Short Wave

After hearing a vicious rumor on the internet that vegetables aren't real, Maddie goes looking for answers. Turns out, vegetables are a mere culinary construct. Still healthful and delicious, but a kinda mythic category of food. With the help of Harvard botanist Molly Edwards , Maddie and Emily break down our favorite foods from broccoli to zucchini. Take our survey ! Tell us what you love and wha...

(Encore episode.) Scientists have known for decades that one of the main causes of the smell of fresh rain is geosmin: a chemical compound produced by soil-dwelling bacteria. But why do the bacteria make it in the first place? Reporter Emily Vaughn answers this mystery. Read the paper on which this episode was based. Take our survey ! Tell us what you love and what you would love to see more of —...

The Biden Administration is working to fight climate change in a way that also address the country's economic and racial disparities. Emily talks with NPR correspondent Dan Charles about why the ground work for a climate justice plan could be laid in the city of Cleveland. For more of Dan's reporting, follow him on Twitter @NPRDanCharles . You can email Short Wave at ShortWave@npr.org . See pcm.ad...

Nationwide, almost 65% of adults have had at least one vaccine shot, but vaccination rates vary significantly depending on the state. NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey gives us the latest on the country's vaccination progress: which states are on track (and which are not), new research about why it's important teenagers get vaccinated, and what we know about the possibility of booster shots....

Paleontologist Yara Haridy looks at fossilized bones for a living. When she randomly walked by a scientific poster one day, she discovered an entirely new way to take pictures of her fossils. The results are shedding new light on how bones evolved. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. N...

There's big change that's happening in the field of artificial limbs: artificial limbs that both move — and feel. NPR correspondent Jon Hamilton explains why touch is so important for people who are trying to control a state-of-the art robotic arm or a prosthetic limb. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast spons...

Short Wave reporter Emily Kwong speaks with Janina Jeff, the host and executive producer of In Those Genes , a "science and culture podcast that uses genetics to decode the lost histories of African descendants." They discuss what a person's genetic ancestry test does and does not reveal, and the complicated intersection of genetics, history and race. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our...

Researchers say the concept of achieving herd immunity threshold isn't the right finish line to end the pandemic. It's an elusive number to define in the first place, and it changes under various circumstances. Science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel talks with Maddie about the complexities in even defining the number and what the public should focus on instead. See pcm.adswizz.com for information ab...

Happy Pride, Short Wave Listeners! Here's a fun episode from our archives to celebrate the month! It's another "Back To School" episode where we take a concept you were maybe taught in school as a kid, but didn't really learn or just forgot. Short Wave producer Thomas Lu and host Maddie Sofia go on a journey to explore what a rainbow exactly is and how we see them! We all remember ROY G BIV, right...

Scientists and students with disabilities are often excluded from laboratories — in part because of how they're designed. Emily Kwong speaks to disabled scientist Krystal Vasquez on how her disability changed her relationship to science, how scientific research can become more accessible, and how STEMM fields need to change to be more welcoming to disabled scientists. Read Krystal's article in Che...

Juul Labs seemingly started out with the aim to reduce smoking, but the company's e-cigarettes came to symbolize something very different: a teen vaping epidemic. Host Maddie Sofia talks with Time health writer Jamie Ducharme about the science and marketing behind the rise and subsequent controversy surrounding Juul Labs. Plus, a look at what might be next in the future of e-cigarettes. Click here...

Researchers report in the journal Science that they appear to have some clues about the origin of Earth's plutonium - which has been long debated. Correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce explains that traces of rare forms of iron and plutonium have been found in extraterrestrial debris that had sunk to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, hauled up by an oil company, then donated for research. By comparing...

Eight states have passed an important milestone: getting 70% of all adults vaccinated with at least one shot. That's a number President Biden wants the country to reach by July Fourth. As cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. continue to come down, host Maddie Sofia talks with NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey about vaccination progress around the country. Have questions about the latest coronavirus...

**Heads up. This episode discusses addiction and alcoholism.** Some doctors are seeing a disturbing spike in lethal alcoholic liver disease, especially among young women. The recent trend has been supercharged, they say, in the pandemic. Emily Kwong speaks to NPR science correspondent Yuki Noguchi about this and some of the challenges to getting proper treatment. To read more on the story, check o...

Solar geoengineering--the human attempt to cool the planet by reflecting sunlight away from Earth--is fraught with technological and ethical challenges. Maddie discusses some of these with contributor Ariela Zebede. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps to improve the country's public lands, forests, and parks. Now, nearly a hundred years later, President Biden is trying to bring a similar version of it back. He wants to launch the Civilian Climate Corps to address the threat of climate change. NPR's White House correspondent Scott Detrow and...

In general, there are more men in STEMM fields than women. Representation in science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine is even lower for women of color — facing racial discrimination on top of gender discrimination. And then, the pandemic hit. Short Wave reporter Emily Kwong speaks with Dr. Eve Higginbotham about our earliest understandings of how the pandemic has impacted women in STEM...

Many Americans are baring their faces in public again, following new CDC recommendations that fully vaccinated people don't need them in most settings. But there are critics who question the CDC's decision and say it's too soon. Maddie Sofia talks with NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey about this latest mask guidance and the questions it raises for businesses, essential workers, and the most...

(Encore.) Drug overdose deaths are on the rise all around the country, including in Chicago, Illinois. ProPublica Illinois reporter Duaa Eldeib explains how the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the opioid epidemic, and the challenges that public health officials are facing as they work to reduce opioid-related deaths. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal...

It's the latest installment of our series, "Animal Slander," where we take a common saying about animals and see what truth there is to it. The case before the Short Wave court today: "badgering." We look at the dark origins of the word and explore the wild world of badger biology with University of Oxford scientist Tanesha Allen. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of...

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the proportion of emergency department visits by children in mental health crises went up significantly during the pandemic — about 30% for kids ages 12-17 and 24% for children ages 5-11 between March and October of last year, compared to 2019. For psychiatrists like Dr. Nicole Christian-Brathwaite , this is evident in her practice...

Mud and dirt have often been treated as waste products from excavation or dredging sites. But these days, coastal communities need massive amounts of mud and dirt to protect their shorelines from rising seas. This is leading to a dirt shortage, where the demand for it is higher than supply. NPR climate correspondent Lauren Sommer gives us the scoop — including why one federal agency that has dirt...

Some colleges and universities have announced that COVID vaccination will be mandatory (with some exemptions) and the FDA has authorized the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for kids ages 12 to 15. While coronavirus infections are declining in the United States, vaccination rates also appear to be slowing down, so pediatricians and public health officials say they're trying to spread the word to overcome h...

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are the first authorized vaccines in history to use mRNA technology. The pandemic might've set the stage for their debut, but mRNA vaccines have been in the works for more than 30 years. Host Maddie Sofia chats with Dr. Margaret Liu, a physician and board chair of the International Society for Vaccines, about the history and science behind these gr...

The numbers are staggering. India has been reporting more than 300,000 COVID-19 cases each day for the past two weeks, and recently topped more than 400,000 cases in a single day, a global record. Many more cases are likely unreported. NPR International Correspondent Lauren Frayer shares the latest from India. Email the show at shortwave@npr.org . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our coll...