NOVA Presents

Wendy Suzuki says just 10 minutes of movement can change your brain. But how? What’s actually happening in your head during a walk—or a workout—and why does it matter so much? Wendy joins Hakeem to unpack the science of exercise and the brain, from chemical surges to lasting rewiring. Plus: how do meditation, cold showers, and your environment really change your brain? Learn more about NOVA and vi...

Neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki thinks your anxiety could be a superpower. What if you stopped trying to shut it down—and started using it? Wendy joins Hakeem to reframe anxiety as fuel, not flaw, and shows how to turn that rush of stress into focus and action. Plus, Wendy gives some hot takes on anxiety hacks like fidget spinners and weighted blankets. Learn more about NOVA and visit our YouTube chan...

Steve Brusatte has the dirt on dinosaurs and joins Hakeem to trace the full 100-million-year history of the tyrannosaur dynasty, the asteroid that ended it, and the remarkable truth that dinosaurs never actually disappeared. One small lineage survived to become every bird alive today, and Steve walks through the long and contested scientific history of how we came to understand that connection. He...

Steve Brusatte, a real paleontologist, contributed to the Jurassic World franchise, but what really happens when science meets cinema? In this episode, Steve joins Hakeem to discuss what that paleontology consultant role actually looks like, how he navigates the tension between scientific accuracy and Hollywood storytelling, and what the films have gotten increasingly right about dinosaurs over th...

Steve Brusatte knows every bird today is a living dinosaur, and as a paleontologist, he can tell you how that happened. Steve joins Hakeem to walk through the catastrophic asteroid impact 66 million years ago that ended the age of T. rex, and to explain why one small, beaked, seed-eating lineage was the only branch of the dinosaur family tree to survive. He traces the long and contested scientific...

Steve Brusatte says T. rex wasn’t always the king, and as a paleontologist, he has spent his career uncovering how it got to the top of the food chain. Steve joins Hakeem to trace the full 100-million-year history of the tyrannosaur family, from its surprisingly small and nimble origins to the bone-crushing apex predator that ruled the end of the Cretaceous. They discuss how T. rex was not just a...

David Kaiser thinks the dark matter puzzle is getting closer to being solved.  Nearly a century of observations, from galaxy clusters to the cosmic microwave background, have built a compelling case for dark matter's existence, but in recent years, the leading candidates for this mysterious matter have been coming up short..  Enter black holes. Tiny ones. David explains how so-called primordial bl...

David Kaiser thinks a good place to hunt for tiny black holes might be… Mars? How do you detect something microscopic, invisible, and speeding through space? Primordial black holes have long eluded astrophysicists—if they exist at all. But the hunt is heating up. David joins Hakeem to explore how scientists are combing through old data and designing new experiments that could finally catch one of...

David Kaiser thinks tiny black holes from the dawn of time could be the solution to the dark matter puzzle. David joins Hakeem to discuss primordial black holes, tiny objects that may have formed in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang. First proposed by Stephen Hawking more than 50 years ago, this hypothesis requires no new physics and no new particles, making it one of the most grou...

David Kaiser knows the universe is hiding something enormous – and no one can see it. Dark matter appears to be all over our universe, but what is it? As a physicist and science historian, David joins Hakeem to discuss one of astrophysics most impossible puzzles. Nearly a century of observations -  from the motion of galaxy clusters to the rotation of individual galaxies to the subtle patterns in...

Could one of the world’s deadliest diseases be headed for the history books? Malaria’s relentless yearly death toll has driven the World Health Organization to set bold  targets, and a new vaccine may signal a turning point in the long battle against this disease. Early trials demonstrated a remarkable efficacy rate, but the question remained: Could it earn an all-important recommendation from the...

