Evolution podcasts

Susanne Renner and Alan Cohen reflect on Bob Ricklefs’s contributions to ecology and evolutionary biology. The discussion considers biogeography, life-history research and the value of sustained, careful scientific work. Ricklefs is the subject of the tribute, rather than a participant in this recording.

David George Haskell discusses the evolution and ecological importance of flowering plants. The conversation follows the innovations that enabled their diversification and their relationships with animals and ecosystems.

Hosted by Clayton Glasgow

Ishmail Abdus-Saboor explores why touch can feel painful or pleasurable and how scientists study those experiences. The conversation connects sensory pathways to social behavior and evolution, including work with unusual animal models and the challenge of interpreting subjective experience through experiments.

Hosted by Janna Levin

The hosts discuss nitrogen fixation in a marine alga and the evidence for a nitrogen-fixing organelle. Related topics include plastic pollution, antimicrobial resistance and the rumen microbiome. The episode links microbial evolution and physiology with marine nutrient cycling.

Hosted by Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt

Diego Vázquez explores networks of plant-pollinator interactions and what determines which species interact. The conversation contrasts coevolutionary explanations with neutral models driven by abundance, examines the limits of prediction, and considers long-term bee monitoring and the challenges of maintaining ecological research in Argentina.

Hosted by Marty Martin, John Drake

Science journalist Rowan Hooper joins the Nature Podcast to explore symbiosis, cooperation, and the importance of organisms working together across the living world.

Nature staff discuss rhythmic laughter in apes, what it may reveal about the evolution of speech, and evidence that AI use can erode skills in medicine and computing.

Steve Brusatte discusses the dinosaurs that survived the end-Cretaceous asteroid impact: birds. The episode follows fossil evidence for feathered dinosaurs and the emergence of avian traits, then considers how surviving bird lineages diversified after the extinction. Publisher illustrations connect fossils, anatomy and evolutionary relationships.

Hosted by Oliver Strimpel

David Reznick discusses field research on Trinidadian guppies and the evidence it provides for rapid evolutionary changes in life histories. The episode explores feedback between ecological conditions and evolution, then considers the emergence of placentas in live-bearing fishes and what comparative research can reveal about that transition.

Hosted by Marty Martin, Cameron Ghalambor

Sara Pruss discusses archaeocyath sponges, the first multicellular reef builders, and their relationship to diversification during the Cambrian. The episode traces successive reef-building groups through the geological record and asks why reefs repeatedly emerge despite environmental disruption and extinction.

Mariana Kneppers, Mason Wakley and Neil Withers discuss two questions about genetic information. They examine AlphaGenome, a machine learning model designed to predict molecular effects of DNA variants across long sequences, and consider its potential use in genetics research. The episode then turns to the RNA world hypothesis: the proposal that RNA-based systems preceded DNA genomes and cells during the early history of life. The discussion links contemporary tools for studying the genome with chemical questions about life's beginnings.

Hosted by Mariana Kneppers

Carina Hoorn examines how the Amazon Basin’s geological evolution shaped its extraordinary biodiversity. The discussion connects Andean uplift, fresh sediment supply and marine incursions during the Early Miocene with the diversification of aquatic environments and ecological opportunities.

Steven Strogatz explores the origins of life with Jack Szostak and Betül Kaçar. Szostak considers how early-Earth chemistry, including cyanide-bearing environments, could give rise to precursors of RNA and DNA, and discusses competing settings for life’s beginnings. Kaçar explains how reconstructing ancient genes helps researchers investigate the evolution of essential biological processes. Together, the conversations examine what experiments can reveal about the earliest steps toward life and whether replaying evolutionary history would produce different outcomes.

Hosted by Steven Strogatz

Erik Tunstad and Vibeke Riiser-Larsen discuss Neanderthals and how evidence has changed accounts of their lives and relationship with humans. In Norwegian.

Hanna Nyborg Støstad discusses how evolution explains biological diversity and the unusual adaptations found in nature. Conversation in Norwegian.