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Explore every episode of the podcast Unexplainable
Dive into the complete episode list for Unexplainable. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talking with the dead | 14 Oct 2026 | 00:38:59 | |
“If only I could talk with them again.” It’s a common refrain for anyone who is grieving someone they love. Now, we can access technology like deadbots, or AI replicas of a lost loved one, to simulate those conversations, but at what cost? Maybe we’ve always had the capacity — within our own voices — to deepen conversations with the people we’re missing, even after they’re gone.
GUESTS: University of Cambridge assistant professors Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska and Tomasz Hollanek, writer and psycholinguist Julie Sedivy.
If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help. Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling, or you can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Thank you!
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| What’s cooler than being cool? | 12 Oct 2026 | 00:28:34 | |
The future of quantum computing depends on getting way colder than ice cold — down to some of the coldest temperatures in the universe. The quest to build these super refrigerators takes us to nuclear bomb stockpiles, the moon, and … Party City?
Guest: Zack Savitsky, science journalist, author of Cold Rush
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| How does music move us? (feat. Sylvan Esso's Amelia Meath) | 07 Oct 2026 | 00:32:09 | |
Music can give us goosebumps. It can make us cry. It can make us move. How?
Guests: Amelia Meath, songwriter and singer in Sylvan Esso; Elizabeth Margulis, director of the Music Cognition Lab at Princeton University and author of On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/membersThank you!
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| What color is a tennis ball? | 05 Oct 2026 | 00:27:34 | |
Is it yellow? Is it green? Or what if, as one scientist argues, “there’s no such thing as a color?”
Guest: Bevil Conway, visual artist and neuroscientist at the National Eye Institute
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| The bodies buried in the bog | 28 Sep 2026 | 00:26:18 | |
When things fall into bogs, they sometimes wind up being beautifully preserved. This includes bodies, sometimes dating back thousands of years. We’re still trying to understand who was buried in the bogs and why.
Guest: Anna North, journalist and author of Bog Queen
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| What happened to the giant bugs? | 23 Sep 2026 | 00:27:15 | |
Once upon a time (around 300 million years ago), Earth was home to massive dragonfly-like insects and two meter long millipede-like creatures. Why did they die off?
Guests: Ned Snelling, professor of experimental physiology at the University of Pretoria; Jon Harrison, professor of environmental physiology at Arizona State University
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| Dark matter and the end of answers | 21 Sep 2026 | 00:35:00 | |
Five-sixths of all the matter in the universe is this invisible stuff called dark matter, and scientists barely understand what it is. So what happens if we can't answer arguably the biggest mystery in the universe? One physicist decided to quit because he started asking questions that went way beyond what he initially thought science was for.
Guest: Joseph Howlett, reporter at Scientific American
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Thank you!
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| What happened before the big bang? | 16 Sep 2026 | 00:26:28 | |
It's a question that seems impossible to grapple with, but scientists won't take no for an answer. In this collaboration with Scientific American, we take on the big bang and a whole bunch of seemingly impossible questions.
Guests: Rachel Feltman, host of the Science Quickly podcast; Sarah Scoles, senior contributor at Scientific American
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/membersThank you!
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| What's the oldest story ever told? | 14 Sep 2026 | 00:27:18 | |
An astrophysicist uses the motion of the stars to argue that a single story has been told for 100,000 years. A cognitive anthropologist has questions.
Guests: Ray Norris, astrophysicist; Manvir Singh, cognitive anthropologist at the University of California, Davis
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| Stopping the science that could stop the world | 02 Sep 2026 | 00:36:12 | |
When scientists write their own rules for life, how do they know what could go wrong before it’s too late?
This is the final episode of our new three-part series, Life from Scratch.
Guests: Kate Adamala, associate professor at the University of Minnesota; David Relman, professor at Stanford University; John Glass, leader of the JCVI Synthetic Biology Group.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/membersThank you!
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| A breakthrough in synthetic life | 31 Aug 2026 | 00:34:16 | |
Synthetic biologist Kate Adamala has been making major headlines as her lab creates cells that feed, divide, and grow — all from nonliving parts. It may sound like sci-fi, but Kate believes that these “not quite alive” cells are key to a renewable future.
This is the second episode of our new three-part series, Life from Scratch.
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
Guests: Kate Adamala, associate professor at the University of Minnesota
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Thank you!
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| Life from scratch | 26 Aug 2026 | 00:29:37 | |
Scientists stripped a cell down to its most essential genes in order to find out what makes life...alive. What they found was more bizarre than they could have imagined.
This is the first episode of our new three-part series, Life from Scratch.
Guests: Kate Adamala, associate professor at the University of Minnesota; John Glass, leader of the JCVI Synthetic Biology Group.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices | |||
| The idea of a song | 24 Aug 2026 | 00:44:19 | |
A few hundred milliseconds are often all you need to recognize a song, but a lot of recent hits have moved away from intros. Our friends at Switched on Pop (along with the National's Aaron Dessner) break down how song intros can shape our perception and what we lose when they disappear.
