Whimsical Wavelengths - A Science Podcast

A landslide into an Alaskan fjord displaced enough water to trigger the second largest recorded tsunami with a run up of 481 meters up the opposite shore in August 2025. This time Dr. Jeffrey Zurek sits down with University of Calgary geoscientist Dr. Dan Sugar to investigate the geophysical processes behind natural hazards, megatsunamis, glacial debuttressing, and the devastating rock-and-ice ava...

In this episode of Whimsical Wavelengths , Dr. Jeffrey Zurek sits down with Dr. Katherine Borden, a professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, to explore the ancient and vital protein eIF4E (or 4E) . Long misunderstood as a simple rate-limiting factor in protein synthesis, 4E acts as a master regulator of RNA processing, transport, and translation. Dr. Borden shares the se...

Season 3 kicks off by flooding the auditory landscape with a deep dive into glacier outburst floods. This episode explores the Missoula Floods, the historical war of ideas between uniformitarianism and catastrophism, and the lonely scientific journey J. Harlen Bretz. Along the way, we examine how intellectual paradigms shift, how ice dams physically fail under immense hydrostatic pressure, and wha...

.Science isn’t a single lane—it’s a vast, interconnected spectrum. In this brief trailer for Season 3 of Whimsical Wavelengths , Dr. Jeffrey Zurek pulls back the curtain on an upcoming slate that follows the data wherever it leads. From the physics of the cosmos and the chemistry of life, to cancer research, massive landslides, and the societal impacts of modern discovery, this season spans discip...

Why is homemade ice cream never as fluffy as store-bought? This week on Whimsical Wavelengths , we trade liquid rock for liquid dairy and food science. Host Dr. Jeffrey Zurek finds surprising parallels between volcanology and frozen desserts—from rheology and viscosity to the glass transition temperature . Joining the pod is Dr. Abigail Thale , a food scientist and expert in fat structures. We bre...

How do we know the Earth is 4.55 billion years old? It turns out the man who found the answer also had to save us from an invisible poison. In the Season 1 finale, Dr. Jeff Zurek tells the story of Dr. Clair Patterson , the geochemist who fought the lead industry and won. Tracing Patterson’s path from the Manhattan Project to the University of Chicago and Caltech, we explore how his quest to date...

With a major feature film titled Midge currently in development, the world is looking back at the complicated legacy of Thomas Midgley Jr. In this episode, Dr. Jeff Zurek goes beyond the Hollywood hype to explore the true scientific history of Tetraethyl Lead (TEL) . Midgley was an engineering genius who solved "engine knocking" but inadvertently triggered a global lead poisoning crisis. We explor...

It is a flat-out scientific fact: humans emit way more carbon dioxide than volcanoes. It’s not even close. But in this season two solo finale, I don't want you to just take my word for it. Instead, I am taking you down the rabbit hole of how we actually know what we know. This isn't about magical guesses or black-box science; it’s a painstaking process of cross-referencing bubbles, isotopes, and t...

Time to turn our focus to the mighty river systems of the Pacific Northwest to examine a mysterious titan of the deep—the white sturgeon! BTW there is only one episode left before the summer break and encore presentations. The guest for this episode is Dr. Stuart Willis, a fisheries geneticist with the Hagerman Genetics Lab . Together, we trace the evolutionary history of an apex scavenger, map ho...

The countdown to the end of season 2 continues. With only two new episodes left before our summer encore presentations, we are turning the lens back on ourselves to examine the modern scientific apparatus itself, the institutions, the funding models, and the historical policy shifts that built our world. Joining the conversation are Dr. Ina Ganguli, Professor of Economics at the University of Mass...

With only three new episodes left before a summer of algorithmic-refreshing encores, I dive headfirst into the frontier of material science. Thomas Karpiak , a PhD candidate from the Leznoff Group at Simon Fraser University , joins the show to tell us about the lanthanides. We explore how these 15 elements serve as the scaffolding for permanent magnets, electric vehicles, and fiber-optic telecommu...

Kilauea is one of the world's most studied volcanoes, but its deep plumbing still holds mysteries. In this episode, we dive into a "bottoms-up" view of Hawaii’s magmatic system with Gaetano Ferrante, exploring how pressure changes in the deep mantle conduit propagate to the surface. While volcanologists often focus on shallow, top-down triggers like summit collapses or CO2 degassing, Gaetano’s rec...

We treat modern medicine as a given, but for centuries, humanity was blind to the invisible agents of disease. In this solo episode, Dr. Jeff Zurek takes off his volcanologist hat to tackle a listener request. We start with the 14th-century Black Death, tracing how we moved from medieval superstition to engineering viral defenses. We break down the "Sausage-Making" of science, including how 19th-c...

