Surely You're Joking - TopPodcast.com

Robert Zubrin and the astronauts' direct advice. Oct 10, 2019

Dr. Robert Zubrin of the Mars Society returns to discuss Mars Direct, carbon credits, plans for the moon, and his shout out from Micheal Collins on the 50th Anniversary of the moon landing.

Avery Broderick and the first black hole selfie. Sep 24, 2019

Meeting up at the April Meeting of the American Physical Society, Dr. Avery Broderick tells Kevin about the Breakthrough Prize winning first photo of a super massive black hole in Virgo, Kevin's birth sign.

Robert Picardo, Konstantin Batygin and the factor of two hypothesis. Feb 27, 2019

Robert Picardo, best known as the holographic doctor on Star Trek Voyager and host of the Planetary Post, meets up with Kevin and returning Surely You're Joking guest star and Planet Nine hypotheses and hunter, Konstantin Batygin, to revel brand new secrets about Planet Nine! From the headquarters of the Planetary Society in Pasadena, Konstantin announces fresh of the presses details about the size, shape, and location of the still as-of-yet photographed Planet Nine!

Mark Mammone and the alternate universe. Feb 27, 2019

Mark Mamonne is a actor, comedian, and production assistant on Seth McFarland's "The Orville." Mark comes on Surly You're Joking to talk about leaving stand up for acting and to tell us about his upcoming first appearance on the show!

Sumner Norman and the mind-reading robots. Feb 12, 2019

Dr. Sumner Norman can do a lot of things, but one of the most amazing is that he can read your thoughts, sometimes even before you realized you thought it. Sumner explains how his work will help disabled people regain control their lives, almost straight out of the movie Upgrade.

James Tuttle Keane and the sketch of the farthest snowman. Jan 30, 2019

Dr. James Tuttle Keane brings some of his sketches of the most distant (and possibly the oldest) probed object in our solar system named Ultima Thule. In addition to studying planet, James makes brilliant drawings to help explain what we are learning about this strange, city-sized snowman-like object that was visited on New Year's Eve 2019 by the New Horizons space probe. James works along side Brian May from Queen and together they help both discover our distant celestial past and share those exciting discoveries with the public.

Kevin Hardegree Ullman, Aubree Sweeney and the cosmic piano tuning. Jan 21, 2019

First Surely You're Joking episode of 2019! Planetary research and Dr. Kevin Hardegree Ullman and comedian Aubree Sweeney get an update of the Kepler telescope replacement : the TESS satellite, the Rose Parade, and three letter acronyms. Ullman explains the viral video of the music made tuning solar system K2-128. Happy New Year!

Julie Jester and the Pasadena prank. Sep 16, 2018

Julie Jester is the queen of the prank court. When she's not inventing widgets and working on spaceships, she helping Caltech prank arch-nemesis MIT or building an homage to Hollywood sign pranks of old.

Spyridon Michalakis and the Quantum Realm Aug 17, 2018

How does Ant-Man shrink? Quantum Mechanics of course! Professor Spyridon Michalakis, scientific consultant of Marvel's most recent super hero block buster, starring Paul Rudd. It turns out the Hollywood star loves physics, so Spiro explains that while working directly with him, he came up with the Quantum Realm. Kevin and Spiro talk about some the tech details, how exotic atoms like muonium and pionium, can actually change size in real life labs.

Konstantin Batygin and the quantum planets. Aug 10, 2018

Joking's favorite Professor Konstantin Batygin is back to explain how he discovered that equation that governs the quantum world of Schrödinger's cat fame, also describes planetary disks and the formation of solar systems. He also breaks down the progress on the dark hunt for Planet Nine.

Paul Zaloom and the puppet on mars. Jun 21, 2018

Paul Zaloom, star of the hit science show for kids, Beakman's World, drops in to tell Kevin about the popularity of his show all over the world, has him trekking across the globe. Paul give the low down on his latest project: puppet astronauts.

Robert Zubrin and the pioneering spirit. May 30, 2018

Author of The Case for Mars explains his plans to take people to mars, Mars Direct. Kevin and Robert discus SpaceX, making fuel on Mars, space nuclear, the intellectual dark web, and the uselessness of tollbooths in space.

