In the inaugural (and zero indexed) episode of Surely You're Joking, Dr. Kevin Peter Hickerson, Griff Pippin, and Jimmy O Yang discuss the latest asteroid hoax, why we should still be worried anyway (even though it is just a hoax), GMO mouse brains controlled by light, comedy cultivation, and what on Earth could be outside of Oklahoma.

Jimm 0 Yang and the kid who cried asteroid.

Kevin, Jimmy, and Griff are joined by frequently touring, auditioning, and otherwise distracted co-host, Owen Benjamin, to help welcome the first guest of the show, 2004 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Professor David Politzer. David explains the downside to winning a Nobel Prize, who in the science media circuit is legit, planting pineapple(s), and of course, his favorite topic: banjos! Owen and David are both musicians, so they bond over hashing out what to do when someone says your music has mistakes.

David Politzer and the string theory of banjos.

Water on Mars! By sheer serendipity the whole SYJ crew meet up with Adam Steltzner from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories, just hours after NASA makes one of the most important announcements of all time - that Mars still has flowing water (and so possibly, life) right now! At JPL, Adam is lead EDL engineers  (a.k.a. landing guy) for the Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on Mars do he had a lot to say about this. But the comedians spend half the time talking about The Martian and Adam's epic hair.

Adam Steltzner and the panspermiatic lineae.

Josh Brener from HBO's Silicon Valley and The Big Bang Theory drops into which he had been on an episode with another science guest. The episode  quickly spirals into a level of maturity far too low for a self-respecting scientist as bacteria names, probes on Uranus, Halloween costumes and phallified proton accelerators. Oh... and more space fish.

Josh Brener and the microaggressive cocci.

Comedian Drew Lynch pays a visit to Griff and Kevin when co-host Owen is off with Howie Mandel. Weirdly enough, Howie was Drew's biggest fan on the 10th season of America's Got Talent, giving him the Golden Buzzer and a standing ovation, launching him just short of the final victory. A few times Drew reminds the SYJ gang that he's not really a science guy. He's still hilarious.

Drew Lynch and the talented american solstice.

New planet in our solar system found? Somehow, the whole Surely You're Joking team was lucky enough to get the head of the Planetary Society himself, Bill Nye, The Science Guy to tell us all about it! He gives the low-down on the new gas giant, Pluto replacement, evolution, GMO and the politics of funding and the Flint water crisis.

Bill Nye and the empennage kicking new planet.

Konstantin Batygin discovered the ninth planet in our solar system all before turning 30! His advisor, having "killed" Pluto’s planet status, was also part of the discovery, which was by indirect means. Also joined by Comedian Amir K, catch him in the film The Pyramid, this month on HBO. Konstantin explains to Amir and the SYJ crew how certain he is that the new unnamed planet will found directly in the next few years.

Konstantin Batygin, Amir K and the trillion percent certainty.

The absolute legendary actor, comedian, director, author, and oh so much more, Prof. Alan Alda, returns to Caltech to talk about his new online streaming melodrama "Horace and Pete" with Louis C. K. and Steve Buscemi. The M.A.S.H. and Scientific American Frontiers star explains to Kevin the fundamentals of science communication, reveals to Jimmy the secrets of acting, and tells Griff the trick of holding back the pressure to catch a big laugh.

Alan Alda and the dance music going backward in time.

Sean Carroll, professor of theoretical physics, tells Kevin, Griff, and guest co-host comedian Erin Darling  about The Big Picture, his new book, but also his outlook on, well, the big picture: God, Life, The Universe, i.e. the light stuff. The conversation wanders towards eternal life, mirror molecules, the career perils of writing books, how you get introduced once you've been on The Colbert Report. 

Sean Carroll, Erin Darling and the eternal godly poem.

Don't believe the hype! The's a big difference between an ice sheet and sea ice. And the movement can actually move the axis of the Earth herself! To explain which is which, Dr. Surendra Adhikari from JPL/Caltech tells Kevin, Jimmy, and Owen the difference. Using a NASA satellite, Dr. Adhikari, tells how he made his measurements that grabbed social media's attention last week. Since Jimmy's back from Boston after hanging with real life heroes, he tell the guys about the trip.

