspermia,” and to work out if it’s even feasible, some researchers decided to shoot microbes — with a gun.
Guests: K.T. Ramesh, professor of science and engineering at Johns Hopkins University; Lily Zhao, mechanical engineer at Johns Hopkins University
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscri
Why did we go back to the moon?
For the first time in over 50 years, humans have gone to the moon and back. And this time, NASA says we're going to stay. NASA's planning for more missions, a permanent moon base, and even a mission to Mars. But there's a pretty big question hanging over all these dreams: Can humans survive in space long enough to make them happen?(A version of this episode originally aired in 2022, with the launc
Is male birth control finally here?
Typically, the burden of birth control falls on whoever has a uterus, but it seems like that might change — and soon!
Guest: Annalisa Merelli, contributing writer at STAT.
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
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Mi Vickicito
Host Julia Longoria signs off from Unexplainable with one final question: Why does her grandma love Vicks VapoRub so much? A version of this episode originally aired on WNYC’s Only Human podcast.
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
It’s a great place to sign up for our newsletter, view show transcripts, and read more about the topics on our show.
Also, email us! unexplainable@vox.c
Casey gets his voice back
Casey Harrell is a goofy, lighthearted chatterbox whose love for language helped him become an accomplished environmental activist. In 2020, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and slowly began losing the ability to speak. He sang his last song to his infant daughter and fell into silence. But, now, with the help of 256 microelectrodes implanted directly into his motor cortex
Oliver Sacks's not quite nonfiction
Oliver Sacks was once crowned “the poet laureate of medicine” — he's known as one of the greatest science writers of our time. But when New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv dug into his archives, she discovered that some details in his intimate portraits of patients mirrored his personal life a little too closely.
Guest: Rachel Aviv, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of Strangers to Ourselve
The accidental rise of Botox
One of the deadliest poisons known to man is now used to treat wrinkles, migraines, and even, maybe, depression. How did that happen?
Guests: Jean Carruthers, ophthalmologist and “godmother” of cosmetic Botox. David Simpson, neurologist at Mount Sinai hospital in New York. Axel Wollmer, psychiatrist at the Asklepios clinic in Hamburg, Germany.
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
It
Who are we to fight the alchemy?
Many alchemical texts are full of bizarre, metaphorical language. But what if there's interesting science hiding behind some of those metaphors?
Guest: Lawrence Principe, professor of the history of science and professor of chemistry at Johns Hopkins University
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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Snow day!
Grab some hot cocoa and a warm blanket and let’s talk about the tiny crystals that fall from the sky.
Guest: Jessica Lundquist, professor of civil & environmental engineering at the University of Washington
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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My brain made me do it
A man committed a crime. He admitted it. Then something alarming showed up on an image of his brain. The criminal case that followed in 1991 brought neuroscience into the courtroom for good. How does our ever-changing understanding of the brain impact how we approach justice?
Guests: Josh May, professor of philosophy, University of Alabama, Birmingham, author of Neuroethics: Agency in the Age o
The Codfather
How many fish are in the sea? It's a question that has had enormous consequences for the fishing community in New Bedford, Massachusetts. But one man managed to find a way around it. That man? The Codfather.
Guest: Ian Coss, host and producer of WBGH's Catching the Codfather
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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Stress ages us on a cellular level
It's no secret that stress isn't good for you… But just how bad is it? NPR's Short Wave podcast gets some answers.
Host: Regina G. Barber, host of NPR’s Short Wave podcast
Guest: Diana Kwon, science journalist
Follow NPR's Short Wave podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for more episodes like this, featuring new discoveries, everyday mysteries and the science behind the headlines.
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The Amazing Extremophiles
In the dark depths of the Gowanus Canal, strange lifeforms lurk...
Guests: Brad Vogel, volunteer at the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club; Elizabeth Hénaff, computational biologist and artist at New York University
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Everyone does it. Why can’t I?
I’m about to burst.
Guests: Laryngologist Dr. Robert Bastian and Noel King, co-host and editorial director of the Vox daily news podcast Today, Explained
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
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Mysterious objects near the beginning of time
Astronomers are putting together a new picture of the early universe. It involves a lot of very weird black holes, and it could help us understand how our own galaxy formed.
Guest: Caitlin Casey, astronomer at UC Santa Barbara
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
Cloud atlas
It’s surprisingly hard to predict how clouds form, move, and change, but it’s essential to try. Because how clouds react to a warming world helps determine how hot our future will be. (Originally aired in 2021)
Guests: Vox contributor Umair Irfan, scientists Scott M. Collis, Angeline Pendergrass, and author Gavin Pretor-Pinney
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtra
What's good sound?
Every hand-crafted instrument from violin maker Michael Doran holds its own unexplainable questions.