Andy Weir and the first city in space. Apr 25, 2018

"The Martian" Andy Weir returns to Surely You're Joking after meeting up with Kevin and Matthew in the Bay Area to tell us about his new book, "Artemis." Andy also gives his take on why the Moon will be the home of the first Space city, not Mars, squarely breaking with Elon Musk. Andy welcomes his friend joining the sci-fi author turned movie club with the release of "Ready Player One." and shares his outlook on BFR.

Michael Shellenberger and the future of San Onofre. Apr 13, 2018

Kevin drives up to Berkley to meet up with environmentalist turned Gubernatorial candidate Michael Shellenberger. Michael is the founder of Environmental Progress, a non-profit devoted to well, environmental progress. Much like Kevin, Michael see nuclear energy as a critical part of growing the economy and standard of living of California and beyond. Is this episode hilarious? Meh, not really, but covers pretty serious stuff and Shellenberger is definitely a serious contender for the biggest state in The Union.

Richard Rieber and the Martian wheel code. Mar 31, 2018

Richard Rieber tells of his work on the Martian rover Curiosity and the up and coming rover Mars 2020, the dangers of driving the world's most expensive vehicle at 0.01 mph and what happens when you use wheels to leave your mark.

Liz Friedman, Jimmy O Yang and the South Pole schwag. Mar 13, 2018

Physicist Liz Friedman joins Kevin and Jimmy O Yang (right after wrapping Silicon Valley Season 4)meet up at Jimmy's old apartment to talk about detecting high energy neutrinos, in the coldest place on earth. Liz brings Jimmy polar schwag and tells us about her famous picture from New Years. Jimmy pitches his new book How To American.

Sarah Keller and the Hohmann orbital ballasts. Mar 06, 2018

Comedian Sarah Keller and Mitch tell Kevin how unimpressed they were with the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch, and discuss the secret of living forever, the science of bullfrog mating calls, emotional truck commercials, and three parent babies.

Manan Arya and the origami mohawk. Feb 23, 2018

Rocket scientist Manan Arya uses the ancient art of origami to fold complex space structures, like solar collectors, radio dish antennae, and even mirrors for the next generation of powerful telescopes. Along the way they brain storm on new origami space fashion.

Irina Skaya and the giant ferriswheel of hooks. Feb 16, 2018

Comedian Irina Skaya has strong opinions about politics (and the comedy of politics) and she doesn't care if you're offended by them. Kevin and Irina talk about life of immigrant families. Irina talks about how embracing her Russian/Ukrainian background has liberated her comedic voice. They manage to fit some science in there too and Irina pleads in Russian to get Surely You're Joking unbanned in Russia.

Vito Gesualdi old-timey popcorn salesman. Jan 12, 2018

Viral video blogger, gamer, and comedian Vito Gesualdi joins Mitch and Kevin talks about his adventures trolling politically charged rallies, as the extreme left and right collide, sometimes with frightening results. But what would a SYJ episode be with out discussing alien asteroids, robots and demonetization.

Jessie Christiansen and the Goldilocks retraction. Dec 11, 2017

Prof. Jessie Christiansen returns to give Mitch and Kevin heads up on the planet hunting Kepler Space Telescope's final mission update, on how discoveries sometimes have to be walked back a bit, and the "what's up with that?" on Oumuamua, the asteroid (or maybe space ship?) from outside the solar system. There is some singing involved.

Mitch Burrow and the alien rock. Nov 09, 2017

Comedian, Marine and veteran, Mitch Burrow, doesn't let his GED stop him from tackling the genius of Einstein, quantum entanglement, artificial intelligence, and A/2017 U1. the first asteroid to fly by earth from outside our solar system.

Ken Garr and the Space Musketeers. Oct 25, 2017

Comedian Ken Garr talks about his time performing in Iraq, starting a new political comedy show, and SpaceX fans and haters.

Monica Nevi and a break in the monotony. Oct 23, 2017

Seattle comedian Monica Nevi from 'Laughs" on FOX stops by to talk about sports injury science, missing the ellipse by just a few miles and the importance of talking about farts and swearing when you want to get your point across. Kevin brings up militant veganism and science gone wrong by creating extremist robots.

