Let's Get (Astro)Physical with Katie Mack!
The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
The Universe had a beginning, and it will have an end. Modern cosmology — the study of the nature and evolution of the cosmos itself — has allowed physicists to explain the history of the Universe from the first tiny fraction of a second until today. But what’s next? We now have the tools to extend our knowledge into the distant future and speculate about the ultimate fate of all reality.
ALSO: I mean, it's KATIE MACK! Squeeeee
Music for the Event is provided by our favs: Charming Disaster! Appropriately, the song will be "Days are Numbered"
Ed Yong SHOULD need NO introduction--but just in case: he is a Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer on the staff of The Atlantic, where he also won the George Polk Award for science reporting, among other honors. His first book, I Contain Multitudes, was a New York Times bestseller. We are SO grateful to have him with us!
In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.
MUSIC! By Charming Disaster, bringing us "Forces of Nature!"
***NOTE: This show is available as a livestream for subscribers. AFTER the live show, it will be free to view on YouTube. If you are not subscribed, but would like to join the live-stream and chat with the author, please visit our Patreon page
Join us for THE EVENING HERO--a PBC fiction book choice!
We don't do much fiction, but sometimes there is a story that begs to be read. This one is a medical humanities style tale; Marie Myung-OK Lee writes a sweeping, lyrical novel following a Korean immigrant pursuing the American dream who must confront the secrets of the past or risk watching the world he’s worked so hard to build come crumbling down.
Dr. Yungman Kwak is in the twilight of his life. Every day for the last fifty years, he has brushed his teeth, slipped on his shoes, and headed to Horse Breath’s General Hospital, where, as an obstetrician, he treats the women and babies of the small rural Minnesota town he chose to call home. He immigrated from Korea after the Korean War, forced to leave his family, ancestors, village, and all that he knew behind. But his life is built on a lie. And one day, a letter arrives that threatens to expose it.
He begins to question the very assumptions on which his life is built—the so-called American dream, with the abject failure of its healthcare system, patient and neighbors who perpetuate racism, a town flawed with infrastructure, and a history that doesn’t see him in it.
Toggling between the past and the present, Korea and America, Evening Hero is a sweeping, moving, darkly comic novel about a man looking back at his life and asking big questions about what is lost and what is gained when immigrants leave home for new shores.
MUSIC: The lovely and talented SUSAN HWANG returns! susanhwanglalala.com/
No, it's not a new Batman Villain! But you will love The Puzzler anyway!
The New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically goes on a rollicking journey to understand the enduring power of puzzles: why we love them, what they do to our brains, and how they can improve our world.
What makes puzzles—jigsaws, mazes, riddles, sudokus—so satisfying? Be it the formation of new cerebral pathways, their close link to insight and humor, or their community-building properties, they’re among the fundamental elements that make us human. Convinced that puzzles have made him a better person, A. J. Jacobs—four-time New York Times bestselling author, master of immersion journalism, and nightly crossworder—set out to determine their myriad benefits. And maybe, in the process, solve the puzzle of our very existence. Well, almost.
MUSIC: This show will feature guests THE MARY LOUS! Spooky, Ukey, Sometimes Kooky RiotGhoooul from Nowhere, New Jersey. themarylous.bandcamp.com/
***NOTE: This show is available as a livestream for subscribers. AFTER the live show, it will be free to view on YouTube. If you are not subscribed, but would like to join the live-stream and chat with the author, please visit our Patreon page
Trek Your Way to Saving Yellowstone!
Each year nearly four million people visit #Yellowstone National Park—one of the most popular of all national parks—but few know the fascinating and complex historical context in which it was established. In late July 1871, the geologist-explorer Ferdinand Hayden led a team of scientists through a narrow canyon into Yellowstone Basin, entering one of the last unmapped places in the country. The survey’s discoveries led to the passage of the Yellowstone Act in 1872, which created the first national park in the world.
Now, bestselling author Megan Kate Nelson examines the larger context of this #American moment, illuminating Hayden’s survey as a #national project meant to give Americans a sense of achievement and unity in the wake of a destructive civil war. Saving Yellowstone follows Hayden and two other protagonists in pursuit of their own agendas: Sitting Bull, a #Lakota leader who asserted his peoples’ claim to their homelands, and financier Jay Cooke, who wanted to secure his national reputation by building the Northern Pacific Railroad through the Great Northwest. Hayden, Cooke, and Sitting Bull staked their claims to Yellowstone at a critical moment in Reconstruction, when the Ulysses S. Grant Administration and the 42nd Congress were testing the reach and the purpose of federal power across the nation.
MUSIC: The zany CORD RAVENSWOOD (Our Peculiar in the Field) joins us for a nice little song about YELLOWSTONE
Hauling like a Brooligan with Stephen Gallagher!
Maybe you're a fan of DOCTOR WHO. Or perhaps you were a fan of ELEVENTH HOUR with Patrick Stewart (Or Silent Witness. Or Rosemary and Thyme. Or Murder Rooms.) Perhaps thrillers are more your thing, books like KINGDOM OF BONES or BEDLAM DETECTIVE--or scifil, supernatural, graphic novels. Then YOU, my friend, are a fan of STEPHEN GALLAGHER!
