Episodios

  • Wanna Save Money? Climate-Proof Your Home

    Wanna Save Money? Climate-Proof Your Home
    Jun 11 2025
    Homeowners' insurance isn't just getting more expensive ... it's also getting harder to secure in the first place. Across the country, an increase in climate-related disasters like heat waves, wildfires and hurricanes is creating challenges for both insurers and their customers. One successful strategy taking hold in Alabama and other states: Climate-proofing houses — and incentivizing it with insurance discounts.

    Still, not all states or homeowners face similar risks. And insurers aren't legally required to take climate-proofing into account when assessing the insurability of a home. That's why states are experimenting with different programs — and insurance legislation — to find a solution.

    This episode is part of NPR's Climate Solutions Week: a series of stories covering real world solutions for building, and living, on a hotter planet.

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    12 m
  • Living With OCD

    Living With OCD
    Jun 10 2025
    Roughly 163 million people experience obsessive-compulsive disorder and its associated cycles of obsessions and compulsions. They have unwanted intrusive thoughts, images or urges; they also do certain behaviors to decrease the distress caused by these thoughts. In movies and TV, characters with OCD are often depicted washing their hands or obsessing about symmetry. Dr. Carolyn Rodriguez says these are often symptoms of OCD, but they're not the only ways it manifests – and there's still a lot of basics we have yet to understand. That's why, in this encore episode, Carolyn looks to include more populations in research and find new ways to treat OCD.

    If you're interested in potentially participating in Dr. Rodriguez's OCD studies, you can email ocdresearch@stanford.edu or call 650-723-4095.
    _

    Questions about the brain? Email us at shortwave@npr.org – we'd love to hear your ideas for a future episode!

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    14 m
  • Helping Dogs and Their Pawrents Live Healthier, Longer

    Helping Dogs and Their Pawrents Live Healthier, Longer
    Jun 9 2025
    The Dog Aging Project is a long-term nationwide survey on the health and lifestyles of U.S. dogs that launched in 2019. Today, the project has more than 50,000 canines and counting. Today, hear what researchers have learned from one of the largest dog health data sets and what it could tell us both about increasing the lifespan of our furry friends and us.

    For more information about signing your pup up for the Dog Aging Project, visit their website.

    Have more questions about animals? Let us know at     shortwave@npr.org.

    Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

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    14 m
  • Unveiling Olo — A Color Out of Oz!

    Unveiling Olo — A Color Out of Oz!
    Jun 6 2025
    "Olo" does not exist in nature, nor can it be found among paint cans. But for a very select few, olo can be seen — through the intervention of careful computing and lasers. A team led by vision scientist Austin Roorda and computer scientist Ren Ng at UC Berkeley figured out a method for stimulating only one specific subset of cones of the retina. It's the only way to view this spectacular teal. Creating the color is helping push the boundaries of vision science.

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    More questions about the science behind our everyday lives? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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    14 m
  • Anglerfish Ancestors Once Roamed The Seafloor

    Anglerfish Ancestors Once Roamed The Seafloor
    Jun 4 2025
    There are over 200 species of deep-sea anglerfish; some are long and thin, some are squat and round, some have fins that they use to "walk" along the sea floor, and others have huge eyes set far back into their heads. But how did all this morphological diversity first come to be? Thanks to a new anglerfish family tree, now we know.

    Scientists built this evolutionary tree using genetic information from hundreds of samples and anglerfish specimens across the globe. It indicates that anglerfish originated from an ancestor that crawled along the seafloor ... and sheds new light on how experts could think about biodiversity as a whole.

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    13 m
  • Can AI Crack The Biology Code?

    Can AI Crack The Biology Code?
    Jun 3 2025
    As artificial intelligence seeps into some realms of society, it rushes into others. One area it's making a big difference is protein science — as in the "building blocks of life," proteins! Producer Berly McCoy talks to host Emily Kwong about the newest advance in protein science: AlphaFold3, an AI program from Google DeepMind. Plus, they talk about the wider field of AI protein science and why researchers hope it will solve a range of problems, from disease to the climate.

    Have other aspects of AI you want us to cover? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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    14 m
  • Solving A Centuries Old Maritime Mystery

    Solving A Centuries Old Maritime Mystery
    Jun 2 2025
    For hundreds of years sailors have told stories about miles of glowing ocean during moonless nights. This phenomenon is known as "milky seas," but the only scientific sample was collected in 1985. So atmospheric scientist Justin Hudson, a PhD candidate at University of Colorado, used accounts spanning 400 years to create a database of milky seas. By also using satellite images to visually confirm the tales, Justin hopes his research brings us one step closer to unraveling this maritime mystery.

    Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

    Got a question about a scientific mystery? Let us know at     shortwave@npr.org.

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    13 m
  • Why Daylight Boosts Immunity

    Why Daylight Boosts Immunity
    May 30 2025
    Depending on what time it is, your body responds differently to an injury or infection. During the day, you're likely to heal faster and fight infection better than at night. And historically, scientists weren't entirely sure why. That picture is starting to clear up thanks to a new study published last week in the journal Science Immunology. The research finds a missing piece of the puzzle in neutrophils, powerful immune cells that — despite living less than 24 hours — know the difference between day and night.

    Got a question about how the body works? Let us know at shortwave@npr.org.

    Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at     plus.npr.org/shortwave.

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    9 m
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