Many bats can live a bizarrely long time, and brush off viruses that kill people. How do they do it and what can we learn from them? Zoology Professor Emma Teeling and bat researcher and clinician Matae Ahn fly through the science. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsBats This episode was produced by Flora Lichtman with help from Wendy Zukerman, Joel Werner, R.E. Natowicz, and Michelle Dang, Rose Rimler. Editing by Jorge Just, Annette Heist and Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Carmen Drahl. Mix and sound design by Bumi Hidaka. Music written by Billy Libby, Emma Munger, Darah Hirsch, So Wylie and Bobby Lord. Thanks to everyone we reached out to for this episode including Dr. Vera Gorbunova, Dr. Sharon Swartz, Dr. Gerry Wilkinson, and Dr. Lisa Cooper.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tons of people struggle to get revved up about sex. It can mess with their relationships and how they feel about themselves. So enter the multimillion-dollar supplement industry with miracle solutions. Even Big Pharma has joined the battle for our libido, with drugs that claim to work wonders. But what if our ideas about sex drive are completely wrong? What if a pill (or testosterone injection) isn't the answer? We dive into the groundbreaking science on libido — and what you can do if you can't get no satisfaction. With sex therapist Professor Heather Goltz, sexual health researcher Professor Caroline Pukall and endocrinologist Professor Waljit Dhilo.Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsSexDrive In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Chapter 1: Our limping libidos(04:16) Chapter 2: Sex drive and testosterone(08:24) Chapter 3: Kisspeptin: The new kid on the block(17:13) Chapter 4: Libido-boosting supplements and medications(24:39) Chapter 5: When your libido takes workWe're performing at Beaker St in Tasmania and Wendy Zukerman will be at Splendour in the Grass. This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman with help from Joel Werner, Rose Rimler, Michelle Dang, R.E. Natowicz, and Meryl Horn. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Emma Munger, Peter Leonard and Bobby Lord. Data Analysis by Sam Levang.Thanks to everyone we reached out to for this episode, including Professor Sari Van Anders, Dr Emily Harris, Dr Jennifer Power, Dr Simone Buzwell, Dr Alexandra James, Professor Sheryl Kingsberg, Professor Barbara Mintzes, Dr Leonor Tiefer, Dr Mats Holmberg, and Dr Alexander Comninos. Special thanks to Jack Weinstein and Hunter, Katie Vines and Finn and Jules, Chris Suter, Elise and Dylan, the Natowicz family, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Housing has gotten SO expensive — for many of us, buying something seems totally out of reach. And even renting a decent apartment is a struggle these days. Who, or what, is to blame for these high prices? We track down the culprit with urban planner Prof. Nicole Gurran and attorney Prof. Sara Bronin.  Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsAffordableHousingIn this episode, we cover:(00:00) The Crime(03:48) Suspect 1: Greedy developers(07:20) Suspect 2: AirBnB(14:20) Suspect 3: Zoning(24:00) The Twist!This episode was produced by Rose Rimler along with Wendy Zukerman, with help from Joel Werner, R.E. Natowicz, Meryl Horn, and Michelle Dang. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Eva Dasher. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Emma Munger, and Bobby Lord. Thanks to everyone we reached out to for this episode, including Dr. Yonah Freemark, Prof. Stephen Sheppard, , Prof. Sonia Hirt, Prof. Solly Angel, Dr. Sherry Bokhari, Dr. Salim Furth, Dr. Norbert Michel, Dr. Max Holleran, Prof. Manuel Aalbers, Prof. Kirk McClure, Dr. Kate Pennington, Prof. Joseph Gyourko, Prof. Jessica Trounstine, Jenna Davis, Dr. Jake Wegmann, Prof. Hui Li, Dr. Edward Kung, Dr. David Wachsmuth, Dr. Brian Doucet, Dr. Aradhya Sood, Dr. Stan Oklobdzija, and Dr. Andrew Whittemore.Special thanks to Meg Driscoll, Flora Lichtman and a big thanks to our voice actors: Aliza Rood, Annie Minoff, Chantelle Young, Valentina Powers, Alena Acker, Krystian Zun, and Moo. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Going gluten-free is all the rage — we hear it’s the secret hack to being more healthy, even if you don’t have celiac disease. But is gluten actually bad for all of us? And what’s the deal with gluten sensitivity? We talk to immunologist Dr. Armin Alaedini, gastroenterologist Dr. Carolyn Newberry, and nutrition epidemiologist Dr. Natalie Riediger. