The Knowable podcast

The Knowable Magazine podcast from Annual Reviews explores the limits to what’s knowable —
and how thinking about big questions in science and technology evolves over time.

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Listen to the latest

Speech interjections aren’t throwaway lines

PODCAST: Turns out, the best listener isn't quiet, as our host learns in a chat with two linguists. All those ums, ohs and mm-hmms have unexpected value.

By Adam Levy

Listen: Season 3

Food & Environment

Scientists warned about climate change in 1965. Nothing was done.

PODCAST: A report to the US president sounded an alarm — humankind was ‘conducting a vast geophysical experiment’ by burning fossil fuels and filling the atmosphere with an ‘invisible pollutant.’ But a slick campaign by Big Oil led to confusion, politicization and dire consequences for the planet. (Season 3, Episode 1)

By Adam Levy

Living World

The fossil that launched a dinosaur revolution

PODCAST: Archaeopteryx forever changed our understanding of dinosaurs and the origin of birds, but it took a century after its discovery and a one-page paper to shift scientific consensus (Season 3, Episode 2)

By Charlotte Stoddart

The Mind

How the placebo effect went mainstream

PODCAST: Sloppy by today’s standards, and maybe even back when it was published in 1955, Henry Beecher’s paper paved the way for sounder drug trials and pushed scientists to better understand how we process pain (Season 3, Episode 3)

By Charlotte Stoddart

Physical World

Quantum entanglement’s long journey from ‘spooky’ to law of nature

PODCAST: From Einstein’s initial disbelief and Bell’s test to the 2022 Nobel Prizes, quantum entanglement has matured into a pillar of physics. Physicist Nicolas Gisin explains why it took so many decades.

By Adam Levy

Listen: Season 2

The Mind

The Knowable Magazine Podcast, season 2: Trailer

The science history series audio returns on February 1. Subscribe today.

By Adam Levy and Charlotte Stoddart

The Mind

The science of dreams

PODCAST: We have thoughts, visions and feelings while we sleep, experiencing a virtual reality of sorts. But how and why does dreaming happen? Researchers bring us closer to understanding the work our brains do while our bodies rest. (Season 2/Episode 1)

By Charlotte Stoddart

Physical World

The search for exoplanets

PODCAST: Not that long ago, scientists found evidence that our Sun wasn’t unique — other stars have their own orbiting bodies. It was a discovery centuries in the making. What does this mean for Earth today and our place in the universe? (Season 2/Episode 2)

By Adam Levy

Living World

Structural biology: How proteins got their close-up

PODCAST: The journey to solving the structures of these critically important molecules began with a chance discovery. Today, after decades of painstaking lab work and huge technological leaps, the field of protein science is exploding. (Season 2/Episode 3)

By Charlotte Stoddart

Food & Environment

The history of climate change offers clues to Earth’s future

PODCAST: Digging — quite literally — into our planet’s past to study its paleoclimate has shed light on bygone ice ages and hints at trouble ahead for our now-warming world (Season 2/Episode 4)

By Adam Levy

Physical World

How particle accelerators came to be

PODCAST: They started out so small, one could fit on the palm of your hand, but to make groundbreaking discoveries, physicists had to think really big — as in, vast machines with the power and capacity to reveal the tiniest building blocks of our universe (Season 2/Episode 5)

By Charlotte Stoddart

Health & Disease

How antidepressants changed ideas about depression

PODCAST: Serendipitous discoveries led to drugs like Prozac and to new insights into the physical basis of this debilitating disorder. But scientists continue to search for deeper understandings and therapies that will bring relief to those who still struggle. (Season 2, Episode 6)

By Adam Levy

Listen: Season 1

Physical World

How black holes morphed from theory to reality

PODCAST: Physicists were mostly skeptical back when the idea of them emerged a century ago from Einstein’s work. The evolution of the evidence, from circumstantial to conclusive, is the quintessential story of science. (Season 1/Episode 1)

By Adam Levy

Health & Disease

The heart of invention

PODCAST: Replacing or assisting the human heart with a machine would save countless lives. But the quest to build an artificial heart has had many gruesome missteps and caused researchers to reimagine how to keep our blood flowing. (Season 1/Episode 2)

By Adam Levy

Technology

The dazzling history of solar power

PODCAST: Once fringe and futuristic, this renewable energy shines brightly today as a cheap and efficient source of energy. Still, it remains controversial — for much different reasons. (Season 1/Episode 3)

By Adam Levy

The Mind

Memory, the mystery

PODCAST: Just in the past half-century, our understanding of how exactly our brains remember has taken huge leaps. Amazingly, this is just the beginning. (Season 1/ Episode 4)

By Adam Levy

The Knowable Magazine podcast from Annual Reviews explores the limits to what’s knowable — and how thinking about big questions in science and technology evolves over time.

Subscribe:

Listen to the latest

Speech interjections aren’t throwaway lines

Listen: Season 3

Scientists warned about climate change in 1965. Nothing was done.

The fossil that launched a dinosaur revolution

How the placebo effect went mainstream

Quantum entanglement’s long journey from ‘spooky’ to law of nature

Listen: Season 2

The Knowable Magazine Podcast, season 2: Trailer

The science of dreams

The search for exoplanets

Structural biology: How proteins got their close-up

The history of climate change offers clues to Earth’s future

How particle accelerators came to be

How antidepressants changed ideas about depression

Listen: Season 1

How black holes morphed from theory to reality

The heart of invention

The dazzling history of solar power

Memory, the mystery

This is not a paywall.

The Knowable Magazine podcast from Annual Reviews explores the limits to what’s knowable —
and how thinking about big questions in science and technology evolves over time.