Shows / The Astounding Pop Mech Show
The Astounding Pop Mech Show
The Astounding Pop Mech Show explores the strange, surprising, and mind-bending ideas shaping science, technology, history, and the world around us. Each episode digs into fascinating questions and headline-making discoveries—from UFOs, consciousness, and space travel to medical breakthroughs, unsolved mysteries, and the hidden science behind everyday life. With expert insight, lively debate, and the curiosity that has defined Popular Mechanics for generations, the show makes complex subjects…
Episodes
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowThe Ark or Just Rock?
Is Noah’s Ark real? A funded expedition in Turkey will use ground-penetrating radar and drilling to test a boat-shaped formation on Mount Ararat that has drawn…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowCannibals. Vampires. Space.
What's the weirdest archaeological find to date? We're breaking down everything from Stone Age cannibalism in Spain to a 400-year-old Polish graveyard built to…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowWill You Become a Robot
Ray Kurzweil predicted AGI by 2029, and it looks close. Now he says we’ll merge with machines by 2045. Our hosts are of two minds: one says “upgrade me,”…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowBuried Since 1777
Volunteers searching for Revolutionary War relics at Red Bank Battlefield Park in New Jersey instead uncovered the remains of Hessian soldiers killed in the…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowShipwrecks On Land?
A routine rail project in Sweden turned up six medieval shipwrecks, buried in mud about 200 yards from where the shore used to be. We dig into what the wrecks…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowEaster Island's Secret
Newly radiocarbon-dated wooden tablets from Easter Island may show a fully independent, organically developed writing system — something achieved by only a…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowYou Can't Make More Water
Lake Powell is approaching a critical threshold that could cut off hydropower and even water flow through the Colorado River — putting water for 40 million…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowDid He Break Gravity?
Could propellantless thrust finally be real? We're digging into engineer Charles Buehler's claimed breakthrough and debate whether it's a legitimate step…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowAre Vibes Real?
Ever walk into a room and instantly know the vibes are off? Scientists have a theory about why we click (or clash) with people on sight. We're digging into…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowOpening This Tomb Was A Mistake
When researchers opened the tomb of Poland's King Casimir IV in 1973, several people involved later died — echoing King Tut's infamous "curse" decades earlier…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowThis Tiny Breakthrough Could Make AI Data Centers Obsolete
Could DNA be the future of data storage? We explore a new Harvard breakthrough that encodes data into synthetic DNA, faster and cheaper than ever before — but…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowHow Will Humanity End?
How does humanity end? From AI and nuclear war to supervolcanoes and cosmic collapse, the possibilities range from disturbingly plausible to billions of years…
- The Astounding Pop Mech Show
Is Death Reversible?
New research claims to reverse death itself—reviving brain activity in tissue after clinical death.But what does that actually mean—is this a genuine medical…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowDoes Avi Loeb Know Something the Rest of Us Don't?
Avi Loeb just landed the White House's UFO council gig, reigniting the debate: is he a bold scientist unafraid to ask weird questions, or a Galileo-cosplaying…
The Astounding Pop Mech ShowWhat Is “The Hum”? The Mysterious Sound Science Still Can’t Explain
Learn all about “The Hum,” a mysterious low-frequency sound heard around the world, its possible causes, and why science still can’t explain it…