Episodes

  • Not quite ‘Jurassic Park’: Scientists want to ‘resurrect’ the woolly mammoth soon

    Not quite ‘Jurassic Park’: Scientists want to ‘resurrect’ the woolly mammoth soon
    Feb 21 2025
    Instead of harvesting long-lost DNA like they do in in the “Jurassic Park” film franchise, a company called Colossal is planning to take living species and genetically engineer traits of the extinct animals such as the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger and the dodo bird into them. The company employs around 170 scientists and plans are moving forward… faster than you might think. Faye Flam, a science journalist who is researching the topic for Bloomberg, joined the show to discuss the project.
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    18 mins
  • Offbites: Adventures in déjà vu

    Offbites: Adventures in déjà vu
    Feb 14 2025
    Stories about stolen eggs, Taylor Swift’s Super Bowl experience, people getting stuck on theme park rides and the possible end of the penny all reminded us of “Something Offbeat” tales from the past.
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    22 mins
  • $2M Roman coin makes us wonder: What's the future of change?

    $2M Roman coin makes us wonder: What's the future of change?
    Feb 7 2025
    A coin from ancient Rome featuring a depiction of Brutus -- yes, the Brutus who killed Julius Caesar -- sold at auction for $2 million. It got us wondering, in 2,000 years, could a penny be worth just as much? And what's the future of physical currency look like anyway? To find out, we talked to Aaron Klein, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, about what our money could look like in the future.
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    15 mins
  • Did Google just get closer to proving the multiverse? It's complicated.

    Did Google just get closer to proving the multiverse? It's complicated.
    Jan 31 2025
    George Musser, a contributing editor at Scientific American, contributing writer at Quanta as well as the author of Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation (2023) and Spooky Action at a Distance (2015) joined “Something Offbeat” to help us get a better understanding of the multiverse and what it has to do with computers.
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    14 mins
  • Visiting the abandoned military base buried under hundreds of feet of ice in Greenland

    Visiting the abandoned military base buried under hundreds of feet of ice in Greenland
    Jan 24 2025
    Camp Century was a US military base that was used for less than a decade in the 1960s. Now? It’s all but a memory. William Colgan, a glacier and climate change researcher, currently in Copenhagen, Denmark, as part of the Camp Century Climate Monitoring Program, joins the show to discuss it.
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    14 mins
  • What new 'evidence' tells us (or doesn't) about DB Cooper

    What new 'evidence' tells us (or doesn't) about DB Cooper
    Jan 17 2025
    Today we’re talking about one of the most notorious, long-enduring real-life mysteries out there. The tale of one of the most infamous skyjackers of all time – DB Cooper. Researcher Eric Ulis joins the show to explain the decades-old enigma and help us unpack the latest theories about who Cooper might be.
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    20 mins
  • 'Most Offbeat' of the year: From Stonehenge to brain chips

    'Most Offbeat' of the year: From Stonehenge to brain chips
    Jan 10 2025
    Here's a taste of the best stories from the past year to get us ready for 2025.
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    13 mins
  • Offbites: Where the good gifts are

    Offbites: Where the good gifts are
    Dec 27 2024
    20 mins