New Scientist Podcasts

By New Scientist

What's New Scientist Podcasts about?

Podcasts for the insatiably curious by the world’s most popular weekly science magazine. Everything from the latest science and technology news to the big-picture questions about life, the universe and what it means to be human.

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New Scientist Podcasts episodes:

04.15.2024
Dead Planets Society: How to Destroy A Black Hole
How do you destroy a black hole? Turns out they're pretty tough cookies. Kicking off a brand new series of Dead Planets Society, Chelsea Whyte and Leah Crane take on the universe's most powerful adversaries. With the help of their...
04.12.2024
Weekly: The multiverse just got bigger; saving the white rhino; musical mushrooms
#245 The multiverse may be bigger than we thought. The idea that we exist in just one of a massive collection of alternate universes has really captured the public imagination in the last decade. But now Hugh Everett’s 60-year-old “many...
04.08.2024
CultureLab: Jen Gunter on the taboo science of menstruation
Half of the human population undergoes the menstrual cycle for a significant proportion of their lifetimes, yet periods remain a taboo topic in public and private life. And that makes it harder both to prioritise necessary scientific research into conditions...
04.05.2024
Weekly: Miniature livers made from lymph nodes in groundbreaking medical procedure
#244 Researchers have successfully turned lymph nodes into miniature livers that help filter the blood of mice, pigs and other animals – and now, trials are beginning in humans. If successful, the groundbreaking medical procedure could prove life-saving for thousands...
04.01.2024
Escape Pod: #8 Escape from predators and escape from the planet
This is a re-airing of a podcast originally released in March 2021. From beetle explosions to the deep dark depths of the ocean, this episode is all about escape. The team discusses the amazing (and sometimes disgusting) way bombardier beetles...
03.29.2024
Weekly: Immune system treatment makes old mice seem young again; new black hole image; unexploded bombs are becoming more dangerous
#243 As we age our immune systems do too, making us less able to fight infections and more prone to chronic inflammation. But a team of scientists has been able to reverse these effects in mice, rejuvenating their immune systems...
03.26.2024
CultureLab: Stranded on a fantastical planet: The strange creatures of Scavengers Reign
Fish you wear like a gas mask, moss that turns a robot sentient and critters that will eat your rash – all these oddities and more cohabit on the planet Vesta, the setting for the animated miniseries Scavengers Reign, where...
03.22.2024
Weekly: How declining birth rates could shake up society; Humanoid robots; Top prize in mathematics
#242 Human population growth is coming to an end. The global population is expected to peak between 2060 and 2080, then start falling. Many countries will have much lower birth rates than would be needed to support ageing populations. These...
03.19.2024
Escape Pod: #7 Speed: From the quickest animal in the world to the fastest supercomputer
This is a re-airing of a podcast originally released in March 2021. From the quickest animal in the world to the fastest supercomputer, this episode is all about speed. Opening with the cries of the peregrine falcon, the team finds...
03.15.2024
Weekly: Gaza’s impending long-term health crisis
#241 More than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza face widespread hunger, disease and injury as the war quickly becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in modern memory. Even once the war ends, the devastating physical and emotional health consequences will be...
03.12.2024
CultureLab: Rebecca Boyle on how the moon transformed Earth and made us who we are
There’s no moon like our moon. A celestial body twinned with Earth, the moon guides the tides, stabilises our climate, leads the rhythms of animal behaviour and has long been a source of wonder and awe. Our Moon: How Earth's...
03.08.2024
Weekly: Woolly mammoth breakthrough?; The Anthropocene rejected; Bumblebee culture
#240 A major step has been made toward bringing woolly mammoths back from extinction – sort of. The company Colossal has the ambitious goal of bringing its first baby mammoth into the world by 2028. And its newest advance, announced...
