Shift Run Stop

Writer-performer Isy Suttie drops in this week. Isy is a hit with geeks everywhere thanks to her role as Peep Show's winsome I.T. worker 'Dobby', but her talents reach far and wide. We discuss her performing career and her personal passions, which include The Office and The Wicker Man - and she plays the piano for us. You don't get that on This American Life.

Elsewhere this week, Dave Green joins us for more al fresco international snackery, bringing his expertise to bear on some Californian chocolate supplied by generous US-based listener Leo Vegoda. (If you live 'abroad', why not send us some snacks to review?) We eat, we laugh, we all fight about Star Wars again. Oh and don't forget you can still buy tapes of these shows, or, if you already have enough rubbish in your house, just donate.

Remember Sarah "Spacedog" Angliss from way back in episode 9? The Brighton Festival is coming up in early May and you should check out her Uncanny Valley show on May 5th if you get the chance, it sounds ace:

"Spacedog are teaming up with Professor Elemental to bring you a delightfully unsettling evening, probing our very human fears of the almost human, from zombies to ventriloquists’ dummies. Accompanied by Sarah’s unusual musical robots, we’ll be singing songs of love, death and the uncanny as we explore the darkest reaches of your mind. With theremins, taxidermy and strange automata."

Links: Isy Suttie (Wikipedia) | Isy (IMDB) | Peep Show | The American Office | The Wicker Man | Dave's site Snackspot | Brighton Festival | More about Sarah Angliss's show | Buy this podcast on tape | Donate to Shift Run Stop

Meet Catherine O'Flynn and Peter Fletcher. Cath's first novel, What Was Lost was set in a shopping centre much like the one where we did this interview. Husband Peter has been documenting his sneezes, and spills the beans (and elastic bands) on what it was like working as a postie.

What with magma dragons and volcano (shipping) forecasts, we've developed quite a thing for vulcanology lately, so imagine our excitement when Eyjafjallajoekull spewed forth this week. Is it safe to go outside? Will we ever eat bananas again? Did we ever eat them before? For an exclusive breakdown of the situation, we turn to volcano enthusiast and friend of the show, Dr Ralph Harrington.

Intrepid Dave Green reports from Dorkbot #68, before joining us at a swanky West London bar for some renegade snacking inbetween disapproving glances from the waiter. When the munching noises get a bit too much, similar information can be found on Dave's website. And remember, buying this podcast on tape is still possible, if not likely.

Cath's website | Peter's website | Peter's 'sneeze count' project | What Was Lost | The News Where You Are | Ralph's volcano site | Gwem's site (Atari music) | About SNDH | Dave's site Snackspot | Buy this podcast on tape |

Author Naomi Alderman drops in this week. You might recognise her name from her award-winning work Disobedience and a new but already highly-acclaimed novel The Lessons, currently 'Book at Bedtime' on Radio 4.

But not just that! She's a gee-eek. She really is. She was the lead writer on Perplex City, she's a high-flying games journalist and, we learn - not entirely to our surprise - a Doctor Who fan. Mainly though, she's brilliant fun.

Dave's with us again, and we're back in China on our journey Around the World in 80 Snacks, where we polish off last week's savoury course with something sweet and surprising. This episode also reveals more of Roo and Leila's embarrassing obsessions, and even more embarrassing omissions from our geek culture databanks.

If you buy a hand-made tape of the podcast this week, you'll very likely get some free Perplex City cards with it! Oh and this is the last week you can get a free audiobook through our Audible sponsorship, so head over there now or miss out on great works of literature... forever.

The Lessons | Disobedience | The Winterhouse | Naomi's games column | Perplex City | Naomi on Wikipedia | Listen to The Lessons on 'Book at Bedtime' | Naomi on Radio 4 'Front Row' | Dave's site Snackspot | Buy the podcast on cassette | Get a free audio book

"I look for aliens" is how high-flying young astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell describes his work, and we hear the wheres and hows of that search in this week's episode. During the fascinating chat Lewis explains how aliens might resemble anything from bacteria to "sky whales", Roo has a question about methane, and Leila jumps at the chance to defend Spock.

Elsewhere this week, a generous listener supplies us with some very exotic snackfood from China, and Dave joins us to review it in possibly most gruesome installment of "Around the World in 80 snacks" so far. And don't forget that all episodes of the podcast are available on audio cassette, and our exclusive Audible offer still stands - so get your audio book here.

Links: Lewis Dartnell | Lewis on Twitter | Lewis's book "Life in the Universe" | Lewis's Famelab profile | Dave's site Snackspot | Buy the podcast on audio cassette | Get a free audio book

Comedian and columnist Shazia Mirza drops in for a chat this week and we have a great time hearing about her former life as science teacher, her experience of playing the Edinburgh Festival, and what her parents think about what she does...

Dave's similarly-voiced brother Simon joins us too, fresh from the Games Developer's Conference in San Francisco and reviews 2012 from a fluid renderer's point of view, while Dave finds out what the Easter Bunny has... brought? Laid?

Don't miss what's arguably the highlight of this episode: your hosts' attempts to explain Star Wars and Star Trek to each other from fragments of pieced-together memories and folklore.

We're still the only podcast that you can buy on cassette, and we're now on the third week of our month-long Audible offer. Download yourself a free audio book by clicking here. You can even donate if you think we're worth it.

