A Terrible Covid Christmas Special

When neuroscientist Madeline Lancaster was a brand new postdoc, she accidentally used an expired protein gel in a lab experiment and noticed something weird. The stem cells she was trying to grow in a dish were self-assembling. The result? Madeline was the first person ever to gr ...  Show more

In 1971, a red-headed, tree-loving astronaut named Stu ‘Smokey’ Roosa was asked to take something to the moon with him. Of all things, he chose to take a canister of 500 tree seeds. After orbiting the moon 34 times, the seeds made it back to Earth. NASA decided to plant the seeds ...  Show more

St Nicholas was a Greek bishop, known for his generosity. But he didn’t have a beard, and he didn’t drive a sleigh - so how did he morph into the Santa Claus the world knows and loves? The supposed date of his death - 3rd December, 343 - may have a lot to do with it… Then there’s ...  Show more

Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. Believe it or not, Christmas is this week. Yup, even in a year that felt like it was always winter and that there could not ever be Christmas. And we need a little Christmas, right this very minute. Candles ...  Show more

How long have people been hoping for Santa to hurry down their chimneys for?

Whether it’s because he’s a bear, a dom or the ultimate daddy - in this episode we’re discussing attraction to Santa and Father Christmas.

Listen as Kate takes us through Santa’s m ...

A few weeks ago we were working in the studio, getting in the Christmas spirit, and one of us brought up the fact that it’s weird we have this tradition about a big jolly fat guy who sneaks into our homes and wants kids to sit on his lap. We started wondering where the story of S ...  Show more