Smart Girl Dumb Questions

Smart Girl Dumb Questions

It's a curiosity party, and you're invited. On Smart Girl Dumb Questions, Nayeema Raza asks simple Qs to big thinkers (like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Diplo, or two 11 year olds), trying to make sense of life. Send us your dumb Qs: nayeema.raza101@gmail.com

Episodes

March 5, 2026 67 mins
How do you stay peppy when the world is on fire? Nayeema sits down with Nick Kosir — aka the Dancing Weatherman and Fox Weather meteorologist to ask: Why are all weather people hot … and what exactly do they do? Is it just vibes + a green screen? And is AI going to steal Nick’s, Nayeema’s and all of our jobs? Also on the agenda: cloud seeding, climate change, whether the World Meteorological Organization is the illuminati, the h...
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Who picks Iran’s Ayatollah? What are the Israelis and Americans up to? How did we get here? AND: WILL IT EVER END? Today’s SGDQ bonus drop is an IRAN 101 cutdown of a Summer 2025 conversation Nayeema had with Dr. Vali Nasr, a John Hopkins SAIS professor, Middle East expert and author of Iran’s Grand Strategy. IMPORTANTLY: The original conversation (available in the show feed) was taped in June 2025, on the heels of the Twelve Day...
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February 27, 2026 62 mins
Is it time to date ChatDaddy? Today we're playing you a debate Nayeema hosted at New York's Comedy Cellar for a show we love: Open to Debate. Nayeema moderates an academic, fun and relevant showdown between Dr. Thao Ha of University of Arizona's HEART Lab, and Dr. Justin Garcia of the Kinsey Institute around this question: Could dating an AI be better than dating a human?  Be sure to get more Open to Debate on Apple, Spotify,  Y...
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Is our language becoming unrecognizable and is that the internet’s fault? Nayeema sits down with Adam Aleksic (aka Etymology Nerd), a linguistics nerd and author of Algospeak — to decode how social media is rewiring the words we use, the way we say them, and what counts as “normal” language now. They get into euphemisms, censorship, why some words go viral, why “woke” became a culture-war grenade, and what happens when the dictiona...
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He’s watched thousands of marriages fail — so what did he learn about love? And from mandatory prenups to a newlyweds permit, how would he redesign the process? Nayeema sits down with the legendary NYC divorce attorney James Sexton, Esquire — a courtroom “pistol” who’s handled thousands of cases, got an epic education in human relationships in the process and even written a book about how to not f* up your marriage..  Nayeema an...
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After ICE officers shipped 5 year old Liam Ramos to a detention facility and federal agents shot and killed 37 year old ICU Nurse Alex Pretti, Nayeema called her congressperson for the first time. Turns out, it can make a dent. If you’d like to slide into those EMs, here are deets for House and Senate. Your Senator votes this week on funding for ICE and Homeland Security. So what happens when you email or vmail? Is it more impac...
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Do you think your phone is breaking your brain? Is the stress of the news cycle rewiring our physiology? And why do we feel so behind our Jan 1 resolutions … only 3 weeks in? Nayeema asks the Qs we all have to stress expert Dr. Aditi Nerurkar — a physician on faculty at Harvard Medical School and the author of the book: The Five Resets. They get into the science of neuroplasticity (yes, your brain is changing every day), why you...
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January 19, 2026 62 mins
The US is making unwanted moves on Denmark and toying with the idea of intervening in Iran —  but one country where the administration waltzed in and was welcomed? Venezuela. So … what’s up with that? Nayeema talks to 3 millennial Venezuelans to make sense of this moment — journalist Mariana Atencio, comedian/writer Joanna Hausmann, and comedian/actor Francisco Ramos. It’s an exploration. of nuance in the form of a dumb question di...
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Whether it’s the MAHA movement or COVID-19 management, can we trust American public health? Nayeema talks to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. He was appointed by President Trump last year, but originally came to fame in late 2020 as a Stanford Medical School Professor who challenged pandemic-era lockdowns.  On the agenda: Why does the USA spend more for worse healthcare outcomes? Is Ozempic our magic bullet? With China moving so f...
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Are we headed to another Great Depression? The 2026 market is booming, but economic vibes are no bueno.  Have we learned enough from the 2008 recession or past crashes to avoid another? That’s the big Q for Andrew Ross Sorkin, the  journalist behind New York Times DealBook and CNBC’s Squawk Box and co-creator of Showtime’s Billions. He’s out with a hot new book 1929 that makes sense of what precipitated the greatest tumult the Ame...
