Probably Science

Writer/comedian Chip Pope (Austin Stories, Beavis & Butthead, Last Comic Standing) joins Andy, Brooks, and Jesse Case (twitter.com/jessecase) for this week's Probably Science, with a spook-tacularly unnecessary intro courtesy of the built-in effects on the mixing board. Topics discussed include: Working with Mike Judge! Luke and Owen Wilson: Actually brothers? The upcoming Probably History spinoff! R. O. Manse! Rabbits overtaking Australia! Steely Dan: Not just for dads! The Texas town that busts tour buses! Vote "no" on all ballot propositions! The degree symbol comes from hieroglyphics! Decoding the oldest-known writing system! The Wachowski siblings! Probably Science Blind Items! Moving asterozone hole! oids with paintballs! The incredible shrinking ozone layer hole! The Red Hot Chili Peppers playing in Brooks's neighborhood! The obsolescence of representative democracy! Hermit crab key parties! The Milky Way munching on star clusters! Jesse pays for $40 worth of gas and drives away! Rugrats conspiracy theories! First Internet experiences! Chris Brown beating up an Avid!

Comedians Josh Cheney (twitter.com/JoshCheenee) and Dax Jordan (twitter.com/DaxJordan) join Andy and Brooks this week to talk about: King Tuff vs. Pearl Jam! The Hot House comedy show! Josh's role as Professor Kelp on The Homework Show! Dax vs. Josh in Weird Al fandom! Watching Armageddon and grabbing boobs! Celery-based science fair projects! Dax's disappointing attempt at crossbreeding carrots! Comparing Christmas gift-opening traditions! Felix Baumgartner's record-setting jump! Ball lightning: What is it? How long would it take for something to fall to the center of the earth? A commitment ceremony for the smashing-together of two galaxies! Is anything really bad for the planet? Should we protect polar bears? Tickling baby penguins! Traumatizing mice, then trying to fix said trauma! Brooks finally unveiling his Red Hot Chili Peppers tattoo! What memory would you erase if you could? A rogue climate hacker dumping 100 tons of iron sulfate into the ocean for science!

Emery Emery, host of the podcasts The Ardent Atheist (ardentatheist.com) and Skeptically Yours (skepticallyyours.net), makes his first Probably Science appearance with a full cast of Matt, Andy, and Brooks to talk about: The origin of Probably Science! Andy putting his foot in his mouth on Emery's podcast! Neil Young burying the Skynyrd hatchet! Blowing up a rat with 8 M-80s! The Bogdanov Affair! Trusting expertise! Brooks giving himself nicknames! Pegged jeans! Andy's ukulele project! Cheating yo-yos with mechanical clutches! Robot bee brains! Emery gets revenge on Andy via Shane Battier!

The gang's all here! Pride of Portland and recent Los Angeles transplant Richard Bain joins Matt, Brooks, and Andy to talk about: Scaring Dave Chappelle! The greatness of Undeclared! Matt and Andy trying to convince Richard and Brooks to vote! Brooks gets his tattoo covered to host Comedy Central's upcoming Retro Weekend! The aphrodisiac effects of Troll 2! What if Hitler was into troll dolls? Blowing up a rollerblade with a propane tank! Brooks has a bone to pick with the old woman who lived in a shoe! Insects with mechanical brains! Latino mechanics who pit black widows against bees! Hiring a green exterminator! Brooks hosting toddler fight clubs! Bees that make blue and green honey! Niels Bohr's birthday! The discovery of a dwarf vampire porcupine dinosaur! Brooks loves New York City! A Nazi Buddha made from a meteorite! Papa John's car! Bears and tigers moving to the city! Baboon burglars!

Matt and Brooks are out of town, so we're bringing you a lost episode with Hampton Yount (hamptonyount.com) recorded in December of 2011. Enjoy this glimpse into the not-to-distant past... A simpler time... A time when we only had one microphone. Seriously, though, it's a good episode, even if the science stories are a bit out of date. Enjoy!

