Probably Science

Professor Sophie Scott ( @sophiescott ) of University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience welcomes Matt and past guest Nick Doody  ( @NickDoody ) to her office to discuss her research on the neural basis of human speech processing, and specifically her study of laughter .

Podcaster , host and science communicator Alie Ward ( @alieward ) appears with Matt and Andy on  Science Channel 's upcoming How To Build Everything (premiering June 22nd at 10pm) and she makes her first appearance on the podcast to discuss supernumerary nipples , McNuggetinis , owl pellet mouse skeletons, a third lizard sex ,  an inflatable space station room , Alie's aeronautic training, antibio...

Software engineer and Google employee John Eric Hoffman welcomes Matt and Andy to his house (next door to Todd Glass's, coincidentally) to talk about machine learning, neural networks, Maxwell's Demon , DeepDream , natural language processing and the recent short sci-fi film written by AI (and co-starring past guest Humphrey Ker).

This episode was taped live at the 2016 Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Oregon, with Matt and Andy welcoming comedian/environmental engineer Ella Gale ( @hellakale ) and author/ podcaster / @BitchMedia editor Sarah Mirk ( @sarahmirk ) to discuss gender biases in science reporting, women in science (and comedy) and why it's hard to make bagels when it's hot outside.

Popular science author Mary Roach 's ( @mary_roach ) books have tackled a wide variety of topics including  sex , the afterlife ,  digestion  and space travel .  In her soon-to-be-released book Grunt , she takes on the curious science of humans at war, delving into combat medic training, stink bombs, genital transplant surgery, the war on heat, shark repellant and diarrhea as a threat to national...

Comedian/rapper/writer Zach Sherwin ( @ZachSherwin ) can be seen on Epic Rap Battles of History , among many other places, and he joins Matt and Andy to talk about writing a JAP battle rap battle on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend , p-branes, playing Einstein , the new Ghostbusters script , Andy's bidet, magician hacks and Joel Hodgson's ventriloquism mask invention , Shy Tony , silver underwear , John Oliver...

Fahim Anwar ( @fahimanwar ) recently made his first appearance on Conan  as well as the Tina Fey movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and he joins Matt and Andy to discuss birthday escape rooms, engineering degrees to subsidize comedy, bringing people back from the dead , more head transplant news , archaeology vs. paleontology,  another EM Drive debunking  from Sean Carroll, tons of oral spider sex , enz...

Comedy's Andrew Michaan ( @AndrewMichaan ) joins Matt and Andy to talk about Andy's Lemonade ignorance, c elebrity deaths,  Catholic aliens, black holes , the  Large Hadron Collider , bed bugs , a penis spider bite , IUDs in space  and jellyfish stings .

April Richardson ( @apey ) of Almost Genius , Go Bayside and @midnight joins Matt and Andy to talk about living next door to The Flash, Johnny Depp's Aussie apology , Orson Welles' Paul Masson ad , Dyson face , Andy’s possible bidet purchase , a dung-based clue to Hannibal’s crossing route , a paralyzed man (sort of) playing guitar , dinosaurs  and their eggs and a real-time re-creation of the sin...

Comedian/actors Jon Huck ( @jonhuck ) and Sunah Bilsted ( @thesunah ) join Matt and Andy to talk about showering techniques, new pets, that Warner Bros. frog, chemistry on acid, a Carl Sagan tribute act, the historic SpaceX landing , hyperhidrosis, antiperspirant conspiracies , a too-stealthy sea vessel , the upcoming book Grunt , Hawking and the Russians sending a tiny craft to Alpha Centauri , a...

Jason Belleville ( @bigbelleville ) has written for Ground Floor and Angie Tribeca , among many other shows, and he joins Matt and Andy to discuss mustaches and tattoos, academic papers, encyclopedias , Stan and Donavan Freberg, using giant lasers to hide from aliens , grammar correction  and being an asshole , Andy getting a thing wrong, growing skin and nude mice , a battery-operated salty fork...

Comedians Jessica Michelle Singleton ( @JMScomedy ) and Christina Walkinshaw ( @walkinsauce ) join Matt and Andy to discuss bachelor parties, dating, Alaska, super coffee, Google’s April Fools, Microsoft AI , a scientifically impossible Indiegogo , Edx.org's free learning, Vasalgel in rabbits , butt stuff, bunnies in wine glasses , rabbit kidneys , long term good drug effects and fracking-induced...

