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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

53:00

The Mini: Nick vs the AI chef

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/10/07

In Episode 87: The Mini, Joe and Georgia welcome Nick back, recap the Disability in Horror episode, and add a bit more to the conversation. Joe forgot to mention during the episode one of his favorite characters, Nick Andros from Stephen King’s The Stand (which he reads almost every year). They touch on disability representation lacking and casting controversy across both screen adaptations of The Stand, and highlight MCU characters and actors that do it right. Listener Alex also mentioned stories

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89:31

Disability in Horror

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/09/30

In Episode 86 of the Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Georgia, and Mary (Nick had an emergency) are joined by Bram Stoker-nominated horror-comedy writer Grace Daly to dig into one of horror's oldest and laziest shortcuts: the different body as a signal of danger, evil, or tragedy. From ableist tropes and chronic invisible illness to eugenics, pregnancy horror, and the potential and ethics of gene editing, we explore what storytelling gets right, what it gets wrong and that a different body means

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49:01

The Mini: E.T. addendums, Science Holes and Media The...

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/09/23

In Episode 85: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia review the E.T. episode (1982 the greatest summer of sci-fi movies), and add a few more tidbits they forgot to mention during the recording (and it’s a Super-miss). Joe and Georgia talk about DragonCon and seeing alumni of the show out in the wild, and to Nick’s surprise, Season 4 is officially happening.In the Science Holes: Joe has four related topics on climate change and preserving the natural wonders before it’s too late. Georgia sorts her notes

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98:30

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/09/16

Was E.T really the greatest sci-fi movie of 1982? We go down the rabbit hole of where E.T. fits in the summer that changed sci-fi.In Episode 84 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome back returning guest and boxing glove artist Chris Guzman (@theboxinggloveartist) to the Basement Studio to talk E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Was it really the greatest sci-fi film of the summer of '82, or just the most sentimental?Previous RHOR Episodes with Chris:Gremlins and Holiday

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26:00

The Mini: The Cloud

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/09/09

In Episode 83: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia recap Episode 82: Data Centers: Are We Really Blowing Up the Planet for AI Slop and Porn? with confirmed, three-peat returning guest and Friend of the Pod, David Pincus, PhD. The crew follows up on the CoreWeave/Hammond deal, corrects the Tempe Town Lake numbers, and it’s way more than Joe thought. Georgia talks about discovering a massive data center in downtown Chicago. In Science Holes, Joe discusses the fire amoeba and Nvidia claims to reduce data

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78:31

Data Centers

Rabbit Hole of Research ·

2026/09/02

In Episode 82 of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and Mary welcome back three-time returning guest (previously on Episodes 13 and 39) and “Friend of the Pod”, David Pincus, PhD, cell biologist at the University of Chicago, to the Basement Studio to talk data centers.We dig into the water costs, why your electric bill is going up, whether space-based cooling is science or Handwavium, what cellular stress can teach us about AI resource allocation, should we use human values or cell

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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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131 results

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