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
Guests: Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan, hosts of Switched on Pop; Aaron Dessner, producer, songwriter, and member of the National; Grace Spelman, music writer
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Thank you!
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| Why can’t I remember being a baby? | 19 Aug 2026 | 00:26:36 | |
And if babies forget their earliest experiences, do they still matter?
This episode is a collaboration with Vox's Explain It to Me podcast
Guests: Kristin Ohlson, writer; Tristan Yates, cognitive psychologist at Columbia University; Dana Suskind, professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Chicago
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Thank you!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices | |||
| Can these corals take the heat? | 17 Aug 2026 | 00:30:57 | |
Warming waters are an existential threat to coral reefs, and for people who want to restore them. But in the Republic of Palau, researchers are testing out an approach to help restored reefs survive hotter temperatures — before it's too late.
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
Guests: Benji Jones, senior environmental correspondent at Vox
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/membersThank you!
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| Why Hank Green takes pseudoscience seriously | 10 Aug 2026 | 00:27:05 | |
Dismissing pseudoscience is too easy. Understanding why it spreads so quickly is harder. It can teach us why real science works and how to spot the difference between the two.
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
Guest: Hank Green, creator of SciShow and Crash Course, co-host of Vlogbrothers
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members Thank you!
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| A trip to the twilight reefs | 05 Aug 2026 | 00:39:40 | |
Down beneath the waves, where the light starts to fade, there's an ecosystem scientists don't fully understand. About a decade ago, some researchers left structures in this mysterious world and let them grow encrusted with life. Now they're pulling them back up again and unwrapping them like scientific presents.Guests: Luiz Rocha, ichthyology curator at the California Academy of Sciences, along with Johanna Loacker, Lynn Bonomo, Chris Meyer, Sarah Tweedt, Tito Monteiro da Cruz Lotufo, Emily Rutkowski, Yara Tibirica, Daniel Eisenhauer, Terry Gosliner, and Chrissy PiotrowskiFor show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Thank you!
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| The hidden world that birds see | 03 Aug 2026 | 00:27:39 | |
Birds navigate using Earth’s magnetic field, but scientists still don’t know how they actually sense it. Called the holy grail of sensory biology, magnetoreception offers a window into the thousands of unique sensory worlds animals experience.
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
Guest: Ed Yong, author of An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Thank you!
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| The Godzilla El Niño | 29 Jul 2026 | 00:44:14 | |
This global weather phenomenon could help make 2027 the hottest year on record. Our friends at The Gray Area explore what the upcoming El Niño season could reveal about the future of our climate.
Guests: Sean Illing, host of The Gray Area; David Wallace-Wells, New York Times climate writer
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Thank you!
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| An argument for the sun | 27 Jul 2026 | 00:30:59 | |
It can be hard to know how to interact with the sun. Some people have swung to opposite ends of the spectrum — either over-tanning or avoiding the sun entirely. But what would a middle ground look like?
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
Guest: Rowan Jacobsen, author of In Defense of Sunlight
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/membersThank you!
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| What the Odyssey is hiding | 22 Jul 2026 | 00:25:25 | |
The Late Bronze Age, when the Trojan War supposedly took place, was way more modern than Homer made it seem. But around 1177 BCE, a vast network of interconnected societies suddenly collapsed. What caused arguably the greatest societal collapse in the history of the world? Hint: It's a lot more complicated than the "Sea Peoples."
Guest: Eric Cline, professor at George Washington University and author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/membersThank you!
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| Dinosaur mysteries with Riley Black | 20 Jul 2026 | 00:31:43 | |
How do we know what we know about dinosaurs? Riley Black takes us back to the Mesozoic Era and explains how paleontologists piece together the lives of dinosaurs from often fragmentary clues.
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
Guest: Riley Black, science writer, amateur paleontologist, and consultant for the Jurassic World franchise.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/membersThank you!
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| When doctors don't know what's wrong | 15 Jul 2026 | 00:32:21 | |
A 2015 review found that most people in the US will experience a diagnostic error in their lifetime. Some of those errors are less devastating than others, but how can we help people get better answers about their health? One family's search for answers with a mystifying illness highlights a different approach to diagnosis.Guest: Alexandra Sifferlin, author of The Elusive Body: Patients, Doctors, and the Diagnosis Crisis and deputy science editor at the New York TimesFor show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/membersThank you!
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| Are you a lyric person or a music person? | 13 Jul 2026 | 00:32:57 | |
When people listen to songs, why do some people pay more attention to the music, and some people pay more attention to the lyrics? The answer goes way deeper than you might think — to the heart of what it means to hear anything at all.
