We're finally back after an extended holiday, and boy do we have a lot of news to catch up on! Join us as we recap the last couple of weeks in science and Portland news. Farts in a jar! Who could resist?

It's a Christmas miracle! Here are all of Mark's quality "Dad Jokes" from this past year of the Mark and Toddcast.

We finally did it! Celebrate 200 episodes of the Mark and Toddcast with this extra-sized news wrap-up, and dive into the notes and subjects that we've meant to get to before but haven't had the chance. Thanks to everyone for listening!

We all grew up seeing those weird, illustrated creatures in comic book magazine ads - the promise of "Instant Life!" in the form of "Sea Monkeys." So what are those things? How does "instant life" work? And who created them? Find out on this week's episode.

We once again welcome (5 years later) Dr. Ethan Siegel, theoretical astrophysicist, author, speaker, and smartest guy ever, about next month's launch of the James Webb telescope, how it works, why it's such an advancement from Hubble, what we hope to find, and how Todd gets to believe he is the literal center of the universe. Enjoy!

This week we have an amazing conversation with Al Goncer, an aerospace engineer at NASA, who also happens to be legally blind. We talk to him about his journey to NASA, his loss of sight late in life, and the amazing accessibility technology he uses to navigate life, work, and the internet.

This week we take a look at the astonishing success of giving kids (and adults) what is called an "ambiguous gestural or verbal praise" -- things like a fist bump, a pat on the shoulder, or shouting "Yeah!" to encourage someone along -- over standard character- or behavior-based praise.  High five!

The Voyager space mission, which is now in interstellar space, far beyond our solar system, has a gold record attached to it containing images, words, pictures, greetings, and more, just in case it's discovered by alien life forms.  So what's on it? We fire up our cosmic record player to find out.

It's that time again for our favorite segment "War of Wikipedia," where Mark and Todd go head-to-head to attempt to find the strangest, most interesting, most amusing, or all-together crazy Wikipedia articles trying to sway special guest judge Brian "The Unipiper" Kidd to choosing their story as the victor.

This week we start taking a closer look around our own celestial neighborhood and diving into the weirdness of Uranus. And no, we're not mature about the name. In the news this week: El Salvador eyes Bitcoin, TikTok takes the lead, Mercedes reads our minds, RayBan/Facebook's new sunglasses, Marshawn Lynch goes Beast Mode in Portland, the I-5 freeway cap through the Rose Quarter, and Ned Flanders Crossing.