Links: Games Developers Conference 2010 | Shazia's column in the Guardian | Shazia's website | Shazia on Wikipedia | Get a free audio book | Buy a tape | Dave's site Snackspot | Star Trek TNG episodes list (Wikipedia) | Star Wars (IMDB)

It's 25 years of Back to the Future! To celebrate, we're joined by the geeky and innovative stand-up comic, Paul Kerensa, whose 2005 Edinburgh show "Back to the Futon" involved a real-life DeLorean and a Gray's Sports Almanacful of in-jokes. Since then Paul's been focused on collecting and comparing every moment in time from every film ever between gigging, script-writing, podcasting, and working on a new, free, Edinburgh show for 2010. He even brings some BTTF props in to show us. Great Scott!

Elsewhere in good ole' 1955, we find Dave in Lou's Cafe or somewhere with 1.21 gigawatts of sugary drinks; your hosts continue to flog this podcast on cassette, and we enter week two of our month-long Audible offer. Download yourself a free audio book by clicking here and help us to save the clock tower.

More links: Paul Kerensa | Paul on Twitter | Movie Timeline | Paul's podcast Movie Banter | Buy an episode on audio tape | Dave's site Snackspot | Back to the Future (IMDB) | What's a DeLorean? | Shift Run Stop guest videos on Vimeo | Get your free audio book

Our guest this week is comedy writer and cartoonist Andy Riley, the twisted mind behind the Bunny Suicides books and the Observer's comic strip Roasted, as well as loads of great TV and radio comedy.

While we were chatting, Andy drew some amazing cassette cards for us (watch a video of him drawing them and a photo of the inlay cards he drew and signed), and you can order one of his sick-brained designs over on our tapes buying page now. Be quick - they're bound to go really fast. And remember, to win one of Andy's books (Selfish Pigs, DIY Dentistry, or The Bumper Book of Bunny Suicides) email us with your guess for how many fingers you think he's holding up.

Also in this episode, SRS's snacks-loving pal Dave brings a range of mainly-acceptable biscuits for sampling, Leila goes to an exhibition involving live birds at London's Barbican and Roo tries to hold it together to do the links while out of his tree on beer and codeine.

If you want to take advantage of the Audible offer we mention in this episode and download yourself a free audio book, you can do so by clicking here.

More links: Andy Riley | Andy Riley (Wikipedia) | Andy Riley (IMDB) | Andy on Twitter | The Bunny Suicides | Buy a tape | Céleste Boursier-Mougenot exhibition at the Barbican | Some footage of the exhibition | Dave's comprehensive review site Snackspot | Catch up with all the Shift Run Stop guest videos on Vimeo | Get your free audio book |

We chatted with artist Sydney Padua this week. Sydney's animated creations appear in loads of blockbuster movies, but she's a star of the small screen too - you might have seen her extremely funny web comic Babbage and Lovelace doing the rounds lately. With Ada Lovelace Day coming up very soon, Sydney tells us about the great lady herself, her struggles and achievements, and her unique relationship with Difference Engine-inventing eccentric Charles Babbage.

Sydney even drew some stunning designs on inlay cards for our tape sale, and we're offering those at a slight premium over on the tapes page. You'd better get in fast though, she only did a handful!

Meanwhile Dave brings us treats we can eat from India, and treats we can play from 1995, and there are exclusive sounds from inside your hosts' fridges.

Ada Lovelace Day is the 24th of March; support the cause by writing a blog post about a woman who has inspired your interest in science or tech. Let's all write about Sydney and freak her out.

More links:

You might recognise Zeb's voice from Radio 4 news, continuity announcements and the iconic Shipping Forecast. He's also very funny and, unexpectedly, looks like he should be in a boyband. We also hear about Roo's hobbity holiday in the New Forest and Leila's trip to Decode Lab at the V&A.

Dave comes back from India loaded up with imported Turkish snacks, Roo invents a system for randomly allocating seats at any future Shift Run Stop party, and an address in an old comic leads Leila to the doorstep of the former Dennis the Menace fanclub.

Meanwhile, we're pretty sure we remain the only podcast available on audio cassette. Shout out to Rev Dan Catt who is not only buying every episode on tape, but has also bought a tape player especially, and is taking it on the train, like it's a bloody Walkman.

More links: Zeb Soanes | @Zebsoanes on Twitter | All the Shift Run Stop videos on Vimeo | Decode Lab | The Shipping Forecast | Ralph Harrington's Volcanism blog | @Volcanism on Twitter | Dave's site Snackspot | Dennis the Menace fanclub | Roo's artwork on the latest tape batch | Roo's dog

Pepys blogger, Pretend Office worker and former Aardman animator Phil Gyford was kind enough to not only bring himself to Shift Run Stop towers, but also his Mega Drive.

We natter with the Internet's Dave Green about the BAFTA Film Awards (which Roo also went to) and dorkbotlondon (which Leila also went to). Leila meets a previous SRS guest at The Story and Dave nearly answers a listener's question about biscuits. We try out some exciting recent Cadbury launches with varying success and, as ever, you can put your own snack question to Dave via email or using #askdavegreen on Twitter.

We're really excited about being both video podcast of the week in Time Out - surely the ultimate achievement of any audio podcast - and podcast of the week in the Scottish Daily Record. Gosh. Milky Bars are on us. Thanks for all your support.

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And of course, if you want to win the vintage Lara Croft beer bottle Phil gave us, send us an email and tell us what on earth's wrong with you.