HeyJaredWhimsical Wavelengths - A Science Podcast
Winner of the 2026 Science Podcast of the Year (American Writing Awards), Whimsical Wavelengths is a science podcast hosted by volcanologist Dr. Jeffrey Zurek dedicated to the "how" and "why" of discovery.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 7
- Latest publication
- Sep 14, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 6, 2026
Latest episodes
How the Missoula floods began as scientific heresy: Uniformitarianism vs Catastrophism (opens the original)
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Season 3 kicks off by flooding the auditory landscape with a deep dive into glacier outburst floods. This episode explores the Missoula Floods, the historical war of ideas between uniformitarianism and catastrophism, and the lonely scientific journey J. Harlen Bretz. Along the way, we examine how intellectual paradigms shift, how ice dams physically fail under immense hydrostatic pressure, and what these ancient cataclysms mean for how we understand geoscience history. Key Themes & Sub-Themes Th
Following the Data Where It Leads Across the Natural Sciences (opens the original)
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.Science isn’t a single lane—it’s a vast, interconnected spectrum. In this brief trailer for Season 3 of Whimsical Wavelengths , Dr. Jeffrey Zurek pulls back the curtain on an upcoming slate that follows the data wherever it leads. From the physics of the cosmos and the chemistry of life, to cancer research, massive landslides, and the societal impacts of modern discovery, this season spans disciplines to uncover the hidden stories behind how we understand our world. Hit subscribe and join the j
ENCORE The Science of Ice Cream - fat networks, sugar, temperature, air and temperature with Dr. Abigail Thiel! (opens the original)
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Why is homemade ice cream never as fluffy as store-bought? This week on Whimsical Wavelengths , we trade liquid rock for liquid dairy and food science. Host Dr. Jeffrey Zurek finds surprising parallels between volcanology and frozen desserts—from rheology and viscosity to the glass transition temperature . Joining the pod is Dr. Abigail Thale , a food scientist and expert in fat structures. We break down the architecture of ice cream, exploring how tiny fat globules form networks to keep your sc
ENCORE The Age of the Earth & The Fall of Leaded Gasoline: Clair Patterson (opens the original)
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How do we know the Earth is 4.55 billion years old? It turns out the man who found the answer also had to save us from an invisible poison. In the Season 1 finale, Dr. Jeff Zurek tells the story of Dr. Clair Patterson , the geochemist who fought the lead industry and won. Tracing Patterson’s path from the Manhattan Project to the University of Chicago and Caltech, we explore how his quest to date the solar system using lead isotopes in meteorites led to a terrifying discovery: global lead contam
ENCORE Scientific and Historical look at The rise Leaded Gasoline - When industry poisoned the world (opens the original)
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With a major feature film titled Midge currently in development, the world is looking back at the complicated legacy of Thomas Midgley Jr. In this episode, Dr. Jeff Zurek goes beyond the Hollywood hype to explore the true scientific history of Tetraethyl Lead (TEL) . Midgley was an engineering genius who solved "engine knocking" but inadvertently triggered a global lead poisoning crisis. We explore the 1920s corporate landscape where GM, DuPont, and Standard Oil formed the Ethyl Gasoline Corpora
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