Madison Science Mystery Tour
by WSUM
On Madison Science Mystery Tour, host Nalina Cherr invites researchers into her spaceship and asks them about what they’d most like to talk about. From the history of animal testing to the riveting details of life as a lab technician, this show offers an insider perspective on campus research, the context needed to understand it, and a dash of good-natured humor and nerdy curiosity.
Episodes
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Happy Birthday Episode! Music and Collaboration with Midnight Static
Madison Science Mystery is one year (and one month) old!!! To celebrate, Madison band Midnight Static has a gift for the show. Turner Bayer, Nathan James, Jordan Young Eagle, and Peter Nelson take some time to tell us about how they started their band, why they love music, how they collaborate……
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Dinosaurs and Forensic Storytelling with David M. Lovelace
Geologic detective and vertebrate paleontologist David M. Lovelace takes us on tour… to the early Triassic. In 2013 his team, “CSI Triassic,” found a tiny little hip bone… a pelvis that looked very much like a dinosaur. The twist? The rock it was found in was estimated to be about fifteen million...
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Little “L” limnology with Ray Allen
Ray Allen is a postdoctoral fellow at Trout Lake Station. He’s academically trained in Developmental Biology, and currently studies limnology. He recently released a paper, “A 100-Year Bloom of Indigenous Limnology and Reconnection to Land through Field Stations.” We talk about that paper, as…
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Trout Lake Station with Gretchen Gerrish and Carol Warden
Trout Lake Station is a lake ecology research station in the Northwoods of Wisconsin operated by the University of Wisconsin Madison’s Center for Limnology. Limnology is the study of lakes and inland waters. I’m working up here this summer as a science communications intern and am surrounded by...
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Cement and Decarbonization with Rob Anex
Rob Anex is an environmental engineer and the co-founder of a startup that traps carbon into cement, a major source of global CO2 emissions. The resulting product not only captures carbon, but also is stronger than regular cement. Rob’s curiosity didn’t start or end with saving the planet; he’s...
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Wastewater and Microbes with Trina McMahon
Trina McMahon is a civic engineer and microbiologist. She studies microbial communities in lake water and wastewater treatment plants and tends to approach problems from an engineering perspective. There is some discussion in this episode about the “Super Bowl Halftime Flush,” the phenomenon of...
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Bees with Celeste Mezera
Research specialist Celeste Mezera wears many hats. Like a beekeeping hat. Or a cute crocheted strawberry. She’s also worked in outreach, and currently works at the Wisconsin Energy Institute, where she keeps a lab running day to day. The paper and graphics discussed in this episode are linked here.
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Isobutanol and Biofuel with Sam Davison
Third year PhD student Sam Davison studies isobutanol, a jet-grade fuel fermented by the same yeast that puts the bubbles in bread and the ethanol in wine. This episode is perfectly on topic as we discuss brewing, gorillas, ocean acidification, and Pokémon. To read more about Sam Davison’s work,...
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Mind, Brain, and Education with Edward Hubbard
Greetings from the past! This interview with professor and researcher Edward Hubbard was recorded last year, but busting neuromyths is always relevant. Edward works at the intersection of neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and educational policy. He came into the studio with plenty of stories...
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Urban Ecological Futurism with Devin Guthrie
Welcome to 2026! We’re ringing in the new year with an episode featuring environmental science undergraduate Devin Guthrie. Devin’s full of ideas about collaborative world building and scientific solutions designed with and for the communities they’re implemented in. His passion for urban ecology...
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Opioids with Nick Burgraff
Researcher, assistant professor, and host of the Neuro Network podcast Nick Burgraff studies opioid overdoses and how to prevent them. He’s here to answer all our host’s questions about naloxone (brand name: Narcan), the autonomic nervous system, and goat treats. He might even walk away with the...
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SSRIs and Pregnancy with McKenna Crossen
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are commonly used to treat depression and other brain chemical imbalances, but how does that affect the other 90% of serotonin floating around the body? What about a developing body? PhD student McKenna Crossen talks about her work studying…
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Surprise Halloween Episode: Bones with Samantha Weaver
Spooky scary skeletons send shivers down your spine and regulate your blood calcium levels. Professor and Principal Investigator of the Weaver lab Samantha Weaver answers all the questions you didn’t know you had about dairy cows, pac man, and osteoporosis The background for this episode was all...
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Alzheimer's with Matteo Meyer
All Alzheimer’s is dementia, but not all dementia is Alzheimer’s. Nalina Cherr and biochemical major Matteo Meyer attempt to unravel the tangle of neurons and brain glue that causes this neurological disease. For more on the Pehar lab, where Matteo works, you can visit the lab website here. If…
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Episode 1: Jumping Worms with Claire Foote
From dog guts to flower gardens, worms are everywhere. But how did they get there? Should they even be there? Host Nalina Cherr and biological systems engineering undergraduate student Claire Foote discuss the biology of worms, invasive worms, and whether worms can live underwater. For more on...
About this show
On Madison Science Mystery Tour, host Nalina Cherr invites researchers into her spaceship and asks them about what they’d most like to talk about. From the history of animal testing to the riveting details of life as a lab technician, this show offers an insider perspective on campus research, the context needed to understand it, and a dash of good-natured humor and nerdy curiosity.
Hosted by
WSUM
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