What The If?
von Philip Shane
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A City Inside A LAVA TUBE!
A City Inside A LAVA TUBE!
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Welcome to the show where we learn science by exploring the universe by pushing it... to the limit. A dangerous mix of Science & Fiction, hosted by Philip Shane & Matt Stanley
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- A City Inside A LAVA TUBE! · 52 Min.A City Inside A LAVA TUBE! by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia
- Grow Your Own ARMOR! · 43 Min.Picture a world where we all grow a suit of armor right out of our skin, so heavy that if we tried to swim, we'd sink like a rock! In this episode you'll learn how some ants turn…
- VAMPIRES Are Real! · 39 Min.Happy Halloween! This week we're getting spooky and asking: what the if vampires were real, and scientists got to study them up close? You'll learn why our bodies slowly lose the…
- Photosynthetic YOU! · 35 Min.Picture a world where you skip lunch, step outside, and let your skin soak up a meal from the sun. In this episode we explore that fanciful scenario. Along the way you'll learn…
- The Sloth Life Is A GOOD Life! · 40 Min.Listener Dan Floyd asks: what the if exercise were bad for you? Imagine a checkup where your doctor frowns at your step count. In this episode we explore that fanciful scenario…
- Who The If is MATT! · 42 Min.Who the if is Matt Stanley? He went to college to build lasers and wound up a historian of science. In this episode you'll learn some really cool science about things like…
- Bugs The Size Of US! · 36 Min.What the if bugs were the size of us? Imagine heading out with your morning coffee and holding the door for an ant who stands as tall as you do. In this episode we explore that…
- Your Lab Partner Is A ROBOT! · 35 Min.What the if all lab work were done by robots? Imagine strolling into the lab with your morning coffee to find that a tireless mechanical partner has already run your experiments…
- The MUSES Are Real - with Dr. Moiya McTier! · 39 Min.What the if the muses were real? Astrophysicist and folklorist Moiya McTier, author of "Mothers of Invention," takes us into a world where nine Greek goddesses are still on the…
- Nobel Winners Sign SNEAKER Deals! · 39 Min.What the if scientists were as famous as football stars? Picture packed bars, roaring crowds, and a physicist on the big screen getting absolutely destroyed by a rival's data…
- The Milky Way Is ALIVE - With Dr. Moiya McTier! · 54 Min.The whole crew is off on separate adventures this week, so we've unlocked the vault for an encore of one of our most popular episodes ever. Get ready to meet a galaxy ready to…
- GOOP Powers The WORLD! · 45 Min.What the if one gooey substance could drink up every kind of energy around it, from sunlight and heat to a stray spark or even the smack of a moving hand, and then hand it all…
- BIRDS Aren't REAL! · 47 Min.What the if birds aren't actually birds? Play it straight for a second: somewhere between 1959 and 1971, the government quietly swaps every bird for a surveillance drone, and the…
- ANTIMATTER On Demand! · 39 Min.ANTIMATTER On Demand! by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia
- WHO The If - GABY! · 43 Min.Behind every voice you've come to love on this show is a life full of stories you've never heard. With our eighth anniversary just around the corner, we're doing something we've…
- TOO SOCIAL Media! · 40 Min.Listener Kevin Towers asks: what the if the internet made everyone use their real, traceable name? No usernames. No masks. No hiding behind a clever handle at 2am. In this…
- The Other Theory of EVOLUTION! · 55 Min.What the if Lamarck was right? Stanford historian Jessica Riskin, author of "The Power of Life," is our guide into a universe where living things aren't passive passengers…
- Moon Babies Meet EARTH - Part 2! · 44 Min.What the if you were born on the Moon and Earth was the alien planet? Picking up from last month's cliffhanger, our travelers from the lunar surface finally touch down — and…
- The Last DROP Of Gasoline! · 43 Min.Listener Helina asks: what the if we just pumped the last drop of gasoline? The answer goes well beyond empty parking lots and quiet highways. Along the way there's some…
- Build A Brand New ALPHABET - with Linguist DANNY BATE! · 43 Min.What the if you had to invent the alphabet from scratch? The Pharaoh hands you a stone tablet, a chisel, and an impossible assignment: condense every sound a human mouth can make…
- Moon Babies Meet EARTH! · 29 Min.Picture this: you're a moon baby, born and raised underground on Luna, and you've just landed on Earth for the very first time. Meet the loonies, a civilization of moon-born…
- Microbe Grudge Match! · 44 Min.What the if microbes held a grudge? We're thrilled to welcome Ethan Rappaport, theoretical ecologist at the University of Maryland, to take us inside the tiny turf wars happening…
- Space JUNK! · 54 Min.In honor of the 25th anniversary of the MIR SPACE STATION's spectacular farewell reentry, we're featuring an encore of our August 11, 2023 episode about what happens when SPACE…
- Telepathy! · 42 Min.What the if you could read minds — but only when someone's nearby? Congratulations, your subway commute just became a psychic nightmare. Babies would blast unfiltered emotional…
