SciShow Tangents

No, your eyes and ears don't deceive you - this is, in fact, a super special cross-feed treat from our friends over at Crash Course in the form of the first episode of their brand new show, "Crash Course Pods: The Universe." Hosted by novelist John Green and astrophysicist Dr. Katie Mack, "The Universe" is a podcast about the history of the entire universe, from its explosive beginnings to its mys...

We do a lot of learning on Tangents, so naturally, we've got questions about what learning looks like...for machines! AI and machine learning science communicator Jordan Harrod (https://www.youtube.com/@jordanharrod) lends her expertise to this episode as we definitely for sure learn all there is to know and will ever need to be known about machine learning, algorithms, and AI. Definitely we got a...

Another wild teaser appears! This little snippet is the first part of our revisit of Hygiene and answering even more questions that we didn't get to in the episode. You can listen to the rest, and also a bunch more bonus content, on our Patreon. It's one of the best ways you can support the show and keep Tangents going and free for everyone. Head over to Patreon.com/scishowtangents and join in all...

Devotees of the testudines rejoice! Whether you have one as a pet, admire them at the zoo, or giggle with the rest of the internet when they rock each other off logs, chances are high, we think, that you like turtles. We like turtles! And conveniently for us, turtle science is also extremely cool, so this was basically an ideal episode to make. Enjoy! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.yout...

A wild teaser appears! This little snippet is the first part of our revisit of Big vs. Small and answering even more questions that we didn't get to in the episode. You can listen to the rest, and also a bunch more bonus content, on our Patreon. It's one of the best ways you can support the show and keep Tangents going and free for everyone. Head over to Patreon.com/scishowtangents and join in all...

From expressing ourselves through fashion to protecting ourselves from the elements, textiles seem to be self-evidently significant to the human experience. But it's our goal on Tangents to always poke holes in the obvious, tear through distraction, and weave humor with knowledge - and the facts this episode will blow your cotton-poly blend socks off. SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.yout...

It may be well-known that hope is the thing with feathers, but how much is known about feathers themselves? Turns out, plenty! From shrub grouses to shuttlecocks and all the pea-babies (diminutive for peacocks, definitely for sure) in between, come soar on the delightfully complex wings of knowledge with us! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this ep...

Trash, rubbish, waste, refuse...we have a lot of words for the gunk that goes on the truck, because whether we like it or not, humans make a lot of garbage. Get comfy with some grossness as we root around in garbage's past, present, and future. We're all on a path, you guys! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seei...

Oops, all science this episode! Erstwhile editorial assistant Deboki Chakravarti steps in for erstwhile everyman Sam Schultz as we parse through fundamental puzzles about humanity: what makes us, us, and if it is hormones, does that make us cocktails or cauldrons? SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our face...

It's the long-awaited cheese-stravaganza! And it's every bit as melty, crumbly, stretchy, and stinky as hoped for. We dip into some fetamology, we stretch our nokkeledge of cheese applications, and we unwrap the shocking tartrutho about a cheese we thought we knew!* *The real cheese names I butchered into puns: feta, nokkelost, tartuffo. All delicious, go try some! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube!...

The question plaguing us this episode is, how dark can it really get? Turns out (according to some), not that dark! Unless you're at the bottom of the ocean or floating in the all too-eerie void of deep space, you're always gonna have some photons hitting your face. (I'm pretty sure I accidentally stole this rhyme right out of Hank's poem, but you'll just have to listen to know for sure...)  SciSh...

In this not-so-chill episode, everybody gets a little unsettled by the concepts around refrigeration. Quantum computers, thermoacoustics, molecular chemistry, elephants, the phantom letter "d" that gets added to the shortening of refrigeration...it's all just. So much. SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our...

Do you hear what I hear? Probably not, because in this episode, we're bringing things down several notches to learn about quiet. Does it have a scientific definition? Is it all just relative? Should crickets have podcasts? Join us as we (ok, maybe not so) quietly contemplate quiet. SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus...

