Probably Science

Past guest and current host of Syfy's Reactor David Huntsberger (@huntsbergerjunk) joins the proceedings to welcome a Skyped-in Jesse Case and talk about rodeo facts, the awakeness drug Provigil, buff babies, cheating in war, Chinese fire drills, Korean pears for hangovers, neanderthals' massive eyes that may or may not have caused extinction, tiny new unafraid dwarf lemurs and official Probably Science T-shirts.

Friends of the show and past guests Matt Braunger (@braunger) and Auggie Smith (@auggiesmith) return to the show to talk with Matt and Andy about Toblerone sizes, early detection cancer urine tests, shirtcocking, the EPA’s river fuck-up, arsenic and widows, why women are always cold, dumb kids and money-raising, using shade balls to protect reservoirs, the web’s too-weak random numbers, Benford’s Law, beauty myths and contagious hotness and tiger calls.

The hilarious Jesse Popp (@JessePopp) joins Matt and Andy to talk about his former life as a blackjack card-counter, a newly discovered tessellating pentagon, Penrose tiling, Fermat's Last Theorem, space lettuce, giant marrows, angry people in local newspapers, pumpkins smashing cars, a goat-throwing festival, dreamy eye movements, brain-scanning software, Hannibal's mask prototypes, brain dipsticks and trepanning. Don't forget to visit LAPodFest.com to get tickets to watch Probably Science in person in Los Angeles on September 19th, or buy access to the festival's live video stream and save $5 with the code SCIENCE.

Multi-talented comedian/musician Drennon Davis (@DrennonDavis) is coming off of a breakout performance on Conan with friend of the show Karen Kilgariff, and he joins Matt and Andy to talk about why Macs suck, past guest Matt Faulkner's latest Tesla coil project, Drennon's inventor/cold fusion proponent grandfather and his many projects, earthquake-jumping and rock-balancing, old mice with young blood, more fantastical EM drive stuff, chatting bonobos, 3D-printed drugs, David Lynch impressions and an Ebola vaccine.

The hilarious Hampton Yount (@hamptonyount) returns to the show to talk with Matt and Andy about Montreal's Just For Laughs Festival, corny jet boat guides, paying for a Pluto probe or an NFL stadium, slowing air travel, Ant-Man science, colonizing the moon, the XFL, anti-piss walls, bacon-flavored kale, being controlled by semen, a malaria vaccine and the LA PodFest live video stream - use the code “science” for $5 off.

Dipak Srinivasan of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University played a pivotal role in the New Horizons mission whose probe just passed by Pluto, and since he was also Andy's roommate back in their college days he was kind enough to talk with Andy and Matt about his work on the project. Launched in 2006, New Horizons traveled over three billion miles to gather the most comprehensive data about Pluto that mankind has ever seen, including stunning imagery of mountains and frozen plains, and en route it got a boost by slingshotting around Jupiter, becoming the fastest-moving probe in history. Dipak also gives the inside scoop on other projects he's been involved in, including the MESSENGER Mercury orbiter and the upcoming Solar Probe Plus mission to scrape the surface of the Sun. For more detailed information on New Horizons, visit the Johns Hopkins APL New Horizons official site.

You've seen and heard funnyman Eddie Pepitone (@eddiepepitone) on Community, Maron, Bob's Burgers, Old School, his podcast Pep Talks and the documentary The Bitter Buddha, and he joins Matt and Andy to talk about being self-critical, an upcoming mini-ice age that might not be upcoming, animal testing and monkey mind melds, Mike Myers movies and Andy's giant head, athletes in movies, the hilarious sci-fi comedy Other Space, citrus and cancer, toothy fish and fairy fossils, mockingbirds tormenting Andy and how we're cleaning up space. This episode is sponsored by Audible - visit http://audible.com/psp for a free audiobook and a one-month trial.

The Dork Forest host Jackie Kashian (@jackiekashian) returns to the show along with fellow former guests Mark Agee (@markagee) and TJ Chambers (@tjchambersLA) to talk with Andy about Jurassic World, Terminator: Genisys and problematic scenes in Top Five, the actual reason why swimming pool water irritates your eyes, Kage Baker's The Company book series, Wisconsin-born nerds, plants react to the sound of being eaten alive, Gandhi's letter to Hitler, Billy Joel marrying his fourth Christie Brinkley, left-handed kangaroos, the Pluto probe suffering a glitch, a creepy Google AI chatbot getting philosophical and cats controlling mice with chemicals in their urine.

Throwing Shade co-host Bryan Safi (@BryanSafi) joins Matt and Andy to talk about science fair cheating, sex and alcohol vs. religion and kids vs. actual science, Daily Mail and buff kangaroos, Vernon Chatman’s essay-cheating book, the Philae comet lander waking up, time-traveling wave-particles, chimps that cook and sauerkraut's effect on anxiety.

Jesse gives another update on his health situation from back in Nashville, revealing that he'll be starting up a podcast of his own titled Jesse Vs. Cancer in the near future, before Matt and Andy welcome pride of New Orleans Sean Patton (@mrseanpatton) to the show to talk about the payoff of the daffodil tea bit from last week, Sean's mom dressing as a hipster for Halloween, the normcore movement, Sean's underage Jesse memories, trucker hats, the fake black lady in Spokane, Roderick on the Line's excellent take on out-underdogging, Sean's science TV show, testing bacteria in surfer asses, the Point Break remake, Hans Rosling's different angle on overpopulation, immaculate conception among sawfish, Crocodile Dundee III, Sean assuming friend of the show Mark Agee was gay, wheelchair comedy, putting kill switches in genetically modified organisms, what baby traits you should be allowed to edit, where to get real New Orleans food in LA and the middle class of comedy.