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PODCAST

Rabbit Hole of Research

Jotham Austin, II PhD, Nick Elizalde, and Georgia Geis

Our goal is to have fun learning science through the lens of science fiction, fantasy, and pop-culture. We will start in one place and let the conversation lead us down the winding scenic road exploring the science in science fiction, separating the facts from the Handwavium. We’ll have a little fun and you’ll learn a few facts you can use to impress your friends at a party or use as a conversation starter to go down your own rabbit holes. jothamaustin.substack.com

science science fiction

All Episodes

39:30

The Mini: Magic

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/08/26

In Episode 81: The Mini: Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 80: Magic — Power and Its Costs with author B.L. Mostyn, talk about the storm that swept through Chicagoland causing a 10-day power outage, and Joe fanboying at Fan Expo Chicago — where John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, and Keith David were all in the building for a The Thing reunion.In Science Holes, the power outage sent Nick down a rabbit hole about the US electrical grid, and could the whole country go dark. Joe talks about the complex

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74:00

Magic: Power and Its Costs

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/08/19

In Episode 80 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome author B.L. Mostyn (Heroes of Another Age) to the Basement Studio to discuss the costs of magical systems.We discuss the physics, biology, politics, and ecology behind magic systems, fantastical creatures, and the power structures that sustain them. We ask the questions worldbuilders sometimes skip: How does your magical system really work (is it consistent), how many Big Macs to make fire balls and shape shift, and who’s

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30:01

The Mini: Save Trees so Spidey can Swing

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/08/12

In Episode 79: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 78: Briar East Woods and Urban Deforestation, featuring guests Anne and TJ of the Save Briar East Woods organization. The crew ties up a few loose ends mentioned on the episode: where does Indiana Dunes rank among national parks, a listener comment about daylighting a buried creek in the Dunes, Alex’s 101-word story, and the ‘70s animal horror environmental movies.Joe quickly covers three Science Holes that caught his eye: a game that

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70:00

Briar East Woods and Urban Deforestation

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/08/05

In Episode 78 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome guests Anne Sedlacek and TJ Gaertig of Save Briar East Woods to explore the 32-acre dune forest in Hammond, Indiana.Briar East is the last sliver of a 4,700-year-old sand ridge, an urban forest sitting just south of steel mills and oil refineries, and it's doing the work of soaking up the stormwater that would otherwise be in somebody's basement.The crew talks about how UChicago's Henry Cowles invented ecology on these

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36:01

The Mini: Spider-man Villains

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/07/29

In Episode 77: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 76: Spider-Man: What His Villains Reveal About Him— the third and final part of their Spider-Man villain series featuring guest Alex Hanes of the YouTube channel Hanes for Heroes (@Hanes4Heros).The crew briefly revisits the episode, speculates about which villains might show up in the new MCU Spider-Man: Brand New Day film, and Joe adds a thought that Captain America might have the closest hero origin story and moral struggles to

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75:00

Spider-Man villains part 3: What His Villains Reveal...

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/07/22

In the 76th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, from the Basement Studio, Joe and Nick are joined by Alex Hanes of the YouTube channel Hanes for Heroes (@Hanes4Heros) for the conclusion of their three-part Spider-Man villain series, and this one gets personal. Bring some tissues!The crew digs into what it actually means to be a hero/villain, neurologically, philosophically, and biologically. They explore moral injury and the difference between guilt and shame. Why Spider-Sense might be anxiety on

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53:00

The Mini: Chimeras

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/07/15

In Episode 75: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 74: Scorpion and the Other Chimeras — part two of their Spider-Man villain series featuring guest Erin C. Anthony, evolutionary ecologist and middle school science teacher — and dig into a few things that didn’t make it into the full episode.Joe explain what organoids are, tiny, self-organizing 3D tissue cultures grown from stem cells that can mimic actual human organs, and why they are important in biomedical research. Including what

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71:30

Spider-Man villains part 2: Scorpion and the other...

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/07/08

In the 74th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, and Georgia are joined by guest Erin C. Anthony, an evolutionary ecologist and science communicator, to continue their Spider-Man villain series with a deep dive into chimeras: part myth, part Handwavium, and recently part reality.The crew kicks off explaining what a chimera is? And is Spider-Man one? They explore the science behind why you can’t just inject someone with scorpion DNA and call it a day, looking at you waving those hands J

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29:00

The Mini: Lab Safety

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/07/01

Joe, Nick, and Georgia are back in the Basement Studio — well, sort of. Georgia is remoting in from the American Library Association conference in Chicago, and Nick is in his office. Joe is holding down the Basement Studio solo. The band is together in spirit.In Episode 73: The Mini: the RHR crew recaps Part 1 of the Spider-Man villains series: Lab Safety (EP 72) episode featuring Tera Lavoie, PhD, and the ongoing debate over whether Nick should be allowed anywhere near a rock alone.Past guest

