Science Vs

By Spotify Studios

Education

What's Science Vs about?

There are a lot of fads, blogs and strong opinions, but then there’s SCIENCE. Science Vs is the show from Gimlet that finds out what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between. We do the hard work of sifting through all the science so you don't have to and cover everything from 5G and Pandemics, to Vaping and Fasting Diets.

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Personality Tests: Who Are ...

12.07.2023

Personality tests like the MBTI are all over the internet, the workplace, and dating apps — but some say it’s all a bunch of baloney. So are any of these tests legit? And what can science actually tell us about ...

Science Vs episodes:

12.07.2023 Personality Tests: Who Are You Really? Personality tests like the MBTI are all over the internet, the workplace, and dating apps — but some say it’s all a bunch of baloney. So are any of these tests legit? And what can science actually tell us about ...
11.30.2023 Caffeine: How Much is Too Much? Caffeine is a drug that tons of us take every day. But is that a bad thing? And if we get it in the form of energy drinks, is that super dangerous? We talk to Dr. Astrid Nehlig, Prof. Gregory ...
11.23.2023 MDMA: Can Ecstasy Cure Your Agony? Molly, ecstasy, MDMA: whatever you call it, this drug is blowing up. Some say MDMA can be a legitimate medicine to treat conditions like PTSD. But others reckon it's a dangerous drug that can fry your brain, and even kill ...
11.16.2023 Pssst!! The Science of Gossip We all know gossip can be bad — but some of us still can’t seem to get enough of it. So today we’re digging into the science of gossip to answer questions like: who really gossips? And why do we ...
11.09.2023 When Your Eyes See Lies A dead man with a bitten penis and perplexing DNA, a terrifying syndrome where everything around you appears in miniature, and the big lie we all believe about lemmings: Wendy and Joel tell three science stories about times when things ...
11.02.2023 Sleep: How Do We Get More? Not sleeping enough turning you into a monster? In one of our most popular episodes, we bring you the cutting-edge science that helps us understand why. And we sort through the fads to find out, what really works to get ...
10.26.2023 Seed Oils: Is Your Canola Oil Killing You? We’ve been told that foods like butter and bacon are bad for us — because they're packed with saturated fats. And top dogs in nutrition say that a better option is vegetable oil, like canola oil. But there’s a trend ...
10.19.2023 UFOs: The Truth Is Right Here A whistleblower claims that the U.S. government is covering up what it knows about aliens on Earth, and several military pilots recently testified to seeing strange objects in the sky. It kinda feels like the tide is turning on UFOs ...
10.12.2023 Andrew Huberman on Supplements, the Covid Lab Leak Theory and more Andrew Huberman is a skate punk turned neuroscientist, and he hosts one of the most popular podcasts in the U.S.: The Huberman Lab. Today, we talk to him about his unlikely path to becoming a scientist, his fascinating research into ...
10.05.2023 Self-Care: Can You Hack Your Mood? Can plunging into an ice bath make us feel happier? What about gratitude journaling? We’re digging into some of the quirkiest self-care hacks around the internet to find out what the science says — and whether you should add them ...
09.28.2023 Why Fossil Nerds Are Pissed Right Now The smash hit Netflix documentary “Unknown: Cave of Bones” has kicked off an all-out science brawl. The film makes extraordinary claims about a strange ape-like creature that lived hundreds of thousands of years ago — claims that rewrite what it ...
09.21.2023 Vaping: Is It Really That Bad? More and more people are puffing on vapes — but some governments are making moves to ban them. So how dangerous is vaping, really? And as we inhale that sweet cherry flavor into our lungs, could we also be changing ...
09.14.2023 Breathwork: A Bunch of Hot Air? The latest hot new trend is: breathing. Yeah, that’s right — there are claims that so-called breathwork can cure depression and supercharge your brain. Breathfluencers reckon that we're breathing all wrong but that with the right kind of breathing, you ...
09.07.2023 We're Back! And Boldly Going Where We've Never Gone Before Brand-new episodes will drop starting next week! Stay tuned for science deep dives on breathing and breathwork, seed oils (what SHOULD we cook with??), UFOs, self-care, energy drinks, personality tests and much much MUCH more. Learn more about your ad ...
08.24.2023 The Best Ever Episode of Science Vs This week – our episode that you voted as our BEST wild card episode!! You’ll have to listen to find out what it is. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/SVBestEverEp In this episode talk to Brie Smith, Micah Truman, Katrina Spade ...
