The Pseudoscientists

For the fifth episode of Unfiltered Thoughts, Jack sits down with Renée Webster to chat about chemical separation. Renée is an analytical chemist whose work focuses on the separation of fuels and lubricants, but she's also been involved with CSIRO's Scientists in Schools and the Real Scientists Twitter project.

Jack, Belinda and Tom are finally back in the studio for a Classic™ episode of The Pseudoscientists: now with 100% more existence. They chat about microbes that are only found near spacecraft, why Australian science might receive a nasty blow in the near future, and how a genetic modification breakthrough might result in better gene therapy. Jargonauts is shockingly good with "voltage" and "amps", and the Question of the Week looks at proving or disproving the existence of God...

For the fourth episode of Unfiltered Thoughts, Jack sits down with Tom Lang to chat about biological comedy. Tom is a science communicator, comedian, writer and board game enthusiast. He’s also a regular panelist on The Pseudoscientists, but if you’ve only been listening to the show for the past month or so, you probably didn’t know that...

For the third episode of Unfiltered Thoughts, Jack sits down with James Fodor to chat about disagreement. Regular listeners to The Pseudoscientists will recognise James's name from the Question of the Week segment, but when he's not giving us his opinions, he's the President of the University of Melbourne Secular Society, studying for a Bachelor of Science and has a particular interest in science communication, skeptical activism, interfaith dialogue, and effective altruism.

Belinda and Jack present the audio from Belinda's recent story at The Laborastory about pioneering female astronomer Ruby Payne-Scott. Plus a couple of other things, naturally.

For the second episode of Unfiltered Thoughts, Jack sits down with Will Farr to chat about expertise. Will is an electrical engineering student at Swinburne University, with interests in climate change, nuclear energy, science history and space. As it happens, they went to high school together.

For the very first episode of our new show, Unfiltered Thoughts, Jack sits down with Jessie Browne to chat about climate change. Jessie is a 3rd year undergraduate geology student at the University of Melbourne with a keen interest in rocks and cats, and is involved in the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Originally from north-west rural Victoria, she now enjoys the Melbourne sunshine, even though, typically, it was raining when they spoke.

Ted Janet interviews Adam VanLangenberg (maths teacher and the creator of the Sceptic School high school skeptical group at McKinnon Secondary College) and Elizabeth Riaikkenen (a writer for the Young Australian Skeptics and one of Adam's students). They chat about skepticism in high schools, how to communicate as a skeptic, and what sorts of things skepticism needs to be taking seriously.  Plus, Jack apologises for the lack of a proper episode this week and lets you know about some cool things that are happening soon.

Belinda and Jack get another dose of astrophysics with Alan Duffy, a charming cosmologist, and chat about Australia's new lack of a science minister, Voyager 1's trip out of the solar system, and the scientific argument against gay marriage. Jargonauts goes into questionable territory with "harassment", and Question of the Week is a brutal free-for-all about which area of science deserves the least amount of funding.  Plus: Jack does fly work, Belinda has glasses, Alan gets bitten by a penguin, and someone pretends to be a creationist. 

Jack and Sarah are joined in the studio by past host Alastair Tait and huge friend of the show Kylie Sturgess to chat about Alastair's time at NASA, how DNA might be used to make super-fast computers, and why we have a 300,000 year-old mitochondrial genome. Jargonauts gets scared of a couple of phobias, and Question of the Week asks what Australian skepticism needs to deal with in the future. Plus: New Zealand skepticism, dropbears, Seal, and ludicrous Christian films.

Jack is joined by returning guest Upulie Divisekera to delve into discovering element 115, why NASA wants to put a vacuum cleaner on the Moon, and how genomics is changing the way we treat tuberculosis. Jargonauts emits information about fluorescence and phosphorescence, and Question of the Week finds out if you want to upload your consciousness to the Internet.  Plus: Australian politics, dissecting flies, nanotechnology, and Tony Abbott being a bit of a tool.