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsGlutenIn this episode, we cover:(00:00) Chapter 1: Why the internet hates gluten(02:17) Chapter 2: How gluten can hurt some people(05:21) Chapter 3: What’s up with gluten sensitivity(11:35) Chapter 4: Gluten and the placebo effect(15:27) Chapter 5: Other stuff besides gluten could be to blame(22:05) Chapter 6: Can a gluten-free diet help you lose weight? (28:03) Chapter 7: Downsides to going gluten free (29:28) Chapter 8: A love letter to gluten This episode was produced by Michelle Dang, Wendy Zukerman, Meryl Horn, R.E. Natowicz, Joel Werner, and Rose Rimler. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Diane Kelly. Mix and sound design by Bumi Hidaka. Music written by Bobby Lord, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, and Bumi Hidaka. Thanks to everyone we reached out to for this episode including Dr. Sachin Rustgi, Dr. Robert Anderson, Dr. Jonatan Gomez, Dr. Jessica Biesiekierski, and Zoe Scheier. Special thanks to the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Science Vs is a Spotify Original Podcast. Follow Science Vs on Spotify, and if you wanna receive notifications every time we put out a new episode, tap the bell icon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Artificial Intelligence seems more human-like and capable than ever before — but how did it get so good so quickly? Today, we’re pulling back the curtain to find out exactly how AI works. And we'll dig into one of the biggest problems that scientists are worried about here: The ability of AI to trick us. We talk to Dr. Sasha Luccioni and Professor Seth Lazar about the science.This episode contains explicit language.There’s also a brief mention of suicide, so please take care when listening. Here are some crisis hotlines:  United States: US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (2755) (Online chat available); US Crisis Text Line Text “GO” to 741741 Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14 (Online chat available) Canada: Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention (See link for phone numbers listed by province) United Kingdom: Samaritans 116 123 (UK and ROI) Full list of international hotlines here  Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsAIIn this episode, we cover:(00:00) 64,000 willies(05:13) A swag pope(06:36) Why is AI so good right now?(09:06) How does AI work? (17:43) Opening up AI to everyone(20:42) A rogue chatbot(27:50) Charming chatbots(29:42) A misinformation apocalypse?(33:16) Can you tell me something good?!(36:08) Citations, credits, and a special surprise… This episode was produced by Joel Werner, with help from Wendy Zukerman, Meryl Horn, R.E. Natowicz, Rose Rimler, and Michelle Dang. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Jonathon Roberts. Music written by Bobby Lord, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger So Wylie and Bumi Hidaka. Thanks to all the researchers we spoke to including Dr Patrick Mineault, Professor Melanie Mitchell, Professor Arvind Narayanan, Professor Philip Torr, Stella Biderman, and Arman Chaudhry.Special thanks to Katie Vines, Allison, Jorge Just, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Science Vs is a Spotify Original Podcast. Follow Science Vs on Spotify, and if you wanna receive notifications every time we put out a new episode, tap the bell icon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We join forces with Sarah Marshall from You’re Wrong About to dive into a question for the ages: Blue balls — are they real? And we’ve got some BIG blue balls news in this episode! The survey we did when it originally aired has been turned into a peer-reviewed paper led by scientists at Queen’s University! WE MADE SCIENCE! And if you took our survey, you helped!So join us as we revisit this romp where we ask if blue balls are a ball-faced lie, something that men make up to pressure women to have sex with them. Our guests include Sam Pierstorff, Dr. Jamin Brahmbhatt, Professor Caroline Pukall and Dr. Jonathan Chalett.Find our blue balls paper in the journal Sexual Medicine: https://academic.oup.com/smoa/article/11/2/qfad016/7148610Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/sciencevsblueballsupdate Link(s) to related episode(s), if desired (and ask Jen Hahn to make a button once published): In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Chapter One: We’ve published a scientific paper on blue balls!