Short Wave

When the dinosaurs walked the Earth, massive marine reptiles swam. Among them, a species of Ichthyosaur that measured over 80 feet long. Today, we look into how a chance discovery by a father-daughter duo of fossil hunters furthered paleontologist's understanding of the "giant fish lizard of the Severn." Currently, it is the largest marine reptile known to scientists.

Read more about this specimen in the study published in the journal PLOS One.

Have another ancient animal or scientific revelation you want us to cover? Email us at [email protected] — we might talk about it on a future episode!

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The Biden campaign and allied groups are aggressively advertising to win over persuadable voters. Trump and his affiliates are almost nowhere to be found.

This episode: political correspondent Susan Davis, senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.

This podcast was produced by Kelli Wessinger and Casey Morell. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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Speaker Mike Johnson has split apart the foreign military aid package sent over by the Senate into separate bills, focused on Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan respectively. He's also moving forward on border legislation and other red-meat Republican policy issues in an apparent effort to appease hardliners and protect his own job.

This episode: political correspondent Susan Davis, national security correspondent Greg Myre and congressional reporter Barbara Sprunt.

This podcast was produced by Kelli Wessinger and Casey Morell. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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500 million years ago, the world was a very different place. During this period of time, known as the Cambrian period, basically all life was in the water. The ocean was brimming with animals that looked pretty different from the ones we recognize today — including a group of predatory worms with a throat covered in teeth and spines.

Researchers thought these tiny terrors died out at the end of the Cambrian period. But a paper published recently in the journal Biology Letters showed examples of a new species of this worm in the fossil record 25 million years after scientists thought they'd vanished from the Earth. One of the authors of the paper, Karma Nanglu, tells us how this finding may change how scientists understand the boundaries of time.

Curious about other weird wonders of the ancient Earth? Email us at [email protected].

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More than 300 defendants have been charged with obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official congressional proceeding in connection to the Jan. 6 insurrection. But, so far, federal judges have disagreed about whether the statute was meant to apply only to the destruction of documents and records, not events like those on Jan 6. If the Supreme Court finds in favor of the rioters, many could see their jail sentences substantially reduced.

This episode: political correspondent Susan Davis, national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson, and national political correspondent Mara Liasson.

This podcast was produced by Kelli Wessinger and Casey Morell. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.

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Trump faces 34 felony counts alleging that he falsified New York business records in order to conceal damaging information to influence the 2016 presidential election. This is the first time in U.S. history a former president will be tried on criminal charges.

This episode: political correspondent Susan Davis, senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro, and national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson.

This podcast was produced by Kelli Wessinger and Casey Morell. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.

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We've all been there: You sit down for one episode of a reality TV show, and six hours later you're sitting guiltily on the couch, blinking the screen-induced crust off your eyeballs.

Okay. Maybe you haven't been there like our team has. But it's likely you have at least one guilty pleasure, whether it's playing video games, reading romance novels or getting swept into obscure corners of TikTok. It turns out that experiencing – and studying – pleasure is not as straightforward as it might seem. And yet, pleasure is quite literally key to the survival of humanity. So today on the show, we explore the pleasure cycle: What it is, where it lives in the brain and how to have a healthier relationship with the things that make us feel good.

Want more on the brain? Email us the neuroscience you want us to talk about at [email protected]! (Also please email us if you would like to gush about any of the books you've been loving — romantasy or otherwise!)

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The Biden administration unveiled new, targeted student debt forgiveness and new regulations on gun sales this week. The maneuvers appear targeted to boost the president's standing among young voters, who express lower levels of support for Biden compared to older age groups.

This episode: voting correspondent Ashley Lopez, political reporter Elena Moore, and political correspondent Susan Davis.

This podcast was produced by Kelli Wessinger and Casey Morell. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.

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Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency announced new drinking water standards to limit people's exposure to some PFAS chemicals. For decades, PFAS have been used to waterproof and stain-proof a variety of consumer products. These "forever chemicals" in a host of products — everything from raincoats and the Teflon of nonstick pans to makeup to furniture and firefighting foam. Because PFAS take a very long time to break down, they can accumulate in humans and the environment. Now, a growing body of research is linking them to human health problems like serious illness, some cancers, lower fertility and liver damage. Science correspondent Pien Huang joins the show today to talk through this new EPA rule — what the threshold for safe levels of PFAS in tap water is, why the rule is happening now and how the federal standards will be implemented.

Read more of Pien's reporting on the EPA's first ever rule on PFAS in drinking water.

Want to hear more about health and human safety? Email us at [email protected] — we might cover your question on a future episode!

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Erie, Pa., supported Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections, Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. What makes the county such a reliable bellwether? And how are campaign operatives there feeling about this year's race?

This episode: voting correspondent Ashley Lopez, senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro, and national political correspondent Don Gonyea.

This podcast was produced by Kelli Wessinger and Casey Morell. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.

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