Sign in
Comedy
Andy Wood, Matt Kirshen
Professional comedians with so-so STEM pedigrees take you through this week in science. Incompetently. Featuring hosts Matt Kirshen, Andy Wood (and sometimes Jesse Case or Brooks Wheelan) along with a rotating cast of special guests from the worlds of comedy and science.
Episode 157 - Robin Ince and Brian Cox
Comedian/actor/writer Robin Ince (@robinince) and physicist/host/musician Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox), both of BBC Radio's The Infinite Monkey Cage, were kind enough to sit down with Matt and Jesse while they were stateside for a recent live performance, discussing David Lynch's America, why the queen is common, Alzheimer's being treated by ultrasound, Brian's pop group D:Ream, the silliness of What The Bleep Do We Know!?, NPR's survey of great podcast episodes, The EPR Paradox, manifest causality in quantum field theory, the Large Hadron Collider reboot, Brian's upcoming BBC television show Forces of Nature, being wrongfully accused of arson, Andy's obsession with The Jinx and The Staircase, getting to perform with Eric Idle and ELO's Jeff Lynne and Andy's anger about the success of the Matt and Jesse episode.
01:15:1625/03/2015
Episode 156 - Sara Schaefer
Comedian and host of Nikki & Sara Live Sara Schaefer (@saraschaefer1) joins the proceedings this week to talk about her debut album Chrysalis, denim facts, David Attenborough, phony pheromones, why adolescents are dumber, old nana orcas who help the pod, time travel plans and 9/11 tales, head transplants, Tiki bars, average penis size and the labia library.
01:30:1410/03/2015
Episode 155 - Laraine Newman
Original SNL cast member and founding member of The Groundlings Laraine Newman (@larainenewman) joins the show this week to tell tales of the early days of Saturday Night Live, not to mention her myriad voice acting roles, smoking mimes, Tiki pioneers, teachers with wet lower lips, Dan Aykroyd's house, SNL40, frog dissection and horror movies, spider painkillers, worms that crawl in and out, ancient twins, DNA-rendered faces, Subway Jared sightings, coffee and MS, and Delancey Place.
01:20:5409/03/2015
Episode 154 - Brooks Wheelan Returns
Original Probably Science co-host Brooks Wheelan (@brookswheelan) returns to the show after spending a year on Saturday Night Live, not to mention appearing on Girls, Conan, and Late Night with Seth Meyers, to give the inside scoop on what it's like to join the cast of the most iconic sketch comedy series ever, RHCP tattoos, Terry Crews and David Prowse, handshake-smelling, Juggalos and tattoo removal creams, bird strikes, New York stories, Brooks's new album, why bubbles don't spill, the shovel video and urban legends about celebrity stomach-pumpings.
01:36:0503/03/2015
Episode 153 - Nikki Glaser
Nikki Glaser (@nikkiglaser) of Nikki & Sara Live!, Conan, @midnight, I Am Comic and much more joins Matt, Andy and Jesse this week to talk about her love of ASMR, the threat of peak phosphorus, gerbils and rats and plagues, oh my!, Genghis Khan, NYC subway deaths, cheating fingers, parasitic zombie wasp beetles, naughty aphids ruining symbiosis for everyone, light slowed down, a teaser announcement about the Bridgetown Comedy Festival and the recently re-launched LA PodFest Podcast.
01:51:3725/02/2015
Episode 152 - Barry Castagnola
British comedian and actor Barry Castagnola (@BarryCastagnola) joins Jesse, Andy and Matt to discuss Midwest cold, royal warrants and drugs, Mick Jagger, chicks and number lines, lefthanded people, musicians and music stands, mudsharks and Who jackets, rodents of unusual size with giant teeth, high-speed lasers that can see molecules, an even larger reboot of the Large Hadron Collider, the doomsday list, a new Earthlike planet and TV apologies.
01:38:4518/02/2015
Episode 151 - Jackie Gold
Comedian Jackie Gold (@iamjackiegold) joins the crew this week to talk about Barbie dolls, Jackie's genetics, pheromone parties, Broken Heart Syndrome, over-the-counter meds linked to dementia, Matt's fake foreign accent, bad BICEP/good BICEP, UK lawmakers approving three-parent babies and how exactly those are made, and the wonders of J-Date.
