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Regina G. Barber Regina G. Barber is a co-host of Short Wave.
Regina Barber, photographed for NPR, 6 June 2022, in Washington DC. Photo by Farrah Skeiky for NPR.
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Regina G. Barber

Regina Barber, photographed for NPR, 6 June 2022, in Washington DC. Photo by Farrah Skeiky for NPR.
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Farrah Skeiky/NPR
Regina Barber, photographed for NPR, 6 June 2022, in Washington DC. Photo by Farrah Skeiky for NPR.
Farrah Skeiky/NPR

Regina G. Barber

Host, Short Wave

Regina G. Barber is a co-host of Short Wave, NPR's science podcast.

Barber completed her PhD in physics at Washington State University with a focus in astrophysics, studying globular cluster systems. Before working at NPR, she taught physics and astronomy at Western Washington University where she was also WWU's first STEM Inclusion and Outreach Specialist. In this role, Barber organized programs to recruit and retain underrepresented faculty and students in STEM fields. During that time, she hosted and was the Executive Producer of the podcast Spark Science, featuring interviews with STEM professionals. For seven seasons, she mentored a student production team in science communication and storytelling.

Barber spent her academic career combining racial and gender equity, science and pop culture into one career. In 2019, she won WWU's Womxn of Color Empowerment Faculty Award. She is also an alumna of the SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science) Leadership Institute and a former Jackson Wild Media Lab Fellow.

Coming from academia, she loves the fast-paced, team-focused environment at Short Wave. She also loves TV, cartoons, robots and fandoms.

Story Archive

Tuesday

Could 3 Body Problem's aliens exist? The science behind Netflix's new hit

Discovered in 2016, a roughly Earth-sized planet orbiting our nearest neighboring star might be habitable. This artist's impression shows a view of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the solar system. ESO/M. Kornmesser hide caption

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ESO/M. Kornmesser

Short Wave

Could 3 Body Problem's aliens exist? The science behind Netflix's new hit

Before the '3 Body Problem' became a bestselling book and a smash TV show ... it was a physics concept, with big implications for how we understand planetary orbits. In this episode, we learn about the science behind the screen. Plus, why it's plausible a nearby, mysterious planet could hold life.

Could 3 Body Problem's aliens exist? The science behind Netflix's new hit

Listen · 14:29
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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

Listen · 9:14
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Tuesday

Some stars explode as they die. We look at their life cycle

A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova similar to T Coronae Borealis. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center hide caption

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NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Short Wave

Some stars explode as they die. We look at their life cycle

This summer, scientists have their eyes and telescopes trained on the small constellation system T Coronae Borealis. They think it will explode as part of a periodic nova — a once-in-a-lifetime event according to NASA scientists. And so, with the help of astrophysicist Sarafina El-Badry Nance, we continue our journey farther and deeper into spacetime with a look at the stars: How they're born and how they die. Sarafina has always been drawn to one particular star: Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the shoulder of the constellation Orion that is nearing the end of its life. What stages of life did Betelgeuse — or any star — go through before it reached this moment?

Some stars explode as they die. We look at their life cycle

Listen · 14:41
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Monday

Earth is more than a planet with life on it. It's a "living planet"

Ferris Jabr's book Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life examines the ways life and Earth have shaped each other. Lucas Heinrich/Random House hide caption

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Lucas Heinrich/Random House

Short Wave

Earth is more than a planet with life on it. It's a "living planet"

About ten years ago, science writer Ferris Jabr started contemplating Earth as a living planet rather than a planet with life on it. It began when he learned that the Amazon rainforest doesn't simply receive the rain that defines it; rather, it helps generate that rain. The Amazon does that by launching bits of biological confetti into the atmosphere that, in turn, seed clouds. After learning this, he began looking for other ways life changes its environment. That led to his new book Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life. He talks to host Regina G. Barber about examples of life transforming the planet — from changing the color of the sky to altering the weather.