Oil: it's a ubiquitous substance humans have been relying on for longer than you might think. We cook with it, we moisturize with it, we run machines with it - it keeps slipping into places we least expect to find it, for good and for ill...  SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!  Head to www.patreo...

What's that you spy on the horizon, just out of sight? If you have a telescope handy, you can hone your gaze on...more telescopes! From pocket spyglasses to Extremely Large (a real telescope name), join us and special guest Julian Huguet as we set our sights on the far-reaching world of these incredible devices. How we wonder what they are... SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/s...

Click here to check out the limited-time-only Tangents t-shirt inspired by this episode! https://store.dftba.com/products/shirt-of-the-month-shrimp-battery Batteries are all around us, in things we use all the time, and in all different shapes and sizes, so of course we know exactly how they all work, right? Nope! Not even close! The bizarre breadth of our battery banter includes Ben Franklin, tin...

Trick or Treat Month returns... and this time it's personal! Join us for another month of spooky themes and special surprise guest apparitions! Try not to get too scared! And so we close the ancient, flesh-bound spell book on another Trick or Treat Month... but we're going out on top, baby! Alexis Nikole Nelson has appeared, as if by magic, to lead us into the deep, dark woods and point out all th...

Trick or Treat Month returns... and this time it's personal! Join us for another month of spooky themes and special surprise guest apparitions! Try not to get too scared! Our yearly cavalcade of terror rolls on with a new Grand Marshall of Terror: podcaster, author, and mad genius Dan Schreiber! And he's here to tell us about the weirdest, creepiest, most otherworldly theories ever devised of! The...

Trick or Treat Month returns... and this time it's personal! Join us for another month of spooky themes and special surprise guest apparitions! Try not to get too scared! This year's ghastly Grand Guignol of science and screams begins at the end: the tomb! And we dug up an old friend, Dimension 20 's Siobhan Thompson, to guide us deep into the cursed catacombs of knowledge!  SciShow Tangents is on...

Visit HENSONSHAVING.com/TANGENTS to pick the razor for you and use code TANGENTS and you’ll get two years' worth of blades free!  A big part of being a human is that you get progressively more gross as the day goes on. Various parts start stinking, hair grows all over your face, you're touching who-knows-what... luckily for all of us, someone a long time ago decided to invent hygiene! Otherwise we...

Sam's out this week, but worry not: he found another Sam to replace him! Sam Jones, host of the podcast Tiny Matters that is! Sam and her co-host, our own Deboki Chakravarti, join Ceri and Hank in our first ever team-based episode of Tangents! Two teams enter, one team leaves!  What more Tiny Matters? Check out the podcast here: https://www.acs.org/pressroom/tiny-matters.html !  And check out Debo...

Head to factormeals.com/tangents50 and use code tangents50 to get 50% off!  -----------------------------  Use promo code TANGENTS to get 50% off up to $10 value, when you spend $15 or more at convenience, grocery or retail stores on DoorDash.  The universe is dusty AF, frankly. It's on your body, in every nook in cranny of your house, some planets are just made entirely of dust pretty much, and s...

From trustworthy to calming, sad to steadfast, and, of course, jeans - the color blue means a lot of things to a lot of people. Join Team Tangents as we delve into this deceptively complicated primary color! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!  Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out h...

Take control of your finances today. Go to https://RocketMoney.com/TANGENTS to get started! It's easy to write off bacteria as no good, nasty, disease causing creeps, but consider this: without bacteria, we wouldn't have yogurt, or delicious sourdough bread, or a gut microbiome to digest those things! There are probably other good examples of ways bacteria are helpful to us, but I'm too hungry to...

From eggs to tacos to Ninja Turtles, some of the best things in life come in shells. So cozy on up inside the nearest conch as we regale you with tales of shells from all across the scientific spectrum! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!  Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how yo...