01:16:4812/02/2015
Episode 150 - Todd Glass
Comedy legend, podcasting pioneer and author Todd Glass (@ToddGlass) helps Andy, Matt and Jesse celebrate the 150th episode and the new identities they’ve been assigned by discussing stalagmites and stalactites, Jesus painting restoration, anonymous donors, a guy with endless déjà vu, ketamine and anesthetics, boners and massages, bouncing water, sex education, unboiling an egg, getting paid to donate your poo, hookworms vs. gluten, wiping vs. bidets, Gaye vs. Thicke, and why you shouldn't hit your kids.
02:03:0504/02/2015
Episode 149 - Patrick Keane
Former psychology major and tight end-turned-comedian Patrick Keane joins the proceedings this week to talk with Jesse, Andy and Matt about Chinese diaper trains, Wims and Pims, the video of Stefan Pop's visit to Bluebell Ranch, celebrity photographs and autographs, snow shoveling and heart attacks, polar bear wangs and pollution, some annoying truth-stretching in The Imitation Game, Alan Turing stories from the first and fifth episodes of Probably Science, Jesse's squirting update, listener Anderson Jones's recently published paper, PTSD in the ancient world, false crime memories, finding the space Beagle, the speech Nixon would have given if the moon landing had gone wrong and Patrick's adventure chaffeuring Buzz Aldrin around town.
01:44:2826/01/2015
Episode 148 - Tone Bell
Television's Tone Bell finally makes his Probably Science debut this week to help the gang with topics including Ted Bundy's jello woes, Tone's cat restructuring, a punk rock Joe Strummer snail, weird shipwreck metal, ancient milk drinking, how Facebook likes can predict personality, ketamine's depression uses, Andy's Uber/Lyft tales, an unbeatable poker computer and things Jesse would do for $500,000.
01:36:4614/01/2015
Episode 147 - Gareth Reynolds
Comedian and co-host of The Dollop Gareth Reynolds joins Jesse, Andy and Matt this week to talk about Hollywood tourists, Gareth's important moss experiments, airborne farts, the point of the narwhal's point, an antibiotic breakthrough, what self-tickling tells us about brains, materiAl vs. materiEl, why lady jizz ain't jizz, why lady jizz may in fact be jizz, HIV getting milder and Native American art.
01:33:5113/01/2015
Episode 146 - The Gang Returns
Matt, Jesse and Andy haven't seen each other in about a month, so this week's episode is a guest-free chance for everyone to catch up on each other's December goings-on, including Andy's Nicaraguan war stories and Jesse's bro-lesque competition, along with updates on SpaceX's aborted launch, Elon Musk's Reddit AMA, a British effort to send a probe to the moon (and how you can add your DNA to the mission), the slurred singing of drunk birds, the complexity of music as it relates to popularity, carnie scams and whether or not Earth's water came from comets.
01:28:2508/01/2015
Holiday Bonus Episode with Jesse and Lizard Case
The ProbSci gang aren't all back in town together just yet, so to hold you over until our next new episode, please enjoy Jesse's interview with Lizard Case, a Nashville songwriter and tavern proprietor who also happens to be his father. Happy New Year!
42:0001/01/2015
Episode 145 - Janet Varney
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.
01:42:0123/12/2014
Episode 144 - Dr. Christina Campbell
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.
01:19:0716/12/2014
Episode 143 - Mike Phirman
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.
01:22:2809/12/2014
Episode 142 - Alison Haislip
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.
01:35:3402/12/2014
Episode 141 - Michael Kosta
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.
01:18:4525/11/2014
Episode 140 - Emily Gordon
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 Splatoon, Unfinished Swan and Spirits.
01:33:3018/11/2014
Episode 139 - Tim Lee
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 podcast's recent spike in German listenership.
01:40:3312/11/2014
Episode 138 - Holly Walsh
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.
01:32:0505/11/2014
Episode 137 - TOFOP's Wil Anderson Returns
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!
01:39:3829/10/2014
Episode 136 - Henry Phillips
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!
01:30:5321/10/2014
Episode 135 - Jeff Richards
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!
01:16:5614/10/2014
Episode 134 - Astronaut and Former Commander of the ISS Colonel Chris Hadfield
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.
01:14:5808/10/2014
Episode 133 - Live from LA PodFest with Tim Minchin and bonobo expert Dr. Amy Parish
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 [email protected]. 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! Female bonobos ganging up on males! The female orgasm! Disregarding data that doesn't match your view of the world! Hiding ovulation! Animals who mate face-to-face! World Vasectomy Day!
