The crew digs into what horror gets right and wrong about disability representation, aging, chronic illness, eugenics, pregnancy, and ableist tropes.

Was E.T really the greatest sci-fi movie of 1982? We go down the rabbit hole of where E.T. fits in the summer that changed sci-fi.

Pave paradise over with a parking lot? Dunes, ecology, nature and neurobiology, and Poison Ivy.

What if you could rewrite your DNA? The science behind Spider-Man's chimera villains, CRISPR, genetics, and Handwavium.

Spider-Man's villains are a case study of OSHA violations. We break down the science of lab safety, what goes wrong, and why fiction can't stop Handwavium-ing the guardrails.

Who drew the Nazca Lines and why? Aliens, offerings, or brilliant engineers? The crew explores Nazca Lines, crop circles, Peruvian history and culture.

Tracking Near-Earth Objects, DART, tabletop defense games, and Starship Trooper conspiracies. The Rabbit Hole of Research crew heads to the Basement Studio to ask what happens when you look up.

On the day Artemis II launched, the RHR crew headed down below the Basement Studio to ask the question fiction keeps digging up, can humans live long-term underground?

The RHR crew explores the neuroscience of fear, the psychology of disgust, and the genre brave enough to find out exactly where terror ends and entertainment begins.

No April Fools here. Philosopher David Detmer joins the RHR crew to explore the neuroscience, philosophy, and social forces that make telling the truth harder to lasso than it sounds.

What happens when machines learn to talk back? We explore the cognitive science of chatbots, the illusion of understanding, and whether we're discovering something about AI or ourselves.

From Gila monster spit to AI-designed therapies, modern medicine is starting to feel magical. Physician-author Davis Ashura helps us separate the Handwavium from the science.

Ray guns, phasers, and plasma bugs, oh my! We've been dreaming of the perfect energy weapon for centuries. But can physics keep up with the fantasy?

Is love just hormones and neural circuits, or something transcendent? Join us for a Valentine's season exploration of love, attachment, and what it all means.

What does it take to restart civilization on a new world? Author Roland Pitts joins us to explore the engineering, ethics, and impossible choices of building humanity's last ark.

We crack open the human heart with guest bioengineer Dr. Rengasayee “Sai” Veeraraghavan, we cover everything from real-world nano-physiology to the wild anatomy of superheroes.

What is The Thing? In this episode, we dissect the biology, history, and deep paranoia at the heart of John Carpenter’s 1982 classic—and ask whether The Thing could infect more than just humans.

At Chicago’s Reed’s Local, we team with Slasher Sauces’ Jesse & Alana and Reed's co-owner Melissa to dice-up the slasher genre. Origins, psychology, tech-age twists, cult favorites, and the Final Girl

Find tickets & information for RL Book Club #100!: Will You Still Love Me, If I Become Someone Else by Jotham Austin, II. happening at Reeds Local, Chicago, IL on Tue, 29 Jul, 2025 at 07:30 pm CDT. Re...

We dig into fictional economies, currency systems, and the role of finance in sci-fi, fantasy, and how film and novels handle world-building around financial systems.

Listen now | Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of sub cellular machines that are becoming reality. Learn about their potential uses and limitations, from healthcare to possible weaponizat...

On The Rabbit Hole of Research podcast our goal is to have a little fun exploring science through the lens of science fiction, fantasy and pop culture. And hopefully learn a few facts that you can imp...

Listen now | Join us in the basement studio as we dig into the multiverse. We navigate the speculative world of infinite possibilities, parallel universes, and personal what-ifs.