Brains On! Science podcast for kids

By American Public Media

Kids & Family

What's Brains On! Science podcast for kids about?

Brains On!® is a science podcast for curious kids and adults from American Public Media. Each week, a different kid co-host joins Molly Bloom to find answers to fascinating questions about the world sent in by listeners. Like, do dogs know they’re dogs? Or, why do feet stink? Plus, we have mystery sounds for you to guess, songs for you to dance to, and lots of facts -- all checked by experts.

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LAST EPISODE

Forever Ago is back June 1!

05.20.2022

We are so excited to share that our podcast, Forever Ago, is returning for a brand new season! If you didn’t get a chance to hear the first season, Forever Ago is a history show for the whole family hosted ...

Brains On! Science podcast for kids episodes:

05.20.2022 Forever Ago is back June 1! We are so excited to share that our podcast, Forever Ago, is returning for a brand new season! If you didn’t get a chance to hear the first season, Forever Ago is a history show for the whole family hosted ...
05.17.2022 Dreams: The science of a sleeping brain You dream every night, even if you don't remember them. But why? We'll hop on a wild ride to go inside the brain and see which parts help create these often fantastical images and storylines. We'll also learn how to ...
05.10.2022 Tongue twisters: Terribly terrific and truly tantalizing Why is it so hard to say sentences like: she sells sea shells at the sea shore? This episode cracks the code of tongue twisters. Check out the role mouth shapes and vocal folds play in tongue twisters. Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel ...
05.03.2022 How does a caterpillar become a butterfly? Caterpillars go through a striking transformation from a crawly, tube-like creature into a soaring, beautifully-winged butterfly. This process is called metamorphosis and it’s no wonder our listeners have lots of questions about it. We’ll find out exactly how a caterpillar ...
04.26.2022 What makes tiny tardigrades tick? You can find micro-animals just about everywhere. They’re on your face and in your hair. They’re in puddles and in soil. One of the most famous of these microscopic creatures is the tardigrade. This episode zooms in on these adorable ...
04.19.2022 Into the eye of a storm: How hurricanes form How do hurricanes form? This episode dives into the eye of the hurricane to track down that answer and so much more. We also talk to hurricane hunter Major Joyce Hirai, who flies airplanes into hurricanes as part of the ...
04.12.2022 Is mind-reading real? Can people actually read minds? Can we move objects with our brains like in the movies? We're exploring the history of shady psychics, sketchy seances, and secret superpower studies. Plus, hear from a scientist who is helping people regain the ...
04.05.2022 Owl about Owls We’re headed off to an owl sanctuary to meet up with Nolan the know-it-owl for a special night owl Tour. We hear the sound of owl wings and check out some super-tubular owl eye facts. Find out how owls can ...
03.29.2022 How are we related to stars? Forget those fancy awards shows. This episode of Brains On is exploding with the stars. Find out how each of us is related to these beautifully bright beacons. Plus, we’ll consider what happens when gravity weighs down on a star ...
03.22.2022 Why are butts and poop so funny? This episode is a real stinker, but it had to happen. We go behind the scenes on what makes butts and poop so funny. Why does the mere mention of them make us laugh? We all have butts and we ...
03.15.2022 Inside the immune system: Bad robots and friendly monsters The immune system is so cool and so important but it largely goes about its business without us knowing it. In this episode you'll get a front row seat as our immune cells (aka friendly monsters) fight off bacteria and ...
03.08.2022 What's up with worms? What’s up with worms? How do they sleep? Why are they slimy? How do they move? Here at Brains On, the only way to find out is to embark on an EPIC QUEST! Join co-host Ezra and the worm adventurer ...
03.01.2022 Mountain life: How's the air up there? The ExPLORERR was built to go everywhere. That’s why this vehicle’s full name is: the Extremely Practical Land and Ocean Rover Exploring Remote Realms. And guess what? It has a recording studio built on-board! Good thing, because this episode was ...
02.22.2022 Chilling out with snow There are many different types of snow. From the fluffy to the slushy, this slippery frozen stuff comes in all different shapes and sizes. From a distance, snowflakes may all look the same, but they are not. In fact, there ...
02.15.2022 Could you walk around the world? It might sound impossible, but you can walk around the world! Rosie Swale-Pope has done it, and we get a chance to hear about her adventures in this episode. She tells us how she survives, and remains upbeat, on the ...
