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PODCAST

Completely Optional Knowledge

#CompletelyOptional

The podcast where we answer the questions you never knew you had. Produced by Andrew Norton with music by Breakmaster Cylinder.

science & medicine natural sciences

All Episodes

00:08:17

What Animal Has the Stinkiest Farts?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2016/04/05

Award-winning filmmaker Troy Hale comes to Completely Optional Knowledge to find out which animal has the smelliest farts. Zookeeper Rick of the San Diego Zoo is in the right job to sniff out the answer. He works with 60 different species of animals. “Whether you are in the second grade or in your second retirement, when you hear a rhinoceros fart, you laugh, it’s funny,” he says. Listen and learn about the winds that blow around the animal kingdom. If you are intrigued, you might want to conduct

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00:09:18

What Sounds Can't I Hear?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2016/03/22

Annie McEwen has great hearing — but she's still only human — so she's wondering what sounds are out there that she's not able to pick up. To find the answer, we spoke to Milton Garces of the University of Hawaii's Infrasound Laboratory. He tells us about the constant din that eludes our futile human ears. Image credit: Flickr user Nickolai Kashirin (https://www.flickr.com/photos/nkashirin/)

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00:08:44

Have Whale Songs Changed Over Time?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2016/03/15

Music critic Stacey Anderson has listened to a lot of songs in her time. So many, in fact, that she’s grown a bit bored of human music. Now she’s curious about the famous crooners of the deep blue: whales. We spoke to humpback whale expert Ellen Garland to find out what makes whales sing what they sing.

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00:08:27

Do Animals in the Wild Get Drunk?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2016/03/01

If you give a mouse a vodka tonic, will he even drink it? That’s the question Ben Harrison — host of the Let’s Drink About It podcast — has brought to Completely Optional Knowledge. And who better to give us our answer than Dr. Robert Dudley, UC Berkeley biologist and author of “The Drunken Monkey.” Disclaimer: no wild animals were intoxicated in the making of this podcast (though the same cannot be said for human animals).

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00:09:25

What Is the Fastest Insect in the World?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2016/02/16

Listener Stephen Rang wants to know how fast he would have to run (or drive, as it turns out) to flee the world’s fastest known insect. We go off to the races with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences’ Chris Goforth, who informs us that this particular insect can reach flying speeds of up to 70 mph — and it’s probably not one you would expect.

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00:08:15

How Do Animals Choose Their Leaders?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2016/02/02

Election season is upon us, and that means choices. If you’re still on the fence about who to vote for, maybe you’d like to take a cue from ants, whose prospective leaders duel with their antennae. We’ve got biologist Clint Penick, PhD on the show to guide us through how strikingly similar animals’ electoral behaviors are to our own.

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00:08:30

Can Animals Predict Earthquakes?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2016/01/19

If you could have a head start preparing for an earthquake to hit, wouldn’t you take it? That’s all San Francisco resident Terry Worona wants, and he’s looking to the animal kingdom to get it. To find out if his theory holds up, we talked to Dr. Rachel Grant, whose research examines how animals’ special “sensitivities” help them stay in tune with changes in the natural world.

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00:08:01

How Long Can You Live Underwater?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2016/01/05

Swimmer Veronica Simmonds wants to know what happens when you take aquatic adventure to the extreme. So we called up ‘aquanaut’ — that’s like an astronaut but under the sea — Jessica Fain, who holds the record for longest time spent living underwater at 73 days.

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00:08:33

What Pisses Scientists Off the Most When They Go to...

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2015/12/08

Dr. David Kirby, author of "Lab Coats in Hollywood," digs into that fine line between sublime fantasy and falling flat at the movies. So, what irks scientists at the cinema? Comically rapid evolution, the time-space continuum, animal stereotypes, and pretty much everything else.

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00:08:38

Why Are Sloths So Cute?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2015/11/24

Sloths don't really "do" a lot, and yet they've managed to win our hearts time and again. Admitted sloth enthusiast Brooke Ziebell wants to know what's behind the emotions these cute critters manage to conjure. Yale's Oriana Aragon, an expert on human emotions, has our answer.

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00:07:54

Why Do Frozen Lakes and Rivers Howl in the Night?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2015/09/14

Brigitta Green from the perennial winter wonderland of Minnesota has a fitting question for us about ice. After a mysterious, late night howling sound caused “mass slight curiosity” on the streets of St. Paul last winter, she wants to know how it is that a frozen body of water can produce such an eery noise. Chris Polashenski, Arctic researcher and expert on all things cold, has our answer.

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00:06:16

What Do Tornadoes Smell Like?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2015/09/14

New Yorker Alex Kapelman has never seen a tornado, and he’s curious: what do they smell like? With more than 20 years of storm chasing under his belt, extreme weather documentarian Warren Faidley has our answer. And no—he didn’t have to enter the eye of the storm to get it.

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00:07:30

What Does the Sun Sound Like?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2015/09/12

Space camp alumnus Avery Trufelman from Oakland, California wants to know what the sun sounds like, and so do we! NASA sound and space expert Robert Alexander has our answer, delivered through the wondrous technology of sonification.

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00:09:05

Can It Really Rain Spiders?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2015/09/11

Vancouver meteorologist Kristi Gordon had a not so fortunate on-air experience with an arachnid guest descending on her from above, so she asked us to find out where this “raining spider” came from. Australian naturalist Martyn Robinson explains that this phenomenon isn’t actually as far-fetched as it sounds.

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00:08:57

Why Do Touch-Me-Not Plants Recoil?

Completely Optional Knowledge ·

2015/09/10

On a recent vacation to Costa Rica, Indianapolis, Indiana nurse Amy Gastelum did what we all would if given the chance: she touched a touch-me-not plant. Now, she wants to know why the plant recoiled at her touch. Evolutionary ecologist Monica Galiano has our answer.

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35 results

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