Earth is more than a planet with life on it. It's a "living planet"

Listen · 14:02
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Saturday

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Pluto on July 14, 2015. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Pluto that is inserted beneath the Short Wave logo. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI hide caption

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NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Short Wave: Space Camp

Pluto isn’t a planet — but it gives us clues for how the solar system formed

Though Pluto has formally been considered a dwarf planet for almost two decades, it still has many lessons left for planetary scientists — including hints about how the solar system formed.

Pluto isn't a planet — but it gives us clues on how the solar system formed

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

Listen · 14:05
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Tuesday

Pluto isn't a planet — but it gives us clues on how the solar system formed

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Pluto on July 14, 2015. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI hide caption

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NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Short Wave

Pluto isn't a planet — but it gives us clues on how the solar system formed

Pluto hasn't been a planet for almost 20 years. In the early 2000s, scientists discovered several objects of a similar size to Pluto. So, during the summer of 2006, members of the International Astronomical Union convened in Prague to reconsider what counts as a planet in our solar system. IAU members decided that there were three criteria to be a planet — and Pluto didn't meet all of them.

Pluto isn't a planet — but it gives us clues on how the solar system formed

Listen · 14:23
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Saturday

Inheriting: Leah & Japanese American Incarceration
Christina Chung/LAist

Short Wave

Inheriting: Leah & Japanese American Incarceration

Hey, Short Wavers! Today, we're sharing a portion of Inheriting, an 8-part limited series hosted by Emily Kwong about Asian American and Pacific Islander family history. In this excerpt, we follow the story of Leah Bash.

Inheriting: Leah & Japanese American Incarceration

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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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'Inside Out 2' is a Pixar sequel worth celebrating

Amy Poehler as Joy and Maya Hawke as Anxiety in a scene from Inside Out 2. Pixar hide caption

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Pixar

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Inside Out 2' is a Pixar sequel worth celebrating

Pixar's Inside Out introduced us to the core emotions inside an 11-year-old girl named Riley. We met Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), and Anger (Lewis Black). In Inside Out 2, Riley is experiencing puberty and a whole new crop of emotions have popped up. Most notably Anxiety (Maya Hawke) who has literally bottled up Riley's original core emotions and sent them hurtling into the back of her mind, where they plot to get back and set things right.

'Inside Out 2' is a Pixar sequel worth celebrating

Listen · 21:21
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Wednesday

How the current heat dome can affect human health

A heat dome that began in Mexico in May moved into the U.S. in early June causing sweltering temperatures. Michala Garrison/NASA Earth Observatory hide caption

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Michala Garrison/NASA Earth Observatory

Short Wave

How the current heat dome can affect human health

Right now, there's a "heat dome" lingering over the southwestern U.S. – a high pressure system that pushes hot air down and traps it, raising the temperature. Heat is becoming increasingly lethal as climate change causes more extreme heat. So in today's encore episode, we're exploring heat. NPR climate correspondent Lauren Sommer talks with Short Wave host Regina G. Barber about how the human body copes with extended extreme heat and how today's heat warning systems could better protect the public. With scientists predicting a very hot summer, if you can, stay cool out there, dear Short Wavers.

How the current heat dome can affect human health

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Tuesday

Astronaut Wendy B. Lawrence was aboard the the Space Shuttle Endeavour for the STS-67/ASTRO-2 mission when it launched March 2nd, 1995.

Astronaut Wendy B. Lawrence was aboard the the Space Shuttle Endeavour for the STS-67/ASTRO-2 mission when it launched March 2nd, 1995. NASA hide caption

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NASA

Short Wave: Space Camp

From the physics of g-force to weightlessness: How it feels to launch into space

We kickoff our series Space Camp with a look at space launches. What does hurtling into space feel like? What physics are involved? And what's the "junk" in Earth's orbit?

