TUNE IN

Get through a few science podcasts and radio shows on the long drive to your family this christmas. Here are five our favourites from this year

MORE OR LESS: BEHIND THE STATS SHOULD WE HAVE SMALLER FAMILIES TO SAVE THE PLANET? bit.ly/smaller_families

Researcher Seth Wynes set out to explore what we could do to prevent climate change, and found that going carless saves 2.4 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions per person per year, while not having children saves 58 tonnes per person a year. Host Tim Harford and researcher Lucy Proctor explore this research.

NATURE PODCAST BUILDING EARLY EMBRYOS, THE FEAR RESPONSE IN MICE, AND ANCIENT RHINO REMAINS bit.ly/embryos_mice

Early embryos, called blastocysts, are important in human and animal development studies, but they’re terribly hard for scientists to harvest from lab animals. Podcast hosts adams levy and benjamin thompson talk to researcher nicholas rivron about how he tackling that problem by creating early embryos instead. They also discuss fear in mice, and what ancient rhino remains can tell us about hominin migration.

THE GENIUS OF ACCIDENTS bit.ly/genius_accidents

Adam Hart examines the most productive accidents in scientific history, including the angina medication that gave us Viagra and the glue experiments that led to Post-it notes.

SCIENCE FOCUS PODCAST WHAT IT’S REALLY LIKE TO DIE bit.ly/palliative_care_mannix

In this month’s cover feature, one of our experts is Dr Kathryn Mannix, who writes about her experiences treating patients in the final weeks, days and moments of their lives. Here, you can listen to our podcast with her, as she lets us know that the process of dying can be more peaceful and gentle than we’re often led to believe.

FREAKONOMICS RADIO HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR APOLOGY bit.ly/optimise_apology

Among others. host Stephen Dubner talks to john list, Who was once the chief economist at Uber. After receiving a bad ride ( where the driver accidentally drove him back to hi s original destination) and not receiving an apology. John investigated what would happen if Uber were to apologise after bad rides, and found out how those apologies could be made most effective.