Probably Science
546 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 609 ratingsProfessional 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 285 - Charlie Clausen
March 24, 2018 20:07 - 1 hour - 53.6 MBActor and TOFOP co-host Charlie Clausen (@CXClausen) joins Matt and Andy to discuss Aussie soaps, dental nightmares, Mask vs. The Mask, Eric Stoltz, Daylight Saving Time and koalas, smell-the-fart acting, political reasons for slow clocks, pizza innovation and The Noid, space twins and DNA, Dolph Lundgren gym run-ins and self-driving car risks.
Episode 284 - Jena Friedman
March 12, 2018 14:59 - 1 hour - 42.3 MBComedian/writer/producer/host of Adult Swim's Soft Focus Jena Friedman (@JenaFreidman) joins Matt and Andy for an on-location recording talking about Cannibal Cop, Jena's cold fusion-seeking grandfather, acupuncture and opioids, how the Sackler family are murderers, Hitler's art, new battery technology, Tesla's megabattery, Dinorwig, the political economy of Chicago’s improv scene and Jena’s thesis, the ethnographic method, the Comedy Cellar podcast and rape statistics, female emotional lab...
Episode 283 - James Fritz
March 08, 2018 21:50 - 59 minutes - 41.1 MBComedian James Fritz (@fritzisdead) joins Andy and Matt to discuss Kentucky science, Oscars theories, magic mushrooms, neanderthal art, turkey history and Ben Franklin on birds, airplane air, soldier terminology, the early universe, scientists running for office and Matt's recent Star Talk appearance with Stephen Hawking, Janna Levin and Michio Kaku.
Episode 282 - Sarah Morgan
February 24, 2018 04:39 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBWriter and friend of the show Sarah Morgan (@sarahlmorgan) returns to talk with Matt and Andy about the prey defines the chase, vampire bats, memory wire, bismuth, robo-bees, playing HQ Trivia (and using the referral codes "andytwood" or "Mattbk"), Uber scams, plants and anesthesia, motherland vs. fatherland, curing Alzheimers in mice, pervy Koko the gorilla and reading too much into animal communication.
Episode 281 - Zabeth Russell
February 14, 2018 02:00 - 1 hour - 49.7 MBActress Zabeth Russell (@zabsters) joins Matt and Andy to discuss Tom hanks killing a dog, placebo boobs, monkey sex workers, eye worms, fast and slow colors (and more color experiments), and dinosaurs overstretching. This episode is brought to you by Hello Fresh. For $30 off your first week of HelloFresh, visit hellofresh.com and enter PROBABLY30.
Episode 280 - Valerie Tosi
February 09, 2018 04:33 - 1 hour - 55.1 MBComedian/actor/voiceover artist Valerie Tosi (@valerie_tosi) joins Andy and Matt (and Roo) to discuss Andy’s dogsitting business, whale dissection, Boston accents and pirate accents, Cheddar Man the early Brit, when humans first left Africa, potholing/spelunking, kids performing better when they're Batman, oil patterns on bowling lanes, SpaceX success, and blowing up their near misses, vaping risks and clove cigarettes.
Episode 279 - Lauren Flans
February 01, 2018 00:50 - 1 hour - 51.3 MBActor/improviser Lauren Flans (@laurenflans) of Another Period, Wild 'n Out and the new podcast Tell Us We're Funny and We'll Go Away joins Matt and Andy to discuss travel credit cards and Mexican drugs, Orphan Black, anti-abortion teachers, legislating numbers, different infinities, '70s poison toys, radioactive Fiestaware, Gerrymandering and its origins, a fake RHCP song, lasers that can rip apart empty space, whales that talk, elephant painting, Svengali and Machiavelli, poisonous toad-ea...
