Smologies with Alie Ward

Smologies takes the wildly popular Ologies podcast — where host Alie Ward interviews scientists about their specialties — and edits each episode down into a shorter, classroom-safe version with zero swearing and all of the fascinating science intact. The tagline says it all: "All of the science, with none of the swearing." Each episode runs about 25-30 minutes and features a real expert (an "ologist") talking about their field, from tardigrade biology to solar science to the study of carnivorous plants. Alie Ward has a gift for asking the kinds of questions that make experts light up. She's genuinely curious and a little goofy, which puts her guests at ease and makes complicated topics feel approachable. The conversations cover everything from penguins and lemurs to meteorology, hair biology, gratitude psychology, and indigenous cuisine. There are over 90 episodes already, and the show updates weekly. What makes Smologies particularly great for tweens is that it exposes them to actual career paths they might never have heard of. Where else is a 10-year-old going to learn that someone studies volcanoes for a living, or that there's a whole field devoted to slime molds? The 4.8-star rating from over 400 reviews on Apple Podcasts reflects how much families love it. Teachers use it in classrooms. Parents play it on car rides. And tweens come away from each episode knowing something genuinely cool that they can show off at the dinner table. It respects kids' intelligence while keeping the tone warm and fun — never stuffy, never boring.