What The If?
Learn how to think like EINSTEIN! Every week we learn science running imaginative thought experiments. Our brilliant guests are some of the world’s greatest science fiction writers, scientists & science communicators. Leap into a journey to answer the most fascinating question in the universe: What The IF?
Episodes
October 3, 2025 • 54 mins
Scientists just used artificial intelligence to design the world's first AI-generated viruses capable of hunting down and killing drug-resistant strains of E. coli. These bacteriophages look like tiny alien pineapples with syringes that stab bacterial cells, and they're just the beginning of AI-created life. From Matt's dream of dish-cleaning bacteria that won't eat you (hopefully) to the accidental discovery that trying to make su...
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September 26, 2025 • 59 mins
What the if your brain literally ran out of storage space like a laptop refusing to save one more file? Neuroscientist Nikolay Kukushkin explains how memory isn't a filing cabinet but more like water carving rivers down a mountain - and when you carve too many paths, everything becomes a muddy mess. Discover why Mr. S, who remembered everything perfectly, couldn't recognize faces or taste food because his brain was too full of deta...
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September 19, 2025 • 49 mins
What the if gravitational waves were big enough to see and feel? Instead of measuring distortions smaller than a proton, imagine watching your coffee table accordion in and out as ripples from distant black hole collisions pass through your local cafe. Every time Charlie the cat bats a toy mouse in Greenwich Village, sugar cubes scrunch in Williamsburg cafes. Brain surgeons would need to ask all of New York to sit perfectly still d...
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September 12, 2025 • 57 mins
What the if you found a rock on Mars that might - emphasis on might - show signs of ancient life? NASA's Perseverance rover discovered intriguing leopard spots in a 3.5-billion-year-old rock that contain vivianite, a mineral that could potentially indicate biological activity, though scientists remain cautiously skeptical. These dark-outlined splotches bear some resemblance to patterns that microbes can leave behind, but resemblanc...
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September 5, 2025 • 48 mins
Our guest this week is science fiction author Nicholas Casbarro, who brings us a universe-changing concept from his novel Vitalerium - a radioactive space rock that enables faster-than-light travel. What the if humans discovered this exotic material so powerful that a fist-sized chunk can propel a football field-sized spaceship at 12 times the speed of light? Matt helps us explore the real science behind faster-than-light travel, f...
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August 29, 2025 • 53 mins
D'oh! We had technical difficulties this week and so we are presenting this encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes.
It also happens to be Kirby's birthday, and we're eager to honor his awesomeness by sharing with you this fabulous episode we did with him on December 16, 2021. Enjoy the ride!
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DR. KIRBY RUNYON is a planetary geomorphologist and morphodynamicist seeking to understand the evolution of planetary ...
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August 22, 2025 • 43 mins
What the if the speed of light crawled along at walking speed instead of zipping around at 300,000 kilometers per second? Tracey McCallum from Ontario wondered about this scenario. Imagine reaching for your cat only to grab empty air because she's already somewhere else entirely. Baseball becomes a black-hole-creating death sport when pitchers throw faster than light speed. Concert audiences sing different verses simultaneously dep...
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August 15, 2025 • 51 mins
Matt & Gaby are on assignment this week, so we present an encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes. This one is super fun and comes from Sept. 16, 2024. We hope you enjoy it.
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What if humans were the latest must-have pet for trendy aliens? This episode explores the hilarious and bizarre scenario of extraterrestrial beings snatching us up like puppies from a shelter. From alien vets poking and prodding us for spa...
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August 8, 2025 • 44 mins
What the if there was a nuclear reactor on the moon? NASA wants to launch a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor to the lunar surface before 2030, powerful enough to run about 80 households. From the terrifying "tickling the dragon's tail" experiments at Los Alamos where scientists held uranium chunks apart with just a screwdriver, to the reality that plutonium feels "like holding a rabbit" when you touch it, explore how chain reactions wo...
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August 1, 2025 • 46 mins
Anne from Queens, a longtime listener and proud sticker-carrying Patreon supporter, inspired this week's episode by asking: what the if humans couldn't sweat? Discover a world where everyone walks around panting like dogs with their tongues hanging out, cities install massive water pipeline infrastructure for knee-deep living rooms, and portable misters become as essential as smartphones. From the science of why dogs can't sweat to...
