Climate Science podcasts

Alexandra Delbot reçoit Laurent Chauvaud et Frédéric Olivier pour explorer les coquilles de bivalves comme archives des milieux marins. La discussion explique comment les stries de croissance et leur composition chimique renseignent sur l’âge, la température, la salinité et les climats passés. Elle aborde aussi les pollutions, les perturbations acoustiques et les réponses biologiques des mollusques, envisagés comme indicateurs des changements de leur habitat.

Hosted by Alexandra Delbot

Robyn Williams and Belinda Smith explore biological cooperation and symbiosis, how bees protect their colonies against disease, and the pressures that climate change places on African lions. The programme also examines evolutionary competition between reptiles and mammals and the scientific accuracy of dinosaur displays. This edition brings together five science reports connecting interactions among organisms, environmental change and the communication of biological research.

Hosted by Robyn Williams, Belinda Smith

John Platt discusses how Google’s applied-science team chooses problems where AI can make a useful contribution. Topics include satellite-based detection and prediction of aircraft contrails, evaluation of rerouting trials, limitations of physical simulation, and the role of AI agents in scientific modelling and data work. The conversation also examines overfitting, action incentives, gradient-free optimisation, SMO and support-vector machines, the physical constraints on scaling, and opportunities for robotics and manufacturing to support climate technology. It concludes with FireSat’s approach to detecting small wildfires from orbit and the practical issues of coverage, cost and false positives.

Hosted by Ravid Shwartz Ziv, Allen Roush

Sarah Crespi and Katie Langin examine assisted migration: replanting forests after wildfire with trees suited to the warmer conditions expected in coming decades. Susana Monsó, associate professor in logic, history and philosophy of science at Spain’s National University of Distance Education, then discusses how philosophical analysis contributes to scientific work, from defining concepts to formulating research questions. Produced with help from Podigy; published 17 September 2026, with a running time of 37 minutes and 28 seconds.

Hosted by Sarah Crespi

Chris Smith and Rachael Ralph explore the mechanisms and forecasting of El Niño and its consequences for weather, livelihoods and health. Contributions from Aidan McGivern and Peter Gibbs explain the climate dynamics; Vicky Pryce discusses economic disruption; Rachel Tolhurst and Teresa Zakaria examine health vulnerabilities and preparedness. The episode connects climate science with the decisions facing public-health services and communities.

Hosted by Chris Smith, Rachael Ralph

Sarah Crespi and Richard Stone discuss the spread of disease-carrying Hyalomma ticks as the climate changes, drawing on reporting from Kosovo and the role of surveillance. Evolutionary ecologist Veronika Bókony then explains research on agile frogs whose development changes with temperature, including the reproductive consequences for genetically female frogs that develop male traits. The episode connects climate, disease ecology and amphibian reproduction. The publisher supplies a transcript and external audio.

Hosted by Sarah Crespi

This episode examines whether manufacturing pharmaceuticals and biomedical materials in microgravity can become practical, with Julia Vaz and Michael Greshko. Kevin McLean speaks with Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen about narwhals collecting oceanographic measurements that reveal Atlantic warming in East Greenland fjords. In the book segment, Angela Saini interviews Priyambada Jayakumar about her biography of agricultural scientist M. S. Swaminathan. The publisher provides a full transcript and external audio.

Hosted by Sarah Crespi, Angela Saini

Nature reporters explain why record ocean temperatures associated with an intensifying El Niño could weaken marine carbon sinks. The episode also covers radiation protection for astronauts, thunder-based underground geology and experimental mitochondrial injections for vision loss.

Melissa and Jam trace the chemistry of refrigerants from early hazardous compounds to chlorofluorocarbons and their replacements. They explain why a substance that cools effectively can still create environmental problems, and discuss the tradeoffs among ozone protection, climate effects, flammability and regulation.

Hosted by Melissa, Jam

This bonus crossover from Inflection Point examines carbon-capture approaches, their history and the limits of their contribution to climate mitigation. The discussion includes ocean-based approaches and the chemical processes involved. It is the publisher’s syndicated episode in the Stereo Chemistry feed, rather than a separate new recording.

Climate scientist Mathew Barlow explains why warming can intensify both drought and extreme rainfall. The episode follows water through a warmer atmosphere, connecting increased moisture capacity and evaporation with dry soils and stronger downpours. It distinguishes changes in average conditions from the most damaging extremes and discusses why infrastructure faces growing flood risks.

Hosted by Madison Goldberg

Polar scientist Sarah Das describes fieldwork on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, from expedition logistics and ice-core drilling to transporting frozen samples to the laboratory. The conversation explains how ice cores preserve climate records and how repeated visits reveal retreating glacier margins and earlier melt seasons. It connects the practical work of glaciology with measured changes in polar landscapes.

Hosted by Madison Goldberg

Sarah Das explains how polar ice sheets, sea ice and mountain glaciers respond to climate warming. Drawing on decades of research in Antarctica and Greenland, the episode examines ice-sheet mass balance, glacier flow, satellite measurements and the consequences of ice loss for sea level and communities. It connects observations of rapidly changing frozen landscapes with their global effects.

Hosted by Madison Goldberg

Toni Lyn Morelli and Alexej Sirén discuss how climate change alters the geographical distribution of species. As habitats change, movement can offer plants and animals a route to persistence, but it also reshapes ecological relationships. The episode examines these shifts and their implications for conservation and the communities that share affected environments.

Hosted by Madison Goldberg

Samantha Burgess explains how researchers estimate the Earth’s temperature and monitor a changing climate. The episode examines the observations and international scientific collaboration behind global temperature records, and the work involved in assessing the planet’s changing conditions rather than treating a single local measurement as a global answer.

Hosted by Madison Goldberg

Julie Simpson explores the climate role of coastal saltwater wetlands, including marshes, mangroves and seagrass meadows. Alongside habitat, water purification and coastal protection, these ecosystems remove and retain substantial amounts of carbon dioxide. The episode examines how their ecological processes connect conservation with climate mitigation.

Hosted by Madison Goldberg

Elfatih Eltahir explains how regional climate models can incorporate disease, population and other local conditions to guide adaptation. Drawing on work in the Nile Basin and Singapore, he discusses the limitations of global predictions, his Equation of the Future of Africa, and outdoor days as a more tangible measure of climate impacts.

Hosted by Steven Strogatz, Janna Levin

Lars Bakken discusses using bacteria to reduce nitrous-oxide emissions associated with agricultural fertilizer. Conversation in Norwegian.

Jancitha Ellers, Enrico Rezende and Wilco Verberk join Cameron Ghalambor to discuss predicting ecological responses to warming. Topics include measuring heat tolerance in ectotherms, integrating trait data and improving models of species responses to high temperatures. The conversation was recorded around a predictive-ecology symposium in Granada.

Hosted by Marty Martin, Cameron Ghalambor

Ray Huey discusses how thermal physiology informs understanding of organisms and climate change. The conversation traces his work on lizards, research on mountaineering and survival at altitude, and approaches to scientific writing. It also considers graduate training and the development of a research career in ecology and evolution.

Hosted by Marty Martin, Art Woods