Probably 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.

Matt, Andy and returning guest Auggie Smith get together to give a brief update on Jesse's health (while being very rudely interrupted by a leafblower) and go through story corrections and thank-yous. If listeners want to send well-wishes Jesse's way, feel free to email [email protected] and/or tweet @jessecase.

Throwing Shade co-host and Gay of Thrones director/writer Erin Gibson (@gibblertron) joins the gang to talk about Arnie at Starbucks, working at Gap, oil men and Texas textbooks, a chocolate science scam, herpes-based skin cancer therapy, Jesse's high school crack day, dementor wasps and zombie cockroaches, charismatic megafauna and the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, Erin's parallel universe Morrissey theory, autism and MDMA, more shit transplants, Corrections Corner and Menu4Mars.

The hilarious Kira Soltanovich (@kiracomedy) returns to Probably Science to chat with the gang about naming her upcoming comedy special (and her upcoming daughter), Jesse's Smother Party and his big gay Irish following, hippie schools with cartoons and kissing teachers, a naked roommate appearance, Kira's fundraiser, Was That Science?, Corrections Corner: Wagga Wagga edition, getting attacked by a bug, how to say places, badly named bars, Alzheimer's and video games (and a debunking), jacking off to reduce the risk of prostate cancer, Jesse's health corner, magical doctors, washing dishes with a dishwasher or by hand, and Kira's allergy experiment.

Comedian Chris Crofton (@thecroftonshow) of The Chris Crofton Show and the column Advice King joins the festivities to talk about doing comedy in front of your parents, Andy and Jesse's next door neighbors moving out, the worst things to buy at the grocery store, greased watermelon pool games, the crazy creator of the Erector Set, getting rid of that white stuff on chocolate, more Sex At Dawn discussion, walrus poon, NASA's impossible EM space drive that may in fact be a reality, conspiracy theory talk, the reason why the same side of the moon always faces us, and the clouds of millions of baby spiders descending on Australia.

Dr. Christopher Ryan (@ChrisRyanPhD), author of the New York Times bestseller Sex At Dawn, joins Matt, Andy and comedian guests Caitlin Gill (@robotcaitlin) and Lisa Best (@lisabestcomedy) for a live installment of Probably Science recorded at the 2015 Bridgetown Comedy Festival (@bridgetown) in Portland, Oregon to talk about the prehistoric roots of modern sexuality, the devastating impact of agriculture on our species, why humans and bonobos are so horny and whether it's actually in our nature to be monogamous. Oh, and this was recorded on Mother's Day. With Andy's parents in the audience.

Comedian Rye Silverman (@ryesilverman) joins Jesse, Andy and eventually Matt to discuss the legendary Marty & Elayne, trans facts, the Riddick man, how to spot a ghost, Andy's Lasik surgery, Rye as ModCloth's first transgender model, the origins of life on earth, fracking and earthquakes, Yellowstone magma, Bitcoin vulnerablility, a shapeshifting frog, a catfish that looks like Greedo and Rye's new album Intimate Apparel.

Comedian Ryan Singer (@RySing) joins the proceedings this week to talk about Eskimos, heart-to-heart hugs, the origin of toasting, when to use questions to influence people, the return of brontosaurus, the head transplant volunteer and the fears about what could happen to him, deaf people sneezing silently, wiping memories and the need for reinforcement, Western Razor (use code "science" for $5 off), lip-synching and the death of comedy, the world's first battery rocket, a mesh that separates oil from water and Ryan's podcast Me & Paranormal You.

Comedian and Bone Zone podcast host Brendon Walsh (@brendonwalsh) joins the gang to talk about Better Than Ezra, things that track, most favored nation clauses, the ubiquity of problematic, the greatest voicemail Andy ever received, how to call in sick, Alzheimer's and Reagan, Brendon's Mike Tyson encounter, the problem with human cannibalism, cleaning your brain surgery tools, laser wound healing, Scientology vs. Christianity, drinking the Flavor Aid, toilet paper methods, Terminator 2-style 3D printing, Western Razor (use offer code "science" for $5 off) and Brendon's amazing pranks.

Professor of earth system science at UC Irvine and senior water scientist at NASA/JPL Jay Famiglietti (@JayFamiglietti) recently wrote an LA Times op-ed on the dire state of California's water supplies, catalyzing the nation and helping contribute to recent historic mandatory water restrictions from Governor Jerry Brown. Jay joins Matt, Jesse and Andy in an overly watered backyard to talk about California's drought, Jay's New York Times Quotation of the Day and his recent Real Time with Bill Maher appearance, using satellites to track water systems, forced acronyms in space programs, using surface water and reservoirs vs. dipping into groundwater reserves, agricultural vs. residential water consumption, why local rainfall doesn't help us get out of our water deficit, our antiquated water rights policies, peeing in the shower and the fact that Californians are going to have to get over their love of green grass from now on.

Mortician, author, blogger, YouTube personality and death advocate Caitlin Doughty (@TheGoodDeath) invites Matt, Jesse and Andy into her home to talk about all things death, including her book Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, The Order of the Good Death, death rituals around the world, the history of embalming in the US, what goes down in a crematory, why dead bodies aren't dangerous to be around, our society's disconnect with its dead, the Disneyland of Death and how to prepare yourself and your loved ones for that eternal dirt nap that's headed our way.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!