RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
Hear the untold stories of mind-blowing achievements in science and tech. “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent and six-time Emmy winner David Pogue takes you behind the scenes into the creation stories of the world’s greatest advances and the people behind them. From transportation, food, space, internet, and health, creators reveal their inspirations and roadblocks they encountered in bringing their breakthroughs to the public. Hear all-new episodes of the award-winning Unsung Science podcast every other Friday.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Behind-the-scenes invention stories • Transportation and infrastructure innovations • Space exploration engineering • Digital platforms, AI, deepfakes • Health, genetics, vaccines, wearables • Climate, conservation, sustainable food/materialsThis podcast explores the origin stories behind widely used technologies and influential scientific advances, told through behind-the-scenes reporting and interviews with the people who built, discovered, or championed them. Across the episodes, the focus is on how ideas move from a stubborn problem or unlikely insight to something that works in the real world—often after years of iteration, skepticism, funding hurdles, engineering tradeoffs, or high-stakes testing.
Many stories center on consumer and infrastructure technologies that quietly shape everyday life, from digital standards and mapping platforms to anti-spam tools, emoji governance, and accessibility features such as audio description and computer-vision assistance for people with low vision. The show also spends time on fast-moving developments in AI and media authenticity, examining how synthetic audio and video can undermine trust and how industry coalitions aim to verify what’s real.
Another recurring theme is science and engineering at the edge of feasibility: space missions and instruments, planetary exploration, asteroid defense, deep-ocean expeditions, and emerging transportation concepts like electric aircraft. Health and biology topics appear through genetics, sleep and wearable sensing, placebo research, forensic genealogy, mosquito control, and the long path to mRNA vaccines, often highlighting the interplay of data, experimentation, and persistence.
Environmental and climate-related challenges weave through the feed as well, including biodiversity restoration, plastic reduction, water security, wildfire preparedness, and efforts to reduce harm to wildlife. Even cultural and creative domains show up, looking at how technology intersects with music production and constructed languages for film and TV.
| Episodes: |
Grand Finale: A Pop Song is Born2023-Dec-08 52 minutes |
Electric Planes Take Off2023-Nov-24 40 minutes |
Genetics, Votes, and Colin Firth2023-Nov-10 41 minutes |
How Does Google Maps Do It?2023-Oct-26 32 minutes |
How Cool Tech is Saving the Whales2023-Oct-13 40 minutes |
How the Webb Telescope Sees Back in Time2023-Sep-29 43 minutes |
Inside Elon Musk's Brain2023-Sep-16 39 minutes |
Screaming Babies, Noise Canceling, and You2023-Sep-01 41 minutes |
The Pulse-Pounding Origin Story of USB-C2023-Aug-18 44 minutes |
CeCe Moore Cracks Cold Cases with Genealogy2023-Aug-04 43 minutes |
What if Placebos ARE the Medicine?2023-Jul-21 34 minutes |
The Man Who Invented QR Codes2023-Jul-07 37 minutes |
Inside the Lost Titanic Sub: An Update2023-Jun-23 46 minutes |
How Doug Lindsay Invented His Own Surgery2023-Jun-09 41 minutes |
The Power of an Empty Metal Box2023-May-26 39 minutes |
From Klingon to Dothraki: Constructed Languages for Hollywood2023-May-12 39 minutes |
The Million-Dollar Toothpaste Tube2023-Apr-28 41 minutes |
The Rewilded Farm2023-Mar-31 37 minutes |
NASA Redirects an Asteroid2023-Mar-17 35 minutes |
How They Found the Shipwreck Endurance2023-Mar-03 43 minutes |
Deepfakes: Big Tech Fights Back2023-Feb-17 31 minutes |
The Mars Helicopter That Would Not Die2023-Feb-03 50 minutes |
ChatGPT and the End of Writing2023-Jan-20 35 minutes |
Introducing: Season 2 of Unsung Science with David Pogue2023-Jan-13 4 minutes |
Back to Titanic Part 22022-Dec-19 38 minutes |
Back to Titanic Part 12022-Nov-27 40 minutes |
The Secret of Baby Carrots2022-Nov-20 30 minutes |
How Impossible Meats Might Save the Earth2022-Feb-11 40 minutes |
The Man Who Stopped the Spammers2022-Feb-04 32 minutes |
Where Emoji Come From2022-Jan-28 36 minutes |
How the Fitbit Knows You're Dreaming2022-Jan-21 36 minutes |
Subtitles for the Blind2022-Jan-14 52 minutes |
Chainsaws, Women, and the Cape Town Drought2022-Jan-07 40 minutes |
How to Prepare for Wildfires2021-Dec-31 59 minutes |
Where to Live in the Climate-Change Era2021-Dec-24 60 minutes |
Leap Seconds, Smear Seconds, and the Slowing of the Earth2021-Dec-17 39 minutes |
How the Cellphone was Born: Three Months of Craziness2021-Dec-10 37 minutes |
How Apple and Microsoft Built the Seeing-Eye Phone2021-Dec-03 49 minutes |
How to Prepare for Climate Change: Intro2021-Nov-26 7 minutes |
Who Makes the Fake Languages for Hollywood?2021-Nov-19 39 minutes |
How NASA's $2 Billion Rover Landed Itself on Mars: "Seven Minutes of Terror"2021-Nov-12 43 minutes |
Tornado Alley is Shifting Eastward—and We're Not Ready2021-Nov-05 34 minutes |
Audio Deepfakes and the End of Trust2021-Oct-29 45 minutes |
How We Almost Blew the Vaccine2021-Oct-22 41 minutes |
What Happened to the Mosquitoes in Fresno?2021-Oct-15 38 minutes |
Introducing: Unsung Science with David Pogue2021-Sep-27 3 minutes |