01:34:0701/10/2014
Episode 132 - Burning Man with Jordan Morris and Dr. Matt Faulkner
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! Algebraic properties!
01:22:1923/09/2014
Episode 131 - Roisin Conaty
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!
01:43:4016/09/2014
Episode 130 - Daniel Sloss
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!
01:24:2009/09/2014
Episode 129 - Bethany Dwyer
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!
01:22:1703/09/2014
Episode 128 - Adrian Poynton
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!
01:47:0022/08/2014
Episode 127 - Kulap Vilaysack and Mark Agee
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 anymore! 11-year-old Kulap working as a waitress!
01:36:0121/08/2014
Episode 126 - Matt Champagne and Auggie Smith
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!
01:33:5116/08/2014
Episode 125 - Brent Schmidt and Zach Pugh
Up-and-coming comedians Brent Schmidt (twitter.com/IAmBrentSchmidt) and Zach Pugh (twitter.com/ZachPugh) join Jesse and Andy this week to talk about: The Pickathon music festival! More headboard talk! Growing up in Sturgis, South Dakota! Re-purposing coal mines for science! Teenage nervous breakdowns! Falling off the wagon for a podcast sponsor! Losing your religion via the Internet! When did Hogwarts abandon muggle technology? The majesty of the apparently kid! Jesse's creepy nipple text from the sleep-eating roommate! Feathered dinosaurs! Forgetting about Hiroshima! The theory of humors! Tyrannosaurs hunted in packs! Growing up in a Chik-Fil-A family! Pizza Hut grease! Thinspiration! Making your body's organs transparent! Hidden biker girly magazines!
01:30:4207/08/2014
Episode 124 - Beth Stelling
Comedian Beth Stelling (twitter.com/BethStelling) joins Matt and Andy this week for a special late-night recording in Andy's bedroom, covering: Mirrored headboards! Google's mapping of the human body! Slim Goodbody! Bats navigating via polarized light! Real 3D vs. fake 3D! Stella Luna and megabats! Gecko orgies in space! The cancer-fighting effects of cat poop! The Nobel Peace & Quiet Prize!
01:23:5029/07/2014
Episode 123 - Jordan and Ben Brady
Comedian/director Jordan Brady (iamroadcomic.com) and his rapping, backflipping son Ben join the festivities with Matt, Andy and Jesse this week to discuss: Gangta rap historians! Jordan's invention of "bow-chicka-wow-wow"! Filming I Am Comic at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival! Matt's Last Comic Standing experience! Living like a road comic! Lacerta lizard people! Pluto possibly getting reinstated as a planet! The magic of British World Cup commentators! Suspended animation for gunshot victims! Fish-eating spiders! Grolar bears! Improving your sense of smell with the help of booze! Good news and bad news about AIDS! A new way for the Chinese to extract sperm!
01:35:4322/07/2014
Episode 122 - TJ Chambers
Friend of the show and past guest TJ Chambers (twitter.com/tjchambersLA) rejoins the festivities this week to help Matt, Jesse and Andy get to the bottom of: Listener-made indie video games! Brooks news! Holland vs. The Netherlands! Delicious Lagunitas IPA! The TJs of porn! The origin of gangsta rap! Recording the podcast at the Gathering of the Juggalos! Chimpanzee fads! The short films of TJ Chambers! Bear fellatio! The origin of Winnie the Pooh! The Marginot Line! A massive ocean inside Earth! Volcano diamonds! An invisibility cloak for the sense of touch! The debatable cancer-prevention effects of farts! Testing for the seminal taste effects of pineapple! A real-world warp drive! Time tacos! What to do when traveling back in time! The upcoming Los Angeles Podcast Festival!
01:40:5418/07/2014
Probably History Episode 004 - Video Games with David Cope
Probably History is back! This week Jesse, Richard and Andy welcome the very funny David Cope (davidcope.flavors.me) to take a stab at covering over 60 years of video game history. Enjoy!
02:10:1809/07/2014
Episode 121 - Renee Gauthier and Dr. Kevin Peter Hickerson
Comedian Renee Gauthier (twitter.com/Nenegooter) and nuclear physicist/comedian Kevin Peter Hickerson (twitter.com/kphickerson) join Matt and Andy this week to talk about: Matt's inability to wink! The actual cost of going to the moon! Renee's dance lessons! Working near CERN! Studying neutrinos! Shielding your experiments with the lead from sunken Roman ships! The end of the latest season of Ridiculousness! Debunking the story about the computer that passed the Turing test! The mysterious death of Alan Turing! A massive ocean inside the earth! The tongue strength of a horned frog! Singles sites for science enthusiasts! The upcoming PhD Movie sequel (phdmovie.com)!