Jess McIver and the finally not a glitch. Oct 18, 2017

On Aug. 17, 2017, a wave of signals reached earth from 100 million miles away of two neutron stars violently colliding. Dr. Jess McIver (sounds just like "MacGyver") was behind the team that published the news to the world. She also helped remove all the "glitches" that might have looked like a fake signal. What made this so spectacular, was that this was first time such an event was detected from gravitational waves, and then shortly after detected from light all the way from gamma rays down to radio frequency.

Barry Barish and the two extremes of discovery. Sep 30, 2017

Just hours before the announcement is made in Stockholm, award winning professor, activist, and (as of this episode's release)Nobel Laureate Barry Barish sits down with Kevin and talks about the discovery of gravitational waves from massive colliding black holes billions of miles away.

Hakeem Oluseyi and the flattened galactic disk. Sep 29, 2017

Astrophysicist Prof. Hakeem Oluseyi returns and things get deep with Kevin. Dark matter, invisible shape of the galaxy, quantum reality, nerds v. jocks, gaslighting scientists, and the correct way to pronounce salmon merlot, which should never be paired.

Morgan Cable and the final orbital trim maneuver. Sep 14, 2017

After 13 years orbiting Saturn, the NASA probe Cassini is about to die a fiery death. Dr. Morgan Cable from JPL tells us about why, and how much this amazing probe has taught us about the solar system and maybe even about life. [photo: Dan Goods NASA/JPL]

Ed Stone and the forty year old interstellar voyage. Sep 05, 2017

40 years ago, on September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 launched from Florida, Earth, to begin a grand planetary tour of the solar system, taking spectacular pictures and measurements of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune and then, spectacularly, being the first human made object to leave our solar system and officially enter interstellar space. Kevin and Jimmy talked to Ed Stone, a scientist who shaped the path of Voyager 1 and 2, about their historic discoveries over the last four decades.

Connor Mcspadden, Keith Carey and the volumetric estimate. Aug 31, 2017

Connor Mcspadden and Keith Carey are a hilarious duo. And it all might have been different if Connor had gone into the sciences instead of stand up at the age of 16. Coming from their podcast Mean Boys and their appearances on Comedy Central's Roast Battle, they stop by to "discuss" HIV farming bacteria, heat death of the universe, gradient driven evolution, and testing estimating how many boobs fit in a race car.

Gina Hall and the battle of the billionaires. Jul 27, 2017

Technology writer Gina Hall comes to West Hollywood to explain how her recent article managed to get Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk into an all out Twitter war over the future of artificial intelligence. She and Kevin tell Griff about the rich and proud history of Caltech prank culture and what it is like covering news out of the world's most powerful start up community.

Ori Amir and the humorous activity of temporal poles. Jun 20, 2017

Neuroscientist and comedian Ori Amir explains to Kevin and Griff how he used fMRI brain scans of comedians to study and analyse the neurogenesis of humor and clever insight in the human brain.

Ryan Demarest and the Klinefelter controversy. Jun 08, 2017

Jimmy, Griff, Kevin, and comedian Ryan Demarest, a double finalist of Kevin and Bean’s April Foolishness critique Nye’s new show, the identity politics of Saturn’s moon-ring spectrum, and party crashing the Space Shuttle.

Kristjan Stone and the origami telescope May 18, 2017

Dr. Kristjan Stone joins us to chat about space probes. space logos and all things otherwise spacey. Jimmy gives us the lowdown on his bigger role on Season 4 of Silicon Valley.

Forrest Shaw and the solar system's organ. Apr 11, 2017

Biologist and comedian Forest Shaw talks styrofoam cups in space, climate change, reptile stunt pay, science budgets, and juice box conspiracy theories. Jimmy wraps another season of Silicon Valley. Kevin proposes a possible method for solar systems to spread life.

Sean Carey and the seven retirement planets. Mar 01, 2017

Dr. Sean Carey and his team discovered seven brand new earth-like planets orbiting another tiny star just a stone hops away from our sun! Matthew, Jimmy, Kevin and Griff ask him about the possibility of life there and the probability of humans traveling there.

