Smart Tea

Earning the reputation of "Crazy Count Zeppelin", Ferdinand was always up for an adventure. Aarati tells the story of the military man turned balloonist and his never ending thirst for excitement.  Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

A bioluminescent jellyfish brought a rainbow of possibilities to biology. Aarati tells the story of a brilliant chemist who won the Nobel Prize for transforming nature's fluorescent proteins into powerful tools for modern science.  Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Happy Pride Month! This episode, we are covering the story of a trailblazing doctor who was the first trans man in America to have a gender affirming surgery. His contributions to the early detection of tuberculosis through chest x-rays saved countless lives before the antibiotic cure was developed.  Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodc...

Your mind can be a powerful drug, but when (if ever) is it ethical to choose mind over matter? Aarati tells the story of an army doctor who observed the placebo effect in soldiers and then went on to transform how we conduct clinical trials.  Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Yellow fever killed thousands of people in the 1800s but no one understood how it spread. Aarati tells the story of the Cuban doctor who discovered that mosquitos can act as a vector for disease.  Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

From laptops to cell phones to electric cars, our modern world runs on lithium-ion batteries. Aarati tells the story of one of the scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for creating lightweight, rechargeable, batteries.  Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

On June 24, 1975, Eastern Airlines 66 mysteriously crashed when attempting to land at JFK airport. Authorities called in Mr. Tornado to investigate. Aarati tells the story of Dr. Ted Fujita, who analyzed the destruction from severe storms and gave us a scale to quantify tornados. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

After retirement, Dr. Alice Stewart continued to raise awareness of how radiation could cause cancer, immunodeficiencies, and other possible health defects. She stood up against government entities on behalf of workers who were dying of radiation poisoning and continued to fight against nuclear weapons manufacturing for the rest of her life.  Support the show For more information and sources for t...

In this two part series, Aarati tells the story of the epidemiologist who realized there was a link between prenatal x-rays and childhood cancer. She  undertook a lifelong crusade to warn people against the dangers of radiation. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Stress affects men and women differently. We sit down with Kiara Rodríguez-Acevedo, a Ph. D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania to ask her how she is blending neuroscience and epigenetics to uncover how estrogen levels in the brain influence stress vulnerability and resilience. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Happy Black History month! In this episode, Aarati tells the unlikely story of a carpenter turned lab technician. Vivien Thomas created a blood shunt for the hearts of blue babies without ever having gone to medical school or earning a degree... and without getting credit for decades. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Ants may not be very big, but we have a lot to learn from these tiny creatures! We sit down with Andrew Robertson, a PhD candidate at Georgia Tech and winner of Galactic Polymath Education Studio's 2025 #MySciJourney competition, and talk about his work on ants and other social insects. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

It's episode 50! Aarati tells the story of the temperamental Russian chemist who figured out a way to organize all the known (and unknown) elements into a table that ordered them by increasing atomic weight and grouped them into categories.  Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Why do certain things never happen in reverse? A shattered glass does not spontaneously reform, a spray of perfume doesn't concentrate back into it's bottle... but why not? In the Part III of our December Thermodynamics series (the final part!) Aarati tells us the story of the physicist who understood the true nature of entropy. Support the show For more information and sources for this...

Part II of our December Thermodynamics Extravaganza! Aarati tells the story of the German scientist who formally stated that 1) energy is conserved and 2) entropy is always increasing. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Born to one of the most influential families during the French Revolution, Sadi Carnot kickstarted another revolution in physics. His perfect (although theoretical) steam engine transformed the way we think about heat and work. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

After birth, a quick check to make sure the newborn is beathing and acting normally can be the difference between life and death.  Aarati tells the life story of Dr. Virginia Apgar, an obstetric anesthesiologist who pioneered the field of neonatal care. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Vulcanized rubber was a revolutionary material for clothing, medical devices, life preservers and eventually, the tire industry. But life was tougher than you can imagine for this ingenious inventor.  Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Bat echolocation opened up a whole new world of questions regarding animal behavior. Aarati tells the story of the scientist who first put forward the idea that many animals were self-aware, could strategize, and feel emotions just like humans do. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Is intelligence something you are born with or is it a skill you can improve? Aarati tells the story of the self-taught psychologist who came up with the original IQ test to help people across the entire intelligence spectrum. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

At the turn of the century, the world came together to ban chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) after scientists found evidence that they were destroying the Earth's protective ozone layer. Aarati tells the story of a chemist and Nobel Prize laureate who helped ring the alarm and continued to fight for environmental protections. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit...

Dive into the extraordinary life of the marine biologist who transformed our understanding of the ocean and the animals that live in it. Aarati tells the story of Dr. Eugenia Clark's lifelong obsession with adventure, fish, and ocean conservation. Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

Can you handle the heat? Aarati tells the story of the nature-loving scientist whose discovery of Thermus aquaticus, a microbe living in the hot waters of Yellowstone Park, helped make PCR one of the fundamental tools of biotech.    Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

An orange a day keeps the scurvy away! Aarati tells the story of the 18th century naval physician who set up the very first clinical trial to figure out what treatments for scurvy actually held (sea)water.  Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com. 

So much of our modern life runs on batteries: laptops, cell phones, electric cars, watches, remotes, even toothbrushes! Aarati tells the story of the Italian scientist who settled a decade long debate about how electricity is generated and stored by building the first battery.  Support the show For more information and sources for this episode, visit https://www.smartteapodcast.com.