History by a Hair

Beetles make up a quarter of all known animal life on Earth. A QUARTER! Beetles are everywhere, doing almost everything. From eating flesh off skeletons to making poop disappear, these little buggers make the world a lot less gross for the rest of us… and look cool doing it. With ...  Show more

When baby Asian elephant Linh Mai was born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, her mother rejected her. Then things got worse. Linh Mai couldn’t digest her formula, she was losing weight, and her care team was running out of time.Join us behind the scenes at the National Zoo to le ...  Show more

For millennia, humans have created artifacts of their lives—from art, to books, to music. This hour, we explore ideas about capturing the ephemeral human experience for future generations to find. Guests include paleoanthropologist Genevieve von Petzinger, museum curator Ariana C ...  Show more

A past caller who's made strides in living with grief, learning to tell her story and finding a path of acceptance catches up with Gethard in studio (no phones!). They ask: Are we living in a simulation? What's dark matter? What type of scientist parties the hardest?

Documenting democracy. Untwisting the world’s largest tornado. Searching for wrecks of lost slave ships. Dinosaur hunting in Morocco. Accidentally inventing a new color. Come dive into one of the curiously delightful conversations overheard at National Geographic’s headquarters, ...  Show more