01:29:0001/07/2014
Episode 120 - Dr. Christopher Schmitt
Dr. Christopher Schmitt (evopropinquitous.net) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics at UCLA, and his research in primatology focuses on primate development and life history. He joins Jesse, Matt and Andy this week to talk about his high school experiences with field work in Argentina, primate infanticide, collecting howler monkey urine, capucin monkeys sticking their fingers in each others eyes to chill out, the risks of taking selfies with dead hippos when there are lions nearby, floating vegetation islands that transport animals, old world/new world ape divergence, why certain primates are getting obese, Koko the gorilla's nipple obsession, competing brands of chimp-taggin RFID chips and how to get involved in field work right where you live.
01:26:0624/06/2014
Episode 119 - Adam Buxton
British comedian, actor, writer and radio personality Adam Buxton (twitter.com/AdamBuxton) joins the proceedings this week to chat about: Messing up comedians' introductions! Sci-fi coverage of the papal inauguration! The history of the Shriners! Deciding on a uniform for an evil empire! Jaundice Shitstone! The counting skills of black bears! Whittling your fingers to type on a Blackberry! A digression on areolar Montgomery glands! Are female-named hurricanes killing more people than male-named ones? Working with Edgar Wright! Chimps beat humans at game theory! Adam's childhood tours of the USA with his travel writer father! Astronomers discover a mega-Earth 560 light years away! Jesse's incredible Rocky impressions! Adam's hilarious show Bug!
01:18:5918/06/2014
Episode 118 - Jason Nash
Comedian/podcaster/director/writer/producer/Viner Jason Nash (twitter.com/Jason23Nash) returns to the podcast this week just ahead of the release of his first feature film to talk with the gang about: Who gets credit for living at Bluebell? Jason’s Ron & Fez appearance! The upcoming movie JASON NASH IS MARRIED that Andy produced! Shooting scenes with Andy Richter and Jon Benjamin at Bluebell! Matt’s frustration with check-obsessed America! Jason’s reaction to Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover! Erasing memories and bringing them back! Explaining binary information to Jason! New research showing how sleep is good for your memory! Jason’s upcoming appearance on Funniest Wins! New information on how the Moon was formed! Would listeners contribute to help us record the podcast in zero gravity? A debate on parabolic flights! New research on why Facebook bums you out! Jesse’s decision to leave Facebook! Shitty comedy club introductions! The discovery of the largest dinosaur ever! How changing your facial expression changes first impressions!
01:35:2912/06/2014
Episode 117 - Sarah Morgan
British comedy writer Sarah Morgan (twitter.com/sarahlmorgan) found herself stateside this week for MaxFunCon and was kind enough to join Matt, Andy and Jesse to talk about: What constitutes The Holidays! Teaching British comedy! Americans rooting for bro heroes! Jesse overhearing Andy's ukulele rendition of Tiny Dancer! The lyrical prowess of Boynie Toypin! Head trauma that created a math savant! A defense of common core math! Children's natural skepticism of circular arguments! Jesse's nightmarish stuffed animals! Turning light into matter! Maybe no one knows how static electricity works! Matt chipping his teeth in a children's science museum! The protein that unites sperm and egg! Updates on male birth control! Our first on-air earthquake!
01:23:4304/06/2014
Episode 116 - Myq Kaplan
Comedian and literal master of linguistics Myq Kaplan (twitter.com/myqkaplan) joins Matt, Jesse and Andy this week to discuss: Birthday shenanigans! Plug 'n' chug! John Lennon's true assassin Stephen King! A defense of puns! Competing against a computer in a joke-off! A smartphone app that detects bipolar mood swings by the sound of your voice! Paul Simon's recent arrest! The origin of the country suffix -stan! Robot laws! Why octopuses don't stick to themselves! Holding a hot beverage makes you cooperative! Andy's continuing laptop woes! Making sperm precursors from the skin cells of infertile men!