Episode 278 - Kiran Deol
January 25, 2018 04:23 - 1 hour - 47.9 MBComedian/actor/writer Kiran Deol (@shitfromkiran) joins Matt and Andy to help celebrate the six-year (iron) anniversary of the podcast and discuss crashing astronomy conferences, shooting Prince Rupert’s drops, breathing oxygen at depth, predator/prey turning, chalk and cheese, monkey clones, celebrity pet adoption, crow hooks, space lungs and yucca injuries.
Episode 277 - Ben Roy
January 12, 2018 04:51 - 1 hour - 61.9 MBComedian, star of Those Who Can't and frontman of the band SPELLS Ben Roy (@benroy00) joins Matt and Andy to talk about Andy’s accessibility, Poison songs, evolutionary psychology, the books The Mating Mind and The Righteous Mind, space growth, living underwater, cell phone risk, bats melting in Australia, frozen alligators, gila monster saliva helping diabetes, and bonobos liking jerks.
Episode 276 - Ricky Carmona
January 10, 2018 00:39 - 1 hour - 53.4 MBComedian Ricky Carmona (@RickyCarmona) of the podcast Who Shot Ya? joins Andy and Matt to talk about when to say Happy New Year, Weird Science vs. Real Genius, how to stop superbugs, raw water, the other John Snow, laser eagles, slowing down light, power plant mirrors that explode birds, things deadlier than sharks and parking mathematics.
Episode 275 - TJ Chambers and Auggie Smith
January 03, 2018 05:38 - 1 hour - 54 MBFriends of the show TJ Chambers (@TJChambersLA) and Auggie Smith (@AuggieSmith) return to kick off 2018 with TJ and Andy's new podcast Twinsies (@twinsiespod), space beer, monkeys bonin’ deer, the recent SpaceX launch, traveling salesbees, sleeping jellyfish, Matt Walker on sleep (and on Probably Science), how to keep your exercise resolution, and Tommy Wiseau’s surprise tenant.
Episode 274 - Environmental Science and Sustainable Food with Dr. Pete Newton
December 26, 2017 22:44 - 1 hour - 44.2 MBMatt’s on the road in Colorado and meets up with his old university friend Dr. Pete Newton (@newton_pete) who's now an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder to talk about his TEDx Talk on why "food miles" are aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, his journey away from and back to academia, safari tours in Botswana, hunting pangolins, anaconda attacks in the field, the perils of ruminants, changing our behavior, changing a whole country’s behavior, and whether you’d eat la...
Episode 273 - Jim Jefferies
December 05, 2017 05:35 - 1 hour - 49.1 MBMatt and Andy make a visit to the home of Jim Jefferies (@jimjefferies) to talk about a very British car accident, self-driving cars, Ted Danson's amazing face, feeding spiders graphene, a new space tire, Mars temperatures, cricket commentary, onion ubiquity, Dubai space agriculture, business class from the ground, and upsetting rock stars.
Episode 272 - Pat Francis
December 05, 2017 05:33 - 1 hour - 62.9 MBHost of the Rock Solid podcast Pat Francis (@pat_francis) joins Matt and Andy to talk about donating medals, miming phones, teen brains that can't tell what's important, homeless etiquette, Voyager I firing up again, coffee and health, grammar rules and beard posturing.
Episode 271 - Eli Braden
November 30, 2017 19:22 - 1 hour - 52.8 MBComedian/musician Eli Braden (@EliBraden) joins Andy and Matt to discuss jazz addicts, the flat-earth rocket guy and his earlier flight, conspiracy theories, not a head transplant, prehistoric women's strength, why boning is heart-safe, mnemonics, grossing out chimps, health codes and California D.
Episode 270 - Dr. Danna Staaf
November 21, 2017 23:10 - 1 hour - 47.9 MBScience writer, educator, and artist Dr. Danna Staaf recently published her first book, Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods, and she joins Matt and Andy to talk about her dissertation on the reproduction and early life of Humboldt squid, penis fencing among hermaphroditic flatworms, the fact that calamari pre-date the dinosaurs, and why we should all have a lot more respect and awe for cephalopods in general.
