Probably Science

Shop Amazon for the holidays and enjoy comedian and musician Mike Phirman (@phirm) as he joins the crew to talk about kidney stones and Jesse's trip to urgent care, Mike's iodine allergy, the millenial malady of text neck, a man who can sort of hear wifi, the sound of Comet 67P and Philae, Hard 'n' Phirm's ode to the numerical value pi, Chicken Monkey Duck, Build-a-Song, Trace Elements, the bluegrass mashup Rodeohead, more Vomit Comet talk, why we need to be done with fossil fuels by 2100, the link between gut bacteria and mental health, a vaginal Crocodile Mile and the clearest-ever image of planetary formation.

As you shop using the Probably Science Holiday Gift Guide, listen to the wonderful Alison Haislip of Attack of the Show fame as she talks with Andy, Jesse and Matt about world peace, annoying parkour people, the daily life of Valley Villagers, finding a 26-year-old letter to Tony Hawk in the garage, Matt's recommended gentle comedy The Castle, Alison's four-year stint at Space Camp, getting serenaded by wannabe Top Gun pilots, Charles Manson's nuptials, organic molecules discovered on Comet 67P, Lego vs. Legos, screener season, why blue things are rare in nature, the man who turned himself into Papa Smurf, how to learn synesthesia, seals humping penguins, centaurs vs. minotaurs vs. fauns, Zoothe movie about the Enumclaw sex farm, and storing 5.5 petabits of data in a single gram of DNA.

It's time for the first Probably Science Holiday Gift Guide! While you're taking care of all your seasonal shopping needs there, you can enjoy this week's episode with former tennis pro and current comedy pro Michael Kosta, who joins the gang to talk about Matt turning into a real boy, being a good samaritan with a lost phone, the horror of found comedy notebooks, hippie journals, Michael and Andy's Ann Arbor roots, impending earthquakes, Jesse's survival kit, British army surplus stores, being the 864th best tennis player in the world, gender parity in the professional darts world, ridiculously fast tennis serves coming from women, the age-accelerating effects of milk, contagious yawning in wolves and Michael's Sports. Kosta. Basement. web series.

Producer of The Meltdown, co-host of The Indoor Kids podcast and former couples therapist Emily Gordon joins the festivities this week to talk about rage oranges, webcams, Jesse making three Subway trips in a day, why rocket science is so damn hard, co-ed fraternities, people trying to get free therapy at parties, Emily's blog, decorating your house with Dave Kloc posters, astronomy sleuths uncovering the origins of Monet paintings, Brooks being cast in an upcoming movie, schizophrenia actually being eight different disorders, dating the person in front of you, algae that makes us idiots, the films of Dwight Yoakam, the Magnolia scene filmed in our neighborhood bar, out-of-date Philae comet-landing news, a robot that makes you think there's a ghost behind you, the Third Man Factor experienced by mountain climbers, British accents vs. American Southern accents, Jesse and Andy's counseling breakthrough, working with your spouse, the video game nostalgia of Ready Player One, and game recommendations including Splatoon, Unfinished Swan and Spirits.

This week's guest is that rarest of Probably Science breeds: A comic with a PhD. Scientist-turned-comedian Tim Lee joins Andy, Jesse and Matt to talk about crispness, anadromous fishes, California water subsidies, Australia's Big Banana, the problem with butt implants, next-generation CubeSats using iodine propellant, working in financial dark pools, The financial exposé Flash Boys, Jesse getting tricked by a prostitute, the lack of free speech in academia, the horror of bad seminars, the 10-year Rosetta mission landing Philae on a comet, the astounding number of proteins in testes, incorrect childhood assumptions about making and delivering babies, financial advice from Andy, the investment book A Random Walk Down Wall Street, our dwindling helium supply due to party balloons, rapidly evolving Floridian lizards, a great Johnny Carson biography, height classes in basketball leagues, why women and men don't play darts together, evolution misconceptions, homosexuality correlation among identical twins and the podcast's recent spike in German listenership.

British comic par excellence Holly Walsh (twitter.com/wiggywalsh) joins the proceedings this week to talk with Matt, Andy and Jesse about British podcasting wigs, courtroom caricature artists, a dog that looks like Frederick Douglass, bum-to-bum golden retriever humping, the Pope's bold stance on evolution and the Big Bang, Matt's Bloodhound Gang fandom, Pussy energy drink, the love hormone that controls sexual behavior in mice, the science of blue balls, oxytocin parties, pheromone parties, Jesse's Nearderthal roots, a recently identified fragment of Amelia Earhart's plane, New Order vs. Joy Division, chopping the arachnophobia out of a man's brain, the tragic crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, celebrity space tourists, weightlessness vs. a lack of gravity and a dinosaur with giant, hairy arms. 

Time-traveling Aussie comedy phenom, TOFOP host and all around great guy Wil Anderson returns to the show on a spooky Halloween week to talk with the gang about: Bungee jumping pranks! Grown-ass adults who believe in ghosts! Presidents lying about their religion! Wil being sent back from the future to save this podcast! The depressingly high percentages of Americans who believe in haunted houses, Atlantis and Bigfoot! Seatbelt conspiracy theorists! Incorrect bible quotes in We Are The World! The Antares rocket blows up! CubeSats! There can be only one Highlander movie! Old topical jokes! Matt gets fooled by a fake haunted house corpse story! The origin of copulation! Penis-measuring injuries! More info on cold pasta and the retrogradation of starches! Relieving your boredom with electrical shocks! Cola-flavored genitals! The surprisingly healthy gums of ancient Romans!

Comedy and music virtuoso Henry Phillips (twitter.com/HenLips) visits with Matt, Jesse and Andy on the heels of recording his upcoming Netflix special to talk about: Bad comedy introductions! Walking miracles! Being an awkwardness magnet! Elvis fandom! Physics and free will! Listener theme songs! Guitar worship! Disrespecting the legacy of Eddie Van Halen! Revisionist comedy and music history! The awesomeness of Jellyfish! Reheated pasta may be less fattening! Henry's Kitchen! The music of Jose Suicidio! How cooking videos capture your attention! The G-spot doesn't exist! Jesse is responsible for every wet dream! The allure of a stranger's breasts! Nudism and boners! Yawning isn't contagious for autistic people! Spiders burrowing through appendectomy scars! A puppy-sized spider! The closing of the Cat & Fiddle! Accidentally wearing a Morrissey shirt! Henry's Netflix special! Henry's hilarious film Punching the Clown and its upcoming sequel!

Saturday Night Live/Mad TV Alum Jeff Richards (tastyjeff.com) pops in to talk to Andy and Jesse about: Why school sucks! Freddie Mercury's jacket! Lost cities revealed by lasers! Crystals that let us breathe underwater! Facebook's experimenting apology! Silence of the Lambs impressions... a lot of them! Why fat guys are better lovers! Stu's attempts at home improvement! Lab-grown genitals!

Colonel Chris Hadfield (twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield) is a highly decorated Canadian astronaut, test pilot, engineer and former commander of the Internation Space Station, and on his most most recent mission became famous for his thousands of photographs and hundreds of videos shot on the ISS, including a music video cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity that has been viewed hundreds of millions of times. Matt, Jesse and Andy were honored to be able to talk with Col. Hadfield about his experiences in the space program and his books An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth and You Are Here.