The story of technological progress is one of drama and intrigue, sudden insight and plain hard work. Let's explore technology's spectacular failures and many magnificent success stories.This content is in service of Houston Public Media's education mission and is sponsored by the University of Houston. It is not a product of our news team. more

Math! Science! History! is about the history of people, theories, and discoveries that have moved our scientific progress forward and spurred us on to unimaginable discoveries. Join Gabrielle Birchak for a little math, a little science, and a little history. All in a little bit of time. more

More than 154 million treasures fill the Smithsonian's vaults. But where the public's view ends, Sidedoor begins. With the help of biologists, artists, historians, archaeologists, zookeepers and astrophysicists, host Lizzie Peabody sneaks listeners through the Smithsonian's side door, telling stories that can't be heard anywhere else. Check out si.edu/sidedoor and follow @SidedoorPod for more info.  more

Who are the people behind the discoveries that have changed our lives? Join Aarati as she spills the tea on scientists and inventors throughout history! more

A podcast about exactly what it says it is: examining the bad ideas, mistakes and accidents that misshaped our world. more

Monthly interviews on important moments in the history of science.

For every Marie Curie or Rosalind Franklin whose story has been told, hundreds of female scientists remain unknown to the public at large. In this series, we illuminate the lives and work of a diverse array of groundbreaking scientists who, because of time, place and gender, have gone largely unrecognized. Each season we focus on a different scientist, putting her narrative into context, explaining not just the science but also the social and historical conditions in which she lived and worked. We also bring these stories to the present, painting a full picture of how her work endures. more

On July 16, 1945, in a New Mexico desert, the Trinity Test ushered in the Nuclear Age. No other piece of technology has penetrated the American consciousness like the nuclear bomb and found a place in everything from culture to medicine. This podcast explores how nuclear science has impacted and changed our world in both beneficial and destructive ways. We explore the intersection of nuclear science and society using interviews with historians, policymakers, experts in their fields, and first-hand accounts to weave a picture of your nuclear life. more

Covering infectious diseases through history from plague to COVID-19.

Distillations is the Science History Institute's critically acclaimed flagship podcast. We take deep dives into stories that range from the serious to the eccentric, all to help listeners better understand the surprising science that is all around us. Hear about everything from the crisis in Alzheimer's research to New England's 19th-century vampire panic in compelling, sometimes-funny, documentary-style audio stories. more

A topsy-turvy science-y history podcast by Sam Kean. I examine overlooked stories from our past: the dental superiority of hunter-gatherers, the crooked Nazis who saved thousands of American lives, the American immigrants who developed the most successful cancer screening tool in history, the sex lives of dinosaurs, and much, much more. These are charming little tales that never made the history books, but these small moments can be surprisingly powerful. These are the cases where history gets inverted, where the footnote becomes the real story. more

Welcome to the Discovery Dialogues podcast, where we take a deep dive into the history of groundbreaking discoveries in the life sciences. I am your host Ani Deshpande. Each episode we will uncover some incredible, insightful, and often just insane stories behind the breakthroughs in medicine. Join us as we journey through the twists and turns of scientific history. One breakthrough at a time. more

Sam Webster Harris chronicles the complete history of innovation from the Stone Age to the modern day. Learn how transformative ideas build upon each other to change the world and shape the future of humanity. Every breakthrough that changes civilization begins with curiosity. From the first controlled fire to artificial intelligence. Follow the journey, step-by-step, tracing the evolution of human progress and society. On the way, uncovering the nerdy stories and fun facts behind world-changing inventions and the mental models that drive systemic change. Each episode is a deep dive into innovation patterns and the threads that shape our world: - From Leonardo Da Vinci dissecting human bodies to editing our own DNA - Maritime Navigation sets the course for Interstellar exploration - Hammurabi's legal code is relevant in algorithmic governance Modern revolutions in technology and the future of AI are a continuation of core needs of their human creators. Our desire for leverage shows up time and again in the history of civilization. Drawing insights from psychology, economics, and anthropology, we explore how change makers in history like Galileo, Newton, and Tesla didn't just discover big ideas. They transformed civilization itself. Their playbooks reveal timeless strategies for anyone seeking to understand how the world works. This isn't surface-level history. It's intellectual history told through narrative learning—connecting past invention stories to the future of technology, future of society, and patterns of history that will define the Anthropocene. Whether you're fascinated by the timeline of human history, founder stories, or the psychology of change, each episode delivers actionable mental models wrapped in engaging storytelling. Learn something new about human progress while discovering your own potential to change the world. For the intellectually curious seeking to understand innovation, drive progress, and glimpse the future of humanity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. more

