Probably Science - podcast cover

Probably Science

Andy Wood, Matt Kirshenprobablyscience.com
Professional comedians with so-so STEM pedigrees take you through this week in science. Incompetently. Featuring hosts Matt Kirshen, Andy Wood (and sometimes Jesse Case or Brooks Wheelan) along with a rotating cast of special guests from the worlds of comedy and science.
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Episodes

Episode 515 - Ryan Conner

Comedian and author Ryan Conner ( @rconnercomedy ) returns to the show to talk with Matt, Jesse and Andy about his porn doppelganger, the process of researching and writing his new satirical novel The Party , an AI ProbSci ripoff, SpaceX rockets punching holes in the sky , deep brain stimulation to help TBI patients and a tree-dwelling shrimp found in the Cyclops Mountains ....

Dec 07, 20231 hr 13 min

Episode 514 - Dustin Ybarra

Comedian Dustin Ybarra ( @dustin_ybarra ) joins Jesse, Andy and Matt to talk about the recent Formula 1 race in Las Vegas, Erdős–Bacon numbers , the first mammal embryos grown in space , space travel's effect on erectile dysfunction , trying to deter orcas with heavy metal , a message laser-beamed from 10 million miles away , the rise of 6G and the ouster and return of OpenAI's Sam Altman after a rumored AGI breakthrough ....

Nov 28, 20231 hr 22 min

Episode 513 - Jenny Zigrino

Comedian Jenny Zigrino ( @jennyzigrino ) joins Jesse, Andy and Matt to talk about skunks, the Vegas F1 race, smelling in stereo , the upside of anger in completing tasks , dominant eyes, Iceland volcanos and the ultra-creepy hamster test or sperm penetration ....

Nov 18, 20231 hr 17 min

Episode 512 - Steve Benaquist

Comedian Steve Benaquist ( @stevebenaquist ) joins Andy, Matt and Jesse to talk about Halloween, Unversal Monsters , neck bolts, Frankenstein's Doug , sandbagging, goldbricking, carpetbagging and teetotaling, a radioactive toy from the 1950s , an unfortunate pig heart update , people who can't feel pain , Frozen Dead Guy Days , physics-defying sperm , a wind-powered car that goes faster than the wind , a tiny particle accelerator and Andy's Airbnb ....

Nov 05, 20231 hr 10 min

Episode 511 - Aparna Nancherla

Comedian Aparna Nancherla ( @aparnapkin ) joins Matt, Jesse and Andy to talk about her new book Unreliable Narrator , the ubiquity of impostor syndrome in Hollywood, childhood memories of carob , a new insanely hot pepper , roosters recognizing themselves in mirrors , a drunk dude fighting his reflection , and AI besting humans at Street Fighter ....

Oct 28, 20231 hr 9 min

Episode 510 - Dave Hill

Comedian, musician and now author Dave Hill ( @mrdavehill ) joins Jesse, Andy and Matt to talk about his lifelong love of hockey, his new book The Awesome Game , bowling lane oil patterns , figuring out how cats purr , bespectacled chickens , and the first-ever fine issued for space junk ....

Oct 20, 20231 hr 13 min

Episode 509 - Kevin Kataoka and Brian Malow

Andy's away, but Matt and Jesse are joined by Kevin Kataoka and returning guest Brian Malow to talk about pseudolegal grifts ! Why you shouldn't talk to the police ! Scientists who've grown a human embryo! Brian May side projects! Hedy Lamarr's inventions! Military subterfuge and ghost armies! And sailing a satellite out of orbit! You can join our Patreon to hear a bonus story about NFL jersey numbers....

Oct 11, 20231 hr 8 minEp. 509

Episode 508 - Pallavi Gunalan

Comedian/biomedical engineer Pallavi Gunalan ( @PallaviGunalan ) joins Matt, Jesse and Andy to talk about her path from science to comedy, working on open-source ventilators , the oldest living skydiver , the oldest surfer , growing human kidneys in pigs , the surprising intelligence of jellyfish and a misread of one of Newton's laws ....

Oct 06, 20231 hr 2 min

Episode 507 - Andy, Jesse and Matt

Andy's back from Burning Man to give the gang an update on how not big of a deal the rain was and to talk about Jesse's love of the band Ghost , middle-age music obsessions, the viral sensation "Sitting" by Brian Jordan Alvarez , debunking a Da Vinci tree rule ( and figuring out what, exactly, bunk is ), the greatest-ever opening line of a textbook , the risks of eating a single super-hot chip and how much you'd have to pay Jesse to do it....

Sep 27, 20231 hr 7 min

Episode 506 – Jesse Joyce

Comedian, Kimmel writer and now author Jesse Joyce joins us to talk about his new book about the killer of Lincoln's killer ! Plus live brain worms ! The Indian moon landing ! Unimpressive household robots! And who should go to Mars ! Click here for a free trial of Scribd and read/listen to Jesse's book....