02.08.2022 Why do we like sugar so much? Marshmallows, lollipops, gummi bears -- we want them all! But we’ve all heard that eating a lot of sugar isn’t that healthy for us. So what’s the deal? Why do we like sugar so much in the first place? We’ll ...
02.01.2022 Do we live in a multiverse? Get ready to learn the science behind the multiverse! That’s the idea that our universe isn’t the only universe out there. What if there were other, different universes existing alongside our own? Ones with different laws of physics, different planets ...
01.25.2022 Why are giraffe tongues blue? - A Moment of Um extra Wow, wow, wow! Our new Moment of Um podcast is finally here. Check out this sample episode, and subscribe to Moment of Um in your podcast player. There are already five episodes just waiting for you to listen, and there’s ...
01.18.2022 Introducing Moment of Um! We're super excited for you to hear our newest podcast: Moment of Um! What’s that? You’ve already heard of Moment of Um featured on Brains On! You’re correct, congratulations! Moment of Um has been answering head scratchers for years on ...
11.23.2021 What happens if you drop a feather in space? In space, will a feather stay still? Fall down? Float away? Turns out, the answer depends on where you are! But one thing affects your feather no matter what: gravity! So Galileo is joining us all the way from the ...
11.16.2021 The innies and outies of belly buttons Today’s episode is all about your belly button aka navel aka umbilicus. And not just your belly button -- every single person you can think of has one. This means our listeners have LOTS of questions about them. We're going ...
11.09.2021 A guide to getting your COVID shot Kids over 5 can now get a COVID vaccine in the U.S. We know a lot of you have been waiting for this day and lots of you have sent us questions about the vaccine since the pandemic started: like ...
11.02.2021 Shark teeth: The sharp bits of a squishy animal In this episode, we’re asking sharks to say “aaaah”, and taking a close look at their chompers. We’ll see how shark teeth grow, and what those teeth can teach us about sharks of the past. We’ll also play a game ...
10.26.2021 Spooky superstitions! Why we think 13 is bad luck Just in time for spooky season, it’s an episode all about superstitions! Do you avoid the number 13? Or maybe it’s your lucky number, like Taylor Swift? In this episode we’ll look at why we have such strong feelings toward ...
10.19.2021 Crystals: More than just shiny rocks This episode shines a light on crystals, and they’re sparkling right back at us! We’ll zoom way in on a diamond to understand the structure that makes crystals special, and hear about some unexpected crystals, too (hint: chocolate chip cookies ...
10.12.2021 Squirrelsperience: Trying out squirrel skills In many places, tree squirrels are extra busy these days. It’s time for them to collect nuts to prepare for winter! So we’re heading to a squirrel-themed adventure course and practicing a few of the skills they use to survive: ...
10.05.2021 The heroes we need to defeat the coronavirus Eighteen months into our fight with this coronavirus, it may feel frustrating that we're still in this battle, but there are many reasons to feel hopeful. One reason is that we know a lot about this virus now and have ...
09.28.2021 How to conquer Garbage Mountain After getting a firsthand look at the history of trash, we’re having visions from garbage’s present and future this week. Producer Kunsang Dorjee visits a landfill to see what happens to our trash after we throw it away, and producer ...
09.21.2021 The invention of trash A pair of ghost shoes visit Molly with a message: it's time to think about garbage. They predict that Molly will be visited by three visions of garbage, one from the past, one from the present and one from the ...
09.14.2021 Take a deep breath: How does breathing work? Breathing is a really cool thing. We breathe automatically without thinking about it, but we can also control our breath and play with it. We'll learn how our lungs work and why our bodies need this air in the first ...
09.07.2021 What does the giraffe say? Our animal mystery sound extravaganza! When one of our listeners wrote in with an animal sound mystery (What sound does a giraffe make?) we set out to find an answer. We came back with lots of other fascinating animal sounds, so we decided it was ...
07.27.2021 Why do we lose teeth? Today we’re looking at a phenomenon that happens to all of us: losing our baby teeth and getting new ones! So how do our teeth grow in and what makes them fall out? Naturally, a group of wandering teeth helps ...
07.20.2021 What causes wildfires? A fire can be super useful or cozy or even magical. But it can also be dangerous -- and in the case of wildfires, if they burn long and hot enough, they can destroy ecosystems and send lots of harmful ...
