Science History Podcast
1) Episode 98. Retrospective: Tom Lehrer's Mathematics
The Science History Podcast, now in its 9th year, has spanned Trump's first term in office, four years of the Biden Administration, and a year of the second Trump Administration, not to mention a glob...Show More
2) Episode 97. Forever Chemicals: Sharon Udasin
Today's episode is a discussion on the history of PFAS, or forever chemicals, including their accidental development, incorporation into commercial products, concerns about health effects, and environ...Show More
3) Episode 96. The Weather: Simon Winchester
The weather has always been a critical element of the human experience - deadly during storms and droughts, sustaining when aligned with the harvest schedule, beautiful and frightening, and integrated...Show More
4) Episode 95. The River War: James Muller
In Episodes 10 and 11 of the Science History Podcast, I interviewed James Muller on the role that Winston Churchill played in the unparalleled advancement of science and technology during the first ha...Show More
5) Episode 94. Lead Poisoning: Bruce Lanphear
Our health, and the health of wildlife, depends on a clean environment. Since the advent of the industrial revolution, our environment has suffered from waves of pollution as different technologies ca...Show More
6) Episode 93. Attacks on University Research: Claudia Polsky
The year 2025 has seen the most aggressive moves ever by the US executive branch against scientific research as the Trump Administration has gutted federal science and regulatory agencies and cancelle...Show More
7) Episode 92. ATSDR: Jaimi Dowdell
In Episode 62, I interviewed two Reuters journalists about how industry and government in the United States use conservation easements to avoid rigorous cleanup of contaminated sites. Today, one of th...Show More
8) Episode 91. Political Bias: Bill von Hippel
In prior episodes, we examined political interference and bias in science in a few contexts, including episode 3 on the history of U.S. congressional attacks on science, episode 57 on types of bias, e...Show More
9) Episode 90. Physicists as Biologists: William Lanouette
In prior episodes, I have interviewed many people about the history of physics and physics-adjacent topics such as nuclear disarmament. Many of the physicists we have discussed also made forays into b...Show More
10) Episode 89. Göttingen Physics: Tim Salditt, Kurt Schönhammer, & Sarah Köster
Prior to the rise of Nazism, the University of Göttingen hosted most of the top physicists in the world, either as resident or visiting scientists. With us to discuss the history of physics in Götting...Show More
Episode 89. Göttingen Physics: Tim Salditt, Kurt Schönhammer, & Sarah Köster
1:15:39 | Apr 10th, 2025