Surendra Adhikari and the melting Milankovitch cycles.

Kevin's buddy from school, Prof. Peter Plavchan, visiting from Missouri, and comedian Richard Chassler, join Owen and Kevin in Hollywood, to talk about a weird planetary system discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope, which Peter uses to study distant solar systems. Some have found this particular system to be so odd, that it may be evidence of an enormous alien mega-structure surrounding the distant star.  Or not.

Surely You're Joking

Prof. Peter Plavchan, Richard Chassler and the ensemble of alien mega-structures.

To help announce an amazing new discovery: a new exoplanet about the same as planet earth  potentially habitable, Griff and Kevin meet with Caltech postdoc Dr. Courtney Dressing. The planet orbits the pale red dwarf star named Proxima Centauri visible only in the southern hemisphere.

Courtney Dressing and the pale red dot.

Kevin and Griff introduce Jimmy to former guest, Prof. Hakeem Oluseyi, host of Outrageous Acts of Science. Conversation volleys back and forth wildly as the Olympics keep distracting the crew from any possible resolution of Susskin's famed ER = EPR conjecture.

Hakeem Oluseyi and the Olympic distraction.

Show favorite and Planet Nine discoverer Konstantin Batygin and Astrophysicist Fred Adams join the entire SYJ gang including Patriots Day star Jimmy O Yang and the newly appointed co-host Matthew Broussard to discuss just how lose the sun's grip on the solar system really is.

Konstantin Batygin, Fred Adams and the Church of Planet Nine

Jimmy, Griff, Kevin, and comedian Ryan Demarest, a double finalist of Kevin and Bean’s April Foolishness critique Nye’s new show, the identity politics of Saturn’s moon-ring spectrum, and party crashing the Space Shuttle.

Ryan Demarest and the Klinefelter controversy.

Neuroscientist and comedian Ori Amir explains to Kevin and Griff how he used fMRI brain scans of comedians to study and analyse the neurogenesis of humor and clever insight in the human brain.

Ori Amir and the humorous activity of temporal poles.

Connor Mcspadden and Keith Carey are a hilarious duo. And it all might have been different if Connor had gone into the sciences instead of stand up at the age of 16. Coming from their podcast Mean Boys and their appearances on Comedy Central's Roast Battle, they stop by to "discuss" HIV farming bacteria, heat death of the universe, gradient driven evolution, and testing estimating how many boobs fit in a race car.

Connor Mcspadden, Keith Carey and the volumetric estimate.

Viral video blogger, gamer, and comedian Vito Gesualdi joins Mitch and Kevin talks about his adventures trolling politically charged rallies, as the extreme left and right collide, sometimes with frightening results. But what would a SYJ episode be with out discussing alien asteroids, robots and demonetization.

Vito Gesualdi old-timey popcorn salesman.

Comedian Irina Skaya has strong opinions about politics (and the comedy of politics) and she doesn't care if you're offended by them.  Kevin and Irina talk about life of immigrant families. Irina talks about how embracing her Russian/Ukrainian background has liberated her comedic voice. They manage to fit some science in there too and Irina pleads in Russian to get Surely You're Joking unbanned in Russia.

Irina Skaya and the giant ferriswheel of hooks.

Physicist Liz Friedman joins Kevin and Jimmy O Yang (right after wrapping Silicon Valley Season 4)meet up at Jimmy's old apartment to talk about detecting high energy neutrinos, in the coldest place on earth. Liz brings Jimmy polar schwag and tells us about her famous picture from New Years. Jimmy pitches his new book How To American.

Liz Friedman, Jimmy O Yang  and the South Pole schwag.

"The Martian" Andy Weir returns to Surely You're Joking after meeting up with Kevin and Matthew in the Bay Area to tell us about his new book, "Artemis."  Andy also gives his take on why the Moon will be the home of the first Space city, not Mars, squarely breaking with Elon Musk. Andy welcomes his friend joining the sci-fi author turned movie club with the release of "Ready Player One." and shares his outlook on BFR.

Andy Weir and the first city in space.

