Supermindstretchers

It's a Brendan and Ben duo episode with an electric deep dive into Dick Smith Electronics, MacGyver's take on car phones, and a glimpse at the magical and terrifying time capsule of Hey Hey It's Saturday clips on YouTube.

The trio reunites to dissect (not literally) The Mighty Ducks, deconstruct (not literally) modern advertising, and demonstrate (literally) why callbacks don't work if you didn't record the thing being called back to. Oh, and there's a bit of The Curiosity Show in there too!  

It's a Pod Full of Beans with Brendan and Ben, but not Tom, because his name does not share enough letters with the multifaceted legume. We talk jumping beans (both real and matchbox-tumbled foil), breaking bags of Bag-Of-Beans branded bean bag beans, a book full of beans by Richard Fowler, and zippers. And MacGuyver.

It finally happened, a Ben solo episode (not referring to Kylo Ren's given name, but maybe that'll be good for the algorithm?). Alone on a deserted highway at night outside of Litchfield in the Top End of Australia, experience the fairly low-fi ramblings of a parent whose baby has finally fallen asleep and is left to ponder the stars, the deep cuts of Harrison Ford's filmography, and a peculiar coffee table in the Mystery of the Stolen Sheep clip from The Curiosity Show.

We're going into the musical mind of Brendan this week as he and Ben celebrate the taste and fashion of a couple of budding dorks. If Tom was there it would be much trendier. And Deane shows us how to get a boiled egg into an old-fashioned milk bottle, and some talk of Full House for good measure.

The Prodigal Dubs is back with Tom and Ben to unsheathe a vintage copy of the titular book, as well as reminisce over top-loader washer-dryer combos, the truth behind centrifugal force, and of course more thoughts about The Muppet Christmas Carol.

It's the Crisp brothers, Ben and Tom, sans the amazing Brendan and his amazing microphones, debating whether or not Mona Lisa is smiling, what happens when someone breaks the internet for real, and quantum computers. Oh and Muppets.

We're back! After Tom's travels to Japan and the U.S.A., the Mind Stretchers reunite to discover the joys of Fuji Rock Festival '25 and capsule hotels, debate which part of the dishwasher you'd prefer to get washed in, and learn how metal and rubber reacts to heat.

We're back! From the disruption of flu and music tours, Ben and Brendan reconnect to discuss Deane's homemade thermometer experiment, Superman and the film music of John Williams, and how rainbows work.

Brendan has props! Steve Mould's Assassin's Drink Bottle and its wandering knight cosy, Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections, and we return to the work of Adelbert Ames Jr as Rob and Deane shrink and grow inside his strange room.

Brendan and Tom talk Mission Impossible, Deane shows us a topological treat with jumping paper clips and Rob crafts Punch-and-Judy-style papier mache puppets.

Brendan goes north by north-north at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, we get a call from Mr Aphantasia himself to tell us how it feels, and Dr Rob makes a simple boot jack that makes de-booting so simple.

We did our homework about the Magic Potato Trick from last episode, and try to crack (or smoosh?) the puzzling question about which part of a ship travels furthest on a trip around the Earth.

A magic trick with a potato, a knife, and a newspaper, gives more than enough food for thought - and a menu full of wireless transmission and cutting down into the quantum realm.

An outdoor examination of insects by Rob leads to discussion of shrinking, and Deane's magic trick involving Möbius strips unravels into the world of acoustics.

We discover the much lauded Ames window optical illusion, with help from nephew Oscar, and our first clip of Deane and Rob's chemistry together as they banter over the impossibility of folding paper in half 10 times.

In this particularly laid-back episode, we take our time chatting about logic puzzles, zero knowledge proofs, and the surprising smoothness of balls. Plus, we encounter a moustache-less Deane Hutton, and watch our first Rob Morrison clip from The Curiosity Show, to see how the two legends compare.

In our first episode, we try to pin down what this podcast is actually about while watching a clip from The Curiosity Show on optical illusions. Things quickly go off track as we end up talking about ER, a South African comedian who also teaches finance, and whether we even know what we’re doing. It’s a loose start, but we’re having a good time figuring it out.