Episode 269 - Chris Turner
November 17, 2017 22:54 - 55 minutes - 38.2 MBComedian/freestyle rapper Chris Turner (@ChrisPJTurner) joins Andy and Matt to talk about archeology, volcano-based Roman shit, old wine, old Amish people, gay evolution, monkeys playing chicken and the theory of mind. This episode is sponsored by Hello Fresh. For $30 off your first week of HelloFresh, visit hellofresh.com and enter "probably30" at checkout.
Episode 268 - Raj Desai
November 09, 2017 01:24 - 41 minutes - 29.1 MBComedian Raj Desai (@_rajdesai) almost makes himself late to his job writing for Sarah Silverman's I Love You, America to do a morning recording with Andy and Matt about his chromatography history, looking more closely at the placebo effect, and how the extinction of dinosaurs made way for mammals to come out during the day.
Episode 267 - Jason Saenz
October 31, 2017 22:29 - 1 hour - 47.5 MBComedian Jason Saenz (@jasonsaenz) joins Matt and Andy to talk about Jeff Foxworthy impressions, Saenz Signs, debunked early psychology experiments, oyster hearing, competition-grade oysters, squirrels and lepers, armadillo leprosy in Florida, gold and the documentary series Connections, a good moonbase location, Pluto’s Cave, herbal meds and cancer, blood sweat and Jason's hilarious Comedy Central series Ya Killin' Me.
Episode 266 - Galloway Allbright
October 23, 2017 18:56 - 1 hour - 62.1 MBComedian Galloway Allbright (@GalloWhy) joins Andy and Matt to discuss the death of expertise, extreme Michael Jackson fandom, that classic Encyclopedia Brittanica ad, the origin of bluegrass, in-flight death plans, channeling your inner Tea Leoni, a neutron star collision, the LIGO song, psilocybin for depression, genes for OCD, Cary Grant’s crazy parental history and LSD, a fundraiser for Dipak's niece, an upcoming Chinese space lab crash, China's NASA and scorpions' toxic blend.
Episode 265 - Live from LA PodFest with Brooks Wheelan and Dave Anthony
October 13, 2017 23:07 - 1 hour - 51.9 MBOriginal co-host Brooks Wheelan (@brookswheelan) and LA PodFest co-founder/The Dollop host Dave Anthony join Matt and Andy for a live Probably Science from the Millenium Biltmore hotel in downtown Los Angeles as part of the 2017 Los Angeles Podcast Festival.
Episode 264 - Alice Fraser
October 05, 2017 21:30 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBComedian and host of the Tea With Alice podcast Alice Fraser (@aliterative) joins Matt and Andy to discuss jet lag, breaking the seal, MS, a duck update (duckdate?) with video, a body clock Nobel Prize, Dr. Matt Walker’s new sleep book, a LIGO Nobel Prize and Janna Levin’s book on it, the downside of grass-fed beef, and cargo cults.
Episode 263 - Sharon Houston
September 27, 2017 08:53 - 1 hour - 51.1 MBComedian Sharon Houston (@sharon_houston) joins Matt and Andy to discuss flavor profiles, hurricane prep, Hemingway lookalikes, wolverines, duck dicks, finger phone contact, genes vs. alleles, the concept of zero, chisanbop counting, zapping people out of vegetative states, spider sacrifice and more duck dicks.
Episode 262 - Casey Ley
September 15, 2017 23:51 - 1 hour - 48.7 MBComedian Casey Ley (@caseywley) joins Andy and Matt to talk about Andy's car, gay genes, gay face and AI, the first openly gay guy ever, snow leopards becoming less endangered, the end of Cassini, whether or not Saturn would float in water, the first live 4K video from space, the life of Sam Blackman, and Casey's podcast. This episode is brought to you by Hello Fresh. Visit hellofresh.com and use the promo code “probably30” to save $30 off your first week of deliveries.
