Since 2009 physicist and science popularizer Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince have hosted a show on BBC Radio 4 called The Infinite Monkey Cage. The show hosts a panel of three to four guests, a mix of scientists and comedians, with each episode focused on a specific topic. Together the experts and comedians provide an educational and humorous examination of relevant and current scientific ideas. Each episode runs for 30 minutes, with extended versions available online as podcasts.
Brian Cox is a particle physicist at the University of Manchester in the UK and a member of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. He is a popular publicizer of science, the author of several books, and the host of both radio and television shows for the BBC. One of these, Wonders of the Universe was well received in the US on the Science network. Robin Ince is an award-winning standup comedian who has written and acted on BBC television programs such as The 11 O’Clock Show and The Office.
Recently, Cox and Ince brought the show to the US to record four live episodes in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. I was happy to be able to catch their first US show at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts on 5 March. The topic for the show was “Science: A Force for Good or Evil." The scheduled guest panelists were physicist and educator Neil DeGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist Janna Levin, comedian Lisa Lampanelli, and actor Tim Daly.
The Infinite Monkey Cage panelists . From left to right: LIsa Lampanelli, Bill Nye, Robin Ince, Brian Cox, Jenna Levin, and Tim Daly. CREDIT: Greg Stasiewicz
Cox and Ince opened the show by announcing that Tyson wouldn’t be able to make it, but might Skype in later. Tyson had flown to Montana for an event and snow had delayed his trip back. Luckily, Bill Nye was attending the show, so they were able to turn his ticket into a guest appearance. Next, Cox and Ince gave an introduction the show and the topic, which was valuable to me since I had not yet listened to the show or podcast. Cox and Ince were both strongly influenced by Carl Sagan, and I admire their commitment to continuing his desire to share science with the general public.
They admitted early on that the question of whether science was a force for good or evil was rather silly. And while the topic was brought up occasionally for the rest of the evening, it was generally done so to state that few consider science, in the pure sense of learning more about the universe, to be evil.
The pair each took time to individually address the audience. Ince started off with a comedic take on why science and rational thought was important, and then turned the mic over to Cox, who described how physicists talk about the period between the Big Bang and cosmic inflation. After the show, my nonscientist friend who attended with me admitted that she didn’t completely understand Cox’s explanation. In talking through her follow-up questions, though, it was clear that she was able to build on Cox’s discussion sufficiently to ask the right questions. From there, I was able to provide her with a more detailed explanation.
After Cox’s talk, the rest of the panelists joined the conversation. The discussion ranged over several topics, focusing primarily on the public’s understanding of science—both directly relevant subjects, such as climate change, and more esoteric ones, such as the theories that underpin cosmology and particle physics. Like Nye, Cox and Ince are active members of the skeptical community, and they often delved into related areas of concern, such as homeopathy and antivaccination.
Cox and Ince did fairly well in addressing questions to Lisa Lampanelli and Tim Daly to elicit nonscientist opinions and questions about the subjects that came up. Unfortunately, Nye sometimes took over the conversation by interrupting to make a joke or to bring up some related—but irrelevant—idea. He also repeatedly announced that he was the current president of The Planetary Society, which I think he intended to be humorous, but which fell distinctly flat.
Janna Levin provided another solid voice on the scientific questions, offering clear explanations of complex ideas, and speaking engagingly. Daly and Lampanelli made a lot of valuable contributions about how science is presented in the media and in schools. In my opinion, Lampanelli’s brash humor style was more counterpoint than complement to the wry British humor of the hosts. Daly’s experience playing astronaut Jim Lovell in the television miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, and his chance to meet Lovell and other astronauts and NASA employees, made him an excellent resource for understanding how public perception of science has changed since the Apollo era.
Towards the end of the show, Cox and Ince answered questions posed by fans on Twitter, supposedly from folks who were at the show. They also remembered about Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and in either a wonderful coincidence, or a well-timed cue via headpiece, they opened up their laptop just as he was Skyping in. They were able to project onto a large screen behind the panelist’s table and they even turned the laptop camera around so that he could see the audience. Amusingly, he was sitting in the plane at LaGuardia while everyone else disembarked around him.
On the whole, the show was quite entertaining. Since going to the live recording—the show is expected to air in June—I’ve listened to several podcasts and have found them to be all very good. My friend felt that the quality of the humor and of the discussion is better in the podcasts than in the live show, and suggested that this might be due to editorial tightening in post-production.
If you’re interested in funny and educational podcasts on a variety of science related topics, The Infinite Monkey Cage is certainly worth investigating.
Greg Stasiewicz is Physics Today’s senior website production assistant. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from North Carolina State University.
