Probably Science

Actor/podcaster/improv master/festival producer Janet Varney (@janetvarney) sits down with the crew on this week's episode to talk about voicing the hero of The Legend of Korra, the hilarious Bachelor parody Burning Love, Janet's first LA acting gig on Catwoman, growing up near Biosphere 2, Janet's award-winning science fair project on burning stuff, trash-eating seagulls, Radiolab's look at violence in baboons, Andy and Janet's Serial obsession, a corpse flower bloom, new evidence on human/neanderthal breeding, obscene gestures in various cultures, Matt cowering from the sun, spider sex and hairy mouthparts, the brilliant comedy of Kasper Hauser and their book SkyMaul, Janet's incredible festival SF Sketchfest, the largest genetic analysis of gay brothers, an email from a sex worker listener and a detailed account of Jesse's most humiliating moment ever.

Anthropologist and spider monkey expert Dr. Christina Campbell joins the gang this week to get an update on Jesse's kidney stones and talk about her field of expertise, including research on Barro Colorado Island, the snubbing of Darwin contemporary Alfred Russel Wallace, Jesse trying to adopt a wallaby, Chris Burke’s Eating Is Fun/Eating Is Serious, Dr. Campbell's book on spider monkeys, the torture tape experiment, wombats and wallabies, barrel of monkeys vs. barrel of apes, chimps catching bushbabies with spears, the relative intelligence of Koko vs. Kanzi, the 1980s orangutan movie Link, spider monkey trivia, why you shouldn't use sign language in front of primates, why you shouldn't tickle a slow loris, spider monkey sexual rendezvous and the drunken monkey hypothesis.

Shop Amazon for the holidays and enjoy comedian and musician Mike Phirman (@phirm) as he joins the crew to talk about kidney stones and Jesse's trip to urgent care, Mike's iodine allergy, the millenial malady of text neck, a man who can sort of hear wifi, the sound of Comet 67P and Philae, Hard 'n' Phirm's ode to the numerical value pi, Chicken Monkey Duck, Build-a-Song, Trace Elements, the bluegrass mashup Rodeohead, more Vomit Comet talk, why we need to be done with fossil fuels by 2100, the link between gut bacteria and mental health, a vaginal Crocodile Mile and the clearest-ever image of planetary formation.

As you shop using the Probably Science Holiday Gift Guide, listen to the wonderful Alison Haislip of Attack of the Show fame as she talks with Andy, Jesse and Matt about world peace, annoying parkour people, the daily life of Valley Villagers, finding a 26-year-old letter to Tony Hawk in the garage, Matt's recommended gentle comedy The Castle, Alison's four-year stint at Space Camp, getting serenaded by wannabe Top Gun pilots, Charles Manson's nuptials, organic molecules discovered on Comet 67P, Lego vs. Legos, screener season, why blue things are rare in nature, the man who turned himself into Papa Smurf, how to learn synesthesia, seals humping penguins, centaurs vs. minotaurs vs. fauns, Zoothe movie about the Enumclaw sex farm, and storing 5.5 petabits of data in a single gram of DNA.

It's time for the first Probably Science Holiday Gift Guide! While you're taking care of all your seasonal shopping needs there, you can enjoy this week's episode with former tennis pro and current comedy pro Michael Kosta, who joins the gang to talk about Matt turning into a real boy, being a good samaritan with a lost phone, the horror of found comedy notebooks, hippie journals, Michael and Andy's Ann Arbor roots, impending earthquakes, Jesse's survival kit, British army surplus stores, being the 864th best tennis player in the world, gender parity in the professional darts world, ridiculously fast tennis serves coming from women, the age-accelerating effects of milk, contagious yawning in wolves and Michael's Sports. Kosta. Basement. web series.

Producer of The Meltdown, co-host of The Indoor Kids podcast and former couples therapist Emily Gordon joins the festivities this week to talk about rage oranges, webcams, Jesse making three Subway trips in a day, why rocket science is so damn hard, co-ed fraternities, people trying to get free therapy at parties, Emily's blog, decorating your house with Dave Kloc posters, astronomy sleuths uncovering the origins of Monet paintings, Brooks being cast in an upcoming movie, schizophrenia actually being eight different disorders, dating the person in front of you, algae that makes us idiots, the films of Dwight Yoakam, the Magnolia scene filmed in our neighborhood bar, out-of-date Philae comet-landing news, a robot that makes you think there's a ghost behind you, the Third Man Factor experienced by mountain climbers, British accents vs. American Southern accents, Jesse and Andy's counseling breakthrough, working with your spouse, the video game nostalgia of Ready Player One, and game recommendations including Sp

This week's guest is that rarest of Probably Science breeds: A comic with a PhD. Scientist-turned-comedian Tim Lee joins Andy, Jesse and Matt to talk about crispness, anadromous fishes, California water subsidies, Australia's Big Banana, the problem with butt implants, next-generation CubeSats using iodine propellant, working in financial dark pools, The financial exposé Flash Boys, Jesse getting tricked by a prostitute, the lack of free speech in academia, the horror of bad seminars, the 10-year Rosetta mission landing Philae on a comet, the astounding number of proteins in testes, incorrect childhood assumptions about making and delivering babies, financial advice from Andy, the investment book A Random Walk Down Wall Street, our dwindling helium supply due to party balloons, rapidly evolving Floridian lizards, a great Johnny Carson biography, height classes in basketball leagues, why women and men don't play darts together, evolution misconceptions, homosexuality correlation among identical twins and the p