Guest: Michael Doran of Doran’s Violin’s
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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No data, just vibes
There's been a real rollback of one of the US government's most fundamental tasks: gathering data. Vox correspondents Dylan Scott and Umair Irfan take a look at what a future with less data means for climate and health care in the US.
Guests: Vox correspondent Umair Irfan and Vox senior correspondent Dylan Scott
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
It's not all bad
Things in the news have been feeling kind of…bleak, so we called in some reinforcements. Vox's senior editorial director and resident good news expert Bryan Walsh joins editor Joanna Solotaroff to remind us that there’s still a lot of good stuff happening, too.
Guest: Vox senior editorial director Bryan Walsh. Sign up for the Good News newsletter HERE.
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Superbabies?
Parents are supposed to provide the best life possible for their kids, right? But what does that mean when genetic testing for the baby enters the picture? And how far should they go? Vox senior reporter Sigal Samuel received that ethically ambiguous question for her advice column Your Mileage May Vary from a parent-to-be, and in this episode walks Noam through her thinking using a philosophical
The G-word
Is geoengineering the answer to the climate crisis? Or is it too dangerous to even discuss? It’s been theoretical so far, but now, one startup says their technology could soon shield the Earth from the sun.
Guest: Robinson Meyer, climate journalist and founding executive editor of Heatmap News.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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Who's afraid of big, bad Yellowstone?
Yellowstone can be a deadly place... but not for the reasons you might think.
Guest: Mike Poland, scientist in charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory
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Vitamin C and the common cold
A two-time Nobel Prize-winning scientist changed chemistry, biology, and the politics of science. But when he pushed vitamin C as a cure-all, did he go too far?
Guest: Daniel M. Davis, head of the department of life sciences and professor of immunology at Imperial College London. He is the author of Self-Defense: A Myth-Busting Guide to Immune Health.
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Your moments of silence (The Sound Barrier #5)
This episode is a follow-up to The Sound Barrier series, which explores our brain's relationship to sound. In our third episode of the series, we asked listeners to try to experience silence and record what they heard. Today, we share the sounds of quiet from across the world in a tribute to John Cage’s 4’33”. Plus, Tinnitus researcher and Unexplainable guest Dan Polley answers your questions from
Diary of a teenage brain, part 2
As our brains develop throughout our childhood and teens, they form connections and then prune back the ones that aren't used. What can we learn from them?
Guests: Alison Barth, professor in the life sciences at Carnegie Mellon University; Saket Navlakha, associate professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
This series was made possible by support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Vox had full
Diary of a teenage brain
What's going on in teens' heads? Scientists working on a country-wide study following thousands of young people have spent the last decade trying to answer that question.
Guests: Raul Gonzalez Jr., psychology professor at Florida International University
This series was made possible by support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Vox had full discretion over the content of this reporting.
The trees of death
Way back when forests first evolved on Earth... they might have triggered one of the biggest mass extinctions in the history of the planet. (Originally aired in 2024)
Guests: Charles Ver Straeten, curator of sedimentary rocks at the New York State Museum; Lisa Amati, curator of invertebrate paleontology at the New York State Museum; Thomas Algeo, professor of geochemistry at the University of C
That's no moon...
It's a quasi-moon. Or, a quasi-satellite. Whatever you want to call it, it's hanging out near Earth. And it could be the source of some fascinating new science.
Guests: Nick Moskovitz, astronomer at Lowell Observatory
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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Lost on the road to enlightenment
So many of us have been told that meditation can make us less stressed, more productive, and happier. But for a small group of people, it has a dark side. What’s going on?
Guests: Willoughby Britton, associate professor at Brown University; Richard Davidson, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Pierce Salguero, professor at the Abington College of Pennsylvania State University
Thi
Is animal grief real?
A dog on its owner’s grave. A killer whale carrying around its dead calf. A goose that isolates when its mate dies. These behaviors in animals may look like human mourning, but should scientists call them "grief"? (First published in 2023)
Guests: Jennifer Vonk, comparative/cognitive psychologist at Oakland University; Jessica Pierce, bioethicist and author of several books about animals; Susana
The Sound Barrier #4: Listen to the universe
When Wanda Diáz-Merced lost her sight as a college student, she thought her dreams of becoming an astronomer were over — until she learned to listen to space instead.
Wanda is one of several pioneering scientists listening to space. For this episode, we also spoke to Robert Wilson, who used sound to help him discover the first direct evidence of the Big Bang, and Kim Arcand, who plays us what the
The Sound Barrier #3: What does silence sound like?
A scientist asked people to sit in a silent room for 15 minutes. Almost half of them decided to give themselves a painful electric shock instead. What is it about our brains that makes our relationship with silence so strange? And should we learn how to listen to it?
This is the third episode of our new four-part series, The Sound Barrier.
