An evening full of wonder, storytelling and exciting science: on Friday, 19 September 2025, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin will once again become the stage for Germany's largest science podcast festival – the 3rd Beats & Bones Podcast Festival, produced in collaboration with podcast production company Auf die Ohren GmbH. From 6:30 p.m. to midnight, live podcasts, talks, quiz formats and science shows will fill the Museum with life – and with questions that move us all.
In three unique locations – including the impressive Dinosaur Hall – well-known podcast voices will meet passionate scientists, influencers and media makers. Together, they show that science is anything but dry. It is lively, surprising – and absolutely worth listening to.
“The Beats & Bones Festival is science you can touch – hear, experience and think about,” says Prof. Johannes Vogel, Director General of the museum. “We want to tell the stories behind the research and inspire people – with passion, curiosity and a pinch of humour.”
Festival host Lukas Klaschinski adds: “An evening like this shows how podcast formats convey science in an emotional, exciting way – right in the heart of Berlin.”
Theresa Schabacker from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is also involved. As part of her dissertation, she studied the behaviour of 60 wild males of the nectar-feeding bat species Glossophaga soricina handleyi in Costa Rica. “It was found that bats can not only communicate directly with conspecifics through their vocalisations, but also unconsciously reveal clues about their personality. Proactivity, curiosity and courage are closely linked to the frequency of social calls.” The study raises exciting new questions: How do these individual differences influence social networks in the long term? Are the calls intentional signals or merely unconscious indications of the animals' inner states of arousal? To what extent do these calls influence group coordination or mate selection?
The programme
Big stage in the dinosaur hall
Surrounded by dinosaur skeletons, well-known hosts and scientific luminaries discuss, narrate and puzzle live on stage:
- Beats & Bones – The Museum für Naturkunde in-house podcast brings research from the collections directly to the audience.
- What Happened So Far (Wondery) – Great history as a gripping audio experience.
- Spektrum Podcast – The world of science presented in a precise and understandable way.
- Der Rest ist Geschichte (Deutschlandfunk) – In-depth historical analysis with current references.
- Space & Time – When physics and philosophy intersect.
- Ralph's Relevant Riddles with Ralph Caspers – The TV favourite brings clever entertainment for all ages.
Event hall
This is all about facts, research and curiosity:
- Chain reaction – The GEO podcast with Sabine & Dirk Steffens: Environment, evolution, science.
- Lecture hall (Deutschlandfunk Nova): Compact university knowledge for on the go.
- Schneller schlau – The P.M. podcast: A daily ‘aha’ moment.
- GEO Epoche – People who made history: Biographies that changed the world.
- Die großen Fragen der Wissenschaft (Spektrum/detektor.fm): What do we really know – and what don't we know yet?
Special exhibition “Dinosaurs!”
Science to empathise with, learn from and laugh at in close proximity to Tyrannosaurus rex & Co.:
- Shortcut – Understand more faster (DER SPIEGEL): Poignant, fact-filled, entertaining.
- Animalistic! Two researchers & the wild world (Weltwach): About animals, field research and real adventures.
- Die Schule brennt (SWR Wissen): Educational debates, reimagined.
- Climate Lab by ntv: The climate crisis explained in an understandable way.
- Robinga Schnögelrögel – Weird Animals live: TikTok meets biology – a colourful talk with influencer & scientist Robinga Schnögelrögel.
In addition to the stages, there will be an interactive area with a networking zone, quizzes and hands-on activities, food and drinks, and a space for exchange and discovery.
Tickets are available for €28 via the museum's website
Accreditation until 18 September 2025 to Dr. Gesine Steiner, gesine.steiner@mfn.berlin
Thomas Rosenthal