Short Wave – Details, episodes & analysis
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New discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines — in just under 15 minutes. It's science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor. Join hosts Emily Kwong and Regina Barber for science on a different wavelength.
If you're hooked, try Short Wave Plus. Your subscription supports the show and unlocks a sponsor-free feed. Learn more at plus.npr.org/shortwave
If you're hooked, try Short Wave Plus. Your subscription supports the show and unlocks a sponsor-free feed. Learn more at plus.npr.org/shortwave
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Apple Podcasts
🇨🇦 Canada - lifeSciences
05/07/2026#2🇨🇦 Canada - science
05/07/2026#14🇬🇧 Great Britain - lifeSciences
05/07/2026#6🇬🇧 Great Britain - science
05/07/2026#62🇩🇪 Germany - lifeSciences
05/07/2026#8🇺🇸 USA - lifeSciences
05/07/2026#2🇺🇸 USA - science
05/07/2026#9🇫🇷 France - lifeSciences
05/07/2026#12🇨🇦 Canada - lifeSciences
04/07/2026#3🇨🇦 Canada - science
04/07/2026#13
Spotify
🇺🇸 USA - science
05/07/2026#10→🇺🇸 USA - science
04/07/2026#10→🇺🇸 USA - science
03/07/2026#10↗🇺🇸 USA - science
02/07/2026#11↗🇺🇸 USA - science
01/07/2026#13↘🇺🇸 USA - science
30/06/2026#12→🇺🇸 USA - science
29/06/2026#12↘🇺🇸 USA - science
28/06/2026#11↘🇺🇸 USA - science
27/06/2026#10→🇺🇸 USA - science
26/06/2026#10↘
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See all- https://pcm.adswizz.com
725004 shares
- https://988lifeline.org/
1980 shares
- http://plus.npr.org/
1178 shares
- https://twitter.com/maddie_sofia
84 shares
- https://twitter.com/manoushz
34 shares
- https://twitter.com/emilykwong1234
32 shares
RSS feed quality and score
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Score global : 63%
Publication history
Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.
Episodes published by month in
Detecting Pests By Eavesdropping On Insects
Episode 1122
vendredi 30 août 2024 • Duration 13:36
From Indonesia to Wisconsin, farmers all over the world struggle with a huge problem: pests. On top of that, it's tough for farmers to identify where exactly they have the pests and when. Reporter Lina Tran from NPR member station WUWM in Milwaukee joins host Emily Kwong to tell the story of how researchers in the Midwest are inventing new forms of pest detection that involve eavesdropping on the world of insects. Plus, hear what aphid slurping sounds like.
If you liked this episode, check out behind-the-scenes photos of Insect Eavesdropper experiments in Lina's digital story!
Interested in hearing more insect news? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
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
If you liked this episode, check out behind-the-scenes photos of Insect Eavesdropper experiments in Lina's digital story!
Interested in hearing more insect news? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
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
What's Missing From The Invasive Species Narrative?
Episode 1121
mercredi 28 août 2024 • Duration 12:33
At first glance, the whole narrative of aquatic invasive species may seem straightforward: A bad non-native species comes into a new ecosystem and overruns good native species. But the truth? It's a little more complicated. To tear down everything we thought we knew about invasive species and construct a more nuanced picture, host Emily Kwong talks to experts Ian Pfingsten, who works on the United States Geological Survey's Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, and Nicholas Reo, a Canada Excellence Research Chair in Coastal Relationalities and Regeneration.
Check out episode where we get into the annual python challenge we referenced in this episode.
Have a favorite invasive species or one you really can't stand? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear your take!
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
Check out episode where we get into the annual python challenge we referenced in this episode.
Have a favorite invasive species or one you really can't stand? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear your take!
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
How Will the Universe End?
