Florida just became the second state to ban fluoride from its water system, which has made some public health experts pretty angry. Just how risky is fluoride really, and why is it so hard for us to get on the same page?

Guest: Emily Oster, professor of economics at Brown University and CEO of ParentData

For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Static electricity plays an invisible role in the natural world, and it may even help insects pollinate plants. To understand this hidden force, scientists have jumped through some pretty weird experimental hoops — and “walked” butterflies through literal hoops.

Guests: Sam England, postdoctoral researcher at Berlin's National History Museum; Benji Jones, Vox's environmental correspondent

To read more about this experiment, Benji recommends this great article from Quanta Magazine, where he first encountered Sam's work.

For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠

For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Aphantasia is the inability to see with your mind’s eye. And its discovery has made scientists ask a surprising question: What is the mind’s eye even for? (First published in 2022.)

Guests: Alice Coles, artist; Adam Zeman, cognitive neurologist at the University of Exeter Medical School; Joel Pearson, professor of neuroscience at the University of New South Wales; Emily Holmes, professor of psychology at Uppsala University

For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠

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Scavengers Reign, the Emmy-winning Netflix show, has done something most sci-fi shows or movies struggle to do. Build a world that feels truly alien.

Guests: ⁠⁠Joe Bennett⁠⁠, co-creator of Scavengers Reign, and ⁠⁠Sean Buckelew⁠⁠, writer on Scavengers Reign

For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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The magma chambers at the heart of volcanoes are very deep and very hot. So naturally, some researchers want to build an observatory in one.

Guests: Mike Poland, scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory; Yan Lavallée, chair of magmatic petrology and volcanology at LMU München and scientific and technical board member of the Krafla Magma Testbed; John Eichelberger, volcanologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and founding scientist of KMT

For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠

For more, go to ⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠

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Rumors of Neanderthal brutishness have been greatly exaggerated.

Guest: Paige Madison, science writer

For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠

For more, go to ⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠

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What happens when you get a life-changing device implanted into your body... and then the company that maintains it goes bankrupt?

Guests: Jennifer French, Executive Director and Founder of ⁠Neurotech Network⁠, a nonprofit focused on education and advocacy for neurotechnology, and ⁠Liam Drew⁠, freelance science journalist who reported on abandoned neurotech for ⁠Nature⁠

For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠

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Tens of thousands of lives could be saved each year if hospitals had more blood. So scientists are racing to understand how this living fluid does what it does in order to one day grow it from scratch.

Guest: Nicola Twilley, New Yorker contributor and host of Gastropod. 

For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

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We know life on Earth wouldn't be possible without the moon. Now scientists are finding the moon might even be influencing our biology on a molecular level.

Guest: Rebecca Boyle, science journalist and author of Our Moon: How Earth's celestial companion transformed the planet, guided evolution, and made us who we are

For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

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Listeners told us that eating baby carrots or telling lies can bring on the hiccups. Burping or kissing can make them stop. Um, what? (First published in 2023.)

Guests: Tyler Cymet, chair of medicine at The Chicago School, and Ali Seifi, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio

For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

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