Hidden Brain
Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam
Science
Are We Doomed?
by NPR Network
Today: #41 in Science on our combined chart.
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Ranking history
History builds daily. We started tracking this show on the Science chart recently, so the trend line appears after a second day of data.
View as table
| Date | Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 1 | #31 | #29 |
About the show
Is the world ending, or does it just feel like it? "Are We Doomed?" investigates the greatest risks facing society, the planet, and our species. What’s real? What’s hype? And how do we actually make it out alive? Nukes. Asteroids. Autocracy. Rogue AI. Climate-driven pandemics. Angry hippopotamuses. Teeth clenched, curiosity engaged, quips ready, this “slightly narrative” podcast explores everything from the existential and the unexpected to the overblown. Award-winning public radio journalist Ben Bradford brings you wild true stories, high-production sound design, and world-class experts answering the questions they never prepared for (“Why is the Earth doing this to us?”). From NuanceTales and distributed by the NPR Network, this show delves into history, science, technology, and the natural world, to help you separate legitimate world-changing risks from doomsday fantasies. Come for the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park (real), stay to learn why the post-apocalyptic wasteland won’t look like the movies (sorry, you won’t be wandering with a shotgun and a dog), and leave with a better understanding of how our brilliant, bumbling species can chart a path through our current, terrifying adolescence.
Latest episodes
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Take That, Death
September 29, 2026 · 35 minWhy are babies born young? How come a squirrel lives longer than a rat, but not as long as a naked mole rat (or Ben’s cousin’s tortoise)? Scientific breakthroughs over the past few decades suggest the ultimate doom awaiting us all — aging…
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Bug Fight Club
September 22, 2026 · 40 minYou’re a critter in the forest, peacefully munching on a tree — until it’s chopped down, turned into a pallet, and you’re shipped across the ocean. What do you do? Sometimes, the answer is escape, find defenseless trees in your new home…
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Who Keeps Winding the Doomsday Clock?
September 15, 2026 · 35 min“Uh oh,” said several Manhattan Project scientists after they helped build a bomb and then it got used. They jumped to stop it from ever being used again. Solution: a newsletter. Through a somewhat convoluted chain of events that spawned…
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Can "Scams" Be a Doom?
September 8, 2026 · 36 minScams are old. Mesopotamia old. Snake oil old. They haven’t doomed us yet.But investigative journalist Joseph Cox of 404 Media sees something changing: new technology is making the oldest cons more personal, more convincing, and much…
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Just a Minor Sun Explosion
September 1, 2026 · 37 minIn 1859, the sky turned blood-red, telegraph machines sparked and chattered, and some of their batteries exploded. Then humanity responded by building a civilization that runs on electricity, satellites, GPS, internet cables, credit cards…
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The Everything Vaccine
August 25, 2026 · 41 minFrom mild runny noses to savage pandemics, viruses and other pathogens have tormented humans for all of history. We are locked in a perpetual race against tiny shapeshifting enemies that mutate, spread, and occasionally butcher us. Can we…
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What Ever Happened to the Ozone Hole?
August 18, 2026 · 37 minA dark blue wound across the bottom of the world — that’s what NASA images showed in the 1980s. It was a hole in the ozone layer, eight million square miles across. Human activity and convenience had quietly, but rapidly, eaten away…
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More Nukes!
August 11, 2026 · 32 minThe best defense against nuclear weapons is nuclear weapons, according to the logic of deterrence. It has guided US defense policy for nearly 80 years. So, shouldn’t more nukes prevent nuclear war even more? For the first time since the…