Facts Machine – Details, episodes & analysis

Come see our show THIS THURSDAY (9/19 7pm Eastern) in person in NYC or livestream from wherever you are!

In this Symbiosis-themed episode, we were joined by Dr. Kate Bredbenner and Hampton Humber for stories about synergistic species, comedy about critters coexisting, and trivia that mite live on your head rent-free!

Kate: @simplebiologist

Hampton: @Hampdman

Tickets for our Friday, 3/17 show "Taking A Brain Check"

During NYC's Brain Awareness Week, Em and Noah (and Rob in spirit!) were joined live at Caveat by guest neuroscientists and science communicators Leslie Sibener and Dr. Devon Collins, PhD, as they endeavored to get tangled up in neural nets, celebrate Dendritic Arbor Day, and fight for neurite to party!

Piano accompaniment: Rose McCathran & Ryan Brechmacher

Tickets for our Friday, 3/17 show "Taking A Brain Check"

Joined by special guest Jaida Elcock, shark scientist and grad student at MIT-WHOI, co-founder of Minorities in Shark Science (MISS), organizer of #BlackinMarineScienceWeek, and TikTok-er extraordinaire, we take a bite out of TEETH facts! Open (your ears) wide for aquatic melon ballers, the under appreciated craft of dentist office blogging, and a Michael Phelps race that never was, but totally should have been. And for the love of enamel, make sure to floss!!

Tickets for our Friday, 3/17 show "Taking A Brain Check"

Live at Caveat in NYC, just days before Halloween, we were joined by folklorist to the stars, and astrophysicist to the folks, Dr. Moiya McTier, PhD! Listen in to learn about a threatening arrangement of triangles, the ballad of the Space Bat, and an Ohio pig farmer who dreamed of two things: 1) seeing the stars and 2) smashing Confederates...AND HE WAS ALL OUT OF STARS... Listen to Moiya over at her science-based world-building podcast, ExoLore! Watch Moiya over at her show on PBS Digital Services Fate & Fabled! Read Moiya over at her new book The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy!

Science Friday engagement producer, comedian, and inclusive science communicator extraordinaire Kyle Marian joins us for a gastronomical live show at Caveat all about FOOD. In a variety show of storytelling, audience challenges, and unrepentant culinary goofiness, we chew the fat, spill the beans, go bananas, and satisfy even the most voracious of trivia appetites. Tune in, and eat your heart out 😋

Accompanied by special guest Dr. Latasha Wright, chief scientific officer at BioBus and Rob’s bio-boss, we finally share all the facts we’ve been dyeing to tell you! Tune in to learn all about the art, science, and history behind pigments and dyes—we hope it all soaks in! 

 Our guest today is biology professor, science communicator, and co-owner of an animal sanctuary (!) Dr. Carly York, who joins us for a (lightly NSFW) episode about romantic relationships in the animal world. Tune in and keep an eye out for Carly’s upcoming book on romance in the wild!

 Science comedian, neuroscience PhD, and “guardian of knowledge” Dr. André Pineda makes his second Facts Machine appearance on an episode in homage to organisms that live on the edge, thrive in the unsurvivable, and take that “grow where you are planted” proverb that gets embroidered on pillows as a personal challenge: extremophiles.

This week we’re joined by data science professor, standup comedian, and circus performer, Dr. Andrea Jones-Rooy to articulate, communicate, enunciate, extrapolate, debate, formulate…where was I going with this? OH RIGHT we’re talking about language. Word.