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Rachel Carlson

Rachel Carlson

Production Assistant, Short Wave

Rachel Carlson (she/her) is a production assistant at Short Wave, NPR's science podcast. She gets to do a bit of everything: researching, sourcing, writing, fact-checking and cutting episodes.

Carlson has also worked as a live event producer, production assistant and web producer at shows like Truth Be Told with Tonya Mosley, WBUR's Endless Thread and The Mortified Podcast.

As a double major in Cognitive Neuroscience and English at Brown University, she studied the intersections between storytelling and the human brain. She's fascinated by all the ways stories shape our minds and inner lives, and how these inner lives shape the stories we tell.

When she takes off her headphones, you can find her rock climbing, reading and hiking. She also harbors a love for reality TV and some of the worst best horror and science fiction films ever made.

Story Archive

Wednesday

Researchers are figuring out how African ancestry can affect certain brain disorders

Illustration of a brain and genomic DNA on a dark blue particle background. Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images hide caption

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Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images

Short Wave

Researchers are figuring out how African ancestry can affect certain brain disorders

Black Americans have been underrepresented in most genomic studies of neurological disorders. As a result, scientists don't know much about whether African ancestry affects a person's risk for these disorders or their response to a particular treatment. To help close this gap, the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, African American community leaders in Baltimore, and researchers from Duke University and Morgan State University created the African Ancestry Neuroscience Research Initiative in 2019. The team found that genes associated with African ancestry appear to affect certain brain cells in ways that could increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and stroke.

Researchers are figuring out how African ancestry can affect certain brain disorders

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Friday

Named after the Norse god Loki, meet Lokiceratops, a new horned dinosaur species

Reconstruction of a Lokiceratops rangiformis being surprised by a crocodilian in the 78-million-year-old swamps that would have existed in what is now northern Montana. Andrey Atuchin/Museum of Evolution hide caption

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Andrey Atuchin/Museum of Evolution

Short Wave

Named after the Norse god Loki, meet Lokiceratops, a new horned dinosaur species

A brand new species of ceratops, or horned dinosaur, was recently discovered in northern Montana. The dinosaur is called Lokiceratops rangiformis, after the Norse god Loki, and is believed to have lived roughly eighty million years ago. The bones of the plant-eating dinosaur were found on private land in an area well known for its large amount of fossils, and at first, researchers thought the bones belonged to another species of dinosaur!

Named after the Norse god Loki, meet Lokiceratops, a new horned dinosaur species

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Wednesday

The human brain is hardwired to recognize faces. But what if you can't?

Freelance science writer Sadie Dingfelder is the author of the new book Do I Know You?, which explores human sight, memory and imagination. Little, Brown Spark, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company hide caption

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Little, Brown Spark, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company

Short Wave

The human brain is hardwired to recognize faces. But what if you can't?

Humans are hardwired to see faces — even in inanimate objects. We have a lima bean-shaped part of our brains dedicated to facial recognition. But this process isn't always straightforward. Science journalist Sadie Dingfelder is one of 10 million Americans who are face blind, or struggle to recognize the faces of people they know. In her new book, Do I Know You? she dives into this, as well as the science of memory and imagination.

The human brain is hardwired to recognize faces. But what if you can't?

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Friday

We're in for a brutal hurricane season, according to predictions
NOAA Satellites

Short Wave

We're in for a brutal hurricane season, according to predictions

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a record number of hurricanes this season, which began on June 1 and runs through Nov. They're forecasting anywhere from 17 to 25 storms in the Atlantic basin, including at least four major hurricanes. Scientists think this storm activity could be due to strong winds, warmer ocean temperatures and a scientific mystery unfolding in the Atlantic.

We're in for a brutal hurricane season, according to predictions

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Wednesday

What 'Inside Out 2' got right about anxiety, per a psychologist

Pixar's new movie Inside Out 2 revisits the internal life of Riley, as she hits puberty and copes with a growing range of emotions. Pixar hide caption

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Pixar

Short Wave

What 'Inside Out 2' got right about anxiety, per a psychologist

Pixar's new movie, Inside Out 2 came out Friday. It's the sequel to the 2015 movie Inside Out, which follows the life of 11-year-old Riley and her family as they move to San Francisco. In Inside Out 2, Riley is 13 and thriving in her new city. She has friends and is a star on her hockey team. But when puberty hits one night, four new emotions come into play: Envy, Ennui, Embarrassment and most of all, Anxiety.

