Top Science Podcasts – Apple Podcasts

Science Vs

1

Science Vs

Spotify Studios
CrowdScience

2

CrowdScience

BBC World Service
Discovery

3

Discovery

BBC World Service
StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson

4

StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Science Friday

5

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios
Hora Verde

6

Hora Verde

José David Millán
Google DeepMind: The Podcast

7

Google DeepMind: The Podcast

Hannah Fry

1 day ago

Is the ‘War on Science’ Over?

A whole bunch of scientists and doctors won in the U.S. midterm elections, which has got some nerds really excited. They’re wondering: Could this turn things around for U.S. science, which has been hit by cuts and restrictions from the Trump administration?? We talk to journalist Max Kozlov from Nature to find out whether it’s time for a nerd party in the U.S.A. — or if it might be too soon to pop the champagne. Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/ScienceVsWarOnScience In this episode, we cover: (00:00) A blue wave … and a nerd wave? (02:33) What’s happened with science under Trump (09:32) What science stuff did voters care about? (11:54) Abdul El-Sayed adapted some MAHA language (14:35) Data centers lost at the polls (20:19) Are scientists celebrating too soon? (28:17) Oddball questions with Max This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman, with help from Michelle Dang, Ekedi Fausther-Keeys and Rose Rimler. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Wendy Zukerman is the executive producer. Video editing and sound by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. Thanks to Humdinger Studios in Melbourne and Podville Media in Washington, DC. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
16 Oct

Why don't we lay eggs?

Some animals lay eggs, and their young hatch out of them. Other animals give birth to live young. But which strategy is best? That’s the question that’s been bothering CrowdScience listener Sameer in Canada. Is giving birth to live young a good reproductive strategy? It takes a lot of time and effort, and it doesn’t result in that many offspring. Egg-laying, on the other hand, allows you to produce lots of young at one time to maximise the chance of survival, seems easier than giving birth, and you can lay eggs more often. So why have humans and most other mammals evolved to give birth to live young? To find the answer, presenter Anand Jagatia travels way back into the past with Paul Barrat from London’s Natural History Museum in the UK to look at the evolutionary history and advantages of egg-laying. What have gravity and moisture got to do with the success of an egg? Palaeontologist Kimi Chapelle from Stony Brook University in the US shows Anand the oldest eggs ever found, and we discover why even older eggs are missing from the fossil record. We discover how the evolution from egg-laying to birth-giving is happening right in front of our eyes, with Camilla Whittington from the University of Sydney, Australia. And we might even have an answer to the age-old question about eggs - which came first? You can see the oldest eggs ever found here: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2020/april/most-detailed-look-inside-worlds-oldest-dinosaur-eggs.html (Photo: A chick hatching from egg on egg tray. Credit: David Malan/Getty Images) Presenter: Anand Jagatia Producer: Margaret Sessa-Hawkins Editor: Ben Motley
5 Nov

How Music Can Be Medicine, with Dr. Dan Levitin

A lot of us reach for music when we’re struggling. Whether we’re going through a breakup or just a rough day, our favorite jams seem to have an almost magical ability to give us relief. But WHY?! What exactly is music doing in the brain that affects how we feel? And how powerful is it? Like, could music actually treat diseases? We dig into these questions with musician, neuroscientist, and professor Dr. Dan Levitin. He wrote a book called “I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine” all about the incredible neuroscience behind music and how it can help with things like depression, pain and even Alzheimer’s disease. UPDATE 11/6/26: A previous version of this episode incorrectly suggested that aphantasia was discovered recently. The phenomenon was first described in the late 19th century, although the term was only coined in 2015. The episode has been updated. This episode does mention depression. Here are some crisis hotlines: United States: US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Dial 988 (Online chat available); US Crisis Text Line Text “HOME” to 741741 Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14 (Online chat available) Canada: Call or text 988 United Kingdom: Samaritans 116 123 (UK and ROI) Full list of international hotlines here Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/ScienceVsMusicAsMedicine In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Intro (03:04) How music activates the brain (09:17) The effects of music on mental health and pain (14:37) The relationship between music and memory (20:35) Music as medicine for movement disorders (23:23) Does music really make you smarter? (27:45) Oddball questions Credits: This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman and Ekedi Fausther-Keeys with help from Meryl Horn, Michelle Dang, and Rose Rimler. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Wendy Zukerman is the executive producer. Fact-checking by the Science Vs team. Video editing and sound by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. Thanks to Michelle Kitchen and Spotify Studios in Los Angeles, as well as Humdinger Studios in Melbourne. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
1 day ago

Where does federal science funding stand now?

