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Like bread and cheese? Thank fungus!

Picnics wouldn’t be picnics without fungus. Bread, cheese and salami all incorporate our fungal friends!


That fuzzy sandwich in your fridge? Yeah, don't eat that kind of fungus. But the mushrooms in your stir fry? Or the yeast in your bread? Or the rind on your brie? Or the miso in your soup? All of those delicious foods are possible thanks to fungus!

In this episode, we'll learn about how our ancestors first figured it out some mushrooms were safe to eat, we'll learn about the microbes that make cheese possible, and we'll meet some fungal chefs who are key to cooking up some of our favorite foods. Plus a brand new mystery sound and a Moment of Um that answers the question: "How does rubbing two sticks together make fire?"

Is mold alive? A look at fascinating fungus

Molds and fungi have been responsible for everything from medicines to that mystery that’s been in your fridge for too long. This episode looks at how the kingdom of fungus thrives.


Fungus deserves a party because it’s everywhere and super important to life on this planet. The kingdom of fungus includes mushrooms and molds, but also yeasts, like the kinds that help make bread. So today, we’re embracing the ick, we’re snuggling up to the slimy, we’re making friends with mold and mushrooms… It’s a full on Fung-o-Rama! We'll learn about a day in the life of mold, a fungus that turns ants into zombies, and how fungi will help us in the fight against climate change. All that, plus a brand new mystery sound and a Moment of Um that answers the question: "How does air fry?"

How Mushrooms Are Turned Into Bacon And Styrofoam | World Wide Waste

Is time travel possible?

Who hasn’t dreamed of going to the past or taking a peek into the future? This episode takes a look at the ins and outs of time travel. 


Will we ever get to rewind time, or fast forward through it? Sanden stops by to tell us all about how time works. He also has a couple ideas about how we might make time travel a reality! But one tricky thing about time travel is that it’s full of paradoxes — so we look into those, too. And science fiction expert Lisa Yaszek swings by to tell us just how long humans have been thinking about time travel (hint: a really long time).Listen closely for the mystery sound, and the moment of um: how do clothes get dirty even though you can’t see it?

Brains On Podcast

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

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

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

Want to learn Spanish or build up your bilingual brainpower? This is a great place to start! Puedes escuchar al podcast aquí.


Brains On en español

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


Coronavirus Episodes and Resources

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.


PHASE 1: Analysis of Secondary Data (Click Here)

PHASE 2: Listener Survey (Click Here)

PHASE 3: Family Interviews (Click Here)

Brains On Research!

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!

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