No Such Thing As A Fish

Anne Miller, children's author and former QI producer, stops by to chat. She dives into obscure Greek bean deities and rituals. The conversation hops to comic strip rescue, Popeye and Mario origins. They also explore naked mole-rat social roles and strange myths like Tantalus and Lew Wallace's snooze-button rumor.

They dive into the artist behind dogs playing poker and seaside cutout inventions. A surprising joint poet identity is revealed. Polar exploration survival and grim diets get dissected. A quirky quiz calculates how many peacocks or laser pens it would take to destroy Earth. Odd historical nuggets include peculiar last meals, morgue safety, medieval Colosseum homes, and bizarre time zone stories.

Angela Barnes, comedian and writer known for her stand-up and synesthesia stories, chats about how numbers and letters have colours and personalities for her. The conversation jumps to spatial thought, rare sensory overlaps like mirror-touch, and quirky royal tales about who could touch Elizabeth I. They also race through F1 oddities, historical ale remedies and colourful anecdotes from royal protocol.

They trade bizarre listener-submitted facts about Stonehenge and an ancient road, a 2014 Canadian snack origin, and a failed UFO museum crowdfunding. They cover shocking animal stories from falling poodles to escaped hamsters delaying a flight, talk cow friendships and sticky dead geckos, and riff on misleading names, historical remedies, and random studio interruptions.

Daliso Chaponda, a stand-up comedian and Britain's Got Talent finalist, shares lively stories and comic takes. He talks about epic Bible smuggling tales, Lake Malawi's explosive cichlid diversity, a quirky 1949 British spacesuit design, and Freddie Mercury's Scrabble habits. Short, funny, and packed with strange historical and scientific curiosities.

Short tales of a Swedish snow sculpture rivalry and Galileo’s clues about Jupiter’s insides. A bizarre parade tactic uses boneless chicken to deter birds. A golf ball once got classified as a fungus to poke fun at taxonomy. Certified rat ticklers and a Victorian coat that turns into a boat also get a mention.

Nina Conti, comedian and professional ventriloquist, discusses the history and craft of ventriloquism and her film Sunlight. Short, lively takes on ancient ventriloquist rituals, technical tricks for hiding plosives, and convention life. Conversation wanders into theatrical pranks, Shakespearean textual quirks, and royal anecdotes.

They dig into a politician named Santa Claus and quirky North Pole local government. Strange transport trivia about the Northern line and London's extreme stations gets explored. Tales include a wartime magazine mix-up with a photographed baby, Apollo 13 engineering drama, and a newly discovered canyon under Greenland. Odd tech and animal facts round out the conversation.

Mary Roach, bestselling science writer known for curious, deeply reported books, chats about replaceable body parts and odd forensic methods. They explore early blood banks, how moss and pollen can place people, and the strange history of breast implants. Brief, surprising stories weave through state symbols, smells and a Montana bear survival tale.

Listener-submitted curiosities drive weird history and science tales. Topics include 3D-printed buildings and statue restoration, towering fig roots versus redwoods, and London’s Underground overlapping Victorian crimes. They swap theme-park and tree-climbing memories, explore ancient yo-yo toys, mass pollination by trucked bees, and a bizarre 1874 plan to send corpses to Vesuvius.