British comic par excellence Holly Walsh (twitter.com/wiggywalsh) joins the proceedings this week to talk with Matt, Andy and Jesse about British podcasting wigs, courtroom caricature artists, a dog that looks like Frederick Douglass, bum-to-bum golden retriever humping, the Pope's bold stance on evolution and the Big Bang, Matt's Bloodhound Gang fandom, Pussy energy drink, the love hormone that controls sexual behavior in mice, the science of blue balls, oxytocin parties, pheromone parties, Jesse's Nearderthal roots, a recently identified fragment of Amelia Earhart's plane, New Order vs. Joy Division, chopping the arachnophobia out of a man's brain, the tragic crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, celebrity space tourists, weightlessness vs. a lack of gravity and a dinosaur with giant, hairy arms. 

Time-traveling Aussie comedy phenom, TOFOP host and all around great guy Wil Anderson returns to the show on a spooky Halloween week to talk with the gang about: Bungee jumping pranks! Grown-ass adults who believe in ghosts! Presidents lying about their religion! Wil being sent back from the future to save this podcast! The depressingly high percentages of Americans who believe in haunted houses, Atlantis and Bigfoot! Seatbelt conspiracy theorists! Incorrect bible quotes in We Are The World! The Antares rocket blows up! CubeSats! There can be only one Highlander movie! Old topical jokes! Matt gets fooled by a fake haunted house corpse story! The origin of copulation! Penis-measuring injuries! More info on cold pasta and the retrogradation of starches! Relieving your boredom with electrical shocks! Cola-flavored genitals! The surprisingly healthy gums of ancient Romans!

Comedy and music virtuoso Henry Phillips (twitter.com/HenLips) visits with Matt, Jesse and Andy on the heels of recording his upcoming Netflix special to talk about: Bad comedy introductions! Walking miracles! Being an awkwardness magnet! Elvis fandom! Physics and free will! Listener theme songs! Guitar worship! Disrespecting the legacy of Eddie Van Halen! Revisionist comedy and music history! The awesomeness of Jellyfish! Reheated pasta may be less fattening! Henry's Kitchen! The music of Jose Suicidio! How cooking videos capture your attention! The G-spot doesn't exist! Jesse is responsible for every wet dream! The allure of a stranger's breasts! Nudism and boners! Yawning isn't contagious for autistic people! Spiders burrowing through appendectomy scars! A puppy-sized spider! The closing of the Cat & Fiddle! Accidentally wearing a Morrissey shirt! Henry's Netflix special! Henry's hilarious film Punching the Clown and its upcoming sequel!

Saturday Night Live/Mad TV Alum Jeff Richards (tastyjeff.com) pops in to talk to Andy and Jesse about: Why school sucks! Freddie Mercury's jacket! Lost cities revealed by lasers! Crystals that let us breathe underwater! Facebook's experimenting apology! Silence of the Lambs impressions... a lot of them! Why fat guys are better lovers! Stu's attempts at home improvement! Lab-grown genitals!

Colonel Chris Hadfield (twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield) is a highly decorated Canadian astronaut, test pilot, engineer and former commander of the Internation Space Station, and on his most most recent mission became famous for his thousands of photographs and hundreds of videos shot on the ISS, including a music video cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity that has been viewed hundreds of millions of times. Matt, Jesse and Andy were honored to be able to talk with Col. Hadfield about his experiences in the space program and his books An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth and You Are Here.

Visit lapodfest.com/live to watch the video archive of this episode and dozens of other podcasts and panels recorded live at LA PodFest and use the offer code "science" for $5 off. You can also visit probablyscience.com for more background on the show and email questions, corrections and story suggestions to probablyscience@gmail.com. This week's episode was recorded live from the third annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival, where Matt, Jesse and Andy welcomed musician/comedian/actor/skeptic Tim Minchin and bonobo expert/Darwinian feminist Dr. Amy Parish to the program to talk about: Probably Science T-Shirts! Mini Queen! Fixed-gear microphones! Honorary degrees! Dr. Bill Cosby! Embarrassingly valeting your Saturn at Sofitel Beverly Hills! Bonobos as a model for human feminism! DIY OB/GYNs! Soap opera-obsessed apes! Primates who get mad at unfairness! Swollen bonobo genitals! Matriarchies in nature! Social constructs of gender! Not telling your friends your baby's gender! Darwin's interesting views of females!