Andy Haynes (imandyhaynes.com) came up in the Pacific Northwest comedy scene before making his mark on Fallon and Conan, and he joins Brooks, Andy, and guest co-hosts Auggie Smith (auggiesmith.com) and Alice Wetterlund (alicewetterlund.com) to talk about: Getting the star treatment for late night sets! Andy Richter's cartoonist brother-in-law Tony Millionaire! The sobering effects of the Bridgetown Comedy Festival! Powering through the Human Centipede sequel! Andy confusing Mengele, Mendel, and Mendeleev! Haynes's fear of zombies! Walking out of movies! Stealing 100,000 miniature airplane liquor bottles! Brooks's lack of callbacks! More dry ice bombs! Grilling burgers: Worse for the environment than driving a diesel truck? Vegetarianism! Studying Central American revolutionaries and their relationship to the Catholic church! Bands with semen-related names! Dead baby pandas! Favorite bears! The Space Shuttle flyover! Challenger street jokes! Bane impressions! International Observe The Moon Night! Finally figuring out what a harvest moon is! Ritalin makes the ladies go all-in! Don't drive drunk unless you're driving for Brooks! Exploding animals! Historical baby names! Andy's season tickets to the XFL!

You've seen the very funny Mark Agee (twitter.com/MarkAgee) on Last Comic Standing, and he makes his Probably Science debut this week, joining Andy and a fresh-off-the-plane Matt Kirshen to talk about: Performering at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! Taking Brooks's grown-up appliances! Living in comedian squalor! Putting a wrench in the works of conversations! Nash equilibria! Game theory! Why do people keep working after making their fortunes? Heisenberg -- not as uncertain as we'd thought? Matt's jet lag! Don't drink on planes! Getting paid in drink tickets! King Tut's girlish figure! Could epilepsy have saddled human civilization with monotheism? John Wayne Gacy's head injury! Pedophilia sympathy! Studying the innate clocks of mice! The concept of second sleep! Go-go juice! The evolutionary explanation of the placebo effect! The high cost of turning on our immune systems! Cocktails vs. mixed drinks! Computing with water droplets!

LA-based comedy team Power Violence (facebook.com/powerviolencecomedy) host one of the best weekly comedy shows in town, and they're now Brooks's roommates as well. Andy and Brooks do an on-site recording at the new residence to talk with Whitmer, Rodney, Budd, and Clay about: The magic of Andrew WK! Living down the street from Booger from Revenge of the Nerds! Hurricane preparedness! Setting your house on fire! Voyager I reaching the edge of the Solar System! The golden space record! Whit’s family Challenger connection! Dead fish in Lake Erie! Bowling balls of hardened BP oil! Time actually does slow down for elite athletes! Tigers and humans working in shifts! Andy getting charged by a moose! Discovering a new species of stick bug! Pilot whales getting moved to Sea World! Animal abuse on the set of The Adventures Milo and Otis!

Comedian Shane Mauss (shanemauss.com), as seen on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Conan, joins Brooks and Andy on a lovely Labor Day weekend afternoon to discuss: Summer surfing! Comedy about time travel! Evolutionary psychology, A.K.A. science about dicks! Wisconsin's extreme drinking claims! Michio Kaku, the less-optimistic Ray Kurzweil! Dumbing-down the science portions of your standup act! Blowing up mailboxes! Soliciting advice on keeping birds and bats out of wind turbines! The science refuting Todd Akin's mind-bogglingly stupid statement about rape and pregnancy! Shane throwing away his whole act to write comedy about sexual selection! Finding 40,000 Euro worth of whale vomit! Forming smell/sound associations while sleeping! The upcoming LA Podcast Festival, October 12-14 (lapodfest.com)!

Baron Vaughn (baronvaughn.com) of Fairly Legal, Conan, and Fallon makes his first Probably Science appearance as he helps Brooks, Andy, and guest co-host Jesse Case figure out: Ways to straighten teeth! Which parts of Des Moines are New Jack City! 50 Shades of Dorian Gray! Oppenheimer/Bhagavad Gita quotes! OJ Simpson chase memories! Super-fertility causing miscarriage! Brooks scares off Mumford & Sons! Andy pisses off Ed Norton while surfing! Brooks cries his eyes out at Beasts of the Southern Wild! Bill Nye stands up to creationists! Misrepresenting evolution! Determining hair and eye color of crime suspects from DNA! Baron's deleted scene with Will Ferrell! HD format wars! Raising funds for a Nikola Tesla museum! Brooks goes to SummerSlam! Ray Kurzweil and the technological singularity! Fixing a century-old Spanish fresco the Mr. Bean way!