Tumble Media
305 episodes listed below
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A Common Sense Selection! Exploring stories of science discovery. Tumble is a science podcast created to be enjoyed by the entire family. Hosted & produced by Lindsay Patterson (science journalist) & Marshall Escamilla (teacher). Visit www.tumblepodcast.com for educational content.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Tumble turns children's questions into clear encounters with scientific evidence, research methods and the productive limits of what experts know.
Lindsay Patterson and Marshall Escamilla build episodes around questions children might actually ask, then follow those questions into real scientific practice.
Four-leaf clovers still stump scientists, and your household gets to enjoy the unsolved part.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Tumble turns mushroom roots into a forest phone line, then widens the question to what happens when the forest is unwell.
Tumble follows a strong science question into the quiet traffic beneath a forest: how trees can share signals without moving at all. The episode centers on mycorrhizae, the mushroom-root partners linked with tree roots, and keeps the biology clear by comparing those threads to…
A playful, clear look at dark matter that keeps the mystery grounded.
This episode starts with a closet joke, then uses that bit of play to get at a serious question: what dark matter is, and why scientists think something unseen still shapes the universe.
A cheerful sandwich-history quiz that turns a lunchbox staple into a bigger origin story.
This episode keeps things light and curious, using Layla's peanut butter and jelly question as a clean entry point into a playful history of sandwiches, the Earl of Sandwich legend, and how the name may have stuck.
Ayla's five-finger question leads to axolotls, salamanders, and the mystery of limb regrowth.
Ayla's question about why one hand has five fingers opens into a lively look at limb regrowth. The episode moves from the familiar outline of a child's hand to axolotls, permanently aquatic salamanders, and Jessica's work on what their abilities might teach humans.
A child's question about animal friendship becomes a clear, kid-friendly look at social bonds and why some species live together.
A listener's question about whether animals have friends leads into a kid-friendly scientific look at social bonds, from dogs and wolves to the bigger question of why some species gather in groups while others live alone.
A kid-centered science mystery that traces Earth's origin through space rocks and ancient clues.
This episode treats Earth's origin like a science mystery, opening with simple questions about what Earth is and how it came to be before moving back billions of years to the clues scientists can still study.
Fungi turn a breath question into a lesson about soil, oxygen, and land itself.
It begins with a simple question about whether fungi breathe, then keeps widening the frame. From moldy food and mycelium, it explains how fungi take in oxygen without lungs and why a fungus cut off from oxygen would not survive.
A blindfolded seal shows how whiskers turn touch into a clear sense of size.
Whiskers come across as practical sensing gear, not facial ornament, in this brisk PlayNext look at how a seal judges size by touch. The episode centers on Moe, fitted with headphones and a blindfold, as he uses his whiskers to tell a big disc from a small one.
Research-tested practices for a happier, more meaningful life.
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.
This episode explores whether trees can think, featuring an interview with soil scientist Natalia Mondi.
This episode explores the mystery of dark matter, featuring an interview with physicist Alvaro Chavarria who searches for it in a secret underground lab in the Alps.
This episode explores the history of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, tracing the origins of sliced bread, grape jelly, and peanut butter through key inventors and historical events.
In this episode of Tumble Science Podcast for Kids, hosts Lindsay Patterson and Marshall Escamilla answer six-year-old listener Ayla's question about why humans have five fingers.
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids answers 12-year-old listener June's question: do animals have friends?
Hosts Lindsay and Marshall explore how Earth formed, interviewing planetary scientist Bill Botke who explains the violent collisions that built our planet from a dust cloud.
This episode explores the science of fungi, featuring an interview with Lee Davis from Kew Gardens.
This episode explores the fascinating science behind animal whiskers, featuring an interview with whisker scientist Dr.
In this festive mailbag episode, hosts Lindsay and Marshall answer listener questions about why English is weird, the history of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and whether cats hate water, featuring expert insights and a surprise about swimming cats.
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids investigates how people learn through a conversation with cognitive scientist Charlie Wu, who built a Minecraft experiment to study when humans choose social learning versus individual learning.
