Probably Science

Pride of Chicago Robert Buscemi (robertbuscemi.blopspot.com) guests with Matt, Brooks, and Andy this week as they dig into: Recording Set List in the UK! Space has a strange smell! Why is there vodka in space? Finding Pharaohs with missing fractals! Benford's Law! Those silly Microsoft programmers and their 0xB16B00B5! Measuring a river's meander! Oxbow lakes! Billabongs! Is impersonating a beekeeper a crime? Robert's cheerleading Hippocratic oath! Creating a complete computer model of an organism! Playing God: The sincerest form of flattery! What's an aquifer? Ethanol levels in the atmosphere are rising! Michael Winslow's work as a Prius voiceover artist! Why is every La Cucaracha car horn so wrong? Matt's science museum tooth loss!

Comedian and star of The Sarah Silverman Program, Steve Agee, sits in with Brooks, Andy and Matt to talk about: Alan Jackson's Summer Country betrayal! Bedroom ceiling star stickers! Brooks is a PR shill for Starbucks! The dark side of cornstarch! Non-Newtonian bullet-proof vests! An actual Columbia physics lecturer writes in re: the Higgs boson! Hunting elephants might not be the best idea if you're the president of a conservation group! Is the CEO of godaddy.com the worst person alive? Building a jellyfish out of rat hearts! Steve's reality TV background! The first-ever Science Speed Round! Steve's failed adolescent Molotov cocktail! Brooks trying to give himself the nickname "Reptile"! Dolphins using nonlinear math to see through air bubbles! Andy doing the Alcatraz swim! The first spiral galaxy in the universe! Open call for LA-area science-types to guest on the show! Brooks losing his phone to Summer Country! Dean Cain: Not a fan of Batman!

It's Probably Country! You may have seen the very funny Nick Turner (twitter.com/itsmenickyt) on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and he joins the gang this week to talk about: Brooks almost stepping on a rattlesnake! What's on YOUR Instagram? Brooks's pickup lines! Bill Nye vendettas! Robots that walk like humans! Neurological wiring predicting chronic pain! What's the worst pain you've ever felt? Pictures of Mars! How much does a rover cost? Impressions of sea creatures! The real reason for the 2012 Mayan apocalypse! Flea movies! Gay snakes! A robot that can do Brooks's job! Verbot vs. Furby! Help Brooks pick a #SummerCountry ringtone! Sunburns are red due to RNA damage! Nick doesn't believe in sunscreen!

Comedian and author of the memoir Kasher in the Rye Moshe Kasher (moshekasher.com) joins Brooks and Andy to get to the bottom of: Credit inflation among comedians! Selling fake pot! The proliferation of Genghis Khan DNA! Saving baby beluga whales! The genius of John Prine! Preventing hearing loss with AMPK proteins! Growing up with two deaf parents! Working as a sign language interpreter! Drinking a bottle of vinegar to pass a drug test! Being stuck in Hawaii drinking a space diet for four months! The dude stuck in a transparent house at Burning Man! How much money would it take to make you quit comedy? Are any jobs worthwhile? The Higgs boson -- do any of us understand its significance? Killing wolves in Yellowstone!

Jordan Morris of the long-running podcast Jordan, Jesse, Go! (maximumfun.org) and Fuel TV's The Daily Habit sits in with Brooks and Andy to dig even deeper into Summer Country while discussing: Awkward moments with Yao Ming! Papercraft ProbSci hosts! Brooks's creepy mustache! The world's biggest crocodile! Detroit's future Juggalo mayor! Male contraceptives! Replacing Maury Povich with Brooks's grandpa! The return of Tony Clifton! Super-old pottery! Leap seconds! The Wood Brothers 100-Yard Dash Challenge! Rock-scissors-paper robots! Stars Wars tourist traps! The final chapter of Captain Cook's life!

TV's Bil Dwyer (twitter.com/bildwyer) of Battlebots fame, among countless other projects, joins us in welcoming Matt back to the states with a week's worth of science news!

