Unsung Science Podcast: Giving Voice To Untold Scientific Breakthroughs

 Podcasting is particularly adept at science shows. Dope Labs, Science Vs, The Disappearing Spoon, and Unexplained are just a few of the noteworthy podcasts. Perhaps it is the lack of the visual component that challenges these shows to explain the science so efficiently using only words and sounds. It's not like you can wow your audience with an image from the Webb Telescope, and then sit back while your audience "oohs and ahhs."

Since science is such a broad and discursive topic, successful science podcasts have a "hook" that is designed to attract listeners. 

Unsung Science, produced by Simon & Schuster and CBS News, uses as its hook "The untold stories of mind-blowing achievements in science and tech."

What makes this science podcast so ear worthy is its excellent premise, skilled narrative storytelling, and superb host, taking you behind the scenes into the worlds of the people who’ve built the best in transportation, entertainment, food and other areas. What’s unique about these stories is that they veer from the well-traveled path of scientific discovery storytelling.

No Lindbergh, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison here. Instead, listeners hear the untold stories of mind-blowing achievements that don't show up in your daily news feed. 

Some of my favorite episodes include the May 19th episode about David Peterson, the one man who makes a full-time living from creating, maintaining and safeguarding invented languages such as Star Trek's Klingon, and Dothraki and High Valyrian from HBO's Game Of Thrones. 

Want to ensure that your first date from a dating app goes sideways? Speak Klingon to your date as you explain your hobbies. 

Another favorite is also a recent one about how scientists at Colgate spent five years and millions of the company's dollars to design a recyclable tube of toothpaste. Then, Colgate made its patent available to other toothpaste makers. Wonders will never cease.

Unsung Science began in September 2021 and is in its second season. My favorite show of season one has to be the Baby Carrots episode. We learn that baby carrots are not really "babies" but the invention of a California carrot farmer and his family. The years-long saga of perfecting baby carrots by this farmer is an uplifting tale of perseverance, ingenuity, and imagination. After listening, you'll never look at carrots the same way.

The secret weapon of Unsung Science is the creator / host David Pogue. You've probably seen him on TV on CBS Sunday Morning, perhaps the best morning show on television. 

Pogue can handle narrative storytelling like Tom Brady could throw a football. He's master-class good at keeping listeners interested. Pogue also doesn't take himself or the subject matter too seriously. There's that sense of good-natured cynicism and raised-eyebrow humor that keeps the show from becoming too science-geeky. 

Pogue has superb narrative balance, explaining science, then waggishly pointing out the idiosyncratic tale surrounding the breakthrough.

Pogue's resume makes me realize that I am a serial underachiever.

 David Pogue was the New York Times weekly tech columnist from 2000 to 2013. He’s a six-time Emmy winner for his stories on CBS Sunday Morning, a New York Times bestselling author, a five-time TED speaker, host of 20 NOVA science specials on PBS, and creator/host of the CBS News/Simon & Schuster podcast Unsung Science.

He’s written or cowritten more than 120 books, including dozens in the Missing Manual tech series, which he created in 1999; six books in the For Dummies line (including Macs, Magic, Opera, and Classical Music); two novels (one for middle-schoolers); his three bestselling Pogue’s Basics books of tips and shortcuts (on Tech, Money, and Life); his how-to guides, iPhone Unlocked and Mac Unlocked; and his 2021 magnum opus, How to Prepare for Climate Change.

After graduating summa cum laude from Yale in 1985 with distinction in music, Pogue spent ten years conducting and arranging Broadway musicals in New York. He has won a Loeb Award for journalism, two Webby awards, and an honorary doctorate in music. 

Enough Pogue, now back to Unsung Science. The show offers listeners a learning experience, a science lesson that doesn't hurt your head, and a sense of things are always not what they seem, all while chuckling and smiling. 

This is one of my top recommendations for a podcast, science or otherwise. Check out Unsung Science and if you don't like it, feel free to contact me and tell me that I am full of it. Of course, I will only accept such feedback in Klingon or Dothraki.