Obsessed with Joseph Scrimshaw
Epi128: Time Travel
Guests: Mary Jo Pehl, Dr. James Kakalios, and Sam Landman
If you like the topic of time travel -- I mean, REALLY like time travel, then this episode of Obsessed with Joseph Scrimshaw is for you. Recorded live at TPT, a public television studio in St. Paul, Minnesota, this episode follows the formula of Scrimshaw's show, bringing on folks who can't get enough of the topic in question.
In this case, there are two...enthusiasts, I'd call them, and one guest who really couldn't seem to care less about traipsing through time.
Right out of the gate the physicist on board, Dr. James Kakalios, sadly informs the host and audience that science is not even close to even thinking time travel is possible, but it doesn't cool his ardor on the score. Sam Landman's a comedian and co-host of the Aging Poorly soundcast, and he's the most excited about the idea, but it's Mary Jo Pehl, formerly with Mystery Science Theater 3000, who insists that the very idea of temporal displacement makes her head spin and that, even if she could go backwards or forwards in time, the experience would thoroughly both worry and confuse her terribly.
Scrimshaw pelts his guests with time travel-related questions like "Is there a moment you'd go back to in your life and do differently?" or "What historic moment would you most want to go back to screw up on purpose?"
I laughed out load when Dr. Kakalios responded to the question, "What one movie or TV show would you take back in time on an iPad to amaze the more primitive people" He said, without missing a beat "The Facts of Life." Big laughs from the live audience, which puzzled him because he hadn't been thinking about the situation comedy TV show at all. "I was talking about a film about human health and reproduction I'd seen in school as a kid."
It's a fun show so, if you're looking for a good listen, jump back in time to when the episode dropped a few days ago and download it for yourself.
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5Cast Podcast
Episode 144: Gimme Just One More Knight!
People love lists, especially Top 10 lists. What's the next best thing? Two guys each reading their Top 5 lists, and that exactly what you 're getting with the 5Cast Podcast. Tyler and Ben Pearson (Ben also hosts the NJNM Podcast) pick the most random topics in the world to pull from and then trade off counting down their top five picks.
Past topics have included spies, dragons, movies with the word day in the title, TV neighbors, pumpkins-iced goodies, and a lot more.
The latest declarations revolve around the Top 5 Knights of the Round Table, the sort of subject that -- if you're not into it -- you're going to end up learning a ton more about King Arthur and his chums than you ever dreamed.
Sure there's Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad, the ones everyone's heard about, but Sir Lamorak? Legend says he took on fighting 30 knights at a time. Then there was Sir Gawain who became a mortal enemy of Lancelot when the latter turned out to be responsible for offing Gawain's brothers.
No more spoiler alerts here, just suffice it to say that the Pearsons have done a healthy enough pile of research on the topic of Arthurian Knights that they come off sounding reasonably informed. At least enough to bag and tag their individual Top 5 picks without straining too hard.
As they begin to crowd in on their 150th episode, Tyler and Ben make no bones about the fact that they're happy to get suggestions from listeners as to where to turn next to pull another Top 5 list.
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Podcasts I'm also listening to this week: The Rules of Acquisition -- Epi32: Armageddon Game & Found -- S1E6: Rent-a-Friend
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In addition to his weekly contributions to This Week In Comedy Podcasts for Splitsider.com, Marc Hershon is the host and executive producer of Succotash, The Comedy Soundcast Soundcast, featuring clips from comedy soundcasts (née podcasts) from across the Internet as well as interviews with podcasters, soundcasters, comedians, and assorted show biz folk.