To watch this episode on video, find us on Netflix!
Guests: Charlie Harding, host of the Switched on Pop podcast; Dominique Vuvan, professor at Skidmore CollegeFor show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| Big news! | 09 Jul 2026 | 00:03:03 | |
Unexplainable is coming to Netflix! Starting Monday, July 13.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/membersThank you!
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| Are we all living in an enormous black hole? | 06 Jul 2026 | 00:25:37 | |
It’s possible that the entire observable universe is inside a black hole. All we need to do in order to find out is … build a gigantic particle collider around the moon. (Originally aired in 2024)
Guest: James Beacham, particle physicist at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| Risky business | 29 Jun 2026 | 00:29:47 | |
As the world gets warmer and storms get worse, insurance companies are jacking up rates or refusing to cover homeowners altogether. Is the future uninsurable? (Originally aired in 2024).
Guests: Umair Irfan, climate reporter; Karen Clark, co-founder and CEO of Karen Clark & Company; Joe Skuba, VP at The Gray Insurance Company; and Carolyn Kousky, Associate VP at Environmental Defense Fund
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| A period piece | 24 Jun 2026 | 00:19:49 | |
Periods and menstrual fluid have long been overlooked by scientists. Now, researchers are starting to suspect they might be sources of medical treasure. (Originally aired in 2024)
Guest: Jemma Evans, biologist
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| Bird people and deep space shrapnel | 22 Jun 2026 | 00:27:26 | |
Two mysteries we can't stop thinking about: Is lightning actually caused by cosmic rays? And why don't birds play chess?
Articles featured: “What Causes Lightning?” by Charlie Wood (also featured on The Quanta Podcast) and “Empire of flight” by Antone Martinho-Truswell.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| Should we really kill all the lanternflies? | 17 Jun 2026 | 00:32:52 | |
When an invasive bug landed on the East Coast, people embraced the order to squish it to death. But what has all that squishing done to us?
Guests: Julie Urban, professor in the entomology department at Penn State; Chelsea Batavia, community engagement coordinator with a PhD in forestry
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| Sean tries raw milk | 15 Jun 2026 | 00:31:53 | |
Sean Rameswaram, co-host of Today, Explained, recently went on a dairy adventure. Noam talks to Sean about what he learned, and about why raw milk is gaining popularity, even though there are significant health risks.
Guest: Sean Rameswaram, co-host of Today, Explained
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| A new species in New York | 10 Jun 2026 | 00:26:06 | |
Around 90% of life on Earth is unknown. Can Benji find a new species in his backyard?
Guests: Benji Jones, Vox senior correspondent, and the NYC species project.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| The disaster problem | 08 Jun 2026 | 01:00:04 | |
Climate change is making hurricanes, floods, and wildfires harder to prepare for just as confidence in the government’s disaster response is collapsing. Our friends at On the Media explore how FEMA became a target of conspiracy theories, political attacks, and a growing crisis of trust.
Guests: Eloise Blondiau, senior producer at On The Media; Micah Loewinger, co-host of On the Media
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| The lost Lyme vaccine | 03 Jun 2026 | 00:38:14 | |
Vijay Sikand is a family doctor in the Connecticut town that gave Lyme disease its name. When a pharmaceutical company came to town to test a vaccine, he built a career and a community around the trial. Then the Lyme vaccine became a cautionary tale.
Guest: Vijay Sikand, MD, family medicine and pediatrics
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| The cells we share | 01 Jun 2026 | 00:36:15 | |
Fetuses leave cells behind in their parents' bodies, where they braid themselves into tissues, and remain, for years. What are they doing in there? (Originally aired in 2023)
Guests: Amy Boddy, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Lee Nelson, Professor Emeritus at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| The man who bet against humanity — and lost | 20 May 2026 | 00:16:54 | |
Paul Ehrlich was famous for predicting a population explosion that would destroy the planet, but he didn't count on human ingenuity.
Guest: Bryan Walsh, Vox senior editorial director
This episode was made in partnership with Vox’s Future Perfect team.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| The aftermath | 18 May 2026 | 00:41:43 | |
What would life look like after a global nuclear war? Would underground bunkers work? What would we do for food? What about radioactive snow?! In this episode of Are We Doomed?, reporter Ben Bradford tries to find out.
Guest: Ben Bradford, host of Are We Doomed?
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| A better Black Death story | 13 May 2026 | 00:32:05 | |
What happens when researchers reexamine some of the basic facts about the Black Death? They start rewriting history and rethinking blame.
Guests: Hannah Barker, professor at Arizona State University; Ulf Büntgen, professor at the University of Cambridge; Martin Bauch, historian at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/membersThank you!
