About this episode
This episode explores the causes of lightning and the technologies aiding physicists in understanding thunderstorms.
Thunderstorms have captivated humanity for millennia, and yet their inner workings remain deeply mysterious. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, guest host and Quanta senior editor Hannah Waters speaks with staff writer Charlie Wood about the new technologies that are helping physicists better understand the phenomena. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, hear the people behind the award-winning publication navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. At the end of the episode, listen to an excerpt of the fourth movement of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, which depicts a violent thunderstorm. Piccolo represents lightning and timpani represents thunder. Courtesy of Symphony Orchestra. Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
People in this episode
Host: Hannah Waters
Guest: Charlie Wood
Topics covered
- lightning
- thunderstorms
- physics
- technology
- understanding phenomena
Keywords
- lightning
- thunderstorms
- physics
- technology
- Beethoven
- symphony
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Quanta Magazine
Books & works: Beethoven's Sixth Symphony
More episodes of The Quanta Podcast
- Ecotypes Make the Idea of a Species Even Fuzzier · June 9, 2026 · 27 min
- Audio Edition: Astrophysicists Find No ‘Hair’ on Black Holes · May 28, 2026 · 13 min
- The AI Revolution in Math Has Arrived · May 26, 2026 · 30 min
- Ice Is Way More Complex Than It Seems · May 19, 2026 · 25 min
- Audio Edition: How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper · May 14, 2026 · 8 min
- Our Immune Systems Are Full of Ancient Weapons · May 12, 2026 · 30 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Quanta Podcast podcast page.