What 'Inside Out 2' got right about anxiety, per a psychologist

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How is Israel Using Facial Recognition in Gaza?

Palestinians are walking along Salah al-Din Road in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Feb. 11, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images hide caption

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Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

State of the World from NPR

How is Israel Using Facial Recognition in Gaza?

Today we bring you an episode from NPR's science podcast Short Wave about how Israel is using facial recognition software to track Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. And what the proliferation of this technology means for privacy around the world.

How is Israel Using Facial Recognition in Gaza?

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Saturday

Some people get obsessed with romance and fantasy novels. What's the science behind this kind of guilty pleasure?

Some people get obsessed with romance and fantasy novels. What's the science behind this kind of guilty pleasure? proxyminder/Getty Images/E+ hide caption

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proxyminder/Getty Images/E+

Shots - Health News

From ‘romantasy’ to reality TV, why we love guilty pleasures so much

Neuroscientists say the pleasure response helps us survive as a species. So why do we feel embarrassed by some of the things we love the most?

pleasure

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Friday

Why you shouldn't worry about invasive Joro spiders

Joro spider sits in the middle of a spider web. GummyBone/Getty Images hide caption

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GummyBone/Getty Images

Short Wave

Why you shouldn't worry about invasive Joro spiders

Joro spiders are spreading across the east coast. They are an invasive species that most likely arrived in shipping containers from eastern Asia. Today, we look into why some people find them scary, why to not panic about them and what their trajectory illustrates about the wider issue of invasive species.

Why you shouldn't worry about invasive Joro spiders

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Thursday

Science

This week in science: invasive spiders, cicada fungus, and how bodies change in space

NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer talks with Regina Barber and Rachel Carlson of Short Wave about colorful and invasive Joro spiders, a cicada fungus, and lessons about how the human body responds to life in outer space.

This week in science: invasive spiders, cicada fungus, and how bodies change in space

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Monday

Illegal wildlife trade is booming. What does that mean for the confiscated animals?

The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Live animals that are caught, like this box turtle, need immediate and long-term care at facilities like The Turtle Conservancy. Ryan Kellman/NPR hide caption

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Ryan Kellman/NPR

Short Wave

Illegal wildlife trade is booming. What does that mean for the confiscated animals?

Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest and most profitable crime sectors in the world. The illegal trade estimated to be a multi-billion dollar industry. On a high level, that illegal trade causes problems for everything from global biodiversity to local economies and the balance of entire ecosystems. And on the immediate level, authorities are tasked with caring for confiscated animals and placing them in long-term care facilities.

Illegal wildlife trade is booming. What does that mean for the confiscated animals?

Listen · 11:17
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Saturday

FWS Inspector Mac Elliot looks over a legal shipment while Braxton, a dog trained to smell heavily trafficked wildlife like reptiles and animal parts like ivory, enthusiastically does his job. Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest and most profitable crime sectors in the world. Estimates of its value range from $7-23 billion annually.

FWS Inspector Mac Elliot looks over a legal shipment while Braxton, a dog trained to smell heavily trafficked wildlife like reptiles and animal parts like ivory, enthusiastically does his job. Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest and most profitable crime sectors in the world. Estimates of its value range from $7-23 billion annually. Ryan Kellman/NPR hide caption

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Ryan Kellman/NPR

Environment

Box turtles. Coral. These illegally trafficked animals still need a good home

When authorities find wildlife that are being illegally trafficked, at ports or airports, the animals are often in terrible shape. Sick, starved, distressed. A pilot project in Southern California aims to get seized wildlife immediate care.

Friday

Drag queen Kyne Santos explores how math is 'beautiful' in new book 'Math in Drag'

Kyne wearing her hyperbolic plane dress. Author photo by Fabian Di Corcia. Fabian Di Corcia/Fabian Di Corcia hide caption

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Fabian Di Corcia/Fabian Di Corcia

Short Wave

Drag queen Kyne Santos explores how math is 'beautiful' in new book 'Math in Drag'

Kyne Santos was a student at the University of Waterloo when she began her math and her drag careers. She compares her double life to Hannah Montana, doing math equations at school by day and drag at night. You may already know Kyne from TikTok, where she makes educational videos about math, science, history and drag. And now, in her new book Math in Drag, Kyne explores the connections between math and drag: How both can be creative, beautiful and most of all, fun.

