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Like haunted houses? Scientists do! That’s because they’re an excellent place to study how humans respond to – and even actively seek out – fear. In an immersive threat setting, as opposed to a carefully controlled lab, researchers can learn a lot about what scares people, why and how additional factors (like the presence of friends) might affect our experiences. So what have they learned? What determines a good scare versus a bad one? And what’s the evolutionary reason for all of this, anyway? In today’s episode, producer Hannah Chinn heads to the haunted house in search of answers. Have a seasonal science question you want us to investigate on the next Nature Quest? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

Piedmont Triad International Airport is rallying community support for TSA officers and air traffic controllers missing paychecks amid the ongoing government shutdown.

In this wickedly funny dark comedy, Emma Stone stars as a high-powered CEO who gets kidnapped by a low-ranking employee, played by Jesse Plemons, who believes she's an alien from outer space.

Mel Brooks' comedy classic came out in 1974. Today, we listen back to archival interviews with Young Frankenstein actors Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman and Peter Boyle — plus Brooks himself.

Some 42 million people in the U.S. who rely on SNAP benefits could soon join the already long lines at the nation's food banks and pantries that are also serving struggling federal workers.

"67," pronounced "six seven," spread from a rap song, through sports and social media, to classrooms and homes across the U.S. But even the artist who coined it struggles to define it.

Local and state government organizations in Tennessee are paying $80,000 a week to keep the park open through Jan. 4.

This comes a few weeks after the trustees voted to keep the book "Call Me Max," about a transgender child, in the children’s section after a community member requested it be removed or relocated.

BOSTON (AP) — Two federal judge have ruled that the Trump administration must continue to fund the SNAP food aid program using contingency funds during the government shutdown. The rulings Friday came a day before the payments were due to be halted. SNAP is used by 1 in 8 Americans to buy groceries and is a major piece of the nation's social safety net. The administration has said it can't fund SNAP with the government shuttered. Democratic state officials challenged the plan to freeze SNAP payments starting Nov. 1, saying there's a legal obligation to keep providing the assistance for low-income people. Judges agreed, but gave the administration some leeway on the details.

Two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funding to provide SNAP benefits. But it's unclear how much, or when, those funds would be provided before the funding runs dry.