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July 25, 2025 • 27 mins
What the if we just kept making telescopes bigger and bigger until they're the size of entire planetary orbits? Starting with the new Vera Rubin Observatory's 21-foot camera that immediately spotted 2,000 asteroids, explore a world where astronomers drop telescopes throughout Earth's orbit to create a synthetic lens 200 million miles wide. Discover how gravitational lenses could let you see taxi cabs on distant planets, why you'd n...
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July 18, 2025 • 37 mins
Apologies for the delay in posting episodes! Holiday and travel got the best of us. But we're back, baby!
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WHAT THE IF we could trade genes like playing cards? Scientists have discovered that fungi possess "Starship elements" - massive genetic cassettes that jump between species carrying cargo genes for superpowers like heavy metal resistance. These DNA chunks got their Star Trek names because researchers kept seeing Vulcan ...
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June 28, 2025 • 46 mins
What the if we could go back to 1930 and experience the reluctant discovery of an entirely new kind of particle? When electrons started bouncing off things with missing momentum, physicist Wolfgang Pauli faced a choice: abandon the fundamental law of conservation of energy or invent something completely invisible to save physics. His solution was the neutrino - a particle so tiny and elusive it took 40 years to actually detect one,...
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June 20, 2025 • 49 mins
[Matt & Gaby are away this week, so please enjoy this Encore Presentation of one of our most popular episodes.]
What The IF... you could see the TRUE SCALE of the Universe? We imagine entering the notorious torture device from he dastardly mind of the great Douglas Adams. Tune in to find out how it feels, and bring a BIG EGO and a hunger for fairy cake because this is a mind expanding adventure if you have a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny...
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June 13, 2025 • 46 mins
What if climate change made submarines completely undetectable? As ocean temperatures rise, thermal layers are disrupting sonar so dramatically that entire regions become acoustic dead zones where submarines can hide indefinitely. Watch civilization adapt when nuclear subs vanish into warm water pockets, jellyfish swarms clog warship engines, and whale songs get drowned out by thermal chaos. Welcome to a world where jellyfish defea...
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June 9, 2025 • 49 mins
What if the universe was stuck in an eternal cosmic Groundhog Day? Picture traveling backwards through time past the Big Bang only to discover you've looped right back to where you started - like a cosmic snake eating its own tail. Explore the mind-bending possibility that our entire universe repeats itself in endless cycles, where infinite copies of you exist scattered across millions of light years, all having this exact same con...
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May 30, 2025 • 48 mins
What if teaching robots to play badminton was the beginning of the end? Scientists at ETH Zurich have successfully trained four-legged robots with mechanical arms to track shuttlecocks, navigate courts, and execute precise strikes against human players. But once these robots master the art of intercepting flying objects, what's next? Watch civilization unravel as badminton-playing robots evolve from harmless sporting partners to gr...
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May 26, 2025 • 62 mins
We're off this week for the Memorial Day Holiday in the US so we present here one of our most popular episodes, a classic IF from August 13, 2021 with the incomparable marine biologist from Australia, Dr. Vanessa Pirotta. Take a deep breath and enjoy this deep dive!
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WHALES spend their entire lives inside a medium, water, in which they can’t actually breathe. So throughout the day, and the night, they have to swim to the surf...
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May 16, 2025 • 47 mins
What if gene editing treatments become commonplace? Explore a world where a single DNA letter gets fixed with just three little shots, transforming deadly genetic disorders into manageable conditions. Babies born unable to clear toxic ammonia from their bodies now thrive after a simple genetic correction. Future treatments could target everything from sickle cell anemia to cystic fibrosis with similar precision. Imagine celebrating...
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May 9, 2025 • 50 mins
What if you could build up a resistance to absolutely anything through repeated exposure? Inspired by the real-life story of Tim Friede, who injected himself with increasing doses of snake venom until he developed immunity, this episode explores a world where humans can become resistant to gravity, car crashes, or even anvils to the head.
From specialized training centers at the mall that progressively drop heavier objects on your...
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