When Trace was a kid he was a sleepwalker. His parents closed the door to his bedroom. They heard him bonking against the door over and over. They love to tell this story. Now I'm telling you! Sleepwalking is weird, right? Are we the only ones who do that? Julian looks into it. Plus, as long as we’re wondering things … have you ever wondered if you could fling an animal into space? Like a marmot or a coyote! Could a coyote actually go to orbit on top of a giant pile of TNT? (He definitely isn’t ...
Jul 04, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast This episode Trace travels to the magical land of Oz. It’s disgusting. Meanwhile Julian is going to meet him there as soon as he can fill his head with 7 cement trucks' worth of gas. **QUESTIONS** Julian: "If you were to blow up a person like a balloon, how big would we need to get before we can fly under our own power?" from Isaiah Trace: "How unclean was the wicked witch of the west?" from Nick Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the natu...
Jun 27, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast Science agrees: black holes are really cool. TAPE listener Robert, on the other hand, disagrees with science, and thinks their slightly-less-dense-but-still-absurdly-dense cousins known as Neutron Stars are cooler. He’s decided to pet one. Julian explores the smorgasbord of ways he would probably die horribly if he tried. Meanwhile Trace geeks out about Stargate, in an effort to dial-in how accurate the gates would really be! QUESTIONS Julian: "If I tried to pet a neutron star, what would kill m...
Jun 20, 2024•1 hr•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast This week Trace’s quest for answers takes him to a magical fantasy land of wizards, frozen keys, and bodily fluids. Meanwhile Julian discovers that there are about 3 degrees of separation between chickpeas and dynamite. Yes, really. QUESTIONS Julian: "Could you make an explosive out of chick peas?" from Jesse Trace: "Can you pee on an object that is so cold that the act of peeing on it can make you colder?" from Luke Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought...
Jun 13, 2024•58 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast Imagine there’s no war. Would we have cell phones? GPS? Shovels?! Would we still be able to pop open a tube of delicious mini-M&Ms? Will a future historian believe the Green M&M was some kind of Goddess of Love? (Yes). This is a wild ride of an episode featuring TAPE friend Joe Scott of the YouTube show Answers with Joe! Double doses of history PLUS the psychology of food? Chew on that! QUESTIONS Julian: "How different would technology be if there was no war?" from Joe Scott Joe Scott: "...
Jun 06, 2024•2 hr 34 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast Have you ever felt someone’s gaze on you? This episode Julian explores why we seem to sense when eyes are on us. Meanwhile Trace gets lost in a fog so thick he has to drink his way out. QUESTIONS Julian: "How much does regard weigh?" from Sabrina Trace: "Can you drink fog?" from Grace Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous musing about your favorite food? If you want an answer, no matter the question, tell us! ...
May 30, 2024•58 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast You are showering too often. Helicopters are insane. Soap is ancient magic chemistry. This time around, Trace tells everyone all about cleanliness while attempting to dodge the wellness and clean eating industry zealots. Then, Julian geeks out on the wild engineering of helicopters AND debunks a related meme about jets going to the gym. QUESTIONS Trace: "How clean is too clean?" from NeatNit Julian: "What would happen if you kept a helicopter stationary in the air for 12 hours?" from Amanda AND ...
May 23, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast This episode Trace tries to track down the first word ever uttered by human kind and Julian gets confused about how reproduction works… again… QUESTIONS Julian: "What if every set of DNA passed on from each individual were identical, respectively?" from Brandon Trace: "What was the first word?" from Tyler Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous musing about your favorite food? If you want an answer, no matter th...
May 16, 2024•58 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast In this absolutely absurd episode, Dr Simon Clark ponders if human's could colonize an atmosphere like Jupiter's -- Star Wars Cloud City is on trial. Speaking of gas giants, Julian digs into the evolutionary experiment that could give rise to a vampire. But first, Trace leads us off by learning about the uneven distribution of kitty cat toe beans! QUESTIONS Julian: "What environmental pressures would have to be present to lead to the evolution of humanoid vampires?" from Jade Simon: "Could we co...
May 09, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast 🎉 Happy Anniversary to us!! 🎊 It’s been one year since we launched That's Absurd Please Elaborate and what an absurdly fun ride it's been. To celebrate we tweaked the show just a bit. Our special guest, producer/editor Kyle Sisk, has selected six listener-submitted questions for Julian and Trace to answer. The catch? They only have five minutes to do their research. I know right? Important Reminder: This format means our hosts cannot spend hours fact checking their answers. Typically we do our...
