Probably Science

Comic/actress Marianne Sierk (@MarianneSierk) of Tru TV and the upcoming reboot of Best Week Ever joins Matt, Andy and Jesse Case this week to discuss: The surplus of exposition in Lincoln! Impressions of Breaking Bad characters! Historical spoilers! The downside of co-education! Marianne's wiccan phase! The OCD nature of religion! D'Nealian and mumblety-peg! Finding your mother's diaphragm! Insec...

Comedian and actor TJ Miller (twitter.com/nottjmiller) hosts Comedy Central's new show Mash Up, co-hosts the hilarious podcast Cashing In with TJ Miller, and has been a scene-stealer in movies and TV shows too numerous to mention. Matt, Brooks, and Andy venture to his loft this week to talk about: Being a fan of high school theater productions! Andy and Matt's competing Movember 'staches! Dad teac...

Comedian Taylor Williamson (taylorwilliamson.com) of Last Comic Standing joins Matt and Andy this week to talk about: Election results! Bad presidential impressions! The historic Alex Theatre! Jeopardy! Novelizations of Jim Carrey movies! Acid rain experiments! Fake anti-Semitism! Beakman's World! Grapple forks and rock buckets! Watching Simon Pegg movies with subtitles! Show-off sharks! Aladdin s...

Actor/comedian and host of the Travel Tales podcast Mike Siegel (funnymike.com) joins Matt, Brooks and Andy on a lovely November afternoon to discuss: Favorite Boogie Nights scenes! Brooks Skywalker! Matt's Movember mustache! The Iowa wrestling legacy! Pick-up grappling! The unifying power of soccer! Mike's scientist parents! The venomous, egg-laying, otter-footed, beaver-tailed, duck-billed platy...

Writer/comedian Chip Pope (Austin Stories, Beavis & Butthead, Last Comic Standing) joins Andy, Brooks, and Jesse Case (twitter.com/jessecase) for this week's Probably Science, with a spook-tacularly unnecessary intro courtesy of the built-in effects on the mixing board. Topics discussed include: Working with Mike Judge! Luke and Owen Wilson: Actually brothers? The upcoming Probably History spinoff...

Comedians Josh Cheney (twitter.com/JoshCheenee) and Dax Jordan (twitter.com/DaxJordan) join Andy and Brooks this week to talk about: King Tuff vs. Pearl Jam! The Hot House comedy show! Josh's role as Professor Kelp on The Homework Show! Dax vs. Josh in Weird Al fandom! Watching Armageddon and grabbing boobs! Celery-based science fair projects! Dax's disappointing attempt at crossbreeding carrots!...

Emery Emery, host of the podcasts The Ardent Atheist (ardentatheist.com) and Skeptically Yours (skepticallyyours.net), makes his first Probably Science appearance with a full cast of Matt, Andy, and Brooks to talk about: The origin of Probably Science! Andy putting his foot in his mouth on Emery's podcast! Neil Young burying the Skynyrd hatchet! Blowing up a rat with 8 M-80s! The Bogdanov Affair!...

The gang's all here! Pride of Portland and recent Los Angeles transplant Richard Bain joins Matt, Brooks, and Andy to talk about: Scaring Dave Chappelle! The greatness of Undeclared! Matt and Andy trying to convince Richard and Brooks to vote! Brooks gets his tattoo covered to host Comedy Central's upcoming Retro Weekend! The aphrodisiac effects of Troll 2! What if Hitler was into troll dolls? Blo...

Matt and Brooks are out of town, so we're bringing you a lost episode with Hampton Yount (hamptonyount.com) recorded in December of 2011. Enjoy this glimpse into the not-to-distant past... A simpler time... A time when we only had one microphone. Seriously, though, it's a good episode, even if the science stories are a bit out of date. Enjoy!

Andy Haynes (imandyhaynes.com) came up in the Pacific Northwest comedy scene before making his mark on Fallon and Conan, and he joins Brooks, Andy, and guest co-hosts Auggie Smith (auggiesmith.com) and Alice Wetterlund (alicewetterlund.com) to talk about: Getting the star treatment for late night sets! Andy Richter's cartoonist brother-in-law Tony Millionaire! The sobering effects of the Bridgetow...

You've seen the very funny Mark Agee (twitter.com/MarkAgee) on Last Comic Standing, and he makes his Probably Science debut this week, joining Andy and a fresh-off-the-plane Matt Kirshen to talk about: Performering at  the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! Taking Brooks's grown-up appliances! Living in comedian squalor! Putting a wrench in the works of conversations! Nash equilibria! Game theory! Why do...

LA-based comedy team Power Violence (facebook.com/powerviolencecomedy) host one of the best weekly comedy shows in town, and they're now Brooks's roommates as well. Andy and Brooks do an on-site recording at the new residence to talk with Whitmer, Rodney, Budd, and Clay about: The magic of Andrew WK! Living down the street from Booger from Revenge of the Nerds!  Hurricane preparedness! Setting you...

Comedian Shane Mauss (shanemauss.com), as seen on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Conan, joins Brooks and Andy on a lovely Labor Day weekend afternoon to discuss: Summer surfing! Comedy about time travel! Evolutionary psychology, A.K.A. science about dicks! Wisconsin's extreme drinking claims! Michio Kaku, the less-optimistic Ray Kurzweil! Dumbing-down the science portions of your standup act! Blowing up m...

Baron Vaughn (baronvaughn.com) of Fairly Legal, Conan, and Fallon makes his first Probably Science appearance as he helps Brooks, Andy, and guest co-host Jesse Case figure out: Ways to straighten teeth! Which parts of Des Moines are New Jack City! 50 Shades of Dorian Gray! Oppenheimer/Bhagavad Gita quotes! OJ Simpson chase memories! Super-fertility causing miscarriage! Brooks scares off Mumford &...

It looks like Summer Country has drawn to a premature close, and we bring Julian McCullough, co-host of the upcoming E! show Love You Mean It with Whitney Cummings, along to help us come to terms with that. Auggie Smith also guest co-hosts, helping Brooks and Andy get to the bottom of: Lies told on This American Life! Hitting on girls in chemistry class! Andy recants his anti-Cornell statements! J...

As seen on Last Comic Standing and Girls Behaving Badly, comedian Kira Soltanovich (kiracomedy.com) joins Matt, Andy, and guest host Auggie Smith to talk about: Shift workers are at risk for heart attacks! Heckles worse than "Too soon!" Siphoning out the contents of Rod Stewart's stomach! Auto-erotic self-asphyxiation! Fixing the hellmouth hot tub! The mysteries of Branson, Missouri! What does Per...

Actor and comedian Guy Branum (guybranum.com) of No Strings Attached and Chelsea Lately joins Matt, Andy, and guest co-host Jesse Case (twitter.com/jessecase) this week as they discuss: Rural sociology! Wasting a law degree! Calling out Guns, Germs and Steel! Quinoa: Not just for Incans anymore! What makes us fat: diet or lack of exercise? Andy's swimming past! Acai, antioxidants, and free radical...

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 beek...

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...

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? P...

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...

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 gr...

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 biol...

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 s...