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88:21

Spider-Man villains part 1: Lab Safety

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/06/24

In Episode 72 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary are joined by returning guest Tera Lavoie, PhD, cell biologist, electron microscopist, and the Advanced Electron Microscopy core facility’s lab safety director. This episode kicks off the 3 episode Spider-Man Villain Series, and we’re starting where it all goes wrong, the lab.It turns out many of Spider-Man’s villains are a catastrophic series of safety procedure failures. Some intentional and some not, but could have been

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45:15

The Mini: Geoglyphs

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/06/17

In Episode 71: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 70: Nazca Lines of Peru and Crop Circles featuring guest Lorena Salinas, Peruvian artist and owner of Jose’s Family Restaurant in Highland, Indiana. The crew reflects on the episode’s deeper theme, how culture shapes perspective, and how something small can change your entire relationship to a place.Joe follows up on a comment about fireflies Nick made in a previous Mini and shares some backyard conservation tips from the Xerces

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71:30

Nazca Lines of Peru and Crop Circles

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/06/10

In Episode 70 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome special guest Lorena Salinas, Peruvian artist, architectural drafter, entrepreneur, and owner of Jose’s Family Restaurant in Highland, Indiana, to dig into one of archaeology’s greatest mysteries: the Nazca Lines of Peru.Lorena, born and raised in Peru, shares her unique cultural perspective and walks the crew through the Nazca geoglyphs, and explains why, as impressive as they are, why to Peruvians, the real engineering

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28:31

The Mini: Hive Mind

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/06/03

In Episode 69: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 68: The Hive Mind, featuring return guest Wes Thorn, revisiting the lively debate over individuality versus collective culture, echo chambers, and whether anyone would actually join the hive. Nick finally watched a few episodes of Plur1bus, but didn’t stay with it. Georgia talks about Alex’s Substack comment on how different cultures approach individualism versus collectivism, and his book recommendation The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter

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78:00

The Hive Mind

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/05/27

In the 68th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, from the Basement Studio, Joe, Nick, Georgia, Mary, and returning guest Wes Thorn (last seen defending the Simulation Hypothesis in Episode 26) dive into one of science fiction’s most unsettling concepts: the hive mind.It starts with a simple question: is the private voice inside your skull really yours? From there the crew tumbles down the rabbit hole of collective consciousness, exploring nature’s original hive minds, bees, ants, slime molds, and the

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45:00

The Mini: Planetary Defense

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/05/20

In Episode 67: “The Mini,” Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 66: Saving Earth From Other Worldly Impact. The crew talks about, Episode 66 guest, Charles Blue’s First Light Con, the world’s first science and engineering fandom convention coming in 2027, Joe’s upcoming panel schedule at ConCarolinas in Charlotte (May 29th-31st), a correction from Nick about Bruce Willis, and a May 23rd DIY podcasting event at the Lake County Public Library. Joe shares a typewriter poem written for the show at the

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84:20

Planetary Defense: Saving Earth from Other Worldly...

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/05/13

In Episode 66 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome Charles Blue, a science writer with over 35 years of experience in astronomy, Earth science, and science communications. Charles serves as Executive Communications Strategist for NASA’s Exploration Directorate, and has participated in tabletop exercises that simulate real government responses to potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs).The crew digs into the difference between asteroids, comets, and NEOs, why

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37:00

The Mini: Living Underground

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/05/06

In Episode 65: “The Mini,” Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 64: Living Underground: Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial and still talking about their excitement for the Artemis II mission, which successfully flew around the Moon and back, with only a minor toilet malfunction along the way. They preview the upcoming planetary defense episode with guest Charles Blue, and break down what comes next in the Artemis program on the road back to the Moon.Joe talks about the Catacombs of Paris, where a

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74:00

Living Underground: Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/04/29

In the 64th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, from the Basement Studio, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome rocket scientist, engineer, and a planetary geophysicist who studied lava tubes and volcanoes, Ernie Bell (currently a Spacecraft Flight Crew Operations Engineer at Blue Origin, and formerly a NASA Extravehicular Activities flight controller and crew trainer) to dig into one of science fiction’s most interesting settings, the underground.And the timing couldn’t be better. The episode was

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45:00

The Mini: Splatterpunk

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/04/22

In Episode 63: “The Mini”, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 62: Fear, Phobias, and Splatterpunk: When Terror Becomes Entertainment and share their road trip to Slay the Lake, an LGBTQ+ horror book festival at the Final Girl Bar in Kenosha, plus a stop at the Milwaukee Zine Fest on the way.The crew shares a listener recommendation from Alex, John Wiswell’s 2024 novel Someone You Can Build a Nest In, and dig into an interesting question: why can some people read horror but not watch it? They also

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77:30

Fear, Phobias, and Splatterpunk: When Terror Becomes...

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/04/15

In the 62nd episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, and Georgia welcome splatterpunk author Phrique to the Basement Studio to dig into one of horror’s most primal questions: what separates a debilitating phobia from a Tuesday night movie with friends?Starting with the ancient alarm system wired into every human brain, the crew explores the neuroscience of fear’s two pathways; the lightning-fast response that bypasses conscious thought entirely, and the slower response that keeps you in your

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125 results

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