Science... sort of

Episodes page 1 of 6

1. 347 - Skipping Strikes

   29 Apr 2023 · 1 h 10 min · Episode 347

   00:00:00 - Researchers have determined that if you want one big skip instead of many little skips you should select a potato-shaped rock instead of a flat one. If that's what you're into… 00:23:00 - Another way to…

2. 346 - Kenji and the Indestructible, Functional, No Fooling, Very Versatile Wok

   4 Feb 2023 · 1 h 09 min · Episode 346

   00:00:00 - Ryan is joined by cookbook author and YouTuber J. Kenji López-Alt to discuss his latest book The Wok: Recipes and Techniques, available wherever fine books are sold including our own page on Bookshop.org.…

3. 345 - Evil Prevails

   7 Jan 2023 · 1 h 43 min · Episode 345

   00:00:00 - Manly Ryan North (@ryanqnorth) returns to the show to talk to Ben and Handsome Ryan (not a self-selected nickname) to talk about his new book, How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific…

4. 344 - Stung by the Truth

   12 Aug 2022 · 1 h 51 min

   00:00:00 - Kelly and Ryan are thrilled to be joined by her friend and colleague, Dr. Andrew Forbes! He's a parasitic insect kind of guy (not meant as an insult!) and we discuss his journey a bit before diving into some…

5. Special Edition 16 - Project Hail Mary

   25 Apr 2022 · 1 h 11 min

   00:00:00 - Time for a special edition Science… sort of Book Club! Ryan, Joe, and Tim all read Andy Weir's new novel Project Hail Mary. What did they think of it? How was the science? Should Andy Weir design escape…

6. 343 - Webb's in the Greenhouse

   24 Mar 2022 · 1 h 58 min

   00:00:00 - There's a new telescope in town to look out of town and see exactly what's going on in this here galaxy. Introducing… the James Webb Space Telescope! What can it do? Where can it do it? And did we name it…

7. 342 - The Extinction of Fossil Fuels

   31 Jan 2022 · 1 h 18 min

   00:00:00 - Joe and Ryan are excited to be joined by Craig Welch and Sam Howe Verhovek who each have articles in the October 2021 issue of National Geographic "The Revolution is Here" which is all about the future of…

8. 341 - Highway to the Science Zone

   14 Jan 2022 · 2 h 11 min

   00:00:00 - Joe and Ryan are joined by their friend Dr. Antonio "Tony" Munoz, who tells us about his work as a scientist and his journey from the world of research to the world of consulting. Tony's open access papers…

9. 340 - Anchor's Away Part 5: The Final Anchoring

   1 Jan 2022 · 50 min

   00:00:00 - In which Ryan introduces the concept of this type of episode… for the last time. (But which can be previously heard in episodes 266, 282, 326, and 332.) 00:05:23 - Zootopia and Disney Lemming Myths…

10. 339 - Voices Assemble!

    25 May 2021 · 1 h 25 min

    00:00:00 - Ryan is joined by Megan Johnson (@mmjohnso), Becca Van Hoeck (@becca_vanhoeck), and Caitlin Bergstrom (@caityydid). Megan and Becca are Ph.D. researchers working on the environmental engineering of the…

11. 338 - We bought a Zoo-ologist's book

    23 Apr 2021 · 1 h 13 min

    00:00:00 - Dr. Arik Kershenbaum (@arikkershenbaum) stops by to talk about his new book, The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens—And Ourselves, AKA the fastest we've ever said yes…

12. 337 - Living on the Edge

    10 Apr 2021 · 1 h 14 min

    00:00:00 - Carl Zimmer (@CarlZimmer) has returned to the show to talk to us about his new book, Life's Edge: The Search For What It Means To Be Alive. While it may be hard to define life, we can provide definite…

13. 336 - Sweet Sake and Spoiled Spores

    27 Mar 2021 · 1 h 17 min

    00:00:00 - Returning guest Jen Gallagher (@yeastychic) has brought along two former students to talk about their continued research into the world of yeast! We're excited to be joined by Matt Winas, currently the lead…

14. 335 - Major Herp-o-compatability Complex

    28 Feb 2021 · 1 h 14 min

    00:00:00 - Kelly and Ryan are psyched to be joined by Gina Zwicky (@GinaGoesOutside) to talk about all things herps (amphibians + reptiles)! We begin with a discussion about Gina's work the immune system of Caribbeans…

15. 334 - Destruction Breeds Creation

    13 Feb 2021 · 1 h 12 min

    00:00:00 - The Triassic Period was clearly a tough time to be alive, since a lot of things kept dying. Researchers have recently uncovered a potentially new extinction that happened during the Triassic, and another…

16. 333 - AGU Brought To You

    29 Jan 2021 · 1 h 38 min

    00:00:00 - Thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the AGU Fall Meeting had to go all online, but that didn't showing up and recording some interviews. But plot twist! This year we sent Producer Tim Dobbs to do the…

17. Special Edition 15 - TENET

    14 Jan 2021 · 1 h 19 min

    00:00:00 - Ryan is joined by Jesse B. Grove V to discuss the highly anticipated sci-fi action thriller, Christopher Nolan's TENET. Jesse is drinking an Outer Realm from Original Pattern Brewing Company and Ryan is…

