Is all life predestined, or is existence blown about by the whims of entropy? If we restarted the universe with the same world generating seed a la Minecraft, would it all play out the same??? These are ginormous questions that we do not get into in this episode! Instead, we're examining slightly more manageable examples of randomness in nature, in computing, and even in ourselves. SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonu...
Jan 08, 2025•52 min•Season 5Ep. 46
Hello Tangents listeners! We are off this week to rest up and enjoy the holidays, so in place of a regular episode we have a super special treat from friends of the show that we're excited to share! We're dropping an episode of a new podcast series from Chalk and Blade Productions called "Our Big Shot." What if we could build a disease free world? Well, we almost have. We are at a point in history where we have a Big Shot to make that happen. Dr Seema Yasmin, expert in disease control, brings yo...
Jan 03, 2025•31 min
One year passes, another is just around the bend, so let's look back on the top 6 Tangents episodes of 2024!! From intriguing topics to spooky mystery guests, this compilation truly summarizes a wild, wonderful year for Tangents. We hope you enjoy reminiscing with us, and we look forward to all that's ahead! Original episodes: 6. Feathers - airdate March 19, 2024 5. Glue - airdate May 14, 2024 4. Cheese - airdate February 6, 2024 3. Garbage - airdate March 5, 2024 2. Roller Coasters - airdate Se...
Dec 31, 2024•4 hr 47 min
Is a dream really a wish your heart makes? Or is it just that your brain is an organ that never really turns off? What do your dreams even mean??? These are just some of the perplexing questions this episode posed to us and our special return guest, Trace Dominguez! 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 you can help support SciShow Tangents, ...
Dec 10, 2024•53 min•Season 5Ep. 45
Now you see it, now you don't - this episode is a true trick for the senses as we uncover the hidden wonders of Camouflage! From human ingenuity (?) to animal creativity, misdirection and subterfuge abound in this episode, so keep your eyes peeled, it's not one you'll want to miss! 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 you can help support Sc...
Nov 26, 2024•51 min•Season 5Ep. 44
From one to four to none at all, stomachs enjoy a stunning variety across all the creatures who have (or don't have) them. And with our stomachs all happily full of spooky month treats, we thought it was the perfect time to learn all about this weird, wobbly, wonderful organ. 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 you can help support SciShow ...
Nov 12, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 43
There's a chill in the air and a shudder in our bones...it's Spooky Month! Come along with us on a treacherous journey full of mischief, mayhem, and many marvelously mysterious guests! Steady yourself, for who knows what frights lurk around the corner... Alas, our frightful fiends and friends, Spooky Month has nearly run its course - but not until we go out with a bang with our final ghoulish guest, Tom Lum! Join as we dare to tread amongst the creatures who belong to the night...nocturnal anima...
Oct 31, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 42
There's a chill in the air and a shudder in our bones...it's Spooky Month! Come along with us on a treacherous journey full of mischief, mayhem, and many marvelously mysterious guests! Steady yourself, for who knows what frights lurk around the corner... Our next shocking mystery friend to join us is none other than Dylan Marron! Tread the floorboards of Tangents Manor with us in pursuit of the truth behind fortune-telling and future-predicting as we examine Psychics! SciShow Tangents is on YouT...
Oct 15, 2024•52 min•Season 5Ep. 41
There's a chill in the air and a shudder in our bones...it's Spooky Month! Come along with us on a treacherous journey full of mischief, mayhem, and many marvelously mysterious guests! Steady yourself, for who knows what frights lurk around the corner... In our first Spooky Month episode we dare to venture into the cold, dark world of caves. Joining us on our search for hidden knowledge deep within the earth is the estimably terrifying Brennan Lee Mulligan! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to ...
Oct 01, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 40
Get ready for a stomach-turning, heart-pounding, gravity-defying thrill ride as we plummet down, up, and all around the amazing world of roller coasters! We're joined by legendary podcaster, YouTuber, and roller coaster fanatic Tom Scott who wows us with his encyclopedic knowledge of these engineering marvels. So take a deep breath, strap in, and keep all your limbs inside the ride until the episode comes to a complete stop! Oh, and have fun! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com...
Sep 17, 2024•56 min•Season 5Ep. 39
The knowledge of our couch of finely-honed scientific minds didn't pop out of the ground fully-formed - it had to be planted, tended, and grown lovingly over a long period of time to flower into the beautiful curiosity tree it is today. But like so much of life, it started as just a tiny, humble seed - which is super convenient for the topic of this episode! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces! H...
