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PODCAST

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation Debates

Mark & Amanda | Science and Ideas Podcast

Every week, a curious 10-year-old and her slightly too-confident dad debate the world’s weirdest inventions and ideas. From headless cows to AI televisions. One of them argues it’s brilliant, the other insists it’s bonkers. Together they explore the strange space between genius and madness — where the best ideas often start. Is it the next big thing or total nonsense? You decide.

kids & family

All Episodes

00:09:56

EP18 - EarMark - Earn money by reading

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2026/04/13

What if every page your child read automatically earned them pocket money?This week Mark and Amanda look at The Earmark — a physical bookmark with a small display that tracks how many pages a child has read and shows their earnings in real time. Parents link it to an app, set a rate (say, £0.01 per page), and the cash transfers automatically from parent account to child account when the session ends. No nagging. No gold stars. Just cold, hard, literary cash.The name says it all: it's a bookmark, you

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00:14:28

EP17 - The Fluffdrum for stuffed toys

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2026/03/18

Every family knows the moment. The suitcase is full, the child is crying, and Mr Elephant is being left behind. This week Amanda pitches her solution: the Fluffdrum — a home device that compresses stuffed toys flat for travel, then restores them to full cuddly condition on arrival using warm air and five robot arms.The system has three parts. A roller press stays at home and squeezes toys into airtight smart pouches before the trip. A travel unit called the FluffDrum — about the size of a large

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00:17:06

EP16 - Personal Pool Heater

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2026/02/23

Ever jumped into a holiday pool and instantly wanted to jump straight back out because it was SO cold? Amanda has invented the solution! A personal pool heater that warms the water around just you! But is it a brilliant idea or a bonkers one? And is it even fair on everyone else in the pool? Join Mark and Amanda as they argue the science, the ethics, and somehow end up talking about space probes. The Judgement Giraffe will make the final call, but what do YOU think?

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00:16:26

EP15 - Internet connected toasters & kettles &...

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2026/02/09

Episode 15: The Internet of Everything (Yes, Even Your Fork)What if your toaster could text your kettle? What if your cutlery drawer had beef with your dishwasher? Welcome to the fully connected home, where every object - and we mean every object - has an IP address and an opinion.In this episode of Brilliant or Bonkers, Mark and Amanda tackle the ultimate IoT fever dream: a house where literally everything talks to everything else. Smart forks that track your eating habits. WiFi-enabled kettles

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00:17:04

EP14 - Gadget to help win supermarket prizes

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2026/01/25

COMPETITION SCANNER: Brilliant or Bonkers?Amanda wants a scanner that can detect winning tickets inside competition products BEFORE you open them. Is this brilliant entrepreneurship or bonkers cheating?Amanda argues it's just smart use of technology—no different from checking if fruit is ripe before buying. Why leave winning to chance when you can use a precision scale or portable scanner to spot the extra weight of a golden ticket? It's spotting a market inefficiency and using your brain to exploit

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00:15:06

EP13 - Classroom seating app and the Ryanairing of...

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2026/01/18

Here's an episode description for your "Brilliant or Bonkers" podcast:Episode: The Classroom Seat ExchangeEpisode Description:You are stuck between two chatty kids in class again. The teacher moves kids around constantly, but doing so takes ages. So Amanda came up with an AI app that could optimise classroom seating using kids' feedback, teacher priorities, and learning needs. Sounds brilliant, right?Then Mark had an idea: What if kids could buy and sell their seats?Front row near the whiteboard

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00:26:01

EP13 - How to keep your New Year's Resolutions

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2026/01/05

Why do Spanish people eat 12 grapes at midnight? How did ancient Babylonians invent New Year's resolutions? And what does a glowing Shame Cube have to do with keeping your promises?Join us as we debate whether New Year traditions, inventions, and resolutions are brilliant... or completely bonkers!In this episodeTraditions from around the world - From Scottish first-footing (and why dark-haired strangers meant good luck) to Danish plate-smashing, discover the surprising origins of how different

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00:21:59

EP12 - Christmas Special! Weird traditions and...

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/12/19

Ho ho hold on... is that a defecating peasant in your nativity scene?Join Mark and Amanda for a festive sleigh ride through the world's most wonderfully weird Christmas innovations. From real patented Santa Claus detectors to a time travel Advent Calendar, we're debating whether these yuletide inventions are strokes of genius or completely crackers.We'll explore funny shape Christmas trees that defy physics, decorations that would make Santa file a restraining order (looking at you, Catalonia), and

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00:14:46

EP11 - Tiny Wild Animals

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/12/08

What happens if you take the world’s biggest, grumpiest, most chaotic animals… and shrink them down to the size of a poodle?In this episode of Brilliant or Bonkers, Mark makes the case for a house-sized safari featuring miniature giraffes, pocket hippos, handbag zebras, and rhinos that can charge your slippers. Amanda, meanwhile, suspects this is how civilisations collapse.But here’s the twist: the science isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds.We explore how CRISPR gene editing actually works, why

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00:17:17

EP10 - The Earthquake Bed

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/11/30

In this episode of Brilliant or Bonkers, Mark and Amanda tackle the Disaster Bed — an earthquake-activated bed that drops you into a protective capsule and seals shut to keep you safe from falling debris. Is it genius life-saving tech, or an over-engineered trap waiting to swallow you whole? Join us as we explore the science, the safety, the silliness, and the surprising design behind one of the strangest disaster-proof inventions ever.