03.05.2024
Escape Pod: #6 All About Warmth: Emotional, Physiological and Geological
This is a re-airing of a podcast originally released in February 2021. Keeping you cosy this week is an episode all about warmth - emotional, physiological and geological. We have an unexpected start to the show, with bees taking the...
03.01.2024
Weekly: Is personalised medicine overhyped?; Pythagoras was wrong about music; How your brain sees nothing
#239 Two decades ago, following the Human Genome Project’s release of a first draft in 2001, genetic testing was set to revolutionise healthcare. “Personalised medicine” would give us better treatments for serious conditions, clear pictures of our risks and individualised...
02.27.2024
CultureLab: What would life on Mars be like? The science behind TV series For All Mankind
Freezing temperatures, dust storms, radiation, marsquakes – living on Mars right now would be hellish. And getting there remains a multi-year journey. But what if we could make it habitable? Could we one day build settlements on the Red Planet...
02.23.2024
Weekly: ADHD helps foraging?; the rise of AI “deepfakes”; ignored ovary appendage
#238 ADHD is a condition that affects millions of people and is marked by impulsivity, restlessness and attention difficulties. But how did ADHD evolve in humans and why did it stick around? Through the help of a video game, a...
02.21.2024
Escape Pod #5 Sound: Prepare to feel relaxed, tingly and amazed, in the space of 20 minutes
This is a re-airing of a podcast originally released in February 2021. Prepare to feel relaxed, tingly and amazed all in the space of 20 minutes. This episode is all about sound. We start with the musical tones of an...
02.16.2024
Weekly: Reversing blindness; power beamed from space; animal love languages
#237 Glaucoma, which can cause blindness by damaging the optic nerve, may be reversible. Researchers have managed to coax new optic nerve cells to grow in mice, partly restoring sight in some. How the treatment works through an eyeball injection...
02.13.2024
CultureLab: Where billionaires rule the apocalypse: Naomi Alderman’s ‘The Future’
Real tech billionaires are reportedly building secret bunkers in case of post-apocalyptic societal collapse. It’s a frightening prospect, a world where only the super rich survive catastrophe. But it’s a world one author is exploring in her latest novel. Naomi...
02.09.2024
Weekly: Record-breaking fusion experiments inch the world closer to new source of clean energy
#236 This week marks two major milestones in the world of fusion. In 2022 a fusion experiment at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory created more power than was required to sustain it – now, the same team has improved this...
02.06.2024
Escape Pod: #4 Mass: from lightest creates on earth, to the heaviest things in the cosmos
This is a re-airing of a podcast originally released in February 2021. From some of the lightest creatures on earth, to the heaviest things in the cosmos, this episode is all about mass. It’s a magical opening to the show...
02.02.2024
Weekly: Alzheimer’s from contaminated injections; Musk's Neuralink begins human trials; longest living dogs
#235 In very rare cases, Alzheimer’s disease could be transmitted from person to person during medical procedures. This finding comes as five people have developed the disease after receiving contaminated human growth hormone injections in the late 1950s to early...
01.30.2024
CultureLab: Earth’s Last Great Wild Areas – Simon Reeve on BBC series ‘Wilderness’
Very few places on our planet appear untouchedby humans, but in those that do, nature is still very much in charge – and the scenery is breathtaking. In the new BBC series Wilderness with Simon Reeve, journalist Simone Reeve takes...
01.26.2024
Weekly: Why AI won’t take your job just yet; how sound helps fungi grow faster; chickpeas grown in moon dust for first time
#234 Is AI really ready to take our jobs? A team looked at whether AI image recognition could replace tasks like checking price tags on items or looking at the pupils of patients in surgery. The researchers found only a...
01.23.2024
Escape Pod: #3 Music: the jazz swing of birdsong and the sonification of the orbits of planets