Early in President Trump’s second term, thousands of federal scientists were laid off, USAID was shuttered, and billions of dollars worth of grants were frozen or terminated. Then, later, Congress decided to fund science and health agencies similarly to previous years. So where do things stand now? Flora chats with Sudip Parikh, head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, about the state of science funding and whether the midterm election results will affect anything. Guest: Dr. Sudip Parikh is the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
27 Oct

A sweet truth: the history and science of sugar

This week, Rachael Ralph investigates sugar. Perry Bateman from British Sugar tells her how white sugar and demerara differ; the British Dental Association's Mick Armstrong explains how a high-sugar diet leads to cavities; and Lucy Chambers at Diabetes UK looks at the long-term consequences of high blood sugar. Are artificial sweeteners truly better? Gunter Kuhnle and Jason Halford weigh in. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
24/03/2022

#8x02 | Movilidad activa y sostenible: combatir la contaminación y cuidar nuestra salud

Los hábitos actuales de movilidad urbana se caracterizan por una expansión urbana continua y una dependencia muy alta de los vehículos a motor. La movilidad sostenible tiene una suma importancia en este contexto para reducir el impacto negativo sobre el medio ambiente, y promover modos de transporte más ecológicos como la bicicleta o el simple hecho de caminar, actividades que además tienen numerosos beneficios para nuestra salud. En este programa hablamos con Manuel Martín, miembro de la Coordinadora nacional en Defensa de la Bicicleta (ConBici) y responsable de la Asociación Lorca Biciudad, sobre estrategias y medidas tanto individuales como colectivas para fomentar el uso de la bicicleta y de los desplazamientos a pie para mejorar la calidad del aire, disminuir las emisiones contaminantes y cuidar nuestro estado físico. ¿Nos acompañas? Música: Kevin MacLeod
1 day ago

AlphaGenome 2: Teaching AI to read the entire human genome

Learn more about AlphaGenome 2: https://deepmind.google/blog/alphagenome-2-deciphering-how-cells-read-dna-to-better-understand-disease/ Please leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts if you enjoyed this episode. We always want to hear from our audience whether that's in the form of feedback, new idea or a guest recommendation! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
18/08/2025

The Life Scientific: Neil Lawrence

When you think of Artificial Intelligence, does it inspire confidence, or concern? Although it's now generally accepted that this technology will play a major role in our future, a lot of conversations around AI and machine learning come back to the argument over us losing control and robots taking over. Happily, Neil Lawrence has a more optimistic view of the power of AI, and how we might navigate the potential pitfalls. Neil is the DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge, and over the course of his career has been involved in deploying AI and machine learning in both academic and commercial scenarios, with a stint at Amazon as well as working across fields as varied as movie animation, Formula 1 strategy, and medical research. Speaking with Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Neil says ultimately his efforts are all about making a difference to our everyday lives - and that we need to learn how to embrace AI, albeit with a healthy dollop of scepticism; not least when it comes to how our data is used, and the power of 'the digital oligarchy'... Presented by Jim Al-Khalili Produced for BBC Studios by Lucy Taylor Reversion for World Service by Minnie Harrop
6 days ago

Ten years of CrowdScience

In November 2016 the BBC World Service launched a brand new show in which listeners would send in their science questions, and a team of fearless presenters would find answers. Ten years on, CrowdScience is still going strong.  We’ve answered over five hundred questions from our listeners, spoken with thousands of scientists and covered subjects from the mundane to the profound. Our audience’s insatiable curiosity has taken us to the bottom of the ocean, to the top of volcanoes and to the edge of a hurricane. We’ve been on adventures in audio that have been surprising, fascinating and breathtaking, all to find answers to questions sent in by CrowdScience listeners. In true CrowdScience fashion, we wanted to celebrate our tenth anniversary with our listeners. We asked the audience for their CrowdScience stories, and to pick some of their favourite moments from the last decade. As a result we’re revisiting some incredible episodes, including butterflies that migrate thousands of kilometres, how to measure the weight of the internet and why cables get tangled. CrowdScience has brought you fascinating stories, intriguing experiments and thought-provoking moments, and we’ll be hearing from listeners who have found our programmes more valuable than we could have imagined. Our tenth anniversary show also gives presenter Anand Jagatia time to chat with other CrowdScience presenters about what makes CrowdScience special, including some unforgettable experiences and moments from the show. With ten years of episodes to choose from, it hasn’t been an easy task.  And with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of questions from curious listeners, we’re already looking forward to the next ten! Presenter: Anand Jagatia Producer: Christine Bennett Editor: Ben Motley
17/09/2018

Sodium

Sophie Scott on why sodium powers everything we do, and why it might be the key to a new generation of pain killers. Putting sodium into water is one of the most memorable experiments from school chemistry lessons. It's this ability to react ferociously with water which is the starting point for sodium's key role in powering all of biology. Simply, without sodium we wouldn't exist. It helps provide the electricity that allows us to move, breathe, think. Our understanding of sodium could help in the search for analgesics with few side effects for severe pain. Recent discoveries of families who feel searing pain with mild warmth, or those who feel no pain at all even in childbirth, have opened up new avenues in pain research. Their rare genetic mutations change the way sodium works in their bodies: from this new knowledge neuroscientists are developing drugs that could give rise to a much needed new generation of pain killers. Image: Traditional glass salt cellar (Credit: Getty Images)