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00:18:50

EP9 - Artificial Trees for CO2 hoovering

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/11/23

Climate change is heating up the planet like it’s wearing too many blankets — so can we build artificial trees to help cool it down?In this episode of Brilliant or Bonkers, Mark and Amanda dive into one of the wildest climate solutions yet: giant machines that suck CO₂ out of the air.Amanda thinks they’re brilliant — fast, powerful, and essential if we want to clean up 150 years of pollution.Mark thinks they’re bonkers — expensive, energy-hungry, and nowhere near replacing real trees.Together they ex

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00:14:44

EP8 - Glow in the Dark Trees

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/11/14

What if the trees in your local park could glow in the dark?In this episode of Brilliant or Bonkers, Mark tries to convince us that genetically glowing trees are the future — magical, energy-saving, and totally brilliant.Amanda isn’t buying it. She’s worried about moths, TikTok influencers, glowing ghost forests, and light giving squirrelsTogether, they explore:How firefly genes could turn a tree into a natural nightlightWhether it would help cities… or confuse squirrels foreverThe real science —

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00:17:15

EP7 - The Lego Set Mini Roomba Robot

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/11/08

Dust: the silent killer of LEGO cities.Builders spend hours keeping skyscrapers, bakeries, and modular streets spotless… and then the dust comes back.So should someone invent a LEGO-sized Roomba?In this episode of Brilliant or Bonkers, Amanda argues that a tiny autonomous robot that patrols LEGO streets at night and parks itself in a LEGO dog kennel is pure genius.Mark thinks it is Bonkers. Will his resistance crumble?Who’s right? Tune in and vote.

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00:14:45

EP6 - The Cheese Printer - Eat a Cheese Eiffel Tower

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/11/01

What if you could 3D print your snacks? In this episode of Brilliant or Bonkers, Dad thinks the Cheese Printer is a meltdown waiting to happen; messy, overengineered, and totally unnecessary. His daughter? She’s convinced it’s the future of food design, where art meets cheddar.Join us as we debate whether printing a cheese Eiffel Tower is the height of innovation… or the end of civilization as we know it.

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00:13:24

EP5 - Baby cages - Healthy fresh air or pigeon poo...

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/10/25

In the 1930s, parents were told babies needed fresh air to stay healthy, so some clever (or completely unhinged) inventors came up with the baby cage: a wire box you’d bolt to your apartment window and hang your infant outside.Join Amanda and Mark as they explore the strange history behind this real invention, from its 1920s patent to its popularity in London and New York. Was it a genius bit of urban innovation or a parenting disaster waiting to happen?Expect laughter, disbelief, and a few “please

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00:13:37

EP4 - Hair washing robot & soap free eyes

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/10/20

Amanda hates getting soap in her eyes. Mark thinks she’s exaggerating. But what if a robot could fix the world’s biggest bathroom battle; washing hair without a single tear?In this episode of Brilliant or Bonkers, we dive into the invention nobody asked for but everyone secretly wants: the intelligent, tentacled hair-washing robot. Can smart sensors and gentle jets really make bath time blissful… or is this just a slippery slope to chaos? Do we, surprisingly, find some interesting real use for

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00:13:20

Ep3 - AI Music: From Beethoven to Bot-hoven

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/10/18

This week Amanda’s all in on the rise of AI-made music. No instruments, no lessons, no limits and just pure creativity at the click of a button.But Dad isn’t impressed. To him, it’s a soulless, generic ocean of noise, where real musicianship drowns under a flood of algorithms.Is AI the future of music? Does it open the studio to everyone, or will it be the end of everything that makes a song human?It’s talent versus tech, melody versus machine, as Amanda and her dad debate whether AI music is

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00:13:20

An AI Television that answers all those questions...

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/10/14

The AI TV That Answers Every QuestionYou know that feeling when you’re trying to watch a movie, but there are millions of questions flying around:“Who’s that guy?”“Is she the sister?”“Wait, did the dog just die?”Now imagine a TV that answers all of them, instantly. No pausing, no explaining, just smart little pop-up answers powered by AI.Mark says it’s brilliant; finally, peace and quiet during movie night.His daughter says it’s bonkers; who wants a robot spoiling every surprise?A genius invention

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00:12:31

Headless Cows! Ethical meat, without the head.

Brilliant or Bonkers: Weird Inventions & Innovation... ·

2025/10/14

It sounds like science fiction — cows genetically engineered without heads. No brains, no suffering, just meat and milk on legs. Some call it a humane breakthrough. Others call it horrifying.Mark argues it’s brilliant — if it ends animal suffering and makes better meat, why not?His daughter Amanda (10) says it’s bonkers — creepy, unnatural, and straight out of a nightmare.Ethical innovation or mad science gone too far? Tune in and decide: Brilliant or Bonkers?

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19 results

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