May 02, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Did you know scientists turned a swarm of crabs into a computer? Julian explores if it can play an old video game. Plus, our guest Deboki feels out animal pregnancy, and Trace learns that Ben Franklin wrote a eulogy for a pet squirrel. QUESTIONS Trace: "Would squirrels still be so annoying if we weren’t around to observe them?" from Deboki Deboki "Can any mammals (other than humans) tell that they are pregnant? " from 80-hd Neumann Julian: "How long would it take to complete a playthrough of Doo...
Apr 25, 2024•2 hr 31 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast This time around, guest Hip Hop MD stamens your pistol and Julian admits (surprising no one) that he flows with nerd core. QUESTIONS Julian: "What rapper would make the greatest scientist, and what would their game changing discovery or invention be?" from Maynard Maynard (Hip Hop MD): "What if people reproduced like plants do" from Anonymous Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous musing about your favorite foo...
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast This week Julian explores the rocket science of farts. That’s a sentence that had likely never been written until this moment. Trace talks about the science of stasis, a.k.a hyper-sleep, a.k.a. cryo-freeze. As a bonus, we all get to learn the predictive powers of the 1993 classic film “Demolition Man.” QUESTIONS Julian: "How hard would I have to far to lift off the ground?" from Ricky Trace: "Could hyper-sleep ever be a possibility?" from Dartland Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly...
Apr 11, 2024•56 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast This episode Trace imagines what it would take to lock a world in darkness while Julian does something very suspicious with pineapples. QUESTIONS Trace: "Would it be possible to have a permanent solar eclipse?" from Aaron Julian: "Is there an amount of pineapple that can dissolve a human body?" from Macks Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous musing about your favorite food? If you want an answer, no matter th...
Apr 04, 2024•57 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast One year ago today we announced the launch of That's Absurd Please Elaborate. Now on this April Fools' day we have another exciting (and real!) announcement (because we're bad at marketing and didn't consider that announcing things on April 1st might cause people to doubt it's veracity). ASK US A QUESTION Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous musing about your favorite food? If you want an answer, no matter th...
Apr 01, 2024•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this revolting episode, our guest Dr Sam Jones asks Julian to never see a man about a horse again, then she weeds out the filth in the animal kingdom, and finally Trace gives us a palate cleanser of starchy, potatoey goodness. QUESTIONS Julian: "If all humans never had to poop again — how would it affect the world?" from Sam Sam Jones: "What is the filthiest absolutely disgusting animal" from Danielle Trace: "What is the best way to potato" from Mallory To hear more of Dr Sam Jones’ fantastic...
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast This time on T.A.P.E. — Matt Krol digs into cinema history to answer a deathly serious question, and Trace is out cold answering a question mulled over by scientists for centuries. Julian is helping out at NASA so he’ll be back next week. QUESTIONS Trace: "Why EXACTLY is ice slippery?" from Matt Krol Matt: “What actor has died the most in movies?” from Cole For more of Matthew Krol’s wonderful work you can look on Nebula or YouTube for: Extra History: https://www.youtube.com/@extrahistory Extra ...
Mar 14, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast This week Julian wonders if you can really cook your jumblies with microwaves and 5G, and Trace dives into linguistics and chemistry to learn if the ocean is actually a very broth-forward soup. QUESTIONS Julian: "Microwaves are the most common way to use radiation to cook food, could we use radio, gamma, or X-Rays to cook food?" from Aaron Trace: "What is soup?" from Silas Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous...
Feb 29, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast This episode Trace indulges us with why chocolate is so popular on valentines day and Julian goes deep on why his body (and everyone else’s for that matter) is such a mess. QUESTIONS Julian: "Can the human body “design” be improved on intentionally" from Xander Trace: "Why do people like chocolate so much on special holidays" from Lee Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous musing about your favorite food? If yo...
Feb 15, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Trace wonders if "Weird" Al Yankovic influenced a generation of people to say "my back teeth are floating," and Julian time travels to the Triassic with a cold (and maybe a chicken). QUESTIONS Trace: "Why do my teeth feel like they are floating or vibrating when I really have to go to the bathroom. " from Spencer Julian: "If you went back in time to see the dinosaurs, would they go extinct from the common cold?" from Nitai Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea yo...