A novelist, screenwriter, and director with a list of books that runs right off the shelf, Stephen is also patient, kind, giving, and supportive of new writers everywhere. He is ALSO going to be on our show to talk about... well. All the things? DO NOT MISS!
"This is the end! Making a public spectacle of yourselves. I couldn't have believed you could have behaved like this, either of you. Just hauling like brooligans." Genevieve, film, 1953
MUSIC provided by the marvelous CHARMING DISASTER! Don't miss "Hellebore" (from their newest endeavor, Super Natural History!)
Catch The Memory Thief with Lauren Aguirre!
Could you lose your entire memory overnight? If so--what does it mean for the rest of us? The day neurologist Jed Barash sees the baffling brain scan of a young patient with devastating amnesia marks the beginning of a quest to answer those questions. First detected in a cluster of stigmatized opioid overdose victims in Massachusetts with severe damage to the hippocampus - the brain’s memory center - this rare syndrome reveals how the tragic plight of the unfortunate few can open the door to advances in medical science.
After overcoming initial skepticism that investigating the syndrome is worth the effort - and that fentanyl is the likely culprit - Barash and a growing team of dedicated doctors explore the threat that people who take opioids chronically as prescribed to treat severe pain may gradually put their memories at risk. At the same time, they begin to grasp the potential for this syndrome to shed light on the most elusive memory thief of all - Alzheimer’s disease.
Through the prism of this fascinating story, Aguirre goes on to examine how researchers tease out the fundamental nature of memory and the many mysteries still to be solved. Where do memories live? Why do we forget most of what happens in a day but remember some events with stunning clarity years later? How real are our memories? And what purpose do they actually serve?
MUSIC: That's right, all this memory talk means CHARMING DISASTER's "Disembodied Head" is coming your way!
Be Peculiar with Riva Lehrer, the Artist behind GOLEM GIRL!
What do we sacrifice in the pursuit of #normalcy? And what becomes possible when we embrace monstrosity? Can we envision a world that sees impossible creatures?
Lehrer was born with spina bifida, essentially a hole in the spine. In spina bifida patients, the spine does not fuse properly, leaving a fissure or lesion, creating an easy entry point for infections that risk going directly to the patient’s brain. Riva's parents and doctors were determined to “fix” her, sending the message over and over again that she is "broken." That she will never have a job, a romantic relationship, or an independent life. Enduring countless medical interventions, Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured.
Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of #artists, writers, and performers who are building Disability Culture. Their work is daring, edgy, funny, and dark—it rejects tropes that define disabled people as pathetic, frightening, or worthless. They insist that disability is an opportunity for creativity and #resistance. Emboldened, Riva asks if she can paint their portraits—inventing an intimate and collaborative process that will transform the way she sees herself, others, and the world. Each portrait story begins to transform the myths she’s been told her whole life about her body, her sexuality, and other measures of normal.
This is the vividly told, gloriously illustrated memoir of an artist born with #disabilities who searches for freedom and connection in a society afraid of strange bodies
MUSIC: Charming Disaster presents us with a single--
"Ouroboros" - alchemy, transformation, metamorphosis! Don't miss out!
Go Back to the FUTURE (of life on Earth) with Rob Dunn!
What if the world went on without us? Guess what. It will.
A leading# ecologist argues that if humankind is to survive on a fragile planet, we must understand and obey its iron laws
Our species has amassed unprecedented knowledge of #nature, which we have tried to use to seize control of life and bend the planet to our will. In A Natural History of the Future, biologist Rob Dunn argues that such efforts are futile. We may see ourselves as life’s overlords, but we are instead at its mercy. In the evolution of antibiotic resistance, the power of natural selection to create biodiversity, and even the surprising life of the London Underground, Dunn finds laws of life that no human activity can annul. When we create artificial islands of crops, dump toxic waste, or build communities, we provide new materials for old laws to shape. Life’s future flourishing is not in question. *Ours is.*
MUSIC: Join us for the music of EKKO ASTRAL, the D.C.-based pioneers of “mascara moshpit” music – a pummeling puree of garage princess post-punk.
ekkoastral.bandcamp.com/
***NOTE: This show is available as a livestream for subscribers. AFTER the live show, it will be free to view on YouTube. If you are not subscribed, but would like to join the live-stream and chat with the author, please visit our Patreon page.
Find your THRILL with Alex Grecian and Reb Rabbit!
COMING SOON! That's right, it's so new we can't even tell you about it--but this book is spine-tingling good! (More to come with cover reveal). Join us for the LAUNCH of RED RABBIT!
Alex Grecian is the New York Times bestselling author of The Yard and its sequels The Black Country, The Devil’s Workshop, The Harvest Man, and Lost and Gone Forever, as well as the contemporary thriller The Saint of Wolves and Butchers, and the ebook The Blue Girl. He has also written multiple award-winning graphic novels, including Proof, and Rasputin.
