Episode 145 with Janet Varney!

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Episode 145 with Janet Varney!

December 22, 2014

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.

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Episode 144 with Dr. Christina Campbell!

December 15, 2014

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.

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Episode 143 with Mike Phirman!

December 8, 2014

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 millennial 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.

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Episode 142 with Alison Haislip!

December 2, 2014

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, 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, 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, the movie about the Enumclaw sex farm, and storing 5.5 petabits of data in a single gram of DNA.

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Episode 141 with Michael Kosta!

November 25, 2014

It's time for the first installment of the 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.

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Episode 140 with Emily Gordon!

November 18, 2014

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, 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 appearing in an upcoming movie, schizophrenia actually being eight different disorders, dating the person in front of you, algae that makes us idiots, 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, Jesse and Andy's counseling breakthrough, working with your spouse, the video game nostalgia of Ready Player One, and game recommendations including Splatoon, Unfinished Swan and Spirits.

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Episode 139 with Tim Lee!

November 12, 2014

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, 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, why women and men don't play darts together, evolution misconceptions, homosexuality correlation among identical twins and the podcast's recent spike in German listenership.

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Episode 138 with Holly Walsh!

November 5, 2014

British comic par excellence Holly Walsh joins the proceedings this week to talk with Matt, Andy and Jesse about British podcasting wigs, courtroom caricature artists, 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 Neanderthal 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.

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Episode 137 with TOFOP's Wil Anderson!

October 29, 2014

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 being sent back from the future to save this podcast, the depressingly high percentage of Americans who believe in haunted houses, incorrect bible quotes in We Are The World, the Antares rocket that just blew up, the magic of CubeSats, a fake haunted house corpse story that fooled Matt, the origin of copulation, more info on cold pasta, relieving your boredom with electrical shocks, cola-flavored genitals and the surprisingly healthy gums of ancient Romans.

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Episode 136 with Henry Phillips!

October 21, 2014

Comedy and music virtuoso Henry Phillips visits with Matt, Jesse and Andy on the heels of recording his upcoming Netflix special to talk about bad comedy introductions, walking miracles, Elvis fandom, physics and free will, guitar worship, the awesomeness of the band Jellyfish, why reheated pasta may be less fattening, the hilarious web series Henry's Kitchen and You And Your Fu*king Coffee, the music of Jose Suicidio, the debate over the G-spot's existence, why yawning isn't contagious for autistic people, spiders burrowing through appendectomy scars, a puppy-sized spider, the closing of the Cat & Fiddle, Henry's great film Punching the Clown (viewable for free on Hulu) and its upcoming sequel.

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Episode 135 with Jeff Richards!

October 16, 2014

Saturday Night Live/Mad TV alum Jeff Richards pops in to talk to Andy and Jesse about why school sucks, the book that got Andy into science, the book that got Jesse into history, Freddie Mercury's jacket, lost cities revealed by lasers, crystals that let us breathe underwater, Facebook's apology for manipulating our emotions, Silence of the Lambs impressions, why fat guys make better lovers, Stu's attempts at home improvement, lab-grown genitals and JDate commercials.

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Episode 134 with Astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield!

October 8, 2014

They don't get much more badass than Colonel Chris Hadfield. A highly decorated test pilot and fighter pilot, engineer and astronaut who was the first Canadian to walk in space, not to mention command the International Space Station, Col. Hadfield captured the public's imagination with the incredible photographs and videos he shot while on orbit covering topics ranging from recycling water in space, wringing out a wet towel in microgravity and making a sandwich on ISS. The music video cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" that he shot during his mission has been viewed hundreds of millions of times. After a brief chat about the history of space exploration and Andy's time at Space Camp, Col. Hadfield was generous enough to talk with Matt, Andy and Jesse about his amazing career and his books An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth and You Are Here.

Click here to purchase access to the video archive of the LA Podcast Festival and use coupon code "science" for a $5 discount

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Episode 133 with Tim Minchin and Dr. Amy Parish live from LA PodFest!

October 1, 2014

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/primatologist/Darwinian feminist Dr. Amy Parish to the program to talk about Mini Queen, honorary degrees, fixed-gear microphones, bonobos as a model for human feminism, DIY OB/GYNs, soap opera-obsessed apes, primates that get mad at unfairness, matriarchies in nature, the purpose of the female orgasm, keeping your baby's gender secret, animals that mate face-to-face, female bonobos ganging up on males, and World Vasectomy Day.

Click here to purchase tickets to attend the LA Podcast Festival and see Probably Science live with TIM MINCHIN on Sunday, September 28th!

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Episode 132 - Burning Man with Jordan Morris and Dr. Matt Faulkner!

September 23, 2014

Returning Probably Science guest 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 for this year's burn:

Topics discussed include deciduous breasts, Googling with Bing, lying about your Burning Man car rental, refilling your pudding phallus, $80 car washes, Camp HeartNSoul, "safety third," naked people everywhere, unbearable levels of EDM, the sweet release of Thunderdome heavy metal, showing your penis to get a snow-cone, 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, picking up your transformer at the railyard, the upcoming Steam Carnival put on by LA-based technology and entertainment collective Two Bit Circus, Dr. Brainlove and, of course, welding while listening to Rush.

Click here to purchase access to the live video stream of the LA Podcast Festival and use coupon code "science" for a $5 discount

Click here to purchase tickets to attend the LA Podcast Festival

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Episode 131 with Roisin Conaty!

September 16, 2014

British comedy phenom Roisin Conaty joins Matt, Jesse and Andy this week to talk about the oppressive Los Angeles heatwave, the vastly underrated music of Cheap Trick, 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, the possible link between skipping breakfast and diabetes, unlicensed Halloween costumes and superfluid helium vortices.

Click here to purchase access to the live video stream of the LA Podcast Festival and use coupon code "science" for a $5 discount

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