The 19 Best Quantum Physics Podcasts (2026)

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist at Johns Hopkins, and Mindscape is his weekly attempt to treat everything as fair game. One week it's quantum mechanics, the next it's the economics of pandemics, then democracy, then the evolution of language, then consciousness. The subtitle promises science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas, and he actually delivers on all of it.

Carroll is a good host partly because he's an unusually good explainer of his own field, but also because he's genuinely interested in things outside it. When he talks to a historian or a novelist, he sounds like a curious grad student, not a physicist slumming it. He pushes back when he disagrees, which happens more than you'd expect, and the disagreements are usually the most interesting parts of the episode.

There's also a recurring solo format called Ask Me Anything where he answers listener questions in bulk, and a separate series on the big ideas of physics that functions almost like a free mini-course. Episodes run long, often close to two hours, and the guest list reads like a who's who of people you've been meaning to read: Frans de Waal, Judea Pearl, Kate Crawford, Cal Newport. It's one of the more serious shows in the genre, and it rewards attention.

Curt Jaimungal holds a degree in mathematical physics from the University of Toronto, and you can tell. Theories of Everything is one of the most technically rigorous physics interview shows out there. Where other podcasts simplify to the point of losing the thread, Curt keeps the math and the nuance intact. His guests include people like Erik Verlinde discussing gravity as thermodynamic emergence, Robert Spekkens on quantum foundations, and Stuart Kauffman on complexity theory.

Episodes run long, often well past an hour, and they reward patience. Curt does serious preparation for each conversation, and his questions tend to go deeper than the standard pop-science interview. He's particularly strong on topics at the intersection of quantum mechanics, consciousness, and the philosophy of physics. Recent episodes have tackled wave function realism, neural network cosmology, and dark energy skepticism.

The show has built a dedicated following, with 344 episodes and a 4.6-star rating from nearly 500 reviewers. Some listeners note that it occasionally ventures into speculative territory, but that's partly the point. Curt is interested in the edges of our understanding, the places where physics gets genuinely uncertain. If you already have some background and want conversations that don't pull punches, this is one of the best options available. It's not a casual listen, and that's exactly what makes it valuable.

Quanta Magazine has become one of the most respected outlets for science journalism, and their podcast delivers the same quality in audio form. Hosted by editor-in-chief Samir Patel, The Quanta Podcast covers breakthroughs across physics, mathematics, biology, and computer science. For quantum physics fans, the show regularly features episodes on particle physics, quantum computing milestones, and foundational questions about the nature of reality.

The production quality is excellent. Episodes drop weekly, typically running around 20 to 30 minutes, which makes them easy to fit into a commute or lunch break. What sets this apart from other science news shows is the depth of reporting behind each story. Quanta's journalists spend months on a single piece, and that thoroughness carries over to the podcast. When they cover something like quantum error correction or new experiments testing Bell inequalities, you get context and clarity that most outlets skip over.

With 321 episodes and a 4.7-star rating from over 500 reviewers, the show has earned a loyal audience. Listeners consistently describe it as accessible without being dumbed down. The coverage extends well beyond quantum physics into math and biology, so not every episode will be directly relevant. But when they do cover quantum topics, it's some of the most accurate and engaging science audio you'll find. The Simons Foundation backing means no ads interrupting the content, which is a nice bonus.

The Joy of Why is the other podcast from Quanta Magazine, and it takes a different approach than their news-focused show. Co-hosted by mathematician Steven Strogatz and cosmologist Janna Levin, this one zooms out from specific discoveries to ask bigger questions. Episodes have titles like "Why Did The Universe Begin?" and the conversations genuinely try to sit with the uncertainty rather than rushing to neat answers.

Strogatz won a National Academies communication award partly for his work on this show, and you can hear why. He has a gift for making abstract mathematical ideas feel intuitive, and Levin brings a physicist's perspective that grounds the philosophical threads. They interview researchers across disciplines, from theoretical physics to climate science to neuroscience. The quantum-relevant episodes tend to be the most popular, and they dig into questions about measurement, information, and the structure of spacetime with real care.