Drag queen Kyne Santos explores how math is 'beautiful' in new book 'Math in Drag'

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Wednesday

Why the science of tides was crucial for D-Day
P A Thompson/Getty Images

Short Wave

Why the science of tides was crucial for D-Day

June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy and took the Nazis by surprise in the largest sea-to-land invasion in history. This would be remembered as D-Day and would ultimately lead to the end of World War II in Europe. However, this planned attack wouldn't have been possible without deep knowledge of ocean tides! We get into the whole story, including why tides sit at the intersection of astronomy and marine ecology — and why understanding tides are key to a greener future.

Why the science of tides was crucial for D-Day

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Friday

A silky shark named Genie swam 17,000 miles, a record-breaking migration
Pelayo Salinas / CDF

Short Wave

A silky shark named Genie swam 17,000 miles, a record-breaking migration

A silky shark named Genie traveled from the Galapagos Islands out to the open ocean and back – over 17,000 miles – over the course of a year and a half. That's an average of 31 miles per day, making Genie's journey the longest recorded migration for a silky shark.

A silky shark named Genie swam 17,000 miles, a record-breaking migration

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Friday

How Israel is using facial recognition in Gaza

Palestinians walk along Salah al-Din Road in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. NurPhoto/Getty Images hide caption

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NurPhoto/Getty Images

Short Wave

How Israel is using facial recognition in Gaza

After the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 triggered Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began fleeing from the North of Gaza to the South. As they fled, many Palestinians reported passing through checkpoints with cameras. Israel had previously used facial recognition software in the West Bank, and some Palestinians reached out to The New York Times reporter Sheera Frenkel to investigate whether the same was happening in Gaza.

How Israel is using facial recognition in Gaza

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Monday

Sperm whale families talk a lot. Researchers are trying to decode what they're saying
wildestanimal/Getty Images

Short Wave

Sperm whale families talk a lot. Researchers are trying to decode what they're saying

Scientists are testing the limits of artificial intelligence when it comes to language learning. One recent challenge? Learning ... whale! Researchers are using machine learning to analyze and decode whale sounds — and it's just as complicated as it seems.

Sperm whale families talk a lot. Researchers are trying to decode what they're saying

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Friday

Scientists reveal mysterious origin of Baobab trees, Rafiki's home in 'The Lion King'
Aline Ranaivoson/AFP via Getty Images

Short Wave

Scientists reveal mysterious origin of Baobab trees, Rafiki's home in 'The Lion King'

Baobabs are sometimes called the "tree of life" with their thick trunks, crown of branches and flowers that only open at twilight. But theories about their geographic origin was divided among three places: the savannas of sub-Saharan Africa, the Kimberley region of western Australia and the dry forests of the island nation of Madagascar. To solve this mystery, a global research team led by scientists at the Wuhan Botanical Garden at the Chinese Academy of Sciences examined high-quality genomic data from all eight baobab species.

Scientists reveal mysterious origin of Baobab trees, Rafiki's home in 'The Lion King'

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Monday

AI gets scientists one step closer to mapping the organized chaos in our cells

The inside of a cell is a complicated orchestration of interactions between molecules. Keith Chambers/Science Photo Library hide caption

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Keith Chambers/Science Photo Library

Short Wave

AI gets scientists one step closer to mapping the organized chaos in our cells

As artificial intelligence seeps into some realms of society, it rushes into others. One area it's making a big difference is protein science — as in the "building blocks of life," proteins! Producer Berly McCoy talks to host Emily Kwong about the newest advance in protein science: AlphaFold3, an AI program from Google DeepMind. Plus, they talk about the wider field of AI protein science and why researchers hope it will solve a range of problems, from disease to the climate.

