It’s a question big enough to make your head spin! Eight-year-old Ellie from Atlanta, Georgia, wants to know what came before the Big Bang?

Ellie joins our host Eloise to delve into the origins of our universe with astronomer Michael Lam from Rochester Institute of Technology.

If you'd like to join in with the experiment in this episode, make sure you have a balloon and a pen on hand while you listen.

A podcast from The Conversation, the independent not-for-profit news organisation that brings you news and analysis straight from academic experts. Full credits available here.

This season is supported by the University of Southampton in the UK, a world-leading research-intensive university with a global network of international students and campuses in Malaysia and Delhi.

Are you a curious kid with a question? Pop it in an email, or record it and send us the audio to curiouskids@theconversation.com.

• Curious Kids: how likely is it that there are parallel universes and other Earths?
• Curious Kids: how are galaxies formed?
• How could an explosive Big Bang be the birth of our universe?
• What if the Big Bang wasn’t the beginning? Our research suggests it may have taken place inside a black hole

Have you ever stayed in the bath or swimming pool for ages and noticed that your fingers and toes went all wrinkly? Well, 11-year-old Maya from London wanted to know why that happens.

She joins host Eloise to get the answer from biologist Tom Smulders from Newcastle University on the first episode of our second season! There’s an experiment in this episode which you can try out too while you listen. If you want to join in, prepare a bowl of warm water.

A podcast from The Conversation, the independent not-for-profit news organisation that brings you news and analysis straight from academic experts. Full credits available here.

This season is supported by the University of Southampton in the UK, a world-leading research-intensive university with a global network of international students and campuses in Malaysia and Delhi.

Are you a curious kid with a question? Pop it in an email, or record it and send us the audio to curiouskids@theconversation.com.

We've had some fantastic questions sent in by listeners around the world and now we're back with a second season of The Conversation's Curious Kids! And we're beaming at being named Best Kids podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2025 too.

Each episode, a curious kid joins host Eloise to ask a top researcher their burning question, such as: why do your fingers and toes go wrinkly in the bath? Why our taste in food changes as we get older? How high can volcanoes actually send molten lava up into the air?

New episodes from June 9th.

A podcast from The Conversation, the independent not-for-profit news organisationthat brings you news straight from academic experts.

This season is supported by the University of Southampton in the UK, a world-leading research-intensive university with a global network of international students and campuses in Malaysia and Delhi.

Are you a curious kid with a question? Pop it in an email, or record it and send us the audio to curiouskids@theconversation.com.