Probably Science

Star of Doctor Who and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Karen Gillan (twitter.com/KarenGillan2) joins Matt, Andy and Jesse this week to talk about: Being on the cusp of superstardom! Andy and Jesse's rat problem! Growing up as a Scottish serf! The parade of bad accents! Kaisers of the Cosmos! Dealing with nerdy fans! Criticizing the physics of the movie Gravity! Closed captioning for grandparents! Alfred Nobel's personal ad! Karen's Carmina Burana funeral plans! This year's Nobel Prize winners! What's your go-to charity? Karen's freshly shaven head! Fruit bat fellatio! Androgen-insensitive supermodels! Parents tracking your career via Google! Metallic 3D printing! Karen's Twitter nemesis!

This week's episode comes to you from the second annual LA Podcast Festival (lapodfest.com), with Matt and Andy welcoming Rhys Darby of Flight of the Conchords and Brandon Fibbs of New Race For Space and the reboot of Cosmos, to discuss: An explanation of winglets! Rhys's knowledge of Morse Code! The technological prowess of the New Zealand Army! The Cryptid Factor podcast! Sea serpents: The guardians of Atlantis! Rhys Darby: Sasquatch Whisperer! The upcoming return of Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson! Elon Musk's Mars plans! Space sex! Astronaut reality shows! Harvesting Helium-3 from the moon! Space lawyers! Giving birth in space! New Zealand's lack of awesome Australian animals! The intricacies of the Welsh language! Rhys sells the audience some raffle tickets!

Matt, Andy and Jesse welcome podcasting pioneers Keith Malley and Chemda of Keith and The Girl fame to the show this week, covering a variety of topics including: Brooks's debut performance on SNL! The LA Podcast Festival! The wild west days of podcasting! Fan tattoos! Peter McGraw's upcoming Humor Code book! Estranged parents! What is clean comedy? The perfect musical ending to Breaking Bad! Having an intern clean the DNA off of your keyboard! Messing up the scientific studies of KATG! The hellscape that is Yahoo Answers! Monkeys that whisper! The government shutdown! Matt's perpetually happy face! The progression of British street youth! Jesse's undercover genius! Tomato/potato hybrids! The new ProbSci logo courtesy of Sally Grosart! Mastering self-pleasure in 10,000 hours! Jesse helps Stu buy a computer! Post-menopausal babies! Dancing with Buzz Aldrin and Bill Nye! The Apollo 11 contingency speech!

It's sports week here at Probably Science HQ, as Matt and Andy welcome to the show Sports Illustrated journalist and author of The Sports Gene David Epstein, as well as comedian Paul Morrissey, who played and coached college basketball, to dig into the meaty topics that David's excellent books discusses, including: Major league hitters who can't touch a 60mph softball! Being a short, white hustler at Venice Beach pickup basketball games! The excellence of Jamaican sprinters and Kalenjin distance runners! Being compared to Jimmy the Greek! What other sports could Lebron James have played? The anatomy of great pitchers! Getting critiqued by Malcolm Gladwell! Debunking the 10,000 hour rule! The genetics of wanting to train hard! The link between elite athletes and ADHD! The dangers of all-male stock trading! Andy's swimming career! The heart condition that claims the lives of many athletes! David's training advice for Matt!

Matt, Andy and Jesse welcome paleontology PhD candidate Kathleen Ritterbush to the show this week to discuss: Being the third man on The Dating Game! Roommate update: Stu's birthday is 9/11! Falling for the testicle-biting fish hoax! PhD superstitions and paperwork! Using fossils to determine skin and hair color! Teaching science to a boatload of evangelical kids! Thinking dinosaurs and humans coexisted! Paleontologists with Indiana Jones props! Kathleen comes bearing gifts of fossils! How fossils form! Chambered nautilus: The first submarine? The near-extinction of the amenites! What do we learn about marine ecology from mass extinctions? Studying the hydrodynamics of shells! Figuring out if you're looking at the fossil of a sponge! The bad science in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening! Jesse gets compared to a schlubby squid! Cephalopod cosplay! Getting your wedding ring made out of snail fossils! 

Matt and Andy are back together this week, welcoming British writer/comedian Humphrey Ker (twitter.com/thehumphreyker) and American writer/comedian Bryan Cook (twitter.com/bryancooking) on the program to discuss: Going on strike against Joan Rivers! Fallacious labor dispute arguments! The hilarious Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction show! Moving someone else's hand with your mind! Swedish fish -- not the candy ones, the testicle-biting ones! The Sharknado finale! Asylum movies! Andy's summer adventures with fleas and nearly dead roommates! Being able to listen to and/or tune out your spouse's voice! The curse of having a posh accent! British comedians learning to ski! Attributing Hitler quotes to Taylor Swift! The new Kit Kat-named Android OS! American Gladiators! A lengthy explanation of pantomimes!

