Unexplainable

Dreams are weird, but can they be a scientific tool? Can they teach us anything about humanity? About ourselves?

This episode originally ran on April 12, 2022.

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The Indus Valley civilization was one of the largest, most advanced civilizations in the ancient world. But we barely know anything about them, in large part because we haven’t been able to decipher the cryptic symbols they left behind.

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Awe is what takes our breath away when we face a sky full of stars or listen to a moving piece of music. But scientists are still trying to pin down why we feel such a powerful emotion, and whether it’s possible to cultivate more of it in our lives.

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Many states have extremely punitive policies around cannabis and pregnancy. But researchers don't actually have great data on cannabis's harms.

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Caring for a child seems to change parents’ brains. But what does that actually mean for how parents think and experience the world?

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Fetuses leave cells behind in their parents' bodies, where they braid themselves into tissues, and remain, for years. What are they doing in there?

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2023 has been a record-setting year for tornadoes, and these storms came with barely any warning. So to better understand tornadoes, scientists might need to confront more of these storms head-on.

This episode originally ran on July 12, 2021.

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Scientists are hard at work trying to bring back woolly mammoths (and dodos). But should they? And what would they actually be bringing back?

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We did a live show! We talked about how one of our favorite episodes came together and how we went about creating (somewhat) accurate dinosaur sounds.

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Studies suggesting trees communicate through an elaborate underground fungal network have captured imaginations. It’s a beautiful idea, but the fantasy may have gotten ahead of the science.

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This week, we tackle three listener questions — on sleepwalking, deja vu, and Earth’s magnetic field. Next time, we could be (not) answering yours. Email us at unexplainable@vox.com, or fill out this form.

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Scientists are digging into what makes something funny. We compare their notes with comedians — including Atsuko Okatsuka, Josh Johnson, Dulcé Sloan, and Chris Fleming.

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For every definition of life, there’s a creature that sends us right back to the drawing board.

This is the third episode in our three-part series, Origins, about the beginnings and boundaries of life on Earth.

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How did life on Earth start? To help answer that, researchers are trying to create some life for themselves.

This is the second episode in our three-part series, Origins, about the beginnings and boundaries of life on Earth.

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Life as we know it needs water, but scientists can’t figure out where Earth’s water came from. Answering that question is just one piece of an even bigger mystery: “Why are we here?”

This is the first episode in our new three-part series, Origins, about the beginnings and boundaries of life on Earth.

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Can science help us predict whether a relationship will succeed? Or is it all just chaos?

This episode originally ran on February 9, 2022.

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Listeners told us that eating baby carrots or telling lies can bring on the hiccups. Burping or kissing can make them stop. Um, what?

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Last fall, a NASA spacecraft slammed into an asteroid to test a way to avert a disaster on Earth. So are we safe now?

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Our houses are homes to hidden worlds of bugs. And the more ecologists explore those worlds, the more they realize that some of our tiny roommates actually have a lot to teach us. 

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In the early 1900s, Henrietta Leavitt made one of the most important discoveries in the history of astronomy: a yardstick to measure distances to faraway stars. Using this tool, scientists eventually transformed our understanding of the universe. They realized space was expanding, that this expansion was accelerating, and that ultimately, everything will end.

This episode originally ran on June 30, 2021.

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In the temperate rainforests of Chile, there is a vine that can shapeshift to copy the look of other plants. But how? Can it... see them? Or is something weirder happening?

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Our game show is back! This week, Avery Trufelman, host of the Articles of Interest podcast, tries to guess which of these three mysteries of movement have been solved and which are still unexplainable.

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How we feel emotionally may be influenced by unseen troves of microbial life that live inside us. Is it possible to harness this gut power?

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Back in January, we spoke to a scientist at the National Ignition Facility about how close they were to achieving what’s been called “one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.” This week, they announced they’ve finally done it.

A version of this episode originally ran on January 5, 2022.

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How do animals know how to do things like spin a web or build a dam? A neuroscientist argues it's not “instinct.” Something bigger is going on.

