Unexplainable
Hosted by Byrd Pinkerton, Julia Longoria, Meradith Hoddinott & Noam Hassenfeld · 14 decoded episodes · newest Oct 7, 2026
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.
Episodes 14
- Oct 7, 2026 · 34 minRepetition turns familiar songs into emotional discoveriesThe episode connects music’s physical and emotional force to prediction, attention, memory, and the social experience of listening together.
- Oct 5, 2026 · 30 minThe brain decides whether tennis balls look yellow or greenThe tennis-ball dispute reveals how perception, language, culture, and experience shape what people treat as shared visual reality.
- Sep 28, 2026 · 29 minBogs preserve ancient lives—and store climate-critical carbonThe episode connects the mysteries of bog bodies with the ethical questions of displaying human remains and the urgent case for protecting peatlands.
- Sep 23, 2026 · 30 minGiant insects expose the limits of the oxygen theoryThe mystery of prehistoric insect gigantism reveals how much remains unknown about both ancient ecosystems and today’s insect declines.
- Sep 21, 2026 · 38 minDark matter searches confront science’s limitsDecades of increasingly sensitive experiments have found no dark matter particle, forcing scientists to reconsider what explanation can mean.
- Sep 16, 2026 · 29 minCosmologists confront the limits of asking what came firstThe episode tests whether theories about before the Big Bang can produce evidence—or whether the question exceeds science’s reach.
- Sep 14, 2026 · 30 minA 100,000-year-old myth faces a modern evidence testThe debate shows both how scholars reconstruct ancient traditions and why recurring myths may reveal shared human concerns without proving direct inheritance.
- Sep 2, 2026 · 38 minScientists urge a moratorium on mirror-life researchMirror organisms could evade biological defenses and spread through ecosystems, forcing researchers to decide how to govern a technology before it becomes irreversible.
- Aug 31, 2026 · 36 minSynthetic cells challenge the boundary between chemistry and lifeCells built from nonliving chemicals could expand biology’s manufacturing potential while forcing new decisions about safety, governance, and access.
- Aug 26, 2026 · 31 minSynthetic cells expose biology’s hidden machineryThe search for life’s minimum requirements reveals both how much biology remains unexplained and how powerful—and risky—synthetic organisms could become.
- Aug 24, 2026 · 46 minWhy songs now skip the introductionAs streaming rewards immediate engagement, the disappearing song intro raises a larger question about how music creates identity, anticipation, and risk.
- Aug 19, 2026 · 28 minBabies form memories that later become impossible to retrieveThe episode reframes infant memory around development, showing that forgotten details can still reflect lasting emotional and social foundations.