Probably Science

Comedian and actor Marcus Brigstocke ( @marcusbrig ) joins Andy and Matt to discuss blowing things up in school, puckle guns, coordinated electric eel attacks , solving the mystery of butterfly flight , separating dire wolf fact from fiction and giving shrooms to pigs .

Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek ( @FrankWilczek ), author of the new book Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality , joins Matt and Andy to talk about the work that earned him a Nobel Prize, as well as his book, which delves into the essential concepts that form our understanding of how the universe works, digging into fundamental ideas like time, space, matter, energy, complexity and complementarity. This...

Comedian Ed Byrne ( @MrEdByrne ) joins Matt and Andy to discuss spiteful octopuses punching fish , using AI to solve protein structures , why recycling doesn't happen as much anymore (and Taiwan's amazing waste turnaround ), and Europe's plan for a space claw to capture orbiting junk . This episode is brought to you by  The Great Courses Plus , offering Probably Science listeners a free 14-day tri...

Author, podcaster and behavioral economist Dr. Peter McGraw ( @PeterMcGraw ) returns to the show to talk with Matt and Andy about behavioral economics, cognitive biases, hellish comedy gigs, the science of humor, The Philadelphia Incident , Peter's new book Schtick to Business , stigmas surrounding unmarried life, flaws in happiness studies, how to support an aging populace that isn't being replac...

Returning guest Alex Schmidt ( @AlexSchmidty ) of the podcast Secretly Incredibly Fascinating joins Andy and Matt to swap Jeopardy stories and discuss Doug the cat ruining equipment, grapefruit facts, The Ray Cat Solution to use glowing cats to warn future humans about radioactive waste , the monolith in Utah , Europa's mysterious glow  and a beetle you can run over with a car . This episode is br...

Comedian Megan Gailey ( @megangailey ) joins Matt and Andy to talk about honeybees flying sideways , acoustic camouflage on earless moths , new moon rocks , meatless diets and brittle bones , the coolest dinosaur skeletons ever , fossil-hunting laws and Megan's podcast The Greatest .

Producer and current Jeopardy champion Charlie Fonville ( @charliefonville ) joins Matt and Andy , whose four-day Jeopardy streak Charlie put an end to just yesterday, to talk about sharing the stage with the legendary Alex Trebek, the game theory of Jeopardy, including Daily Double and Final Jeopardy betting strategies , the Two-Thirds Rule , and Andy's odd-seeming bet when facing Stratton's Dile...

Comedian Alex Falcone ( @alex_falcone ) of the podcast Read It and Weep ( and a great NASA rejection letter ) joins Andy and Matt to talk about why Benford's Law doesn't apply to election data , Hamburglar voting irregularities , Andy's upcoming Jeopardy appearance (this Monday, November 16th), whether or not Alex Falcone was named after Alex Trebek, some good news on using psilocybin to treat dep...

Comedian James Austin Johnson ( @shrimpJAJ ) returns to the podcast after a seven-year hiatus to talk about dinosaur butts ,  water on the moon , cell phone networks on the moon , shocking your tongue to cure tinnitus ... and for some reason President Donald J. Trump happens to call in to give his take on Sega Genesis reboots and lame duck hunts.

Author Michael Marshall ( @m_c_marshall ) joins Matt and Andy to talk about his new book The Genesis Quest , which explores the century-long effort to understand how life began on Earth and the many interesting characters who dedicated themselves to solving this massive scientific puzzle. This episode is brought to you by  The Great Courses Plus , offering Probably Science listeners a free trial w...

Comedian John Hastings ( @thejohnhastings ) joins Andy and Matt to talk about the questionable comedy of Roy Chubby Brown , neanderthal genes and covid-19 , water bodies under the surface of Mars , and using balanced rocks to increase nuclear safety . This episode is brought to you by  The Great Courses Plus , offering Probably Science listeners a free trial with unlimited access by visiting  TheG...

Comedian Gene Pompa ( @genepompa ) joins Matt and Andy to discuss methanol-fueled robot beetles , super long words , methylated alcohol , why the moon is rusting , smartphones knowing when you're drunk-walking and corn that makes its own mucus .

