The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is exactly what the title promises: Popular Science editors trade the strangest facts they stumbled across in their reporting that week. Hosts Rachel Feltman, Jess Boddy, and Eleanor Cummins (with rotating guests) each bring one story, and the format is deceptively simple. One week it's a medieval pope who put his predecessor's corpse on trial, the next it's a parasite that turns caterpillars into zombie bodyguards, or the 19th century surgeon who amputated limbs in under 30 seconds and once accidentally killed three people in a single operation. The tone is conversational and often very funny. These are journalists who clearly love their jobs, and the banter between them gives the show a warmth you don't get from more formal science podcasts. But the facts are real and sourced, not clickbait. You'll learn about oddball chemistry, forgotten medical history, strange animal behavior, and the footnotes of scientific discovery that never made it into your high school textbook. Episodes run around 45 minutes and are a painless way to fill your brain with party trivia that also happens to be true. If you've ever fallen down a Wikipedia rabbit hole and come out three hours later smarter and slightly weirder, this is basically that experience in podcast form. The back catalog is huge, which makes it ideal for shuffle listening when you just want something interesting without committing to a specific topic.