Podcasts have existed for decades, but recently their popularity has been on the rise and they have become more readily available on a wide variety of platforms. In this article you will find the most relevant podcasts for our niche: science. There are a number of different podcasts about science, and which ones are best suited for you depends on what you like and how much time you have. Would you rather listen to podcasts on the go in public transit or while doing work? Do you want to follow deep conversations while in your spot of relaxation? Or are you just curious about what kinds of podcasts exist, and want to investigate them all yourself? In this article we will provide a small analysis of a few podcasts to help you in your search. Among these are also a few famous Dutch ones, with which you can test your proficiency in Dutch, if nothing else. There are many more podcasts to experience that are less famous, so it is worth checking out the list of lesser known podcasts down below!

Focus has something unique: the guests bring music that is played in between the conversations. This could be to keep your attention span active. A lot of episodes are about society and even politics, but they make up for this by picking a more ‘specialised’ topic every now and then, such as the disappearance of a local bird species in New Zealand. All in all a varied collection that does not only cover the natural sciences. However, despite the length, they do tend to only stay on the surface level of the topics discussed, and it also seems like the podcast is mostly a way for the guests to push their own agenda.

Houston, We Have a Podcast is the official podcast of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and is available on their website. Do be warned: there is a podcast on Spotify with the same name, but made by someone else. Experts in aerospace, technicians, engineers and astronauts talk about the latest news in our solar system, and how humanity tries to make its way through it and decipher its mysteries. With a quick and lively tone the technological difficulties, physical problems, missions and successes of traveling through space are covered. Most speakers are scientists at NASA, so you can get a good view of the dynamic world of science in space.

Here, the presenters cover two published papers in a narrative manner, alternated with fragments of different scientists giving their opinions. Through this the entire study is covered and commented on, giving you a good sense of the pros and cons of the results and their possible applications. These are again alternated with short news items. Since the start of the pandemic there has been an extra item called the CoronaPod where insights on the virus are shared. With a half-hour runtime, this podcast is a good listen if you want to learn more about publications in Nature without too much fuss.

Alie Ward gives insight on the thousands of disciplines that make up the natural sciences. Ologies refers to the suffix of the name of a specific science: biology, psychology, astronomy or oceanology, to name a few. This podcast mostly covers lesser known fields, like fulminology (the study of thunder), bryology (the study of moss), vexillology (the study of flags), scorpiology (the study of scorpions) or quantumology (the study of reality). Something for everyone, so to speak. Every episode, Alie invites an expert in a particular field to let listeners get acquainted with what is usually a completely new, undiscovered part of science. Her wit and jovial character combined with the down to earth expertise of the scientist she is talking to make for intriguing conversations that can even give you some wise life lessons. Who knows, maybe because of this podcast you get a newfound interest in gems, intestinal bacteria, clouds or jellyfish poison. You’ll never know.

Lucas Brouwers, Hendrik Spiering and Gemma Venhuizen discuss interesting news, wild theories and breakthroughs in the scientific world. In about an hour they dive deep into one topic and shed light on it from all sides through interactions between multiple presenters. By adding guests and fragments from different media it really makes you feel like you learned something about the subject after an hour. Not only how it works, but also the social pros and cons seem to have settled in on you. Lucas’s humor, knowledge and curiosity form a thread through the conversation, taking you along with them, making sure you don’t get bored.

Tonie Mudde, chief science editor at De Volkskrant, zooms in on planet earth to look at different topics through a scientific lens. He discusses intriguing themes together with other editors and academics, like nuclear energy, quantum-internet, near-death experiences and corona vaccines, and he studies the viewpoints of experts on certain topics. Tonie’s own curiosity brings the conversation closer to the listener and prevents the podcast from trailing off or getting stuck on difficult questions. The informal style, fast pacing and effective variety of levity and nuance make this podcast perfect for people new to the genre.