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In this extended cut of the very first SGDQ Nayeema asks Mark Cuban if America's love-hate relationship with billionaires is justified, if we can count on rich dudes to solve problems like universal healthcare, and what happens on the group chats of the rich + famous. Also new: what does he make of a Kamala Harris 2028 run? They're pressing questions as the world’s wealth — and power —  seems to be getting even more concentrated ...
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This is Part II of The Godfather (of AI) trilogy — where we learn if we can survive what we’ve built with one of the men who actually helped build it: Turing Prize Winner and Nobel Laureate Dr. Geoffrey Hinton. If you missed Part I you can scroll down to how AI (and your brain) actually work.  Today, the “Godfather of AI” returns to map out the risks and the weird hope of finding  “mama” in this machine. So is AI alive? And if s...
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We all pretend to understand AI but Dr. Geoffrey Hinton actually does - he's the “Godfather of AI” who's spent a half-century of work on machine learning and neural networks. So what does this Nobel Prize-winning Al Pacino make of our AI age? Is this an industrial revolution, or the start of something more alien? How does AI … even work? Is it more neuroplastic than a baby's brain? How far away is super intelligence? Can’t we j...
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What is Rhythm? Melody? Harmony? Do we all have these elements ingrained in us? Will AI make better music than humans can? What is a Weenus? And would Kendrick or Drake be a better collab? Five-time Grammy-winning musician Jacob Collier joins Nayeema to unpack the science and soul of sound. From Collier's early viral videos to performances with legends like Herbie Hancock to Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Jacob reveals what he’s learn...
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If someone pays for love, is it easier to find? Does it twist the power dynamic? Do professional matchmakers take a Hippocratic Oath? And how long do they think you should wait before….? Fourth-generation matchmaker, Maria Avgitidis joins Nayeema to unpack the economics of love, from the 12 Date Rule to the $150,000 price tag of high-end matchmaking, and explore how dating has evolved from community introductions to algorithms a...
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Olympian and author Alexi Pappas joins us this week to tackle one of Nayeema’s (and Neil deGrasse Tyson’s) pressing questions: Why are all these people running? What are they running from? Or where are they running toward? And do they just pee in their pants while running? Together the two friends unpack the science of athletic “peaking,” the power of the marathon, practical tips for your running form, and why run clubs are the ne...
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New York’s 27,000 doormen see everything. These social anthropologists know more secrets than your therapist does. So what stories do they have? Can they tell if someone's having an affair? Or about to break up? What does how we tip say about us? And do they think the city is getting safer or more dangerous? Nayeema talks to Daryl and Joe, two veterans in the front-of-building business who are masters at the "ocular patdown,” mood...
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Bill Nye the Science Guy taught an entire generation to love science and the scientific method so … what went wrong? Is the debate around science just healthy skepticism or is it a clear and present danger? What’s the next major scientific discovery AI can unleash? And can space science undivide America? Nayeema talks to Bill Nye, the engineer, comedian, “Science Guy” and CEO of the Planetary Society. On the agenda: other life i...
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Hit “follow” on this show so you don't miss Bill Nye the Science Guy next week. Today, Nayeema ask Bill’s colleague Casey Dreier: do we really need to go to space? Is it worth billions of dollars? How does it make my life better? What's more important: space science or dudes on the moon? And can’t Elon Musk just do all the space science things for us?  Casey Dreier is the Chief of Space Policy at the Planetary Society — the indep...
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October 7, 2025 67 mins
Do actually successful Grammy-winning DJs sleep? What do music producers do? Should they date the musicians they produce? And is Diplo ever getting back together with Skrillex for Jack U? Nayeema turns her curiosity (and flirt) onto Diplo, aka Thomas Wesley Pentz, the Grammy-winning musician and DJ whose hits range from house to country and Bollywood to Brazilian favelas, and who has collaborated with everyone from Madonna to M.I...
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