This episode explores the science of snot and mucus, answering a listener's question about why snot exists.
This episode explores how fish communicate through sounds underwater, featuring ecologist Audrey Lubey who discusses challenges in recording fish sounds, examples like drum fish and farting herring, and the creation of a fish sounds library for research.
The episode explores whether ghosts are real by examining historical scientific investigations, featuring a ghost science historian who discusses Victorian-era experiments, mediums like Agnes Guppy, and tools like spirit photography, ultimately concluding that while evidence is lacking, curiosity persists.
This episode explores the discovery of the first dinosaur butt fossil from a Psittacosaurus, featuring biologist Diane Kelly who explains cloaca anatomy and how scientists used comparisons to modern animals to infer that dinosaurs may have sniffed each other's butts for communication.
In this mailbag episode, hosts Lindsay and Marshall announce Season 11 of Tumble, share listener reviews and Easter egg puzzles, and interview astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi, who answers kids' questions about black holes, asteroids, and Earth's rotation with engaging explanations.
This episode explores the story of axolotls, focusing on why they are more common in captivity than in the wild.
This episode of Tumble Science Podcast announces new Yoto cards and an audiobook, answers kids' questions about plants with expert Karina Baskin, and shares upcoming live events.
In this mailbag episode, hosts Lindsay and Marshall answer listener questions, exploring the science of asking good questions with Dr.
This episode tells the story of Henrietta Leavitt, an early 20th-century astronomer who discovered the Leavitt Law, a method for measuring cosmic distances using variable stars.
In this mailbag episode, hosts Lindsay and Marshall answer listener questions about four-leaf clovers, brain sleep, fish colors, and infinity, with insights from scientists.
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids hosts Lindsay and Marshall celebrate the release of Tumble's first original science song album, available on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp, by playing all the songs in the episode with trivia games to introduce each one.
This episode follows volcanologist Helena Berman as she recounts the scientific monitoring and daring fieldwork that predicted the 2009 eruption of Alaska's Mount Redoubt.
This episode follows environmental scientist Jace Tunnel as he discovers nurdles, tiny plastic pellets polluting beaches, and launches the citizen science project Nurdle Patrol to track and combat this microplastic threat.
The episode explores whether dinosaurs burped, revealing through interviews with paleontologist Jessica Whiteside and ecologist Dave Wilkinson that herbivorous dinosaurs did burp and fart, with sauropods farting and ornithischians burping.
Lindsay and Marshall at Tumble Science Podcast for Kids present an episode on ocean sounds tied to their upcoming Sonic Saturday live event in Brooklyn, featuring oceanographer Amy Bauer who is blind and uses both acoustic tracking and data sonification to map ocean currents.
This episode explores why the eye of a hurricane is calm, featuring an interview with hurricane hunter Shirley Murillo.
The hosts explore whether there was ever nothing in the universe, interviewing physicist Dr.
This episode explores what would happen if trees didn't exist, featuring plant ecophysiologist Angelica Patterson who explains their vital roles in oxygen production, clean water, and ecosystem support.
This episode of Tumble explores the invention process through the story of Josh Mealy, a blind scientist who created tactile maps for blind people.
This episode explores why animals play, featuring scientists who explain the five-point checklist for defining play and discuss surprising examples like bumblebees rolling balls.
This episode explores why capybaras are so large, featuring biologist Santiago Herrera-Alvarez who investigates their DNA.
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids asks how vision works through nine-year-old Junie’s camera analogy and an interview with neuroscientist Lucas Nadalkas.
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids hosts Lindsay Patterson and Marshall Escamilla interview wildlife veterinarian Horacio Mena about the wild axolotl population in Xochimilco, Mexico City.
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids follows polar bear scientist Andrew Desrochers, who has seen almost 10,000 live polar bears, into the Arctic to study the animals.
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids asks whether Tyrannosaurus rex was smart by examining Susana Herculano-Houzel’s definition of intelligence as behavioral flexibility.