The gang's back together to celebrate 400 episodes of Probably Science! Erstwhile hosts Jesse Case ( @jessecase ) and Brooks Wheelan ( @brookswheelan ) join Matt and Andy to discuss counting magicians, Jesse's proximity to train tracks, Ig Nobel prizes for alligators on helium and narcissist eyebrows , detecting phosphine in the clouds of Venus , finding super old sperm in amber , an earthquake ha...

Jesse Case rejoins the show for a cancer special with science writer Dr. Kat Arney ( @Kat_Arney ), author of Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution, and the New Science of Life's Oldest Betrayal . This episode is brought to you by  The Great Courses Plus , offering Probably Science listeners a free trial with unlimited access by visiting  TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/probably

Comedian Jen Burton ( @jensburpin ) joins Matt and Andy to discuss Africa getting rid of wild polio , painting turbine blades to save birds , a Jeopardy furry champ, an uncuttable material and Idyllwild's very good boy Mayor Max .

Mia Jackson ( @miacomedy ) join Matt and Andy to talk about old-time casino heists, asteroids that are the greatest basketball player of all time , ancient Americans , songbirds warming up and 100-million-year-old microbes that are still alive . Check out Mia's performances on Unprotected Sets  on Epix, and her Comedy Central half hour . This episode is brought to you by  The Great Courses Plus ,...

Despite a technical glitch, the excellent Adam Cayton-Holland ( @CaytonHolland ), star of Those Who Can't, the new podcast The Grawlix Saves The World , and his new album Semblance of Normalcy , talks with Andy and Matt about the word stentorian , Earth's magnetic anomaly , scientific collaborations and X shapes in the galaxy , finding out there's more than one foot , the threat of swooping magpie...

Writer, actress and story coach Lynn Ferguson ( @lynnfergy ) joins Matt and Andy to talk about house snooping and fountain misuse, chickens, wasps in figs , coyote melons, spying on penguin poop , Andy's hiking discovery , painting eyes on cow butts and whether hot water freezes faster than cold . Check out Michelle Biloon's album Permanent Hat and Sara Schaefer's book Grand !

Matt's Last Comic Standing buddy (and Season 5 winner) Jon Reep @jonreep joins Matt and Andy to talk about getting COVID, meteors and moons , Shazam for spiders , anus-escaping water beetles , unusual places to grow a penis , medieval antibiotics , Jon's new podcast Country-ish and this totally independent, unbiased ranking of podcasts that we hope to break. This episode is brought to you by  The...

Improv and comedy acting legend Mike McShane ( @thismikemcshane ) joins Matt and Andy to talk about the funniest kind of nudity, cognitive impairment tests, the limits of human eating , the star that's hurtling across the universe , a sperm robot story we've done before , and mathematicians boycotting the police . This episode is brought to you by  The Great Courses Plus , offering Probably Scienc...

Comedian Jonah Ray ( @jonahray ), host of Jonah Raydio and co-guest with Matt on TONIGHT'S episode of The Great Debate on Syfy, talks about his great Seeso show Hidden America , taking over MST3K  (and his favorite episode ), how flying snakes fly , hungry hungry black holes , Twitter hacks and Bitcoin scams , talking to prairie dogs and the coming population crash . This episode is brought to you...

Comedian Steph Tolev ( @StephTolev ) joins Andy and Matt from Toronto to discuss quarantining and TikTok-ing with her family , the history of sled dogs , a black neutron star discovery , putting sheep in K-holes  and a $23 million space toilet .

Comedian and host of the outstanding podcast Scattered Chris Garcia ( @_chrisgarcia ) joins Matt and Andy to discuss getting a little too much parental help with science fair projects, dolphins using tools , 3D printing inside the body  and how burning coal 250 million years ago led to climate change . This episode is brought to you by  The Great Courses Plus , offering Probably Science listeners...

Comedian, swimmer and math major Matthew Broussard ( @mondaypunday ) joins Andy and Matt to talk about linear algebra, swimming , neanderthal DNA , DNA degradation , Alex Falcone's NASA career , ancient Irish one-percenters , twins marrying twins and twin paternity tests . This episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus , offering Probably Science listeners a free trial with unlimited acc...

Comedian Jake Johannsen ( @Jakethis ) of the podcast Jake This joins Andy and Matt to discuss an herbal would-be COVID-19 remedy out of Madagascar , why men and women experience alcohol differently , alcohol's lack of protection against COVID-19  and appearing on Dr. Katz .