If you could talk to an animal, what would you say? Well, we sat down for a beer with Professor Rob Magrath, who kinda actually can talk back to birds! Listen to find out more!

From tales of historical idiocracy and scientific genius to weird and wacky cultural phenomena, Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant are here to take you on a wild conversational journey, deep diving into the crevices of science, history and culture that you never knew existed. 

From tales of historical idiocracy and scientific genius to weird and wacky cultural phenomena, Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant are here to take you on a wild conversational journey, deep diving into the crevices of science, history and culture that you never knew existed.

Bizarre science history from academics with beers

A Little Bit Of Science

If you could talk to an animal, what would you sa…

Can You Actually Kinda Speak Bird? A Beer With Ornithologist Professor Rob Magrath

Deepfake scammers are now running full Zoom meetings, birds are lining their nests with cigarette butts like it’s a homewares trend, and Europe’s climate could be one ocean current wobble away from doing something dramatic. This week, Will and Rod bounce between AI crime, urban wildlife hacks, climate tipping points, and a fruit fly brain getting uploaded like it’s just another file transfer.

We start in Hong Kong, where scammers used AI deepfakes to impersonate colleagues on a video call and convinced a CFO to transfer a huge amount of money. We then headed outside, where birds have started collecting cigarette butts for their nests.

From there, we get serious with the ocean currents that help keep Europe mild, and why scientists are worried about what happens if that system collapses. And because the future refuses to wait its turn, we also look at a fruit fly brain mapped neuron by neuron and uploaded into a virtual simulation, plus a quick detour into hats as status symbols and tools of punishment.

 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 AI Zoom Scam

01:31 Show Intro and Lineup

03:02 Pipe Smoking Animal Tales

06:28 Birds Using Cigarette Butts

08:32 Nicotine as Parasite Control

11:20 School Smoking and Odd Uses

15:29 AMOC Climate Tipping Point

19:33 Uploading Brains Fruit Fly Model

23:50 Connectome Driven Fly

24:47 Virtual Embodiment Claims

25:20 Scaling Up To Mouse

26:48 Hybrid Bio Machine Futures

28:13 Hat History Detour

30:27 Hats As Social Signals

 

SOURCES:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/15/critical-atlantic-current-significantly-more-likely-to-collapse-than-thought
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/04/asia/deepfake-cfo-scam-hong-kong-intl-hnk?_bhlid=3bc010593bc73c17aa86ed0b6e79b5ae720c787f
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/BE4E11BFE7F8CCF5A5A7081869710925/S0018246X26101460a.pdf/the-cultural-social-and-ideological-role-of-the-hat-in-early-modern-england.pdf
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/ay/d5ay01801c
https://futurism.com/science-energy/birds-cigarettes-nest
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347226000011
https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jav.01324
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024BiInv..26.1705P/abstract
https://futurism.com/science-energy/research-fly-brain-matrix
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07763-9
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39533006/

Deepfake scammers are now running full Zoom meetings, birds are lining their nests with cigarette butts like it&rsquo;s a homewares trend, and Europe&rsquo;s climate could be one ocean current wobble away from doing something dramatic. This week, Will and Rod bounce between AI crime, urban wildlife hacks, climate tipping points, and a fruit fly brain getting uploaded like it&rsquo;s just another file transfer.
We start in Hong Kong, where scammers used AI deepfakes to impersonate colleagues on a video call and convinced a CFO to transfer a huge amount of money. We then headed outside, where birds have started collecting cigarette butts for their nests.
From there, we get serious with the ocean currents that help keep Europe mild, and why scientists are worried about what happens if that system collapses. And because the future refuses to wait its turn, we also look at a fruit fly brain mapped neuron by neuron and uploaded into a virtual simulation, plus a quick detour into hats as status symbols and tools of punishment.
&nbsp;
CHAPTERS:
00:00 AI Zoom Scam
01:31 Show Intro and Lineup
03:02 Pipe Smoking Animal Tales
06:28 Birds Using Cigarette Butts
08:32 Nicotine as Parasite Control
11:20 School Smoking and Odd Uses
15:29 AMOC Climate Tipping Point
19:33 Uploading Brains Fruit Fly Model
23:50 Connectome Driven Fly
24:47 Virtual Embodiment Claims
25:20 Scaling Up To Mouse
26:48 Hybrid Bio Machine Futures
28:13 Hat History Detour
30:27 Hats As Social Signals
&nbsp;
SOURCES:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/15/critical-atlantic-current-significantly-more-likely-to-collapse-than-thought">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/15/critical-atlantic-current-significantly-more-likely-to-collapse-than-thought</a></li>
<li><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/04/asia/deepfake-cfo-scam-hong-kong-intl-hnk?_bhlid=3bc010593bc73c17aa86ed0b6e79b5ae720c787f">https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/04/asia/deepfake-cfo-scam-hong-kong-intl-hnk?_bhlid=3bc010593bc73c17aa86ed0b6e79b5ae720c787f</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/BE4E11BFE7F8CCF5A5A7081869710925/S0018246X26101460a.pdf/the-cultural-social-and-ideological-role-of-the-hat-in-early-modern-england.pdf">https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/BE4E11BFE7F8CCF5A5A7081869710925/S0018246X26101460a.pdf/the-cultural-social-and-ideological-role-of-the-hat-in-early-modern-england.pdf</a><a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-found-a-big-problem-with-how-we-measure-microplastics"></a></li>
<li><a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/ay/d5ay01801c">https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/ay/d5ay01801c</a></li>
<li><a href="https://futurism.com/science-energy/birds-cigarettes-nest">https://futurism.com/science-energy/birds-cigarettes-nest</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347226000011">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347226000011</a></li>
<li><a href="https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jav.01324">https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jav.01324</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024BiInv..26.1705P/abstract">https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024BiInv..26.1705P/abstract</a></li>
<li><a href="https://futurism.com/science-energy/research-fly-brain-matrix">https://futurism.com/science-energy/research-fly-brain-matrix</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07763-9">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07763-9</a></li>
<li><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39533006/">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39533006/</a></li>
</ul>

