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Smash Boom Best: Flowers vs Rainbows

We’ll be back with new episodes in January. But we wanted to share another show with you that we’ve been working on -- Smash Boom Best.


We’ll be back with new episodes in January. But we wanted to share another show with you that we’ve been working on -- Smash Boom Best!

It’s a debate show where we take two cool things, smash them together and let you decide which one is best. Today we’re going to share with you an excerpt from a heated, fierce debate featuring our very own Sanden Totten.

Sanden is repping team flowers and our good friend Joy Dolo, host of Forever Ago, is repping team rainbows.  To hear the rest of the debate, find Smash Boom Best wherever you listen to podcasts. There are over 30 debates ready for your binge listening this holiday season! Play along at home by yourself -- or with your family! You can find score sheets and other fun stuff at smashboom.org

Bones from the inside out

Bones! They’re spooky. They’re creepy. They’re utterly fascinating! This episode we dig up the science behind skeletons. 


Bones! They’re spooky. They’re creepy. They’re utterly fascinating! This episode we dig up the science behind skeletons. We’ll look at how our bones grow, what happens when we break a bone and why bones last so long. Plus, we’ll meet a talking skeleton who will help us bone up on bone trivia! And we have a mystery sound to tickle your auditory ossicles and a Moment of Um that answers the question: Why does time fly when you're having fun?

Why do siblings annoy each other?

How does your brother or sister know just how to annoy you? It’s like they were born to do it!


Having a sibling is a special thing -- but, wow, can they be annoying! In this episode we’ll look at why our brothers and sisters are so good at pushing our buttons. Plus, is there any truth to the idea that oldest kids are the most mature and the youngest ones are the most charming? We’ll look at the science of personality and birth order. We also visit a sibling drive-thru, get quizzed about animal relationships and answer this question in our Moment of Um: why does rain come in small droplets?

Brains On Podcast

Julie and her daughter, children’s author and educator Emma Walton Hamilton, invite you into their library to read their favorite children's books. Every story comes to life with sound, music and activities. Authors, kids and other special guests chime in, too! 


Julie's Library

Smash Boom Best is a debate show for kids and families from the makers of the award-winning podcast, Brains On! Every episode takes two cool things, smashes them together and lets you decide which is best.


Smash Boom Best

A history show for the whole family! Every episode explores the origin of just one thing — like sandwiches, video games, clocks and more — while teaching listeners to think critically about history.


Forever Ago

Other APM Podcasts

Listen to all the episodes in our series on the coronavirus, get resources and more.


Coronavirus Episodes and Resources

Fart Smarts: Understanding the gas we pass

Fire vs. Lasers!

Cats: Glowing eyes, puffy tails and secret purrs (Encore)

Books: How they're made and how your brain reads them

Mystery sound extravaganza!

Got curiosity? You've found the right place. Brains On is a science podcast that answers questions from kid listeners around the world. Find a few of our personal favorites to get you started here.


Is farting good for us? Where do farts come from? Why do only some make sounds? And what’s up with the smell? We tackle your questions about the gas we all pass in this episode.

Time for our next debate: fire vs lasers! Listeners sent us over 100 topics to choose from, they voted and this was the winning showdown. Fire and lasers are both cool -- but which is COOLER? Producer Marc Sanchez has tricks up his sleeve for team fire and Sanden Totten gives his all for team laser. Plus: Two mystery sounds that play a pivotal role in the debate.

Why do cat eyes look the way they do? Can cats really see in the dark? And what are they trying to tell us with that purr (you know the one)? We've got the answers -- cat behavior expert Mikel Delgado help us decode cat quirks and producer Sanden Totten teaches us what's behind cats' glowing eyes. Plus: We learn about other cool powers that animal eyes have, that ours don't.

There is so much happening in your brain when you read. From recognizing shapes as letters to discovering empathy, our brains really get a workout when we read books.

In this episode, Ben Bergen from the Language and Cognition Lab at UC San Diego drops by to shed some light on how our brains process the meaning of words. We also learn how printing books has evolved and how the invention of the printing press brought worldwide change. And recent Newberry Award-winning author Kelly Barnhill shares a little of what’s going on in HER brain as she’s writing a story.

Regular listeners of Brains On know all about our mystery sounds. Every episode we test your ears with some puzzling noise and give you a chance to guess what it is. There are so many great mystery sounds in the world -- and many, many of them have been sent to us by our listeners. So many, in fact, that we decided to devote an entire episode to these magical, magnificent, mellifluous mystery sounds.

There are a whopping 10 sounds for you to guess in this episode. Are your ears up to the challenge?

If you're the kind of person that likes a little friendly competition, make a score sheet with your answers. We'd love to see which ones you got and, better yet, what you guessed for the ones you got wrong. Upload pics of your scoresheet with #BrainsOn. Happy guessing!

Where to Get Started!

Molly, Marc, and Sanden present a humorous, fact-and fun-filled look at life on Earth — from deep-sea creatures and carnivorous plants to the human body and stinky bacteria. Get your own copy to explore!


Order the Brains On Book!

Brains On teamed up with the Science Museum of Minnesota, with funding from the National Science Foundation, to launch a groundbreaking study looking at how families use podcasts.


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