Author of The Case for Mars explains his plans to take people to mars, Mars Direct. Kevin and Robert discus SpaceX, making fuel on Mars, space nuclear, the intellectual dark web, and the uselessness of tollbooths in space.

Robert Zubrin and the pioneering spirit.

Paul Zaloom, star of the hit science show for kids, Beakman's World, drops in to tell Kevin about the popularity of his show all over the world, has him trekking across the globe. Paul give the low down on his latest project: puppet astronauts.

Paul Zaloom and the puppet on mars.

Joking's favorite Professor Konstantin Batygin is back to explain how he discovered that equation that governs the quantum world of Schrödinger's cat fame,  also describes planetary disks and the formation of solar systems. He also breaks down the progress on the dark hunt for Planet Nine.

Konstantin Batygin and the quantum planets.

Julie Jester is the queen of the prank court. When she's not inventing widgets and working on spaceships, she helping Caltech prank arch-nemesis MIT or building an homage to Hollywood sign pranks of old.

Julie Jester and the Pasadena prank.

How does Ant-Man shrink? Quantum Mechanics of course! Professor Spyridon Michalakis, scientific consultant of Marvel's most recent super hero block buster, starring Paul Rudd.  It turns out the Hollywood star loves physics, so Spiro explains that while working directly with him, he came up with the Quantum Realm. Kevin and Spiro talk about some the tech details, how exotic atoms like muonium and pionium, can actually change size in real life labs.

Spyridon Michalakis and the Quantum Realm

First Surely You're Joking episode of 2019! Planetary research and Dr. Kevin Hardegree Ullman and comedian Aubree Sweeney get an update of the Kepler telescope replacement : the TESS satellite, the Rose Parade, and three letter acronyms. Ullman explains the viral video of the music made tuning solar system K2-128. Happy New Year!

Kevin Hardegree Ullman, Aubree Sweeney and the cosmic piano tuning.

Dr. James Tuttle Keane brings some of his sketches of the most distant (and possibly the oldest) probed object in our solar system named Ultima Thule. In addition to studying planet, James makes brilliant drawings to help explain what we are learning about this strange, city-sized snowman-like object that was visited on New Year's Eve 2019 by the New Horizons space probe. James works along side Brian May from Queen and together they help both discover our distant celestial past and share those exciting discoveries with the public.

James Tuttle Keane and the sketch of the farthest snowman.

Robert Picardo, best known as the holographic doctor on Star Trek Voyager and host of the Planetary Post, meets up with Kevin and returning Surely You're Joking guest star and Planet Nine hypotheses and hunter, Konstantin Batygin, to revel brand new secrets about Planet Nine! From the headquarters of the Planetary Society in Pasadena, Konstantin announces fresh of the presses details about the size, shape, and location of the still as-of-yet photographed Planet Nine!

Robert Picardo, Konstantin Batygin and the factor of two hypothesis.

Dr. Sumner Norman can do a lot of things, but one of the most amazing is that he can read your thoughts, sometimes even before you realized you thought it.  Sumner explains how his work will help disabled people regain control their lives, almost straight out of the movie Upgrade.

Sumner Norman and the mind-reading robots.

Mark Mamonne is a actor, comedian, and production assistant on Seth McFarland's "The Orville." Mark comes on Surly You're Joking to talk about leaving stand up for acting and to tell us about his upcoming first appearance on the show!

Mark Mammone and the alternate universe.

Meeting up at the April Meeting of the American Physical Society, Dr. Avery Broderick tells Kevin about the Breakthrough Prize winning first photo of a super massive black hole in Virgo, Kevin's birth sign.

Avery Broderick and the first black hole selfie.

Dr. Robert Zubrin of the Mars Society returns to discuss Mars Direct, carbon credits, plans for the moon, and his shout out from Micheal Collins on the 50th Anniversary of the moon landing.

Robert Zubrin and the astronauts' direct advice.

Science and comedy collide as physicist Dr. Kevin Peter Hickerson is joined by comedians Jimmy O Yang, Mitch Burrow, Owen Benjamin, Griff Pippin and Matthew Broussard, discuss the absurdities of the universe with intriguing and inspiring guests from the best of the academic and entertainment world.

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