This is a re-airing of a podcast originally released in February 2021. This episode is all about music, so today’s journey of escapism comes complete with odd, relaxing, soothing and interesting sounds to guide you through. The team opens with...
01.19.2024
Weekly: Cloned rhesus monkey lives to adulthood for first time; fermented foods carry antibiotic resistant bugs; an impossible cosmic object
#233 A cloned rhesus monkey named ReTro is said to be in good health more than three years after his birth – a landmark achievement, as no other rhesus clone has lived to adulthood.. However, the method used to clone...
01.16.2024
CultureLab: Breaking space records, human bowling and a trip to the Moon with astronaut Christina Koch
NASA astronaut Christina Koch not only took part in the first ever all-female spacewalks, but she also holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, after spending 328 days on board the International Space Station. So what...
01.12.2024
Weekly: Brain regions shrink during pregnancy; oldest and largest Amazon cities discovered; corals that change their sex like clockwork
#232 During pregnancy the brain undergoes profound changes – almost every part of the cortex thins out and loses volume by the third trimester. It’s such a big change that you can tell if someone’s pregnant just by looking at...
01.09.2024
Escape Pod: #2 Alliances in matters biological, mathematical and atomical
This is a re-airing of a podcast originally released in January 2021. The theme of this episode is alliances - human, biological and atomic. We start by celebrating the amazing properties of lichen, the symbiotic relationships it forms, how it...
01.05.2024
Weekly: What’s next for science in 2024? A year of moons; weight-loss drugs; and a massive new supercomputer for Europe
#231 It’s a new year and that means new science. But what (that we know so far) does 2024 hold? On the space front, agencies around the world have as many as 13 missions to Earth’s moon, while Japan’s MMX...
01.02.2024
Escape Pod: #1 Understanding the self-awareness of dolphins
This is a re-airing of a podcast originally released in January 2021. An episode of Escape Pod all about understanding. We start by discussing the self-awareness of dolphins and whales, and the intricacies of their language and vocalisations. Then we...
12.29.2023
Best of 2023, part 2: India lands on the moon; the orca uprising; birds make use of anti-bird spikes
What was your favorite science story of 2023? Was it the rise of orca-involved boat sinkings? Or maybe the successful landing of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission at the moon’s south pole? This week, it’s the second and final part of our...
12.26.2023
CultureLab: The best books of 2023, from joyful escapism to sobering reads
Are you looking forward to catching up on some reading over the holiday season? Or perhaps you are on the prowl for book recommendations after receiving a few literary gift cards? If so, you are in luck – this episode...
12.22.2023
Best of 2023, part 1: Euclid telescope’s big year; AI is everywhere (for better and worse); why doctors searched their poo for tiny toys
#229 Your hands are heavier than you think. Beer goggles aren’t real. And many water utilities in the United Kingdom still use dowsing to find leaks in pipes. It’s the first part of our annual best-in-show of science stories from...
12.19.2023
CultureLab: A duet between music and the natural world with Erland Cooper’s playful compositions
Composer Erland Cooper is known for playful, innovative, experimental projects. For example, he buried the only audio copy of a 2021 composition – then left treasure hunt clues for people to try to find it. Which one couple, eventually, did....
12.17.2023
Science of cannabis: #3 The weed of the future
Cannabis is one of the oldest products of human cultivation. And as it becomes increasingly legal for medical and recreational use around the world, its popularity is growing as well – even as researchers, limited by government prohibitions of the...
12.15.2023
Weekly: New climate deal at COP28; AI mathematician; a problem with the universe
#228 We have a new, landmark climate deal, signalling the beginning of the end of fossil fuels. But even as the announcement at COP28 includes commitments for some of the most pressing issues, including giving money to countries most affected...
12.12.2023
CultureLab: The Royal Flying Doctors - Saving lives in the Australian outback
