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“We all, to some extent, are scientists. I just do it for a living.” Dr. Michelle LaRue’s work has been covered internationally by hundreds of media outlets including BBC, NBC Nightly News, Wall Street Journal and National Geographic. As a research ecologist at the University of Minnesota, Dr. LaRue focuses on interdisciplinary tools to study spatial and population dynamics of penguins, seals, cougars and polar bears. She is also a science communicator who loves to work with young people and regularly engages on social media. In this episode of Regret Labs, Dr. LaRue talks about being a science communicator and what kind of expectations people have when they think about a “scientist.” She talks about ecology, climate, ecosystems, penguins and the relationship between intelligence and play. She also explains why Antarctica is gaining ice while the Arctic loses ice. And encourages listeners to tweet at her , @DrMichelleLaRue, with their questions on scientific accuracy in television commercials with the hashtag #ThisAdDumb. The post Dr Michelle LaRue on Science Communication | Regret Labs Episode: 8 appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

Photo by: Sarah Walker Aric and Levi are super excited to welcome in the new co-host of Regret Labs, Maggie Ryan Sandford. Maggie writes about science and researches how humans learn about science. Also, she has produced work for TV and radio and writes fiction. She was also the first guest of this here podcast! In this mini ep, the gang get’s to know a bit about Maggie’s science background and then quickly pivots into talking about science movies. Maggie explains the plot to a bizarre dolphin film, Aric reveals his love for science fiction romance and Levi wont shut up about Val Kilmer. Also, Maggie learns something new and the gang inevitably gets into a chat about gender. More on John C. Lilly More on Isolation Tanks The post Our New Co-host | Regret Labs: Mini Episode appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

Kenny Blumenfeld is a Senior Climatologist at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. He also works for Hennepin County Emergency Management, gives public scientific storytelling performances and helped make the documentary “The Story of Winter.” With Kenny’s help, Aric and Levi get at the complex scientific question, what is weather? Kenny explains why severe weather is so difficult to measure and categorize. He also talks about his most commonly asked weather questions, explains how hail really works and gets into the challenges of relying on anecdotal evidence when studying weather. Levi breaks out his Patch Adams impersonation, Aric tries to articulate the difference between cyclones and hurricanes and Kenny is incredibly patient through it all. The post Extreme Weather with Kenny Blumenfeld | Regret Labs: Episode 7 appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

Musician Adam Svec of the band Camp Dark joins Aric and Levi to teach them about pitch perception and hearing. They also get to the bottom of some deep truths about Ghostbusters 2 and learn what some medical cadavers are used for. Show Notes: Camp Dark‘s debut album is available now. Get it. TigerCIS, for examples of how cochclear implants sound. What Does It Mean to Sound Gay?, a podcast from Slate. Book Recommendations: An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing by Brian Moore The Sense of Hearing by Christopher Plack Fundamentals of Hearing: An Introduction by William Yost The post Pitch Perception | Regret Labs: Episode 6 appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

Levi and Aric return after seven some months of absense! They take and discuss a short science quiz from the Mirror UK and share details of the upcoming live Regret Lab show, which is part of the quickly approching NoisePicnic Podcast Festival held at the Phoenix Theater in Minneapolis! Get your tickets now! And list to the podcast, of course. The post Mirror MIR | Regret Labs: Mini Episode appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Undercooked Turkey Day, Regret Labs and food scientist Lainey Black take you through the wonderful world of foodborne illness and food poisoning. Learn all about why you shouldn’t eat sprouts, what kind of diarrhea E. coli 157 will give you, why everyone in on a cruise ship is getting the norovirus, how to summon the elder god of shiga toxin, and why none of the antics in Dumb and Dumber are considered food poisoning. Really, thought. Don’t eat sprouts. Listen to this Regret Labs podcast episode if you like. But even if you don’t, quit eating sprouts. And raw hamburgers. If you do listen, you get to hear the five different kinds of diarrhea foodborne illness can give you. If nothing else, this episode of Regret Labs will give you a severe case of the giggles. The post Foodborne Illness | Regret Labs: Episode 5 appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

With a few episodes under their belt, Levi and Aric take a look back at their podcast experiment and see how things are working so far. Fact retention, failure, success, confidence, and non sequiturs are your rewards for listening to this episode with your ears. The post State of the Podcast | Regret Labs: Mini Episode appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

Brad Hauser teaches us all about chemistry, metal-organic frameworks, and windowless white vans on this Regret Labs podcast episode. In fact, have you ever spent time wondering how black light posters work? Or glow in the dark stickers? Or why gold is such a good conductor of electricity? You can stop wondering! That, and how Grey Poupon is like electrons, are all discussed! Brad Hauser is on Twitter DrBradHauser. If you’d like to learn more about the roots of forensic chemistry, Brad suggests watching The Poisoner’s Handbook. As always, co-hosts Aric and Levi would love to hear what they got wrong. Twitter at us. Facebook around us. Email through us. Let them know where they went astray, because you know it happened. Or, you know, just them an “attaboy.” The post Chemistry | Regret Labs: Episode 4 appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

