We've all woken up from a night out and not remembered getting home. How does the brain do that?  On this week's ep we look into the neuroscience of navigation and spatial awareness, a completely complicated task that we take for granted all the time. So listen in and get a new found appreciation of how great your brain is for not constantly walking you into walls. Expert guest: Christopher Kemp is an English scientist and science journalist. He works at Michigan State University,...

You and everyone you know and love are the beneficiaries of a series of fortunate events. From the planet bursting into existence, to the dinosaurs being wiped out by a once-in-a-ever (hopefully) asteroid, to the 1 in 70 billion chance that you would end up with your exact genetic material. And that's before you even think of how much luck impacts success and failure on a day-to-day basis. In this episode, we speak to Dr Sean B Carroll and comedian Bryan James about the impact of luck....

How do you prepare for an event that's never happened in your lifetime? What's it like to feel like the boy who cried wolf? Do we have a plan for alien invasion? And why were disaster planners called to plan for Brexit?  On this week's episode, we talk to Professor Lucy Easthope, the UK's leading authority on recovering from disaster. Lucy is a charming, expert who cares deeply about her field. Over the course of the hour we cover how experts plan for disaster, what kinds of disasters they...

What do steam punks and modern quantum physicists have in common? What is quantum entanglement? How did the hippies save science? And we come up with a brilliant idea for the next Pixar blockbuster. All that & more in this week's episode. Expert Guest: Nicole re-envisions 19th-century thermodynamics for 21st-century settings—small - using the mathematical toolkit of quantum information theory. Nicole uses quantum thermodynamics as a new lens through which to view the rest of science....

For the last week of the break, The Nothing Podcast With Nobody Important is our guest podcast. The team put together a fascinating, fun and always interesting set of human interest stories that get you excited to find out the secret lives of the people around you. In this week, the chat to Anthony about life in comedy. 

This week's amazing guest podcast is 'Sure, Jan', an amazing honest, endearing and funny look at modern dating. Jan talks to Anthony about his period of 53 first dates in 9 months when he first moved to London, and ultimately the journey to meeting his wife :) 

This guest episode is from the Better Call Daddy Podcast, created by Reena Friedman Watts. The episode focuses on Anthony's use of magic mushrooms for anxiety management. 

When you think about how the universe works, most people start from the cosmic perspective, but what about the little guys? Literally! This week we talk to Dr Chris Ferrie about what quantum physics brings to our understanding of the universe and how things work. Expert guest:  Chris Ferrie is an Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and the Centre for Quantum Software and Information. His research interests include quantum learning and control. He obtained his PhD in...

Butts, boobies and bacteria. Discover the unsung heroes throughout history who made life on Earth possible. Expert guest: Dr Henry Gee  is a former paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and senior editor of the international renowned scientific journal Nature. He is the best selling author of the book 'A (Very) Short History of Life On Earth.' His previous books include The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution; Across The Bridge: Understanding the Origin of the...

From marathon runners, to chilli lovers and kinksters, we all have things that bring us joy and pain simultaneously. Why and how does it happen? Join us to find out. Expert guest: Leigh Cowart is a researcher, science communicator and author. Their work has appeared in New York Magazine's The Cut, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed News, Hazlitt, The Verge, Deadspin, MIT Technology Review, and The Daily Beast, among others. Leigh's first book 'Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on...

Why is some stuff sticky? How does ice work and are we birds swimming through the air? This week we dive deep into the science of surfaces. Expert guest: Laurie Winkless is a brilliantly multi-talented physicist and science communicator. She has a passion for translating complex science into engaging stories and has worked with Forbes Magazine, various schools and universities, the Royal Society, The Naked Scientists and NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Her first book, Science and the City: The...

There are a few topics in life that most of us find difficult to have. The most common of those around dying. This week expert Dr Kathryn Mannix, and comedian Jackie Kashian join us talk about how to have tender conversations. Expert guest: Dr Kathryn Mannix has spent her career in palliative care, helping countless people have the care and conversations they need to maintain a high-quality of life, even as they approach death. Her first book 'With the end in mind' was shortlisted for the...

From politics to travel, sports to conspiracy theories, the groups we're in hugely change the way we see and interact with the world. In this episode we look talk to a leading social psychologist about how group identity works. Expert guest: Dr Jay Van Bavel is a multi-talented and multi-award winning researcher, academic, author and academic. He is currently the Associate Professor of Psychology & Neural Science at New York University, an affiliate at the Stern School of Business in...

