Maiken Scott Is From Germany But Has Horrible Taste in Beer

Maiken Scott, host of The Pulse on WHYY / Photograph by Stevie Chris

The host of WHYY’s science show, The Pulse, which airs on 132 NPR stations, talks regrowing teeth, headbanging to Motörhead, and her Tilt-A-Whirl fears.

My first name is pronounced … “Miken.” A lot of people see my first name and pronounce it “Makin” like “I am makin’ eggs for breakfast.” But I’m German, so that “ai” doesn’t work the way some people expect it to.

I was born in … Karlsruhe, Germany, a planned city that has a castle — and the main streets sort of go towards the castle in a fan. It is said that Washington, D.C., is modeled after it, because Jefferson visited Karlsruhe and liked the design.

I came to Philadelphia … in 1996 because I got married very young and he was from outside of Philadelphia. It was a short-lived thing, and we divorced. I went to Temple for journalism and remarried when I was 35.

When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be … an actress. But in Germany, where school is free, you have to try out to get into acting school. I tried three or four times but didn’t get in. I was heartbroken! And I just can’t handle rejection.

These days, I live in … Ridley Park. I lived in the city for a long time. When I was at Temple, I lived around the corner from McGlinchey’s (RIP), which was the place to be. The waitresses were mean. But it was so cheap. And we were all broke! Plus, you could smoke. I used to smoke a lot.

I wish that scientists would figure out a way to … regrow teeth.

One of my favorite episodes we did of late … was about the crazy behind-the-scenes race to decode the human genome.

The first concert I went to in life was … Motörhead, in Frankfurt, when I was a teenager. I partially lost my hearing for a week after that. Nobody wore ear protection back then. You would have been laughed out of the arena.

(photo courtesy Maiken Scott)

I would describe the state of the world as … interesting. Very interesting.

One thing most people would be surprised to know about me is … that for 10 years, I owned the popular Port Richmond rehearsal space Surreal Sound Studios. We had so many bands come through there.

I am deathly afraid of … amusement park rides. All of them. I don’t like heights. I don’t like spinning. And I don’t like sudden movements. We took our kids to Hersheypark and I literally didn’t get on one thing.

One non-WHYY podcast everyone should listen to is … Blink. It’s the story of Jake Haendel, who was diagnosed with a terminal brain disease and seemed to slip into a coma for more than a year. But he wasn’t actually in a coma. He was aware of what was going on around him.

I am positively obsessed with … Eurovision.

My kids are always telling me to … relax. They are 15 and 17.

If I could have dinner with one scientist from history … it would have to be Darwin. I’d love to know what he thinks about how evolution has actually played out, and where he was right and where he was wrong.

One of the most frequently misunderstood things about science is that … it is a process and changes all the time, and, sometimes, it can be wrong.

Something about me that embarrasses my friends … is that my beer of choice is Miller Lite. I mean, I’m from Germany! But it’s true.

My secret talent is … lifting weights. My best event is deadlift: 155 pounds.

One unhealthy food I can’t get enough of is … nachos. Loaded. Put everything on them. Oh, and tater tots!

My voice is … something I don’t love listening to. I was teased relentlessly for it when I was a kid. Sometimes when I listen to my show in the car, I realize that my face hurts after a while because I’ve been cringing the whole time.

Published as “One of Us: Maiken Scott” in the March 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine.