The Naked Scientists
500 episodes listed below
Science questions, made usefully clear.
The Naked Scientists Podcast follows current science wherever the questions are sharpest: moon missions, meningitis outbreaks, social media addiction, endometriosis, ancient ice, and animal behaviour. It keeps the pace friendly and explanatory, asking specialists to make the mechanisms matter.
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The Naked Scientists Podcast is a broad science conversation with a strong habit of asking the next obvious question. Its recent run moves from the Artemis II mission to chronic pain, burnout, social media addiction, endometriosis, meningitis, honeybee dances, frozen mammoths, and the physics and biology of time. That range could feel scattered. Here, it usually feels like a magazine desk with a good editor. Each segment begins with something concrete: a lunar flyby, a court case, an outbreak in Kent, a childhood memory of a long car journey, a preserved mammoth in permafrost. From there, the show turns to specialists and asks them to explain the mechanism underneath the headline. The tone is warm and clear. It does not require a science degree, but it also does not pretend the details are simple. Spaceflight is discussed through muscle wasting, bone thinning, radiation, food, habitats, and low-gravity farming. Endometriosis is framed through inflammation, pain, fertility, gastrointestinal symptoms, mental health, and the difficulty of knowing how common it is. A social media trial becomes a careful distinction between popular uses of the word addiction and clinical meaning. Even the lighter subjects, such as octopus mating or honeybee dance, are treated as real behavioural science rather than novelty filler. The show is strongest when it bridges technical language into everyday images. It likes consequences. What would this mean for astronauts returning from the moon, for young people using algorithmic feeds, for patients waiting for better treatment, or for officials trying to contain infection? The interviews carry much of the substance, while the framing keeps the listener oriented. It is science programming for curious generalists who want breadth, clarity, and enough depth to feel the gears turning.
Made for: For curious general listeners who want current science explained through expert conversation rather than hype. It especially suits people interested in space, medicine, public health, technology, and animal behaviour.
What sets it apart: Its strength is the quick turn from headline to mechanism: not just what happened, but what the body, system, or evidence is doing. The show ranges widely while keeping a steady explanatory thread.
The Naked Scientists flagship science show, includes the latest science news, interviews with top scientists, hands-on science experiments and answers to your science questions.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Chris Smith turns subjects from neural networks to polio into clear questions about mechanisms and consequences.
The Naked Scientists Podcast follows discovery by asking how it works and what it changes. Chris Smith leads broad magazine-style editions as well as sustained interviews. One conversation traces back propagation and the energy demands of neural networks.
Back propagation gets a follow-up question, so you can retire your convincing nod.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A moon launch leads into a practical, slightly abrupt lesson in regenerative medicine.
Artemis II opens with launch audio and on-site reporting, and it treats the return of humans to the moon for the first time in over 50 years as the milestone it is. The coverage stays measured instead of leaning on grandstanding, which gives it a practical, science-desk tone.
Conflict fallout, nicotine genetics, and Neanderthal mating fit one clear science-show frame.
The episode moves from the environmental and human-health effects of conflict in the Middle East, including black rain reported over Tehran and the possibility that smoke from strikes on Iran's oil facilities fed the fallout, into nicotine addiction genetics and evidence that…
A clear look at why polio is nearly beaten, but not yet finished.
The episode treats polio as an active eradication problem, not a closed chapter. It lays out a disease that once caused paralysis and death on a huge scale, then follows the vaccines that pushed it to the brink and out of all but a handful of regions.
A cancer-immunology segment that stays practical, then moves into milk biology and squeaky gym shoes.
The segment gives CAR-T therapy a clear, grounded treatment. Chris Smith frames it as personalized medicine that genetically modifies a patient's own T-cells so they can recognize and attack diseased tissues, and he notes that clinical use began in 2017.
A clear, grounded look at how AI works and how it changed.
Mike Waldridge makes AI feel approachable, which is the episode's real strength. Chris Smith keeps the discussion moving through neural network training, the role of back propagation, and the way GPUs changed the field once the payoff became clear.
Particle accelerators, compost piles and Queen's guitarist, all explained.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
APA's Kim Mills interviews psychology researchers on tipping, crying, and extremism.
Eddie Lamarca of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute describes a CRISPR guide library that activates every gene and reproduced known BCL2-driven resistance to the drug venetoclax, plus previously unknown resistance genes.
This episode explores the physiological effects of space travel on astronauts, including muscle and bone deconditioning, and also touches on the neurological basis of burnout and octopus mating behavior.
Chris Smith explores the nature of time, how biology and physics track it, and why our perception of time varies.
Science journalist Richard Hollingham provides a firsthand account of witnessing the historic Artemis II launch, describing the overwhelming sensory experience of humanity's return to lunar exploration after 50 years.
This episode explores natural archives preserved in ice, including woolly mammoths and dormant microorganisms, and what can be brought back to life.
This episode covers a landmark trial finding social media platforms addictive to young users, a Soviet-era nuclear sub radiation risk assessment, and honeybees' selective waggle dance.
This episode explores the science behind the renewed race to the moon, including the challenges of getting there, living on the lunar surface, and the potential for commercial exploitation.
This episode covers a meningitis outbreak in Kent, UK, the use of old tumor samples to study rising bowel cancer rates in young people, and a method to save hedgehogs from road traffic.
A gynecologist explains what endometriosis is, its symptoms, and its prevalence during Endometriosis Awareness Month.
Chris Smith opens with conflict, pollution, and the uneasy afterlife of war.
Scientists are closer than ever to eradicating polio, with two of three virus types already eliminated worldwide and fewer than 50 cases reported globally last year.
Chris Smith opens with CAR-T cell therapy.
Chris Smith puts AI front and center in the conversation.
Amita Sehgal at the University of Pennsylvania reports in Nature that in flies, immune cells move into the brain during sleep and carry away oxidatively damaged fats from nerve cells.
Chris Smith interviews Jane Carlton about her work sequencing the malaria parasite genome.
Alistair Hay, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Toxicology, explains that five European governments, including the UK and Germany, claim Alexei Navalny was poisoned with epibatidine, a toxin found on South American dart frogs.
This episode discusses the potential link between talc-based products and cancer, along with other science news including a new ichthyosaur discovery and an interstellar comet.
This episode explores the potential of manufacturing in space, leveraging the unique microgravity environment to advance science and technology.