Science Friday

The 2026 World Cup will be the largest one yet, and FIFA is trying to make it the most high-tech, too. The federation has partnered with tech giant Lenovo to launch Football AI Pro, which is designed to analyze over 2,000 different metrics and deliver real-time insights to coaches, players, and analysts. Guest Host Jane Lindholm chats with ESPN writer Ryan O’Hanlon about how AI analytics actually play out in soccer.

Plus, how a team of researchers grew 16 stadiums’ worth of FIFA-class turf. Turfgrass scientist Jackie Lyn Guevara breaks down the importance of perfectly uniform turf, how the turf was designed, and what she’ll be looking out for during the matches.

Guests: 

Ryan O’Hanlon is a staff writer at ESPN and the author of “Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game's Analytics Revolution.”

Dr. Jackie Lyn "Jack" Guevara is an assistant professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

We’re All Being Played By Metrics

The Surprising Science Of Why Sneakers Squeak

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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Elite athletes spend a lot of time training their bodies for strength, endurance, coordination, and precision. But what about their brains? Can psychology help athletes achieve peak performance? 

Joining Flora Lichtman to talk about this are professional climber Alex Honnold and Jessica Bartley, psychologist for U.S. Olympians and Paralympians. 

Guests: 

Alex Honnold is a professional climber, founder of the Honnold Foundation, and host of the Planet Visionaries Podcast: in partnership with the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative.

Dr. Jessica Bartley is senior director of psychological services for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Can Better Equipment Eliminate Concussions In Sports?

Olympic Ski Mountaineering, And Mountain Goat Climbing Feats

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you’ve ever been a child, had a child, or seen a child face down in a supermarket aisle screaming, you know that parenting can be tough. But humans aren’t the only ones raising their young, so how do animals deal with toddlers that won’t follow directions or little ones that are constantly begging for snacks?

Parent and science journalist Elizabeth Preston, who wrote the book “The Creatures' Guide to Caring,” joins Host Flora Lichtman to tackle some SciFri listeners’ parenting problems, from dawdling to the bedtime pop-out.

Read an excerpt from “The Creatures' Guide to Caring: How Animal Parents Teach Us That Humans Were Born to Care.”

Guest: Elizabeth Preston is a science journalist and the author of “The Creatures' Guide to Caring.”

Other episodes you may enjoy:

How Do Animals Understand Death?

Why It Took Decades For This Octopus To Be Recognized

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A few weeks ago, we talked to two sonic branding experts who compose music for household appliances. And we played for them a song “sung” by a washing machine that they didn’t really appreciate. But many of our listeners immediately identified the tune, a famous melody by 19th-century composer Franz Schubert.

And, as our guest tells us, it’s not just any tune—it’s one of Schubert’s most beloved compositions, “The Trout,” which he returned to several times during his short but prolific career.

L. Michael Griffel, a Schubert expert and former head of the music history department at The Julliard School, joins us for our mea culpa to “Die Forelle.”

A transcript for this episode will be added to the original segment page: Who’s composing music for my washing machine?

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Uganda is caused by the Bundibugyo virus. There’s no specific treatment or vaccine for this strain, unlike the more common Zaire strain that caused the 2014 outbreak. 

Molecular biologist Christian Happi has dedicated his career to improving genomic sequencing capabilities and virus monitoring across the continent of Africa. He joins Flora to discuss the challenges of the current outbreak and his vision for better disease surveillance. 

Guest:

Dr. Christian Happi is a distinguished professor at Redeemer’s University and runs the Institute of Genomics and Global Health in Nigeria.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Inside the Nebraska quarantine facility responding to hantavirus

Can ‘Suggestion-Box Science’ Make Public Health More Useful?

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.