Sep 03, 2024•48 min•Season 5Ep. 38
Here in the remote vistas of the Tangents jungle, observe a group of mighty science communicators expertly stalking their primary prey: knowledge. Ever so tantalizing to behold, knowledge lounges in the shade of a fern, oblivious to the danger sneaking up behind it, ready to strike at a moment's notice! Truly, these must be the most fearsome of all predators! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces! ...
Aug 20, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 37
For those who want a megadose of Tangents shenanigans, this compilation is for you! In the many seasons of Tangents we've covered lots of interconnected topics, and now you can listen to them back-to-back like the best podcast many-feature ever. This compilation has been handcrafted from premium ingredients, sifted and whisked together with care, and baked to podcast easy listening perfection. Bon Appetite! Original episodes: S1 E5 - Eggs, original airdate: December 11, 2018 S2 E18 - Sugar, orig...
Aug 15, 2024•2 hr 43 min
From our episode on Sweat, here's Ceri's brilliant rendition of "Why Do We Sweat?" This song is a parody of Rusted Root's "Send Me On My Way." Lyrics: Ceri Riley Music: Joseph "Tuna" Metesh
Aug 09, 2024•3 min
Some are itchy, some are painful, some go totally unnoticed by us every single day...bugs have such variety in the ways they chomp, some chomps aren't even from bug mouths, but from bug butts! Join us while we debate, query, and learn all we can about the wide world of bug bites. 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 you can help support SciS...
Aug 06, 2024•53 min•Season 5Ep. 36
Woo boy! It's hot out there, why don't ya grab a nice glass of ice cold lemonade and listen in on everything you did and didn't want to learn about sweat. Are humans the sweatiest of them all? Do fish sweat? What lives in the ecosystem between two people holding hands for the first time? What is it all even for!?? 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 fin...
Jul 23, 2024•49 min•Season 5Ep. 35
This summer's hottest North American bug is without question, the cicada. They've got everything: neon-colored wing veins, bendy-straw-style exoskeletons, an insatiable thirst for tree goo, and after 17 years of napping, they're bursting out of the ground ready to par-tay! 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 you can help support SciShow Tan...
Jul 09, 2024•48 min•Season 5Ep. 34
It wouldn't be Pride at Tangents if we weren't getting into some science! We're joined by Owen Ever and Laine Kaplan-Levenson, the hosts of a new show from news outlet Canadaland called "Field Guide to Gay Animals." Our conversation ranged far and wide across a myriad of ways queerness is expressed in the animal world and the challenges and joys of studying it. SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces...
Jun 25, 2024•52 min•Season 5Ep. 33
It's all right there on the tin - this episode is BANANAS. And not just because we have the most guests we've ever had in Tangents history. Not even just because one of them is a super special surprise RETURN friend of the pod. And not even because we check out some flowers that are way more uncomfortable to look at than you think. No, this episode is bananas because we're talking about (you guessed it) bananas! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out t...
Jun 11, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 32
Another wild teaser appears! This little snippet is from a bonus, cut-for-time question from our episode on Turtles! 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 the learning and shenanigans! Thank you so much to all our Patrons - we genuinely would not get to do this without you, and we really like doing th...
Jun 05, 2024•4 min
It may seem like cloning really only shows up regularly in science fiction, but it turns out, it's been a sneaky, significant real-world process for a super long time! In this episode we learn about cloning found in nature, labs, and...this very podcast?? 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 you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all...
May 28, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 31
Humanity is bound together by so many qualities, and in this episode, we add Being Goopy to the list. What does that have to do with glue? A whole lot, it turns out - cue some ominous foreshadowing....Memento goopy! 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 you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, li...
May 14, 2024•47 min•Season 5Ep. 30
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 mysterious, but inevitable, end. In this first episode Dr. Mack walks John through the Big Bang and the...
May 07, 2024•48 min
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 all of it, everyone. SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check o...
Apr 30, 2024•48 min•Season 5Ep. 29
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 the learning and shenanigans! Thank you so much to all our Patrons - we genuinely would not get to ...
Apr 26, 2024•5 min
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.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces! Head to ...
Apr 16, 2024•47 min•Season 5Ep. 28
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 the learning and shenanigans! Thank you so much to all our Patrons - we genuinely would not get to ...
Apr 03, 2024•6 min
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.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces! Head to ...
Apr 02, 2024•45 min•Season 5Ep. 27
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 episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces! Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out ...
Mar 19, 2024•44 min•Season 5Ep. 26
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 seeing our faces! Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow T...
Mar 05, 2024•45 min•Season 5Ep. 25