Konstantin Batygin, Fred Adams and the Church of Planet Nine Feb 01, 2017

Show favorite and Planet Nine discoverer Konstantin Batygin and Astrophysicist Fred Adams join the entire SYJ gang including Patriots Day star Jimmy O Yang and the newly appointed co-host Matthew Broussard to discuss just how lose the sun's grip on the solar system really is.

Heather Knight and the digitally altered robot photo. Jan 19, 2017

Roboticist Dr. Heather Knight swings down from Stanford for the New Year and her annual Robot Film Festival. Heather shares her work with Griff, Kevin and guest co-host comedian Sarah Keller, on creating a robot stand up comedian.

Matthew Broussard and the entangled hairy ball theorem. Nov 16, 2016

Applied Mathematician turned comedian, actor, and cartoonist Matthew Broussard talks to Kevin and Griff about his recent career successes (like his first Comedy Central spacial) making them kinda jealous. The also touch on lighter topics like the true nature of space and time, quantum entanglement, and Mathematical theorems that have awkward names that make people uncomfortable.

Wayne Federman and the rationally optimistic freeway. Oct 16, 2016

Actor, comedian, and rational optimist, Wayne Federman, known for many films, "Knocked up," "Funny People," and the upcoming "The House" and way more, stops by to tell an IPA loaded Griff and Kevin why he loves science, his attraction to rational optimism, and the proper way to name freeways.

Ed Stone and the extraterrestrial Europain geyser. Oct 06, 2016

Prof. Ed Stone, one of the most accomplished and decorated scientists of our time, joins Kevin and Jimmy to break down the spectacular news about the Jovian moon Europa (the forbidden moon in the movie 2010.) Not only do we now have proof that it has a salty ocean, but it is spraying out water geysers on to the surface and into space. Searching for life on the moon, may not require drilling into miles thick of ice sheets that cover.

Matt Kirshen and the brexiting tardigrades. Sep 11, 2016

Matt Kirshen is a British comedian, but like Kevin, started off in the hard sciences, in his case, math (or as he calls it, maths). He has his own science and comedy podcast called Probably Science. Matt gives Jimmy, Kevin and Griff his take on Brexit, rockets, and the time he got burned by Buzz Aldrin. Also, Pico the Chihuahua make his debut bark.

Hakeem Oluseyi and the Olympic distraction. Sep 10, 2016

Kevin and Griff introduce Jimmy to former guest, Prof. Hakeem Oluseyi, host of Outrageous Acts of Science. Conversation volleys back and forth wildly as the Olympics keep distracting the crew from any possible resolution of Susskin's famed ER = EPR conjecture.

Courtney Dressing and the pale red dot. Aug 26, 2016

To help announce an amazing new discovery: a new exoplanet about the same as planet earth potentially habitable, Griff and Kevin meet with Caltech postdoc Dr. Courtney Dressing. The planet orbits the pale red dwarf star named Proxima Centauri visible only in the southern hemisphere.

Matthew Buckley and the disappointed ambulance chasers. Aug 12, 2016

While visiting Princeton, Kevin stops by Rutgers to talk to former Caltech theoretical particle physicist Professor Mathew about so disappointing news from the Large Hadron Collider. All the promising signs of a new super-massive scalar previously discussed on SYJ with Prof. Maria Spiropulu, have all collapsed with new data. The two also discuss whether we should hold Owen up to his promis to shot his own foot.

Brian Brophy and the questionably sentient Pokémon. Jul 25, 2016

Brian Brophy has been over 40 films and TV shows. Brian played one of the top rated Star Trek villains hallmarked by an incredible scene opposite Patrick Stuart debating the definitions of life and consciousness. He's taken his vast acting experience to the Caltech theater department, where he helped produce the first Star Trek musical, "Boldly Go", and also to budding actor Jimmy, and want-to-be actors Griff and Kevin. Speaking of questionable intelligence, the SYJ crew also bemoans the new phenomenon of Pokémon Go, which already sucked in Jimmy. That's two things that end in Go. Weird.

