Rabbit Hole of Research

In the 74th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, and Georgia are joined by guest Erin C. Anthony, an evolutionary ecologist and science communicator, to continue their Spider-Man villain series with a deep dive into chimeras: part myth, part Handwavium, and recently part reality. The crew kicks off explaining what a chimera is? And is Spider-Man one? They explore the science behind why y...

Joe, Nick, and Georgia are back in the Basement Studio — well, sort of. Georgia is remoting in from the American Library Association conference in Chicago, and Nick is in his office. Joe is holding down the Basement Studio solo. The band is together in spirit. In Episode 73: The Mini: the RHR crew recaps Part 1 of the Spider-Man villains series: Lab Safety (EP 72) episode featuring Tera Lavoie, Ph...

In Episode 72 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary are joined by returning guest Tera Lavoie, PhD, cell biologist, electron microscopist, and the Advanced Electron Microscopy core facility’s lab safety director. This episode kicks off the 3 episode Spider-Man Villain Series, and we’re starting where it all goes wrong, the lab. It turns out many of Spider-Man’s villains are a ca...

In Episode 71: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 70: Nazca Lines of Peru and Crop Circles featuring guest Lorena Salinas, Peruvian artist and owner of Jose’s Family Restaurant in Highland, Indiana. The crew reflects on the episode’s deeper theme, how culture shapes perspective, and how something small can change your entire relationship to a place. Joe follows up on a comment about fi...

In Episode 70 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome special guest Lorena Salinas, Peruvian artist, architectural drafter, entrepreneur, and owner of Jose’s Family Restaurant in Highland, Indiana, to dig into one of archaeology’s greatest mysteries: the Nazca Lines of Peru. Lorena, born and raised in Peru, shares her unique cultural perspective and walks the crew through...

In Episode 69: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 68: The Hive Mind , featuring return guest Wes Thorn, revisiting the lively debate over individuality versus collective culture, echo chambers, and whether anyone would actually join the hive. Nick finally watched a few episodes of Plur1bus , but didn’t stay with it. Georgia talks about Alex’s Substack comment on how different cultures...

In the 68th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, from the Basement Studio, Joe, Nick, Georgia, Mary, and returning guest Wes Thorn (last seen defending the Simulation Hypothesis in Episode 26 ) dive into one of science fiction’s most unsettling concepts: the hive mind. It starts with a simple question: is the private voice inside your skull really yours? From there the crew tumbles down the rabbit...

In Episode 67: “The Mini,” Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 66: Saving Earth From Other Worldly Impact . The crew talks about, Episode 66 guest, Charles Blue’s First Light Con, the world’s first science and engineering fandom convention coming in 2027, Joe’s upcoming panel schedule at ConCarolinas in Charlotte (May 29th-31st), a correction from Nick about Bruce Willis, and a May 23rd DIY podca...

In Episode 66 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome Charles Blue, a science writer with over 35 years of experience in astronomy, Earth science, and science communications. Charles serves as Executive Communications Strategist for NASA’s Exploration Directorate, and has participated in tabletop exercises that simulate real government responses to potentially hazardous ne...

In Episode 65: “The Mini,” Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 64: Living Underground: Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial and still talking about their excitement for the Artemis II mission, which successfully flew around the Moon and back, with only a minor toilet malfunction along the way. They preview the upcoming planetary defense episode with guest Charles Blue, and break down what comes next...

In the 64th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, from the Basement Studio, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome rocket scientist, engineer, and a planetary geophysicist who studied lava tubes and volcanoes, Ernie Bell (currently a Spacecraft Flight Crew Operations Engineer at Blue Origin, and formerly a NASA Extravehicular Activities flight controller and crew trainer) to dig into one of science fi...

In Episode 63: “The Mini”, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 62: Fear, Phobias, and Splatterpunk: When Terror Becomes Entertainment and share their road trip to Slay the Lake, an LGBTQ+ horror book festival at the Final Girl Bar in Kenosha, plus a stop at the Milwaukee Zine Fest on the way. The crew shares a listener recommendation from Alex, John Wiswell’s 2024 novel Someone You Can Build a Ne...

