Episodes

• Higher, Higher, Ants of Fire

  After a flood, thousands of homeless fire ants pile on top of one another to build bizarro towers with their own bodies — probably as temporary shelters. All the complex construction project needs is for each individual ant to follow …

  [more]

  July 21, 2017Episodes

• The Old Guard

  A new study may shed light on why teenagers sleep late while grandparents are often up at the crack of dawn. Fifty years ago, psychologist Frederick Snyder proposed that animals who live in groups stay vigilant during sleep, by having …

  [more]

  July 19, 2017Episodes

• Stringing Up Baby

  Built in 1937 and distributed in London to members of the Chelsea Baby Club, the baby cage was meant for big-city apartments without yards, and would allow small children to receive fresh air and sunlight. It would be suspended from …

  [more]

  July 17, 2017Episodes

• How to Kill a Gram

  Scientists are about to change what a kilogram is. The weights and measures committee will establish a global value for Planck’s constant and then will draft a resolution to redefine kilogram based on this constant. Why? Anthony and Jeff investigate, …

  [more]

  July 14, 2017Episodes

• Paternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (w/Vernon Shaw)

  Scientists have taken another step toward being able to edit out bad memories while leaving good ones intact — something that could one day be used to treat people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety disorders linked to …

  [more]

  July 12, 2017Episodes

• The Face That Feeds You

  Would your dog eat you if you died? Such in the question posed by The National Geographic in a new article. Anthony, as a dog owner himself, has to face the question as he and Jeff get the facts on …

  [more]

  July 10, 2017Episodes

• Tick Talk

  A rare allergy that causes people to have a terrible reaction to eating red meat is being spread in North America by ticks. Anthony and his vegan cabal are very pleased, but Jeff doesn’t quite know how to handle this …

  [more]

  July 7, 2017Episodes

• The Hunter Games

  Some people say that the advent of farming gave people more leisure time to build up civilization, but hunter-gatherers actually have far more leisure time than farmers do, and more still than modern people in the industrialized world. Some even …

  [more]

  July 5, 2017Episodes

• Rank the Hurting Top

  The National Health Service has compiled a list of the 20 most painful conditions known to humans. Anthony and Jeff take a gander at the list to see what hurts most, and try to figure out how to avoid it.…

  [more]

  July 3, 2017Episodes

• Left Tout

  The belief that there is a link between talent and left-handedness has a long history. Since Jeff and Anthony are both left handed, they might not be purely objective on this point, but they dive into the science anyway. Is …

  [more]

  June 30, 2017Episodes