Jerry Zucker and don't call me surely. Jul 01, 2016

Don't call me "Surely!" Uh, or is that "Shirley?" Jerry Zucker joins Jimmy, Owen and Kevin to discuss the important question of whether the internet teaches science as well as Scooby Doo. Zucker is the awesome force behind hits like Airplane! And Naked Gun (“big in Hong Kong!”), yet Kevin repeatedly fails to pronounce his name correctly. (You will never forget after you learn the secret.) The origins of the Science and Entertainment Exchange as a beacon of light against an age of anti-science darkness, are also revealed.

Daniel Busby and the Rube Goldberg machine. Jun 27, 2016

Ex-physicist and current expert maker, Daniel Busby, stops in to talk about the extensive and ridiculously creative list of projects he has going on. Daniel and his inventive genius have been featured on the Science Channel, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition", and in the viral OK GO video "This too shall Pass" featuring an amazing real life Rube Goldberg Machine.

Prof. Peter Plavchan, Richard Chassler and the ensemble of alien mega-structures. Jun 19, 2016

Kevin's buddy from school, Prof. Peter Plavchan, visiting from Missouri, and comedian Richard Chassler, join Owen and Kevin in Hollywood, to talk about a weird planetary system discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope, which Peter uses to study distant solar systems. Some have found this particular system to be so odd, that it may be evidence of an enormous alien mega-structure surrounding the distant star. Or not.

Danny Lobell and the firmly mansplained philosophy. Jun 15, 2016

Danny Lobell been doing stand up comedy for over 15 years and has a two podcasts, "Modern Day Philosophers," where he pairs comedians with philosophers, and "The Mostly Bull Market", where he takes on companies. Jimmy explains the his favorite philosopher is a comedian, Owen calls everything a "dick move" and Kevin mansplains why, from now on, he will only mansplain everything to everyone.

Surendra Adhikari and the melting Milankovitch cycles. Jun 07, 2016

Don't believe the hype! The's a big difference between an ice sheet and sea ice. And the movement can actually move the axis of the Earth herself! To explain which is which, Dr. Surendra Adhikari from JPL/Caltech tells Kevin, Jimmy, and Owen the difference. Using a NASA satellite, Dr. Adhikari, tells how he made his measurements that grabbed social media's attention last week. Since Jimmy's back from Boston after hanging with real life heroes, he tell the guys about the trip.

Jessie Christiansen and the hedonic treadmill of planets. May 13, 2016

These days you can't impress people with discovering just one or three measly exoplanets. You have to announce 1284 at once! Owen Benjamin returns to meet up with Griff, Kevin and alien planet hunter Dr. Jessie Christiansen to talk about new data from the Kepler space telescope.

Utkarsh Mittal and the three minute thesis. May 12, 2016

(Dr!)Utkarsh Mital is a VERY recent PhD graduate. In fact, Kevin, Griff and guest co-host Erin Darling had to move the recording until after his defense. Mittal isn't just an engineer, he's an actor, has a role in "PHD Movie 2", and won the People's Choice Award for the Three Minute Thesis competition.

Maz Jobrani and the translated earphone jokes. May 03, 2016

Maz Jobrani joins Kevin and Griff at the Hollywood Improv to talk about his hilarious new movie "Jimmy Vestvood: An American Hero" starting Maz himself, coming out to select theaters May 13th. Things get serious on SYJ, when delving into war and peace, Iranian-American relations, the nuclear arms deal, and the time Maz almost got kidnapped in Lebanon.

Sean Carroll, Erin Darling and the eternal godly poem. May 01, 2016

Sean Carroll, professor of theoretical physics, tells Kevin, Griff, and guest co-host comedian Erin Darling about The Big Picture, his new book, but also his outlook on, well, the big picture: God, Life, The Universe, i.e. the light stuff. The conversation wanders towards eternal life, mirror molecules, the career perils of writing books, how you get introduced once you've been on The Colbert Report.

Alan Alda and the dance music going backward in time. Apr 03, 2016

The absolute legendary actor, comedian, director, author, and oh so much more, Prof. Alan Alda, returns to Caltech to talk about his new online streaming melodrama "Horace and Pete" with Louis C. K. and Steve Buscemi. The M.A.S.H. and Scientific American Frontiers star explains to Kevin the fundamentals of science communication, reveals to Jimmy the secrets of acting, and tells Griff the trick of holding back the pressure to catch a big laugh.