18. 332 - Anchor's Away Part 4

    26 Dec 2020 · 56 min

    00:00:00- We're doing another Anchor-themed clip show! Following up on episodes 266, 282, and 326 we have another round of short audio clips that Ryan created for the podcast startup Anchor under the banner of…

19. 331 - Just Another Mammoth Monday

    8 Nov 2020 · 1 h 23 min

    00:00:00 - Abe and Ryan are joined by paleontologists Lindsey Yann and Advait Jukar (@amjukar) to talk about all manner of proboscideans! First up, hundreds of mammoth fossils have been found underneath the…

20. 330 - Amber Waves of Sap and Problems of Pollen Prairies

    24 Oct 2020 · 1 h 41 min

    00:00:00 - Researcher Daniel Katz and journalist Lucas Joel (@LucasVanWykJoel) join Ryan to talk about Dan's research into Detroit's pollen problem. Too many vacant lots means a lot more ragweed for the residents of…

21. 329 - Long Naps and Near Misses

    9 Oct 2020 · 1 h 29 min

    00:00:00 - Joe begins the show by explaining how we all just nearly died last month but didn't as an asteroid had the closest flyby of Earth ever detected thanks to some pretty cool new observation tech at the Zwicky…

22. 328 - Redox Violations

    24 Sep 2020 · 1 h 02 min

    00:00:00 - Phosphine has been detected in the atmosphere of Venus, where it shouldn't exist. How could it have formed in detectable quantities? One explanation could be microbes living in a habitable zone high in the…

23. 327 - Soils and Soot

    10 Sep 2020 · 1 h 38 min

    00:00:00 - Charlie, Abe, and Ryan are joined by Sommelier Kristy Wenz because we're talking about wine! Why wine? Stay tuned to the drinks segment to find out! But first up, they discuss the effects of geology, soil…

24. 326 - Anchor's Away Part 3

    28 Aug 2020 · 1 h 09 min

    00:00:00 - We're doing another Anchor-themed clip show! Following up on episodes 266 and 282, we have another round of short audio clips that Ryan created for the podcast startup Anchor under the banner of Organized…

25. 325 - Arch: -osaurs and -eology

    13 Aug 2020 · 1 h 01 min

    00:00:00 - First up, we discuss the evolution of thalattoscuhians, or crocodilians who evolved to live life in the seas, based on CAT scans of their skulls and what that means for their convergent evolution with…

26. 324 - Suit up for Science

    31 Jul 2020 · 1 h 29 min

    00:00:00 - Ryan is joined by Lisa Lundgren and Gabriel Santos, two of the heads of Cosplay for Science, an organization that uses elaborating costuming (called cosplay) to advocate for science! But first, we talk about…

27. 323 - Harnessing the Power of the Great Old Ones

    9 Jul 2020 · 1 h 14 min

    00:00:00 - This episode Ben and Ryan are joined by Ph.D. student and podcaster Kathryn Cogert (@KathrynIsabel), who specializes in mimicking the microbial nitrogen cycling as seen in Oxygen Minimum Zones of the ocean…

28. 322 - Drawn to Neanderthals

    25 Jun 2020 · 1 h 34 min

    00:00:00 - We are joined by cartoonist Jeffrey Brown to talk about his work. First up, we discuss his Lucy & Andy Neanderthal series about a Homo neanderthalensis family that's just trying to get by in the Stone Age.…

29. 321 - A Welcome Intrusion

    11 Jun 2020 · 1 h 09 min

    00:00:00 - New experimental research shows that there might still be volcanoes active on Venus, which is a big deal since it has long been thought that Venus didn't have active plate tectonics. Abe breaks down how the…

30. 320 - Keeping Cool On Climate

    27 May 2020 · 1 h 28 min

    00:00:00 - Patrick puts forth proposals for less automobile-focused cities (see more on his Twitter feed @pvwheatley) before we dive into part 1 of Ryan's interview with UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography Ph.D.…

31. 319 - Standing up to Satellites

    23 Apr 2020 · 1 h 54 min

    00:00:00 - We welcome back our old buddy Jacob Stump as he joins to discuss the evolution of the human big toe, which is more interesting than you might think because it showed up sort of lake to the walking around on…

32. 318 - The X-Men Files: A Star Wars Story

    19 Mar 2020 · 1 h 08 min

    00:00:00 - Asher Elbein (@asher_elbein) is still back but this time he and Ryan get really nerdy (if you believe that's even possible after the last episode). The first half of super nerd talk begins with a brief…

33. 317 - Wild Hogs Can't Be Broken

    10 Mar 2020 · 54 min

    00:00:00 - Asher Elbein (@asher_elbein) is back to talk about feral hogs! If you listen to Reply All you may have already heard some of his reporting on the issue, but we were able to dig deep and really get it into.…

34. 316 - Message in a Rocket

    1 Jan 2020 · 1 h 40 min

    00:00:00 - Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson returns to the show to talk about his new book, Letters from an Astrophysicist. In addition to book chat, he and Ryan also touch on the culture growth of pseudoscience such as people…

