That's Absurd Please Elaborate

Is Lava Wet? WHAT IS WET?! | feat Dr. Alex Dainis | TAPE Classic!

It's that time of year again! The days are getting shorter, the end-of-year festivities are starting to ramp up, and Trace is off gallivanting somewhere out of town. With

Mooning Over a Moon Moon!

We all know the Moon is a satellite of our lovely Earth, but what if the Moon had a moon of its own? Would it be a Moon Moon? This week, Julian moons—that is, daydreams a

Too Much Hug Then Die, I Guess | Halloween Episode!

It's Halloween, nerds, which means it's time to get into the really horrifying stuff: the limits of the human body. Trace and Julian explore the science of squeezing, squ

The Tiniest Arsonists Possible | LIVE from the Bay Area Science Festival ft. Vanna Tran

Let's say your house is on fire. Bummer. Worse, the only sort of fluid you have handy to douse said flames is gasoline. Lots and lots of gasoline (that's your retirement

Could AA Batteries Replace a Star?

Our Sun is an absolutely RIDICULOUS power source, pumping out more energy every second than most of us can even begin to wrap our heads around. And while AA batteries are

Min-Maxing Human Decomposition

This week, we bodily embrace spooky season by digging into the science of what happens when a body returns its borrowed flesh. From flesh-eating microbes and hungry scave

Flinging Freaky Fast Formicids!

When it comes to tiny insects, the ants (formicidae) are an incredible family of organisms. They can build complex structures, they’ve invented and practice agriculture,

How Much Jello is TOO Much?

Gelatin is a surprisingly strange material, especially when you stop serving it by the spoonful and start measuring it by the swimming pool. Julian looks into what would

The Search for Love and Other Rare Things

The universe is chock-full of things that are hard to find, but figuring out which one deserves the title of “rarest” turns out to be surprisingly complicated. Are we tal

Horror of Human Limb Regrowth

Nature has handed out some wildly uneven perks. While certain animals can regrow entire limbs, humans are limited to patch jobs. Julian and Trace dig into what it would a

Too Much Mucus, Not Enough Face

If you’ve ever been sick and wondered how a seemingly endless supply of mucus can fit inside your face, you’re not alone. This week, Trace and Julian investigate where al

Ten Seconds of Zero Gravity… Every DAY?!

This week, Julian and Trace imagine a world where gravity vanishes for ten seconds every day. There, they discover that humanity would have a lot more to worry about than

Freaky Mermaids, "REAL" Dragons, and Trace's Evil Twin|feat Ellen Weatherford (Just the Zoo of Us)|TAPE Classic

🎶 Game of Thrones theme 🎶 DRA-GONS. WHAT ARE DRAG-ONS? LET US KNOWWWWWW OR MER-MAIDS. FRICKIN’ MER-MAIDS… HOW THEY GOOOOO? PLUS JUUUU-LIAN WANTS TO CHECK ON MIRROR TRA

Cuidado: Piso Mojado

This week, Trace and Julian investigate a deceptively simple mystery: why do things look darker when they’re wet? Although the question sounds almost too obvious to ask,

Smooth Sailingn’t

This week, Julian and Trace imagine a world where humanity never got around to inventing ships and discovers that the consequences run a WHOLE lot deeper than a disappoin

AI Chefs and Unqualified Sled Dogs | TAPE Classic

In this TAPE classic, Trace tackles a transportation problem of his own creation by figuring out just how many chihuahuas it would take to complete the Iditarod, the lege

The Most Boring Day in History

This week, Trace and Julian embark on a surprisingly existential mission: finding the most boring day in history. Easy, right? Just pick a day where nothing happened. Unf

Cherenkov Radiation & Clownfish Polycules

This week, Trace dives into the eerie blue glow of Cherenkov radiation—the phenomenon that makes nuclear reactors look suspiciously like sci-fi props—and asks the obvious

Taste the Brainbow!

This week, Julian launches an investigation into “Big Sun” and its wild claim that humans can somehow absorb vitamins from a giant nuclear fireball 93 million miles away.

It’s a Fart Rocket Breakthrough! | TAPE Classic

In this TAPE Classic episode, Trace explores the science of stasis, diving into hyper-sleep, cryogenic freezing, and whether humanity might one day be able to snooze our