Popular Science
225 episodes listed below
Strange facts, smart riffs, real science.
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week gathers oddball science, history, animals, medicine, and technology facts into fast, funny roundtable stories. Its best moments make the demon core, hot pepper hands, extinct working dogs, and Olympic weirdness feel both bizarre and knowable.
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The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is a science-history conversation show with a taste for facts that seem too strange to survive contact with research. It is brisk. One segment might explain why jalapeno thumb is really capsaicin irritation, while another jumps to vampires, naked founding fathers, or the hazards of old laboratory bravado. The show’s sweet spot is the precise collision of weird evidence and social absurdity. The demon core becomes not just a nuclear physics story, but a window into an era when dangerous experiments could still feel shockingly improvised. A turnspit dog story becomes a miniature history of labor, food, breeding, and the strange ways people solve ordinary problems. Olympic episodes open the door to barefoot marathons, medals for artwork, and pistol dueling, while animal stories wander through bats, beavers, koalas, penguins, and the Chicago “Rat” Hole. The pacing is loose but not careless. Hosts and guests trade jokes, ask the obvious questions, and let the baffling parts stay funny while still moving toward explanation. The result feels more like a smart table conversation than a classroom. It is also comfortable with revisiting old material, especially fan-favorite episodes and rare themed conversations. Recent excerpts show a rotating group that includes Jess Bode, Rachel Feltman, Kendra Pierre-Lewis, Lindsay, Misty, Matty, Ricky Peacock, Sarah Chodosh, Claire Maldarelli, Sarah Kylie Watson, and Colton Scrivener. They bring science journalism, media experience, streaming, editing, essay-making, climate reporting, and enthusiastic amateur curiosity into the mix. The recurring pleasure is not just learning that something happened. It is hearing people react in real time to how strange, tragic, useful, or needlessly complicated human knowledge can be. The show works for listeners who enjoy science with jokes, history with tangents, and facts that become better the more specific they get.
Made for: For curious listeners who like science history, odd animals, medical weirdness, and forgotten cultural details delivered with jokes and momentum. It especially suits people who enjoy learning through conversation rather than formal lectures.
What sets it apart: The show pairs reported weird facts with the looseness of a rotating roundtable, so the explanation and the reaction are both part of the appeal. It makes room for niche research without sanding off the absurdity.
At Popular Science, we report and write dozens of science and tech stories every week. And while a lot of the fun facts we stumble across make it into our articles, there are lots of other weird facts that we just keep around the office. So we figured, why not share those with you? Welcome to The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week.For advertising opportunities please email [email protected] We wanna make the podcast even better, help us learn how we can: https://bit.ly/2EcYbu4 Privacy Policy: https://www.studio71.com/us/terms-and-conditions-use/#Privacy%20Policy
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Historical science becomes memorable here through precise oddities, practical questions, and conversation that keeps the explanation moving.
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week turns researched curiosities into lively group conversation, with Rachel Feltman and the other hosts presenting a fact, testing its stranger implications, and making room for jokes without losing the explanation.
A demon core meets jalapeno thumb, and your next fact-sharing emergency is handled.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Jalapeno thumb, vampires, and a Benjamin Franklin window aside in a vintage rerun.
The episode revisits a vintage rerun that moves from jalapeno thumb to vampires, with a Benjamin Franklin window aside near the end. The jalapeno section carries most of the weight: pico de gallo, a Dr.
A lively, weird tour through science history where the strangest material lands with the cleanest impact.
Curiosity is handled like a relay race here, moving from a radioactive core with a horror-tinged nickname to a tragic stretch of nuclear history, all while the host pair keeps the pace light enough for the grim material to stay in motion.
A funny look at dogs bred for very specific work.
The episode opens with turnspit dogs and the dizzy-dog image, then widens into a look at other defunct breeds. From there it moves into hunting dogs shaped for very narrow jobs, including quietly tracking a particular kind of prey so another dog could do the hunting.
A playful tour of fear, immunity, and why weird facts stick.
This episode uses odd facts to open a bigger question: how people make sense of danger, history, and plain curiosity. The vaccination section carries the most weight.
A dry, evidence-minded animal story that ends up asking a surprisingly human question.
The piece treats a strange animal fact with a straight face, and that is what gives it lift. It follows wild chimps drinking alcohol from fermenting fruit into a wider thought about primate behavior and human drinking, then lands on the vivid detail of how much fiber a chimp…
Physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince put scientists on a panel with comedians.
Rachel Feltman, Jess Bode, and Claire Maldarelli revisit an older Weirdest Thing episode that jumps from jalapeño thumb to Elizabeth Bathory to Benjamin Franklin's air baths.
Scientists share bizarre historical incidents involving a plutonium core that killed two researchers through radiation exposure in separate accidents during the Manhattan Project.
Rachel Feltman returns on parental leave to introduce Sarah Trotosh and Josh Gondelman, who is described as a frequent Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me guest and the host of Make My Day.
Editors from Popular Science share weird facts they've collected, including atomic priesthood, space smelling like beef, and the power of pee fuel, with guests Lindsay and Misty.
Rachel introduces a rerun episode about weird Olympic events, including barefoot marathons, medals for artwork, and pistol dueling, while explaining the context of her parental leave and the show's format.
Editors from Popular Science share the weirdest facts they've learned, including beaver skulls, Australian widowmakers, and koalas eating feces.
The hosts of Popular Science's podcast share weird facts and discuss personal updates, including Kendra's return and Rachel's upcoming break.
Scientists captured the first recording of a tiny European bat hunting and killing a robin mid-flight at 4,000 feet, revealing how these threatened creatures survive by aerial predation.
A live episode of The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week featuring four bizarre facts about a footless goose murder, sex in space, Viking sicko mode, and sports bra technology.
A preview of the On Point podcast discussing the issue of overly bright car headlights and listener complaints.
Wild chimpanzees consume the equivalent of more than one alcoholic drink per day from fermented fruit, supporting the evolutionary "Drunken Monkey Hypothesis" that connects human alcohol consumption to our primate ancestors.
The hosts of Popular Science's podcast share weird facts and discuss a new book called 'Automatic Noodle' featuring a wheeled robot.
Editors of Popular Science share weird facts, including a discussion on human evolution and genetics with guest Nathan Litz.
Santiago Genovese's 101-day raft experiment became an unintended argument that humans cooperate under pressure.