Highbrow Drivel

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, overseeing a research group that studies Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. He is the author of Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History of Ambergris and The Lost Species: Great Expeditions in the Collections of Natural History Museums and his latest book "Dark & Magical Places: The Neuroscience of How We Navigate"

Comedy guest: 
Si Deaves is a stand-up comedian from Southend-on-Sea, Essex and has previously been described as 'one of the greatest undiscovered acts in the country' - BFG Concerts and was also described by one of his comedy heroes as 'great and very original'. Deaves' exploration into the weird and wonderful things his mind does, serves as the perfect vehicle for him to exercise his dry, acerbic wit. Deaves is also the host of the Comedian's Tea Party Podcast. To learn more about Si and all his endeavours click here for a list of links to his various work. 

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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.

Expert guest:
Sean B. Carroll is an award-winning scientist, author, educator, and film producer. He leads the Department of Science Education of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the largest private supporter of science education activities in the US, is the Head of HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, and is the Andrew and Mary Balo and Nicholas and Susan Simon Endowed Chair of Biology at the University of Maryland. He is also Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin.

An internationally-recognized evolutionary biologist, Carroll's laboratory research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity. In recognition of his scientific contributions, Carroll has received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences, been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and elected an Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization.
Interesting links
Sean's new book - A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You
Sean's website 
Sean's Twitter

Comedy Guest:
Bryan James was a finalist in the Bath Comedy Festival New act Competition 2021. He is from the Northeast of England, but has been performing comedy  nationally in the U.K. since early 2020. Thanks to comedy sketches, and silly songs he’s got thousands of followers on Tiktok. He's also on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.Bryan also runs a new material comedy night in Darlington - North East England. 

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 plan for, why and how it goes wrong and what we can all expect from the disaster recovery of the pandemic. Lucy's book - When the Dust Settles is out now, you can find out more about that here. 

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. She calls her research “quantum steampunk,” after the steampunk genre of art and literature that juxtaposes Victorian settings with futuristic technologies. She has just realised an exciting new book to make this field of thinking available and accessible to a wider audience. You can learn more about her new book here.

Comedy guest:
Isabelle Farrah is a British Lebanese actor, comedian, and writer. After an undergraduate in French and Film studies, she trained at Drama Studio and on the Soho Theatre Comedy Lab. As an actress she has performed in theatre in the West End and on Tour and she has gigged across the UK and in Lisbon and New York City. Her short, Breakfast, was a finalist in the Funny Women Shorts Prize.

Her debut show, Ellipsis, was commended for the Screenshot Award in 2020. It was later named one of the best shows of EdFringe 2021 by Chortle and invited for an encore run at the Soho Theatre.  You can find important links to all upcoming stuff including her new show here.

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 Applied Mathematics from the Institute for Quantum Computing and University of Waterloo (Canada) in 2012. Chris’s passion for communicating science has led from the most esoteric topics of mathematical physics to more recently writing children’s books, such as Quantum Physics for Babies, and a whole collection of other titles that make science accessible even for the youngest children. His latest book – Where did the universe come from? And other cosmic questions – explores how the connection between the quantum and cosmos provides our understanding of the universe. You can find Chris online at csferrie.com.

Comedy guest: 
David Rose is a stand up comedian and writer based in Melbourne, Australia. His solo work has been featured on the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)'s Radio National, as well as ABC TV's Tonightly. His comedy has generated millions of views across YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Reddit and he has opened for internationally renowned comedians across the world. David is currently performing in the U.S.A, he takes no responsibility for the current state of America. You can find David on Instagram and TikTok 

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 Vertebrates; Deep Time: Cladistics, the Revolution in Evolution; Jacob’s Ladder: The History of the Human Genome; The Science of Middle-Earth, and (with Luis V. Rey). You can find him on Twitter or Instagram.

Comedy guest:
Iona Stewart-Richardson is a E’cole Philippe Gaulier trained clown. She's also a journalist and rising star in the stand up comedy scene. She was a finalist at the 2021 Bath New Comedy Act Competition. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram. 

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 Purpose' is the subject of today's episode and is a beautifully in-depth, personal and deeply scientific look into masochism. 
You can (and should) learn more about the book here. And follow them on Twitter.

Comedy guest:
Vix Leyton is a hilariously natural storyteller. It's easy to see why she's one of comedy's rising stars. In 2021 Vix was  a Funny Women awards semi finalist, her panel show podcast 'The Comedy Arcade' was nominated for best podcast at Leicester Comedy Festival and had a sell out run at Edinburgh Fringe. You can follow Vix on Twitter or Instagram to learn more.