Comedian and former molecular and marine biology major Tony Sam (tonysam.com) helps us celebrate ProbSci's silver anniversary by delving into meaty topics including: Birkenstock memories! Brooks’s Summer of Country! Stealing boomboxes from crappy comedy shows! Brooks is going to see That’s My Boy for some reason! Andy’s Pacific Northwest comedy adventures! Tony’s work as a Caribbean aquarium biologist! Giving HIV to humanized BLT mice! Hiding at work! Protecting the ocean surrounding Australia! The Parrothead epidemic! Getting asked to leave Margaritaville! Six-pack summer! Cerveza Caguama! Staying in a youth hostel at 35! Brooks is going to Europe! Speech-learning robots! Colonizing Mars! Magic kits! The first female Chinese astronaut! More borderline-racist Asian accent impressions! You have-a dis-a-respected-a my daughter-a! A secret Air Force plane has landed! Captain Cook’s awesome story! The Probably Science book club!

Talented comedian/actress/musical improv coach/science enthusiast Eliza Skinner (elizaskinner.com) sits in with Andy and Brooks to talk about: Playing a hooker on Conan! Rocket scientist family members! The Patriot missile test launches! Hands-on science museums! More Wisconsin Dells memories! Being a woman who likes Cronenberg movies! Brooks hasn’t seen Aliens! Buy a space poster, win a trip to space! Andy trying to reunite the band Wilco in the style of Parent Trap! DC Hardcore music! Eliza’s punk inclinations! Krishna-core! Favorite modes of mass transit! Brooks is heading to Europe! Hard Rock Cafe Auschwitz? Why can’t you use your phone on a plane? Andy’s love/hate relationship with sports! More moon size debates! Confusing Sams Neil, Shepard, and Elliott! Brooks loves Tennessee Williams! Kickass seagrass! The Sesame Street sassy clam! The sitcom Dinosaurs! Professor Brooks Seven Wheelan leaves his ferret at a hotel! Poorly thought-out prank phone calls! Prosthetic robot arms! Sci-fi prognostication!

Last Comic Standing finalist and Guys With Feelings host Jason Nash (guyswithfeelings.com) joins Brooks and Andy to try to figure out where Matt is, and to dig into some of life's meatiest quandaries, including: Does Andy have a weird voice? Brooks does an awful Matt impression! Jason recruits a neighborhood six-year-old to help him beat Wii games! Rob Dyrdek moves into Jason’s neighborhood! More weirdness about Andy’s roommates! Are we The Avengers of comedy and science? The science of superheroes! Bruce Jenner and The Hulk! Private spaceflight! The eclipse! Co-ed future showers in Paul Verhoeven movies! Parenting advice from Jason! Hippie houseguests! DNA tests of Bigfoot specimens! Favorite mythical creatures! The “Exotic Becomes Erotic” theory of sexual orientation! Prostate screening: Not as fun as it sounds? A Mongolian T. Rex skeleton goes up for auction! Visiting the dystopia that is LG's headquarters in Gumi, South Korea! The science behind toy envy! Tobey Maguire tries to rally the crowd at a Roger Waters concert!

Comedian, philosopher and host of the Duncan Trussell Family Hour podcast (duncantrussell.com) Duncan Trussell invites us into his home for a far-reaching discussion of topics including: Tarot card Rorschach tests! Chuck Klosterman Canadian Football League thought experiments! America tells the world: Don’t touch our moon shit! Lunar landing conspiracy theories! Preparing to break the free-fall world record! Spiteful skydiving! Astronaut tail! Vic Morrow’s Twilight Zone movie death! Deadly Peruvian bats! Favorite Vlad the Impaler stories! Therapeutic psychedelic mushrooms! Taking drugs at church! Top ten coolest new species!

It's our first-ever live episode! We're joined by special guest Eddie Ifft of the Talkin' Shit podcast with Jim Jeffries (http://jimandeddietalkshit.com), and we get into topics including: Rocks for Jocks! Global warming denial campaigns! Mormon-backed niceness initiatives! Trampoline Peeping Toms! Shark attacks: Don’t worry about ‘em! Re-routing apocalypse asteroids with pebbles! Roundabout proof that there may have been water on Mars! Freeing whales, breaking laws! People only skated on ponds in the 1950s! Every animal is a rapist! Happy old people make bad decisions! Lasik surgery – thumbs up or thumbs down? Using sparklers at the gas pump! Special thanks to The Mint (themintla.com) for letting us record in their beautiful venue!

We've made it to the big 2-0 with the help of writer/comedian extraordinaire Blaine Capatch (@blainecapatch)! Topics discussed include: Roller Darby O'Gill and the Little People! Blaine’s spelling bee prowess! The Yellowstone supervolcano! Messier gigs! Seeing the Smothers Brothers at an insurance convention! Young Blaine’s first onstage appearance with Red Skelton! Revisiting the airborne version of bird flu! Freaky Friday body switches! Tracking writers’ influences based on content-free words! Color-changing artificial muscles! Racist babies! Titan’s conditions: kind of good for creating life! Venus goes in front of the Sun! Lucha VaVOOM!

Justin Ian Daniels, comedian and co-host of the Rough House Podcast (theroughhousepodcast.com), joins us for a lively discussion of topics including: Members of Slipknot! Dee-Dee Ramone rapping! The Southern Gentlemen of Wrestling! Top-shelf bag-drainings! The origins of the Secret Service! The Find Brooks' Publicity Photo Listener Challenge! The Supermoon! Vibrating suits for Olympians! Learning from heathens! Super-fast wi-fi with common laser pointers! The decline of dinosaurs! New lizard species discovered! Can someone please get Dolph Lundgren to be a guest on our show? Ancient red blood cells! How exactly did Stevie Nicks get cocaine blown up her ass? Accidentally dropping nukes on South Carolina! Justin getting a 50-caliber pantload!

Comedian and host of the podcast The Dork Forest (thedorkforest.com) Jackie Kashian makes her long overdue debut on Probably Science to talk with the gang about: The legacy of Armenian comedy! Tweeting at Margaret Atwood and R.L. Stine! It’s gettin’ hot in here, if by “here” you mean “on wind farms”! Hercules Meets the Three Stooges! Brooks wants to know everyone’s takes on animals! The Wisconsin Dells! Working a summer job in a lame cave! Stalactites vs. stalagmites! Birds with GPS neurons! Donald Trump and his asshole offspring! The Unicorn Song! Number lines: learned or instinctual? Brooks sitting on the beach reading about Magellan! Jackie sells the boys on a new comic book! Are we scaring sharks away from their reefs? Fake DNA! Ghost-finding apps! C.S. Lewis’s *other* books! Andy was almost an extra in Twilight! Venus traipses in front of the Sun! “Drunken helpers” at comedy shows!

Brilliant comedian and master of characters James Adomian (jamesadomian.com) has returned from the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, as have Matt, Brooks and Andy, and they've got stories to tell! Bridgetown tales abound this week, but the gang also get around to discussing: Harry Potter names! Jesse Ventura! Skeletons in hot air balloons! Wrestling moves and pesticides! Particles that are their own antiparticles! Too much free time makes you feel too busy! Giant sharks! Eggless chickens! Asteroid mining with Jim Cameron! Adomian's famed academic grandfather!

Last Comic Standing winner Alonzo Bodden joins us this week, and it turns out he's got more science cred than the average comic, having been an aircraft mechanic for years before getting into comedy. We get into lots of fun stuff, including: Last Comic Standing challenges! Doing comedy for college kids! Fixing crashed airplanes! 600 mile-per-hour tape! Trying Gushers before the general public! Bikers on scooters! Brooks' rollerblading past! Smart sand! Measuring snake strength in units of grandpa shakes! The first use of fire! The refusal of ignorance! Space elevators! Getting stuck in the White House bathtub!

Funnyman Dave Holmes of the podcast A Drink with Dave (adrinkwithdave.com) joins us this week to talk about: Andy’s idiotic attempt at the Master Cleanse! Dave’s half-marathon training! Embarrassing high school stories! Involuntary boners! Diet soda: Maybe it *doesn’t* make you fat? Velveeta Cheesy Skillets! Do antibiotics cause weight gain? Could bacteria cause OCD? The effects of caffeine and speed on a rat’s work ethic! Cheaters at Draw Something! Dolphin gangs! Jeff Bezos digging up spacecraft engines! Dave’s surfing therapist! Matt owes his career to Saved By the Bell! Screech’s standup career!

Comedian Paul Jay of the podcast The Biggest Mistake (thebiggestmistake.net) sits in with the boys to talk about: Armchair astronomy! Getting Robert Plant to guest on the podcast! Pronouncing Led Zeppelin song titles! More horrible segues! How much would you pay to go to space with Tom Cruise? Sub-orbital streaking! Vibrating tattoos! Checking off items on Paul’s Probably Science bucket list! Growing new body parts! The search for Amelia Earhart! Venice is sinking! Brooks asks German kids the tough questions! Hydrogen-powered robotic jellyfish! The theory of circulation! Lobotomies! The Bridgetown Comedy Festival!

Chris Franjola (@ChrisFranjola) of Chelsea Lately, After Lately and Are You There, Chelsea? may not have studied much science, but he has some great takes on topics including: Being a theater nerd! Midwest tubing adventures! KISS-brand deodorant! Dave Grohl and the Heartbreakers! Catching a NASA spy Chris Hansen-style! Audition tips from Brooks! Figuring out why shock therapy works! Does Chris believe in depression? Our phone-obsessed culture! Comedy: Chris’s anti-drug! Have we found the cause of baldness? Tim McGraw and Dwight Yoakam: Two cowboy hats away from being Radio Shack managers! Brooks get a #1 Arthur Fonzarelli haircut for $6! Don’t judge a movie by seeing it on a plane! Why hasn’t the Segway conquered the world? Using lasers to see around corners! Laserdisc nostalgia! Brooks’s racist pet names! Hollywood Boulevard superheroes! Holding a gun makes you think everyone else is, too! Drunk Steven Adler buying Top Ramen! Sean Young crashes Andy’s comedy show! How did we discover mass extinction? Chris’s love of Theodore Rex! Wolfmother intros!

Auggie Smith (auggiesmith.com), winner of the Seattle and San Francisco International Comedy Competitions, sits down with the boys in Andy’s backyard to talk about: Auggie and Andy trying out for Jeopardy! Matt explains what “gunged” means! Guiding lightning with lasers! Matt’s Dickensian childhood! Babies are smarter than computers! Is Carl Weathers a poor man’s Clark Gable? Who’s your favorite painter? Did Bill Murray think “Garfield” was a Coen Brothers movies? Brooks and Andy’s juvenile “Into the Wild” fixations! What do you do when your island ends up underwater? Setting the 3-D nanoprinting speed record! Going to space: Bad for your eyes? Chuck Yeager: Bigger badass than Buzz Aldrin? Thumbs up or thumbs down on foreskins and motorcycles? Isaac Newton’s apocalyptic predictions! Has anyone turned down being knighted?

“Who Charted?” host Howard Kremer (@howardkremer) is our guest this week as we discuss: Jim Cameron’s adventures under the sea! Solar Flares acting up again! Old memories interfering with new ones! Cockfosters and Crouch End! Andy's Andrew WK/Iggy Pop/Bob Seger connection! The Cleveland Volcano in Alaska is acting up again (and that's not a sex joke)! Summah solidarity! Giant insects found on a patch of dirt on Skull Island! The Clap: Now drug-resistant! The history of anesthesia!

You’ve seen comedian Jesse Case (twitter.com/jessecase) on Last Comic Standing and this season of Parenthood. Oh, and he’s Andy’s roommate, and the creator of our theme music! Jesse joins Matt, Brooks and Andy to talk about: Breakups! Andy and Jesse’s strange living situation! Asteroids ending the world in 28 years! Plans for the apocalypse! Microchip fraud! Tutoring software that responds to emotion! The T. Rex: It bit even harder than we thought! Solving our energy crisis with poop! Eulogy for a surrogate sea otter! Andy the cat hitman! Magellan’s magical mystery tour!

Brody Stevens (brodystevens.com, @BrodyIsMeFriend) of both “Hangover” films, “Due Date” and general awesomeness, joins the gang to discuss: Favorite HBO Shows! Erotic thrillers! PG-13 boobs! The government’s “Avatar” ripoff! Prancertron-2000! Who’s worse at a party -- the guitar guy or the magic guy? Partying with Dane Cook and Jerry Cantrell! Listener feeback: Whales are delicious!, Resurrecting a 30,000-year-old plant! Vegan dogs! Tarzana: Actually named for Tarzan! Census-designated places! Russian gangster accents! ASU baseball! Brody’s 91 mph fastball! The world’s longest kidney chain! "Human Centipede": Not that good! The “Troll 2” dentist! A "Mythbusters" cannonball pulls a Family Circus through the 'burbs! Firing ranges with racist targets! Boozy fruit flies! Babies learn faster than we thought! Will the Hangover baby be traumatized? Poorly researched name-dropping! Calling out your friend’s "ALF" lies! The magic healing power of magnets! John Glenn’s historic space flight! Buzz Aldrin: Ultimate badass!

Chelsea Lately's April Richardson (aprilrichardson.com) sits in with the boys to talk about: Brooks making his own "Drive" lab gloves! Ryan Gosling & Tom Brady: attractive? Science proves that booze makes you smarter! Brooks got some eyeball pieces in his mouth! Should all scientists just work on cancer? April hates space, went to Space Camp! Robot camel jockeys! And that's not racist! Swiss space janitors! Which Batman is your generation's Batman? Salman Rushdie's Red Shoe Diaries! April: class clown or class heckler? Brooks gives everyone 100%! Don't judge flying 'til you've tried it! $23 million textbooks! Dueling mathematicians! Fermat's last theorem! Brooks had too much positive reinforcement!

Comedian Kyle Kinane (kylekinane.com) joins Matt, Brooks and Andy to discuss: Sexy snakes! C. Everett Koop dissecting cats! Pangaea 2: Tokyo Drift! Aliens and atheists! Human hypersleep! How the zebra got its stripes! War dolphins! Loose shakers! Deadly farting lakes!

21 Jump Street's Johnny Pemberton (www.johnnypemberton.com) talks with us about: Subliminal science projects! Fallback jobs! Using monkeys to measure radiation! Who would last in a zombie apocalypse? Shutting down Occupy LA! Chimp attacks! Brooks’ helper monkey! Warmest cold year on record? 2011: not so good for weather catastrophes! The Bill of Rights! Brooks and Johnny love guns! The God particle! Old Testament science! First humans to leave Africa! Mnemonic devices! 100th anniversary of reaching the South Pole! Johnny loves Antarctica!

Matt's back, and we discuss: Horror movie bird flu! Are the Japanese whaling addicts? Brooks' borderline racist accents! Russian scientists disappear searching for prehistoric lake! Own your own drone! How big is that ice chunk? Turing's gayness pardoned!

What killed all those New Zealand whales? Shooting nudist colony videos! What’s your worst job? World’s lightest substance! Extraterrestrial real estate! A vacuum is not nothing? Barry’s Conan suit! We're gonna be astronauts! Space Camp! Galileo!

Comedian Mike Burns of the podcast Gentleman Scumbags (http://www.pantswise.com/scumbags/) Joins us to discuss: iPhone anger! It’s official: no secret government aliens! Why is Mike scared of quinceañera aliens? Spontaneously obese monkeys! Bob Seger! Squeezing into Air Jordans! Mike got stabbed in the back! Literally! Naming new elements! Dr. Guillotine!

Nick Rutherford (goodneighborstuff.com) joins us to discuss: Favorite dinosaurs! Land Before Time: documentary? Predicting gang violence with math! Fake Mars missions in Russian parking garages! The logic of gambling! Sending gold records to space! Arm wrestling documentaries! Did we find Scrat from Ice Age?

Matt, Brooks and Andy take on the week in science, delving into important matters including: Comet close calls! Speeding neutrinos! Turing test -- is Matt a robot? How about Andy? Space junk! Seals and kangaroos: cute or a nuisance? Did Columbus's arrival cool the earth? The Glassblower's Oath: Thou shalt not make a bong. Murderers for science!