Something Offbeat

What would really happen if we made contact with alien life? How would our lives change? Would we even still BE alive? And most importantly… what would happen to the stock market? Dr. Avi Loeb joined host Mike Rogers on "Something Offbeat" to discuss what's different about the 3I ATLAS comet currently making its way through our solar system, and the implications it could have for us here on Earth.

In a potential landmark discovery, NASA says its Mars rover has found potential signs of ancient microscopic life on the Red Planet. For details, WWJ's Tracey McCaskill was joined live by Mike Narlock, Head of Astronomy at Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills. (Photo: Getty Images)

Here's a preview of Mike Rogers' longer interview with Harvard Dr. Avi Loeb, out this Friday from the "Something Offbeat" podcast. Loeb thinks there are some things about a comet moving through our solar system that indicate it could be intelligently directed (an alien spacecraft?).

Catch up on weird news from this week with a roundup from the "Something Offbeat" podcast, featuring stories from KMOX's The Dave Glover Show, KMBZ's the Dana & Parks Show and KDKA's the Big K Morning Show.

Mike Rogers learns about a rhinoceros who learned how to play piano on this "Other Side of the News" segment.

"Something Offbeat" is back with a roundup of weird news. This week, we've got stories from Los Angeles to Stonehenge from The Dave Glover show on KMOX, the Dana and Parks show on KMBZ and KNX News' LA Local.

Host Mike Rogers speaks with a woman about attending strangers' weddings for a fee.

This week, we go on another tour of weird news from Audacy stations across the country.

"Something Offbeat" host Mike Rogers interviews a man working on deleting much of his digital footprint.

As back-to-school season gets into gear, "Something Offbeat" rounds up news about Gen Z from KMOX's The Dave Glover Show, WCCO's Adam & Jordana and KMBX's Dana & Parks.

"Something Offbeat" host Mike Rogers talks to a man who loves Chick-fil-A more than you do. Probably.

This week "Something Offbeat" checks out news from Audacy's WCCO, KMBZ and WWL.

In this "Other Side of the News" dispatch, Mike Rogers learns about Monty, the blues-singing donkey.

"Something Offbeat" host Mike Rogers unpacks the Coldplay kiss cam scandal with Paul Keable, Chief Strategy Officer at Ashely Madison.

In this "Other Side of the News" dispatch, Mike Rogers talks to a man taking a tiny car across the U.K.

"Something Offbeat" goes on a tour of strange news out of Audacy stations in New Orleans, La., Kansas City, Mo., and Detroit, Mich.

On this dispatch from Mike Rogers' "Other Side of the News", he covers Mt. Everest of bananas in Westmont, IL.

This week, "Something Offbeat" checked in on weird news from Audacy stations around the country.

Mike Rogers speaks with Jim Pappas, a man who has been on a cheesesteak adventure.

This week, "Something Offbeat" brings you weird stories from New Orleans, Kansas City and the Twin Cities about stinging ants, a surprising potential treatment for male pattern baldness and our attitudes about wealth in the U.S.

Earlier this year, Audacy reported on the California Institute of Integral Studies' new accredited bachelor's degree in psychedelic research, the first of its kind in the United States. For this episode, host Mike Rogers spoke to Jim Grigsby executive director of the CU Denver Center for Psychedelic Research about the growing field of psychedelic research.

This week on "Something Offbeat", we round up weird news covered by KMOX's The Dave Glover Show, KMBZ's Dana and Parks Show and WCCO's Adam and Jordana.

Today, we're starting off with a story our host Mike Rogers covered this week on his daily “Other Side of the News” feature. Then, we'll get some dispatches from Detroit and Chicago.

On this episode, we check in with "Something Offbeat" host Mike Rogers' "Other Side of the News" reports and get a preview of our next Something Offbeat on degrees in psychedelics.

"Something Offbeat" host Mike Rogers has been bringing the "Other Side of the News" to listeners for decades. Now, you can catch up on his dispatches here! This week, we check out a man who is on a Six Flags diet, a new construction-themed theme park and the darkest night sky we could find.

"Something Offbeat" host Mike Rogers has been bringing the "Other Side of the News" to listeners for decades. Now, you can catch up on his dispatches here! First up, we check out a U.S. playdate between the largest and smallest dogs and then head to the U.K. for tips on how to handle a 24-hour pub crawl and and to learn about using asparagus to peek into the future.