08.17.2023 Orgasms: Your Favorite Sex Episode! Here’s the episode you picked as our best sex and sexual health episode: Orgasms! There’s this idea that the female orgasm is a complicated riddle, but for a man with a penis, getting off is easy peasy. Is there really ...
08.10.2023 Exercise: Your Favorite Wellness Episode! Here’s the episode you voted as our best wellness episode: Exercise! Lots of people hit the gym to shed unwanted pounds, but they don’t always see results on the scale. We tackle the power of exercise and why you should ...
08.03.2023 Magic Mushrooms: Your Favorite Drugs Episode! Here’s the episode you voted as our best drug episode: Magic Mushrooms! People are saying that shrooms cured their depression and anxiety. But is this for real? How could taking a trip on psychedelics fix your brain? Today, magic mushrooms ...
07.27.2023 Behind the Scenes of ‘Oppenheimer’ Today we're going behind the scenes of Christopher Nolan's blockbuster film “Oppenheimer.” Professor David Saltzberg, one of the scientists who consulted on the movie (also “The Big Bang Theory”), joins us to chat about the science behind the movie. We ...
07.20.2023 How Bats Break Science Many bats can live a bizarrely long time, and brush off viruses that kill people. How do they do it and what can we learn from them? Zoology Professor Emma Teeling and bat researcher and clinician Matae Ahn fly through ...
06.29.2023 Sex Drive: The Dirrrrrrty Science Tons of people struggle to get revved up about sex. It can mess with their relationships and how they feel about themselves. So enter the multimillion-dollar supplement industry with miracle solutions. Even Big Pharma has joined the battle for our ...
06.22.2023 Who Killed Affordable Housing? Housing has gotten SO expensive — for many of us, buying something seems totally out of reach. And even renting a decent apartment is a struggle these days. Who, or what, is to blame for these high prices? We track ...
06.15.2023 Gluten: Should You Give It Up? Going gluten-free is all the rage — we hear it’s the secret hack to being more healthy, even if you don’t have celiac disease. But is gluten actually bad for all of us? And what’s the deal with gluten sensitivity? ...
06.08.2023 AI: Is It Out Of Control? Artificial Intelligence seems more human-like and capable than ever before — but how did it get so good so quickly? Today, we’re pulling back the curtain to find out exactly how AI works. And we'll dig into one of the ...
06.01.2023 Blue Balls: A Ball-Faced Lie? We join forces with Sarah Marshall from You’re Wrong About to dive into a question for the ages: Blue balls — are they real? And we’ve got some BIG blue balls news in this episode! The survey we did when ...
05.25.2023 The Dentist: Toss the Floss? Flush the Brush? The dentist tells us to floss, brush, avoid certain food and drinks ... but what actually matters when it comes to having healthy teeth? We're drilling into the science on all of it. Plus, we go undercover to find out ...
05.18.2023 Skin Care: Is Anti-Aging a Scam? When it comes to keeping our skin looking younger, what works? Retinol, hyaluronic acid, vitamin C? This simple question has become confused by the billion-dollar skin-care industry, which floods us with scientific-sounding claims about the chemicals they say we should ...
05.11.2023 Did We Predict the Pandemic? Just two months before Covid-19 broke out, we made a fictional pandemic episode that was like “Contagion” but with citations. And we played it for Dr. Anthony Fauci. Today, we’re looking back at that episode and asking — how much ...
05.04.2023 I’ll Be Dammed: Beavers Fighting Climate Change Today, we give a dam about beavers. These busy rodents don’t just chill and go with the flow — it turns out their grabby paws are actually helping hands in the fight against climate change. We dive into how this ...
04.27.2023 Ketamine: How Special is Special K? For years, ketamine has been thought of mostly as a horse tranquilizer — or a street drug that puts you in a scary-sounding K-hole. But now, we’re hearing reports that it could be almost a miracle medicine, treating stubborn depression ...
04.20.2023 Pit Bulls: Bad to the Bone? Pit bulls have a dark reputation. And some people say the science backs this up: that they bite people more often and do more damage when they chomp down. But other people say, no way — these dogs don’t deserve ...
04.13.2023 Superbugs: Apocalypse … Now? Imagine getting an infection, going to the doctor, and having no little pill to make you better. Welcome to a world of SUPERBUGS. For years we've been hearing that our antibiotics aren't working as well as they used to. But ...
