Black holes get a bad rap. They’ve been cast as the monsters of the cosmos — gobbling up stars and stretching anything that gets too close into cosmic spaghetti. But black hole expert Janna Levin thinks they’re just misunderstood. A theoretical physicist, author, and founding scientific director of Pioneer Works, Janna has spent her career decoding these mysterious objects. In this episode, she dives into the strange physics of black holes: what they are, what they sound like, what happens if you fall into one, and how there’s a lighter side to every black hole. Janna shares why black holes might not be the end of everything — but the beginning of something even weirder.

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In a world flooded with fake images, manipulated videos, and AI-generated voices, how do we know what’s real anymore? Hany has made it his mission to find out. A leading voice in AI research and digital forensics, Farid is a professor at UC Berkeley and Chief Science Officer at GetReal Labs, where he works to authenticate digital media and expose the fakes. In this episode, Hakeem and Hany dive into how we got here. How does AI really work? How are deepfakes detected? And what does the future hold for truth in the digital age? Plus, Hakeem puts Hany to the test: can he tell the difference between real and AI-generated headlines? And can Hakeem tell a deepfake version of Hany from the real thing?

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What do fossilized leaves, an asteroid, and Florida sinkholes have in common? Dr. Kirk Johnson is Sant Director at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, and has the answers. Kirk oversees one of the largest natural history collections on the planet – and he’s spent his career digging into the story of life on Earth across millions (and billions) of years. In this episode, Hakeem and Kirk explore the science of “deep time,” how fossils actually form, and the surprising origins of Earth’s oceans. Plus, Kirk shares some hot tips on fossil hunting and how to count the number of leaves on a tree … because you never know when you might need these skills.

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What happens when brilliant minds collide? In Particles of Thought, astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi is obsessed with understanding not just what the world's greatest scientists know, but how they think. From quantum mechanics clashing with general relativity to fossil memories written in ancient rocks, each conversation captures those electrifying moments when curiosity sparks new understanding. Join Hakeem as he explores the downright bizarre, the subatomic, and the furthest reaches of the universe through the minds that dare to question everything.

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We wanted to share this first episode of a thrilling three-part documentary miniseries from our friends at MASTERPIECE: Making MASTERPIECE, which tells the whole story of how a scrappy group of public media producers in Boston created THE home for British drama on American TV. You can hear episodes of Making MASTERPIECE — including interviews with Hugh Bonneville, Lily Collins, Charles Dance, and many more — at pbs.org/masterpiece or wherever you listen to podcasts.

For tens of thousands of years, humans have pondered eternal questions like “How does our world even exist?” and “Where did we come from?” Now, more than ever, scientists are finding answers within the Big Bang theory. About 13.8 billion years ago, in a fraction of a fraction of a second, the universe expanded into being. The event, astronomers believe, was less of an explosion than a transformation of energy into matter: As this so-called inflation slowed, it gave way to matter, radiation, and all we know today. But more questions loom. 

To learn how scientists came up with the Big Bang theory, Dr. Alok Patel hears from a physicist and a cosmologist about the forces that shaped our early universe and the tools researchers use to peer back in time. And, he learns what scientists’ understanding of the universe’s origins can tell us about its ultimate end.

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Black holes: they’re dense, elusive, light-absorbing pockets of spacetime that are critical to our understanding of the universe. But black holes are difficult to peer into, so there’s a lot scientists still don’t know. This leaves some room for science fiction to take over. Tall tales of galactic adventure may pair well with popcorn, but they also blur the lines between fact and fiction. To explore what humanity knows—and what we think we know—about black holes, Dr. Alok Patel and a theoretical cosmologist journey to Earth’s closest black hole: the Milky Way’s own Sagittarius A*, approximately 26,000 light-years away. (Don’t worry; no scientists or science nerds were harmed in the making of this episode.)

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If television shows and movies are any indication, we humans spend a lot of our time subconsciously preparing for UFOs carrying maleficent aliens to descend on Earth. But should we rush to create an intergalactic battle plan? In actuality, finding otherworldly life won’t be so easy (or, hopefully, so dangerous). Already, astronomers and other scientists are using a multitude of techniques to search for planets outside our solar system and any signs of life they carry. With 4,500 exoplanets identified out of what could be hundreds of billions in our galaxy alone, one thing is becoming clear: If we find extraterrestrial life, it likely won’t be anything like Hollywood has imagined. 

Hearing from two exoplanet experts about the diversity of planets and life in the Milky Way, Dr. Alok Patel learns that Earth is incredibly unique—and surprisingly mundane.

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When our ancestors looked up into the night sky, they too saw a great, glimmering band of light splitting the darkness. In Southeast Asia, people called it “the Silver River.” In Southern Africa, “the Backbone of the Night.” And in the West, around 2,500 years ago, it earned the name “the Milky Way.” Across the globe, civilizations had theories of what the band of light was and why it was there. But only recently have humans had the tools to get the full picture. 

Today we know the Milky Way is our galaxy: two spiral arms filled with more than 100 billion stars, all rotating around a supermassive black hole. And here on our little blue planet, we’re in the middle of it all. Dr. Alok Patel speaks with two galaxy experts to find out how scientists have built the first high-resolution, three-dimensional map of the Milky Way—and what that map reveals about the formation and future of our galactic home.

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The process that powers our sun was still a mystery about 100 years ago. Bit by bit, scientists have worked out that the fusion of hydrogen at a star’s core can generate enough power to keep it shining for billions of years. Now, armed with this knowledge, researchers around the world are trying to figure out if we can recreate that fusion process here on Earth. (And yes, trying to kickstart fusion—and then contain superheated plasmas that reach temperatures up to 100 million degrees Celsius—is just as hard as it sounds.) If scientists can pull it off, the payoff could be huge: A deep understanding of stellar physics could one day lead to a virtually unlimited supply of clean energy. To discover just how, Dr. Alok Patel hears from an astrophysicist and a fusion scientist.

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