Sometimes it is totally okay to cut wide swaths.

So we go extra broad with Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed, and go looking for one of the cosmos' coolest mysteries: gamma rays. Or at least the theories behind them, of which there are a lot, including one tied to dinosaur extinction and a BOAT.

We also cast a large net toward civics. In order to be naturalized, each potential new American must answer a randomly selected set of questions out of a standardized hundred. But it has been shown that many folx born in this country couldn't answer those questions correctly. So we invite Gairy Wynter, who has just passed his citizenship test and becomes an American on the holiday, and Laurie Millman of the Center for New Americans to come and administer the test to us to see if we would pass.

And we are gazing on the largess of careers and fandom. We're joined by John Flansburgh of the band They Might Be Giants. The band is on a nearly sold out tour that makes a stop in Deerfield on July 6th, allowing us to delve into their history, our collective love and fondness for them, and some accidental connections we're thrilled to discover. We've been wondering since the mid-80s if they were giants. We'd say at this point they have made themselves so.