For decades, the "field" has been treated as a character-building barrier in geosciences—a place for the rugged and the able-bodied. But what happens when we view the outdoors as a classroom rather than an obstacle? In S2EP16, Jeff Zurek welcomes Brett Gilley , a Professor of Teaching at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a master of field pedagogy. They dive into the results of a ground...

What if Alien wasn't science fiction, but a documentary? 2026 Science Podcast of the Year winner Dr. Jeffrey Zurek sits down with Dr. Rebecca Millena (University of Rochester) to explore Strepsiptera , an enigmatic & bizarre insect order. We untangle the "Strepsiptera Problem"—a century-long academic debate over where these creatures belong on the tree of life. From males with "raspberry" eyes...

Detecting volcanic eruptions on Earth is detective work; doing it on the Red Planet is a feat of cosmic proportions. 2026 Science Podcast of the Year winner Dr. Jeffrey Zurek welcomes Dr. Allison Graettinger (UMKC) to discuss the hunt for "Maars"—violent, steam-driven volcanoes—on Mars. We explore the sociology of becoming a scientist, from muddy kid to volcano expert, & how these unassuming c...

The Western Black Widow ( Latrodectus hesperus ) is a master of invisible chemistry. 2026 Science Podcast of the Year winner Dr. Jeffrey Zurek joins Dr. Andy Fisher (Greifswald University) to untangle the chemical love letters hidden in spider silk. We explore how "virtually blind" predators use smell & electrostatic charges to communicate. Discover the "stinky cheese" pheromone, why males des...

The "motherlode" is just a model away. In this episode, Dr. Jeffrey Zurek (P.Geo) bridges between the classroom & the boardroom with colleague & data scientist Frederick Jackson from Computational Geosciences Inc. Together, they explore how machine learning (ML) & artificial intelligence are revolutionizing mineral exploration. We dig into the expensive reality of drilling—where a sing...

What if the coldest, darkest craters on the Moon are quietly storing a record of solar system history and the resources that could power future exploration? In this episode, we dive into the science of lunar permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) : craters near the Moon’s poles that sunlight hasn’t touched for potentially billions of years. Dr. Jeffrey Zurek is joined by Dr. Katlyn (Caitlin) Ahrens (...

Mount Meager last erupted 2,400 years ago, but today the hazard is the mountain literally falling apart. In this episode, Dr. Jeffrey Zurek (P.Geo) moves downstream with environmental professional Veronica Woodruff to unpack the legacy of the Capricorn Creek landslide —Canada's largest recorded mass wasting event. We explore how 40km of 1940s diking in the Pemberton Valley has complicated modern f...

Summary Subduction zones don't carry passports, and the Cascade Volcanic Arc doesn't stop at the U.S.-Canada border. In this episode, Dr. Jeffrey Zurek (P.Geo) welcomes his mentor Dr. Glyn Williams-Jones ( Simon Fraser University ) to discuss Canada’s most dangerous volcano: Mount Meager . We dig into the "detective story" of Meager’s last explosive eruption 2,400 years ago—an event that sent ash...

Nikola Tesla has been credited with large leaps forward like AC current and wireless transmission. Including things that are conspiratorial or not feasible like a death ray and limitless free power. Ya his legacy is complicated. So fire up the device and lets get going with this episode! Here is a demo for a Tesla Coil by me! : https://youtu.be/DQK1zZ87Gko?si=yw4C0AABspUCNTYs Some of the stuff I r...

Before we looking forward to a new year of discovery, we have to know the past to understand the present. In this solo episode, Dr. Jeffrey Zurek (P.Geo) takes a deviation from cutting-edge research to chronicle the history of the planets—from the "wandering stars" of antiquity to the mathematical hunt for Planet Nine . We explore how the Babylonians set the stage for modern astrology, the high-st...

Usually, we look outwards to the stars, but this week, we're turning the telescope around. The scientists themselves are under observation. Dr. Jeffrey Zurek (P.Geo) is joined by Dr. Zachary Richards , a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History , to discuss his recent paper: Astronomy Identity Framework for Undergraduate Students and Researchers . We dive into the "transcendental pheno...

How do we map the subsurface without digging? It is finally time we explore geophysical inversions —the math of working backward from surface data to Earth's hidden structures. Jeff Zurek and researcher Jonathan Kataj discuss using Image Segmentation and foundational AI models (like Meta’s "Segment Anything") to resolve "fuzzy" data into precise geological maps. From the Athabasca Basin to remote...