Curious by Nature

Newswise Inc.

Welcome to Curious by Nature, presented by Newswise. The podcast for curious people.

In each episode, listeners can travel briefly into the fascinating world that comes with years of dedication to one field of study. Be inspired by the many amazing things that are going on right now, some may have a major effect on our lives.

Enjoy this concentrated knowledge from experts. We hope you can take inspiration from glimpses of innovation, dedication, and discovery.

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109 episodes
Updated Friday

Episodes109

Newest first

Friday · 28 min
Newswise – Are You Talking to ME? | Part 1
At Newswise, we host a monthly webinar series, and this month’s webinar is titled “Are You Talking to Me?” Today, we’re bringing together science communication researchers and professionals to share the latest research on communicating science more effectively and, most importantly, how those ideas can be put into practice. We’re featuring presentations from Ella McCarthy, Co-founder of Sci_Burst and former Communication Specialist at the Australian National University. Dr. Will Grant, Associate Professor at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. And Dr. Isabelle Freiling, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Utah and Responsible AI Fellow. They’ll discuss why understanding your audience is one of the most important parts of science communication, how researchers define and think about audiences, and how today’s online world, from social media algorithms to AI generated content, is changing the way people discover, understand, and trust science. Tune in next week for part two with Shelley Wunder-Smith, Director of Research Communications at Georgia Tech, joining the panel for a discussion of practical strategies based on the research presentations. You’ll hear a lively discussion about best practices for communicating science in today’s ever changing media landscape.
July 24 · 17 min
Dr. Kelly Swanson – Does My Pet Have a Healthy Microbiome?
Every pet owner wants to know the absolute best food to put in their dog or cat's bowl, but the endless rows of grocery store options have turned feeding time into a total guessing game. From raw diets and sous vide to traditional kibble, picking the right option isn't just about what looks delicious, it's about protecting an invisible internal ecosystem. Dr. Kelly Swanson is a professor of animal sciences and the director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois, where he has spent over twenty years studying pet health. His lab is uncovering the deep connection between what our pets eat and how their gut microbiome regulates everything from their immune systems to their weight.
July 17 · 24 min
Dr. Siniša Hrvatin – What Can Humans Gain from Hibernation Research
Dr. Siniša Hrvatin is an assistant professor of biology at MIT and a member of the Whitehead Institute. His lab is uncovering the biological secrets of hibernation and frozen stasis, not just to understand these animals, but to discover how we can copy their tricks to save human lives.
July 10 · 18 min
Dr. Kouros Emami – Most People Don’t Know Concussions Are Fully Treatable
For decades, the standard medical advice for treating a concussion was to go sit in a dark room, turn off your phone, and do absolutely nothing until you felt better. But modern science has completely flipped the script, revealing that hiding out in the dark might actually make your brain recover slower. Dr. Kouros Emami is a clinical and sports neuropsychologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery, where he works on the cutting edge of head injury recovery. He treats everyone from elite athletes to everyday people, using active movement and specialized exercises to help the brain heal itself.
July 3 · 28 min
Dr. Brian Southwell – How Does Better Science Communication Save Lives?
Dr. Brian Southwell is a Distinguished Fellow at RTI International, where he researches science communication, public trust, and the spread of misinformation. His work focuses on helping researchers and institutions better connect with the communities they serve.
June 26 · 21 min
Professor Michael Schutz – Please Stop the Hospital Beeping
Michael Schutz is a Professor of Music, Cognition, and Percussion at McMaster University, where he researches how auditory alerting systems in healthcare can be vastly improved. By applying centuries of musical composition insight and psychophysical research, he is exploring how healthcare sounds can be re-engineered to cut through critical room noise without being unnecessarily jarring.
June 19 · 14 min
Dr. Raihan Khan & Madalynn Nofplot – Does Music Help or Harm Your Studying?
Dr. Raihan Khan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at James Madison University, and Madalynn Nofplot is a JMU Honors College alumna and nursing student. They launched a fascinating study to look into how different music genres affect the academic performance and GPAs of college students with and without attention deficit disorder.
June 12 · 18 min
Dr. Iain Boyd – Hypersonics and the Iran War
Hypersonic vehicles travel a whole mile of sky in just one second. They can be missiles or aircraft, where the friction gets so ridiculously hot that the air around the vehicle literally turns into a blinding shield of electricity. Dr. Ian Boyd is the Director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he researches multiple aspects of these hypersonic vehicles.
June 5 · 20 min
Dr. John Cooke & Dr. Shuang Li – Delivering mRNA to Reverse Aging
Dr. John Cooke, Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at Houston Methodist Hospital, and Research Fellow Dr. Shuang Li are using mRNA technology to heal this process from the inside out. By delivering a temporary molecular recipe, they prompt cells to produce telomerase, which rapidly accelerates DNA repair and restores telomeres.
May 29 · 13 min
Dr. Mohammad Moghimi – Detecting Skin Cancer from Home
Dr. Mohammad Moghimi is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. His team has developed a "chipless patch" that can sense the tiny electrical differences between healthy tissue and a tumor.
