i will present several results (that have been obtained jointly with stefanos aretakis and dejan gajic) from the analysis of solutions of linear and nonlinear wave equations on extremal reissner-nordstrom spacetimes, including sharp asymptotics on the horizon and at infinity for linear waves, and instability phenomena for nonlinear waves. these results can be seen as stepping stones to the fully nonlinear problem of stability/instability of extremal black holes.