35. 315 - Planetary Growing Pains

    7 Dec 2019 · 1 h 28 min

    00:00:00 - For our first topic, Ryan, Ben, and Joe explore the theory that the oddly-shaped space rock Oumumua is actually an alien reconnaissance ship. Seriously. 00:23:38 - If the threat of alien invasion doesn't…

36. 314 - You win some, you lose some

    7 Nov 2019 · 1 h 37 min

    00:00:00 - For this episode, we're joined by Peter Brannen (@PeterBrannen1), author of the book The Ends of the World: Supervolcanoes, Lethal Oceans, and the Search for Past Apocalypses, which explains all the times…

37. 313 - Debating Diapsids

    22 Aug 2019 · 1 h 13 min

    00:00:00 - Paleontologist Adam Pritchard (@PTPritchard), post-doc at NMNH and future Assistant Collections Manager at VNMN, joins Ryan to talk about all things reptiles! Diapsids, crown versus stem, mass extinctions;…

38. 312 - A 'Peake at Chessie

    25 Jul 2019 · 1 h 30 min

    00:00:00 - Joe brings his friend and historian Kristina Gaddy (@kgadz) onto the show to talk about Chessie, the supposed sea monster of the Chesapeake Bay (bay monster?). She wrote a piece about the history and…

39. 311 - Eat, Scan, Love

    18 Jul 2019 · 1 h 19 min

    00:00:00 - The boys are back and they're talking about meat. Specifically, how the idea that neanderthals ate mostly meat is being challenged by the idea that the chemistry can be tricked if the meat is already rotten…

40. 310 - Ecosystem Disservice

    25 Jun 2019 · 1 h 39 min

    00:00:00 - After seeing a twitter thread about a recent publication, Ryan invited Jesse Alston (@IntegratEcology) on the show to talk about that paper and his scientific journey. They met up in Laramie and started with…

41. 309 - AAAS Part II, Embrace the Undisciplined

    6 Jun 2019 · 1 h 03 min

    00:00:00 - Ryan is joined by Utah State University journalism professor Matthew LaPlante (@mdlaplante), who teaches science graduate students how to communicate better all while doing #SciComm himself. They chat about…

42. 308 - AAAS Part I, Draw It Out

    18 May 2019 · 1 h 08 min

    00:00:00 - Recorded live at the annual meeting of AAAS, Ryan is joined by Jason McDermott (@BioDataGanache) and Matteo Farinella (@matteofarinella), two comic creating scientists who ran a session titled: Scientists…

43. 307 - Laughing all the way to the lab

    3 May 2019 · 1 h 20 min

    00:00:00 - This episode we're thrilled to be joined by comedian Shane Mauss (@shanecomedy), currently touring his Stand Up Science show around the county and happy enough to sit down and chat with Ryan about it. In the…

44. 306 - The World Without Us

    25 Apr 2019 · 1 h 15 min

    00:00:00 - Thanks to the wonders of isotopic geochemistry, scientists have a found a link between the genocide of the native peoples of the Americas and a carbon drawdown that temporarily cooled global temperatures…

45. 305 - AGU Part V, How To Train Your Science

    22 Apr 2019 · 1 h 31 min

    00:00:00 - In our final AGU episode, Abe and Ryan host a roundtable discussion with some of the researchers who took the train from Scripps Oceanographic Institute (@scripps_ocean) in San Diego all the way to DC as…

46. 304 - AGU Part IV, To see an Ocean in a grain of a foram

    21 Mar 2019 · 1 h 42 min

    00:00:00 - Dr. Heather Ford (@hl_ford), who was featured alongside a certain Paleopal for National Fossil Day, meets up with Ryan at Atlas Brew Works with her pup Sammy to talk about her work as a paleocenagropher,…

47. 303 - AGU Part III, Erupting with Creativity

    19 Mar 2019 · 1 h 45 min

    00:00:00 - Jill Shipman and Brandon Gellis join us to talk about their AGU eLightning session titled Art and Science: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Data Exploration and Communication. We talk about this novel…

48. 302 - AGU Part II, Dune or dune not, there is no dry (ice)

    27 Feb 2019 · 1 h 35 min

    00:00:00 - In part two of our AGU shows we begin with dunes! Ryan chats with Tom Ashley (@ThomasCAshley) and Rob Mahon (@RobertCMahon) about their work looking at how dunes form and move in a variety of conditions on,…

49. 301 - AGU Part I, The Fifth Element

    9 Feb 2019 · 1 h 23 min

    00:00:00 - Photographer, filmmaker, and lapsed geomorphologist James Balog (@james_balog) joins Ryan and Abe to talk about his new film The Human Element, which screened at AGU and is available to stream now! After…

50. 300 - This... is... SCIENCE

    25 Jan 2019 · 2 h 08 min

    00:00:00 - To celebrate our 300th episode and make up for skipping Thanksgiving this year we're doing an all feedback segment! Patrick starts off with an e-mail from Stephen H. who has spotted a potential relative of…