On this week’s show: how kindness may have primed us for language, and the role of avoiding responsibility in leadership

On this week’s show: Radar readings from Mars suggest a large lake of water under one of the polar ice caps, how gender transition affects an athlete’s physiology and performance, and Andrew Lawler’s book The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the S

On this week’s show: How mouth anatomy reveals the evolutionary history of suckling, and why researchers think gravity waves may be responsible for clearing immense clouds

On this week’s show: A neutrino caught in polar ice ushers in new way to look at the universe, and how deep-water rice keeps its head above water

On this week’s show: A vaccine-derived polio outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo leads to tough choices for public health experts, and new evidence points to Siberian origins for America’s first dogs.

On this week’s show: Will telling the public more about animal research win back their good opinion? And what does it mean that our risk of dying plateaus after 105?

On this week’s show: sonic attack or mass paranoia? New evidence suggests the mysterious illness affecting U.S. diplomats in Cuba is more than just a figment of the imagination. And newly uncovered bones in the tomb of China’s first emperor’s grandm

On this week’s show: Why do Nigeria, Russia, and Florida have growing HIV problems? And which parts of the brain are bigger in people who have bigger brains?

On this week’s show: Recommendations from our books editor for your summer reading list, and a new blood test for fetal gestational age and preterm birth risk

On this week’s show: A search through an archive of galaxy spectra reveals long-sought—but never detected—medium-size black holes, and a comprehensive survey of global food production shows how we can lessen its environmental impact