Science Archives - The Podcast Browser

Stuart Firestein – It Could Be Otherwise

Science In the Age of Uncertainty

Interview with Stuart Firestein about his book It Could Be Otherwise: Science In the Age of Uncertainty. Explores how science education often misrepresents the scientific process by prioritising facts over the crucial role of ignorance, failure, and uncertainty. Argues for teaching science as a dynamic process of discovery, where acknowledging the unknown and learning from mistakes are central. Critiques the oversimplified scientific method, advocating instead for structured ignorance and counter-intuitive thinking to foster a deeper public understanding and trust in science. Also touches on pluralism – the existence of multiple, sometimes incompatible, truths – and the importance of philosophical optimism in scientific endeavour.

Book cover

Helen Pearson – Beyond Belief

How Evidence Shows What Really Works

Interview with Helen Pearson about her book Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works. Explores why evidence – especially scientific – is vital in an age of misinformation, examining its historical development through pioneers like Ian Chalmers and Archie Cochrane, and the evolution of methodologies like randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses. Highlights how rigorous evidence can inform decision-making across medicine, social policy, policing, education, and parenting, offering practical insights into what truly works. Also addresses the challenges of distinguishing credible information, combating bias, and fostering trust in science amidst political polarisation and the spread of pseudoscience.

Book cover

James Riordon – Crush: Close Encounters With Gravity

AMSEcast | 11 March 2026 | 0h 22m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with James Riordon about his book Crush: Close Encounters With Gravity. Explores the science of gravity, from Isaac Newton’s groundbreaking laws to Albert Einstein’s revolutionary theory of general relativity. Describes how gravity shapes everything from the structure of Earth to the behaviour of black holes and gravitational waves. Explains the strange effects of weightlessness on the human body, the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, and the possibility of exotic phenomena like wormholes.

Richard Munson – Ingenious: A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist

AMSEcast | 26 November 2026 | 0h 22m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Richard Munson about his book Ingenious: A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist. Highlights Franklin’s often overlooked scientific achievements. Describes Franklin’s rise from a penniless runaway to a successful printer whose curiosity fueled scientific breakthroughs that helped define core electrical concepts and led to inventions like the lightning rod.

Matt Kaplan – I Told You So!

The Michael Shermer Show | 12 March 2026 | 1h 02m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Matt Kaplan about his book I Told You So! Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right. Discusses the scientists who got there first and paid the price; why institutions resist new ideas, why careers can depend on defending the status quo, and why being right is often not enough. Covers Katalin Karikó, whose work on mRNA was dismissed long before it helped transform modern medicine, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, who faced fierce backlash for arguing that doctors themselves were spreading deadly infections. Looks at what happens when evidence collides with ego, reputation, and scientific orthodoxy.

This episode has current science correspondent for The Economist, Matt Kaplan, talking about how badly institutions treat scientists who are heretical, but right. I also recommend past science correspondent for The Economist, Matt Ridley, on how institutions lionise those who are consistently wrong: Ehrlich’s Anti-Human Legacy.

Matthew Cobb – Crick: A Mind in Motion

Ground Truths | 7 December 2025 | 0h 59m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Matthew Cobb about his book Crick: A Mind in Motion. Discusses Francis Crick’s life and work, his transition from physics to founding molecular biology; his collaborative discovery of DNA’s structure with James Watson; his later pursuit of the biological basis of consciousness; his Crick’s controversial personality, including his eugenics views; and his reliance on intense intellectual collaborations to challenge scientific dogmas and shape the modern understanding of life and mind.

Mark Vellend – Everything Evolves

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast | 27 September 2025 | 1h 05m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Mark Vellend about his book Everything Evolves: Why Evolution Explains More Than We Think, from Proteins to Politics. Describes how all observable phenomena in the universe can be understood through two sciences: the first is physics; the second is the science of evolvable systems. Discussses how this Second Science unifies biology and culture and how evolution gives rise to everything from viruses and giraffes to nation-states, technology, and us. Discusses how the idea of evolution had precedents in areas such as language and economics long before it was made famous by Darwin, and how only by freeing ourselves of the notion that the study of evolution must start with biology can we appreciate the true breadth of evolutionary processes.

Karen Lloyd on the Deep Underground Biosphere

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape | 12 May 2025 | 1h 09m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Karen Lloyd about her book Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth. Discusses the living organisms that dwell deep below the Earth’s surface, as deep as we’re able to drill, and their relationship to more familiar life forms on land and underwater. Explores how they operate and survive in ways that are quite different from what we’re familiar with, living off nutrients that have penetrated from the surface, or sometimes off pure electrons.