Need to know how many leaves are on that tree? Paleobotanist Dr. Kirk Johnson shares the surprisingly nerdy method—because you never know when leaf math will come in handy. For more, check out the extended interview with Kirk Johnson. Learn more about NOVA and subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

What engineering secrets lie within the Great Pyramid, and who really built it? Innovations like rope‑sewn boats, laser‑precise alignments, and hidden internal chambers reveal a building team with knowledge far ahead of its time. Uncover clues buried around Giza that point to a surprising truth about the workforce responsible for one of history’s greatest construction projects. To watch the full f...

Long before trees and grass, microbes were shaping our atmosphere. Evolutionary biologist Peter Girguis explains how ancient bacteria learned to split water for energy, and why their waste product changed Earth forever. For more, check out the extended interview with Peter Girguis. Learn more about NOVA and subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

How did animals first make the giant step from water to land? Evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll explains how the discovery of Tiktaalik—a fossil with both fish and limb-like features—revealed a key moment in evolution. For more, check out the extended interview with Sean B. Carroll. Learn more about NOVA and subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

What if whales had legs? Once upon a time, they did. Sort of. An astonishing fossil trail shows that modern whales actually evolved from hooved land mammals. Whales still carry the fingerprints of this past, from their stomach anatomy to their swimming gait. Dive in to discover the wild story of how whales traded legs for fins, as we uncover clues about their ancestors, as well as their unlikely p...

Black holes aren’t the cosmic monsters Hollywood makes them out to be. Astrophysicist Janna Levin explains why they’re so hard to detect, why they’re not as destructive as you might assume, and how you could safely orbit much closer than you think. For more, check out the extended interview with Janna Levin. Learn more about NOVA and subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

Could the universe be governed by a law we haven’t discovered yet? Mineralogist Robert Hazen and astrobiologist Michael Wong propose a new rule—the law of increasing functional information—to explain why complex systems evolve and why complexity keeps emerging over time. For more, check out the extended interview with Robert Hazen and Michael Wong. Learn more about NOVA and subscribe to our YouTub...

What happens when the Arctic’s ancient freezer starts to fail? Scientists have uncovered the truth behind giant sinkholes exploding from the frozen ground in Siberia, and a vast lake bubbling with methane in Alaska .They are pointing to a dramatic shift beneath our feet – one driven by thawing Arctic permafrost, the vast frozen layer that stores nearly twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere...

AI isn’t just coming for office jobs—it’s coming for some hands-on blue collar professions, too. AI expert Hany Farid explains which jobs are safe, and which are at risk.  For more, check out the extended interview with Hany Farid.  Learn more about NOVA and subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

Scientists claimed in 2024 that they "de-extincted" the dire wolf… so what’s next, and what determines whether a species can be brought back? Evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro explains some of the factors that go into deciding what to try and bring back.  For more, check out the extended interview with Beth Shapiro.  Learn more about NOVA and subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

Quantum particles are breaking the rules of reality – or so it seems. Can they truly communicate across time and space instantly? Einstein dismissed this “spooky action at a distance,” convinced it exposed flaws in quantum theory. But the deeper scientists looked, the stranger the universe became. From fierce debates to important discoveries, discover how a once‑controversial quantum oddity is now...

Dinosaurs might not have been the roaring beasts many imagine. Neuroscientist Erich Jarvis explains why modern birds—living dinosaurs—offer clues about vocal learning and why dinosaurs could have been singers. For more, check out the extended interview with Erich Jarvis.  Learn more about NOVA and subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

If the universe is expanding, why aren’t galaxies stretching apart? Cosmologist Adam Riess breaks down the physics behind cosmic expansion, the forces that resist it, and why dark energy dominates the vast spaces between. For more, check out the extended interview with Adam Riess. Learn more about NOVA and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

What if black holes are hiding the answers cosmologists have been chasing for a century? Born from the explosive deaths of massive stars, black holes are so dense even light cannot escape – making them challenging to observe. But after decades of chasing the unseeable and building ever more sophisticated observation tools, researchers are now discovering that they hold profound clues about the nat...