The Cosmic Shed

As promised in our Planet Earth 2 - The Producers episode, this is Planet Earth 2 - The Science.

Steve met with Professor Rich Pancost of the Cabot Institute to discuss the Planet Earth 2 series and the science of climate change.

Is the Earth still warming? What causes the warming? Is climate change real? You know the answers really. It just depends whether you wish to deny them or not. Either way, here's the science.

You can listen to our chat with the producers of the Planet Earth 2 series here

show notes

Rich mentions Skeptical Science as a good way of learning about the real science of the climate.

The BBC's flagship Natural History Series Planet Earth 2 has broken all records. More than that; It's undyingly wonderful. As such, it was with no little excitement that Andrew, Maddy and Steve welcomed two of the show's producers into the shed for an exclusive chat. Exclusive in the sense that only 5 of us can fit in the shed. Anyone can actually listen to it here.

Emma Napper and Chadden Hunter sit back in the shed and we talk about what it takes to make such a landmark television series. We talk about that cayman, that iguana, that fieldmouse, that music...and so much more.

Did Andrew enjoy it? To quote John Motson. "Look at his face! Just look at his face!"

Our second episode Planet Earth 2 - The Science is now available here.

We gathered in At Bristol's wonderful planetarium to watch and discuss The Day the Earth Stood Still (Klaatu, not Keanu). We were raising money for Age UK for this, our third live Cosmic Shed recording.

Andrew, Maddy, Ti and Steve were delighted to be joined by Professors Francesca Stavrakopoulou and Bruce Hood.

As we've discussed SETI and life in the universe quite a bit recently, we thought we'd look at Supernatural Belief this time...following on from our Ghostbusters episode. A revelation about R2D2, Moses and a fair bit about Jesus followed.

show notes

Francesca mentions animals appearing to have rituals attached to an "afterlife" belief. As it happens, the BBC's Emma Napper was in the audience (and in the shed the next day) and has filmed an elephant funeral which you can see here.

 

 

Andrew didn't mention this in the episode but had this song in his head for most of the evening...particularly when Professor Francesca was speaking.

Steve mentions Stop Killer Robots, Deep Mind and Tay, the racist, sexist, misogynist AI who only has humanity to blame.

Francesca mentions Ex Machina which we also loved

On a cold, frosty night in December a skeptical ghosthunter, a physics expert and a science communicator who believes in ghosts gathered in a crumbling garden shed somewhere in surburban Bristol where they found Andrew keen to chat to them about all things ghostly.

Andrew was delighted to be joined by Hayley Stevens, a paranormal investigator, Harriet Croome, a science communicator and Tushna Commissariat of the Institute of Physics to discuss the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters....but mainly just ghosts.

Will we end the night joining Harriet in her belief in ghosts? Will Harriet be swung by the weight of evidence against them? There's only one way to find out. An ESP monitor...

Ti appears and Ben pops in for a poem.

So much fun. Thanks everyone.

show notes

Hayley Stevens hosts the Spooktator Podcast

Hayley also mentions and recommends Richard Wiseman's Paranormality book and Michael Shermer's Why people believe weird things.

Andrew and Tushna also feature on the December episode of the Physics World podcast, recorded in the Cosmic Shed.

The Day the Earth Stood Still - The Cosmic Shed Live in the Planetarium is on December 13th. Get your tickets here.