The Australian outback is vast and the population is really spread out. This makes getting access to emergency healthcare incredibly challenging, as you may be a thousand kilometres or more from the nearest major hospital. The solution? Australia’s Royal Flying...
12.10.2023
Science of cannabis: #2 The anatomy of a high
Human beings have cultivated cannabis for thousands of years. We have been using it for its euphoric effects for at least several thousand. And as prohibition in the United States and other nations gives way to legal, recreational use, more...
12.08.2023
Weekly: IBM’s powerful new quantum computers; climate wins and flops at COP28; our sweet partnership with honeyguide birds
#227 Quantum computing researchers at IBM have stepped up the power of their devices by a huge amount. The company’s new device Condor has more than doubled the number of quantum bits of its previous record-breaking machine, which was released...
12.05.2023
CultureLab: Teaching science through cooking with Pia Sorenson’s real life ‘Lessons in Chemistry’
Did your chemistry lessons involve baking chocolate lava cakes? Have you ever wanted to eat your biology homework? While ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ brought a fictional cooking-as-chemistry story to TV viewers this fall, real-life scientist Pia Sörensen’s students are some of...
12.01.2023
Weekly: Biggest climate summit since Paris; thanking dirt for all life on Earth; what if another star flew past our solar system?
#226 This year’s COP28 could be the most important climate summit since the Paris Agreement in 2015. After opening in Dubai on Thursday, this will be the first time countries will formally take stock of climate change since agreeing to...
11.28.2023
Science of cannabis: #1 A long history and a seismic shift
Cannabis is having a moment. Half of the US population lives in a state where marijuana is legal, and 9 in 10 people nationwide support legalisation in some form. This is a stark difference from mere decades ago, when prohibition...
11.24.2023
Weekly: Salt glaciers could host life on Mercury; brain cells that tell us when to eat; powerful cosmic ray hits Earth
#225 Life on Mercury? That would be a shocking discovery. The planet is incredibly inhospitable to life… as we know it. But the discovery of salt glaciers on its surface has opened up the possibility that extremophile bacteria could be...
11.22.2023
Dead Planets Society: #11 Cube Earth Part Two
Turning the Earth into a cube, the gift that just keeps giving. Last episode we had fish bowl spaceships, this time we have sea monsters! If you thought cubifying the Earth couldn’t get more wacky, you’re in for a treat....
11.21.2023
Dead Planets Society: #10 Cube Earth Part One
This is it, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. We’ve killed the sun, smushed the asteroid belt, burrowed into other planets… but now it’s time for the big one… Earth. In this two-part season finale, Leah Crane and Chelsea...
11.17.2023
Weekly: Saving the trees we already have; why US men are dying younger; soap bubble lasers (pew pew pew)
#224 Tree planting has become an incredibly popular way of attempting to store carbon dioxide and slow global warming. But new research estimates we may be able to store huge amounts of carbon dioxide without planting any new trees at...
11.14.2023
CultureLab: Orbital - A love letter to Earth from the International Space Station, with Samantha Harvey
As astronauts look down on Earth from space, the experience is often life-altering. The “pale blue dot” looks fragile from way up there. And in the novel Orbital, we get to see our planet from the perspective of astronauts aboard...
11.10.2023
Weekly: Spinal cord stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease; half-synthetic yeast; harvesting the ocean’s heat for energy
#223 Spinal cord stimulation has, for the first time, been used to improve the mobility of someone with Parkinson’s Disease. Marc, who has battled the condition for 30 years, once fell five to six times daily, but now is able...
11.07.2023
Dead Planets Society: #9 Unify the Asteroid Belt
Asteroids are cool, but they’re all spread out across the solar system. Wouldn’t it be neater if we could smush them all together to make one MEGA asteroid? Maybe even an asteroid… planet. From an asteroid sausage machine to a...

