We Can Be Weirdos

In the goodbye hug of an episode, Dan and Spooky Al look back at some of the most chaotic, hilarious, batshit moments from their favourite guests over the years of We Can Be Weirdos. Host:  Dan Schreiber  and Al&nbs...

Before you were you… who were you? For their final hurrah, Dan and the Lazy Code team, Halina Brooke and Leon 'Buttons' Kirkbeck enter into the trance of past life experiences. From children who remember how they once tragically died, to skills, scars, and scaries that transfer across save files. Could consciousness be reloaded into a new human character? And if so, why can't these previous player...

Donald Robertson is a psychotherapist and writer whose book 'How to Think Like Socrates' brings ancient wisdom into the modern world. Today, he shows us the strange habits, mental experiments, and street philosophy of Socrates (one of history’s original weirdos.) Plus, some of the most fascinating ancient myths and mysteries that still endure today. Host: Dan Schreiber Guest: Donald Robertson Prod...

As we all know, death means game over...or does it? Join Dan and the Lazy Code team, Halina Brooke and Leon 'Buttons' Kirkbeck as they explore the mind boggling mysteries of near-death experiences and what that could mean for a simulated afterlife. Beware: This episode may leave you feeling strangely excited about dying.

Dr. Helen Scales is a marine biologist and writer fascinated by how little we truly know about the ocean. In her book 'What the Wild Sea Can Be' she explores deep-sea mysteries, the world's weirdest creatures, and what’s at stake as humans push further into the deep. Host: Dan Schreiber Guest: Helen Scales Producer: Cassie Merritt Head of Podcasts: Al Riddell

Dr. Suzie Sheehy is a renowned physicist who spends her life exploring the parts of the universe we can’t see. In this episode, she takes us from dark matter and black holes to her work on the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, and explains why everything we know makes up just 5% of the universe. Plus, we discuss her book 'The Matter of Everything: Twelve Experiments that Changed Our Worl...

Alice Vernon’s new book 'Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting and Why We Keep Looking' is a social and historical journey through the world of paranormal investigation. From Victorian séances to modern haunted hotspots, it explores why we’re irresistibly drawn to ghosts and why the hunt for the unexplained is far from over. Host: Dan Schreiber Guests: Alice Vernon Producer: Cassie Merritt Head of P...

Lazy Coders! For this month's bonus episode join Dan, Leon, and Halina as they take you on a tour through brains bigger than their own, diving into breakthrough thought experiments, full-on quantum particle weirdness, and the increasingly obvious proof that humanity is already speed-walking along the simulation track.

Mary Roach is a bestselling science writer and explorer of the the odd corners of science that most people wouldn’t dare to investigate. Cadavers, sex labs, space junk, you name it. Her new book, Replaceable You , takes that curiosity inside the body itself, exploring the world of prosthetics, organ printing, regenerative medicine, and the scientists trying to rebuild (or upgrade) the human parts...

Today’s episode is a two-for-one feast of mystery. First, the curious gems that keep washing up on the river Thames. What are they? Who put them there? And why? Historian Ellery Weil joins Café del Weirdo to dig into the leading theories and the world of Thames mudlarks. Next, we slip into the shadowy woods to visit Baba Yaga, the legendary Slavic witch-grandmother who may help you, may eat you, a...

Adam Riches is an award-winning comedian and actor known for his wild characters and brilliantly unhinged live shows. You’ll have seen him popping up in Detectorists, Horrible Histories, and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown doing his beloved Sean Bean character. His brand new tour 'The Twelve Beans of Christmas' is on now, get tickets here. Host: Dan Schreiber Guest: Adam Riches Producer: Cassie Me...

Ben Machell is a journalist-turned-literary explorer of the uncanny. After writing 'The Unusual Suspect' a true-crime story about a modern Robin Hood-style bank robber, he’s returned with 'Chasing the Dark: Encounters With The Supernatural.' The new book is a complete history of psychic and paranormal phenomena. Through forgotten case files, firsthand accounts, and long-buried investigations, Ben...

For this month's Lazy Code bonus episode, Dan teams up with Halina Brooke and Leon “Buttons” Kirkbeck to swap eerie doppelganger encounters, and wonder whether look-alike humans are just copy-pasted assets from a lazy cosmic developer. Leon does his best to keep the quantum-adjacent nonsense from imploding into metaphysical spaghetti, while Dan and Helena chase down the big question: are doppelgan...

