Scientific American Picks the Best Reads of the Year

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.3 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Scientific American debuts its first-ever best fiction and nonfiction book lists, featuring stories that explore climate change, alien encounters and even love stories in space. Associate books editor Bri Kane joins host Kendra Pierre‑Louis to share the selections that captivated the newsroom’s editors. Recommended Reading Five Essential Reads on Plastic, Power and Pollution 7 Science Book Reviews from Scientific American’s Archives with Modern Recommendations E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis, Fonda Mwangi and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check the show. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Think about cheese.
0:02.0	Make your thoughts cheesier.
0:04.2	Now add 100% chicken breast fillet, Chipoplae sauce and amadea cheese melt.
0:08.3	And it's giving the new cheesy chicken stack at McDonald's.
0:12.3	Did we mention it's cheesy?
0:13.9	Cheese.
0:15.8	Availments with the 4th of Jan, 2026 from 11 a.m.
0:18.1	Plus and participation may vary.
0:19.2	Subjects availability.
0:20.2	Hi, listeners. This is Kendra Pierre LewisLewis. Before you get started with today's episode,
0:25.4	I want to let you in on a little secret about Scientific American. As the holiday season rolls around,
0:30.7	Scientific American offers some of our best deals of the year on digital or print magazine subscriptions.
0:36.5	It's a meaningful gift for the science
0:37.8	lover in your life or a great way to treat yourself to endless stories about the wonders of our
0:42.2	world. Here's how you can get in on it. Head to Scientificamerican.com slash get siam and sign up for
0:48.5	our marketing emails. This way, you won't miss any of our exclusive holiday offers. You can also click the subscribe button if you're ready to treat yourself or someone special.
0:57.8	Again, that's Scientificamerican.com slash get siam.
1:01.1	I truly believe Siam has some of the best science reporting out there, and I love a good discount.
1:05.9	So I thought you might too.
1:07.7	Enjoy today's episode and happy holidays.
1:30.3	For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Kra Pier Lewis in for Rachel Feldman.
1:39.3	One way that we here at Scientific American stay on top of what's happening in science is not just by examining research papers and studies, but also by reading books.
	...

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