Belinda, Sarah and Jack are joined by Annika Victoria, a blogger who injects science into fashion and inspires young people along the way, and they chat about human-human brain interactions and why the UN is causing floods in central Queensland (or why an Australian political candidate thinks so). Jargonauts divides the world into science and pseudoscience with "demarcation", and Question of the Week thinks wishfully and wonders which pseudoscience should be real, in an ideal world.  Plus: Belinda on The Laborastory, Jack is unfit, Audioboo, and life from peanut butter. 

Jack and Belinda explode into the new (podcast) century with astrophysicist Katie Mack, returning for her second podcast experience. They chat about black hole firewalls, fake bomb detector fraud and why music might be judged more by sight than by hearing. Jargonauts disappears over the "horizon", and Question of the Week gets extremely... self-indulgent. We apologise. Maybe. Plus: a new sub-podcast, "Unfiltered Thoughts", is announced, Belinda is a real scientist now, and spontaneous baby combustion. 

Bloopers, ramblings, rants, arguments and generally semi-salvageable bits that never made it into the last 50 episodes. Now with old-school jazz, because we're classy. 

Belinda, Jack, Rachael, Tom, Sarah and very special guest Lawrence Leung celebrate the 100th episode of the podcast with a live show at Pugg Mahones in Carlton. They discuss how they each got into skepticism and doing the podcast, and their favourite news items over the first 99 episodes. The Houston clip is a mashup, Jargonauts turns into a bit of a game, and Question of the Week reflects on some terrible misconceptions about science, with some help from the show's audience. It was heaps of fun. NOTE: As Jack explains at the start, there are some audio issues starting at around 35 minutes into this episode. If you can't handle noisy audio, then you might want to stop when post-show Jack appears again. But if you do listen, you'll be rewarded with a complete episode.

Jack and special guest Ted Janet revisit lab-grown meat, and then interview Shelley Segal about her and Ted's graphic anthology project "Balaclava Junction", about growing up in a Jewish community in Melbourne (plus a song!), and Question of the Week looks at superheroes and which ones are most scientifically unrealistic! Plus: Lawrence Leung on the 100th episode live show, Ted being sick, and Jewish conspiracies. 

Tom, Belinda and Jack find out why there are healthy and unhealthy forms of happiness, and interview Nat, Aaron and Andrea from The Laborastory storytelling night about why science makes for such good stories. Jargonauts fixes the definition of "polymorphism", and Question of the Week tries to find some ideas in science that might actually be a little bit pseudoscientific.  Plus: more plugs for our 100th episode live show on the 14th of August, banana lollies, and wondrous, cancer-curing Vitamin C (or not).

Jack, Sarah and Belinda discover why oxytocin isn't the wonderful hormone we all thought it was, why rainforests may actually be releasing carbon dioxide (and why we're all screwed because of it), and why huge viral genomes may redefine the tree of life. Jargonauts rains on everyone's parade with "precipitation", and Question of the Week looks at thought experiments. No one mentions Schrödinger's Cat.  Plus, 100TH EPISODE LIVE SHOW, Jack's tweeting at @realscientists, another European message from Rachael, and the Royal Baby horoscope.

Belinda, Tom and Jack find out why using Twitter can get you into Heaven faster, how the first blue exoplanet was discovered, and why skepticism and science communication are different to each other. Jargonauts reflects on "albedo", and Question of the Week ruins comedy forever with everyone's favourite science jokes.  Plus, Pacific Rim, World War Z, sexual selection, and Tony Abbott being very silly.

Enjoy this recording of Jack's story about Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan at the science storytelling night "The Laborastory" early last month, in place of a regular episode. Sadly we couldn't get our act together this week - but at least there's something in your feed! You can find out more about "The Laborastory" at thelaborastory.com - do check them out, there're a lot of fun. New show every week in Melbourne, don't miss it.