Episode 261 - Sara Benincasa
September 08, 2017 20:12 - 54 minutes - 37.7 MBComedian and author of Real Artists Have Day Jobs (and three other books) Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) invited Matt and Andy into her kitchen to talk about Burning Man, Woodstock '99, talking people down from drugs, creating cryptocurrencies, Space Camp vs. Space Academy, whiskey dilution, faces trained on Skype, Zika for brain tumors, and the secret messages contained in dogs' sneezes.
Episode 260 - Dipak Srinivasan
August 21, 2017 06:14 - 1 hour - 54.9 MBApplied Physics Laboratory engineer (and Andy's old college roommate) Dipak Srinivasan returns to the podcast to talk about his work on the Mercury MESSENGER mission, the Pluto New Horizons flyby (that'll also soon be visiting Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69), and most importantly, the upcoming Parker Solar Probe and a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, the most likely place in our solar system to find extraterrestrial life.
Episode 259 - Kara Klenk
August 12, 2017 18:54 - 1 hour - 45.8 MBComedy's Kara Klenk (@karaklenk) joins Matt and Andy to talk about why Trump isn't good for comedy, bad forensics, hungry thinky worms, penis biting, bleach enemas to cure autism, slugs, Canaanites who just won’t die and The Goldwater Rule.
Episode 258 - Heather Thomson
August 02, 2017 21:46 - 1 hour - 51.4 MBComedian Heather Thomson (@CasualVelvet) joins Andy and Matt to discuss early email addresses, Woodboys, laws of mathematics that don’t apply in Australia, why chimps are pussies, how humans can out-jog horses, antibiotic lies, reversing brain damage with oxygen, Moon water, and the avocado hand epidemic.
Episode 257 - Jim Hegarty
July 20, 2017 09:51 - 50 minutes - 35.1 MBComedian Jim Hegarty (@jimhegarty) joins Matt and Andy to talk about good and bad TV, the Up Series, fireworks contamination, dog domestication, junk DNA, the crazy fly book price, Brewster’s Millions rules, egg shapes and egg refrigeration.
Episode 256 - Jason Reich
July 12, 2017 05:16 - 1 hour - 51.2 MBJason Reich (@jasonmreich), the head writer of The Jim Jefferies Show, joins Matt and Andy to discuss eating street apples and syringes, Vegas strategy, an HIV cure, why job interviews are bullshit, old dads with geeky sons follow-up, gonorrhea vaccines, vaquitas, fireworks technology, Alex Jones before and (redder) after and what Goop has in common with Infowars.
Episode 255 - Dr. Jane Gregory
July 04, 2017 01:04 - 1 hour - 54.5 MBCognitive behavior therapist Dr. Jane Gregory joins Matt and Andy to talk about her work and how she helps people suffering from anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and more, along with her fantastic blog Cognitive Behave Yourself in which she puts her money where her mouth is and subjects herself to some of the techniques that she asks her patients to use.
Episode 254 - Maggie Maye
June 26, 2017 23:24 - 1 hour - 47.3 MBComedy's Maggie Maye (@Maggiemayehaha) joins Matt and Andy to discuss first TV bed-sharers, rival Amarillo songs, coconut oil, why it's too hot to fly, heat-based reptile sex swapping, older dads and geeky sons, neutron decay, lying chatbots and wobbling suitcases.
Episode 253 - Lucas Kavner
June 16, 2017 00:58 - 1 hour - 56.5 MBWriter and comedic actor Lucas Kavner (@lucaskavner) joins Andy and Matt to talk about rebooted shows, reporting on robots, dog and wolf sharing, how breakfast affects benevolence, Einstein's impossible experiment finally performed, gut bacteria and dinosaur sex.
Episode 252 - Curtis Cook
June 08, 2017 06:15 - 1 hour - 47.4 MBComedian Curtis Cook (@Curtis_Cook) writes with Matt on The Jim Jefferies Show, and he sits down to discuss fancy premiere parties and imposter syndrome, catapult-making, how depressing the first Peanuts comic strip is, how AI will beat humans at everything by 2060, Moravec’s paradox, dino feathers and scales, getting re-upped on your vaccines, rust getting unfairly blamed for tetanus and parasitic worm healing.
