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
June 17, 2026 • 32 mins
When an invasive bug landed on the East Coast, people embraced the order to squish it to death. But what has all that squishing done to us?
Guests: Julie Urban, professor in the entomology department at Penn State; Chelsea Batavia, community engagement coordinator with a PhD in forestry
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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June 15, 2026 • 31 mins
Sean Rameswaram, co-host of Today, Explained, recently went on a dairy adventure. Noam talks to Sean about what he learned, and about why raw milk is gaining popularity, even though there are significant health risks.
Guest: Sean Rameswaram, co-host of Today, Explained
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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June 10, 2026 • 26 mins
Around 90% of life on Earth is unknown. Can Benji find a new species in his backyard?
Guests: Benji Jones, Vox senior correspondent, and the NYC species project.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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And please email us! unexplainable@vox.com
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June 8, 2026 • 60 mins
Climate change is making hurricanes, floods, and wildfires harder to prepare for just as confidence in the government’s disaster response is collapsing. Our friends at On the Media explore how FEMA became a target of conspiracy theories, political attacks, and a growing crisis of trust.
Guests: Eloise Blondiau, senior producer at On The Media; Micah Loewinger, co-host of On the Media
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June 3, 2026 • 38 mins
Vijay Sikand is a family doctor in the Connecticut town that gave Lyme disease its name. When a pharmaceutical company came to town to test a vaccine, he built a career and a community around the trial. Then the Lyme vaccine became a cautionary tale.
Guest: Vijay Sikand, MD, family medicine and pediatrics
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June 1, 2026 • 36 mins
Fetuses leave cells behind in their parents' bodies, where they braid themselves into tissues, and remain, for years. What are they doing in there? (Originally aired in 2023)
Guests: Amy Boddy, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Lee Nelson, Professor Emeritus at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center
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May 20, 2026 • 16 mins
Paul Ehrlich was famous for predicting a population explosion that would destroy the planet, but he didn't count on human ingenuity.
Guest: Bryan Walsh, Vox senior editorial director
This episode was made in partnership with Vox’s Future Perfect team.
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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May 18, 2026 • 41 mins
What would life look like after a global nuclear war? Would underground bunkers work? What would we do for food? What about radioactive snow?! In this episode of Are We Doomed?, reporter Ben Bradford tries to find out.
Guest: Ben Bradford, host of Are We Doomed?
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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May 13, 2026 • 32 mins
What happens when researchers reexamine some of the basic facts about the Black Death? They start rewriting history and rethinking blame.
Guests: Hannah Barker, professor at Arizona State University; Ulf Büntgen, professor at the University of Cambridge; Martin Bauch, historian at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe
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May 11, 2026 • 28 mins
One of the world’s most biodiverse aquifers is full of strange, blind creatures that have evolved in isolation for millions of years. But one is missing. (Originally aired in 2022)
Guests: Benji Jones, Vox senior correspondent; Andy Gluesenkamp, Conservation biologist and herpetologist (a reptiles and amphibians guy)
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April 29, 2026 • 33 mins
Pioneering musicians Beatie Wolfe and Brian Eno released their latest album Liminal by broadcasting it from a 50-foot microwave antenna. Noam talks to Beatie about why “dark matter music” was the perfect sound to beam into deep space, and how music can take us places that are even harder to reach.
Guest: Beatie Wolfe, composer and conceptual artist
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April 27, 2026 • 27 mins
Today on the show: a double feature — two mysteries in one episode. First, it seems like all living things emit a faint glow that disappears when they die. Then, is the International Space Station ... too clean?
Guests: Daniel Oblak, professor of physics at the University of Calgary; Rodolfo Antonio Salido Benítez, scientist at SPT Labtech
Links: Daniel's paper with mouse and leaf images; Rodolfo's paper on the ISS
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April 22, 2026 • 32 mins
To hear some people tell it — especially people on TikTok — inflammation is the root of all disease. It's... not that simple. But inflammation does have a lot to teach us about why modern life can make us feel so bad, and even what we might be able to do about it.
Guest: Dylan Scott, senior correspondent at Vox
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April 20, 2026 • 27 mins
A few months ago, we put out an episode about what silence sounds like, and it caught the attention of Rob Rosenthal, who hosts a podcast called Sound School about the craft of audio storytelling. So he called up host Noam Hassenfeld to ask him a question he couldn't stop thinking about: How do you make something that sounds like nothing?Host: Rob Rosenthal, host of Sound School PodcastGuest: Noam Hassenfeld
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April 15, 2026 • 26 mins
Can microbes travel through space on meteorites? It’s an idea called “lithopanspermia,” and to work out if it’s even feasible, some researchers decided to shoot microbes — with a gun.
Guests: K.T. Ramesh, professor of science and engineering at Johns Hopkins University; Lily Zhao, mechanical engineer at Johns Hopkins University
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April 13, 2026 • 31 mins
For the first time in over 50 years, humans have gone to the moon and back. And this time, NASA says we're going to stay. NASA's planning for more missions, a permanent moon base, and even a mission to Mars. But there's a pretty big question hanging over all these dreams: Can humans survive in space long enough to make them happen?(A version of this episode originally aired in 2022, with the launch of Artemis I.)
Guests: Anne McCl...
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April 1, 2026 • 27 mins
Typically, the burden of birth control falls on whoever has a uterus, but it seems like that might change — and soon!
Guest: Annalisa Merelli, contributing writer at STAT.
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
It’s a great place to sign up for our newsletter, view show transcripts, and read more about the topics on our show.
Also, email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
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March 30, 2026 • 19 mins
Host Julia Longoria signs off from Unexplainable with one final question: Why does her grandma love Vicks VapoRub so much? A version of this episode originally aired on WNYC’s Only Human podcast.
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
It’s a great place to sign up for our newsletter, view show transcripts, and read more about the topics on our show.
Also, email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email...
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March 25, 2026 • 37 mins
Casey Harrell is a goofy, lighthearted chatterbox whose love for language helped him become an accomplished environmental activist. In 2020, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and slowly began losing the ability to speak. He sang his last song to his infant daughter and fell into silence. But, now, with the help of 256 microelectrodes implanted directly into his motor cortex, he’s learning to talk once ...
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March 23, 2026 • 30 mins
Oliver Sacks was once crowned “the poet laureate of medicine” — he's known as one of the greatest science writers of our time. But when New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv dug into his archives, she discovered that some details in his intimate portraits of patients mirrored his personal life a little too closely.
Guest: Rachel Aviv, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of Strangers to Ourselves.
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