04.06.2023 Hangovers: What Really Helps? What actually cures a hangover? Water? Crushed up Advil? Maybe a burger, fries and a Diet Coke? We wanted to know what the science says about how to bounce back when we’ve had a few too many. We talk to ...
03.30.2023 Alcohol: Time to Put a Cork in It? For decades we’ve been yanked around over alcohol: one day it’s actually good for us, the next day it’s a killer. And recently there’ve been reports that even a little bit of booze is bad for you overall. We first ...
03.23.2023 Weight Loss Meds: Is Ozempic a Miracle Drug? People say drugs like Ozempic are helping them lose tons of weight. But are these drugs really all they’re cracked up to be? Or could this be yet another dangerous weight loss fad? We talk to endocrinologists Prof. Tricia Tan ...
03.16.2023 Nerds, Assemble! Science Vs Is Back We’ve got the goods on weight loss drugs, ketamine, pit bulls, skincare and more! Come for the science, stay for the jokes. Or vice versa. In your feeds March 23. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
02.09.2023 Listen to Science Vs in Spanish! Science Vs has gone bilingual! La Ciencia Vs is the Spanish-language version of the show, and today we’re introducing the amazing hosts, Dr. Leonora Milán and Dr. Alejandra Ortíz, and sharing the Serial Killers episode: Asesinos Seriales. Find more episodes ...
12.09.2022 Adderall: What's It Doing to Your Brain? There’s an Adderall shortage across the U.S., and it’s causing huge problems for people with ADHD. But on the flip side, we hear people saying that we shouldn’t be giving this drug out anyway. So we wanted to know: What ...
12.02.2022 When Science and Superstitions Collide This is the THIRTEENTH season of the show! So we’re diving into stories about superstitions and luck. We’ll share the eerie tale of a 13-legged sea creature. We’ll talk about a hot new telescope that’s trying to look back 13 ...
11.17.2022 Hypnosis: Does It Really Work? What is hypnosis? Is it mind control? Are some people just faking? We’re revisiting this episode in which we explore the science of hypnosis and take Science Vs to the edge of consciousness. In the service of journalism, Wendy tries ...
11.10.2022 Deodorant: Is It Dangerous? Today, we’re diving into your armpits! We’ll find out why some of us are so freaking smelly. And then we’re asking: Are deodorants and antiperspirants safe, or should we ditch our sticks? We’ll talk to microbiologist Professor Gavin H Thomas, ...
11.03.2022 The Male Pill: When Is It Coming? A male birth control pill has been this big tease for decades. And today, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade … a male pill might matter more than ever. So we’re grabbing science by the balls to find out ...
10.20.2022 The Mystery of the Man Who Died Twice A dead body turns up with a stolen identity. We tell the story of how a grandmother tracked down the truth — and helped create a whole new and controversial world of crime fighting. To tell this story, we talk ...
10.13.2022 Mass Shootings: How Do We Stop Them? Buffalo. Uvalde. Highland Park. These mass shootings keep happening. One side says the problem is the guns, and the other side says the problem is the people. Who’s right? And what policies might actually work to stop mass shootings? We ...
10.06.2022 Should We Compost Human Bodies? What's the greenest way to die? Some nerds are saying that our bodies should go the way of our veggie scraps — and become compost. But will people get on board with spreading Grandpa in the garden? To find out, ...
09.22.2022 The Fight to Fix a Racist Medical Gadget The EEG is an incredibly important medical tool — and it’s been failing Black patients for decades. So today we’ll hear from two young, Black scientists who teamed up with hairdressers to do something about it. We speak to neurologist ...
09.15.2022 Vegans: Are They Right? Do vegans have a right to be so smug? We’re finding out whether it really is better for the environment, and our bodies, to go vegan. We speak to environmental researcher Joseph Poore, historian Prof. Connie Hilliard, anthropologist Prof. Katharine ...
09.08.2022 Hydration: Are You Drinking Enough Water? Celebs and wellness blogs treat water like a magic elixir that will make us the most attractive and healthiest version of ourselves. But do these claims hold water? And how much do we really need to be drinking to stay ...
09.01.2022 We're Back for Season THIRTEEN There’s tons of misinformation, fads and strong opinions floating around out there — but then there’s SCIENCE. Season 13 starts on September 8! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
08.03.2022 Fauci on Monkeypox: What Went Wrong We called up Dr. Anthony Fauci to talk about monkeypox. We wanted to know — what’s the deal with the slow response here? And why haven’t we gotten this virus under control? Here’s a link to our transcript: https://bit.ly/3BB7WBi This ...

