Episodios

  • This is your brain on pleasure (even the guilty kind)

    This is your brain on pleasure (even the guilty kind)
    Mar 16 2026
    It’s likely you have at least one “guilty pleasure.” Maybe it’s romance novels. Or reality TV… Playing video games… or getting swept into obscure corners of TikTok. Neuroscientists say the pleasure response helps us survive as a species. So why do we feel embarrassed by some of the things we love the most? Even if you don't have these negative emotions, experiencing – and studying – pleasure is not as straightforward as it might seem. For a long time, neuroscientists thought the concept of "pleasure" referred to a singular system in the brain. But as research into the subject grew, scientists realized that pleasure is really a cycle of "wanting" and "liking" – each with separate neural mechanisms. Today on the show, producer Rachel Carlson explores this cycle with researchers, who weigh in on the science of pleasure. Even the kind that makes us feel guilty.

    Read more of Rachel’s story on guilty pleasures.

    Interested in more brain science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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    14 m
  • An icy mystery: What are lake stars?

    An icy mystery: What are lake stars?
    Mar 13 2026
    When producer Berly McCoy was out on her local frozen lake, she saw something she'd never seen before. There were dark spidery, star-shaped patterns in the ice and they freaked her out. So, we called an expert to find out more about them. In today’s episode, geophysicist Victor Tsai tells us about lake stars and how he became the first person to scientifically prove how they form. Plus, he explains how knowing more about lake stars can potentially give us clues about the presence of water on Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons.

    Read Victor Tsai’s full paper on lake stars here.

    Have a question about something in the environment? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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    12 m
  • We saved gray whales from extinction. Why are so many dying again?

    We saved gray whales from extinction. Why are so many dying again?
    Mar 11 2026
    In 1999 hundreds of gray whales washed up along the west coast of North America. More in 2000. They lost an estimated 25% of their population. But then the whale population recovered and people moved on. Until it happened again in 2019. And 2020, and 2021. It’s still happening today. Host Regina G. Barber dives into this mystery with marine ecologist Joshua Stewart, who explains how scientists like himself solved it – and the tough questions that came up along the way.

    Check out our Sea Camp series and our limited run Sea Camp newsletter, featuring deep dives into research, cute critters and games!

    Interested in more ocean mysteries? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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    13 m
  • Sibling order may affect sexuality and identity

    Sibling order may affect sexuality and identity
    Mar 10 2026
    Today, guest host Selena Simmons-Duffin is exploring a detail very personal to her: How the number of older brothers a person has can influence their sexuality.

    Scientific research on sexuality has a dark history, with long-lasting harmful effects on queer communities. Much of the early research has also been debunked over time. But not this "fraternal birth order effect." The fact that a person's likelihood of being gay increases with each older brother has been found all over the world – from Turkey to North America, Brazil, the Netherlands and beyond. Today, Selena gets into all the details: What this effect is, how it's been studied and what it can (and can't) explain about sexuality.


    Interested in the science of our closest relatives? Check out more stories in NPR's series on the Science of Siblings.

    Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you.

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    12 m
  • What crocodile bones teach us about dinosaurs

    What crocodile bones teach us about dinosaurs
    Mar 9 2026
    Paleontologists have often determined how old a dinosaur was by counting the growth rings in its bones. Just like with trees, it was thought that each ring corresponded to a single year of age. But researchers who studied crocodiles at an outdoor recreation center near Cape Town appear to have poked a hole in that approach. In the crocodiles, which are some of the closest living relatives of dinosaurs, there was more than one growth ring laid down per year. The results contribute to a growing debate over the best way to age animals.

    Read more of freelance science reporter Ari Daniel’s story here.

    Interested in more on the future of science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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    11 m
  • Teen sleep is getting wrecked by more than just phones

    Teen sleep is getting wrecked by more than just phones
    Mar 6 2026
    Teens aren’t getting enough sleep! And a two-decade study suggests it’s getting worse. Scientists found that the number of high schoolers getting insufficient sleep — less than seven hours a night — has increased from 69% to 77%. The throughline? There wasn’t one. Teens had bad sleep habits across most demographics, including race, gender and grade level. The findings were published this week in the journal JAMA.

    Interested in more science behind recent headlines? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

    For more about earthquake science – and the Cascadia Fault in particular – check out our recent episode on the Pacific Northwest’s Big One.

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    8 m
  • The global fallout of RFK Jr's vaccine policies

    The global fallout of RFK Jr's vaccine policies
    Mar 4 2026
    In his role as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is changing how the United States approaches vaccines. But those changes aren’t limited to the United States. NPR global health correspondent Gabrielle Emanuel joins Short Wave to talk about two examples of how the global public health landscape may be shifting. First, the United States’ ultimatum to an international vaccine group. Second, the uncertain fate of a vaccine trial. Some researchers are calling the trial a “unique” opportunity, and others are calling it “unethical.”


    Read more of global health correspondent Gabrielle Emanuel’s work here.


    Interested in more global health? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.


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    15 m
  • Will Punch the baby monkey be okay?

    Will Punch the baby monkey be okay?
    Mar 3 2026
    If you’ve been on the internet in the past few weeks, chances are you’ve seen him: a tiny gray-brown monkey dragging a big, stuffed orangutan around Japan’s Ichikawa Zoo. His name? Punch-kun, or Punch for short. His story? Early abandonment by his mother, careful treatment from local zookeepers and instant social media fame. But are all the (human) primates jumping to Punch’s defense justified? And what’s normal for Japanese macaque society, anyway? To find out, NPR’s Katia Riddle chats with psychology professor and animal expert Lauren Robinson.

    Interested in more animal science? Email us your question 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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    13 m