Episode 1112
mardi 13 août 2024 • Duration 12:43
Today, we're bringing you the final installment of our space summer series ... with the end ... of EVERYTHING. Will the universe end in a huge cosmic unraveling? A slow and lonely dissolution? Or a quantum-level transition that breaks the laws of physics? Theoretical astrophysicist Katie Mack breaks down three possible scenarios for how the universe as we know it will finally come to an end.
To celebrate the end of our Space Camp series, we also made a QUIZ! Check it out at npr.org/spacecamp.
Questions? Comments? Existential dread or excitement? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!
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
To celebrate the end of our Space Camp series, we also made a QUIZ! Check it out at npr.org/spacecamp.
Questions? Comments? Existential dread or excitement? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!
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
Celebrate Valentine's Day With These Queer Animals
mercredi 14 février 2024 • Duration 11:55
In a Valentine's Day exclusive report, NPR has learned there is currently a gay anteater couple at Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington D.C.But this couple is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to queerness in the animal world – it's been documented in hundreds of species. We spoke with wildlife ecologist Christine Wilkinson of the "Queer is Natural" TikTok series to uncover the wildest, queerest animals of the bunch.
Questions, comments or thoughts on queer animal love? Email us at shortwave@npr.org and we might feature it on a future episode!
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
Questions, comments or thoughts on queer animal love? Email us at shortwave@npr.org and we might feature it on a future episode!
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
How The Coronavirus Could Hurt Our Ability To Fight Wildfires
vendredi 3 avril 2020 • Duration 10:25
Now is when we'd normally be getting ready for fire season. And this upcoming one could be tough for states like California, which had an especially dry winter. The spread of the coronavirus however is complicating preparation efforts. Maddie talks with Kendra Pierre-Louis, a reporter on the New York Times climate team, about how the crisis we're in could hurt our response to another crisis just around the corner.
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
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
Honeybees Need Your Help, Honey
jeudi 2 avril 2020 • Duration 11:55
A deadly triangle of factors is killing off U.S. honeybees. Last year, forty percent of honeybee colonies died in the U.S., continuing an alarming trend. Entomologist Sammy Ramsey tells host Maddie Sofia about the "three P's" and what listeners can do to help our fuzzy-flighted friends.
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
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
Is This Real? Loss of Smell And The Coronavirus
mercredi 1 avril 2020 • Duration 11:59
Doctors around the world are sharing stories of patients losing their sense of taste or smell — and testing positive for the coronavirus. Is it a real symptom of COVID-19? There isn't scientific evidence for that. But the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery is gathering anecdotal information to find out more. Short Wave's Maddie Sofia and Emily Kwong talk about science during a pandemic.
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
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
Seen Any Nazi Uranium? Researchers Want To Know
mardi 31 mars 2020 • Duration 14:09
Encore episode. NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel shares the story of Nazi Germany's attempt to build a nuclear reactor — and how evidence of that effort was almost lost to history. It's a tale he heard from Timothy Koeth and Miriam Hiebert at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Maryland in College Park. Read more on their original story in Physics Today.
Find and support your local public radio station here.
Follow host Maddie Sofia on Twitter @maddie_sofia. Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.
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
Find and support your local public radio station here.
Follow host Maddie Sofia on Twitter @maddie_sofia. Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.
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
No, The Coronavirus Isn't Another Flu
vendredi 27 mars 2020 • Duration 13:00
President Trump has compared the coronavirus to the seasonal flu. NPR reporter Pien Huang speaks to host Maddie Sofia about why the coronavirus appears deadlier and more transmissible — and why it poses such a risk to our healthcare system.
Here's Pien's story.
Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.
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
Here's Pien's story.
Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.
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
Stay Home And Skype A Scientist
jeudi 26 mars 2020 • Duration 10:17
The spread of the coronavirus has led many to stay home in recent weeks. During that time, the non-profit Skype A Scientist has seen a surge in demand for its service of virtually connecting students to scientists. Maddie talks to Sarah McAnulty, executive director of the group and a squid biologist, about bringing science to kids and, at the same time, confronting stereotypes about who can be a scientist.
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
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
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