Today we are joined by actor, comedian, and impressionist extraordinaire Alex Lowe. Alex is best known as the man who summoned Clinton Baptiste into existence on Phoenix Nights and unleashed Barry from Watford onto the airwaves. He’s written for some of the UK’s funniest humans, and built a cult following through characters that feel like they’ve stepped in from another dimension. Clinton Baptiste...

Edd Hedges is a British comedian and co-creator of Wisecrack - the viral horror-meets-comedy podcast that’s racked up millions of downloads just two months after launch. Blending true crime with stand-up, Wisecrack turns the most terrifying night of Edd's life into something darkly hilarious and utterly addictive. You can listen to Wisecrack on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hos...

Nigel Planer has been a towering figure in British comedy since the late 1970s. From his anarchic exploits with The Comic Strip to his portrayal of the hapless student Neil in The Young Ones. Today Nigel takes us on a journey through comedy, literature, and the wonderfully weird corners of his life. He reveals the surprising real-life inspirations behind his most iconic characters, shares tales fr...

Welcome to Café del Weirdo. This week’s guest is an explorer of the extraordinary. It's author, researcher, and professional curiosity collector Edward Brooke-Hitching. Ed is the bestselling author behind The Phantom Atlas , The Madman’s Library , and his brand-new book The Madman’s Orchestra, an illustrated dive into the oddest stories from the history of music. From cat organs and pig pianos to...

Sam Nicoresti is a comedian, writer, and surreal storyteller whose work blurs the line between the hilarious and the unsettling. Winner of the 2025 Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show, Sam has become one of the most original voices in British comedy. Moving between sharp social satire and the beautifully absurd, Sam’s work embraces the weirdness of being human in all its contradictions. Sam's sho...

For this month's Lazy Code bonus episode Dan, Leon “Buttons” Kirkbeck, and Halina Brooke dive into the dream world, that weird nightly sandbox where logic crashes and reality reboots. Are dreams just lazy coding from the simulation? Are they glimpses of the future? From lucid dreaming to shared dream theories, we explore what our sleeping minds might reveal about the code behind consciousness, and...

Chris Hadfield is the astronaut who turned the void of space into his stage. A farm kid from rural Canada who climbed his way into the stratosphere, first as a fighter pilot, then as a test pilot, and eventually as commander of the International Space Station. Hadfield has lived a life that hovers somewhere between science fiction and sheer nerve. He’s flown more than seventy types of aircraft, st...

Penn Jillette is an American magician, author, and performer best known as one half of the magic duo  Penn & Teller , a Las Vegas headliner and television personality. He is also an advocate for atheism and scientific skepticism, a former libertarian who disavowed the political stance, and the author of several books, including God, No!. Jillette is recognized for...

Doug Naylor is an Emmy award winning script-writer, novelist and director. He co-created the long running hugely successful sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, has written or co-written every episode across thirteen series and has directed over twenty episodes. Doug also co-founded Grant Naylor Productions in 1991 which made series IV to X of  Red Dwarf . Doug has also written three best selling no...

Introducing our new monthly bonus episode, Lazy Code! Dan welcomes longtime weird-theory believer Leon ‘Buttons’ Kirkbeck and Halina Brooke back and his daughter Halina Brooke. We explain simulation theory, meet the hosts, tease the kinds of glitches and guests to expect (from UFOs to scientific perspectives), and explore what it’s like growing up with a dad who thinks the universe might be broken...

Sam Moran is an Australian entertainer born on April 4, 1978, in Sydney. He is best known as the Yellow Wiggle in the children's music group The Wiggles, a role he held from 2006 to 2012. Before joining the group full-time, he was an understudy for original member Greg Page and performed over 150 times in his place. Moran studied classical voice and music education at the Sydney Conservatorium of...

Dylan Jones OBE (born 1960) is a British journalist, author, and former long-time editor of GQ (1999–2021). He previously held senior roles at i-D , Arena , and The Face , later serving briefly as editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard . Author of books including David Bowie: A Life and his memoir These Foolish Things , he has won multiple editor of the year awards and remains an influential voic...