Scientists have studied what gifts are most appreciated. And while there's some nuance in giving presents and money, there's a third thing you can give that may be even better. Hosted by: Stefan Chin (he/him)

Fluorescence isn't just a cool effect that turns your white T-shirt neon purple under a black light. Its discovery opened our eyes to a whole new field of science and engineering. And it's all thanks to a crystal called fluorite. Hosted...

Over the past three decades, astronomers have discovered thousands of planets beyond our solar system. But while some of them might be the right size and mass to be some kind of Earth 2.0, we don't know if any of them is truly...

When caterpillars undergo metamorphosis and become butterflies, their brains melt into goop. Neuroscience says they shouldn't remember anything about their past lives. So why do studies show that they do? Hosted by: @TomLumPerson...

When fishermen cast their nets, they often catch a lot more than the species they're after. Those unlucky creatures are called bycatch, and it's a huge problem in the industry. Fortunately, scientists have been working hard to solve it...

The idea of improving athletic performance with a certain kind of lighting sounds absurd, but some NFL and MLB teams are trying it. The question is: does it work? Hosted by: Niba Audrey @NotesbyNiba (she/her)

In 2023, Italian and Spanish authorities busted a major counterfeiting ring. Their product? Olive oil. From fake caviar and scallops to imitation maple syrup, there are a lot of pricey foods that fraudsters love to fake. Here's how...

We've known for a while now that Neanderthals and humans interbred and swapped genes. But do you know what traits you have that came from your Neanderthal cousins? From early rising to immune boosting, here are a few traits that you may...

In 2024, astronomers announced they'd discovered the brightest (or, technically, the most luminous) object in the known universe. And it's a cosmic engine powered by the hungriest black hole in the known universe. Hosted by: Stefan Chin...

There's a town in northern Mexico called Ojuela that's got a rich history of valuable mining industry, but nowadays is largely deserted. But it's getting a new, second life thanks to a type of mineral forming process fittingly called...

The vagus nerve is kind of a wellness it-girl right now. But some of the claims that influencers make about it are a little... out there. So we decided to do some research and get to the bottom of what this nerve can and can't do, and...

If you were a time traveler, would you survive the Black Death? Smallpox? Tuberculosis? What about the unknown diseases of the future? And is it safer to travel back or forward in time? We attempt to answer these questions. Hosted by:...

When it comes to fighting the climate crisis, one thing that we know we need to do is carbon capture and long-term carbon storage. But researchers have been struggling to find ways to actually get this to work. Which is why they've had...

From hypothetical magnetic levitation trains and space elevators that aren't even attached to the ground, to very real space cannons tested in the 1960s, humans have come up with a lot of ways to hurl stuff into outer space. Hosted by:...

It may seem like Earth isn't as well-decorated as its ring-bearing neighbors in the solar system, but new research suggests that may not always have been the case. Not only did our planet maybe once have a ring, but our ancient bling may...

You might know about HDL or good cholesterol. And you might know about LDL or bad cholesterol. But do you know about LP(a) or Lipoprotein A? It's pretty common and pretty bad and we should talk about it. Hosted by: Stefan Chin (he/him)

If you've wandered down a supplement aisle recently, you may have come across a bottle for sale that has "anti-aging" ingredients to help your body make a molecule called NAD+, better known as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. Your body...

Why do we have wisdom teeth? They're just going to come in wrong and cause problems. Wisdom teeth are a souvenir from our early human ancestors, and we actually understand less about them than you might think. Hosted by: Reid Reimers...

Artificial Intelligence always takes over humanity in the movies when it gains consciousness. But even without getting into sentience, it's capable of influencing our lives in a lot of ways already. Hosted by: Stefan Chin (he/him)

Groundhogs are famous in North America for "predicting" when spring will come (and also that Bill Murray movie). But while they might make for terrible meteorologists, they actually play a valuable role in several other scientific...

Every day, airplanes fly over the Panama-Colombia border and drop millions of flies from the sky. It's part of an intense effort to control a deadly pest called screwworms, and believe it or not, it works. Hosted by: Stefan Chin (he/him)

In 2020, students from the University of Texas proposed sending a fleet of rovers to the Moon that, for a price, would carve words and symbols into the surface for *you*, random human. And that got us thinking, how big would such a...

Fecal transplants are often associated with treating intestinal issues, but they have uses far beyond that. In this List Show, we explore five surprising conditions they improve. Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)

Trees are dead inside. It's true: the xylem tissue that supports their trunks technically isn't alive. Archaeologists hate that because this problem, the old wood problem, can cause carbon dating to be off by hundreds of years. Hosted...