This week, Trace dives into the eerie blue glow of Cherenkov radiation—the phenomenon that makes nuclear reactors look suspiciously like sci-fi props—and asks the obvious next question: is blue really the best color? Meanwhile, Julian heads beneath the waves to investigate one of nature's most famous "friendships," only to discover that when it comes to biological partnerships, the documentary 'Finding Nemo' might have glossed over a few crucial details. Turns out, even the natural world has its fair share of freeloaders, bad roommates, and complicated relationship dynamics.

This week, Julian launches an investigation into “Big Sun” and its wild claim that humans can somehow absorb vitamins from a giant nuclear fireball 93 million miles away. Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, that actually does somehow happen. Later, Trace ventures into the unexplored corners of the human mind to ask whether there are any feelings that nobody has ever experienced before—and whether humanity might still be hiding entirely new emotions somewhere beyond the edge of our emotional vocabulary.

In this TAPE Classic episode, Trace explores the science of stasis, diving into hyper-sleep, cryogenic freezing, and whether humanity might one day be able to snooze our way through long journeys. Meanwhile, Julian applies rocket science to one of humanity’s least celebrated forms of propulsion, uncovering just how much thrust it would take to achieve the dream of self-powered flight. As a bonus, an unexpected detour reveals that the 1993 classic film “Demolition Man" may have been far more prophetic than anyone intended.

If our magic button killed every microbe on Earth — all bacteria, all viruses, gone — what would be left standing? Spoiler: You'd be missing something powerful. Julian goes full overachiever and zooms in on FOUR questions all on this devastating topic. Then, Trace, somewhere else in the solar system, is singing in the rain. But does it even rain elsewhere? Is rain weird? Find out this week!

This week, Trace and Julian accidentally stumble into what may be the most in-depth discussion of a certain food-based weather movie ever recorded. To determine whether giant pancakes, spaghetti tornadoes, and burger-based weather systems would actually be fun or the beginning of humanity’s downfall, Trace recruits our associate producer, Sabrina Capello. Longtime listeners may know her as the person who bullies us on social media, but today she joins the show in her true role: professional opinion haver and alarmingly dedicated Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs expert. What begins as a whimsical thought experiment quickly turns into a shocking investigation into a world far more horrifying than the movie ever suggests.

This week, Julian explores whether animals can be allergic to humans, digging into all things histamine to find out if nature has ever collectively decided that people are, medically speaking, just too annoying to be around. Later, Trace investigates a deeply cursed question: how many holes do humans really have? Oh, and he also tackles the ACTUAL question of what it would be like if humans were born full of holes—think a walking, talking monstera plant, but flesh. Horrifying… and also quite unsanitary.

If we had a nickel for every time Julian answered a question involving pigeons, we’d have two nickels. Not that many, but weird that it’s happened twice. This week, he investigates pigeon logistics, excreta coverage, and everything about the Great Wall of China, all fueled by the power of basic research and—horrifyingly—firsthand investigation. Meanwhile, Trace attempts to outsmart the cruel economics of holiday birthdays using special and general relativity, which was definitely the simplest and most reasonable way possible to solve this problem.

Is that a slogan for hair shampoo or fizzy drinks? Well, kick back, relax, and crack open a can—or, you know, be like us and choose from one of the many flat ones you forgot on your desk. Either way, if you’re serious about your bubbles, Julian has a proposition for you: skip the middleman and suckle straight from the teat of the soda fountain. On the flip side, Trace embarks on a trek to the follicular frontier to discover how much hair you’d have to grow to actually lose weight. It’s a hairy situation, but we’re all about life hacks on this show!

This week, Trace digs into whether life could’ve ever gotten its start somewhere else—say, Mars, for example—quickly pointing out that our lovely planet's existence is already pretty insane on its own. Meanwhile, Julian takes a simple “why hot things glow red” question and follows it straight through Max Planck to the idea of whether the universe itself has a maximum possible temperature. Naturally, we end up circling the origin of everything like that isn’t wildly overkill, and we somehow accidentally relive the Big Bang along the way.

If you’ve been itching for a cross-country trip, you could just book a flight like a normal person… but where’s the fun in that? This week, Julian (heroically) avoids talking about aviation and instead explores his second-favorite mode of transportation: a Mazda Miata outfitted with two Ferrari engines bolted to the sides. Yes, it has training wheels. No, that does not pass inspection. Meanwhile, Trace is busy figuring out if he can hang ten on a giant Detroit-style pepperoni pizza—which, shockingly, is mostly possible but, unshockingly, not very delicious.

This week on the pod, Julian makes a groundbreaking discovery: contrary to popular belief, humans and squid are, in fact, very different animals. One species commonly needs glasses, and the other…sometimes may also need glasses? Meanwhile, Trace tries to figure out if sound could travel slower in the dark, and the answer is yes! As long as you’re okay with being instantly vaporized. 😊

This week, Trace turns a completely normal human behavior into a full-blown scientific investigation, uncovering how airflow, temperature, and mouth geometry can make you feel like you’re secretly developing budget-tier superpowers. Meanwhile, Julian takes a bold step forward for both science and dairy by stress-testing the limits of cheese in a scenario it was never meant to survive. Along the way: thermodynamics, questionable engineering choices, and the realization that just because something can exist in a lava-like state doesn’t mean it should.

Hi all! As I'm sure those of you with the patience to sit through the end credits know, the show is edited and produced by Kyle Sisk. Kyle is the glue holding this podcast together, taking the loose collection of pocket lint that makes up the brains of the two hosts and stitching it together into a beautiful audio tapestry. Without Kyle there truly would be no show. How do we know this? Because this week, we had no Kyle. Kyle came down with COVID and this man STILL tried to get an episode cut together in time for our regular upload. Ultimately we decided his recovery is more important than an arbitrary deadline for a silly show where we're probably going to be talking about dogs made of spaghetti or something, and so this week will be another of our old favorites. Please enjoy!

Hey all! This week, we're rebroadcasting a very memorable TAPE episode from last June to give ourselves a bit of a break: Julian's flight school classes started up again in full force and Trace is traveling back and forth to Brazil to visit his partner while they're undergoing their IVF journey. Don't you fret, though, because this episode contains ⚡️SHOCKING⚡️ and 🪽SOARING🪽 content! Trace tries to inhale a lethal dose of ozone from a bunch of sweaters and Julian finally receives free rein to talk about aviation as much as he wants... but not in the way you'd expect. Thanks for tuning in, and see you next week with a brand new episode!

In this episode, we learn that Julian will never be employed as a telegraph operator, but he might have a future as a Soviet janitor named Ivan who works at a nuclear research facility and collects spicy dead pigeons in his spare time. It's OK, the CIA left them for him, he's not weird. Meanwhile, Trace discovers that the world does not in fact revolve around himself… or anyone else, for that matter. If it did, Everyone Dies™ one way or another.

This week, Trace takes a closer look at one of the boldest maneuvers in pirate cinema: whether a determined crowd could actually flip something the size of an aircraft carrier by running from one side to the other like in the documentary “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Meanwhile, Julian investigates the logistics of purchasing the Sun—who exactly you’d pay for it, what ownership might legally mean, and how tempting it would be to start charging the planet a small recurring fee for access to daylight.