A podcast exploring the history of science from the beginning. We will cover all of the most important scientific discoveries from Archimedes to Newton to Einstein. The aim is to give a complete overview of how science evolved and how it shaped the modern world. Support the show and keep it going: https://buymeacoffee.com/completehistoryofscience Follow me on BlueSky for updates: https://bsky.app/profile/gethinrichards.bsky.social YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thecompletehistoryofscience Music credit:Folk Round Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Photo credit: 'L0015096EB' by Wellcome Library, London is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Image has been cropped. more

A podcast about the fascinating true stories behind each element on the periodic table.

Chemistry is everywhere, and involves everything. But how did chemistry get to be what it is? I'm Steve Cohen, a chemist and writer, bringing you The History of Chemistry. This podcast explores the development of chemistry from prehistoric times to the present, including the people and societies who made chemistry what it is today. The History of Chemistry is for you, whether you hated chemistry in high school, or got a PhD in inorganic chemistry. We'll explore how chemistry affected art, music, language, politics and vice-versa. Whether it's ancient Greek philosophers, medieval alchemists, or modern laboratory apparatus, it's all here. Don't forget to support my series at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry ! more

Inventing America is a micro-documentary style podcast that uncovers the untold stories of forgotten inventors who quietly shaped the modern world.Each episode brings to life the minds behind everyday tools, life-saving technologies, and groundbreaking ideas—figures whose names were lost to history, but whose work still powers our lives today.From rocket fuel to hybrid cars, respirators to bulletproof vests, Inventing America goes beyond the headlines to explore invention, obscurity, and legacy.If you love stories like Hidden Brain, 99% Invisible, or Revisionist History, this is for you. more

This podcast might not actually kill you, but Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann Updyke cover so many things that can. In each episode, they tackle a different topic, teaching listeners about the biology, history, and epidemiology of a different disease or medical mystery. They do the scientific research, so you don't have to. Since 2017, Erin and Erin have explored chronic and infectious diseases, medications, poisons, viruses, bacteria and scientific discoveries. They've researched public health subjects including plague, Zika, COVID-19, lupus, asbestos, endometriosis and more.Each episode is accompanied by a creative quarantini cocktail recipe and a non-alcoholic placeborita.Erin Welsh, Ph.D. is a co-host of the This Podcast Will Kill You. She is a disease ecologist and epidemiologist and works full-time as a science communicator through her work on the podcast. Erin Allmann Updyke, MD, Ph.D. is a co-host of This Podcast Will Kill You. She's an epidemiologist and disease ecologist currently in the final stretch of her family medicine residency program.This Podcast Will Kill You is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including science, true crime, comedic interviews, news, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, Buried Bones, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast and more. more

The history of early space exploration.

Listen in as Award Winners share their personal stories. You will hear about starting off in research during a World War, learn how Laureates navigated family and career, and find out how their discoveries, now heralded as groundbreaking, were met by their peers. Whether you're a history buff, a science enthusiast, or a history of science nerd, this podcast from the archives of the Lasker Foundation is for you. more

A history of astronomy, from antiquity to the present.

What does the word 'meme' have to do with evolutionary biology? And why do we call it 'Spanish flu' when it was never Spanish? Science Diction is a podcast about words—and the science stories within them. If you like your language with a side of science, Science Diction has you covered. Brought to you by Science Friday and WNYC Studios. more

What did it mean to pursue science in the Ottoman Empire? Who practiced it and why? And how should scholars approach the topic today? This series of podcasts introduces new research that challenges the traditional story of science in the Ottoman Empire. Setting aside long-held assumptions of the passive reception of European science or of a golden age stymied by religious obscurantism, these podcasts explore how artisans, scholars, and others made sense of the natural world. Some examine topics and actors traditionally regarded as outside the bounds of science, such as alchemy, while others reveal connections to broader worlds of intellectual exchange. Yet others situate seemingly cerebral sciences like astronomy or medicine in the everyday contexts of religion and charity. Together they reveal a new and vibrant intellectual world that has been too often overlooked. more