Probably Science

Australian comedian/writer/performer Celia Pacquola (twitter.com/CeliaPacquola) and American comedian/writer/performer TJ Chambers (twitter.com/tjchambersLA) join Matt and Andy for a discussion of topics including: The current usefulness of Bunsen burners! The naval innovations of the Punic Wars! The asshole children of the Tetra Pak dynasty! Arizona State's party reputation! Nonsensical drinking age laws! Celia's Australian girls' school shenanigans! A brief further discussion of the Gallagher debacle! Mainlining oxygen! Defending the study of duck genitalia! A compelling case for the awesomeness of tungsten! Some asshole created a way to 3D print a gun! Forensic analysis of bullet cracks! Body farms! Firefighter arsonists! Phineas Gage and his asshole-inducing head injury! Gallagher's critique of Matt's act! Arctic foxes' death by mercury! The painted turtle that runs Big Oil!

Comedian, writer and Mr. Show alum Karen Kilgariff (twitter.com/karenkilgariff) joins returning guest and Chelsea Lately regular April Richardson (twitter.com/apey) for a Bridgetown wrap-up conversation with Andy, getting into: Brooks drinking in a park! The debacle that was the Gallagher episode! Defiantly failing chemistry! Quantum physics and Ramtha! Cheesy potatoes! First aid book illustrations! The worst emergency room story April's ever heard! Speeding up space travel with fusion! Who could you travel to Mars with? Oblivion's ripoff premise! April's obsession with guys in suits running! Andy and April fighting over Huey Lewis! Hookah pipes: Worse than cigarettes? The third-wave ska revival! Imaging an entire living brain! Would you want to live forever? April's Saved By The Bell podcast!

This week's episode was recorded live at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival (bridgetowncomedy.com) in Portland, and it's... well... it's something. Andy Wood and Matt Kirshen are still recovering from this recording, which Matt has come to call "My personal Vietnam." Peter Serafinowicz (twitter.com/serafinowicz) and Gallagher (gallaghersmash.com) joined them to discuss: James Randi! Gallagher holding court on the sidewalk! The hidden dangers of telephone poles! How to use the Internet to get smart! Al Gore-rhythms! Cutting the fat of chocolate in half! Gallagher's distaste for particle/wave duality, Cadillac trucks, spoon-forks and America's first bi-racial president! Coffee, chocolate and cocaine! Picture-winged flies dining on sperm! Earthquakes causing other earthquakes! Bridgetown's depression-based comedy! Erik the Red singlehandedly creating gingers! How stress can help red squirrels produce healthier pups! Gallagher's endorsement of dorsal breast implants! Beyonce's fake pregnancy! Gallagher's proposed dam

Comedians and Sklarbro Country hosts Randy and Jason Sklar (earwolf.com/shows/sklarbro-country) were kind enough to invite Matt and Andy over to Jason's Laurel Canyon abode for this week's episode, delving into: Keeping eagles in your basement! Randy's CERN-working nuclear physicist brother-in-law! The Lebron James of antimatter! Remembering when comedy was the hottest ticket in town! The official 1980s uniform of standup! The defense mechanisms of fans of Michigan athletics! When America was one giant Whole Foods! Scientific proof that women like broad-shouldered, large-penised men! Have we hit peak penis? The latest bird flu scare! Spending $100 million to lasso an asteroid! Jason produces a real-life space rock! Predicting people's ages based on their tweets! Gallagher's upcoming ProbSci appearance at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival! Using kidney bean leaves to trap bedbugs!

Comedians and producers/hosts of the standup show and podcast Put Your Hands Together Cameron Esposito (twitter.com/cameronesposito) and Rhea Butcher (twitter.com/rheabutcher) join Matt, Andy and Jesse to discuss: Why spittoons make a dinging noise! Daft Punk and Cyberdyne Systems! Cockney rhyming slang! Photogravure! Severing underwater Internet cables! Solving the mystery of fairy rings! The Cloud Atlas leprechaun! The purple ink of a sea hare! The bacteria that solves obesity! Waste water-induced seismic events! The Bridgetown Comedy Festival is coming up April 18-21! (visit bridgetowncomedy.com for details)

Aparna Nancherla (twitter.com/aparnapkin) is a hilarious writer and performer on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, and she sits down with Matt and Andy this week to talk about: Magnet schools! The Elgin Marbles! Wilhelm Screams and the Milgram Experiment! Frogs that give birth through their mouths! Shepard Tones! Magic Johnson's T.G.I. Friday's! Retrieving rockets from the ocean floor! Unearthing plague pits! Fox hunting! Weather-themed songs about women!