Scientific terms have very specific meanings, but are misused in everyday life. io9 put out a wonderful article titled 10 Scientific Ideas That Scientists Wish You Would Stop Misusing last month. Aric and Levi though they should try their hand at defining the terms in the article before reading it. If you’ve listened to Regret Labs podcast before, you already know how this will go. In the podcast, Aric and Levi love the snarky answers from Professor Dave Goldberg, dig up the atheist’s nightmare video, and try to find the scientific definition for “balloon party.” Listen, enjoy, share, and hopefully learn. The post Misused Scientific Words | Regret Labs: Mini Episode appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

Greg Laden stops by the Regret Labs podcast to teach Aric and Levi about climate change. The information is equal parts terrifying and enlightening, because (spoiler alert) things don’t look good. But also, we are not helpless in making changes to improve our situation. Denialism, controversy, skepticism, and handling Twitter fights are also covered in this episode. Should this podcast episode be controversial? No. The science of climate change is grounded in well researched and peer reviewed studies. There can be a knee jerk reaction when listening to or reading anything about climate change. Hopefully the well stated information that Greg Laden provides will open some eyes and get our listeners thinking about the issue differently. Greg Laden can be found on Twitter at @gregladen, on his Science Blogs blog, his The X Blog information clearinghouse, or on Facebook. And finally, action items for Regret Labs listeners! Tweet, Facebook, comment, or email your responses. What errors did Aric and Levi make between the information they got in the interview and the information they reiterated in their wrap-up? And also, when is the last time you felt dumb? And as always, keep asking question. The post Climate Change | Regret Labs: Episode 3 appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

On this less special (because now it’s a regular thing instead of a surprise) mini episode of the Regret Labs podcast, Aric and Levi take a Canadian 9th grade test on biological diversity and share their answers and frustrations with you. If you’d like to see how you did on the test, compared to Aric and Levi, you can take the same test at the EDQUEST Middle School Science website. And, after you’re done, here is the link to the answer key. What did Aric and Levi score? You’ll have to listen to find out. C’mon, it’s a podcast. You’re not coming here to read, are you? Put your mind where you mouth is and show us what you know about extinction, plants, and carrier pigeons. With a little luck, and the will to read through the muddy questions, you just might prove yourself smarter than Aric and Levi. In fact, they’d bet on it. The post 9th Grade Biological Diversity Test | Regret Labs: Mini Episode appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

In the second episode of the Regret Labs podcast, hosts Aric McKeown and Levi Weinhagen speak with Matt Kuzma about physics. And Back to the Future 3. But mostly about physics. Particles of light, the inverse square law, and what your eyes and ears do with the waves that interact with them are all gone over with a wide tooth comb. Books discussed in this episode: The Physics of Superheros by

On this special mini episode of the Regret Labs podcast, Aric and Levi take a 9th grade science test and share their results and failings with you. If you’d like to compare your results to theirs, you can take the same test at the Peel District School Board website. Beware, there are a few typos. But it should allow you to measure yourself fairly accurately against the regretful hosts of Regret Labs. Here are the answers that Aric got wrong: 1, 9, 11, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 44, 50, 52, 54, 64, 71, 72, 74, 75, 76, 77*, 79, 80, 85. This left Aric with 64% correct. Here are the answers that Levi got wrong: 1, 7, 8, 11, 15, 16, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 41, 44, 45, 46, 56, 59, 63, 66, 69, 71, 72, 74, 76, 77*, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84. This left Levi with 56% correct. Both Aric and Levi are in their 30s. *EDIT: Smart guy Fred Beukema informed us that question 77 is incorrect and we got the answers right. So we are SLIGHTLY less dumb. The post 9th Grade Science Test | Regret Labs: Mini Episode appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.

Welcome to the very first episode of the Regret Labs podcast. Hosted by comedians Aric McKeown and Levi Weinhagen, Regret Labs is about making up for past mistakes while being open to making new ones for the purpose of learning. Aric and Levi, with little to no expertise in the scientific topics they are exploring, brave the shallows of knowledge by asking the embarrassingly simple questions that they should have learned a long time ago. This episode, Aric and Levi are joined by Maggie Ryan Sandford to discuss science at its most fundamental level. Before they can explore more difficult topics like physics and biology, the basics of what science is and is not need to be established. Tides, dolphins, and how not to be a foley artist are also explored. Maggie Ryan Sandford’s writing can be found at MaggieRyanSandford.com and you can follow her Twitter @mandford. The post Science | Regret Labs: Episode 1 appeared first on NoisePicnic Podcast Network.