AI gets scientists one step closer to mapping the organized chaos in our cells

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Friday

How autism can look very different, even in identical twins

When the boys spent a year in the same school, Sam did fine, but John struggled and had some noisy meltdowns. Jodi Hilton for NPR hide caption

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Jodi Hilton for NPR

Short Wave

How autism can look very different, even in identical twins

Sam and John Fetters, 19, are identical twins on different ends of the autism spectrum. Sam is a sophomore at Amherst College and runs marathons in his free time. John attends a school for people with special needs and loves to watch Sesame Street in his free time. Identical twins like Sam and John pose an important question for scientists: How can a disorder that is known to be highly genetic look so different in siblings who share the same genome?

How autism can look very different, even in identical twins

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Friday

Deer are expanding north. That could hurt some species like boreal caribou
Jim Cumming/Getty Images

Short Wave

Deer are expanding north. That could hurt some species like boreal caribou

Wildlife ecologists have seen white-tailed deer expanding their range in North America over many decades. And since the early-2000s these deer have moved north into the boreal forests of western Canada. These forests are full of spruce and pine trees, sandy soil and freezing winters with lots of snow. They can be a harsh winter wonderland. And ecologists haven't known whether a warmer climate in these forests or human land development might be driving the deer north. A recent study tries to disentangle these factors – and finds that a warming climate seems to play the most significant role in the movement of deer.

Deer are expanding north. That could hurt some species like boreal caribou

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Wednesday

The mysterious 'Great Attractor' pulling the Milky Way galaxy off course

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

Short Wave

The mysterious 'Great Attractor' pulling the Milky Way galaxy off course

No matter what you're doing right now – sitting, standing, walking – you're moving. First, because Earth is spinning around on its axis. This rotation is the reason we have days. Second, because Earth and other planets in our solar system are orbiting the sun. That's why we have years. Third, you're moving because the sun and the rest of our solar system is orbiting the center of the Milky Way galaxy at over 500,000 miles per hour. If all of that isn't nauseating enough, everything in the entire universe is expanding outward. All the time.

The mysterious 'Great Attractor' pulling the Milky Way galaxy off course

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Friday

10 years after Flint, the fight to replace lead pipes across the U.S. continues

The Flint River water starts flowing to Flint, Mich. on April 25, 2014. Without corrosion control, lead leeched from the pipes. Brett Carlsen/Getty Images hide caption

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Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Short Wave

10 years after Flint, the fight to replace lead pipes across the U.S. continues

Ten years ago, Flint, Mich. switched water sources to the Flint River. The lack of corrosion control in the pipes caused lead to leach into the water supply of tens of thousands of residents. Pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha recognized a public health crisis in the making and gathered data proving the negative health impact on Flint's young children. In doing so, she and community organizers in Flint sparked a national conversation about lead in the U.S. water system that persists today.

10 years after Flint, the fight to replace lead pipes across the U.S. continues

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Wednesday

Beavers can help with climate change. So how do we get along?

Damming waterways is what beavers do best, often to the chagrin of people who want the opposite. But those same damming skills are what make beavers important ecosystem engineers. Chase Dekker Wild-Life Images hide caption

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Chase Dekker Wild-Life Images

Short Wave

Beavers can help with climate change. So how do we get along?

NPR's Tom Dreisbach is back in the host chair for a day. This time, he reports on a story very close to home: The years-long battle his parents have been locked in with the local wild beaver population. Each night, the beavers would dam the culverts along the Dreisbachs' property, threatening to make their home inaccessible. Each morning, Tom's parents deconstructed those dams — until the annual winter freeze hit and left them all in a temporary stalemate.

Beavers can help with climate change. So how do we get along?

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Friday

An 11-year-old unearthed fossils of the largest known marine reptile

An artistic rendering of a washed-up Ichthyotitan severnensis carcass on the beach. Sergey Krasovskiy hide caption

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Sergey Krasovskiy

Short Wave

An 11-year-old unearthed fossils of the largest known marine reptile

When the dinosaurs walked the Earth, massive marine reptiles swam. Among them, a species of Ichthyosaur that measured over 80 feet long. Today, we look into how a chance discovery by a father-daughter duo of fossil hunters furthered paleontologist's understanding of the "giant fish lizard of the Severn." Currently, it is the largest marine reptile known to scientists.

An 11-year-old unearthed fossils of the largest known marine reptile

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