Comedian, actor and Bridgetown Comedy Festival co-founder Matt Braunger (twitter.com/braunger) makes his first Probably Science appearance, joining Matt, Andy and Jesse Case (twitter.com/jessecase) to get to the bottom of: Comedians in therapy! Misleading anthropomorphic ad animals! Filming with Civil War re-enactors! Birds evolving shorter wings to escape cars! Overfishing breeding smaller fish! New patent laws: Better start filing! Andy and Matt's inventions! ZZ Topless! Having three parents: Not as bad as everyone thought! Arnold Schwarzenegger documentaries! White rocks on Mars! Pro wrestler Philip K. Dick!

The head of Nerdist industries himself, comedian/podcaster/actor/musician/host Chris Hardwick (twitter.com/nerdist) is this week's guest, joining Matt, Andy and the returning Brooks Wheelan to discuss: The scientific study of Nicki Minaj! The dystopian future of Santa Cruz! Hoverboards! A scientific version of Trace Adkins! Bully nerds! Using iPhones to detect intestinal worms! Jury-rigging vs. jerry-rigging! Trustafarians! A new way to keep livers alive for transplantation! Talk show history! Bio-printing! Giving yourself a megahand! Hobo sapiens! Neanderthals' large eyes were their undoing! A horrifying bat-eating spider! Yet another Probably Science episode gets pre-empted by Lily Tomlin!

It's a packed house this week, with comedian Glenn Wool (twitter.com/glennwool) and songstress Lady Carol (facebook.com/theladycarolukulele) joining Auggie Smith (twitter.com/auggiesmith), Matt and Andy to talk about: Speedy deliveries from Mr. McFeely! Sniffing Bunsen burners! Auggie goes to Mike Tyson's one-man show! Screamin' Jay Hawkins and his ridiculously large brood! Whale mouth penises! The Island of Mel Gibsons! Does bee venom kill HIV? Caffeine-addicted bees! Sean Astin and the cast of ST:TNG on the same airplane! Mummies with heart conditions! Ancient wing nights! Private rockets just getting a teeny bit off the ground! The Philip K. Dick robot! Incompetent people are also unaware of their incompetence! Who wants to be president, anyway? Screamin' Jay Hawkins in space!

Comedians Mike Schmidt (twitter.com/The40YearOldBoy) and Wendy Wason (twitter.com/Wendy_Wason) join Matt and Andy this week to talk about: Testing for hairy feet! The results of Dr. Peter McGraw's E.T. experiment! Starting kitchen fires under the guise of Mr. Magic Show! Pulling your own eye in a Ziploc bag! The miraculously cured AIDS baby! Visiting a spice farm! Using poo to shield Mars mission astronauts from cosmic rays! Chimpanzees ladies pulling some Mean Girls antics! Meeting Jane Goodall! Harry Potter vs. Twilight! Herbal Viagra: Pretty much just Viagra!

After too long of an absence, Probably History returns with a lively discussion of Pompeii and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Comedian Mark Agee (twitter.com/markagee) joins Jesse Case, Andy Wood and Richard Bain to talk about life in first-century Rome, pyroclastic flows and the importance of knowing when to evacuate.

Comedian and writer Jeff Klinger (twitter.com/jeffklinger) joins Matt, Andy and Jesse this week to talk about: Malfunctioning Segways! Andy's HP laptop woes! Two-saucer setups! Expensive anatomical models! Figuring out when man's anscestors developed a tolerance for booze! Getting slightly racist about alcoholism! Stealing liquor from your parents! Matt touched living legend Buzz Aldrin! The abuses of management consulting! Jesse going to school in a white tuxedo! Curing acid reflux by clamping your esophagus! Mole penises! Space water corrections!