- Reality Is Making Stuff UP! · 42 Min.Right now, billions of particles are popping in and out of existence in your pocket. That's not a metaphor — that's quantum mechanics. Inspired by a YouTube video from Anton…
- Ants Adopt A CATERPILLAR! · 40 Min.What the if you got zapped by a shrink ray while walking past the physics department and your only hope of survival was convincing a colony of ants to take you in? Lycaenid…
- The Buddy System Run AMOK! · 43 Min.What the if humans moved in schools — not classrooms, but like fish? Inspired by Carl Zimmer's New York Times article on how misinformation spreads among schooling fish, this…
- Black Holes · 1 Std. 0 Min.MIT physicist David Kaiser is one of those rare scientists who can make mind-bending physics feel like a great conversation over coffee — funny, generous, and genuinely thrilled…
- The Day Gravity QUIT! · 41 Min.A conspiracy theory went viral claiming that on August 12th, 2026, Earth will lose gravity for seven seconds. The internet did what the internet does, and millions of people…
- GROUND HOG Day PHYSICS! · 30 Min.What the if a groundhog could actually predict the weather? Turns out Punxsutawney Phil would need way more than a shadow — we're talking a full groundhog space program, weather…
- HAGFISH - Champion Of The SLIMER BOWL! · 52 Min.We first shared this one on Super Bowl Sunday 2019 — what better weekend to bring back nature's ultimate underdog? Enjoy this encore presentation! ---- The HAGFISH, little…
- CITIZEN Science -- with Kirby Runyon! · 47 Min.Planetary geologist Kirby Runyon from the Planetary Science Institute needs volunteers to map ancient impact melt flows on the moon from their home computers. What the if this…
- Walking on IO with Robin Andrews! (Encore) · 59 Min.We're taking a break this week while Philip recovers from the 'double-whammy' of flu and COVID boosters. (Science works, but sometimes it makes you nap!) However, we couldn't…
- BIOLOGICAL New Year's Resolutions! · 32 Min.What the if your New Year's resolution became a biological compulsion you literally could not ignore? Imagine waking up on January 1st with the same unstoppable urge that drives…
- Time REVERSAL with Ian Durham! · 40 Min.What the if time suddenly started running backwards? Your breakfast un-eats itself, LEGO sets come pre-assembled, and you get younger every day. The dead have unfunerals, your…
- Santa's MEGA Fauna! · 44 Min.Listener Anne of Queens got us thinking about flying reindeer for the holidays. Imagine herds of 1,500-pound mammals migrating through your town like Canada geese. Suddenly those…
- Green SUN Apocalypse! · 40 Min.What the if the Sun suddenly turned green? Your pizza now looks like charcoal because all red things go black. Stop signs become invisible. The sky shifts from cheerful blue to…
- Dr. Kiki Turns Us Into BIRDS! · 53 Min.Happy Thanksgiving! We're off this week for the holiday, so we're presenting an encore presentation of an episode that was originally broadcast on September 5, 2018, and remains…
- Two BABIES, Two SPECIES! · 36 Min.Scientists just discovered ant queens that give birth to two completely different species - not twins, but actual separate species hatching from the same mother. But what the if…
- CHINA vs NASA · 60 Min.This week we're trading hypothetical fungi and exploding planets for something scarier: actual government budgets. But don't worry - watching America accidentally hand the space…
- Mosquitoes Fall for FUNGI! · 41 Min.What the if mosquitoes were helpless against the sweet smell of their own doom? Scientists genetically engineered Metarhizium fungus to smell so irresistibly delicious that…
- FRANKENSTEIN · 46 Min.What the if Frankenstein was real and doctors actually tried stitching corpses together to create new people? Forget dramatic lightning strikes and brooding in Gothic towers…
- The BURPING Lake! · 45 Min.What the if all bodies of water on Earth were fizzy like soda? In the real world, Seneca Lake in New York produces mysterious underwater booms called "Seneca guns" that…
- Animals Train YOU! · 41 Min.Honey guide birds in Africa respond to culturally distinct human calls and lead hunters to beehives, where humans crack them open and birds feast on the exposed beeswax. But what…
- AI Viruses · 54 Min.Scientists just used artificial intelligence to design the world's first AI-generated viruses capable of hunting down and killing drug-resistant strains of E. coli. These…
- MEMORY Maxed Out - with Nikolay Kukushkin! · 59 Min.What the if your brain literally ran out of storage space like a laptop refusing to save one more file? Neuroscientist Nikolay Kukushkin explains how memory isn't a filing…
- Gravity Waves Go WIGGLE · 50 Min.What the if gravitational waves were big enough to see and feel? Instead of measuring distortions smaller than a proton, imagine watching your coffee table accordion in and out…
- Science ROCKS On MARS! · 57 Min.What the if you found a rock on Mars that might - emphasis on might - show signs of ancient life? NASA's Perseverance rover discovered intriguing leopard spots in a…
- VITALERIUM with Nicholas Casbarro! · 48 Min.Our guest this week is science fiction author Nicholas Casbarro, who brings us a universe-changing concept from his novel Vitalerium - a radioactive space rock that enables…
- Riding GRAVITY FORCE ONE with KIRBY RUNYON · 54 Min.D'oh! We had technical difficulties this week and so we are presenting this encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes. It also happens to be Kirby's birthday, and…