In the 62nd episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, and Georgia welcome splatterpunk author Phrique to the Basement Studio to dig into one of horror’s most primal questions: what separates a debilitating phobia from a Tuesday night movie with friends? Starting with the ancient alarm system wired into every human brain, the crew explores the neuroscience of fear’s two pathways; the lightning...

In Episode 61: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia revisit their conversation from Episode 60: Lassoing the Truth Serum with retired Purdue Northwest philosophy professor David Detmer, where they explored truth, self-deception, and the uncomfortable science of knowing what’s real, and how your own brain might be the least reliable narrator in the room. The crew follows up on a few threads from the fu...

In the 60th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Mary, and Georgia are joined by retired Purdue Northwest philosophy professor David Detmer, PhD to discuss with one of the oldest and slipperiest questions in human history, what is truth, and how do we find it? Starting with Wonder Woman’s golden lasso and the fascinating science of the left-brain interpreter, the crew explores how our mi...

In Episode 59: The Mini: Joe, Nick, and Georgia revisit their conversation from Episode 58: The Science of Chatbots & Human Connection with the amazing plasticgrapes duo, Lily (MIT Computational Cognitive Scientist) and Generoso (Illustrator and Film Critic), in that episode they talked about how we know chatbots are “just math” predicting words, yet we can’t shake that “human” feeling that they a...

In the 58th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, and Georgia are joined by Lily (MIT Computational Cognitive Scientist and Writer) and Generoso (Illustrator and Film Critic)—the comics duo behind plasticgrapes —to explore where artificial intelligence meets human connection, and whether chatbots reveal more about machines or about ourselves. The conversation starts with the fundamentals:...

In this episode of The Mini, Joe, Georgia, and a virtual Nick (recovering from norovirus) revisit their conversation, Episode 56: Medicine of the Future with fantasy author and physician Davis Ashura, emphasizing his key message: your best health starts in your kitchen, not your doctor’s office, and focusing on health span (quality of years) over lifespan (quantity of years). This forked into a co...

In the 56th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, and Georgia are joined by Davis Ashura, endocrinologist, epic fantasy author, and creator of the Anchored Worlds universe, to explore where magical healing meets medical reality. Davis brings a unique dual perspective: treating chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension by day, and writing epic fantasy with detailed healing systems by...

In this mini recap of Episode 55: Directed Energy Weapons , the RHR crew recaps their conversation with guest Bruce Landay about the science (and Handwavium) behind energy weapons. They break down natural EMP events: lightning, meteoric, and coronal mass ejections that could knock out power grids, how Faraday cages protect airplanes from electromagnetic interference, why the El Paso laser incident...

In the 55th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and new co-host Mary are joined by guest Bruce Landay, former US Air Force officer and author of the upcoming near-future military techno-thriller Electromagnetic Assault (out April 7th), for a deep dive into directed energy weapons, the science, the fiction, and everything in between. And this isn’t just science fiction Handwaviu...

In this mini recap of Episode 54 : What’s Love Got to Do With It?, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap their conversation with guest Joe Compton about the science and magic of love. Joe, as promised in the Episode 54, discusses human pheromones, the challenges of researching sex pheromones in humans, and the McClintock effect (menstrual cycle synchronization among women. The crew discusses the cultural o...

In the 54th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research , a special Valentine’s episode, Joe, Nick, and Georgia are joined by guest Joe Compton, independent author, filmmaker, and creator of Go Indie Now, for an exploration of love in all its forms. What is love, really? Strip away the poetry and you’re left with chemistry: dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin, and endorphins firing neural circuits in predictab...

In this mini recap of Episode 53 , Joe, Georgia, and Nick revisit their conversation with Roland Pitts, author of Salvation Protocol and former army officer turned cybersecurity expert, about the massive challenge of building a space ark and restarting civilization on a new world. The crew reflects on selecting 1,000 people and 1,000 resources for humanity’s survival, and discuss the practical rea...

In this 53rd episode of Rabbit Hole of Research , Joe, Nick, and Georgia welcome guest Roland Pitts, author of Salvation Protocol , to discuss the monumental challenge of space arks and colonizing new worlds. Roland, a former army officer now working in cybersecurity, shares insights into his sci-fi thriller where aliens warn Earth of hostile forces, prompting a secret mission to select 1,000 peop...