Matt's still out of the country, but luckily he was able to record a remote episode with the very funny Nick Doody (twitter.com/nickdoody), his co-writer on the BBC Radio show Bigipedia. We'll be back soon with more new episodes!

Matt's been in the UK and Andy's been in Portland, so rather than leave the audience twisting in the wind for a few weeks, they decided to record some remote bonus interviews. These weren't supposed to be very science-y, but in the course of talking with Jesse Case, Dr. Richard Flower, Dr. Anna Collu, Jeff Mounts and Emily Mounts, the discussions actually ended up having a fair amount of legitimate science, and a bit of history as well. Keep your standards low, and enjoy!

Hank Thompson is a comedian and producer at The Young Turks (youtube.com/TYTComedy), and his brother Dr. Chris Thompson is a post-doctoral fellow at Scripps Research Institute in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience. This powerful comedy/science sibling duo join Matt and Andy this week to discuss: Sibling rivalry! Vocal communication in animals! Learned vocalization! Dolphins who know their own names! Inverted commas! Everything you ever wanted to know about songbirds! Chicago ladies! 3D syrinx models! Burning out parts of bird brains! Terrible Hunger Games writing! Taxi drivers' enlarged hippocampi! Axons, neurons, dendrites and synapses! The effect of Prozac on birds' songs! Getting harrassed by amateur birders! Albino African clawed frogs! Inheriting the chess team captain crown! Andy's upcoming 1,000-mile road trip with a Belgian stranger! The Jimmy Dore Show on TYT Comedy!

Theoretical cosmologist at Caltech, author and blogger Dr. Sean M. Carroll invited Matt and Andy to his Pasadena office this week to lend some insight into his areas of expertise, including: Being the house cosmologist on a paleontologogical dig! Dark matter! Defying what you thought you knew about the conservation of energy! The fixed density of dark energy! What happens a quadrillion years from now! Boltzmann brains! You might not have existed before this very instant! The arrow of time! Entropy! The second law of thermodynamics! We are the creamy tendrils in a universal cup of coffee! Consulting on movies like Thor and Tron: Legacy! Imposing boundaries on superheroes! Another blow to new age-y quantum BS! Multiple universes!

Comedian Virginia Jones (twitter.com/badiniadones) made a name for herself in Portland before heading to Los Angeles, and she joins fellow Portland transplant Auggie Smith (twitter.com/auggiesmith) this week to help Matt and Andy dive headfirst into: More vegan goth discussion! Punctuating your punchlines! The world's worst comedy show sound guy! A stranger interrupts the show to take a shower! Academic decathlons! Virginia and Andy's trivia prowess! Making things levitate using sound waves! The Flaming Lips parking lot experiment! Is Brooks a hickster? A blue planet that rains glass! David Bowie's waist size! The Hot Jupiters dance troupe! Controlling stem cells with magnets! A new Neptune moon!

San Francisco-based comedian Colleen Watson (@colleen_watson) and Portland-based festival producer/podcaster Charlene Conley (@PatiohPatino) herald Matt's triumphant return from Convergence Con, digging into meaty topics including: The vegan/goth Venn diagram overlap! Portland-based Sasquatch clubs! Choosing to major in biopsychology to spite an ex-boyfriend! Hoods in the woods! Married guys have less AIDS! High-definition porn: Too much definition! Cutlery's affect on perceived flavor! Pineapple and cheese hedgehogs! Charlene's psychic family history! Making igloos! Sharknado! More dolphin rape talk! Marrying buildings! Unlimited teeth for future humans! 3D printing a rocket engine injector! The bullshit time travel rules of the Terminator franchise! 

Matt Kirshen takes Probably Science on the road this week for a live taping at Convergence Con (convergence-con.org) featuring The Physics of Superheroes' own Dr. James Kakalios, Minneapolis comedian Tommy Ryman (@tommyryman) and Dan Schlissel from Stand Up Records (@StandUpRecords). Dr. Jim is a professor of experimental physics at the University of Minnesota, and was both a scientific consultant, and a DVD extra feature on the Watchmen movie. This week's episode gets into superconductors, solid state physics, things with "nano" in the title, telescopic eyes, quantum computing, and how to transport science on a boat.

Comedian and Emmy-nominated writer David Angelo (twitter.com/dwangelo) made a name for himself on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon before moving out west in 2012, and he joins Matt, Andy and Jesse Case this week to discuss: Fiscal responsibility! eEconomics! Apprenticing as a sandwich artist! Martial arts legend Benny The Jet Urquidez! Yngwie Malmsteen! The effects of light and darkness on cabbage! Curing cancer! A listener microwaves grapes! Science advances courtesy of Denny's! Traveling to Mars via nuclear propulsion! The social contagion of applause! Playing remedial viola! Dick Bright's SRO! Andy and Jesse's roommate writes a screenplay! Andy's jury duty! Advencements in wooden batteries! David gets out of a ticket using a photo of his doppelganger!

