Probably Science

Irish comedian, actress and voice artist Tara Flynn (twitter.com/TaraFlynn) joins Matt, Jesse and Andy this week to discuss: Fleet Week! Sex workers in the Pacific Northwest! Sharing a name with a porn star! Jesse spraying himself with urine before a callback! The Shewee! Saving the government $400 million by changing fonts! Ink cartels! Debunking St. Patrick! Carving off a sliver of Irish Spring soap! A MacGyver microscope that only costs fifty cents! The possibly bullshit phenomenon of autonomous sensory meridian response! A 3D-printed skull! Tara's lack of a sense of smell! The influence of CK1 (not the perfume) on our circadian rhythms! Graphene contact lenses that let you see in the dark! Andy's almost revolutionary inventions!

To help us make sense of the biggest cosmology story of recent years, we invited three of our favorite physicists back to the show. Matt and Jesse are joined by an in-studio Dr. Larry Price, and, thanks to technical wizardry, NYC-dwelling Prof. Janna Levin and a Washington State-based Dr. Jamie Rollins, as they talk us through The Big Bang, what Inflation means, what this BICEP2 experiment did, whether it's important, what the Asian guy with the champagne meant when he said “It's five sigma at point two” to the Russian man and woman in that viral video, what was going on with that colder-than-absolute-zero story we didn't understand last week, whether academic journals are glory hunters, how multiverses fit in with this Inflation thing, and what we should take away from the whole story. And Andy missed all this to make sure a TV show about skaters getting hit in the testicles got made.

We're going Dutch on this week's episode, as Netherlands-based comedian Stefan Pop (twitter.com/stefan_pop) joins American writer/comedian Rylee Newton (twitter.com/ryleenewton) to chat about: Dutch insults! Buying a goat for charity! Working at Microsoft! A Dutchman going to an American university in Spain! Stefan's cadaver dissections! HP Lovecraft movies! A more in-depth look at the drug Narcan! The Netherlands' speed skating dominance! Probably Eugenics! Orange light that resets circadian rhythms! Jesse’s upcoming appearance in the coffee table book Bums! A prediction of the multiverse that dates back 700 years! The first episode of Cosmos! Lightning that predicts earthquakes! Temperatures below absolute zero! Australians shooting space debris out of orbit with lasers! A person’s voice as a predictor of their personality! How neanderthals might have yelled! Stefan’s unique take on saying hello!

Veterans of stage and screen Jimmy Shubert (twitter.com/JimmyShubert) and Matt Davis (twitter.com/mattdavis) join Jess, Matt and Andy this week to chat about: Performing for troops overseas! Rubbing strange lamps you find on the beach! Phillbillies! the Civil Rights Museum! Brooks Wheelan's 12 Years a Slave sketch on SNL! Baby tumors that have teeth! Unnecessary remakes! Dark matter that may have killed off the dinosaurs! Rumspringa! A drug that cures heroin overdoses! Nick Doody opening for Bill Hicks! Judging our furry listeners! Italian robots that can tell when you lie! Another AIDS baby who's been cured!

Comedian/writer James Bachman (twitter.com/MrJamesBachman, That Mitchell and Webb Look) and comedian/podcaster Danny Lobell (twitter.com/dannylobell) join Matt, Andy and Jesse to talk about: Almost failing physics and math at Cambridge! Nude women with flamethrowers at Burning Man! Sexy biology teachers! Having a Jewish-themed wedding! Jesse's high school friend dressing in blackface! Group theory! Danny's work medicating giant sea turtles! A recently unearthed 30,000-year-old megavirus! A polio-like outbreak in California! Older dads are more likely to have messed-up kids! Jesse as the spokesman for sober Taco Bell! The powerlessness of positive thinking! Turing machines! Could black holes be breaking the Eddington limit? A 3D-printed electronic glove for your heart! Danny Lobell's philosophy-themed podcast! Finding out that James wrote the hilarious Numberwang sketch!

Comedian and IT professional Andrew Solmssen (twitter.com/solmssen) joins the crew this week for a discussion of: Rating the podcast's hosts on Lulu! Getting matched with a comedian/prostitute on Tinder! Howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com! Gilbert chemistry sets! The Radioactive Boy Scout! Hacking the payphones in your dorm and the parking on your campus! Remembering 80MB hard drives that sold for $2,200! The severity of Apple's SSL security flaw! Jesse quitting Facebook! The illusion of digital privacy! A recent visible space rock crash on the surface of the moon! Looking at clips of severe Russian accidents as a profession! Doing IT for one-named pop stars! Holding Marlee Matlin's Oscar! Andrew's gadget recommendations! Facebook's $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp! Being a sysadmin vs. a programmer! Virtual machines! The discovery of a 4.4 billion-year-old crystal! Andrew and Andy's favorite iPhone game: Letterpress!

The hilarious and charming Wendy Wason (twitter.com/wendy_wason) makes her second appearance on the podcast to talk with Matt, Andy and Jesse about: Andy's swim meet! Jesse and Matt shaving their legs! Matt's serial killer neighbor! How John Wayne Gacy got caught! Beautiful equations that mathematicians appreciate as art! A computer-generated math proof that's bigger than all of Wikipedia! The statistics of celebrity infidelity! A correction to our stem cell story! Edward Snowden's election as rector of Glasgow University! Early animals that didn't need oxygen! Wendy's dinner with Bryan Adams! New developments in fusion technology! Phone phreaking! Mitch Hedberg's final shows!

This week's episode was recorded live at SF Sketchfest, with guests including sleep expert Professor Matthew Walker of UC Berkeley's psychology department, comedian Kurt Braunohler (twitter.com/kurtbraunohler) and a surprise drop-in from a Hollywood superstar!

Comedian and host of the Comedy Film Nerds podcast Graham Elwood (twitter.com/grahamelwood) joins Matt, Andy and Jesse to discuss: Volunteer firefighters! Squarespace's Super Bowl ad! The Ear Buds podcasting documentary! Jesse's multimedia promise for the upcoming live Probably Science! Suing NASA for not looking hard enough for aliens! Negotiating with scalpers! Marijuana lowering suicide rates! Bill Nye debating a creationist! Jesse finds out that Squarespace sponsors the podcast! The reason sloths leave the trees to drop a deuce! The sum of all positive integers is -1/12! Andy's grudge match swim meet!

The delightful Karen Gillan (twitter.com/karengillan2) of Doctor Who and the upcoming films Oculus and Guardians of the Galaxy returns to the program this week to help Matt, Jesse and Andy celebrate the 100th episode of Probably Science, covering a wide range of topics including: Matt’s electrical problems! Andy's sugarfree gum-loving rats! The wonders of the number 100! Ab inflation! A message from Brooks Wheelan! Why does no one remember that Jesse lives at Bluebell? Karen hanging outside with the cool kids! Karen’s upcoming horror film Oculus! Sheltering child actors from the terrifying movies they’re in! Children’s innate belief in immortality! The excommunication of Halley’s Comet! Matt and Andy’s trip to the trampoline park! Early humans picking up bad genetic traits by mating with Neanderthals! The Scottish royal mental asylum! Jonas Salk’s 100th birthday and the history of the polio vaccine! Rutherford’s atomic discoveries of 1914! The 100th anniversary of the gun synchronizer! Dipping blood cells in acid to make stem cells! Non-hormonal, reversible, cheap male birth control! The Addams Family electric shock game! Karen’s stint in a Coney Island freak show! Karen’s horror movie scream abilities! The chart of English larval progression! Competing listener donations! Stephen Hawking’s black hole update! Our upcoming live show on the topic of sleep! Greatest hits from our first 100 episodes!