Bank-Swindling Deepfakes, Cigarette Butt Bird Nests, & Ocean Current Chaos

Cloning is getting more useful and more unsettling, tropical trees may be better at cooperation than we are, and smart underwear is now tracking human flatulence in extraordinary detail. This week, Will and Rod move from organ-growing biotech to forest teamwork, fart analytics, and a deeply worrying case of AI gone wrong.

They look at the push to grow organs using non-conscious biological structures, and why that could transform medicine while also sounding like the start of a sci-fi horror film. Then they head into the forest, where new research suggests tropical trees are better at helping their neighbours than trees in colder climates, raising some mildly awkward questions about whether plants are beating us at community building.

And because science never knows when to stop, the episode also dives into the world of smart underwear, digestive health, and what actually counts as a normal amount of flatulence. Along the way, there is also a sobering look at a Tennessee grandmother wrongly jailed after faulty facial recognition, which is a useful reminder that technology can be both brilliant and deeply stupid.

 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Cloning Nightmares Recap

01:45 Monkey Organ Sacks Idea

04:34 Human Organ Replacement Debate

07:45 How It Could Work

08:57 Surrogates And Storage Problems

12:39 Trees That Get Along

15:45 Why Tropical Trees Are Friendlier

17:25 Not All Prodigies Win

19:47 Late Bloomers And Training Myths

24:10 German Forest Bathing Tease

24:52 Forest Sounds Boost Mood

25:35 Massage Stories Detour

27:58 Local vs Tropical Forests

30:14 Fart Science Gets Serious

34:37 Smart Underwear Study

36:55 Farting Baselines Explained

39:19 Farter Types Atlas

43:00 AI Facial Recognition Fail

46:53 Why AI Enhancement Lies

49:13 Wrap Up and Callouts

 

SOURCES:

https://futurism.com/health-medicine/startup-pitching-cloned-human-bodies

https://www.wired.com/story/a-billionaire-backed-startup-wants-to-grow-organ-sacks-to-replace-animal-testing/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935844-200-the-human-flatus-atlas-plans-to-measure-the-explosivity-of-farts/

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1115965

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590137025001268?via%3Dihub

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2509261-high-achieving-adults-rarely-began-as-child-prodigies/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-023-01840-1

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-grandmother-jail-mistake

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123556

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123008

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123312

Cloning is getting more useful and more unsettling, tropical trees may be better at cooperation than we are, and smart underwear is now tracking human flatulence in extraordinary detail. This week, Will and Rod move from organ-growing biotech to forest teamwork, fart analytics, and a deeply worrying case of AI gone wrong.
They look at the push to grow organs using non-conscious biological structures, and why that could transform medicine while also sounding like the start of a sci-fi horror film. Then they head into the forest, where new research suggests tropical trees are better at helping their neighbours than trees in colder climates, raising some mildly awkward questions about whether plants are beating us at community building.
And because science never knows when to stop, the episode also dives into the world of smart underwear, digestive health, and what actually counts as a normal amount of flatulence. Along the way, there is also a sobering look at a Tennessee grandmother wrongly jailed after faulty facial recognition, which is a useful reminder that technology can be both brilliant and deeply stupid.
&nbsp;
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Cloning Nightmares Recap
01:45 Monkey Organ Sacks Idea
04:34 Human Organ Replacement Debate
07:45 How It Could Work
08:57 Surrogates And Storage Problems
12:39 Trees That Get Along
15:45 Why Tropical Trees Are Friendlier
17:25 Not All Prodigies Win
19:47 Late Bloomers And Training Myths
24:10 German Forest Bathing Tease
24:52 Forest Sounds Boost Mood
25:35 Massage Stories Detour
27:58 Local vs Tropical Forests
30:14 Fart Science Gets Serious
34:37 Smart Underwear Study
36:55 Farting Baselines Explained
39:19 Farter Types Atlas
43:00 AI Facial Recognition Fail
46:53 Why AI Enhancement Lies
49:13 Wrap Up and Callouts
&nbsp;
SOURCES:
<a href="https://futurism.com/health-medicine/startup-pitching-cloned-human-bodies">https://futurism.com/health-medicine/startup-pitching-cloned-human-bodies</a>
<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/a-billionaire-backed-startup-wants-to-grow-organ-sacks-to-replace-animal-testing/">https://www.wired.com/story/a-billionaire-backed-startup-wants-to-grow-organ-sacks-to-replace-animal-testing/</a>
<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935844-200-the-human-flatus-atlas-plans-to-measure-the-explosivity-of-farts/">https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935844-200-the-human-flatus-atlas-plans-to-measure-the-explosivity-of-farts/</a>
<a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1115965">https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1115965</a>
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590137025001268?via%3Dihub">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590137025001268?via%3Dihub</a>
<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2509261-high-achieving-adults-rarely-began-as-child-prodigies/">https://www.newscientist.com/article/2509261-high-achieving-adults-rarely-began-as-child-prodigies/</a>
<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-023-01840-1">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-023-01840-1</a>
<a href="https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-grandmother-jail-mistake">https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-grandmother-jail-mistake</a>
<a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123556">https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123556</a>
<a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123008" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123008&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776239210296000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0TI7QWG9oUIKYRtAqwvqNj">https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123008</a>
<a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123312" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123312&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776239210296000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1FLQYLt5vroduSabYUa9gC">https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123312</a>