(04:05) Chapter Two: A cautionary blue balls tale(09:25) Chapter Three: Could a semen backup cause blue balls?(15:00) Chapter Four: Is blue balls caused by blood flow?(19:05) Chapter Five: We do our own blue balls research!Credits:This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman with help from Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, Meryl Horn, Nick DelRose, Michelle Dang, and Rose Rimler. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Gimlet’s managing director is Nicole Beemsterboer. Fact checking by Eva Dasher, update fact checked by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Bumi Hidaka. The updated version was mixed by Catherine Anderson. Music written by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, Bobby Lord and Bumi Hidaka. A huge thanks to all the experts we got in touch with for this episode, including Dr Gordon Muir, Dr Michael Leapman, Dr Karan Rangarajan, Dr Randal Rockney, Dr Nan Wise, and Dr Kevin Gandhi. A big thanks to Joel Werner, R.E. Natowicz, Eric Mennel, Ayo Oti, Andrea Scott, Jack Weinstein, the Zukerman family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.Science Vs is a Spotify Original Podcast and Gimlet production. Follow Science Vs on Spotify, and if you wanna receive notifications every time we put out a new episode, tap the bell icon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The dentist tells us to floss, brush, avoid certain food and drinks ... but what actually matters when it comes to having healthy teeth? We're drilling into the science on all of it. Plus, we go undercover to find out how many dentists are trying to upsell you when you go in for a checkup. We talk to epidemiologist and dentist Professor Philippe Hujoel, dentist Dr. Alisha Virmani, and economist Dr. Felix Gottschalk. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/sciencevsdentist Fill out this quick survey to vote on the BEST SCIENCE VS EPISODE OF ALL TIME! blythet.typeform.com/to/oghHme3x  In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Chapter 1: Oral hygiene is confusing(02:08) Chapter 2: Do flossing and tooth brushing prevent cavities?(11:07) Chapter 3: Flossing: Good for the gums?(16:42) Chapter 4: Does seltzer mess up our teeth? What about other food and drink?(22:26) Chapter 5: How dodgy are dentists?Credits:This episode was produced by Meryl Horn, with help from Wendy Zukerman, R.E. Natowicz, Rose Rimler, Michelle Dang and Joel Werner, We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Gimlet’s managing director is Nicole Beemsterboer. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bobby Lord, Emma Munger, So Wiley, Peter Leonard, and Bumi Hidaka. Thanks to all the researchers we spoke to including Dr. Joshua Emrick, Dr. Arosha Weerakoon, Professor Stephen Peckham, Professor Marie Bismark, Professor Steven Levy, Dr. Abdul Ghoneim, Dr. David Okano, Professor Christof Dörfer, and Dr. Patrick Fee. Special thanks to Chris Suter, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.Science Vs is a Spotify Original Podcast and a Gimlet production. Follow Science Vs on Spotify, and if you want to get notifications every time we put out a new episode, tap the bell icon in your app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When it comes to keeping our skin looking younger, what works? Retinol, hyaluronic acid, vitamin C? This simple question has become confused by the billion-dollar skin-care industry, which floods us with scientific-sounding claims about the chemicals they say we should put on our face. We find out the real science on what you need for healthy skin with Dr Natalia Spierings, Dr Szu Wong and Kirsten Drysdale. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/sciencevsskincare In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Chapter 1: Promises of the skin care industry(04:12) Chapter 2: Why do we get wrinkles? (06:36) Chapter 3: Can skin care products remove wrinkles? (14:15) Chapter 4: Can vitamin A cream reduce wrinkles? (21:30) Chapter 5: 99% reduction in fine lines! (26:55) Chapter 6: Moisturizers and sunscreen(29:00) Chapter 7: Is skin care a waste of money?This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman, with help from Joel Werner, Rose Rimler, Meryl Horn, R.E. Natowicz, and Michelle Dang. