Kleptotherms

In this episode, we break the thermometer and watch the mercury spill out as we discover that temperature is far stranger than it seems. We first ran this episode in 2021: Five stories that run the gamut from snakes to stars. We start out underwater, with a species of snake that has evolved a devious trick for keeping warm. Then we hear the tale of a young man whose seemingly simple method of warming up might be the very thing making him cold. And Senior Correspondent Molly Webster blows the lid off the idea that 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit is a sound marker of health. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Lulu Miller and Molly Webster Produced by - Becca Bressler, Lulu Miller and Molly Webster with help from - Carin Leong Fact-checking by - Emily Krieger Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup ( Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab ( today. Follow our show on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org . Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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Kleptotherms is an episode from Radiolab by WNYC Studios.

This episode is 00:44:45 long.

This episode was published on Feb 6, 2026.

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