Unexplainable
Unexplainable takes listeners right up to the edge of what we know…and then keeps on going. The Unexplainable team — Noam Hassenfeld, Julia Longoria, Byrd Pinkerton, and Meradith Hoddinott — tackles scientific mysteries, unanswered questions, and everything we learn diving into the unknown. New episodes Mondays and Wednesdays. From Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Episodes
September 10, 2025 • 22 mins
How the bedtime stories we grew up with inspire the stories we tell now.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
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September 8, 2025 • 28 mins
We spoke to two researchers who disagree about the answer to this question. But they do agree about why it's so hard to answer to begin with.
Guests: Dylan Scott, senior correspondent at Vox; Kenneth Mukamal, physician and academic researcher at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Timothy Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research
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August 27, 2025 • 31 mins
The US military carved a tiny city into the Greenland ice sheet. What they found, and lost, and found again, and what it tells us about climate change.
Guests: Paul Bierman, geoscientist at the University of Vermont and author of When The Ice Is Gone; Richard Alley, geoscientist at the Pennsylvania State University
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August 25, 2025 • 27 mins
What do scientists think animals might be like millions of years from now? (First published in 2021)
Guests: Benji Jones, senior correspondent at Vox; David Willard, ornithologist at Chicago's Field Museum; Liz Alter, marine biologist at San José State University; Jingmai O'Connor, paleontologist at the Field Museum; Sharlene Santana, biologist at the University of Washington; Julia Sigwart, malacologist at the Senckenberg Researc...
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August 18, 2025 • 26 mins
Dark energy is the strange stuff that makes up the vast majority of the universe and will ultimately lead to the end of everything. Unless it doesn't exist at all.
Guests: Adam Riess, astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University, and Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille, director of the Physics Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and member of The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
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August 13, 2025 • 29 mins
Much of our modern world is made of plastic, but as more signs point to its dangers to human health, what can we even do about it?
Guest: Annie Lowrey, Atlantic writer and author of I fought plastic. Plastic won.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe read every email.Support Une...
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August 6, 2025 • 28 mins
Towering walls of water sometimes appear in the ocean without warning or apparent cause. What drives their terrifying power? (First published in 2023)
Guest: Ton van der Bremer, associate professor of environmental fluid mechanics.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.comWe rea...
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August 4, 2025 • 28 mins
Good news can be hard to find, especially when our brains — and the media — are biased against it.
Guest: Bryan Walsh, senior editorial director of Vox, and author of the Good News newsletter
This episode was made in partnership with Vox’s Future Perfect team.For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscriptsFor more, go to vox.com/unexplainableAnd please email us! unexplai...
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July 30, 2025 • 35 mins
If you went back 500 million years and re-ran evolution, would life be totally different today?
Guests: Richard Lenski and Zachary Blount, evolutionary biologists at Michigan State University
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable (and...
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July 28, 2025 • 45 mins
It's easy to assume there is objective truth in basketball stats. A clear story of what happened in the past. But our friends at Pablo Torre Finds Out uncovered something that throws an entire era into question.
Guest: Pablo Torre, host of Pablo Torre Finds Out
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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And please email us! unexplaina...
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July 23, 2025 • 23 mins
Is a solution to climate change…pouring water on hot rocks?
Guest: Dylan Matthews, Senior Correspondent at Vox's Future Perfect
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...
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July 21, 2025 • 29 mins
How does any animal know what to do? A neuroscientist argues it's not “instinct.” Something bigger is going on. (First published in 2022)
Guest: Mark Blumberg, behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Iowa
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.
Suppor...
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July 16, 2025 • 32 mins
We have a cure for tuberculosis. Why does it still kill over a million people every year?
GUEST: John Green, podcaster, YouTube creator and award-winning author of Everything is Tuberculosis and many young adult novels
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 pl...
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July 14, 2025 • 58 mins
Figuring out the perfect healthy diet remains stubbornly out of reach. Our friends at Gastropod ask: Why?
Guests: Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, co-hosts of Gastropod
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 becomin...
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July 2, 2025 • 36 mins
In coastal California, researchers grapple with potentially losing a landscape they love.
Guests: Rebecca Johnson, Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Community Science at the California Academy of Sciences; Peter Roopnarine, Curator of Invertebrate Zoology & Geology at the California Academy of Sciences
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainab...
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June 30, 2025 • 31 mins
We love our pets. And think we understand them. Are we fooling ourselves?
Guests: Alexandra Horowitz, dog cognition researcher at Barnard College; Holly Molinaro, animal welfare scientist; Jared Martin, filmmaker and dog owner
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable
And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read e...
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June 25, 2025 • 31 mins
If pregnant people need to eat for two, why do so many of us puke morning, noon, and night?
Guests: Marlena Fejzo, Ph.D., geneticist, and Research Director at the HER Foundation.
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 b...
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June 23, 2025 • 26 mins
Our houses are homes to hidden worlds of bugs. And the more ecologists explore those worlds, the more they realize that some of our creepy, crawly housemates actually have a lot to teach us. (First published in 2023)
Guests: Rob Dunn, ecologist at NC State University and author of Never Home Alone; Michelle Trautwein, entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts...
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June 18, 2025 • 38 mins
Francis Collins oversaw some of the most revolutionary science of the last few decades at the National Institutes of Health. A few months ago, he suddenly resigned.
One of America's foremost scientists could no longer do his job. What does that mean for the US? And for science?
Guest: Francis Collins, former director of the NIH
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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June 16, 2025 • 18 mins
When bringing people to the edge of death is your day job.
Guest: Adam Richman, perfusionist at the Mayo Clinic and Unexplainable listener.
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.co...
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