Guests: Erin Westgate, assistant professor at
The Sound Barrier #2: The noise that isn't there
Almost 15% of adults suffer from a persistent, often intolerable sound... that is literally just in their heads. Why does the brain do this to us? We help one of our listeners get some answers.
This is the second episode of our new four-part series, The Sound Barrier.
Guests: Stéphane Maison, director of the tinnitus clinic at Mass Eye and Ear; Susan Shore, professor emerita at the University
The Sound Barrier #1: The myth of hearing
Just like optical illusions trick our eyes, audio illusions can trick our ears. It makes scientists wonder: What exactly are we hearing, when we're hearing?
This is the first episode of our new four-part series, The Sound Barrier.
Guests: Diana Deutsch, emeritus professor at the University of California, San Diego; Matthew Winn, professor at the University of Minnesota; Michael Chorost, scienc
Solve me a river
This week on Unexplainable or Not, Sally Helm, the newest member of our team, tries to figure out what's killing mussels, why rivers suddenly change course, and what the longest river in the world is.
Guests: Douglas Edmonds, professor at Indiana University; Neel Dhanesha, science reporter
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
This episode is haunted and spooky
Now why would you click on something like this? What's wrong with you?! Why are you — and so many other people — into scary stuff? Two scientists are trying to find out. (Originally aired in 2024)
Guests: Mathias Clasen and Marc Andersen, co-directors of the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For
Consider the shrimp
Killing two people is worse than killing one. What about 440 billion crustaceans? Adapted from Dylan Matthews's essay on Vox.com.
This story is part of a series supported by Animal Charity Evaluators, which received a grant from EarthShare.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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When talent vanishes overnight
Think about the thing you’ve practiced more than anything else in the world. Maybe it’s painting. Or writing. Or playing baseball.
Now, imagine you wake up one day, and you just can’t do it. You’re not sick. You’re not injured. But suddenly, that one thing is impossible. (Originally published in 2024)
Guests: Rick Ankiel, former Major League Baseball star; Sally Akehurst, sports psychologist
Composing chaos
Terry Riley's "In C" is one of the most influential pieces of music of the last century...but you'll never hear it the same way twice.
Guest: Evan Ziporyn, composer, clarinetist, and producer of "In C"
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read
Does Tylenol cause autism?
Donald Trump and RFK Jr. seem convinced that it does. But our friends at Science Vs say the data is far more complicated.
Guest: Meryl Horn, senior producer at Science Vs
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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Real-life zombies
Zombies might seem like the stuff of horror movies, but there are lots of examples of parasites taking over bugs’ bodies and bending them to their will.
Guest: Mindy Weisberger, author of Rise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind-Control
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
How to change your personality
Who are you, really? Our friends at The Gray Area ask whether it's really possible to change.
Guest: Olga Khazan, author of Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change
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What’s A
The centuries-old international battle over the real sound of a musical note.
Guest: Fanny Gribenski, historical musicologist and author of Tuning the World: The Rise of 440 Hertz in Music, Science, and Politics, 1859–1955
Reported for Unexplainable by Emily Siner
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Did we find signs of life on Mars?
NASA found a Martian rock that might have traces of ancient life. It's perhaps the most tantalizing revelation in the century-long search for Martian life. (Updated from 2022)
Guests: Katie Stack Morgan, project scientist for the Perseverance rover; Lindsay Hays, astrobiologist at NASA; Morgan Cable, research scientist for Perseverance; and Camden Miller, rover driver for Perseverance
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The metabolism myth
Recent research — and one surprising season of The Biggest Loser — has scientists wondering whether some of the most basic things they know about metabolism are wrong.
Guest: Julia Belluz, author of Food Intelligence
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@
The Vagina Voyages
Join our friends at The Longest Shortest Time for a deep dive into the misunderstood world of vaginas. We’ll learn about orgasm-chasing royalty, clitoral wingspans, vagina lollipops, wandering wombs, and why we still know so little about the anatomy of half the people on Earth.
Guests: Hillary Frank, host, The Longest Shortest Time; Rachel E. Gross, science writer
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A rabbi and the Lorax walk into a bar...
How the bedtime stories we grew up with inspire the stories we tell now.
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Is a little alcohol bad for you?
We spoke to two researchers who disagree about the answer to this question. But they do agree about why it's so hard to answer to begin with.
Guests: Dylan Scott, senior correspondent at Vox; Kenneth Mukamal, physician and academic researcher at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Timothy Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research
For
Ice Sheet Time Machine
The US military carved a tiny city into the Greenland ice sheet. What they found, and lost, and found again, and what it tells us about climate change.