What's New Scientist Podcasts about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

New Scientist Podcasts episodes:

Dead Planets Society: How to Destroy A Black Hole

Weekly: The multiverse just got bigger; saving the white rhino; musical mushrooms

CultureLab: Jen Gunter on the taboo science of menstruation

Weekly: Miniature livers made from lymph nodes in groundbreaking medical procedure

Escape Pod: #8 Escape from predators and escape from the planet

Weekly: Immune system treatment makes old mice seem young again; new black hole image; unexploded bombs are becoming more dangerous

CultureLab: Stranded on a fantastical planet: The strange creatures of Scavengers Reign

Weekly: How declining birth rates could shake up society; Humanoid robots; Top prize in mathematics

Escape Pod: #7 Speed: From the quickest animal in the world to the fastest supercomputer

Weekly: Gaza’s impending long-term health crisis

CultureLab: Rebecca Boyle on how the moon transformed Earth and made us who we are

Weekly: Woolly mammoth breakthrough?; The Anthropocene rejected; Bumblebee culture

Escape Pod: #6 All About Warmth: Emotional, Physiological and Geological

Weekly: Is personalised medicine overhyped?; Pythagoras was wrong about music; How your brain sees nothing

CultureLab: What would life on Mars be like? The science behind TV series For All Mankind

Weekly: ADHD helps foraging?; the rise of AI “deepfakes”; ignored ovary appendage

Escape Pod #5 Sound: Prepare to feel relaxed, tingly and amazed, in the space of 20 minutes

Weekly: Reversing blindness; power beamed from space; animal love languages

CultureLab: Where billionaires rule the apocalypse: Naomi Alderman’s ‘The Future’

Weekly: Record-breaking fusion experiments inch the world closer to new source of clean energy

Escape Pod: #4 Mass: from lightest creates on earth, to the heaviest things in the cosmos

Weekly: Alzheimer’s from contaminated injections; Musk's Neuralink begins human trials; longest living dogs

CultureLab: Earth’s Last Great Wild Areas – Simon Reeve on BBC series ‘Wilderness’

Weekly: Why AI won’t take your job just yet; how sound helps fungi grow faster; chickpeas grown in moon dust for first time

Escape Pod: #3 Music: the jazz swing of birdsong and the sonification of the orbits of planets

Weekly: Cloned rhesus monkey lives to adulthood for first time; fermented foods carry antibiotic resistant bugs; an impossible cosmic object

CultureLab: Breaking space records, human bowling and a trip to the Moon with astronaut Christina Koch

Weekly: Brain regions shrink during pregnancy; oldest and largest Amazon cities discovered; corals that change their sex like clockwork

Escape Pod: #2 Alliances in matters biological, mathematical and atomical

Weekly: What’s next for science in 2024? A year of moons; weight-loss drugs; and a massive new supercomputer for Europe

Escape Pod: #1 Understanding the self-awareness of dolphins

Best of 2023, part 2: India lands on the moon; the orca uprising; birds make use of anti-bird spikes

CultureLab: The best books of 2023, from joyful escapism to sobering reads

Best of 2023, part 1: Euclid telescope’s big year; AI is everywhere (for better and worse); why doctors searched their poo for tiny toys

CultureLab: A duet between music and the natural world with Erland Cooper’s playful compositions

Science of cannabis: #3 The weed of the future

Weekly: New climate deal at COP28; AI mathematician; a problem with the universe

CultureLab: The Royal Flying Doctors - Saving lives in the Australian outback

Science of cannabis: #2 The anatomy of a high

Weekly: IBM’s powerful new quantum computers; climate wins and flops at COP28; our sweet partnership with honeyguide birds

CultureLab: Teaching science through cooking with Pia Sorenson’s real life ‘Lessons in Chemistry’

Weekly: Biggest climate summit since Paris; thanking dirt for all life on Earth; what if another star flew past our solar system?

Science of cannabis: #1 A long history and a seismic shift

Weekly: Salt glaciers could host life on Mercury; brain cells that tell us when to eat; powerful cosmic ray hits Earth

Dead Planets Society: #11 Cube Earth Part Two

Dead Planets Society: #10 Cube Earth Part One

Weekly: Saving the trees we already have; why US men are dying younger; soap bubble lasers (pew pew pew)

CultureLab: Orbital - A love letter to Earth from the International Space Station, with Samantha Harvey

Weekly: Spinal cord stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease; half-synthetic yeast; harvesting the ocean’s heat for energy

Dead Planets Society: #9 Unify the Asteroid Belt