Science Weekly

@scienceweekly · Podcast

Latest segments

• Theranos documentary backlash, 2026-10-22
  Adds the partner's blood-testing startup
  Pulls the Holmes story out of the documentary and into the present: her partner Billy Evans now runs a startup developing blood, saliva and urine testing, which the guest calls bizarre given her sentence barred her from blood testing for years.
• Theranos documentary backlash, 2026-10-22
  Cites the professor who doubted the technology
  Turns to the science-versus-startup-culture question and puts on the record a detail from the earlier Theranos documentary: a Stanford chemical engineering professor told Holmes to her face that he did not believe the technology worked and that she had not shown him evidence.
• Theranos documentary backlash, 2026-10-22
  Explains the borrowed Silicon Valley playbook
  Explains how Holmes borrowed Silicon Valley's faking-it ethos - the black turtleneck from Steve Jobs, the trade-secrets shield - and notes no health care investors backed Theranos. Background on the fraud, not new reporting on the documentary.
• Theranos documentary backlash, 2026-10-22
  Recaps the valuation, the deal and the failures
  Recaps the Theranos saga behind the documentary: the Stanford dropout, the $9 billion valuation, the Walgreens deal, the Edison machine's failures and the fraud prosecution. Background retelling that stays inside the story already on the record.
• Theranos documentary backlash, 2026-10-22
  Frames the documentary as reason to revisit Holmes
  Opens the episode by introducing Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes - the few-drops-of-blood promise, the Stanford origin, the fraud and jail - and frames the new documentary as the reason to revisit her.
• Hasan firing squad order, 2026-10-13
  Relays advice against watching the livestream
  Relays expert advice not to watch the livestream, warning the administration could read viewing figures as endorsement. The trauma-response study and the morbid-curiosity framing are already on the record; this stays inside the episode's own read.
• Hasan firing squad order, 2026-10-13
  Brings in a psychologist on morbid curiosity
  Brings in psychologist Coltan Scrivner to explain why people will watch the livestream: morbid curiosity, defined as interest in dangerous situations, expressed in four broad areas - violence, the minds of violent people, bodily outcomes, and supernatural dangers. Explanation and framing, not a development in the case.
• Hasan firing squad order, 2026-10-13
  Adds trauma evidence from execution witnesses
  Brings in mental health experts on the psychology of watching executions: forensic psychologist Simon Duff on suggestive evidence of trauma responses in journalists who witness executions, and historian Rosalind Crone on why England and Wales abolished public hanging in 1868.
• Hasan firing squad order, 2026-10-13
  Cross-checks the deterrence claims against the research
  Lays out the background of the Hasan case and the livestream announcement, then goes to the evidence on deterrence and public viewing: a 2012 National Academy of Sciences panel found no credible deterrent effect, and Amnesty counts only Iran and Afghanistan holding public executions last year.
• Hasan firing squad order, 2026-10-13
  Plays officials defending the livestreamed execution
  Opens the episode on the US announcement that Nidal Hasan's execution will be livestreamed, plays officials defending it and clips of international condemnation, then turns to the psychology of why people watch.
• Siberia plague outbreak, 2026-10-06
  Adds the incubation-window check
  Adds the incubation-window check: pneumonic plague symptoms would be expected within one to three days, and no secondary infections have been reported, which the show reads as a positive sign while monitoring continues.
• Siberia plague outbreak, 2026-10-06
  Adds Trump's offer of help on the plague
  Adds the White House voice to the Irkutsk story: Trump said he hates to see Russia having the plague, called it a rough disease, and offered US help, framed against his disinfectant remark from COVID.
• Siberia plague outbreak, 2026-10-06
  Recaps the quarantine and the monitored contacts
  Recaps the quarantine picture: anti-epidemic measures, roughly 200 contacts monitored, and the hospital where Shipilova died locked down, while noting Russia still has not confirmed plague. It stays inside the facts already on the record and adds the reassurance that no secondary infections have appeared.
• Siberia plague outbreak, 2026-10-06
  Names the technician and her death date
  Opens the episode with the basic facts of the Irkutsk death: the technician's name, age, workplace, the 2 October date, the official pneumonia-of-unknown-aetiology line and the local reports of Yersinia pestis. Adds the death date and the victim's name to a file that had the age and facility but not the day she died.