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Humans seem to be the only animals that cry from emotion. What makes our tears so special?

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NASA just launched the Artemis program, a series of missions that will eventually take humans back to the moon, and beyond. But can humans actually survive in space long-term?

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A mountain, a tower, a thermos full of molten salt: These are the batteries that could power our renewable future.

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Death used to be fairly self-evident, but new technologies have forced us to ask: When is someone actually dead? And now, new research is raising a further question: Could death someday be reversible?

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Why do so many people think they can see and hear ghosts, and what does that say about our conscious experience of the world? This episode originally ran on October 27, 2021.

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In the past few decades, the rate of food allergies in both children and adults has dramatically increased. What’s causing this rise, and what can we do about it?

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On the first episode of Vox’s new podcast, The Gray Area, host Sean Illing talks with Neil deGrasse Tyson about the limits of both politics and science.

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For the first time, we get some answers.

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Today's internet is built on a series of locks and keys that protect your private information as it travels through cyberspace. But could all these locks be broken?

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At the 2022 World Athletics Championships, sprinter TyNia Gaither was disqualified for false starting ... after the gun went off. Officials said she started faster than humanly possible. How can that be?

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This past July, a bombshell report in Science magazine suggested that a key Alzheimer’s study might have contained manipulated evidence. What does this mean for over a decade's worth of research? And where does the field go from here?

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One of the world’s most biodiverse aquifers is full of strange, blind creatures that have evolved in isolation for millions of years. But one is missing.

This episode was reported by Benji Jones and Mandy Nguyen, who produced the episode. Editing from Meradith Hoddinott, Katherine Wells, Brian Resnick, and Noam Hassenfeld, who scored the episode. Mixing and sound design from Cristian Ayala. Fact-checking from Richard Sima.

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They probably didn’t roar like lions. Their real voices were likely much, much weirder. We asked scientists to help us recreate these strange, extinct sounds.

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There's an old story scientists tell about human ovaries: that they are ticking clocks that only lose eggs, never gain them. Now that story might be changing, opening the door to new treatments for infertility and menopause.

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Where eels come from is a surprisingly difficult question to answer, in large part because scientists have never actually seen them reproduce in the wild. Gastropod explains why eels are somehow still so mysterious.

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People yawn when they’re bored, right? So then why do athletes yawn before races? And why do so many animals yawn? … And why does reading this paragraph make you more likely to yawn?

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A lava planet, life on other worlds, the very first starlight in the universe — the most powerful space telescope ever built is ready to reveal many mysteries of the cosmos.

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Millions of Americans take dietary supplements — everything from vitamins and minerals to weight loss pills and probiotics. But because supplements are loosely regulated in the US, their makers don't have to prove that they work, or even that they are safe.

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Venus is the hottest, scariest planet in the solar system, but billions of years ago it may have been a lot like Earth, complete with an ocean of water. So, how did Venus go to hell? And could Earth be next?

This is the final episode of our four-part series, Lost Worlds, and it originally ran on December 1, 2021.

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Mars was once a very different planet, with rivers, lakes, and — potentially — life. NASA’s latest Mars rover is on a mission to find traces of past life. What happens if it does?

This is the third episode of our new four-part series, Lost Worlds.

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In all our searching of the universe, we’ve never seen another moon like ours. It's big, it's weird, it's played a huge role in shaping our planet. But how did we get it? Every possible story points to cataclysm.

This is the second episode of our new four-part series, Lost Worlds.

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Was there a technologically advanced species living on Earth long before humans? And if one had existed, how would we know?

This is the first episode of our new four-part series, Lost Worlds.

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Insect populations are shrinking all over the world, and entomologists are buzzing with questions: Why is this happening? How quickly? And, most concerningly, what does it mean for food supplies or even life as we know it?

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A groundbreaking study claims to have found a way for a fully paralyzed person to communicate entirely via thought. Today, Explained breaks down the science and asks: Is it too good to be true?

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Dreams are weird, but can they be a scientific tool? Can they teach us anything about humanity? About ourselves?

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