This Week in Evolution

This Week in Evolution is the kind of podcast that rewards patience. Hosted by Columbia University virologist Vincent Racaniello and University of Utah evolutionary biologist Nels Elde, the show works through recent peer-reviewed research papers on evolution, genomics, and molecular biology. Each episode picks apart a study in detail — not just the headline findings, but the methods, the implications, and the open questions that remain. The two hosts bring complementary expertise. Racaniello runs MicrobeTV, a nonprofit network of science podcasts, and he's been doing this kind of science communication for over a decade. Elde comes from the bench side, actively running a lab studying evolutionary genetics. When they discuss a paper about why females live longer than males across species, or how an ant can produce offspring from two distinct species, you can tell they're processing it as working scientists, not just reading a press release. Episodes run long — typically 80 to 90 minutes — and new ones drop every two weeks. That pacing is deliberate. This isn't a podcast for background listening while you do dishes. It's more like auditing a graduate seminar, with the hosts occasionally disagreeing or asking each other to clarify a point. The show has about 100 episodes, 169 Apple ratings, and a 4.7 star average. If you have a solid biology foundation and want to stay current on evolutionary research without reading every journal yourself, TWiEvo fills that role remarkably well.