Episode 251 - Renee Colvert
June 02, 2017 06:44 - 1 hour - 52.5 MBRenee Colvert (@ReneeColvert) of the hit podcast Can I Pet Your Dog? joins Matt and Andy to discuss Paris disagreements, dog podcasting, universal healthcare, Savage/Soundgarden, Australian healthcare, another LIGO victory, Janna Levin's book, the Parker Solar Probe, the monkey mafia who steal your stuff and sell it back to you for a cracker, measuring sheep pain, and hand-washing rules.
Episode 250 - Subhah Agarwal
May 25, 2017 19:08 - 1 hour - 42.4 MBComedian and Jim Jefferies Show writer Subhah Agarwal (@Subhah) joins co-writer Matt and Andy to talk about actuarial tables and suicide, copying comics, asteroid timing, river meandering, a perfect dino, stable flamingos, Italian vaccines, mussel gloop for scarring, pretty pics of Saturn's rings and a puffy styrofoam planet.
Episode 249 - Neil deGrasse Tyson
May 17, 2017 16:38 - 1 hour - 45.8 MBNeil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson), astrophysicist, science communicator and author of the fantastic new book Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, joins Matt and Andy for a Definitely Science episode, discussing, well, the entire universe: Its origins, the forces that govern it, general relativity, the multiverse, dark matter, dark energy, the fact that the universe is under no obligation to make sense to you, and the questions that Neil would ask a physicist in the year 2317. This episode is b...
Episode 248 - Live from Bridgetown Comedy Festival with Dr. Betsey Brada, Dr. Bryan Horne and Hampton Yount
May 12, 2017 22:21 - 1 hour - 57.1 MBLive from the 10th annual Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Oregon, Matt and Andy welcome Reed College professor and cultural anthropologist specializing in health and medicine in southern Africa Dr. Betsey Brada, anthropologist specializing in bardic song in contemporary Russia Dr. Brian Horne, and the voice of Crow on Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return Hampton Yount (@hamptonyount).
Episode 247 - Russell Howard
May 05, 2017 18:06 - 1 hour - 42.7 MBComedy powerhouse Russell Howard (@russellhoward) joins Matt and Andy to chat about unintentional rudeness, new spider species, birds of paradise dances, Catalina and gerbil smuggling, more spiders, scaring off mice, artificial wombs and throwing things.
Bonus Episode from the March for Science
April 28, 2017 04:07 - 41 minutes - 29.1 MBMatt and Andy traveled to downtown LA's Pershing Square and City Hall to take part in the March for Science, along the way speaking with various groups who had set up booths for the event, and even a neuroscientist listener who took the time to chat about her work giving cocaine to mice. Don't forget that Probably Science (and Andy and Matt individually) will be performing live at Portland's Bridgetown Comedy Festival on May 7th. Get your festival passes now at bridgetowncomedy.com
Episode 246 - Mary Mack and Tim Harmston
April 19, 2017 06:15 - 1 hour - 47 MBMarried comedians Mary Mack (@marymackcomedy) and Tim Harmston (@timharmston) sit down with Andy and Matt to talk about Frog rockets, orchestral doubling, Army band status, Guy Fawkes, accidentally melting science, dinobirds, kids with beaks, triple yolks, yogurt toppings economics, the book-stacking problem and why shoelaces come untied.
Episode 245 - Bryan Vokey, Carmen Morales and TJ Chambers
April 14, 2017 03:20 - 1 hour - 47.9 MBComedians Bryan Vokey (@BryanVokey), Carmen Morales (@thefunnycarmen) and TJ Chambers (@tjchambersLA) join Andy and Matt to discuss Georgia creationism, sperm-delivered drugs, erogenous T-Rex noses, geological Brexit, Segways on boats, Andy's mathematics puzzle, hamsters on Viagra and how memories are made.