01:04:4330/05/2014
Episode 115 - Live from Bridgetown Comedy Festival with Paul Provenza and Amber Case
Matt and Andy venture to Portland this week for a live Probably Science from the seventh annual Bridgetown Comedy Festival featuring comedian/director/actor Paul Provenza (twitter.com/PaulProvenza) and cyborg anthropologist Amber Case (twitter.com/caseorganic) who join together to discuss: Jesse's sitcom success! Confusing The Aristocrats with The Aristocats! Paul giving Dave Chappelle his first TV appearance! The Wild West days of early Comedy Central! Alan Dershowitz consulting on Kids Court! The economics of renting clowns vs. clown costumes! Why we're all actually cyborgs! Going through second-self adolescence! Computer-induced junk sleep! Andy's shocking discovery about the house he owned in Portland, aka the Gaytown Academy! Writing a thesis on cell phones! Digital hoarding! Being consumers vs. producers! Royal portraits as proto-Internet dating profile pics! People who brag about not watching TV!
01:22:0518/05/2014
Episode 114 - Matt and Jesse
Andy's in Portland, our planned guest is drunk, so Matt and Jesse fly alone on this one, as we talk about: Jesse's successes! Peeing outdoors! Hitler's disabilities! Stephen Hawking's worries! Building pyramids! Rock Paper Scissors! New elements! Nervous mice!
01:27:2307/05/2014
Episode 113 - Auggie Smith
Comedian and past Probably Science guest host Auggie Smith (twitter.com/auggiesmith) returns to the show this week, joining Matt, Andy and Jesse to talk about: Craziness in Valley Village! Listening to police scanners! Reinventing the axe! A study that reveals the best way for men to dance! Being goofy-footed! A correction about Jesse's boneless, featherless chicken! A hacky plant that copies other plants! Jesse's vast typewriter knowledge! Making graphene in a blender! Babies that cry to keep from having siblings! Prison goofs! Glow-in-the-dark roads in the Netherlands! Playing the electric shock quick reflex game!
01:18:5529/04/2014
Episode 112 - Bryan Bishop
Radio personality, author, trivia whiz and cancer survivor Bryan Bishop (twitter.com/baldbryan) joins Matt, Andy and Jesse this week to talk about his experience battling an inoperable brain tumor en route to discussing: Bryan's upcoming book Shrinkage! Tumor tips! Changing doctors! Jumprope failures as cancer symptoms! Going through chemo and radiation therapy while planning your wedding! Getting (and giving) horrible news! Deciding which douchebags get fake names in your memoir! Doctors with less-than-perfect bedside manner! Pooping yourself because of cancer! Alternative medicine and the placebo effect! The tumor-shrinking magic of Avastin! MRIs vs. CT scans! The lunacy of David Arquette! Ringo Starr songs that may have been written by George Harrison! Jesse's crazy Oasis story! Solo pub trivia victories! Taking home $100,000 on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire! The evolutionary reason why beards are over!
01:26:5722/04/2014
Episode 111 - Cara Santa Maria
Science communicator, teacher and podcaster Cara Santa Maria (twitter.com/CaraSantaMaria) lends her actual science pedigree to the proceedings this week, discussing: The Cosmos reboot! The unlikely funder of Karen Gillan's Oculus! Comparing goofy holidays! A listener's complaint about on-air eating that may relate to misophonia! Bath salts: They don't actually make you hungry for faces! Andy's first kiss being arrested for throwing a shoe at Hillary Clinton! The percentage of neurons vs. glial cells in your brain! A Cornell grad students letting a bee sting every part of his body! A generous listener hooking us up with Lagunitas beer! Growing up LDS! The puritans and their obsession with buckles! Lab-grown vaginas and edible meats! Futuristic cars without side-view mirrors!
01:48:3714/04/2014
Episode 110 - Beth Donahue
Comedian Beth Donahue (twitter.com/bdonahueweedman) recently relocated from Nashville to Los Angeles, and she joins Jesse, Matt and Andy this week to get to talk about: Finding $600 and spending it on a shirt! Red flags in the form of KISS paraphernalia! Taking four-hour acid! Using 12-step meetings to work out comedy material! Former child sitcom stars who turn to standup! The truth about the stem cell acid bath story! Carrot Top's track record with the ladies! Matt's idea for revolutionizing a plane's black box! The possibility of a topical fat-burning cream! One of Saturn's moons might have liquid water! Jesse's butt problems! Women who are night owls are big risk-takers! Beth's sleep apnea pacemaker!
01:31:4808/04/2014