New episodes come out every other Wednesday, running 40 to 50 minutes each. With 66 episodes and a remarkable 4.9-star average from nearly 500 ratings, it has one of the highest listener satisfaction rates of any science podcast. The pace is deliberate and the tone is curious rather than breathless. It's the kind of show that makes you want to sit with a question for a while after the episode ends, which is pretty much the best thing a science podcast can do.

Dan Hooper is a theoretical physicist at Fermilab, and his podcast with co-host Shalma Wegsman might be the single best show for someone who wants quantum mechanics explained at a level that's actually satisfying. Not simplified to the point of being misleading, but clear and well-structured enough that you come away feeling like you understood something real. Listeners frequently mention this as what sets it apart from other physics shows.

The format mixes Q&A episodes, where Dan and Shalma tackle listener questions about dark matter, black holes, and quantum mechanics, with interview episodes featuring other physicists. A recent episode on the Schrodinger equation managed to make the mathematical heart of quantum mechanics genuinely compelling in 30 minutes. Another featured filmmaker and physicist David Kaplan discussing the making of Particle Fever. The range is impressive without feeling scattered.

Episodes come out roughly twice a month and typically run 30 to 50 minutes. With 114 episodes and a 4.6-star average from nearly 400 ratings, the show has built a solid audience. What reviewers keep coming back to is the depth. One listener put it well: "more depth than most comparable shows aimed at a lay audience, but clear, understandable explanations." That balance is genuinely hard to strike, and Dan and Shalma manage it consistently.

Brian Keating is a Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego who has spent his career working on cosmic microwave background radiation experiments. His podcast, Into the Impossible, pulls from that world-class research network to land guests most shows simply can't get. We're talking Fields Medalist Terence Tao, Avi Loeb on interstellar objects, and working physicists discussing everything from quantum gravity to the information paradox.

The show's tagline is "Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human," and it captures the vibe well. Brian is genuinely enthusiastic about his guests' work, and his own research background means he can go technical when the conversation calls for it. Episodes run about an hour and drop weekly. The topics span AI, cosmology, quantum mechanics, and mathematics, so not every episode is quantum-specific, but the physics content is consistently strong.

With 584 episodes and a 4.7-star average from over a thousand ratings, Into the Impossible has serious momentum. Brian also has a knack for making episodes about mathematical concepts feel surprisingly engaging. The show occasionally touches on broader cultural and philosophical topics too, which some listeners love and others skip past. For the quantum physics episodes specifically, Brian's ability to ask informed follow-up questions elevates the conversations well beyond the typical interview format.

Daniel Whiteson is a particle physicist at CERN who works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. His co-host Kelly Weinersmith is a biologist and bestselling author. Together they have this infectious energy about science that makes even the most abstract topics feel approachable. The show started as "Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe" and has since evolved, but the spirit remains the same: two smart people who genuinely cannot stop geeking out about how the universe works.

The quantum physics episodes here are particularly good because Daniel actually works with particles for a living. When he explains quantum field theory or discusses why the universe minimizes action, he's drawing on daily research experience, not just reading a textbook summary. Episodes cover everything from cosmic rays corrupting computers to the fundamental forces of nature. They drop twice a week and run about an hour, which means there's a massive back catalog of nearly 800 episodes to explore.

With a 4.7-star average from over 2,300 ratings, the show is one of the most popular physics podcasts on any platform. The tone is fun and conversational but never dumbed down. They do listener Q&A episodes regularly, and Daniel's answers to audience questions about quantum mechanics are often the clearest explanations you'll hear anywhere. iHeartPodcasts distributes the show, so it's available on every major platform.

Physics World is one of the oldest and most respected physics publications in the world, published by the Institute of Physics. Their weekly podcast takes the same editorial rigor and applies it to audio. Each episode features award-winning journalists interviewing researchers about recent developments, and the quantum physics coverage is especially strong. A recent episode covered the Quantum Systems Accelerator and its focus on computing technologies, which is exactly the kind of specific, well-researched reporting that sets this apart.

Episodes run 20 to 35 minutes and drop every Wednesday. The format typically features one or two in-depth stories per episode, sometimes with multiple guests. The journalists know their stuff and ask the kind of follow-up questions that actually move the conversation forward rather than just prompting the guest to repeat their press release. You get genuine insight into what's happening in labs right now.