Get ready to wave hello to Jeff and Elon, we're getting back in the Highbrow Drivel Galactic and heading back to outer space. This week, we're talking about the frequently asked questions of the universe with Dr Daniel Whiteson and Pernille Haaland. Highlights include Dr Daniel explaining expansion, discussion on whether the black hole at the centre of the milky way is like a guard dog keeping aliens away and some a-grade nan chat. Expert guest: Daniel Whiteson is a physics professor at...

Numbers are the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe, and as we progress in our career, almost all jobs (even fun creative ones) need a basic grasp of mathematics. So why do so many people hate them and how can we fix this?  And test your skill with our viral math mind benders! Expert guest: Kyle Evans is an award-winning comedian* and maths communicator** - combining comedy, song and extreme pedantry to lethal effect (not literally.)  You'll find him performing family and grown-up...

Are cities broken or brilliant? Most of our population live in cities, so you'd think they should be the most comfortable place a person can be...but a whole lot of people hate them. In this week's episode our comedian and expert look into the pro's and con's of city life. Expert guest: Claire Bradbury has lived in the metropolis for much of her life, so she understands what it takes to find home in the city, whether in sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, the US or the UK. With a background in...

What's in the periodic table? In this week's episode the infectiously insightful Dr Kathryn Harkup takes us through her love of the periodic table, helping us understand the personalities and characteristic of the elements we spent so long trying to remember. Expert guest: Dr Kathryn Harkup is a chemist and author. Her first book was the international best-seller, A is for Arsenic. She has also written about the science of Frankenstein in Making the Monster, all the ways to die in a...

Emotions are confusing as hell, and increasingly, we're paying more and more attention to how we feel. In this episode we talk to one of the world's leading experts on emotions, Dr Rich Firth-Godbehere, to help us figure out how to think about the way that we feel. The hilarious John Poveromo joins us to lighten the emotional load with his quick wit and brilliant insights. Expert guest: Dr. Richard Firth-Godbehere is an award-winning interdisciplinary research walks the line between...

What makes up stuff? And why does it exist? In this episode we talk to particle physicist Dr Harry Cliff and Ashish Suri to find out how a universe is made. Expert guest: Dr Harry Cliff is a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge working on the LHCb (you know, the Large Hadron Collider) experiment, a huge particle detector buried 100 metres underground at CERN. He's conducting experiments to study the basic building blocks of our universe, in search of answers to some of the...

Just this week we saw Tower Bridge flooded. How the heck a bridge floods, I don't know. It seems like flooding has snuck up on most of us as a major consequence of climate change. In this week's episode we talk with a flood modelling specialist and an critically acclaimed comedian to find out about why flooding is getting worse, how bad it will get and whether technology can help us manage the damage. Comedy guest: Isabelle Farrah is a British Lebanese actor, comedian, and writer. After an...

According to some studies 75% of people have experienced burnout. And according to some of my friends you can be burned out 75% of the time. In this week's episode we talk to an organisational psychologist and a comedian who used to be a social worker to get to the bottom of what burnout is, why it happens, whether it's on the rise and a much more. Expert guest: Dr. Brian Swider is the Beth Ayers MaCague Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor at the Warrington College of Business at the...

Making sense of sound is one of the most interesting and difficult things that our brain does constantly. So how does it work? And can you really have 'selective hearing' find out this and more on this week's episode.  Expert guest: Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist who has done pathbreaking research on sound and hearing for more than thirty years, is Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Communication Sciences, and Otolaryngology at Northwestern University. Her book, OF SOUND MIND: How Our...

Most of us wouldn't go to a restaurant if 42% of it was crazy expensive and 42% of its review were terrible. Yet, every year 1000's of people still get married. In this episode we discuss what marriage was, why it sucked, why we still do it and how to reimagine it in a way that works for our current values. Comedy guest: Sikisa is one of the funniest and  most likable comedians on the London comedy circuit. She won the public’s vote in the 2017 BBC New Comedy Award competition, for which...

This is a downright hilarious and often surprising chat about sweat. That's right smelly, wet, sweat. We discuss why it happens, why it sucks, some of the weird (and occasionally scary) things it can do and some of the amazing things it can tell us. Expert guest:  Sarah Everts is an award-winning science journalist and speaker from Ottawa, Canada. Her most recent project is the taboo-busting romp through the shame, stink and science of sweat in her new book 'The Joy of Sweat: The Strange...