Tom Bell ( @tombellforever ) of The Leisure Class/Project Greenlight and comedy duo Tommy and the Weeks joins Matt and Andy for a bedroom recording involving a call from a private investigator, Boaty McBoatface , Diana and Mother Teresa, Bob the Robot and Horrible Science, following our robot overlords to disaster , unscrambling eggs to cure cancer , an academic paper that cites The Creator, a vid...

Original Probably Science co-hosts Jesse Case  ( @jessecase ) and Brooks Wheelan  ( @brookswheelan ) return to the show to celebrate Episode 200!

Rick Rosner  ( @dumbassgenius ) has the second-highest IQ score in the world, and his resume  includes stints as a bouncer, a stripper, a nude art model and a writer on numerous TV shows. Rick joins Matt, Andy and returning guest Dax Jordan  ( @daxjordan ) to discuss  What3Words , xkcd's take on passwords , IQ tests, Rick's Errol Morris interview , spending ten years in high school, stupid Califor...

Alice Wetterlund ( @alicewetterlund ) of Silicon Valley and Girl Code joins Matt and Andy to discuss Equinox, aliens, Star Trek, why humans have chins , navigating in Ghana , space lasers and exploding e-cigarettes .

Dr. Chiara Mingarelli ( @gravitate_to_me ), a Marie Curie Fellow in gravitational wave astrophysics at Caltech, joins the proceedings to talk about low-frequency gravitational waves, pulsar timings arrays and black hole binary systems with masses that are billions of times that of the Sun. This episode was recorded before LIGO's recent announcements confirming the detection of gravitational waves.

One of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of our time calls for an emergency special episode featuring returning guests Dr. Jamie Rollins and Dr. Larry Price , both of whom worked on LIGO, the device that for the first time in history confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, along with theoretical astrophysicist and black hole expert Dr. Janna Levin . Topics discussed include Matt's surpr...

Ingrid Oliver ( @ingridoliver100 ) of Watson & Oliver and Doctor Who joins Matt and Andy to discuss pengwings, Germans who can't pronounce squirrel, umlaut words, plastination, bees and weather, sniffer bees , a stupid new drug law , first class flight, anti-aging , the Zika virus, how we’ll all die, and ball-packing and avalanches .

Maude Garrett ( @maudegarrett ) of SourceFedNERD and Geek Bomb joins Andy  ( @andytwood ) and Matt  ( @mattkirshen ) to discuss the weather, Marge, the rains are here , Foley artists, weird childhood memorization, geek vs. nerd diagrams , the ending of Grease and Jurassic Park , a computer that beat a Go champion , E-sports, a new planet , a new HIV treatment , how quickly conspiracies would revea...

Matt and Andy welcome comedy's Maria Shehata ( @MariaShehata ) and Nick Dixon  ( @nickdixxon ) to the show to talk about the discovery of penicillin, vaginal steaming , poop transplant pills , autism and gut flora , standing on escalators , man/woman flu , why hangovers get worse as you age , and bringing a tortoise species back to life .

MythBusters' Adam Savage  ( @donttrythis ) and musical comedy duo extraordinaire Paul and Storm  ( @paulandstorm ) join Matt ( @mattkirshen ) and Andy ( @andytwood ) for a live performance at the California Academy of Sciences  ( @calacademy ) as part of SF Sketchfest  ( @SFSketchfest ), discussing science myths that won't die, Billy Joel videos , our overeducated audience, soaking kiwis and the w...

Matt and Andy are back from a holiday hiatus to welcome Last Comic Standing alum Ryan Conner ( @rccomedy ) to the podcast, delving into topics including the passing of David Bowie, Alvin Stardust , British pantomimes, American and British Gladiators, computer programming, Andy Sidaris movies , a mountain lion with horrifying teeth growing out of its head , praying mantises in 3D glasses , wine sto...

With Jesse and Matt still out of town, Andy invited friends of the show TJ Chambers, Rylee Newton, Travis Clark, Karl Hess, Laura House, Jackie Kashian and Mitch Burrow to give recommendations on things from 2015 that are worth checking out. Enjoy this attempt at positivity and please forgive the poor sound quality and near-constant crosstalk. We'll be back with new episodes soon! Happy 2016!

SF Sketchfest co-founder and Pop My Culture co-host Cole Stratton ( @colestratton ) joins Andy and Matt to discuss the upcoming Probably Science SF Sketchfest show on January 14th with Adam Savage , academic decathlons, bringing spoiled wine back to life , Phineas Gage , Strange Bedfellows  and Chuck and Larry , Hogan vs. Sandler, the Amber neighbor mystery, an old satellite that came back to life...