The show has been running since 2018 and maintains a 4.2-star rating from 72 reviewers. It's more of a news and analysis show than a deep-explainer format, so it works well alongside longer-form podcasts. If you want to stay current on quantum computing breakthroughs, new experimental results, and what's actually happening in physics departments around the world, this is an efficient and reliable way to do it. Physics World also has a sister podcast called Physics World Stories for longer monthly features.

If you specifically care about quantum foundations, the interpretations debate, measurement problem, and the fundamental questions about what quantum theory actually tells us about reality, this is the podcast you want. Maria Violaris hosts in-depth conversations with active researchers working on exactly these problems, and the result is one of the most focused and technically satisfying quantum podcasts available.

Recent guests include Tim Palmer discussing nonlocality through fractals and counterfactuals, Tony Short on deriving probability in quantum many-worlds, Will Zeng on testing quantum observers using quantum computers, and Chiara Marletto on conservation laws. These are people publishing papers on the topics they're discussing, and Maria asks the kind of questions that get them to explain their actual research rather than just offering the standard popular overview.

The show is relatively new, with 13 episodes since 2024, but it's already earned a perfect 5.0-star rating. Episodes run about 75 to 90 minutes, which gives the conversations room to breathe. There are no ads. The pace is unhurried and academic in the best sense, like sitting in on a really good seminar. For anyone who has gotten frustrated with surface-level treatments of quantum weirdness and wants to hear from the people actually working on these open questions, Quantum Foundations is the real thing.

In Our Time is a BBC Radio 4 institution that has been running for over two decades, and the Science feed collects the episodes relevant to physics, biology, and the natural world. Host Melvyn Bragg brings together panels of three academics, usually from UK universities, and they spend 45 minutes unpacking a single topic. The quantum physics episodes are among the best in the archive, covering everything from Heisenberg's uncertainty principle to the EPR paradox to the history of quantum electrodynamics.

The format is a roundtable discussion rather than an interview, and it works beautifully for complex physics. Having three experts means you get multiple perspectives and occasionally genuine disagreement about interpretation, which is rare in science podcasting. Melvyn is not a physicist, so he asks the kind of clarifying questions a curious non-specialist would ask, and the academics are generally very good at responding with clear explanations.

The archive has 293 episodes in the science feed alone, with a 4.6-star rating from over 700 reviewers. Not every episode is about quantum physics, but the ones that are tend to be exceptionally well-produced. The BBC's production standards mean the audio quality is consistently excellent. This is the podcast to go to when you want the historical and intellectual context behind a quantum concept, told by people who have spent their careers studying it. Episodes about Lise Meitner, the history of the atom, and quantum field theory are standouts.

Tanvi Gopalan, an 11-year-old member of American Mensa who goes by "Subatomic Tanvi," teaches quantum physics in short, accessible episodes aimed at young listeners. And honestly, adults might get something out of this too. There's something refreshing about hearing quantum concepts explained by someone who learned them recently enough to remember what was confusing and what clicked.

Episodes run 4 to 8 minutes and cover the foundational concepts: entanglement, superposition, the uncertainty principle, quantum tunneling, Schrodinger's equation, black body radiation, and even the 2025 Physics Nobel Prize. The explanations are simple but not wrong, which is harder to pull off than it sounds. A recent episode on why Bohr's model contradicts the laws of physics was surprisingly sharp for a show aimed at kids.

With 33 episodes and a 4.5-star rating, the show has built a small but enthusiastic following. It's obviously not the place to go for advanced technical discussions, but that's not the point. If you have a curious kid who keeps asking about atoms and particles, or if you want a quick refresher on a concept before listening to a heavier podcast, these bite-sized episodes do the job well. The fact that it's hosted by a young person with genuine enthusiasm for the subject adds a warmth that most educational content lacks.

StarTalk Radio is astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's long-running effort to sneak real science into pop culture, and it works almost embarrassingly well. Each episode pairs Tyson with a comic co-host (Chuck Nice and Matt Kirshen are regulars) and a guest who might be a Nobel laureate one week and a rapper, chef, or action movie director the next. The conversations range from black holes and dark matter to the physics of football, the neuroscience of fear, and whether we're actually living in a simulation.

