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Elizabeth Holmes Courtesy of A24 hide caption
October 27, 2026 • It feels like everyone we know is talking about the new documentary You Can See Everything. It tracks the effort of comedian and documentarian Nathan Fielder to suss out how deceptive Elizabeth Holmes, disgraced founder of the company Theranos, is. And after watching the film, we all left the theater wondering -- what could we see? How possible is it to ever really spot someone lying? So we of course called up an expert in deception and counter-deception research, Maria Hartwig, a professor of psychology at CUNY, the City University of New York.
An illustration of the evolution of the universe. Scott Wiessinger/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center hide caption
October 26, 2026 • At the beginning of our universe, in addition to matter, there was also an equal amount of antimatter , matter's opposite. But today, there's lots more matter than antimatter. So how did that happen? Well, the answer might have to do with neutrinos, a very mysterious, elusive particle. They're incredibly difficult to catch and study because they don't really interact with anything. But a group of scientists is now betting that one specific, hypothetical type of neutrino might have played a very important role in getting matter to win the war against antimatter. Today, we go galaxy brain and delight in getting to spend a little time pondering this hypothetical, long ignored particle.
Most people have dormant viruses inside of them. Mustafa Hacalaki/Getty Images hide caption
October 23, 2026 • Virtually every human on Earth has a slew of different types of dormant viruses in our bodies. They are remnants of past infections and are—generally—harmless. Unless they wake up, which can be triggered by extreme stress or something that severely compromises the immune system. But now, through a unique study on the immune systems of astronauts, scientists are considering broadening their ideas about what can wake up our dormant viruses…and learning what all this has to do with long COVID.
Planting more trees is good for cities, but they can pose risks to people living with asthma. Juan Diego Ramirez/NPR hide caption
October 21, 2026 • Trees provide shade and clean air in congested cities, so planting more of them seems like a straightforward solution. But trees also produce a natural pollutant— pollen. In this episode, producer Juan Diego Ramirez reports on the link between growing urban canopies and allergy exposure, and what you can do to protect yourself.
An artist's rendering of and from an imagined nearby moon of Kepler-16b, an exoplanet that orbits a pair of stars (like the fictional planet Tattooine). For decades, scientists and storytellers alike have imagined alien life on other planets. What's the probability of that alien life contacting us on Earth? NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption
October 20, 2026 • There are hundreds of billions of stars in the galaxy we live in. Many of them have their own exoplanets. So why haven’t we found proof of alien life yet? And what’s the probability of us contacting or being contacted anyway? That’s exactly what a famous math formula called the Drake Equation tries to answer. It takes into account a whole variety of factors, including the rate at which stars like the Sun are born, how many of those stars have planets, how many of those planets are hospitable to life and the likelihood of intelligent life on that habitable planet communicating with us. Today on the show, Regina Barber and Seven Rasmussen talk about the equation as it was created back in 1961 – and whether it still matters for astrobiologists today.
Are saunas actually good for your health? The answer is complicated. Aleksandar Nakic/Getty Images hide caption
October 19, 2026 • Saunas have gone from a Scandinavian tradition to a global wellness phenomenon. But how long should a person endure heat? Do saunas actually work? And if so, what are their benefits? NPR health reporter Will Stone goes as deep as the science will let him to explore the sauna hype waves and find out what happens to our bodies when we step in them.
Mosasaurs were marine reptiles that ruled the seas during the late Cretaceous period. Thanks to scientists (and physics!), we now know how they moved. Henry Sharpe/Formorphology Lab hide caption
October 16, 2026 • While dinosaurs roamed the earth, giant monsters roamed the sea. Mosasaurs were like the deadly T-rexes of the ocean: They grew up to the size of a bus and chased down their smaller prey. A recent study in the journal Current Biology details just how exactly they might have done that. And the answer is fast – way faster than humans can swim – and sneakily .
In 2022, a skydiver dropped 100 million seeds over the Amazon to fight deforestation. Pedro Brancalion explains the science of regrowth. Sarayut Thaneerat/Getty Images hide caption
October 15, 2026 • In 2022, parachutist Luigi Cani dropped 100 million seeds over the Amazon rainforest while skydiving. He did it to raise awareness about deforestation and help regrow the forest. But there has been little scientific follow up to see whether it worked. So, today, we talk to restoration ecologist Pedro Brancalion about the surprising complexity involved in regrowing a forest, and when dropping seeds from the sky – by people or by drones – could work.
Flock Safety's cameras, like this one in Los Angeles, are being installed all over. But what are police departments, ICE, and other federal agents using them for? halbergman/Getty Images hide caption
October 14, 2026 • Police departments across the U.S. are installing Flock cameras, saying the surveillance devices help deter theft and solve crimes, like helping find stolen property and missing people. But as the technology and its use by federal agencies expands, a handful of people have taken matters into their own hands. A hacker collective ripped down a Flock camera and made a copy of the software inside for investigative journalists at 404 Media and Wired. We talk to one of those journalists, Joseph Cox, about what he and his colleagues found, how the data is being used, why some residents are pushing back against the cameras and the future of the technology.
Lots of mammals scream. Conservation biologist Dan Blumstein says those screaming sounds happen when an animal overblows their vocal folds, pushing air out much faster than normal. pingsheng yue/Getty Images hide caption
October 13, 2026 • It's Halloween season — and what better way to celebrate October 13th than to explore the haunting sound of fear? That's exactly what we do in this episode, where host Regina G. Barber and NPR science correspondent Nate Rott dive into the science behind the sound of fear. Along the way, they find out what marmot shrieks, baby cries and horror movie soundtracks have in common — and what all of this tells us about ourselves.
