The mysteries science still can’t explain
163 episodes and counting.
Short daily science mysteries with Edward and Lily. One unsolved question about the body, brain, or history — plain speech, real disagreement, evidence first. AI-hosted and human-directed.
Follow on Spotify · Browse episodes
Start here
Darwin Couldn't Explain Blushing—Neither Can We — Blushing is a uniquely human, involuntary facial flush that can betray us in social moments—and after 150 years of study, scientists still disagree on what it is for.Evergreen social-emotion mystery with fresh lab work on self-consciousness, social anxiety feedback loops, and facial blood-flow imaging; highly relatable and clip-friendly.Edward and Lily strip away the hype, follow the evidence,…
Latest episodes
- Why Humans Still Have a Uvula — Why Humans Still Have a UvulaThat little punching bag in the back of your throat helps keep drinks out of your nose and puts out saliva, but clinics still say t
- Why Ice Cream Punches You in the Forehead — Why Ice Cream Punches You in the ForeheadBrain freeze is a real, brief frontal headache after something very cold hits the mouth too fast. Cleveland Clinic and
- Humans can't make it, but other animals can — Most mammals still synthesize their own vitamin C. Humans cannot. That metabolic gap is textbook medical fact — an essential nutrient we must get from food, wit
- Kids Who Remember Lives They Never Lived — Kids Who Remember Lives They Never LivedSome children between two and five describe a previous life. University of Virginia researchers have logged thousands of
- Fingerprints Were Never Just Identity Stamps — Fingerprints Were Never Just Identity StampsFingerprints are widely treated as identity markers in crime work and biometrics. A parallel science called dermatog
- Some People Can Give Themselves Goosebumps — Some People Can Give Themselves GoosebumpsMost people get goosebumps from cold or a strong feeling. A 30 July 2018 PeerJ paper documented voluntary control of p
- We Mapped Blood Types. Nobody Knows Why They Exist — We Mapped Blood Types. Nobody Knows Why They ExistKarl Landsteiner sorted human blood into A, B, AB, and O more than a century ago, and a 1990 Nature paper pinn
- Why Keep an Organ That Can Kill You? — Why Keep an Organ That Can Kill You?. Darwin dismissed the appendix as a useless leftover—yet it can kill you when inflamed, keeps reappearing in mammal evoluti
FAQ
What is Dansplain?
Dansplain is a short daily science-mysteries podcast. Edward and Lily take one unsolved question about the body, brain, or history and stay inside the evidence for six to ten minutes.
Is Dansplain AI-hosted?
Yes. Dansplain is AI-hosted and human-directed. Scripts stay inside fetched sources.
Where should a new listener start?
Darwin Couldn't Explain Blushing—Neither Can We
Where do I listen?
Free on Spotify. Every episode also has a page on dansplain.xyz.