Happy Halloween to all our listeners! We talk to a lot of experts on the podcast that have very deep knowledge about big, complex subjects. That’s just the nature of talking to PhDs. But when you want to get a good introduction to a subject, or someone to point you in the right direction to do further reading, talk to a librarian. So today we have a special treat, no tricks, to tell us more about the origins and evolution of one of the most beloved cultural holidays of the year, Halloween. 

When early American settlers from the Celtic regions of Europe brought their pagan traditions to the new world, something truly magical happened. The intersection of seasonal change, harvest festivals, and religious observances created the holiday that we know today as Halloween. Through the mystique of folkloric practices combined with a flair for the playful and dramatic, when we dress up as someone else on Halloween, it becomes an expression of our truest inner selves. 

Imagine being able to reduce your body’s absorption of fat, simply by ingesting micro-beads made from edible plant compounds. That’s the direction of the work by Professor Junling Guo at Sichuan University, whose lab recently developed edible polyphenol-based microbeads that trap dietary fats in the gut, reducing absorption and thereby helping with weight control. 

In tests with rats fed high-fat diets, animals that ingested the beads lost around 17 % of their body weight compared to controls, while also showing reduced fat tissue and liver stress, and increased fat excretion, without the gastrointestinal side effects commonly seen in fat-blocking drugs. 

Does naming a disease help the patient heal? When dealing with a mysterious illness, or difficult diagnosis, research suggests that the feeling of relief after finally identifying the condition can actually help people feel better. Even if there is no clear treatment or cure. 

Dr. Alan Levinovitz, professor of philosophy and religion at James Madison University, explores the surprising relationship between language, belief, science, and medicine. Together with psychiatrist Dr. Awais Aftab, he coined the term “The Rumpelstiltskin Effect.” Their study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry Bulletin, found that patients feel seen, understood, and more connected to a community when they hear an official name for what they’re experiencing.

Would you ever imagine that by changing the way you walk, you can reduce your knee problems?

Today, we’re joined by Julie Kolesar, a research engineer at Stanford University’s Human Performance Lab, whose recent study shows that subtle changes in how we move, something as simple as adjusting the angle of your foot, can reduce pain and even slow the progression of knee osteoarthritis. 

With over 20% of adults over 40 suffering from this condition, her work is opening the door to drug-free, non-surgical ways to help millions of people live more comfortably.

Heart attacks are the leading cause of death worldwide, but what many people don’t know is that younger adults, especially women, they are at risk. Too often, their symptoms are dismissed, or the real cause is missed entirely.

Dr. Claire Raphael, interventional cardiologist at Mayo Clinic, led a 15-year study uncovering these hidden causes: artery tears, coronary spasms, and other conditions that standard tests don’t always detect. These findings are critical because they explain why so many young women are misdiagnosed and why lives are being lost unnecessarily.

Her research is forcing medicine to rethink long-held assumptions about who gets heart attacks and why. And the takeaway is simple: awareness saves lives.

The research duo of Greg Tarle and Kevin Croker have a theory about black holes that is so revolutionary that, if proven true, would reshape our understanding of the universe and its origins in the big band. They study the complex interactions between gravity and matter at the enormous scale of an imploding star, with forces so great that not even light can escape. And if you’ve ever wondered what it sounds like when two black holes collide, the answer may surprise you! As researchers use fine-tuned, sophisticated equipment to detect and study black holes merging, they peer back into the ancient history of the universe and hope to explain how the it seems to be expanding at an ever increasing rate.

Sports psychologists often examine the high-pressure, high-performance demands of professional athletes partly because sports provide a natural laboratory to study the effects of failure on the human psyche. Our guest today studies sports as a place where mistakes happen constantly, pressure never lets up, and resilience is the skill that separates those who burn out from those who thrive. By studying this environment, he hopes to use science to help people develop resilience in the face of adversity. His work bridges research and practice, studying how athletes, musicians, pilots, and other high performers can develop emotional control and bounce back stronger from setbacks.

From Olympic competition to weekend matches, his research reveals how resilience is built, why it matters at every level of sport, and how its benefits extend far beyond the game into everyday life.

Wildfires are often seen as destructive, but history tells a different story. Our guest today studies the deep relationship between people, fire, and landscapes, uncovering how Indigenous fire practices shaped ecosystems for centuries. 

Using tree rings and archaeology, Dr. Christopher Roos reveals how the Western Apache managed fire to buffer against drought and climate extremes, lessons that could guide us today as wildfires grow more severe. His work connects the past to the present, showing how cultural knowledge and science together can help us live with fire, not just fight it.

Taylor Swift is one of the biggest musicians of our time, but why?

Our guest today is the author of Cranking Up Taylor Swift: Her Musical Journey in 11 Songs, and dives deep into the music, not to simply celebrate her success, but to ask why her work resonates, how it reflects larger cultural shifts, and what it reveals about the evolving sound of country and pop in the 21st century.

“There are no new ideas. But there are novel ways of combining old ideas to create something new.” This is one of the fundamental concepts behind the research of our guest today. They analyzed the career track of Nobel prize winners, and discovered a statistically significant influence of where they were located and the people around them. And most importantly, spending time in different locations had a positive, accelerated effect on the progress of their Nobel prize winning work.