From the physics of g-force to weightlessness: How it feels to launch into space

Listen · 14:00
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From the physics of g-force to weightlessness: How it feels to launch into space

Astronaut Wendy B. Lawrence was aboard the the Space Shuttle Endeavour for the STS-67/ASTRO-2 mission when it launched March 2nd, 1995. NASA hide caption

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NASA

Short Wave

From the physics of g-force to weightlessness: How it feels to launch into space

It feels like this is the summer of space launches. So, it's only appropriate that we kick off our new series Space Camp with a look at space launches. Throughout the series, Regina and Emily will plumb our universe to uncover the strange, wonderful things happening all around us. This episode, that entails answering a series of questions about getting to space: What does hurtling into space feel like? What physics are involved? And what's the "junk" in Earth's orbit?

From the physics of g-force to weightlessness: How it feels to launch into space

Listen · 14:07
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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

Listen · 13:29
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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

Listen · 9:14
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Monday

This Memorial Day, here's a smarter way to use sunscreen
Oscar Wong/Getty Images

Short Wave

This Memorial Day, here's a smarter way to use sunscreen

Each year 84,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with melanoma. About 90% of these skin cancers are linked to the ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Sunscreen does protect the skin, but dermatologists have found six very common mistakes people make when it comes to using it. NPR science correspondent Allison Aubrey talks to host Regina G. Barber about the science behind sunscreen and how to avoid making these mistakes this summer. They also get into which sunscreens may be better than others.

This Memorial Day, here's a smarter way to use sunscreen

Listen · 12:08
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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

Listen · 13:34
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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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Thursday

Science

This week in science: baobab trees, lizard-inspired building and stretching eyeballs

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Regina Barber and Emily Kwong of Short Wave about the origins of baobab trees, lizard-inspired construction, and why outside play is beneficial for kids' eyesight.

This week in science: baobab trees, lizard-inspired building and stretching eyeballs

Listen · 8:16
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Taylor Swift joked that 'jet lag is a choice.' A sleep expert has thoughts about that

Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs embraces Taylor Swift after defeating the San Francisco 49ers during this year's Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Swift, who flew in from Tokyo to attend the game, jokingly told him, "jet lag is a choice." Ezra Shaw/Getty Images hide caption

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Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Life Kit

Taylor Swift joked that 'jet lag is a choice.' A sleep expert has thoughts about that

Plus, six tips on how to stay alert and minimize sluggishness when traveling rapidly across multiple time zones.

Saturday

Space

A powerful solar storm is bringing northern lights to unusual places

An extreme geomagnetic storm reached Earth yesterday, with the northern lights dancing across the skies in places they're normally not seen. It's the most powerful solar storm in decades.

A powerful solar storm is bringing northern lights to unusual places

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Friday

NOAA Issues First Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch Since 2005

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a strong solar flare on May 8, 2024. The Wednesday solar flares kicked off the geomagnetic storm happening this weekend. NASA/SDO hide caption

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NASA/SDO

Short Wave

NOAA Issues First Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch Since 2005

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed a cluster of sunspots on the surface of the sun this week. With them came solar flares that kicked off a severe geomagnetic storm. That storm is expected to last throughout the weekend as at least five coronal mass ejections — chunks of the sun — are flung out into space, towards Earth! NOAA uses a five point scale to rate these storms, and this weekend's storm is a G4. It's expected to produce auroras as far south as Alabama. To contextualize this storm, we are looking back at the largest solar storm on record: the Carrington Event.

NOAA Issues First Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch Since 2005

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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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Wednesday

Venus and Earth used to look like 'twin' planets. What happened?
Lily Padula for NPR

The Science of Siblings

Venus and Earth used to look like 'twin' planets. What happened?

Earth, Mars and Venus all looked pretty similar when they first formed. Today, Mars is dry, cold, and dusty; Venus has a hot, crushing atmosphere. Why did these sibling planets turn out so different?

Venus and Earth used to look like 'twin' planets. What happened?

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