In this somewhat dry podcast from the BBC, an hour is filled with approximately four subjects, supported by multiple interviews, giving you a broad perspective of current science and technology. Good questions are asked, and meanwhile you get explanations from the presenter to put things into context. It is clear that much thought has been put into how to structure each item. From time to time, the presenter gives their own opinion, but objectivity and thoroughness never seem to slip out of sight. If you are not satisfied with the other English podcasts, then this is a good alternative.

In this podcast by the renowned science magazine Science and related journals, Sarah Crespi interviews a number of scientists about their publications. The subject matter sometimes gets discussed at a fast pace, which can at times come across a bit rushed. Two or three topics are discussed in under thirty minutes, so the information mostly stays at a superficial level. On the other hand, research itself is described thoroughly, since the scientists are the ones talking about their own work. Episodes come out weekly and can be fun to listen to when you just want a quick update on recent publications from the natural sciences.

Science Weekly, strangely enough every few days instead of weekly, addresses one topic in an interview with a scientist. Research is discussed by talking about what methods were applied to arrive at certain results, and what real-world implications it all yields. Besides that, an episode can have a theme in which a trend or subject is highlighted using multiple studies. Science Weekly is focussed on research from medical, biological and psychological fields, with occasional detours into geography, computer science and other natural sciences.

This is a relaxing podcast, because of the calm, British presenters who don’t refrain from getting silent and letting some atmospheric music fill up the silence. You can spend a small half hour getting taken along with a narrative that alternates between interviews and standalone fragments. The questions do tend to stay quite general and are meant more to let the interviewee tell their own stories. A critical angle is never given, but there is still plenty of room for nuance.

This podcast is slightly different from all the others, in the sense that it is mainly concerned with topics involving technology. This means that, among other things, techniques and societal challenges related to artificial intelligence, computer science, space engineering, climate and quantum physics are discussed. It is broadcast on a weekly basis and every episode runs about three hours, so that the main items can be discussed at length. This is done through interviews with one or two experts from the specific fields.

The presenters, Herbert Blankesteijn and Ben van der Burg, work at BNR, and one can tell that this is broadcast live on radio. It’s fast-paced and the hosts have their own opinions on how things should be. They especially voice these when talking about policy. They seem to have good knowledge of things and because of their futuristic vision of the world, you tend to hear some insightful conversation. This means that terms you never heard of before can come out of left field from time to time. All in all, you really get to hear the pros and cons of every technique and topic, and through the various critical questions, you don’t get the sense you’re listening to some scripted talk.

Scientists struggle with the unknown every day: questions to which there seem to be no answer. Science can still not tell us what 95% of the universe consists of, how a moving bicycle stays upright and how exactly the nose works. This new podcast is an ode to all of these things we don’t quite know yet. Every week, Noam Hassenfeld dives into a question with a Vox reporter and together they attempt to explain it anyway, mostly with interviews. In a witty and narrative way, you get to hear everything about the way in which the unknown slowly gets unraveled.

Odd ones out

Hopefully, this gives you some guidance when looking for your next favorite podcast. Happy listening! If you however aren’t satisfied yet, maybe some of these are worth a try:

• Enkeltje Wetenschap - The science podcast by Leiden University
• Wetenschap vandaag - a short update on science of around 10 minutes
• In de Wetenschap - a podcast by the University of Groningen
• Wetenschapper op de sofa - a podcast about the intricacies of working as a scientist
• Wetenschap.nu - similar to Focus Wetenschap
• Vraag het aan - Belgian scientists talk about their research field by discussing their science heroes
• New Scientist Weekly - similar to Science Magazine podcast
• Nerdland maandoverzicht - a very long and witty Belgian podcast about science
• Quest - A short story to listen to with articles from Quest magazines
• Koffie Curieus - An informal and irregularly released podcast about science
• Dr Kelder & Co - Jort Kelder talks with scientists about many different scientific and societal subjects
• Physics World Weekly - another podcasts about a broad range of scientific topics