podcasts

The Quanta Podcast

Every Tuesday, editor in chief Samir Patel sits down with writers and editors to discuss our most thought-provoking stories in science and math. Audio editions of Quanta’s stories with Susan Valot will appear biweekly on Thursdays.

Filter by Topics

An artist’s 3D illustration of chromosomes splitting and fusing together.

Secrets of Early Animal Evolution Revealed by Chromosome ‘Tectonics’

A Solution to the Faint-Sun Paradox Reveals a Narrow Window for Life

Illustration of COVID-19 virus particles rolling across a 3D landscape.

Evolution ‘Landscapes’ Predict What’s Next for COVID Virus

Photo of a flying fish gliding over the open water.

Flying Fish and Aquarium Pets Yield Secrets of Evolution

An illustration of a flashlight whose beam illuminates graphs and numbers.

Mathematicians Outwit Hidden Number Conspiracy

An illustration of a mathematician on a ladder stringing red and blue beads against a tiled red backdrop dotted with blue circles.

Mathematician Hurls Structure and Disorder Into Century-Old Problem

Researchers Defeat Randomness to Create Ideal Code

An illustration that shows words and music from an opera singer going into a listener’s brain.

The Brain Processes Speech in Parallel With Other Sounds

An illustration of a cell sitting atop a circuit diagram.

Biologists Rethink the Logic Behind Cells’ Molecular Signals

A 3D model showing red plumes in the mantle.

A Massive Subterranean ‘Tree’ Is Moving Magma to Earth’s Surface

One Lab’s Quest to Build Space-Time Out of Quantum Particles

Illustration of various kinds of clocks floating against a pink background.

The New Thermodynamic Understanding of Clocks

An artist’s conception of the ways that functional capacities have been mapped to regions of the brain.

The Brain Doesn’t Think the Way You Think It Does

Animation of a gemstone flipping up and down between mirror-image states.

Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real

How Many Numbers Exist? Infinity Proof Moves Math Closer to an Answer.

Electron microscopy of T4 bacteriophages.

DNA Has Four Bases. Some Viruses Swap in a Fifth.