Explainercast

Shane Swenson and Dave Smith
  • 5.0 (6)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

A podcast of deep, thorough explanations about physics, engineering, and technology

  1. 11/29/2025

    Episode 28: Weather Part 3: What goes up must come down

    In episode 28, Shane and Dave explain common powerful movements of air that you didn’t know existed: downbursts, microbursts, gust fronts, haboobs, and derechos.

    41 min

  2. 10/26/2025

    Episode 27: Weather Part 2: Hurricanes

    In episode 27, Shane and Dave explain hurricanes! Why do they form? Where do they go? Why are they ONLY ever hitting North America? Find out in this episode!

    53 min

  3. 09/29/2025

    Episode 26: Weather Part 1, Lightning

    In episode 26, Shane and Dave kick off a saga about the weather, starting with lightning! How does lightning work? What are the mechanisms that cause it?

    40 min

  4. 08/21/2025

    Episode 25: Human Visual Perception

    In episode 25, Shane and Dave explain how humans perceive things visually: shapes, focus, spatial density, and much more.

    1h 10m

  5. 05/28/2025

    Episode 24: Color Perception Part 2 of 2

    In episode 24, Shane and Dave explain how researchers at UC Berkeley created a color that no human has ever experienced, until now. How did they do this? Is this even possible?

    38 min

  6. 05/27/2025

    Episode 23: Color Perception Part 1 of 2

    In episode 23, Shane and Dave explain how the human eye and brain perceive color. Fun fact: there is no yellow on your phone screen (or purple or brown or white or gray), and there might not be any yellow in your yellow shirt either!

    44 min

  7. 02/06/2025

    Episode 22: The Signal CloudFlare Hack

    In episode 22, Shane and Dave explain how a clever 15-year-old discovered a way to geolocate Signal users, despite Signal’s reputation for strong security. We’ll explain how he did it, and you’ll learn about content distribution networks on the internet.

    37 min

  8. 01/14/2025

    Episode 21: Scaling Laws

    In episode 21, Shane and Dave explain how things lose features when they get bigger and why. Why can full-sized helipcopters not fly upside down, but small RC helipcopters can?? And so much more!

    59 min
See All (28)

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

A podcast of deep, thorough explanations about physics, engineering, and technology

Information

  • Creator
    Shane Swenson and Dave Smith
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    28
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2023 Shane Swenson and Dave Smith
  • Show Website
    Explainercast