07.15.2021 Million Bazillion answers your questions about money Today we’re sharing an episode with you from our friends at Million Bazillion, the podcast that answers the questions kids have about money. They help dollars make more sense and they’re back for a whole new season! In today’s episode, ...
07.13.2021 Why do mosquitoes bite? Scratching that itch In this episode, we're tackling all the mosquito questions that have been bugging our listeners. Why do they bite? Why do the bites itch? Is scratching them a good idea? Why do some people seem to be more delicious to ...
07.06.2021 Why do songs get stuck in our heads? You know that feeling where you get a snippet of a song stuck in your head and it loops over and over? Those hard to shake songs are also known as earworms, and in this episode Molly has a particularly ...
06.29.2021 Vaccines for kids and silver linings: Our second COVID summer Adults around the world are getting vaccinated against the coronavirus, and now, in a handful of countries (including the U.S.) kids over 12 can get vaccinated too. We hear from a 13-year-old who participated in a clinical trial for a ...
06.22.2021 Do dogs know they're dogs? We treat dogs like they're part of the family. But do they know they are a different species, or do they think they're just short, four-legged people? In this episode, canine cognition researcher Alexandra Horowitz helps us puzzle out this ...
06.15.2021 Our 200th episode is SUN-sational! There’s no better way to celebrate our 200th episode than with our own shining star: the sun! In this episode we speak with Dr. Nicola Fox, who leads a team of NASA scientists that sent a probe to collect data ...
06.08.2021 How far can a cloud travel? We’ve all played the “what does that cloud look like” game. Maybe you saw a bunny… or an airplane… or a unicorn. What if that same cloud could also be seen by someone in a far off continent? That’s what ...
06.01.2021 Totally Slothsome: All about sloths There’s more to sloths than slowness. They’re great at saving energy, hanging upside down, and swimming! In this episode, Sloth Appreciation Society founder Lucy Cooke stops by to tell us all about these amazing animals. We also get into a ...
05.25.2021 How do computers store so much info in such a tiny space? If you translate “Hello! How are you?” to binary code, it looks like this: 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100001 00100000 01001000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00111111 This episode takes a look at how ...
05.18.2021 How does taste work? We react to our very first episode! Brains On has a very special milestone coming up -- it’s almost our 200th episode! To celebrate, we're re-listening to our very first episode which was all about eating. We'll play the episode and chime in with commentary to give ...
05.11.2021 Like bread and cheese? Thank fungus! That fuzzy sandwich in your fridge? Yeah, don't eat that kind of fungus. But the mushrooms in your stir fry? Or the yeast in your bread? Or the rind on your brie? Or the miso in your soup? All of ...
05.04.2021 Is mold alive? A look at fascinating fungus Fungus deserves a party because it’s everywhere and super important to life on this planet. The kingdom of fungus includes mushrooms and molds, but also yeasts, like the kinds that help make bread. So today, we’re embracing the ick, we’re ...
03.30.2021 Is time travel possible? Will we ever get to rewind time, or fast forward through it? Sanden stops by to tell us all about how time works. He also has a couple ideas about how we might make time travel a reality! But one ...
03.23.2021 Mystery Sound Extravaganza 2021 What's that you hear? That's right, It's an episode of nothing but mystery sounds! Are your ears up to the challenge? Plus, we'll hear an answer to the question: "How do squirrels find their nuts after they bury them?" If ...
03.16.2021 Why are smartphones so hard to put down? Screens are everywhere these days! We’re taking a look at why smartphones are so addictive, and how our devices affect us. Our co-hosts took on a bold challenge for this episode: they went a week without phones or tablets. We’ll ...
03.09.2021 What did dinosaurs sound like? Did dinosaurs roar? Or meow? And how do we know? Paleontologist Julia Clarke stops by to talk about sounds T-Rex might’ve made. We know a bit more about other dino sounds, and dinosaur expert Riley Black fills us in on ...
03.02.2021 Dino Edition: How do we know what dinosaurs looked like? 20 years ago, we pictured dinosaurs as green, scaly animals. But times have changed! Now, we know some dinosaurs had feathers. And who knows — maybe some even had stripes. This episode looks at how we figure out what color ...

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