Vox’s Unexplainable Podcast: When You Want To Know What You Don’t Know

Scientists don’t really know what 95 percent of the universe is made up of. That fact is particularly shocking, considering we live in an age where humans seem to know it all.

That's why Vox’s new science podcast – Unexplainable – is especially timely because it takes listeners on a journey into the unknown and then explores that feeling when “you think you understand something and there’s just so much more.”

Unexplainable host Noam Hassenfeld reminds us that we don’t understand exactly how the nose works or what’s going on inside the earth? And does anyone know about ball lightning?

 Produced by Vox --known for quality, thoughtful podcasts – Unexplainable host Hassenfeld explains that the podcast isn’t about the answers. “It’s about the questions,” he says. Alex Trebek would be proud of him.

Unexplainable launched its first episode in March 2021. Dutifully, that initial episode focused on the mystery of dark matter, which is composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect, or emit light. Therefore, dark matter can not be detected by electromagnetic radiation and can’t be seen directly.

The format of Unexplainable is straightforward and is smartly designed to enhance understanding rather than grovel for listeners. In the show, host Noam Hassenfeld is joined by an array of experts and Vox reporters each week to look at fascinating unanswered questions in science and the mind-bending ways scientists are trying to answer them.

New episodes drop every Wednesday.

Wearing multiple hats

Hassenfeld, who gained his hosting chops on Vox’s Today Explained, with Sean Rameswaram as a reporter and producer, is supremely comfortable in the driver’s seat of the podcast.

The name of the podcast, Unexplainable, smartly retains the Today, Explained, branding nomenclature and benefits from that identical desire to interpret the dark arts of current events and scientific uncertainty.

Hassenfeld’s recipe for hosting success blends earnestness, an ear for irony, a touch of dry wit, and a sincere desire to illuminate often obtuse and misunderstood scientific principles.

Hassenfeld, in addition to acting as host and senior producer of Unexplainable, also composed the show’s music. Before Unexplainable, Hassenfeld was a reporter/producer for Vox’s daily show Today, Explained, where he was also responsible for the show’s periodic parody songs. In summer 2020, Hassenfeld co-created Today Explained’s first spinoff mini-series, Today, Explained to Kids.

Before joining Vox, Hassenfeld worked at Latino USA, composed music for video games, and taught third-grade science.

Quality versus quantity

Like most of the sizable podcast networks now haunting the ears of millions of listeners, Vox does tout the raw number of podcasts in its network. From there, however, Vox diverges from many other podcast networks.

With the growth of advertising and downloads, podcasts have attracted celebrities from other media formats and social media. Since social media “influencers” are typically not the most self-reflective people, the podcasts have an "enough about you, how about me" quality to them.

TV celebrities seem to want to clone Marc Maron’s WTF podcast and interview their circle of friends in some room of their massive home. However, they often lack Maron’s delicious caustic wit, so consequently, these podcasts have a daytime TV ambiance with all the accompanying self-revelatory schlock and empty-headed prattling.

Vox hosts innumerable SBNation sports teams podcasts like Cincy Jungle for Cincinnati Bengals fans (you’ve suffered so much Bengals fans) to Canes Country for NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes fans. These podcasts perform as they are expected--providing fans with information on their favorite teams and acting as a listening post for fan enthusiasm or, in some cases, outrage.

Beyond those sports podcasts, Vox hosts some true quality shows. The Cut is a weekly audio magazine exploring culture, style, sex, and politics led by host Avery Trufelman – a 99% Invisible acolyte with solid credentials and crazy-good hosting skills.

Land Of The Giants focuses its microscope on the five tech giants – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. In partnership with Recode, the podcast has gone well below periscope depth when chasing after the DNA of these tech giants.

Vox’s signature show on popular music, Switched On Pop, transforms “it has a good beat and is easy to dance to” nonsense into enlightening conversations about music theory and how popular artists craft songs with mechanistic clarity.

Vox’s latest show arrives via a partnership with CAFÉ. It’s called Stay Tuned With Preet where the former U.S.Attorney Preet Bharara breaks down legal topics in the news.

Along with Today, Explained, Vox Quick Hits, The Vergecast, and other quality shows, Vox manages to integrate its disparate media properties into a coherent whole. It’s a dangerous strategy, and corporate giants like Verizon, AT&T, AOL, and ViacomCBS have tasted the ignominy of defeat when attempting to integrate multiple media formats into a functioning company with an overarching goal and laser-focused business strategy.

Explaining the show

Hassenfeld isn’t afraid to wade into the softer sciences with a perilous episode about the lack of scientific rigor in many psychology studies. Not afraid to defend science against conspiracy theorists and the foil hat crowd, Hassenfeld has tackled cloud formations and the effect climate change may have and a two-parter on the lingering effects of “long COVID on thousands of patients.

There is a cadre of excellent science podcasts – Science Vs, Science Diction, The Disappearing Spoon to list a few. Unexplainable finds its niche as a science podcast that focuses on what we don’t know about our world. Given a world of “just because” anti-vaxxers, COVID deniers, climate change ostriches, and crazy for coal throwbacks, Unexplainable could not have come along at a more ideal time.

So the next time your “know-it-all” brother-in-law jabbers about his numerous areas of scientific expertise, recommend that he listen to Unexplainable. He won’t ever admit it, but he’ll learn something. And you’ll re-discover how much we do not know about the world around us.