Hakeem Oluseyi and the elephant eared telescope. Feb 26, 2016

A special guest from the east cost, Hakeem Oluseyi takes some time from his busy schedule filming for the Science Channel's Amazing Acts of Science to talk to Griff and Kevin. Bore in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Hakeem has an atypical life for a physicist. But that's ok because he is starting a stand up careerer just like Kevin. Griff points out, the better your life story, the better the comedy.

Steve Hofstetter and the not-so-music-like music. Feb 22, 2016

Griff, Kevin, and Jimmy head over to Steve Hofstetter's podcast studio to talk about baseball (Steve's favorite), Jimmy's new movie part, neutrinos and the classified, alien musics, that turns out to be non of those.

Alan Weinstein and the triple blind proof black hole collision. Feb 08, 2016

Professor Alan Weinstein, who leads a group of scientists at Caltech who work on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), gives Griff, Kevin and Jimmy, their own special look at the ground-breaking announcement of the discovery of a 1.3 billion year old collision between two large black holes detected solely from their subtle waves in the fabric of space and time.

Bobak Ferdowsi and the battle of the Martian hairdos. Jan 28, 2016

Bobak "Mohawk Guy" Ferdowsi stops by to discuss what it like to out hair Adam Stelzner so much that he got a shout out from President Obama. Kevin pushes his wind storm on Mars theory to the point it's just plain awkward. They guys all the allure of the Power Ball illusion.

Konstantin Batygin, Amir K and the trillion percent certainty. Jan 24, 2016

Konstantin Batygin discovered the ninth planet in our solar system all before turning 30! His advisor, having "killed" Pluto’s planet status, was also part of the discovery, which was by indirect means. Also joined by Comedian Amir K, catch him in the film The Pyramid, this month on HBO. Konstantin explains to Amir and the SYJ crew how certain he is that the new unnamed planet will found directly in the next few years.

Bill Nye and the empennage kicking new planet. Jan 18, 2016

New planet in our solar system found? Somehow, the whole Surely You're Joking team was lucky enough to get the head of the Planetary Society himself, Bill Nye, The Science Guy to tell us all about it! He gives the low-down on the new gas giant, Pluto replacement, evolution, GMO and the politics of funding and the Flint water crisis.

Drew Lynch and the talented american solstice. Jan 13, 2016

Comedian Drew Lynch pays a visit to Griff and Kevin when co-host Owen is off with Howie Mandel. Weirdly enough, Howie was Drew's biggest fan on the 10th season of America's Got Talent, giving him the Golden Buzzer and a standing ovation, launching him just short of the final victory. A few times Drew reminds the SYJ gang that he's not really a science guy. He's still hilarious.

Adam Steltzner and the right kind of crazy. Jan 13, 2016

SYJ's first returning guest, Adam Stelzner from JPL, drops by to give an update on Mars, talk about his new book, "The Right Kind of Crazy" and relays an anecdote about the most nerve wracking software update in history.

Rick Loverd and the venetian sky dive. Jan 04, 2016

Rick Loverd just finished his new comic book "Venus". When he's not penning, Rick helps make movies scientifically accurate, by connecting movie makes like Marvel, with scientists, (including Kevin!) As head of the Science and Entertainment Exchange, Rick, Kevin and Griff talk about some of the previous projects he's worked on, like the 2011 Movie "Thor".

Maria Spiropulu and the tantalizing massive scalar. Dec 30, 2015

Over the holidays, Caltech Prof. Maria Spiropulu drops in from her very busy schedule split between CERN, Fermilab, and Washington DC, to meet the whole SYJ gang, to discuss the new tantalizing hints coming out of the LHC as it runs at the highest energy ever. Spiropulu describes how the world’s biggest machine may have just made the biggest scientific discovery of the last 50 years.

