SciShow Tangents

Another wild teaser appears! This little snippet is the first part of our revisit of Hygiene and answering even more questions that we didn't get to in the episode. You can listen to the rest, and also a bunch more bonus content, on our Patreon. It's one of the best ways you can support the show and keep Tangents going and free for everyone. Head over to Patreon...

Devotees of the testudines rejoice! Whether you have one as a pet, admire them at the zoo, or giggle with the rest of the internet when they rock each other off logs, chances are high, we think, that you like turtles. We like turtles! And conveniently for us, turtle science is also extremely cool, so this was basically an ideal episode to make. Enjoy!

A wild teaser appears! This little snippet is the first part of our revisit of Big vs. Small and answering even more questions that we didn't get to in the episode. You can listen to the rest, and also a bunch more bonus content, on our Patreon. It's one of the best ways you can support the show and keep Tangents going and free for everyone. Head over to Patreon...

From expressing ourselves through fashion to protecting ourselves from the elements, textiles seem to be self-evidently significant to the human experience. But it's our goal on Tangents to always poke holes in the obvious, tear through distraction, and weave humor with knowledge - and the facts this episode will blow your cotton-poly blend socks off.

It may be well-known that hope is the thing with feathers, but how much is known about feathers themselves? Turns out, plenty! From shrub grouses to shuttlecocks and all the pea-babies (diminutive for peacocks, definitely for sure) in between, come soar on the delightfully complex wings of knowledge with us!

Trash, rubbish, waste, refuse...we have a lot of words for the gunk that goes on the truck, because whether we like it or not, humans make a lot of garbage. Get comfy with some grossness as we root around in garbage's past, present, and future. We're all on a path, you guys!

Oops, all science this episode! Erstwhile editorial assistant Deboki Chakravarti steps in for erstwhile everyman Sam Schultz as we parse through fundamental puzzles about humanity: what makes us, us, and if it is hormones, does that make us cocktails or cauldrons?

It's the long-awaited cheese-stravaganza! And it's every bit as melty, crumbly, stretchy, and stinky as hoped for. We dip into some fetamology, we stretch our nokkeledge of cheese applications, and we unwrap the shocking tartrutho about a cheese we thought we knew!* *Here are the real cheese names I butchered into puns: feta, nokkelost, tartuffo. All delicious, go try some!

The question plaguing us this episode is, how dark can it really get? Turns out (according to some), not that dark! Unless you're at the bottom of the ocean or floating in the all too-eerie void of deep space, you're always gonna have some photons hitting your face. (I'm pretty sure I accidentally stole this rhyme right out of Hank's poem, but you'll just have to listen to know for sure...)

In this not-so-chill episode, everybody gets a little unsettled by the concepts around refrigeration. Quantum computers, thermoacoustics, molecular chemistry, elephants, the phantom letter "d" that gets added to the shortening of refrigeration...it's all just. So much.