The Goods from the Woods - Episode #118 – “Mime” with Jocey Coffman

In this episode, the Goods from the Woods Boys are joined by Iowa's favorite daughter, the absolutely delightful comedian and writer, Jocey Coffman! We talk a bit about Iowa, a bit about the Budweiser Bowl, and a bit about government buildings that look like dicks. Then, we launch into one of the craziest things we've ever heard on this podcast: Jocey shares her story about being a recovering MIME! We talk about the ins-and-outs of the artform, including the fact that, apparently, former mimes run Hollywood in the way that former Skull & Bones members run the halls of power in Washington D.C. This episode is absolutely wild and you're gonna love it! Follow Jocey on Twitter @JoceyDotCom.  Song of the week this week: "If Jesus Drove A Motor Home" by Jim White.  You can follow us on Twitter: @TheGoodsPod  Rivers is @RiversLangley  Dr. Pat is @PM_Reilly Mr. Goodnight is @SepulvedaCowboy  Pick up a Goods from the Woods t-shirt at: http://prowrestlingtees.com/TheGoodsPod

The Gist - Stephen Dubner’s Genre-Busting Game Show

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know is a new podcast game show from Stephen Dubner, the journalist behind Freakonomics. While radio quiz games are nothing new (in fact, Mike has hosted one himself), Dubner wants to do something different with this program, where experts have to engage with people from a field they are totally unfamiliar with. TMSIDK debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes podcast chart earlier this month. 

For the Spiel, Donald Trump’s distraction game.   

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CrowdScience - The Origin of Viruses

Where did the first viruses come from? They have the potential to wipe out life on Earth. But could life on Earth itself have evolved from the first viruses? Like the chicken and the egg, there are fierce arguments about which came first and rival scientists get quite cross about it all.

We take a dip into the primordial soup of creation and try to answer listener Ian's excellent question. Along the way, we revisit medieval plagues, travel to Texas to the largest urban bat colony in the world and take a walk through the dense mosquito-infested Ugandan forest that gave its name to the Zika virus.

Plus, we reveal how a virus is responsible for the placenta. No virus, no placenta; no placenta, no humans?

Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.uk

This programme has been edited since broadcast to remove a brief reference to ‘bubonic plague’ being included in a list of viral diseases.

(Photo: HIV viruses attacking a Cell. Credit: ThinkStock)

Start the Week - AIDS Activism and Surviving a Plague

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe looks at what happens during a health epidemic and its aftermath.

The US activist Peter Staley was instrumental in forcing scientists and pharmaceutical companies to develop life-saving HIV/AIDs drugs. Thirty years later and with drugs now readily available, the concern is that the rate of new cases of HIV remains constant.

Professor Anne Johnson was involved in the biggest-ever-official investigation of Britain's sexual habits, which was vetoed at the time by Margaret Thatcher. She says continuing to understand people's attitudes and behaviour is vital to the nation's health.

More than eleven thousand people died during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. When the crisis hit its peak in 2014 there were no effective drugs and Professor Peter Horby was one of a team of scientists who conducted a drugs trial in the midst of the epidemic. He explains how what they discovered can be used for future health scares.

The author Louise Welsh is completing a trilogy of novels in which a killer disease has devastated the world. She explains why plague literature has proved so popular and enduring.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Photo: ACT UP activists at the International AIDS Conference in San Francisco, 1990 Credit: Rick Gerharter.

Serious Inquiries Only - AS297: Are the PC Police Out to Get Us?

In today’s episode I talk about several very striking examples of misleading headlines that have been created and shared in furtherance of the narrative that the PC police are ruining our lives. When I investigated these news stories though, I found that the truth was somewhat more complex and in many cases the stories were … Continue reading AS297: Are the PC Police Out to Get Us? →

The post AS297: Are the PC Police Out to Get Us? appeared first on Atheistically Speaking.