What makes the show stick is Tyson's refusal to water anything down. He'll cheerfully correct a celebrity guest mid-sentence, then use the correction as a jumping-off point into something genuinely fascinating about the cosmos. The comedians keep him honest, pricking any balloon of academic pomp with a well-timed joke, which means you end up laughing your way through concepts that would feel punishing in a textbook. Recurring segments like Cosmic Queries let listeners submit the questions, and Tyson answers with the same curiosity he brings to his day job running the Hayden Planetarium.

Episodes run around 50 minutes and usually end with a feeling that the universe got a little less confusing and a lot more interesting. For anyone who loved Carl Sagan's Cosmos and wants that same mix of wonder and rigor in podcast form, StarTalk is essentially the modern answer, and the back catalog is deep enough to keep you busy for months.

The Quark Side is a newer podcast that focuses exclusively on quantum physics, which is honestly hard to find. Most physics shows cover quantum as one topic among many, but this one keeps its lens narrowed to quarks, fields, spacetime, uncertainty, and the limits of what we can know. Episodes explore current research with a focus on clarity and rigor, making it a solid option if you want dedicated quantum content rather than waiting for a general physics show to cycle back to your interests.

Recent episodes have covered the Many-Worlds interpretation, quantum computing breakthroughs in silicon qubits, how quantum technology might transform healthcare and energy, and an experiment called VIP-2 that tests whether electrons ever violate the Pauli exclusion principle. The topics are well-chosen and genuinely interesting. Episodes run about 30 to 40 minutes and drop multiple times per week, which means the catalog is growing fast despite the show launching recently.

With 17 episodes so far, it's still building its audience and doesn't have ratings yet. The production uses AI-generated elements, which is worth noting. But the content itself is well-researched and stays focused on the physics. If you've been looking for a podcast that covers quantum mechanics as its primary subject rather than an occasional detour, The Quark Side is worth adding to your rotation and watching as it develops.

Clear as Quantum comes from EQUS, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems. That might sound dry, but the podcast is surprisingly engaging. It's built around conversations with Australian quantum researchers, and Season 2 specifically explores the everyday technologies that already rely on quantum science, making the connection between abstract theory and practical reality more concrete than most shows manage.

Episodes cover topics like quantum printers, the future of quantum technology, and even a live episode celebrating quantum Ig Nobel Prize winners. The tone is warm and curious rather than lecture-heavy. Researchers explain their work in accessible terms, and the hosts ask questions that help connect lab results to bigger ideas about how quantum physics shapes the world we interact with daily. Episodes run about 30 minutes and the pace is comfortable.

With 20 episodes since 2021, this is a smaller show that puts out content in seasonal batches rather than on a fixed weekly schedule. It doesn't have Apple Podcasts ratings yet, but the content quality is consistently good. It's a particularly nice pick if you want to hear from researchers outside the US-UK axis, since the Australian quantum research community is doing genuinely world-class work. You can even email the team at engage@equs.org with listener questions, which they incorporate into future episodes.

Sebastian Hassinger spent a decade working inside the quantum computing industry before picking up a microphone, and that background shows in every conversation on The New Quantum Era. He sits down with research scientists, hardware engineers, and software developers who are actually building quantum machines, and because he is not a physicist himself, he asks the sort of plain-spoken questions that keep episodes grounded and accessible. Recent guests have included researchers tackling quantum advantage benchmarks, engineers scaling qubit architectures with 3D vertical chip designs, and academics building entire quantum technology parks from scratch. The show publishes biweekly and has built up more than 85 episodes since its launch, each running roughly 40 minutes. What sets it apart from other quantum podcasts is the balance between technical substance and clear explanations. Hassinger often steers the conversation toward the engineering bottlenecks and supply chain realities that rarely get airtime elsewhere. The podcast has also expanded beyond audio into documentary film and broader science communication projects, all aimed at making quantum technology more transparent and equitable. If you want to understand what is actually happening in quantum labs and startups right now, rather than reading another press release about theoretical breakthroughs, this is the show to follow.