One new mom in Philadelphia took her trip to first time motherhood slow and steady. She – a Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise – waited until she was 97 years old. Host Mike Rogers talked with Lauren Augustine, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Philadelphia Zoo, all about Mommy and her new tortoise babies, named after the “Golden Girls”.

In this episode, we dive into research into how the costs add up to $4,000 for Gen Z. We talked to Aleksandra Medina - one of the founders of Frich, a financial app for Gen Z - about break ups and other spending trends they've noticed.

In this episode, we preview the upcoming offerings from "Something Offbeat" with a look back on some similar subjects -- Gen Z habits and unusual zoo births. Featuring Charmaine Wynter; Mike Masellis, the lead animal care specialist at the Brookfield Zoo and host Mike Rogers. Produced by Lauren Barry and Chris Blake.

Ben Naman, Director of Medicinal Plants Research at the San Diego Botanic Garden, joined "Something Offbeat" to tell us about the creepy, poisonous real-world tree at the center of one of the season's hottest shows, season 3 of "The White Lotus".

Have you ever taken a good look at the player's facial hair when you watched a game of baseball? You might not realize it, but the topic of grooming in the major leagues is actually full of interesting tales. Just this year, managing partner Hal Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees (son of the legendary George Steinbrenner) released a statement that the team would amend its longstanding facial hair policy, adding another chapter to the saga. Marty Appel, former PR director for the Yankees, joined “Something Offbeat” to help us understand how it fits in to the history of the team and how it has approached grooming through different eras of fashion.

What is the likelihood of an apocalypse like the one in “The Last of Us” actually happening? Dr. Cameron Carlson of the Zombie Research Society told Audacy's “Something Offbeat” podcast that one of the greatest zombie risks may be hiding in litter boxes.

Chris and Lauren catch up on the astronauts lost in space and a bunch of interesting animal news.

And more weird story rundowns with Chris and Lauren.

Did you know that some school districts have been trying to ban Crocs? We're diving into the history and current application of dress codes in this episode of “Something Offbeat” with Grace Goble, an actor, singer, playwright, and more who changed her school's dress code and Richard Thompson Ford, the George E. Osborne Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and author of Dress Codes: how the laws of fashion made history.

This week on Something Offbeat, Mike Rogers talked to the Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait, about something you might not know takes place every 13 to 15 years: Saturn's rings appearing to disappear.

Chris and Lauren discuss four weird news stories: the Old Testament-esque tale of a kayaker being spit out by a whale, smelly flowers in Australia, an ambitious ocean voyage that departed from Philly and a weird Walmart car wash project.

This week, people around the world have a change to see a “planetary parade” – you can read about it here. Back in 2023, “Something Offbeat” investigated why people love looking into the sky. We reached out to two experts: Dartmouth researcher Nathan H. Heller, who specializes in pareidolia – hearing or seeing a specific sound or image in a seemingly random auditory or visual stimulus – as well as well-known astrologer Jessica Lanyadoo, host of “Ghost of a Podcast”.

Instead of harvesting long-lost DNA like they do in in the “Jurassic Park” film franchise, a company called Colossal is planning to take living species and genetically engineer traits of the extinct animals such as the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger and the dodo bird into them. The company employs around 170 scientists and plans are moving forward… faster than you might think. Faye Flam, a science journalist who is researching the topic for Bloomberg, joined the show to discuss the project.

Stories about stolen eggs, Taylor Swift's Super Bowl experience, people getting stuck on theme park rides and the possible end of the penny all reminded us of “Something Offbeat” tales from the past.

A coin from ancient Rome featuring a depiction of Brutus -- yes, the Brutus who killed Julius Caesar -- sold at auction for $2 million. It got us wondering, in 2,000 years, could a penny be worth just as much? And what's the future of physical currency look like anyway? To find out, we talked to Aaron Klein, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, about what our money could look like in the future.

George Musser, a contributing editor at Scientific American, contributing writer at Quanta as well as the author of Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation (2023) and Spooky Action at a Distance (2015) joined “Something Offbeat” to help us get a better understanding of the multiverse and what it has to do with computers.