Unexplainable takes listeners right up to the edge of what we know…and then keeps on going. The Unexplainable team — Noam Hassenfeld, Julia Longoria, Byrd Pinkerton, and Meradith Hoddinott — tackles scientific mysteries, unanswered questions, and everything we learn diving into the unknown. New episodes Mondays and Wednesdays. From Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
What this show covers
synthetic biologyneurosciencecosmologyLife from ScratchSylvan Essoemotionmusic cognitioncreativitycolor perceptionphilosophy of perceptionvision scienceancient historyburial practicesbog bodiesAnna North
What listeners will find here
Why music can trigger goosebumps, tears, and the urge to move
This episode explores how music affects the body and mind, from chills and crying to movement. With Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath and music cognition researcher Elizabeth Margulis, it looks at both the lived experience of making music and the science of why it hits so hard.
A tennis ball, color, and the science of what we really see
This episode asks a deceptively simple question: what color is a tennis ball? With visual artist and neuroscientist Bevil Conway, it uses that debate to explore how color works—and whether color is even a thing at all.
How bogs preserve ancient bodies — and deepen the mystery around them
This episode explores bog bodies: human remains preserved for thousands of years in wetlands, often with startling detail. With journalist and novelist Anna North, it looks at what these discoveries reveal and why the reasons people ended up in bogs remain unresolved.
When dragonflies were huge: the mystery of Earth’s vanished giant bugs
This episode explores why Earth once had enormous insects and millipede-like creatures around 300 million years ago, and why they disappeared. With two physiology experts, it looks at the environmental limits that may have shaped bug size across deep time.
Dark matter meets a deeper question: what if science never gets the answer?
Dark matter dominates the universe’s matter, yet scientists still barely know what it is. This episode uses that mystery to explore a bigger one: what happens when a central scientific question may resist an answer, and how that uncertainty can reshape a physicist’s sense of purpose.
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