PODCAST · science
Surely You're Joking
by Surely You're Joking
Science and comedy collide as physicist Dr. Kevin Peter Hickerson is joined by comedians Jimmy O Yang, Mitch Burrow, Owen Benjamin, Griff Pippin and Matthew Broussard, discuss the absurdities of the universe with intriguing and inspiring guests from the best of the academic and entertainment world.
Episodes
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Robert Zubrin and the astronauts' direct advice.
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.
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Avery Broderick and the first black hole selfie.
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.
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Robert Picardo, Konstantin Batygin and the factor of two hypothesis.
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…
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Mark Mammone and the alternate universe.
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!
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Sumner Norman and the mind-reading robots.
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.
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James Tuttle Keane and the sketch of the farthest snowman.
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...
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Kevin Hardegree Ullman, Aubree Sweeney and the cosmic piano tuning.
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...
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Julie Jester and the Pasadena prank.
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.
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Spyridon Michalakis and the Quantum Realm
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…
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Konstantin Batygin and the quantum planets.
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.
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Paul Zaloom and the puppet on mars.
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.
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Robert Zubrin and the pioneering spirit.
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.
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Andy Weir and the first city in space.
"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…
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Michael Shellenberger and the future of San Onofre.
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...
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Richard Rieber and the Martian wheel code.
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.
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Liz Friedman, Jimmy O Yang and the South Pole schwag.
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.…
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Sarah Keller and the Hohmann orbital ballasts.
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.
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Manan Arya and the origami mohawk.
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.
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Irina Skaya and the giant ferriswheel of hooks.
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…
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Vito Gesualdi old-timey popcorn salesman.
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...
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Jessie Christiansen and the Goldilocks retraction.
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...
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Mitch Burrow and the alien rock.
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.
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Ken Garr and the Space Musketeers.
Comedian Ken Garr talks about his time performing in Iraq, starting a new political comedy show, and SpaceX fans and haters.
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Monica Nevi and a break in the monotony.
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…
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Jess McIver and the finally not a glitch.
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...
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Barry Barish and the two extremes of discovery.
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.
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Hakeem Oluseyi and the flattened galactic disk.
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.
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Morgan Cable and the final orbital trim maneuver.
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]
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Ed Stone and the forty year old interstellar voyage.
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…
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Connor Mcspadden, Keith Carey and the volumetric estimate.
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...
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Gina Hall and the battle of the billionaires.
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...
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Ori Amir and the humorous activity of temporal poles.
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.
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Ryan Demarest and the Klinefelter controversy.
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.
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Kristjan Stone and the origami telescope
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.
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Forrest Shaw and the solar system's organ.
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.
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Sean Carey and the seven retirement planets.
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.
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Konstantin Batygin, Fred Adams and the Church of Planet Nine
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.
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Heather Knight and the digitally altered robot photo.
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.
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Matthew Broussard and the entangled hairy ball theorem.
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…
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Wayne Federman and the rationally optimistic freeway.
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.
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Ed Stone and the extraterrestrial Europain geyser.
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...
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Matt Kirshen and the brexiting tardigrades.
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...
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Hakeem Oluseyi and the Olympic distraction.
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.
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Courtney Dressing and the pale red dot.
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.
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Matthew Buckley and the disappointed ambulance chasers.
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...
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Brian Brophy and the questionably sentient Pokémon.
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...
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Jerry Zucker and don't call me surely.
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...
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Daniel Busby and the Rube Goldberg machine.
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...
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Prof. Peter Plavchan, Richard Chassler and the ensemble of alien mega-structures.
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…
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Danny Lobell and the firmly mansplained philosophy.
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...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Science and comedy collide as physicist Dr. Kevin Peter Hickerson is joined by comedians Jimmy O Yang, Mitch Burrow, Owen Benjamin, Griff Pippin and Matthew Broussard, discuss the absurdities of the universe with intriguing and inspiring guests from the best of the academic and entertainment world.
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Surely You're Joking
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Surely You're Joking have?
Surely You're Joking currently has 76 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Surely You're Joking about?
Science and comedy collide as physicist Dr. Kevin Peter Hickerson is joined by comedians Jimmy O Yang, Mitch Burrow, Owen Benjamin, Griff Pippin and Matthew Broussard, discuss the absurdities of the universe with intriguing and inspiring guests from the best of the academic and entertainment world.
How often does Surely You're Joking release new episodes?
Surely You're Joking has 76 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Surely You're Joking?
You can listen to Surely You're Joking on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Surely You're Joking?
Surely You're Joking is created and hosted by Surely You're Joking.
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