Feb 01, 2024•55 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast This episode Trace resets the solar system to see what life would look like on “Wee Earth” and Julian finally learns his left from his right thanks for particle physics. QUESTIONS Julian: "If I had some magic communicator to speak to someone in another galaxy, could I explain what "left" and "right" were?" from Anonymous Trace: "How would have life evolved if Earth was two [to] three times smaller?" from Moma Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about t...
Jan 18, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast This episode we have special guest Ralph Crewe (Writer/Producer, Practical Engineering) who gets exhausted trying to explain continuous breathing, Julian mulls over the least pointy thing (shout out to Pod 007) and Trace takes a Mayan Bak-tun to explain why the heck there are 60 minutes in an hour. QUESTIONS Trace: "Are there other systems of timekeeping besides Hours/Minutes/Seconds?" from Julian Ralph: "Can we evolve or engineer ourselves to breathe continuously?" from Henry in Singapore Julia...
Jan 04, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast This episode Trace cracks the mystery of nuts, and Julian tickles a moose and a buffalo* for science!? You’ll have to listen to find out! QUESTIONS Julian: "Is riding a moose more like petting a buffalo or tickling a grizzly bear?" from Brendan F. Trace: "Are nuts actually fruit pits?" from Sandy in Seattle Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous musing about your favorite food? If you want an answer, no matter ...
Dec 21, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's episode, Julian tracks the history of toilet paper to its source, Trace gives a gorilla some workout advice, and special guest Vanessa Hill grows a whole human after an unfortunate fireworks accident. QUESTIONS Julian: "Before the invention of toilet paper, how did people relieve their bottom as to not clog the pipes?" From Vanessa Trace: "How strong could a gorilla be if it knew proper bodybuilding techniques?" from listener Jaren K. Vanessa: "With just a little chunk of my tissu...
Dec 07, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast This week Trace explains why organic doesn’t mean what you think it means and Julian researches whether grizzly bears have more biological variation than humans do! Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate. We're most thankful for YOU listening to this little show. QUESTIONS Trace: "If we only ate organic vegetables how many people would starve?" from listener Chris J. Julian: "Why do humans come in so many more sorts of shapes and colors than other species?" from listener Abbie G. Do you have an...
Nov 23, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast This episode Julian takes a pole on the magnetic dynamo inside our planet, and Trace explores how 19th century French landscaping grew on everyone. QUESTIONS Julian: "Could you wirelessly charge using the Earth’s magnetic field?" from listener 26Matso Trace: "Who invented the Lawn?" from listener Brian M. Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous musing about your favorite food? If you want an answer, no matter th...
Nov 09, 2023•59 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast In this (very scary) episode, Julian loses his head (no one seems to notice) and Trace unleashes the ultimate nightMare: an apex predator HORSE! WHINNY! THUNDER CLAP! ORGAN MUSIC!!! QUESTIONS Julian: "How long could we survive without a head?" from Trace Trace: "What if horses were apex predators?" from listener Meg Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous musing about your favorite food? If you want an answer, n...
Oct 26, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast This episode Trace finds out if lolcats make other cats lol, Julian makes continents collide (his insurance company was very unhappy about it), and SPECIAL GUEST Ceri Riley (Co-host of the podcast SciShow Tangents) takes a deep breath and undoes the entire science of chemistry. QUESTIONS Julian: "Will the continents ever form another Pangea?" from Ceri Trace: "Can animals tell jokes?" from listener Gerald Ceri Riley: “What would happen if all humans suddenly inhaled CO2 and exhaled O2?” From lis...
Oct 12, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode Julian wants to push the Earth further from the sun to stop climate change, and Trace learns if pineapple on pizza is actually … good? QUESTIONS Julian: "What would happen if we moved the Earth further from the Sun?" from Jason J. Trace: "Why do some people hate pineapple on pizza (they’re wrong). Why do people taste things differently?" from Nicola F. Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about the nature of reality, or a ridiculous musi...
Sep 28, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast This episode Julian eats something he probably shouldn’t (again) and Trace is given the small task of preserving all of human knowledge through multiple apocalypses... Apocalypsi? Apocalypsees? Ends to the world. QUESTIONS Julian: "Why can we eat mould on cheese but not other food?" from listener jcol001 Trace: "What is the best way to preserve information to survive any and all apocalypse? " from listener MJ Do you have an absurd question? Maybe it's silly idea you had, a shower thought about t...
Sep 14, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast 
