Was excited to follow SciFri since I’m often not available on Fridays to listen to the show, but why is this not the whole show? It’s just tidbits? Not the format I was looking for. Not really the show at all.
They didn’t get the message? Trying to justify DEI, abortion, and criminal behavior. It’s all been canceled ladies. Unsubscribing after about 25 years. You will be looking for a new job soon.
I used to enjoy this podcast every Friday when it was two one hour episodes. I would relax and listen to each. Now it's broken into a bunch of short segments that are overloaded with ads. For a show that wouldn't even exist without funding from NPR this is, quite frankly, outrageously greedy. I stopped listening when this happened. It is unpleasant now.
I recently started listening to podcasts and have been scrolling through many. However, Science Friday with Ira Flatow stands out as a reliable and educational source of news. I listened to one episode and was instantly hooked. Now, I can’t stop. Thank you!
I followed this show because science is fun and fascinating. On a semi-regular basis I ended up getting a science themed woke political lecture instead of science, and that was disappointing. This show has a definite ideological bent, which I believe has no place in real science.
I would like to express support for the daily segments of SCI FRI. I find that it fits well with my podcast listening habits. Of course, if I want the whole week in one lump, I can wait and listen to multiple segments at one time. But most often it works better to listen to one or two per day.
Please revert back to having all of the segments packaged into one playlist published on n Friday. So much easier to listen to via podcast app while driving.
Used to love listening to this show. Then they broke it up into segments for the podcast, and half the time their website player doesn’t work. So, now i rarely listen anymore. 😒
The short format interviews lack the depth and knowledge they use to have when Ira had a conversation with the guest. I listened to a topic on energy the other day and it was very shallow and ten years behind its development. I was embarrassed for the show.
Sadly this show is not what it once was. This short daily format lacks any real substance and usually just hits a few of the big headline grabbing topics. Ira may be a fossil, but the few times he does show up are the decent episodes. It’s sad that all of the episodes with all the other hosts are so hard to listen too - it’s all scripted with poor puns and bad voice acting - no real conversations.
This used to be a fantastic show and still has some good content, but the ads have really taken over. Half the episode seems to be ads. If this continues I’ll be unsubscribing soon.
After many, many years as a dedicated listener I am cancelling my subscription. Episodes are becoming shorter and shorter, the science “lighter”, and Ira is usually MIA and replaced by a cast of incompetent interviewers. Show has gone downhill to the point it is now a waste of time. Now they want me to throw money towards them in addition to listening to ads, no thanks.
I used to love Science Friday, but every episode has more and more ads, coming to dominate. Worse, it is the same obnoxious ads day after day after day. Apparently the advertisers don’t care enough to vary their content. So long!
I’ve been listening for years, it was a highlight to my Friday evening & then it fell off my local radio station. Thankfully the podcast allowed me to continue listening & I wasn’t missing the show. Now with the short format I seem to miss more often then catch it & I have no regularity listening anymore & I really miss Science Friday. It would be great to have a second podcast that’s the full radio format, that releases every Friday & also keep the cut up segments but it would need to be 2 separate podcasts to subscribe. I’d imagine the audience prefers either a short format or long format but possibly not both.
I learn something, my kids can listen and learn something, I love it! I love Ira and all of the fill-in hosts. Even if I’m not an avid every week listener, it makes me so happy knowing that it exists, and I always love it every time I listen. Thank you for making this delightful, helpful, intelligent, and informative show!
I really enjoy the new format with individual topics. It allows me to “digest” the fascinating material within a reasonable timeframe. I understand that some listeners would prefer the original long program, but I don’t see that as being an issue. It is easy to set it up in the queue to listen to one episode after an episode after an episode if that is what some listeners are desiring.
Long time listener missing the full length episodes that guided me through a mix of stories that I might not listen to if I had to select each individually.
Don’t mind the commercials, but please go back to the full format!!!!
Science Friday has been a "go to" for me for years. Often while cleaning up at the lab, we'd play it on NPR and it was a good intro for my undergrad students, to the nerdy, funny, gee-whiz aspects of science. Thanks for a real gem of a program!