May 22 · 18 min
Dr. Josh Currie – Will Humans Ever Be Able to Regrow Limbs?
If a salamander loses a leg, it doesn't just heal, it grows a perfect new one. Humans, however, have seemingly lost this "instruction manual" for regeneration over millions of years of evolution. Dr. Josh Currie is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Wake Forest University. He studies axolotls and zebrafish to understand why these animals can regrow limbs and tails while we can't.
May 15 · 14 min
Dean Sandro Galea – Health Is More Than Doctors, Food, and Exercise
Sandro Galea is the Margaret Ryan Dean and the Kahn Professor of Public Health at the Washington University School of Public Health. He shares his unique path and perspective on public health and shares ways that WashU is focusing on improving the health for many people locally and globally.
May 8 · 31 min
Dr. George Goshua – Iron Deficiency is Common and Detrimental
Iron deficiency affects millions of people, especially women, yet many go years without knowing it, even though it’s one of the most treatable conditions. Dr. George Goshua is a physician-scientist and assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine, where he studies how gaps in diagnosis and access to care can leave patients untreated. His work highlights how something as simple as iron levels can have long-term effects on energy, pregnancy, and even the next generation. The episode has also been shared with leadership at the American Society of Hematology (ASH), which is leading national efforts to improve awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of iron deficiency. Learn more through the ASH Iron Deficiency Initiative.
May 1 · 28 min
Professor Shaun Davies – The Real Dangers in the Markets
Shaun Davies, Associate Professor of Finance and Faculty Director of the Burridge Center for Finance at the University of Colorado Boulder, explains how financial markets respond to global instability and geopolitical conflict. For many of us, the constant stream of headlines about conflict in the Middle East can feel overwhelming and disheartening. From an economic perspective, consumers often worry about and struggle with rising food and gas prices. Meanwhile, do financial markets have the kind of checks and balances needed to withstand periods of high instability?
April 24 · 19 min
Professor Sebastian Schuetz – Everyone Thinks They Can Spot a Scam, That’s the Problem!
With AI now able to mimic voices, write convincing messages, and even fake video calls, telling what’s real online is harder than ever. Sebastian Schuetz is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studies how organizations manage cyber risk like data breaches and ransomware attacks.
April 17 · 25 min
Professor William Masters – Is the Most Inexpensive Food the Healthiest?
Eating healthy doesn’t mean spending more money. We often assume that more expensive food is better for us, but research shows that price has surprisingly little to do with nutrition. Professor William Masters is an economist at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition, where he studies how food prices relate to health and environmental impact. His work reveals that it’s possible to eat both nutritious and climate-friendly meals, without spending more.
April 10 · 22 min
Professor Jeff Brunstrom – Will Nutritional Intelligence Guide You to Whole Instead of Ultra-Processed Foods?
What if your body is quietly guiding your food choices in ways you don’t even realize? Jeff Brunstrom is a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Bristol, where he studies how our brains, behavior, and environment shape the way we eat. His research suggests that we’re not just passively consuming food, we may have “nutritional intelligence,” where our bodies push us toward certain foods to meet our needs. But in today’s world of ultra-processed meals, that system can be disrupted, leading us to eat more without realizing why.
April 3 · 18 min
Dr. Sheila Singh – Advances in Glioblastoma Therapy
Why is brain cancer so hard to treat, and what if the brain itself is helping it spread? Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive cancers, not because it forms a single tumor, but because it spreads like invisible threads throughout the brain, making it nearly impossible to remove completely. Dr. Sheila Singh is a Professor of Neuro-Oncology and Neurosurgery at King’s College London, Co-Head of the School of Cancer (with Pharmaceutical Sciences), and Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, while also serving as a part-time Professor of Surgery and Biochemistry at McMaster University. Her research uncovers how brain cells may actually be helping cancer grow and spread, and how existing drugs could be repurposed to stop it.
March 27 · 17 min
Dr. Quan Xie – How Scientists Can Tell Better Stories
Every year, researchers publish discoveries that could improve our lives, from health to technology to public policy. But much of that work never reaches the people who could benefit from it. It stays behind paywalls, written in technical language, and shared mostly within academic circles. Dr. Quan Xie is an associate professor of digital advertising at Southern Methodist University. Her research explores how scholars can better share their work using storytelling, digital platforms, and tools like AI to bring research beyond the journal and into the real world.
March 20 · 20 min
Dr. Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez – A Promising Vaccine for People Genetically Prone to Early Adult Cancer
How do you know if you have a genetic condition that increases your risk of certain types of cancer? For people with inherited conditions like Lynch syndrome, the risk of cancer is much higher, yet most don’t even know they have it. Dr. Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez is a physician-scientist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, working on new ways to stop cancer early, including a vaccine designed to train the immune system to recognize and fight it.