The Infinite Monkey Cage BBC Podcasts

Astronauts and explorers including Brian Blessed, Sir Patrick Stewart, Nicole Stott and Charlie Duke, reveal the wonders, and challenges, of traveling into space.

Brian Cox and Robin Ince have delved into the Monkey Cage back catalogue to hear from astronauts and some very well known would-be space explorers, about their passion for space travel. Brian Blessed has been dreaming of visiting Mars since the age of six, but will he ever reach the red planet? Sir Patrick Stewart has warp sped across the galaxy as Captain Picard, but has it ignited a real yearning to explore the final frontier? NASA’s Nicole Stott explains her feeling of awe when she first saw the earth as a little blue dot and Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke talks about breaking a high jump record during the ‘moon Olympics’ and why mission control were less than amused.

Episodes featured:
Series 8: Space Tourism
Series 7: Space Exploration
Series 24: Astronauts
Series 16: Astronaut special
Series 22: An Astronaut’s Guide to Isolation

New episodes will be released on Wednesdays, but if you’re in the UK, listen to new episodes, a week early, first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF

Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

How important is it for movie producers to get the science right? Brian Cox and Robin Ince discover why some surprising movies have scientific advisers and ask if there is any science in The Simpsons? They question the existence of fictional wormholes, while comedian Ross Noble can’t believe there may actually be a space time portal shaped like a pair of trousers. Some writers are even accurate by accident, as comic book author Alan Moore discovers when he tells Brian about one of his outlandish planetary plotlines… only to hear it obeys all the laws of physics. And Sir Patrick Stewart wows the panel with a little piece of plastic, but everyone agrees this Star Trek communicator is the stuff of legend.

Episodes featured:
Series 12: The Infinite Monkey Cage USA Tour: Los Angeles
Series 12: Christmas Special
Series 22: Black Holes
Series 2: Science Fiction Science Fact
Series 7: Space Exploration

New episodes will be released on Wednesdays, but if you’re in the UK, listen to new episodes, a week early, first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF

Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince take a deep dive into the Monkey Cage archive to find out how scared scientists and comedians are about the universe ending. Steve Martin says he’s happy to burn to a crisp when the sun explodes, but learns he might be more likely to die when galaxies tear each other apart during the ‘big rip’. And if the heat death of the universe really is inevitable, how come some people seem so jolly about it? Having studied this for years, astrophysicist Katie Mack wants to be there when everything ends, prompting Eric Idle to again speculate on the meaning of life.

New episodes will be released on Wednesdays, but if you’re in the UK, listen to new episodes, a week early, first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF

Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince trawl through the Monkey Cage back catalogue to reveal whether science and the supernatural can sit side by side. They hear how comedian Lucy Beaumont believes alien life has visited Hull, and challenge the physics and psychology of ghosts with Prof Richard Wiseman. Has our brain evolved to conjure up ghostly apparitions and demonic forces? Is there real science behind some of our most common paranormal experiences? And they unpick the practical difficulties for Santa delivering gifts, discovering that quantum physics could just make it possible.

New episodes will be released on Wednesdays, but if you’re in the UK, listen to new episodes, a week early, first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF

Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince introduce a new series in which they look back at some of the best moments from more than 27 series of their hit science show.

Brian Cox and Robin Ince find out about dust that is raining down on Earth from space. They are joined by planetary scientists Matthew Genge and Penny Wozniakiewicz and comedian Alan Davies. They learn how billions of tiny micrometeorites land on the surface of the Earth every year, hidden amongst pollution particles and household dust. Where does cosmic dust come from and what can it tell us about the birth of the solar system?

New episodes are released on Saturdays. If you're in the UK, listen to the full series first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF

Producer: Caroline Steel
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem