Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
Are you tired of hearing about coronavirus? Has lockdown left you worn out? Then perhaps it’s time to escape. Join Rowan Hooper and the team at New Scientist in this covid-free space, as they discuss all that’s right with the world - the stories that remind us of how wonderful this planet really is. Find out more at newscientist.com/podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Science and nature curiosities • Animal behaviour and senses • Sound, music, perception, ASMR • Physics and maths: light speed, mass, dark matter, neutrinos, infinity • Space exploration: moons, escape velocity • Scientific history and overlooked scientistsThis podcast is a covid-free science escape series from the New Scientist team that spotlights things that are intriguing, beautiful, or mind-expanding about the world. Episodes are organised around broad themes and use them as jumping-off points for short, magazine-style discussions that move between the natural world, human experience, and fundamental physics.
A recurring focus is how living things sense, communicate, and adapt, including animal perception and vocalisations, symbiosis in nature, and striking biological capabilities. Sound and music feature prominently, with attention to animal calls, infrasonic and ultrasonic phenomena, audio illusions, ASMR, and the idea of turning scientific data into sound. The show also explores how humans perceive and think, touching on metacognition, performance and “flow” states, meditation, and the boundaries of perception at very small scales.
Alongside these experiential topics, the podcast regularly shifts to core scientific concepts—mass, speed, scales, and invisibility—linking everyday intuitions to deeper ideas such as dark matter, the speed of light, quantum limits, and thought experiments about infinity. Space and planetary science appear through tours of notable moons and discussion of conditions relevant to exploration and the search for life. There is also interest in the people and places behind discovery, including overlooked contributors to major breakthroughs and the geographic sites and laboratories associated with chemical elements. Overall, the series blends curiosity-driven explanations with vivid examples and sound-rich storytelling.