Physics Frontiers is where hosts Jim Rantschler and Randy Morrison dig into the topics sitting right at the boundary of what physicists understand and what remains unsolved. Running since 2016, the show has accumulated over 80 episodes that cover everything from quantum random access memory and emergent decoherent histories to primordial black holes and pixelated spacetime. The format usually pairs one of the hosts with a guest researcher, and the conversations tend to go deep without drowning in jargon. Episodes on quantum foundations come up regularly, including discussions of entanglement, measurement problems, and the information-theoretic side of quantum mechanics. The pace is monthly, which gives each topic room to breathe rather than rushing through a news cycle. Listeners who already have some physics background will get the most out of it, but the hosts do a solid job of framing each subject before jumping into the weeds. With a 4.4-star rating from over a hundred reviews, the show has earned a loyal following among people who want their physics discussions to go past the pop-science headlines. Think of it as the podcast equivalent of reading a well-written review article: thorough, honest about what remains unknown, and more interested in getting things right than in generating excitement.

Theoretical astrophysicist Dr. Katie Mack walks bestselling author John Green through the entire history of the universe, from the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang all the way to the various scenarios for how everything might end. The result is 11 episodes, each running about an hour, that cover inflation, star formation, dark matter, dark energy, and the quantum processes underpinning all of it. Green asks genuinely curious questions rather than performing ignorance, and Mack answers with the kind of precision you would expect from someone who has spent her career modeling the end of the cosmos. The quantum physics content is woven naturally into the larger story: you get discussions of quantum fluctuations seeding the large-scale structure of the universe, the role of the Pauli exclusion principle in stellar evolution, and the quantum tunneling that will eventually cause proton decay. Production quality is high, with the Crash Course and Complexly teams behind it, and the 4.8-star rating from nearly 600 reviews reflects how well the show landed. It is a completed series rather than an ongoing one, which actually makes it a great starting point. You can listen front to back in a weekend and come away with a coherent picture of modern cosmology that most lecture courses take a semester to build.

Astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter has been answering listener questions about the universe since 2015, and with over 270 episodes in the archive the show has built one of the most thorough back catalogs in physics podcasting. The format is simple: listeners submit questions, and Sutter picks one per episode to answer in detail. That means the topics range widely, from antimatter gravity and the age of the universe to specifically quantum subjects like the quantum eraser experiment, wave-particle duality, and the measurement problem. Sutter has a knack for explaining counterintuitive ideas by building from first principles rather than relying on analogies that fall apart under scrutiny. He publishes roughly twice a month, and the show carries a 4.8-star rating from over 800 reviews, which puts it among the highest-rated physics podcasts on Apple Podcasts. The Q and A format keeps things unpredictable in a good way. One episode might walk through the math behind dark energy, the next might tackle why the universe appears to be made of math at all. For quantum physics specifically, the episodes that address foundational weirdness, like complementarity, entanglement, and superposition, are some of the clearest explanations available in podcast form. If you like having a working physicist talk directly to you about whatever has been keeping you up at night, this is the show.

Hosted by Konstantinos Karagiannis, an Associate Director at consulting firm Protiviti, The Post-Quantum World tackles quantum computing from the angle that matters most to organizations right now: what happens when these machines get powerful enough to break current encryption. The show has published over 120 episodes on a biweekly schedule and remains actively updated through early 2026. Guests include quantum startup founders, venture capitalists investing in the space, and researchers working on post-quantum cryptography standards. Recent episodes have covered topics like the acceleration of RSA factoring timelines, quantum money protocols, self-destructing digital signatures, and the booming job market for post-quantum cryptography specialists. Karagiannis brings a business and security perspective that complements the more physics-focused quantum podcasts. He regularly gets into the practical consequences of quantum computing progress, from how companies should prepare their encryption infrastructure to which quantum hardware approaches are most likely to reach commercial scale. The show strikes a useful middle ground between pure science and pure business analysis. You get enough physics to understand why a particular qubit architecture matters, but the conversation always circles back to real-world impact. For anyone tracking quantum computing not just as a scientific curiosity but as something that will reshape cybersecurity and the technology industry, this podcast fills a gap that most physics shows leave open.