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| The hunt for a lost species | 11 May 2026 | 00:28:01 | |
One of the world’s most biodiverse aquifers is full of strange, blind creatures that have evolved in isolation for millions of years. But one is missing. (Originally aired in 2022)
Guests: Benji Jones, Vox senior correspondent; Andy Gluesenkamp, Conservation biologist and herpetologist (a reptiles and amphibians guy)
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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| Dark matter music | 29 Apr 2026 | 00:33:54 | |
Pioneering musicians Beatie Wolfe and Brian Eno released their latest album Liminal by broadcasting it from a 50-foot microwave antenna. Noam talks to Beatie about why “dark matter music” was the perfect sound to beam into deep space, and how music can take us places that are even harder to reach.
Guest: Beatie Wolfe, composer and conceptual artist
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| I glow, therefore I am | 27 Apr 2026 | 00:27:30 | |
Today on the show: a double feature — two mysteries in one episode. First, it seems like all living things emit a faint glow that disappears when they die. Then, is the International Space Station ... too clean?
Guests: Daniel Oblak, professor of physics at the University of Calgary; Rodolfo Antonio Salido Benítez, scientist at SPT Labtech
Links: Daniel's paper with mouse and leaf images; Rodolfo's paper on the ISS
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| Is everything inflammation? | 22 Apr 2026 | 00:32:03 | |
To hear some people tell it — especially people on TikTok — inflammation is the root of all disease. It's... not that simple. But inflammation does have a lot to teach us about why modern life can make us feel so bad, and even what we might be able to do about it.
Guest: Dylan Scott, senior correspondent at Vox
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| A show about nothing | 20 Apr 2026 | 00:27:44 | |
A few months ago, we put out an episode about what silence sounds like, and it caught the attention of Rob Rosenthal, who hosts a podcast called Sound School about the craft of audio storytelling. So he called up host Noam Hassenfeld to ask him a question he couldn't stop thinking about: How do you make something that sounds like nothing?Host: Rob Rosenthal, host of Sound School PodcastGuest: Noam Hassenfeld
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| The Hitchhiking Microbe’s Guide to the Galaxy | 15 Apr 2026 | 00:26:18 | |
Can microbes travel through space on meteorites? It’s an idea called “lithopanspermia,” and to work out if it’s even feasible, some researchers decided to shoot microbes — with a gun.
Guests: K.T. Ramesh, professor of science and engineering at Johns Hopkins University; Lily Zhao, mechanical engineer at Johns Hopkins University
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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| Why did we go back to the moon? | 13 Apr 2026 | 00:31:33 | |
For the first time in over 50 years, humans have gone to the moon and back. And this time, NASA says we're going to stay. NASA's planning for more missions, a permanent moon base, and even a mission to Mars. But there's a pretty big question hanging over all these dreams: Can humans survive in space long enough to make them happen?(A version of this episode originally aired in 2022, with the launch of Artemis I.)
Guests: Anne McClain, NASA Astronaut; Scott Kelly, former NASA Astronaut; Rebecca Boyle, science writer, Jonathan Jiang, NASA astrophysicist
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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| Is male birth control finally here? | 01 Apr 2026 | 00:27:59 | |
Typically, the burden of birth control falls on whoever has a uterus, but it seems like that might change — and soon!
Guest: Annalisa Merelli, contributing writer at STAT.
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
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| Mi Vickicito | 30 Mar 2026 | 00:19:05 | |
Host Julia Longoria signs off from Unexplainable with one final question: Why does her grandma love Vicks VapoRub so much? A version of this episode originally aired on WNYC’s Only Human podcast.
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
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| Casey gets his voice back | 25 Mar 2026 | 00:37:28 | |
Casey Harrell is a goofy, lighthearted chatterbox whose love for language helped him become an accomplished environmental activist. In 2020, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and slowly began losing the ability to speak. He sang his last song to his infant daughter and fell into silence. But, now, with the help of 256 microelectrodes implanted directly into his motor cortex, he’s learning to talk once more. It isn’t easy.
Guests: Casey Harrell and Levana Saxon. You can donate to their GoFundMe here.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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| Oliver Sacks's not quite nonfiction | 23 Mar 2026 | 00:30:52 | |
Oliver Sacks was once crowned “the poet laureate of medicine” — he's known as one of the greatest science writers of our time. But when New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv dug into his archives, she discovered that some details in his intimate portraits of patients mirrored his personal life a little too closely.
Guest: Rachel Aviv, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of Strangers to Ourselves.
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| The accidental rise of Botox | 18 Mar 2026 | 00:29:02 | |
One of the deadliest poisons known to man is now used to treat wrinkles, migraines, and even, maybe, depression. How did that happen?
Guests: Jean Carruthers, ophthalmologist and “godmother” of cosmetic Botox. David Simpson, neurologist at Mount Sinai hospital in New York. Axel Wollmer, psychiatrist at the Asklepios clinic in Hamburg, Germany.
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
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Also, email us! unexplainable@vox.com
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