Top Science Podcasts to Enhance Your Learning

Running my experiments involves long periods of relatively monotonous work. Sometimes it feels like I am wasting time, even though it’s important for me to water the plants, fill pots with substrate, and pluck leaves for leaf area measurements. Instead of just checking out mentally or listening to music for hours I began listening to podcasts, and not just my usual tabletop roleplaying game actual plays.

I started searching for science communication podcasts to see what I could learn about the broader field of science and how other communicators go about it. Below I’ve made some recommendations, I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to get a better understanding of how the world, biotechnology, their own brain, or Joe Rogan works.

Skeptics Guide to the Universe

Admittedly I ignored this one for quite some time because I assumed skeptic meant the equivalent of conspiracy theorist. I was wrong, very wrong. This group has been podcasting since 2005, before podcasting was cool or even well known. Right now, it consists of Dr. Steven Novella, Jay Novella, Dr. Cara Santa Maria, Bob Novella, and Evan Bernstein. These five people comb through current events and scientific reporting, bringing their skeptical perspective that provides a questioning approach to all kinds of claims. Even though they do talk about conspiracy theories they offer little support or encouragement to them and cover a vastly wider range of topics. This isn’t like many current talk show podcasts with people sitting around shooting the breeze and arguing about what is objectively right or wrong, it’s an actual application of critical thinking skills to current events.

Talking Biotech

Bias alert, I have co-hosted this podcast a couple of times. I originally met Dr. Kevin Folta when I took his Advanced Plant Physiology Course as part of my doctoral education. We shared a lot of similar thoughts on controlled environment agriculture (CEA), and he was excited to hear that I wanted to bring some CEA experts onto the show which he has been running (somehow single handedly!) for a decade. Typically, he seeks out industry leaders on the cutting edge of biotechnology, agriculture, biomanufacturing, pharmaceuticals, genetics to share what they are working on and how that can be used to protect our health and the environment while still managing to affordably feed everyone. Sometimes the content is a bit advanced, but Dr. Folta does a great job bringing it back to a level that most people can understand.

You Are Not So Smart

If you read my teaching philosophy, there was a section about metacognitive development. That section is largely based on things I learned from David McRaney on this podcast of his. It introduced me to some of the concepts of critical thinking that I then researched further to form that section about how to teach and weave some of those concepts into future lessons. The guests he brings onto the show are excellent at probing the depths of the human mind, exposing the logical fallacies, shortcuts, and feedback loops that determine how we behave and what we think we know.

The Know Rogan Experience

This is the most recent discovery for me. Cecil and Marsh have never listened to Joe Rogan; however, these skeptics recognize that he has an unprecedented impact on the world and set out to understand him and that impact better. I couldn’t agree more with the premise. Rogan puts out a near constant stream of content, which is largely just unchecked conversations, then the media will take portions and present it as “news”. While they can’t cover every conversation Joe Rogan has, once a week they will fully walk through an episode breaking down all the arguments he and his guests make pointing out the merits and flaws of each in the context that it was made. I look forward to watching this one develop as they get a better understanding of the long-term patterns of Joe Rogan as it’s quite clear so far that he switches positions mid-conversation frequently while bits and pieces reach millions of people in numerous methods.

Conclusion

Chances are if I’m spending hours on some task that doesn’t take much concentration that I am listening to one of these podcasts. If you are looking for something a little more stimulating give one of these a shot. These people are dedicating enormous amounts of their time to providing free educational resources to the world, you just might learn something, or at the very least, gain an understanding of how to learn for yourself!

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