Undark: Truth, Beauty, Science

This week on Entanglements: Should we switch all U.S. elections to ranked choice voting? Our hosts discuss the pros and cons with Deb Otis, director of research and policy for Fair Vote, a non-profit that works on election reform, and David McCune, a professor of mathematics at William Jewell College in Missouri.

This week on Entanglements: Should we run outdoor geoengineering experiments? Our hosts dive into this fiercely debated topic with an atmospheric chemist from Harvard University and a planetary physicist from Oxford University.

This week on Entanglements: Should we try to prevent autism? Our hosts speak with Jill Escher, a philanthropist, president of the National Council on Severe Autism, and parent of two young adults with severe nonverbal autism, and Eric García, the Washington bureau chief at The Independent, who himself is autistic.

We're back! This week on Entanglements: Should we make viruses more dangerous? Our hosts discuss this question, and its contentious history, with a microbiologist from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a virologist from the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

This week on Entanglements: What did we learn from our first season? What’s on deck for the future? Our hosts explore these questions and more in conversations with a special guest.

This week on Entanglements: Is fluoride toxic at low levels? Our hosts explore this question in conversations with a professor from the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry and a neuropsychologist and professor at York University.

This week on Entanglements: Should we unleash GMO mosquitoes? Our hosts explore this question in conversations with a molecular biologist from the University of California, San Diego, and a social scientist from North Carolina State University.

This week on Entanglements: Is the misinformation crisis overblown? Our hosts explore this question in conversations with a social psychologist from the University of Cambridge and a cognitive scientist from the Intstitut Jean Nicod.

This week on Entanglements: Is cannabis safe for people with severe mental health disorders? Our hosts explore this question in conversations with a psychiatrist from Yale School of Medicine and a neuroscientist from the University of Calgary.

This week on Entanglements: Could the Covid-19 pandemic have been sparked by a lab leak? Our hosts explore this hot-button question in conversations with a Weill Cornell microbiologist and a Broad Institute scientist who is an avid lab-leak proponent.

This week on Entanglements: Should citizens decide on risky science? Our hosts talk to an Oxford political scientist and a former law and ethics professor about how democracy should play a role in high-stakes decisions.

This week on Entanglements, hosts Brooke Borel and Anna Rothschild talk to a former OpenAI employee and a Princeton professor about AI and doom. Could AI really become an existential threat to humanity? Or is the possibility — highlighted by some 300 AI experts in an open letter last year — overhyped?

The Undark podcast is back with a new format and a new name: Entanglements. Tune in as our hosts explore some of the most contentious topics in science today. Our first 8-episode season will launch November 11, with new episodes dropping every Monday through the end of the year. 

This month: Some regions of the deep ocean contain vast amounts of key minerals, like cobalt and nickel, that are needed to power clean energy technologies. But some scientists warn that mining them could have tremendous consequences, not just for underwater ecosystems, but for the planet as a whole.

This month: Twenty-six years after the end of the Bosnian War, farmers in Livno are once again making cheese the traditional way, grazing herds of sheep on the wide-open plains. The animals' return is restoring natural wetlands, leading to cascading impacts on the environment and the economy.

For scientists who come from abroad to live and work in America, accents can be personal. It's discouraging to be misunderstood, even when they think they’re speaking clearly. Sometimes, it could even be a career liability. Is the problem the accent, or those on the receiving end?

Residents of Lebanon's Beqaa Valley say pollution in the Litani River is responsible for a host of chronic health problems. While a causal link is hard to prove, cleanup efforts are precarious amid the country's economic crisis and shifting blame between refugees and government inaction.

Alkaline hydrolysis is an end-of-life option that’s gaining popularity in Canada and the U.S. It’s marketed as a greener form of cremation — a way to still end up with ashes, but without sending harmful emissions into the air. But getting the technology approved by lawmakers has proven difficult.

When Pervis Payne was sentenced to death more than three decades ago, it was permissible to execute someone with an intellectual disability. A Supreme Court decision changed that in 2002, but Payne's disability was acknowledged only last year. Why did it take so long to remove him from The Row?

Urbanization in Lagos, Nigeria, is moving at a rapid clip — burying mangrove forests and wetlands under mounds of sand to make way for wealthy subdivisions. Without strong regulations around how that sand is harvested, the social, economic, and environmental consequences are vast.