Listener Mail: Robot Hell

Your know the feeling. You're trying to recall the name of a time-keeping musical device or the the actor who played Fredo in "The Godfather" and all that comes to mind is a memory-hole in the shape o...

14 Apr 201652min

What does it mean to solve a problem in our universe? That's a trickier question than you might think, with some fairly high-stakes ramifications in the worlds of computing and even philosophy. In thi...

12 Apr 201653min

The human obsession with vampires runs deep, so deep that it survives our consistent attempts to squeeze all the mystery and fun out of the topic. Inject a little science, however, and the patient ret...

7 Apr 201650min

During the Second World War, Melanesian islanders encountered the vast, commercial systems of Allied and Japanese forces. Cargo Cults sprang up in the wake of such contact, typified by deification and...

5 Apr 201656min

Just what are the upper limits of avian cognitive ability? Various studies reveal how certain bird species engage in mental time travel, tool use, self recognition, theory of mind and even meta-cognit...

31 Mar 20161h 11min

When does a protest religion become an actual faith? What happens when purely fictional modes of belief leak off the page or screen? Join Robert and Joe as they discuss modern religious movements, the...

29 Mar 20161h 11min

Behold a tentacled, immortal predator with a wound for a mouth. No, this isn't the product of a horror writer's fever dream, but rather a denizen of the natural world. In this episode of Stuff to Blow...

24 Mar 201644min

How do you solve a problem like crime, poverty or climate change? The answer, like the problem itself, is elusive and amorphous. These are not "tame problems," but "wicked problems" -- conundrums that...

22 Mar 201658min