Unexplainable

Florida just became the second state to ban fluoride from its water system, which has made some public health experts pretty angry. Just how risky is fluoride really, and why is it so hard for us to get on the same page? Guest: Emily Oster [https://vivo.brown.edu/display/eoster1], professor of economics at Brown University and CEO of ParentData [https://parentdata.org/] For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1bMXuLuyy3zTLCnblKVWUBq4Gd84PY8sG] For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.vox.com/unexplainable] And please email us! ⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠ We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members⁠ [https://www.vox.com/support-membership] Help us plan for the future of Unexplainable by filling out a brief survey: ⁠⁠⁠voxmedia.com/survey⁠⁠⁠ [http://voxmedia.com/survey]. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Static electricity plays an invisible role in the natural world, and it may even help insects pollinate plants. To understand this hidden force, scientists have jumped through some pretty weird experimental hoops — and “walked” butterflies through literal hoops. Guests: Sam England [https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/museum/today/team/sam.england], postdoctoral researcher at Berlin's National History Museum; Benji Jones [https://www.vox.com/authors/benji-jones], Vox's environmental correspondent To read more about this experiment, Benji recommends this great article from Quanta Magazine [https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-world-of-electrostatic-ecology-20240930/], where he first encountered Sam's work. For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1bMXuLuyy3zTLCnblKVWUBq4Gd84PY8sG] For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.vox.com/unexplainable] And please email us! ⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠ We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members⁠ [https://www.vox.com/support-membership] Help us plan for the future of Unexplainable by filling out a brief survey: ⁠⁠⁠⁠voxmedia.com/survey⁠⁠⁠⁠ [http://voxmedia.com/survey]. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Aphantasia is the inability to see with your mind’s eye. And its discovery has made scientists ask a surprising question: What is the mind’s eye even for? (First published in 2022.) Guests: Alice Coles [https://www.daler-rowney.com/discover/artists/alice-coles], artist; Adam Zeman [https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/21561082/Sala_etal_C_2015_Lives_without_imagery.pdf], cognitive neurologist at the University of Exeter Medical School; Joel Pearson [https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/joel-pearson], professor of neuroscience at the University of New South Wales; Emily Holmes [https://emilyholmes.net/], professor of psychology at Uppsala University For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠ [https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1bMXuLuyy3zTLCnblKVWUBq4Gd84PY8sG] For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.vox.com/unexplainable] And please email us! ⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠ We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members [https://www.vox.com/support-membership] Help us plan for the future of Unexplainable by filling out a brief survey: ⁠⁠⁠⁠voxmedia.com/survey⁠⁠⁠⁠ [http://voxmedia.com/survey]. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Scavengers Reign, the Emmy-winning Netflix show, has done something most sci-fi shows or movies struggle to do. Build a world that feels truly alien. Guests: ⁠⁠Joe Bennett⁠⁠ [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4497617/], co-creator of Scavengers Reign, and ⁠⁠Sean Buckelew⁠⁠ [https://www.seanbuckelew.com/], writer on Scavengers Reign For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [http://vox.com/unxtranscripts] For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [http://vox.com/unexplainable] And please email us! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [unexplainable@vox.com] We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members⁠ [http://vox.com/members] Help us plan for the future of Unexplainable by filling out a brief survey: ⁠⁠⁠⁠voxmedia.com/survey⁠⁠⁠⁠ [http://voxmedia.com/survey]. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

The magma chambers at the heart of volcanoes are very deep and very hot. So naturally, some researchers want to build an observatory in one. Guests: Mike Poland, scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory [https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/michael-poland]; Yan Lavallée, chair of magmatic petrology and volcanology [https://www.en.mineralogie.geowissenschaften.uni-muenchen.de/personen/chair/lavallee-yan/index.html] at LMU München and scientific and technical board member of the Krafla Magma Testbed [https://kmt.is/governance/]; John Eichelberger, volcanologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and founding scientist of KMT [https://kmt.is/] For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠ [https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1bMXuLuyy3zTLCnblKVWUBq4Gd84PY8sG] For more, go to ⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠ [https://www.vox.com/unexplainable] And please email us! ⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠ We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠vox.com/members [https://www.vox.com/support-membership] Help us plan for the future of Unexplainable by filling out a brief survey: ⁠⁠⁠⁠voxmedia.com/survey⁠⁠⁠⁠ [http://voxmedia.com/survey]. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]