Unexplainable

Vox

What we don't know is awesome

  • 27 minutes 57 seconds
    Placebos work. Why?

    For decades, scientists thought that placebos only worked if patients didn’t know they were taking them. Not anymore: You can give patients placebos, tell them they’re on sugar pills, and they still might feel better. No one is sure how this works, but it raises a question: Should doctors embrace placebos in mainstream medicine? (First published in 2021.)

    Guests: Ted Kaptchuk, professor at Harvard Medical School; Darwin Guevarra, professor of psychology at Miami University; Luana Colloca, professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

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    6 November 2024, 9:00 am
  • 21 minutes 51 seconds
    Why is horror so fun?

    It makes sense that we run away from scary things. That’s a good way to stay alive. But why do some people also love scary things? Why do people gravitate toward horror?

    Guests: Mathias Clasen and Marc Andersen, co-directors of the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

    For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable

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    30 October 2024, 8:00 am
  • 26 minutes 40 seconds
    Are psychedelics breaking science?

    Drugs like ecstasy and mushrooms have shown promise as mental health treatments, but they’re also exposing some major cracks in how scientists study the brain.

    Guests: Jonathan Lambert, science journalist; Boris Heifets, professor at Stanford University of Medicine; Amy Mcguire, professor at Baylor College of Medicine

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

    For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable

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    23 October 2024, 8:00 am
  • 30 minutes 9 seconds
    Your gut’s feelings

    How we feel emotionally may be influenced by unseen troves of microbial life that live inside us. Is it possible to harness this gut power? (First published in 2022)

    Guests: Michael Gershon, professor of pathology at Columbia University; and Katerina Johnson, microbiome researcher at Oxford University

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

    For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable

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    16 October 2024, 8:00 am
  • 30 minutes 59 seconds
    Is insurance doomed?

    As the world gets warmer and storms get worse, insurance companies are jacking up rates — or refusing to cover homeowners altogether. Is the future uninsurable?

    Guests: Umair Irfan, correspondent at Vox; Karen Clark, co-founder and CEO of Karen Clark & Company; Joe Skuba, VP at The Gray Insurance Company; and Carolyn Kousky, Associate VP at Environmental Defense Fund

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

    For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable

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    9 October 2024, 8:00 am
  • 27 minutes 20 seconds
    My animal heart

    Doctors have started transplanting animal organs into people, hoping this experimental procedure could one day solve an organ shortage crisis that kills 17 Americans every day. Is this really the solution?

    Guests: Muhammad Mohiuddin, professor of surgery at University of Maryland School of Medicine; L. Syd Johnson, professor of clinical bioethics at SUNY Upstate Medical University

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

    For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable

    And please email us! [email protected]

    We read every email.

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    2 October 2024, 8:00 am
  • 25 minutes 58 seconds
    How hot could the world get?

    Scientists have lots of ways to try to answer that question, and lots of different predictions. So how do they figure out one set of numbers we can all work with?

    Guests: Umair Irfan, correspondent at Vox; Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist at The Breakthrough Institute; Neil Swart, research scientist at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modeling and Analysis

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

    For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable

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    25 September 2024, 8:00 am
  • 30 minutes 40 seconds
    Should you be eating poison oak?

    Probably not. But Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz decided to try anyway, putting his body — and specifically his butt — on the line to answer a seemingly straightforward question: Is it possible to build up a tolerance to poison oak by eating it?

    Guest: Jeff Horwitz, reporter at the Wall Street Journal; and Mahmoud ElSohly, professor of pharmaceutics at the University of Mississippi

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

    For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable

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    18 September 2024, 8:00 am
  • 25 minutes 28 seconds
    Dark oxygen could rewrite Earth’s history

    Scientists just discovered oxygen being produced without sunlight — without photosynthesis — at the bottom of the ocean. This “dark oxygen” could fundamentally change the story we tell of life on Earth and in the rest of the universe.

    Guest: Alycia Smith, ecologist at Heriot-Watt University

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

    For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable

    And please email us! [email protected]

    We read every email.

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    11 September 2024, 8:00 am
  • 24 minutes 4 seconds
    You're lost in the wilderness. Now what?

    For decades, search and rescue teams followed an accepted playbook. Now, scientists are helping them reimagine how to find lost people.

    Guests: Robert Koester, author of Lost Person Behavior, and Paul Doherty, search and rescue researcher

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

    For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable

    And please email us! [email protected]

    We read every email.

    Support Unexplainable by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members

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    28 August 2024, 8:00 am
  • 25 minutes 56 seconds
    Viral dark matter

    With antibiotic resistance on the rise, some scientists are turning to viruses as a medical tool. But we barely know anything about the bacteria-eating viruses all around us. (First published in 2021)

    Guest: Nicola Twilley, host of Gastropod

    For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts

    For more, go to vox.com/unexplainable

    And please email us! [email protected]

    We read every email.

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    21 August 2024, 8:00 am
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