Older episodes

Science Vs

What's Science Vs about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Science Vs episodes:

Personality Tests: Who Are You Really?

Caffeine: How Much is Too Much?

MDMA: Can Ecstasy Cure Your Agony?

Pssst!! The Science of Gossip

When Your Eyes See Lies

Sleep: How Do We Get More?

Seed Oils: Is Your Canola Oil Killing You?

UFOs: The Truth Is Right Here

Andrew Huberman on Supplements, the Covid Lab Leak Theory and more

Self-Care: Can You Hack Your Mood?

Why Fossil Nerds Are Pissed Right Now

Vaping: Is It Really That Bad?

Breathwork: A Bunch of Hot Air?

We're Back! And Boldly Going Where We've Never Gone Before

The Best Ever Episode of Science Vs

Orgasms: Your Favorite Sex Episode!

Exercise: Your Favorite Wellness Episode!

Magic Mushrooms: Your Favorite Drugs Episode!

Behind the Scenes of ‘Oppenheimer’

How Bats Break Science

Sex Drive: The Dirrrrrrty Science

Who Killed Affordable Housing?

Gluten: Should You Give It Up?

AI: Is It Out Of Control?

Blue Balls: A Ball-Faced Lie?

The Dentist: Toss the Floss? Flush the Brush?

Skin Care: Is Anti-Aging a Scam?

Did We Predict the Pandemic?

I’ll Be Dammed: Beavers Fighting Climate Change

Ketamine: How Special is Special K?

Pit Bulls: Bad to the Bone?

Superbugs: Apocalypse … Now?

Hangovers: What Really Helps?

Alcohol: Time to Put a Cork in It?

Weight Loss Meds: Is Ozempic a Miracle Drug?

Nerds, Assemble! Science Vs Is Back

Listen to Science Vs in Spanish!

Adderall: What's It Doing to Your Brain?

When Science and Superstitions Collide

Hypnosis: Does It Really Work?

Deodorant: Is It Dangerous?

The Male Pill: When Is It Coming?

The Mystery of the Man Who Died Twice

Mass Shootings: How Do We Stop Them?

Should We Compost Human Bodies?

The Fight to Fix a Racist Medical Gadget

Vegans: Are They Right?

Hydration: Are You Drinking Enough Water?

We're Back for Season THIRTEEN

Fauci on Monkeypox: What Went Wrong

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