MUSICAL GUEST: The Mary Lous! Ukey, Sometimes Kooky RiotGhoooul from Nowhere, New Jersey.
themarylous.bandcamp.com/merch
"What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that―the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my lap-top?" In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die.
MUSICAL GUEST: the marvelous Susan Hwang!
***NOTE: This show is available as a livestream for subscribers. AFTER the live show, it will be free to view on YouTube. If you are not subscribed, but would like to join the live-stream and chat with the author, please visit our Patreon page
Get SHOCKED and AMAZED for HALLOWEEN!
It's our annual HALLOWEEN show! Costume contest (see our FB for how to sign up and vote), give-aways, candy, prizes, game--and how about some circus performance? SURE! A kooky evening of music and mayhem, with guests Charming Disaster and Sarah Mack (squid facts!) Don't miss it!
James Taylor is the planet’s foremost authority on sideshow. You saw James Taylorand SHOCKED AND AMAZED! on The Learning Channel’s “Sideshow: Alive on the Inside,” “The Jerry Springer Show,” “Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel,” and Fox Television’s “Fox Files.” Sword swallowers, fire eaters, regurgitators, human pin cushions, torture kings, contortionists and motordrome riders look to James Taylor’s SHOCKED AND AMAZED!
With him on this FABULOUS evening is sword-swallowing wonder The Lady Aye (who has been on our show before with her book THE RED MENACE!)
MUSIC:
IT WOULD NOT BE HALLOWEEN WITHOUT CHARMING DISASTER, WOULD IT? No. It would not. So a new and exciting song by our favorite duo "Time Machine!"
AROUSE yourself with Randi Hutter Epstein and the history of HORMONES
How about a guided tour through the strange science of hormones and the age-old quest to control them?
Metabolism, behavior, sleep, mood swings, the immune system, fighting, fleeing, puberty, and sex: these are just a few of the things our bodies control with hormones. Armed with a healthy dose of wit and curiosity, medical journalist Randi Hutter Epstein takes us on a journey through the unusual history of these potent chemicals from a basement filled with jarred nineteenth-century brains to a twenty-first-century hormone clinic in Los Angeles.
Brimming with fascinating anecdotes, illuminating new medical research, and humorous details, Aroused introduces the leading scientists who made life-changing discoveries about the #hormone imbalances that ail us, as well as the charlatans who used those discoveries to peddle false remedies. Epstein exposes the humanity at the heart of hormone science with her rich cast of characters, including a 1920s doctor promoting vasectomies as a way to boost libido, a female medical student who discovered a pregnancy hormone in the 1940s, and a mother who collected pituitaries, a brain gland, from cadavers as a source of growth hormone to treat her son. Along the way, Epstein explores the functions of hormones such as leptin, oxytocin, #estrogen, and #testosterone, demystifying the science of endocrinology.
A fascinating look at the history and science of some of medicine’s most important discoveries, Aroused reveals the shocking history of hormones through the back rooms, basements, and labs where endocrinology began.
Musical Guest: Mya Adriene Byrne is an American singer-songwriter falling mostly in the Americana vein, a combination of folk, blues and country music. Out and proud, she is a leader for the presence of queer #trans women in country and Americana, and is one of the first two trans artists to play AmericanaFest. Recently featured on Reba’s Top Ten remix of “I’m A Survivor” (on mandolin & lap steel), Byrne was named a 2022 Artist to Watch by Nashville Scene/CMT, and wrote and performed the theme song for Amazon Music’s Country Heat podcast hosted by Kelly Sutton. Her new single, “Autumn Sun”, is out now.
Wonder Woman? He-Man? Yes, please! An evening with Amanda Deibert!
We are THRILLED to have the multi-talented and best selling Amanda Deibert on our show! Author, screenwriter, and much more--AND her newest book, the daily guided gratitude journal, YOU ALREADY HAVE THE ANSWERS is currently available for pre-order. At PBC, we will be talking to Amanda about the world of comics and graphic novels!
Amanda’s comic book writing includes multiple DC Super Hero Girls graphic novels, a story in the New York Times I #1 Bestseller Love is Love, Serving Up Justice featuring Serena Williams and Wonder Woman, Flash Facts, Wonder Woman Agent of Peace, Teen Titans Go!, Wonder Woman ’77, Batman and Harley Quinn, DC’s The Doomed and the Damned, Wonderful Women of History, and Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman, for DC Comics, Hyperspace Stories for Lucas Film/Disney/Darkhorse comics and multiple stories in John Carpenter’s Tales for A Halloween Night volumes 2, 3, 4, 5 , & 6 for Storm King Comics, Red Sonja Black, White, Red for Dynamite, Work for a Million for McClelland & Stewart and more.
ANd because that isn't enough, her television work includes writing for the animated series He-Man and The Masters Of The Universe for Netflix as well as work for CBS, SyFy, OWN, PIVOT, HULU and 4 years as writer for former Vice President Al Gore’s international climate broadcast, 24 Hours of Reality. WOW~!
Musical Guest: The ever weird and wonderful CORD RAVENSWOOD, who happens to be a BIG FAN!