Comedy writer Michael James Nelson (michaeljamesnelson.com) has worked on Betty White's Off Their Rockers and many other shows in spite of the fact that as a young man he was convinced he would pursue a career in science and work on the Space Shuttle. He joins Matt, Andy and return guest Robert Buscemi this week to talk about: Magnet schools: How do they work? Growing up with multiple learning disabilities! The varying definitions of nerd-dom! The awesomeness of Betty White! Nice pranks! Last week's asteroid close-call! Fox News and their assessment of the value of space water! Drilling into the surface of Mars! Space cats! Using color patterns to search for extraterrestrial life! The bones of Richard III! The uncertainty principle demonstrated on a (somewhat) grand scale! Literal pecking orders! How to get alpha eggs at your local grocery store!

David Huntsberger (twitter.com/huntsbergerjunk) from Professor Blastoff (professorblastoff.com), a podcast that Probably Science in no way plagiarizes, joins Matt and Andy this week to discuss: Getting deputized to substitute teach under Texas educational martial law! Narrowly avoiding dating minors! Trash-talking Bear Grylls! Ill-fitting letter jackets! High school rodeo teams! The redundancy of assless chaps! Team roping! A monkey midwife! Are there more types of otters than bears? The importance of giant prime numbers! The loneliness of Google Street View team members! The uselessness of Yelp reviews! The unintentional upside of oceanic pollution!

Dr. Peter McGraw (twitter.com/petermcgraw) heads the Humor Research Lab (HuRL) at UC Boulder, and he joins Matt, Andy and returning guest Baron Vaughn (twitter.com/barvonblaq) for a special episode devoted entirely to the science of why things are funny. Peter's Benign Violation Theory is a robust, empirically testable explanation of humor in all its forms, and it's the basis of Peter and Joel Warner's upcoming book The Humor Code. For more information on Peter's work, visit humorcode.com and humorresearchlab.org.

Probably Science completes the Austin Stories trifecta this week with comedian/writer guest Laura House (twitter.com/imlaurahouse), who joins Matt and Andy in discussing: Valley celebrity encounters! Pissing off Jamie Foxx! Chili competitions! Drinking and guns! Shooting pesky mink! Russell Crowe's crappy Twitter feed! Getting an adult ego check from your parents! Making your own bullets! Detecing the dark matter all around us! Flu shots during pregnancy are safe! The history of vaccines! Vibrating steering wheels to help drunks! Trilogy's dot com-era recruiting practices! Light that travels faster than light!

Pride of Australia Wil Anderson (twitter.com/wilanderson) delivers in a big way this week as he joins Matt and Andy this week to get to the bottom of: US/Australia alliances! The unavoidable presence of Yahoo Serious! Ned Kelly's branding prowess! Ozploitation! Adding a new color to Australia's temperature charts! Climate change denial! Karl Kruszelnicki's study of belly button fluff! Being laughed at vs. being laughed with! Testing 18 molar sulfuric acid on your arm! Exploding ATVs! Fetuses need light, too! Mark McGrath's Ark! Being lonely lowers your immune system! Comedians: Braver than Navy Seals! Crustaceans can feel pain! Pubic lice becoming extinct! Getting crabs in your eyelashes!

Comedians Dan Telfer (twitter.com/dantelfer) and Hannah Gansen (twitter.com/hannahgansen) join Matt and Andy this week to chat about: Getting a fake baby at age 18! Brussel Sprouts! Bobak Ferdowski, the NASA mohawk guy! Making origami cranes as astronaut training! Shoulder hair! The tiger quoll! Blowing up dollhouses! Fingers and toes wrinkle underwater for better grip! Debunking ridiculous lessons from teachers! Sending secret messages via Skype! Ancient eye medicine!

As promised, Jesse Case (twitter.com/jessecase) brings the first installment of Probably History, in which he, Jack Robichaud (twitter.com/jackrobichaud), Richard Bain (twitter.com/dickbain) and Andy Wood (twitter.com/andytwood) discuss the history of Christmas. Enjoy, and be on the lookout for a new episode of Probably Science next week!

Matt and Brooks are still out of town, so Andy sat down with Jesse Case this week for a special holiday bonus episode that's light on science, but heavy on the discussion of World War II bunker dogs, Jelly Bellies, porn, hospice situations, home videos from the 1980s, Beatles fandom, sleep-eating roommates and failed attempts to reach subglacial lakes. Enjoy, and we'll be back soon with full episodes and maybe even some Probably History!