Podcast · 132 episodes
Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe
by iHeartPodcasts · English
Scientists Daniel and Kelly cannot stop talking about our amazing, wonderful, weird Universe! Each episode is a fun, easy-to-understand, and in-depth explanation of topics in science, from particles to black holes to moon colonies to ecosystems to parasites and everything else in the Universe!
Latest episodes
SupervoidsSupervoids—extremely large underdense regions in the cosmic web—what they are, how they’re mapped, why they exist, and what they imply for the universe’s formation and expansion.29 Sep 2026 · 48 min
Listener Questions #51Listener Questions #51 on Daniel Whiteson and Kelly Wienersmith’s Extraordinary Universe—covering relativity near black holes, microbes that digest plastic, and the “block universe” implications for…24 Sep 2026 · 49 min
Do Animals Make Mistakes? (featuring Dr. Andy Sih)Why animals “make mistakes,” especially when human-changed environments create evolutionary traps; how to define mistakes in behavioral ecology; how imperfect information and risk-reward tradeoffs…22 Sep 2026 · 1 h 1 min
All episodes
SupervoidsSupervoids—extremely large underdense regions in the cosmic web—what they are, how they’re mapped, why they exist, and what they imply for the universe’s formation and expansion.29 Sep 2026 · 48 min · 18 chapters
Listener Questions #51Listener Questions #51 on Daniel Whiteson and Kelly Wienersmith’s Extraordinary Universe—covering relativity near black holes, microbes that digest plastic, and the “block universe” implications for…24 Sep 2026 · 49 min · 18 chapters
Do Animals Make Mistakes? (featuring Dr. Andy Sih)Why animals “make mistakes,” especially when human-changed environments create evolutionary traps; how to define mistakes in behavioral ecology; how imperfect information and risk-reward tradeoffs…22 Sep 2026 · 1 h 1 min · 22 chapters
Did we just discover dark matter?Dark matter basics and the latest “possibly exciting” direct-detection claim from the LZ experiment (in South Dakota), framed as “did we just discover dark matter?” The episode emphasizes why dark…17 Sep 2026 · 52 min · 22 chapters
Listener Questions #50Listener Questions #50 on animal “stink dialects,” drilling/melting icy moons for life detection, and the evolutionary origins of penises/“interlocking organs.”15 Sep 2026 · 51 min · 16 chapters
Addiction (featuring Dr. Marcelo Wood)Addiction—how drugs of abuse hijack brain reward circuitry, how learning/memory and epigenetics contribute to long-term persistence and relapse, and what treatments exist.10 Sep 2026 · 58 min · 23 chapters
Is dark energy a fudge factor?The episode asks whether “dark energy” is a “fudge factor” (a math tweak used to patch a theory) and argues that the evidence for the universe’s accelerating expansion is real, while the underlying…8 Sep 2026 · 55 min · 18 chapters
Listener Questions #49Listener Questions #49 on Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe.3 Sep 2026 · 52 min · 15 chapters
RewildingRewilding—restoring ecosystems after major human disturbance by reintroducing missing species and natural processes, aiming for self-sustaining, resilient food webs across trophic levels.1 Sep 2026 · 1 h 2 min · 27 chapters
Can we simulate the Universe?Whether and how scientists can simulate the universe—what “simulation” means, what level of detail is needed, and how far current computing can go.27 Aug 2026 · 54 min · 25 chapters
Listener Questions #48Listener Questions #48 on Daniel and Kelly’s Listener Universe, mixing science Q&A with listener-submitted “favorite questions” and how experts respond.25 Aug 2026 · 49 min · 23 chapters
Origins of life (featuring Dr. Katrine Whiteson)Origins of life—what “life” means, when it likely began, what early Earth was like, and leading hypotheses for how life arose (including RNA/protein/metabolism ideas and the Miller-Urey experiment).20 Aug 2026 · 55 min · 22 chapters
Should the government be hiding aliens?Whether the government should disclose knowledge of aliens, and whether such disclosure could be dangerous; episode uses Steven Spielberg’s fictional film “Disclosure Day” as a springboard.18 Aug 2026 · 56 min · 18 chapters
Listener Questions #47 - Plant Questions (featuring Dr. Manuel Lerdau)Listener Questions #47 focuses on plant biology—why plants make toxic chemicals, how seed germination is triggered, and how plant “species” are defined given frequent hybridization.13 Aug 2026 · 1 h 10 min · 29 chapters
How far can we go with chemical rockets?Whether chemical rockets can take humanity far beyond the solar system, and why physics-based alternatives—especially ion thrusters powered by solar or nuclear energy—may be needed.11 Aug 2026 · 49 min · 27 chapters
Cyclospora (and other diarrhea-inducing parasites)Cyclospora outbreak (July 2026) and other diarrhea-causing parasites, focusing on how they spread “feces-to-mouth,” why symptoms take ~1 week to appear, and how public health tracks outbreaks.6 Aug 2026 · 59 min · 29 chapters
Listener Questions #46Listener Questions #46 answers three questions—(1) how tick bites can cause an allergy to mammal meat (Alpha-gal syndrome), (2) whether aliens could experience quantum superpositions despite…4 Aug 2026 · 57 min · 22 chapters
Sound (featuring audio wizard Mat Keselman)How sound works and how audio engineer Matt Kesselman edits podcasts—noise reduction, smoothing, and psychoacoustics—to make raw recordings listenable.30 Jul 2026 · 58 min · 24 chapters
What is a space-time interval?Special relativity concept of the space-time interval: why space and time separations aren’t separately invariant, how constant light speed breaks simultaneity, and how Minkowski’s invariant combines…28 Jul 2026 · 55 min · 16 chapters
Listener Questions #45Listener Questions #45 on Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe.23 Jul 2026 · 47 min · 15 chapters
Rat lungworm (featuring Dr. Chelsea Wood)Rat lungworm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis), a roundworm parasite spreading beyond its native East/Southeast Asia and causing potentially catastrophic human neurological disease, especially via eating…21 Jul 2026 · 53 min · 24 chapters
Is dark matter a fudge factor?Whether dark matter is a “fudge factor” (a placeholder added to fit observations) or a real, predictive component of the universe.16 Jul 2026 · 57 min · 29 chapters
Listener Questions #44 - How fast can animals go, and how fast can animals grow? (featuring Dr. John Hutchinson)Listener Questions about (1) what determines how fast animals can move, including scaling by body length and visual limits, and (2) what determines how fast organisms can grow, including metabolic…14 Jul 2026 · 57 min · 31 chapters
Of lice and menHuman lice (head, pubic, and body) and what they reveal about human evolution; how lice spread and how they historically caused catastrophic diseases, especially epidemic typhus.9 Jul 2026 · 53 min · 22 chapters