Episode 244 - Henry Phillips
April 05, 2017 23:33 - 1 hour - 54.7 MBReturning guest Henry Phillips (@henlips) of Punching Henry fame sits down with Matt and Andy to discuss graphene water filtration, a real-life (sort-of) Iron Man, funny foreign names, CT scan risks, CTs vs. MRIs, biologics, dumb/smart interview questions and the probability of rude names happening randomly.
Episode 243 - MK Paulsen
March 28, 2017 19:00 - 1 hour - 59.4 MBComedian MK Paulsen (@mkpaulsen) joins Matt and Andy to talk about Crazy Frog, public policy, October Sky, RIP radioactive boy scout, a heart of spinach, German fake suns, beating cancer and stopping aging, corrections corner, Andy's new swim teammate, strep, the Ten Commandments, tits on Nazis and chimp death rituals.
Episode 242 - Phoebe Bottoms and TJ Chambers
March 18, 2017 22:01 - 1 hour - 48.6 MBComedian Phoebe Bottoms (@phoebebottoms) and returning guest TJ Chambers (@tjchambersLA) join Andy and Matt to discuss the Boaty McBoatface submarine, sirens and pigs, breaking up with your physics teacher, naughty snooping dildos, microphones in your pocket, why avoiding gluten might hurt you, unvaccinated Australians, OCD, which animals you can't keep as pets, why plastic is still bad, why licking video games is no fun anymore, Egg-wina and pee danger.
Episode 241 - Candice Thompson
March 10, 2017 01:06 - 58 minutes - 40.5 MBHot on the heels of her recent Tonight Show appearance, comedian Candice Thompson (@jokesbyCandice) joins Matt and Andy to talk about Punching Henry, the movie Matt is in with Henry Phillips, ASMR, Richard Simmons, anti-Brit racism, what zoo animals taste like, Neanderthals’ medication, mini-pigs and films about them, iCondoms, 3D printing medical supplies and pizzas, swimming pool pee and dog fMRIs.
Episode 240 - Johnny Pemberton
March 03, 2017 09:24 - 1 hour - 44.9 MBComedian and actor Johnny Pemberton (@johnnypemberton) of Son of Zorn joins Matt and Andy to discuss water shortage solutions and Indiegogo lies, pipe bombs, ulcerative colitis, money you can piss on, a better way to crowdsource, training bees to play with balls, chiropractic, more opinions on cats and toxo, saving polar ice and eating da poo-poo.
Episode 239 - Kate Willett
February 22, 2017 20:41 - 50 minutes - 34.9 MBComedian Kate Willett (@katewillett) joins Andy and Matt to talk about NASA's big exoplanet announcement and Episode 70 of our show discussing exoplanet research, the twin paradox, twin astronauts, fake Twitter accounts, a study showing that cats may not make you crazy, and a chiropractor's creative menstrual invention.
Episode 238 - Ever Mainard and Deborah Etta
February 13, 2017 21:48 - 1 hour - 49.8 MBComedians Ever Mainard (@evermainard) and Deborah Etta (@deborah_etta) join Andy and Matt to talk about scientific weirdos and Galois, starfish and STDs and regrowing dicks, finger regrowth, Matt’s awful ex, why whales jump, unethical kitten experiments, science fairs gone wrong, more blood and shit stuff, moon stuff and monkeys and dogs judging cooperation in humans. This episode is brought to you by Audible. For a free 30-day trial, visit audible.com/psp.
Episode 237 - Simon Talbot
February 06, 2017 21:03 - 1 hour - 49.1 MBDanish comedian Simon Talbot (@simontalbot_) recently relocated to the US, and he joins Matt and Andy to talk about Andy's cold apartment, Jehovah's witnessing, Simon’s weird blood, our no-butthole ancestor, dinosaur protein, Danish traditions, time crystals, ask-a-sociopath, talking viruses and a possible way to reverse antibiotic resistance.