Guests: Paul Bierman, geoscientist at the University of Vermont and author of When The Ice Is Gone; Richard Alley, geoscientist at the Pennsylvania State University
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
Animals in the year 20202025
What do scientists think animals might be like millions of years from now? (First published in 2021)
Guests: Benji Jones, senior correspondent at Vox; David Willard, ornithologist at Chicago's Field Museum; Liz Alter, marine biologist at San José State University; Jingmai O'Connor, paleontologist at the Field Museum; Sharlene Santana, biologist at the University of Washington; Julia Sigwart, mala
Nightmare at the end of the universe
Dark energy is the strange stuff that makes up the vast majority of the universe and will ultimately lead to the end of everything. Unless it doesn't exist at all.
Guests: Adam Riess, astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University, and Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille, director of the Physics Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and member of The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
Life in plastic — not fantastic?
Much of our modern world is made of plastic, but as more signs point to its dangers to human health, what can we even do about it?
Guest: Annie Lowrey, Atlantic writer and author of I fought plastic. Plastic won.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.co
When waves go rogue
Towering walls of water sometimes appear in the ocean without warning or apparent cause. What drives their terrifying power? (First published in 2023)
Guest: Ton van der Bremer, associate professor of environmental fluid mechanics.
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Good news for people who love bad news
Good news can be hard to find, especially when our brains — and the media — are biased against it.
Guest: Bryan Walsh, senior editorial director of Vox, and author of the Good News newsletter
This episode was made in partnership with Vox’s Future Perfect team.For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
12 tiny worlds
If you went back 500 million years and re-ran evolution, would life be totally different today?
Guests: Richard Lenski and Zachary Blount, evolutionary biologists at Michigan State University
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How good was Michael Jordan, really?
It's easy to assume there is objective truth in basketball stats. A clear story of what happened in the past. But our friends at Pablo Torre Finds Out uncovered something that throws an entire era into question.
Guest: Pablo Torre, host of Pablo Torre Finds Out
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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One weird trick to get unlimited clean energy
Is a solution to climate change…pouring water on hot rocks?
Guest: Dylan Matthews, Senior Correspondent at Vox's Future Perfect
This episode was made in partnership with Vox's Future Perfect team.
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Who taught beavers to build dams?
How does any animal know what to do? A neuroscientist argues it's not “instinct.” Something bigger is going on. (First published in 2022)
Guest: Mark Blumberg, behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Iowa
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The disease we let win
We have a cure for tuberculosis. Why does it still kill over a million people every year?
GUEST: John Green, podcaster, YouTube creator and award-winning author of Everything is Tuberculosis and many young adult novels
This episode was made in partnership with Vox’s Future Perfect team.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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Science! Tell me what to eat!
Figuring out the perfect healthy diet remains stubbornly out of reach. Our friends at Gastropod ask: Why?
Guests: Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, co-hosts of Gastropod
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A magical world at the ocean’s edge
In coastal California, researchers grapple with potentially losing a landscape they love.
Guests: Rebecca Johnson, Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Community Science at the California Academy of Sciences; Peter Roopnarine, Curator of Invertebrate Zoology & Geology at the California Academy of Sciences
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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Ruff translation
We love our pets. And think we understand them. Are we fooling ourselves?
Guests: Alexandra Horowitz, dog cognition researcher at Barnard College; Holly Molinaro, animal welfare scientist; Jared Martin, filmmaker and dog owner
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Sick of “morning” sickness
If pregnant people need to eat for two, why do so many of us puke morning, noon, and night?
Guests: Marlena Fejzo, Ph.D., geneticist, and Research Director at the HER Foundation.
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Your bug roommates
Our houses are homes to hidden worlds of bugs. And the more ecologists explore those worlds, the more they realize that some of our creepy, crawly housemates actually have a lot to teach us. (First published in 2023)
Guests: Rob Dunn, ecologist at NC State University and author of Never Home Alone; Michelle Trautwein, entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences
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Why I left the NIH
Francis Collins oversaw some of the most revolutionary science of the last few decades at the National Institutes of Health. A few months ago, he suddenly resigned.
One of America's foremost scientists could no longer do his job. What does that mean for the US? And for science?
Guest: Francis Collins, former director of the NIH
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
Mostly dead is slightly alive
When bringing people to the edge of death is your day job.
Guest: Adam Richman, perfusionist at the Mayo Clinic and Unexplainable listener.
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We don't understand yogurt
Many physicists dream of coming up with a unified theory of the universe. Rae Robertson-Anderson dreams of understanding ranch dressing, shampoo, and scrambled eggs.
Guests: Rae Robertson-Anderson, a physics professor at the University of San Diego. (Find her TikToks at physics_mamma.)
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexpla
The musical structure of the universe
If matter is a result of vibration, what causes the vibration? Our friends at The Gray Area ask, “Is the universe behaving like an instrument?”
Guest: Stephon Alexander, theoretical physicist at Brown University
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every ema
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