AI chatbots (and lazy researchers) can be convinced a fake disease is real, Gen Z is side-eyeing the whole “helpful assistant” thing, and apparently, the best way to jailbreak AI is to ask it nicely in the form of cyberpunk short fiction. This week, we bounce between medical misinformation, bureaucratic chaos, nuclear fallout hiding in baby teeth, and the U.S. Space Force anthem doing whatever it is doing, which is a lot to process in one sitting, but here we are.

Deepfake scammers are now running full Zoom meetings, birds are lining their nests with cigarette butts like it’s a homewares trend, and Europe’s climate could be one ocean current wobble away from doing something dramatic. This week, we bounce between AI crime, urban wildlife hacks, climate tipping points, and a fruit fly brain getting uploaded like it’s just another file transfer, which is a fairly unhinged itinerary, but here we are.

Cloning is edging closer to science fiction’s favourite nightmare, tropical trees may actually be better at cooperation than their colder cousins, and smart underwear is now tracking human flatulence in alarming detail. This week, we bounce between organ growing biotech, forest diplomacy, AI failures, and fart analytics, which is not a sentence anyone should have to type, but science keeps forcing the issue.

Sirocco the kakapo preferred seducing human heads, Japanese scientists kept cloning mice until the whole thing started falling apart and a robotic dog is now sniffing whisky barrels in Scotland. This week is a tidy little mix of conservation chaos, cloning limits and high tech booze protection, which is exactly the sort of sentence science forces you to write from time to time.

Breaking Bad turns out to be less fictional than you would hope, the chainsaw has a deeply upsetting origin story, and people are now wondering whether AI can guide them through a psychedelic experience. This week is a tidy little mix of crime, medical horror, and digital absurdity, which is to say science is behaving exactly as expected.

Brain-eating amoebas, climate change, economists, and Leonardo da Vinci’s robot lion all collide in this week’s episode. We dig into how warming freshwater is helping dangerous amoebas spread into new places, why these rare but terrifying organisms are linked to water going up the nose, and what that means for swimmers, public health, and the very specific fear of warm lakes. It is science, climate, and nightmare fuel all in one neat package.

Conspiracy theorists hate uncertainty, a mushroom hot pot in China can apparently summon tiny imaginary people, a bunch of seeds have been sitting underground since the 1800s waiting for their moment and scientists are trying to quantify why words like boobs are funny. This week is a mixed bag of psychology, botany and childish humour, which is basically the entire scientific enterprise when you strip away the grant applications.

Venting might be making you angrier, Neanderthals apparently had a type, and unborn babies are already forming strong opinions about kale. This week we bounce from modern psychology to ancient DNA to fetal facial expressions, with a quick detour into pokie machines and how they might be made a little less addictive.

AI is casually reaching for the nuclear button, a Norwegian scientist accidentally speed-ran his way into Havana Syndrome territory, and a brain glitch has turned a marathon runner into the kind of person who says things like, "this foam has notes of regret." It is a neat little trio of stories that all land on the same uncomfortable point. The future is weird, the human brain is weirder, and neither of them comes with a user manual.

Hippos with hidden bits, hearts that take a mechanical detour, and a medical case study that will make you sit down and reconsider every life choice that led you to having a body. Showcasing the very best of when science is equal parts fascinating and deeply inconvenient. We are talking population control in zoos, post surgery brain fog, and a man whose internal plumbing was re-routed in the most unhelpful way possible.

Aliens might crash the economy, your brain might solve puzzles while you are drooling on a pillow, and someone, somewhere, has forced an emergency department to call the bomb squad for reasons that should never need explaining. This week is a perfect reminder that the world is held together by vibes, paperwork, and a thin layer of social agreement that can be shattered by a UFO, a dream, or an artillery shell in the wrong place.

Winter Olympians are allegedly gaming their suit seams for extra lift, the ocean is still capable of throwing an absolutely giant wall of water at your face with no warning, and somewhere in Queensland, a blob of pitch is taking nearly a century to prove it is technically a liquid. This week, we bounce from sports cheating to monster waves to the slowest experiment on Earth, with science doing what it does best and refusing to be tidy.

People are arguing about porn again. Magic mushrooms are being pitched as a health supplement. And a flu study managed to do the one thing flu is famous for not doing, which is spread. This week, we are bouncing between sex, psychedelics, and infectious disease, which sounds like a bad uni share house, but it is actually a pretty good episode.

Everyone wants to live forever, dogs are out here doing actual jobs, and someone has tried to work out where heaven might be using astronomy. We dig into the strange science of longevity, including research suggesting reproduction and lifespan might be linked in uncomfortable ways. Then they meet the working dogs sniffing out invasive species, guarding airport runways, and generally making the rest of us look lazy.

The FBI is on the hunt for Bigfoot. Scientists are pulling apart your pint. Fame is a lot more dangerous than it looks from the outside. This week, we’re jumping into the odd corners where government files, molecular mysteries and rockstar statistics all cross paths. Some stories get solved, some just get weirder and some might make you think twice about chasing the spotlight.

AI is making people feel smarter than they are, ancient Australia had crocodiles that dropped out of trees and Gen Z is busy rewriting the rules on everything from ironing to history. This week, we’re diving into a world where technology inflates our egos, prehistoric predators take the high ground and the youngest generation both celebrates and questions the past.

Science has a habit of making the weird feel wonderfully ordinary. This week, we’re serving up a trio of stories that blur the line between curiosity and absurdity. From chickens moonlighting as beauty judges to casual world record breakers and the real-life roots of a mythical horned rabbit, it turns out the world is even stranger than you think.

Ventriloquists dominated the airwaves, grown adults smashed chestnuts for dubious glory and even stone-skimming competitions have their own cheating scandals. This week, we’re diving into the delightfully bizarre world where stage tricks work on radio, nut-bashing gets competitive and skipping stones is anything but innocent. Turns out, the stranger the pastime, the bigger the drama.

Academics are arguing about the ethics of sex with aliens, dogs have evolved literal “puppy eyes” just to manipulate us and StaffCop is quietly transforming your workplace into a digital panopticon. This week, we’re plunging into a world where interstellar romance is a genuine debate, canines have evolved to become emotional con artists and your boss might be watching more than your timesheets.

A Rome-based research team discovered that poetry can act as a universal backdoor to jailbreak AI systems, medieval physicians believed flatulent foods were powerful aphrodisiacs, tech billionaire Palmer Luckey is now advocating for submarines that travel through Earth's crust and a Dublin man contracted penile tuberculosis after working with deer.