I preferred the longer format but I understand the reasoning…it is not the only long podcast I listen to that went to shorter segments because it seemed more likely audiences would listen. I enjoy the variety of topics and views. I see a lot of negativity but if I am
Not interested in a topic I just skip it myself. The people interviewed that I listen to always seems knowledgeable and I always learn something.
Science Friday used to be an interesting listen of science discovery, with information that could occasionally challenge beliefs. Now a large proportion of topics and segments are unbalanced expositions of scientific studies designed simply to confirm an agenda. The good news is the segmented episode set up that many complain about actually serves to sift through some of this for the few gems of scientific discovery that aren’t obfuscated by their social agenda.
So much science to discuss and the program inserts political issues and trans issues into every story. They began a story saying we don’t talk enough about women and women’s bodies- and then they take away half the time to bring trans issues up not once but four times! I guess still no time for women in science
I very much miss the old full length format, because, as someone with ADHD, it’s hard for me to choose between the multiple short formats so I end up going to another podcast with a full length format. also, in general, it’s nice to have things I normally wouldn’t listen to just come up within the longer format podcast. Then I learn things I wouldn’t have chosen to listen to. Seriously, the new short length podcast set up is a terrible choice.
so I hardly ever listen anymore. Return to the full broadcast, pls.
Still hating the format - pls return to an hour at a time. Due to these chopped up portions, I only come once in a while - used to listen every week. 😑
I’m not sure that I believe people asked for this format, and if they did, it cannot have been very many. I don’t know why, but I can’t even listen to it in this format.
Podcasts are already weird enough with the order they play in— it’s like YouTube auto play where I always have to manually push stop and go back and find something I want to listen to. It’s nice to have one show where you know what you are listening to for the next hour.
Why don’t you just do a whole new show or cancel Science Friday altogether? I guess I’ll look for something to fill the loss.
I (like many other listens) am disappointed in the podcast format change. After all this years why would you change what was working best. Did you do it to appease the algorithm god? So disappointed. At this point if I don’t catch it live on my local news station I probably will listen less and less till I don’t come here anymore.
Luv the new format. Same great content, same great presenters. Same great production values, but now in an eminently more listenable length. My sweet spot for podcast length is 30-60 mins. The 2hr weekly segments are great on the radio, but I like my podcasts in more bite size segments. Thanks Science Friday!
I thoroughly enjoy Sci-Fri listening every week on the old fashioned terrestrial radio. And now that this new format is all that is available I will probably only listen to the terrestrial broadcast. Very sad
Up with full length science friday on Fridays! Please give me the whole episode- this is like 5 minute yoga or something. This was part of my identity every Friday. You’ve destroyed my Fridays, cry cry cry.
Yes, of course, it’s access to care, disproportionate impact to people of color! … a monomyth so pervasive that even a putative science show can’t avoid wasting time on it. The issue is not systemic; it is rather general homosexual behavior, including indiscriminate, unprotected partnering coupled with drug use as well as a belief that we have conquered disease. There’s nothing new here and the ‘systemic’ refrain is not only superfluous, but is also anti-scientific to the point of obscurantism.
Although I don’t mind the shorter segments, so many of them have the listener questions which is my least favorite part of the show. In the old format it was usually just 1 section of an hour long show I could skip through easily but now every time I go to listen to an episode I usually end up stopping it as soon as the listener questions start.
Also more Flora would be amazing! Her segments are always my favorite.
Like many, I prefer the old format; but I can deal with queuing up multiple segments. What I don’t understand is why the numbering is rarely in the order they come out. If it’s a production number or order the order they aired on the radio, then publish them in that order or renumber them. I realize your journalists, not scientists; but counting is neither rocket science nor brain surgery.
The content is generally good. There has been a little more headline-chasing, squishy science in recent years. Or maybe Ira is just better at finding the real science in topics. Some segments with other hosts sound a little too much like advocacy and too little like reporting.
I’ve lost interest in the show since the segments have been broken up and shortened. I miss the full episodes, when everything was organized. I used to look forward to catching all of the science updates and then diving a little deeper on certain topics with curiosity. I feel like the program is now multiple low quality programs with less genuine enthusiasm for science.