Shyam Saladi and the random transmembrane proteins. Dec 21, 2015

Ditched by the scheduled guest, Jimmy comes up with a brilliant plan to save the podcast session. Instead of a famous person, who writes a comics stip about grad school, why not just go straight to the source? Someone actually in grad school. So Jimmy brings back 2nd year grad student, Shyam Saladi, who is working on his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biophysics. The experiment works perfectly and Jimmy, Kevin and Griff bust out yet another hilarious episode Surely You’re Joking.

Josh Brener and the microaggressive cocci. Dec 01, 2015

Josh Brener from HBO's Silicon Valley and The Big Bang Theory drops into which he had been on an episode with another science guest. The episode quickly spirals into a level of maturity far too low for a self-respecting scientist as bacteria names, probes on Uranus, Halloween costumes and phallified proton accelerators. Oh... and more space fish.

Emily Lakdawalla and the neon dendritic channels. Nov 22, 2015

Senior editor for Carl Sagan's Planetary Society, Emily Lakdawalla, schools Kevin, Jimmy, Owen and Griff on ice volcanoes on Pluto and salty oceans on Europa and Enceladus. Aliens? Maybe on this worm ocean worlds. Emily explains what zircons are way better than any ol' diamond.

Tony Roy, Kate Quigley and the gecko powered super bra. Nov 07, 2015

Comedian Kate Quigley stops in to help Jimmy, Kevin and Griff so Mechanical Engineer Dr. Tony Roy show off his amazing new invention that mimics the sticky fingers of geckos. This passionately led him to make a new super-bra that turns science strapless.

Zachary Abbott and the deeper higher pile. Oct 23, 2015

Kevin Jimmy and Griff meet up with Zachary Abbott, who plays Prof. Smith in the cult films The PHD Movie II: Still in Grad School that Premiered in select locations this week! Surprisingly, Zachary is not really a professor at all.

Elena Murchikova, Matthew Broussard and the quantum loop notebooks. Oct 11, 2015

With Owen on the road and Griff in Romania, Kevin and Jimmy meet up with guest comedian, Matthew Broussard (MTV2) and astrophysicist and science advisor consultant for the movie Interstellar, Dr. Elena Murchikova. In between long bouts of mansplaining from the hosts, Elena talks about her work on set to help create a convincing Murph character, endorse the science of the film, contemplate interplanetary Uber and n-dimensional iPads.

Kip Thorne and the four embracing vortices. Sep 25, 2015

Owen, Jimmy, and Kevin talk about Interstellar with Prof. Kip Thorne. Kip was not only Executive Producer and science advisor for blockbuster film, but he wrote the first draft treatments of the plot. While pondering time travel effect on free will it is discovered that Andy and Kip haven't read each other's work. And EXCLUSIVE to SYJ, Kip reveals the status of his bet with Stephen Hawking!

Adam Steltzner and the panspermiatic lineae. Sep 24, 2015

Water on Mars! By sheer serendipity the whole SYJ crew meet up with Adam Steltzner from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories, just hours after NASA makes one of the most important announcements of all time - that Mars still has flowing water (and so possibly, life) right now! At JPL, Adam is lead EDL engineers (a.k.a. landing guy) for the Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on Mars do he had a lot to say about this. But the comedians spend half the time talking about The Martian and Adam's epic hair.

David Politzer and the string theory of banjos. Sep 18, 2015

Kevin, Jimmy, and Griff are joined by frequently touring, auditioning, and otherwise distracted co-host, Owen Benjamin, to help welcome the first guest of the show, 2004 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Professor David Politzer. David explains the downside to winning a Nobel Prize, who in the science media circuit is legit, planting pineapple(s), and of course, his favorite topic: banjos! Owen and David are both musicians, so they bond over hashing out what to do when someone says your music has mistakes.

Jimm 0 Yang and the kid who cried asteroid. Sep 08, 2015

In the inaugural (and zero indexed) episode of Surely You're Joking, Dr. Kevin Peter Hickerson, Griff Pippin, and Jimmy O Yang discuss the latest asteroid hoax, why we should still be worried anyway (even though it is just a hoax), GMO mouse brains controlled by light, comedy cultivation, and what on Earth could be outside of Oklahoma.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Surely You’re Joking

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected