Live curiosity, answered with scientific mischief.
Dr Karl Podcast is a lively Triple J science question show built around curious listeners and quick-thinking explanations. Episodes move from moon missions and dark energy to itchy sunburn, echidna anatomy, dish soap, motion sickness, and whatever strange question arrives next.
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Dr Karl Podcast turns listener curiosity into a fast-moving science salon with a Triple J pulse. It is built around questions sent in live, which gives the show its best quality: the subjects feel discovered rather than programmed. A single run of episodes can cover Artemis II, commercial moon missions, super voids, motion sickness, breast milk, synesthesia, decomposing food, sunburnt eyes, mosquitoes, and why a plucked hair grows back. The pace is quick. The explanations are plainspoken. Dr. Carl often answers with the enthusiasm of someone delighted by the question before he has even finished hearing it. Lucy Smith gives the show its live-radio shape, opening the door for texters, steering transitions, and keeping the odd detours from floating away. Those detours are part of the appeal. Echidnas become a lesson in strange anatomy and fast tongues. Dishwashing becomes chemistry, grease, rinsing, and compost. Eyebrows turn into sweat management and human communication. Space episodes stretch from the International Space Station to Blue Ghost and the Van Allen Belt, with guests brought in when the show wants sharper technical footing. Jackson Liebeck explains the Blue Ghost mission from the perspective of someone involved in spacecraft operations. Dr. Laura Dreesen helps translate big astronomy ideas into language that stays friendly without flattening them. Zoe Keane brings science communication and close animal observation to the mix. The show is especially good at treating everyday weirdness as scientifically worthy. It can be silly without becoming sloppy, and educational without sounding classroom-bound. For PlayNext users, it is a strong fit for quick discovery: each episode contains several self-contained moments where a question snaps open into a memorable answer.
Made for: For listeners who like science explained through everyday problems, strange body facts, space news, animal quirks, and live audience questions. It especially suits people who want smart answers without a formal lecture tone.
What sets it apart: Its strength is the live-question format: the show follows real listener curiosity into whatever topic arrives next. That makes the science feel immediate, funny, and unusually broad from minute to minute.
Join Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Lucy Smith and their scientific guests, with a bunch of curious triple j listeners for a weekly injection of science, myth-bashing and answers!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Listener questions become practical science lessons, with Dr Karl pairing wide-ranging explanations with welcome candor about uncertainty.
Dr Karl Podcast turns listener questions into a lively tour of science at human scale. Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Lucy Smith move easily from Artemis II and fusion reactors to sunburn, bone density, dish soap and eyebrows.
Dr Karl settles the soap-suds argument; your household may need to hear the verdict.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A chatty science hour that ranges from echidnas to grey hair, mud crabs, instinct, and cyber sickness.
Science with Dr. Carl takes a loose, conversational route as Sam Lane fills in for Lucy and Zoe Keane steps in for Dr. Carl. It moves from Zoe's echidna year to grey hair growth, mud crab habits, instinct, and cyber sickness, so the pace feels breezy and a little scattered…
A brisk, curious science episode that moves from Artemis II to soap suds, decomposition, and breast milk as a cure for ailments.
NASA's Artemis II liftoff gives the episode its biggest horizon, with the agency hoping to send humans around the Moon for the first time since 1972. Four astronauts bring historic firsts beyond low Earth orbit, and Dr.
Listener questions turn into a lively run through mosquitoes, itchy sunburn, and unusually hairy feet.
Science with Dr. Carl moves through listener questions about whether mosquitoes ever sleep, whether a song stuck in the head points to telepathy, why sunburn itches, and why feet can grow hair at an unusual rate. Lucy Smith keeps the Thursday call-ins moving, while Dr.
A listener Q&A that ranges from steam burns to eyebrow signals and the edge of space.
Science with Dr. Carl leans into listener questions that range from Lyme cordial and bacteria to steam, pain, and whether a plucked hair grows back, with Lucy Smith keeping the pace while Dr. Carl answers in the show’s easy, lightly chaotic style.
A Thursday Q&A that jumps from brain freeze to pigs and keeps going.
Dr Carl's Thursday slot leans into the weird in a way that feels more like a live desk of curiosities than a neat lesson. Goosebumps, babies feeling heavier, flies flying in a certain formation, and pigs orgasming all land in quick succession, before the discussion shifts to a…
Everyday myths, cautious medical evidence, the Challenger disaster and some very odd shoes share one curious sitting.
Science with Dr Karl takes scientific folklore seriously without making it feel heavy. The episode moves from redheads and anaesthetic to Murphy's Law, five-toed shoes and the Challenger disaster, using each detour as a way to ask why certain ideas stick.
Live science, playful banter, and practical body questions with a radio-room feel.
This episode comes across as a lively live science hour, moving from hormones and bone density to space junk with Dr Carl and Dr Teresa Larkin keeping the tone loose and curious.
Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser build single reported stories around one scientific question.
Flora Lichtman interviews scientists, from gut-health researchers to Queen's Brian May.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
Long interviews with neuroscientists and philosophers on consciousness, decision-making, and whether AI is anything like a brain.
Bob McDonald anchors weekly multi-segment interviews on new research, from cricket courtship to moon missions.
APA's Kim Mills interviews psychology researchers on tipping, crying, and extremism.
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Triple J's Science with Dr.
Dr Karl and Triple J hosts answer listener questions on Science with Dr Karl, opening with NASA's Artemis II launch, including concerns from NASA engineers about the heat shield and a detailed explanation of how astronauts' waste is handled aboard spacecraft.
Flight director Jackson Liebeck discusses the Blue Ghost mission's successful commercial moon landing and answers questions about space exploration.
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Science with Dr.
Dr Karl turns a question about Lime cordial and bacteria into a Canning Stock Route story from Alice Springs to Halls Creek, where 50 litres a day had to last three adults and two babies.
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On Triple J's Science with Dr Karl, hosts Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Lucy Smith field rapid-fire caller questions on everything from cosmology to kitchen chemistry.
Dr Karl and Dr Teresa Larkin field listener questions on Triple J's Science with Dr Karl, using the 0439 757 555 text line and live calls.
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