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Mix and sound design by Catherine Anderson. Music written by Bobby Lord, Emma Munger, So Wiley, Peter Leonard, and Bumi Hidaka. Gimlet’s managing director is Nicole Beemsterboer. Fact checking by Diane Kelly. Thanks to all the researchers who helped us with this episode including Dr Yousuf Mohammed, Professor Chris Anderson, Dr Lifeng Kang, Dr Heather Benson, and Professor Sara Brown. Special thanks to Flora Lichtman, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Science Vs is a Spotify Original Podcast and a Gimlet production. Follow Science Vs on Spotify, and if you wanna receive notifications every time we put out a new episode, tap the bell icon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just two months before Covid-19 broke out, we made a fictional pandemic episode that was like “Contagion” but with citations. And we played it for Dr. Anthony Fauci. Today, we’re looking back at that episode and asking — how much of the pandemic did we predict? This episode has some unbleeped curse words. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsPandemicIn this episode, we cover:(00:00) Chapter One: Why we’re sharing this episode(03:42) Chapter Two: Meet Dr. Anthony Fauci(07:10) Chapter Three: The fictional pandemic begins(26:50) Chapter Four: Fauci’s thoughts on our fake pandemic(33:53) Chapter Five: Wendy and Blythe’s reactionThe original pandemic episode was produced by Kaitlyn Sawrey, with help from Wendy Zukerman, Michelle Dang, Lexi Krupp, Rose Rimler and Meryl Horn. It was edited by Caitlin Kenney and Blythe Terrell. Extra writing help from Kevin Christopher Snipes. Fact checking by Diane Kelly. Mix and sound design by Peter Leonard. Music written by Peter Leonard, Bobby Lord and Marcus Thorne Bagala. This new update was produced by Rose Rimler and fact checked by Erika Akiko Howard, and mixed by Bobby lord.Thank you to all the scientists and researchers we got in touch with for this episode, including Dr. Eric Toner, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Beth Maldin Morgenthau, Dr. Melvin Sanicas, Dr. Mandy Izzo, Dr. Kurt Frey, Professor Michael Osterholm, Dr. Patrick Saunders Hastings, Rosemary Gibson, Thomas Bollyky, Dr. Ashleigh Tuite, Professor Stephen Morse, Dr. Lalitha Sundaram, Professor David N. Fisman, Lynette Brammer, the late Dr. Mohamed Naguib, Dr. Yeulong Shu, Dr. Dan Jernigan, Dr. Kirsty Short, and special thanks to Bess Davenport at CDC. Thanks to our actors, Annabelle Fox as Mindy, as well as the late William Dufris, Alice Kors, Dani Cervone, Robin Miles, Jordan Cobb, Jonathan Woodward, Ian Lowe and Casey Wortmann. Directed by William Dufris with help from Wendy Zukerman, Kaitlyn Sawrey and Fred Greenhalgh. Recording by Fred Greenhalgh and Peter Leonard. Also thank you to all the Gimlet people who performed various drafts during edits, including Chad Chenail, Gabe Lozada, Jasmine Romero and MR Daniel. And a huge thank you to Frank Lopez, Jorge Just, Joel Werner, R.E. Natowicz, Stevie Lane, Phoebe Flanigan, Chris Giliberti, Justin McGolrick, Katie Pastore, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Gimlet’s managing director is Nicole Beemsterboer. Science Vs is a Spotify Original Podcast and a Gimlet production. Follow Science vs on Spotify. Tap the bell to receive new episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, we give a dam about beavers. These busy rodents don’t just chill and go with the flow — it turns out their grabby paws are actually helping hands in the fight against climate change. We dive into how this works with ecologists Dr. Emily Fairfax and Dr. Ben Dittbrenner. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsBeaversIn this episode, we cover:(00:00) Intro: How beavers “beaver away”(02:22) Chapter One: How beavers can help (06:18) Chapter Two: Can we move beavers for the better? This episode was produced by Disha Bhagat, with help from Michelle Dang, Meryl Horn, Rose Rimler and R.E. Natowicz. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Wendy Zukerman is our Executive Producer. Gimlet’s managing director is Nicole Beemsterboer. Fact checking by Eva Dasher. Mix and sound design by Catherine Anderson. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Emma Munger, and Bobby Lord.Science Vs is a Spotify Original Podcast and a Gimlet production. Follow Science Vs on Spotify, and if you want to get notifications every time we put out a new episode, tap the bell icon in your app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices