Probably Science

The hilarious Jesse Popp  ( @JessePopp ) joins Matt and Andy to talk about his former life as a blackjack card-counter, a newly discovered tessellating pentagon , Penrose tiling , Fermat's Last Theorem, space lettuce , giant marrows , angry people in local newspapers , pumpkins smashing cars, a goat-throwing festival , dreamy eye movements , brain-scanning software , Hannibal's mask prototypes , b...

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...

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...

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 comprehen...

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 h...

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...

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 mov...

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 probablyscience@gmail.com 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 uni...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 "sc...

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 woun...

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 abo...

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, o...

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 sil...

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 an...

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 an...

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 teas...

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...

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.