Returning guest Jordan Morris (twitter.com/Jordan_Morris) of Jordan, Jesse, Go! and @midnight fame joins Matt, Jesse and Andy this week to share stories about Burning Man and to pick the brain of Caltech computer scientist Dr. Matt Faulkner, who built an insanely awesome musically controlled Tesla Coil at this year's burn. Topics discussed include: Deciduous breasts! Googling with Bing! Lying about your Burning Man car rental! Refilling your pudding phallus! Dollywood! Eighty-dollar car washes! Camp HeartNSoul! Safety third! Naked people everywhere! Unbearable levels of EDM! The sweet release of Thunderdome heavy metal! Showing your cock to get a snowcone! Tesla coil hobbyists! How to create duophonic music with lightning! Angering the gods with technology! Electrical storms in the desert! Machine learning and distributive systems! The Phage camp in The Institute village! Picking up your transformer at the railyard! Two-Bit Circus and the Steam Carnival! Dr. Brainlove! Welding while listening to Rush! Algebra

British comedy phenom Roisin Conaty (twitter.com/roisinconaty) joins Matt, Jesse and Andy this week to talk about: The oppressive Los Angeles heatwave! Bits and bobs! The vastly underrated music of Cheap Trick! An amazing listener-created theme song! Send us your space questions for an upcoming guest! Growing up believing eyelashes were autonomous organisms! The Forer Effect explaining how psychics and astrology dupe people! Using psychedelic mushrooms to quit smoking! A woman with no cerebellum! Scorpions that live in your books and have weird sex! A decades-old fetus found inside a woman's abdomen! Jurassic squirrels! Andy's high school water polo teammate Andrew WK! The benefits of having your baby sleep on a sexy animal fur! Skipping breakfast might be correlated with diabetes! Off-brand Halloween costumes! Superfluid helium vortices! What's the greatest invention of all time? The LA Podcast Festival!

Rising comedy star and pride of Scotland Daniel Sloss (twitter.com/Daniel_Sloss) returns to the show to chat with Andy, Jesse and Matt about: Bill Nye's comedy roots! Daniel's mother's Twitter activity (twitter.com/drles)! Semen's state of matter! The Jack The Ripper story everyone's talking about! Extreme haunted houses! Brain-to-brain communication! A testicular meeting of the minds! The purpose of monocles! The surprisingly early invention of telegraphy! Fake Victorian robot Boilerplate! A newly discovered dinosaur that's heavier than a 747! Buzz Lightyear's Flying Tossers! Pedo-tumors! Deep-sea mushrooms that defy classification! Andy and Jesse's roommate wants the new, hip psychedelic drug! The ash that'll cover us all when Yellowstone blows! An amazing new video of a volcanic shockwave!

Comedian/writer/producer Bethany Dwyer (twitter.com/BethanyDwyer) joins Matt, Andy and Jesse this week to talk about: Internet indignation over leaked celeb nudes! Burning Man stories! A moment of silence for the dead space geckos! Self-love in space! The effects of breastfeeding on depression! Dead stars reigniting! Solving the paradoxes caused by traveling back in time! Getting angry at time-travel movies! Happy beginnings on massages! Nurses who care get burned out faster! Peeing in the yard! The language of deceit that tips you off to scientific fraud!

Matt is back from his travels abroad, and he welcomes British writer/actor/producer Adrian Poynton (twitter.com/AdrianPoynton) to the podcast to talk about: The listener-made country/western re-imagining of the ProbSci theme! Getting kicked out of chemistry class! A pseudo-scientific look at the history of shoe sizes! Secret codes for elevators! Salmon cannons! Right-wing Internet comments! Getting your body freeze-dried! Jesse's naked haircut! The effect of exercise on pain tolerance! A study of British bum sex! Capturing audio from silent videos of bags of chips! Luring audience members to your hotel room!

Actress, Who Charted? host and documentary director Kulap Vilaysack (twitter.com/kulap) joins returning guest Mark Agee (twitter.com/markagee) to talk with Andy and Jesse about: Andy's Burning Man address (it's 5:30 and A)! The fact that no one knows about this podcast! Comic book jocks! Discovering your parents aren't who you thought they were! Kulap's upcoming documentary Origin Story (originstorydoc.com)! The Laotian Civil War! Bo penh nyang! Dealing with gambling addiction in your family! Bacteria that survive on electricity! Repeating previous stories on the podcast! Female snakes that save sperm for later! Jesse and Andy's awful attempts at Australian accents! Hack comedians doing Robin Leach impressions! How many dogs could you defeat? Removing 232 teeth from an Indian boy's head! Kulap's DC Comics alter-ego Katharsis! Studying the best way to avoid urine splashback! Jesse's ball problems! Squatting toilets! Letting your kids eat things off the floor! No one lets their kids walk home from school anymor

Comedian/actor Matt Champagne (twitter.com/remainchampagne) and frequent ProbSci guest Auggie Smith (twitter.com/auggiesmith) join Jesse and Andy this week for a somewhat somber episode remembering the great Robin Williams before getting into discussions about: Jesse's tiki music obsession! Harry Potter corrections! Blair Witch Project disappointments! Kilobots! Vibrating football games! An impossible space engine! The magic of Guido Fetta! The solar storm that almost rocked our world two years ago! A tick bite that makes you allergic to meat! Jesse and Auggie's groin issues!