Theoretical physicist, author and Barnard College of Columbia University professor Janna Levin (jannalevin.com) invited Matt and Andy to her temporary Venice home where she resides while working at Caltech, and she helped this installment of Probably Science have perhaps the most actual science of any episode yet, delving into: Andy's house troubles! The mathematical basis of theoretical physics! Einstein's explanation of Mercury's odd orbit! Black holes orbiting in three-leaf clovers! Building a device to detect the sounds of oscillating space-time! Black holes banging on the drum of space! Trying to wrap your head around what's actually in a black hole! An explanation of Hawking radiation! Tooling on the pseudo-science movie What The Bleep Do We Know! Chalkboards vs. whiteboards! Andy finally (sort of) understanding relativity! How a black hole could theoretically evaporate! The Large Hadron Collider: Nothing to worry about! The music of Warren Malone! Janna's Moth talk!

Probably Science prodigal son Brooks Wheelan is back! It's been too long, but the Matt-Andy-Brooks triumvirate has reformed, at least for an episode, to get to the bottom of: Apple Records! Hipster Zunes! What Brooks will steal from your awful party! Craig's newfound fame! A Probably Science ripoff! The new Journey singer! Brooks getting a motorcycle! Brooks's ProbSci Rumspringa! Woolly mammoth blood! How much does North Korea really believe? Cockroaches getting too smart for our tricks! Jon Bon Jovi makes an appearance! Light shows with microwaved grapes! Seratonin's impact on sexual preference! Charles Dorner's Hangover manifesto shoutout! Too much radiation to go to Mars! Motion sickness in space! Smarter people don't pick up things in the background! Would you give up intelligence for happiness? Cheating with beta-blockers! Brooks on Adam Devine's House Party! Camping in Joshua Tree!

You can see the hilarious Rory Scovel (twitter.com/roryscovel) on the upcoming TBS comedy Ground Floor, and he joins Matt, Andy and Jesse this week to discuss: Amazon pilots! Small towns with character! Eating in silence! The secret lives of parents! Live-streaming improvised standup! More mosquito news! Saving a baby with a 3D printer! Using avatars to shut up the voices in your head! People with bendy chimp feet! Creepy barefoot pictures of Brice Beckham! Measuring almost absolute zero! Playing guitar while getting brain surgery!

Probably History is back! Jesse Case (twitter.com/jessecase) welcomes Andy Wood (twitter.com/andytwood), Richard Bain (twitter.com/dickbain), Matt Kirshen (twitter.com/mattkirshen) and special guest comedian/sociologist Pat Reilly (twitter.com/reallypatreilly) to take a look at the infamous House of Borgia, the Renaissance family that brought us Pope Alexander VI, incest, murder and the Banquet of Chestnuts!

Matt and Andy go on location to the campus of Caltech this week to welcome PhD candidates, actors (phdmovie.com) and science communicators (phdcomics.com/tv) Crystal Dilworth (twitter.com/PolycrystalhD) and Alexandra Lockwood (twitter.com/AlexCLockwood) to the show, delving into: Dancers moonlighting as scientists! The myth of tryptophan! Preferential treatment for doctors and lords! Penguins getting knighted in Denmark! The PhD Movie! More 3D printer talk! Staring at the night sky! How to search for exoplanets! Hot Jupiters! Requiem for the Kepler telescope! The military importance of figuring out Earth's spherical harmonics! Shocking people's brains to make them better at math! How a damaged brain repairs itself! Male strippers: Turn-on or source of comedy? Empathetic enjoyment of lesbian porn! One-eyed enervation! Why kids make dumb choices! Babies like eyes that are far apart! Malaria mosquitoes are more attracted to humans! Defending your dissertation!

You've seen the very funny John Roy on Conan, Leno and Ferguson, and he joins Matt, Andy and Jesse this week to discuss: Daft Punk's new album! Edmonton's giant mall! Waterslides and skydiving! Tweets from space! Guided By Voices on Mars! Height inflation in professional wrestling! Youtube and Wikipedia holes! 480,000,000 needles in space! An explanation of orbits! Space insanity! The military efforts of Archimedes! Our favorite listener's penis! A working cocaine vaccine! The mystery of the Stevie Nicks coke urban legend! Polio vaccines that create more polio! Chicken pox parties: Bad idea! Human ancestors who couldn't hear well! Juggalo scientists! Soup-conducting hos! An affordable 3D printer! Maron in Space!