Sep 15, 20231 hr 3 minEp. 506

Episode 505 - John Fugelsang

Comedian, actor and host of The John Fugelsang Podcast and SiriusXM's Tell Me Everything John Fugelsang ( @JohnFugelsang ) joins Jesse, Andy and Matt to talk about Prince's showstopping Beatles solo , reconciling science and the Bible, Russia crashing a lander into the moon , the steampunk LK lunar module , warnings of the submersible implosion , the 1970s SoCal Hurricane Kathleen , the reason it takes a while for a tan to show up and a view of Hurricane Hilary from the ISS ....

Aug 22, 20231 hr 2 min

Episode 504 - DeAnne Smith

Comedian DeAnne Smith ( @DeAnne_Smith ) joins Matt, Andy and Jesse to talk about DeAnne's new special Chiweenie in a Tank Top , getting Canadian citizenship, advances in pig-human transplantation , the possibility of regrowing human teeth , the game Pizza Party and the Radiolab episode about Alpha Gal ....

Aug 20, 20231 hr 5 min

Episode 503 - Jamel Johnson

Comedian Jamel Johnson ( @NonProfitComic ), host of too many podcasts to count , joins Matt, Jesse and Andy to mourn Paul Reubens, discuss Amazing Larry and his deleted scene , the Cabazon dinosaurs , Sonic & Knuckles , Michael Jackson's Sonic connection , how to help striking film and TV workers , a tick bite that can cause a meat allergy , leprosy on the rise in Florida , Mars spinning (slightly) faster , crushing a design contest for kids and connecting old mice to young mice ....

Aug 16, 20231 hr 12 min

Episode 502 - Danny Lee "Nitro" Clark

American Gladiator Danny Lee "Nitro" Clark joins Andy, Jesse and Matt to talk about the hit Netflix documentary Muscles & Mayhem , how his "raw meat" tryout ad-lib landed him the role of a lifetime, the analogies between management's treatment of the Gladiators and the current WGA/SAG strikes, the odd experience of seeing yourself as an action figure , nostalgia for the monoculture, Nitro's romance with Ellen Degeneres , the role genes play in determining your endurance ability , introducing...

Aug 08, 20231 hr 22 min

Episode 501 - Bethany Dwyer

Comedian/writer/director Bethany Dwyer ( @BethanyDwyer ) returns to the show to talk with Matt, Jesse and Andy about her horror film Grandpa , self-repairing metal , action movie one-liners , why dolphins and orcas won't be returning to land , the resurrection of 46,000-year-old nematodes and the list of human evolution fossils ....

Jul 31, 20231 hr 6 min

Episode 500 - Brooks, Jesse, Andy & Matt

Brooks Wheelan ( @brookswheelan ) returns to the podcast to celebrate 500 episodes of Probably Science and talk about Probarbenheimer, the demise of Summer Country, a new venomous snake , a solar telescope array that cost half as much as White Chicks , unlocking car doors with tennis balls and creating weather forecasts with AI ....

Jul 21, 20231 hr 7 min

Episode 499 - Karl Hess

Comedian Karl Hess ( @karlhess ) of the podcast Yelling About Pâté and the live show Amuse Bouche returns to the show to talk with Jesse, Matt and Andy about urban legends, ancient Chinese secrets , a possible bit of alien technology that crashed into the ocean , a Cuban lung cancer treatment , Kyle Kinane getting his van stuck in Joshua Tree , the poop-filled beaches of Texas , an extremely shiny exoplanet , and the handful of companies that control the world's beer ....

Jul 14, 20231 hr 6 min

Episode 498 - Dan Schreiber

Dan Schreiber of the podcasts No Such Thing as a Fish and The Cryptid Factor , as well as the new book The Theory of Everything Else , joins Matt and Jesse to talk about Nobelitis , using insects to turn beer waste into beef , an ancient slasher dolphin with weird teeth , using shopping cart sensors to identify stroke risk and Keith Alberstadt's bat attack....

Jul 06, 20231 hr 5 min

Episode 497 - Matt, Jesse and Andy

On a very special guest-less episode, Matt, Jesse and Andy talk about the fate of the OceanGate Titan, extreme undersea pressure, the curse of the Titanic, whether the Kursk could have been saved , the slightly dubious age-defying claims of a man who lived underwater for several months , the approval of lab-grown meat , Jesse and Andy's latest video game forays, what kangaroos did before they hopped , the problematic platform of RFK Jr. and Matt and Andy's wallaby encounter....

Jun 22, 20231 hr 13 min

Episode 496 - John Conroy

Comedian John Conroy ( @ConroyFTW ) joins Jesse, Andy and Matt to talk about Grimace's birthday , driving Ronald McDonald around, finding the building blocks of life on Enceladus , federal capital offenses , frog pants , how many people haven't tried ChatGPT and nanotattoos that don't need batteries or wires ....

Jun 18, 20231 hr 14 min

Episode 495 - Anna Valenzuela

Comedian Anna Valenzuela ( @annavisfunny ) joins Matt, Jesse and Andy to talk about her myriad jobs including trolley operator and karate instructor, China's space monkey sex plans , why race car drivers blink at the same point on the track and why Michael Caine never blinks at all ....

Jun 09, 20231 hr 15 min

Episode 494 - Izzy Salhani

Comedian and comic book author Izzy Salhani ( @luckysalhani ) joins Jesse, Matt and Andy to talk about bear-baiting, fighting a bunch of kids, a Renaissance fair accident, clay quality, octopus-inpired camouflage ink , Richard Branson's rocket plane taking to the skies again , orcas learning to attack boats and orca fads ....

May 27, 20231 hr 2 min

Episode 493 - Liz Miele

Comedian Liz Miele ( @lizmiele ) returns to the show to talk about her tour documentary Jet-Lagged , growing up in a veterinarian household, Australian wildlife adventures , a koala chlamydia vaccine , aesthetic scrotal preferences , an Onion classic , Liz's book Why Cats Are Assholes , gymnastics limitations and exceeding astrophysics limitations ....

May 16, 20231 hr 21 min

Episode 492 - Dr. Heather Berlin

Neuroscientist and clinical psychologist Dr. Heather Berlin ( @heather_berlin ) joins Matt, Jesse and Andy to talk about hosting the upcoming PBS series Your Brain , the hard problem of consciousness, evolutionary mismatches, panic attack strategies, flow state performance, debating Deepak Chopra about god , the Stanford marshmallow experiment , impulse control, the downside of getting a hangry judge , debunking brain myths, creating consciousness in different substrates, the thermal grill exper...

May 13, 20231 hr 13 min

Episode 491 - Jon Gabrus

Comedian and host of the podcasts High and Mighty and ActionBoyz Jon Gabrus ( @Gabrus ) joins Matt, Jesse and Andy to talk about his hilarious show 101 Places to Party Before You Die , the WGA strike, whether AI can write a 30 Rock scene , the shrinking middle class in entertainment, buffet memories, the benefits of an all-female Mars mission team , curing parrot loneliness with video calls , the insane number of pet birds in the US and advice for a precocious young listener....

May 05, 20231 hr 24 min

Episode 490 - Andrew Weinberg

Longtime Conan writer and co-creator of Eagleheart Andrew Weinberg joins Andy, Jesse and Matt to talk about his ridiculously funny new show Jury Duty , which follows the workings of a jury trial through the eyes of Ronald Gladden, a juror who is unaware the entire case is fake, the insane hoops they had to jump through to bring the show to life, the truth about weed and creativity , and the unsurprising link between arousal and a desire to have sex with a robot ....

Apr 22, 20231 hr 22 min

Episode 489 - Andy Hendrickson

Comedian Andy Hendrickson ( @andyhendrickson ) joins Jesse, Matt and Andy to talk about magic tricks that only work on monkeys with opposable thumbs , how mirrors know where eggs are , a math formula for achieving orgasm , how quickly you can create false memories and Andy's neighbor Tony's commentary track on Birdemic 3 ....

Apr 12, 20231 hr 6 min

Episode 488 - Nate Craig

Comedian Nate Craig ( @hypeman ) returns to the podcast to talk about a deadly fungal infection , terrible maps , building cities on shaky ground, the history of plate tectonics, nanoplastics interfering with chicken embryos and a 3D-printed cake ....

Apr 07, 20231 hr 3 min

Episode 487 - Noman Hosni

Comedian Noman Hosni ( @NomanHosni ) joins Matt, Jesse and Andy to talk about Tunisia, bad fan art , hair transplants, a bad embryo swap , Paris' City of Science and Industry , a blood test for anxiety , storing carbon dioxide in the ocean as baking soda , how much lift the space shuttle lander can generate and mapping the brain of a fruit fly ....

Mar 28, 20231 hr 18 min

Episode 486 - Sarah Lane

Host of Daily Tech News Show Sarah Lane ( @sarahlane ) joins Jesse, Matt and Andy to talk about ballerina doppelgangers, Tom Cruise stunts, Cocaine Bear, accidentally ending up on the air , bumblebees learning to solve puzzles by watching their friends , talkin' transoms , more medical tourism , Meta's VR play and DuckDuckGo's new AI-assisted search....

Mar 17, 20231 hr 13 min
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