Specials

Two new novels tackle themes of motherhood and family secrets. First, in Emma Knight's The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, 18-year-old Pen has just arrived as a student at the University of Edinburgh. For Pen's whole life, she's sensed that her parents were hiding something from her – and she believes the answers might lie in Scotland.

How the people of Rapa Nui—also known as Easter Island—constructed the giant Moai statues is shrouded in mystery, as well as what happened to their civilization afterwards.

Around 10,000 years ago, somewhere in Africa, a microscopic parasite made a huge leap. With a little help from a mosquito, it left its animal host - probably a gorilla - and found its way to a new host: us.

Martin Luther King Jr. was relatively unpopular when he was assassinated. But the way Americans of all political stripes invoke his memory today, you'd think he was held up as a hero. In this episode, we hear how King's legacy got co-opted.

Watch as a pair of bull hippos battle for a pool on the Okavango.

Beneath every forest lies a living network of fungi, quietly connecting and sustaining the trees above.

If you know one thing about pterosaurs, it’s that they’re flyers. And while pterosaurs may be well-known for their domination of the skies in the Mesozoic Era, they didn’t live their entire lives in the air.

Comedian Youngmi Mayer talks about how her Korean family uses humor as a tool for survival.

This devoted father saves his chicks by tucking one under each wing.

A team of experts puts an 18th-century musket to the test — revealing how deadly it really was.