Category Archives: Podcasts

Stories: Monsoon Rains Overwhelm Pakistan, Germany Recession Fears

A.M. Edition for Sep. 7. Abnormally heavy monsoon rains have left 10% of Pakistan underwater and millions displaced.

Wall Street Journal reporter Saeed Shah explains how Pakistan wants the international community to help with the response. Plus, a top banker in Europe warns of recession in Germany. Luke Vargas hosts.

Opinion: Disunited States Of America, Britain Can’t Build, Pakistan Flooding

A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the disunited states of America, why Britain can’t build (9:15) and Pakistan’s worst floods in recent memory (17:05).

Stories: Falling Food Prices, Polio Virus In The West, Tik Tok’s ‘Pink Sauce’

The worst predictions for costs have not come to pass, partly because Russia is selling plenty of wheat. But plenty of food-price woe may still await.

We examine the curious re-appearance of the polio virus in the West. And the trials of “Pink Sauce” reveal the perils of being a cottage-food producer—or consumer—in the social-media age.

Research: Free-Floating DNA And Oxidation Zones

On this week’s show: The U.S. government is partnering with academics to speed up the search for more than 80,000 soldiers who went missing in action, and how humans create their own “oxidation zone” in the air around them.

First up on the podcast this week, Tess Joosse is a former news intern here at Science and is now a freelance science journalist based in Madison, Wisconsin. Tess talks with host Sarah Crespi about attempts to use environmental DNA—free-floating DNA in soil or water—to help locate the remains of soldiers lost at sea. Also featured in this segment:

University of Wisconsin, Madison, molecular biologist Bridget Ladell Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution marine biologist Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser

Also this week, Nora Zannoni, a postdoctoral researcher in the atmospheric chemistry department at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, talks about people’s contributions to indoor chemistry. She chats with Sarah about why it’s important to go beyond studying the health effects of cleaning chemicals and gas stoves to explore how humans add their own bodies’ chemicals and reactions to the air we breathe. In a sponsored segment from Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Sean Sanders, director and senior editor for Custom Publishing, interviews Benedetto Marelli, associate professor at MIT, about winning the BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation and how he became an entrepreneur. 

Stories: Fighting Returns To Ethiopia, China’s ‘Belt And Road’ Loans Sour

After a five-month hiatus, violence has returned to the northern region of Tigray—but that is just one of the conflicts threatening to pull the country to pieces.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has made it a prominent developing-world lender. How will it deal with so many of its loans souring? And our obituaries editor reflects on Issey Miyake’s fashion-for-the-masses philosophy.

Stories: Ukraine Nuclear Inspection, Sri Lanka-IMF, China Elite In Singapore

UN inspectors head to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Plus: Sri Lanka’s pact with the IMF, why China and Hong Kong’s elite are leaving for Singapore and the latest arts and culture news.

News: Trump Obstruction Evidence, Nuclear Plant Inspection, U.S. Flooding

The Department of Justice revealed striking evidence that former President Trump obstructed a federal probe related to classified documents.

International nuclear experts are set to assess the status of equipment and well-being of staff at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Heavy rain and flooding has left the residents of Jackson Mississippi without safe drinking water.

Stories: World Real Estate Markets Wobble, Cities As War Zones, What ‘Data’ Is

As interest rates rise, lots of pandemic-era property trends are fading—but not every market is equally vulnerable as the boom peters out.

Generals have long avoided fighting in cities: it is messy and dangerous. Increasingly, though, they have no choice. And our language columnist on the subtle question of whether “data” is plural or singular.