Organ-Growing Meat Sacks, Fart-Measuring Underwear, and Tropical Tree Friendships

A parrot in New Zealand makes conservation work wildly uncomfortable, scientists cloned mice until the whole thing started breaking down, and someone has now successfully trucked anti matter across Europe. This week, we bounce between endangered parrots, biological copy and paste and the least relaxing delivery job on Earth, which is a fairly strong effort even by science standards.

We start in New Zealand, where Sirocco, a critically endangered kakapo with famously misdirected romantic instincts, helped inspire one of conservation’s strangest inventions. Scientists designed a special helmet in the hope of collecting semen for breeding efforts, after Sirocco kept directing his attention toward human heads instead of other birds. Then we head to Japan, where researchers spent twenty years cloning mice across 58 generations before the whole line began to collapse, with mutations building up and the clones dying early. After that, we hit the road in Europe, where a trucker successfully transported a tiny cloud of anti matter, proving that one of the rarest and most volatile substances in the universe can now apparently survive a delivery run.

Finally, we end up in Scotland, where a robotic dog with an electronic nose is being used to sniff out ethanol leaks in whisky warehouses. It sounds ridiculous, because it is, but it is also a clever way to protect barrels and cut waste in one of the world’s oldest industries. 

 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

02:17 Kakapo Basics

03:59 Lek Breeding Explained

05:24 Sirocco Imprints on Humans

07:30 The Helmet Experiment

12:06 Infinite Cloning Idea

14:17 58 Generations Later

15:40 Why Clones Degrade

17:16 80s Cloning Logic

18:11 Antimatter Trucking Breakthrough

19:23 What Antimatter Really Is

20:35 Making and Measuring Antiprotons

23:11 Fridge Trap on the Road

26:16 Whisky Aging and Angels Share

28:30 Warehouse Leak Detection Problem

31:20 Robot Dog Barrel Sniffer

33:10 Spider Robots and Drones Next

34:52 Wrap Up and Listener Feedback





SOURCES:

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/sirocco-kakapo-ejaculation-helmet 

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/kakapo-parrot 

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/what-heck-lek-quirkiest-mating-party-earth 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlk9u8MIv7o 

https://futurism.com/science-energy/scientists-cloned-recloned-mouse 

https://www.wired.com/story/meet-scotlands-whisky-sniffing-robot-dog/ 

https://home.cern/news/press-release/experiments/base-experiment-cern-succeeds-transporting-antimatter 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69765-7 

A parrot in New Zealand makes conservation work wildly uncomfortable, scientists cloned mice until the whole thing started breaking down, and someone has now successfully trucked anti matter across Europe. This week, we bounce between endangered parrots, biological copy and paste and the least relaxing delivery job on Earth, which is a fairly strong effort even by science standards.
We start in New Zealand, where Sirocco, a critically endangered kakapo with famously misdirected romantic instincts, helped inspire one of conservation&rsquo;s strangest inventions. Scientists designed a special helmet in the hope of collecting semen for breeding efforts, after Sirocco kept directing his attention toward human heads instead of other birds. Then we head to Japan, where researchers spent twenty years cloning mice across 58 generations before the whole line began to collapse, with mutations building up and the clones dying early. After that, we hit the road in Europe, where a trucker successfully transported a tiny cloud of anti matter, proving that one of the rarest and most volatile substances in the universe can now apparently survive a delivery run.
Finally, we end up in Scotland, where a robotic dog with an electronic nose is being used to sniff out ethanol leaks in whisky warehouses. It sounds ridiculous, because it is, but it is also a clever way to protect barrels and cut waste in one of the world&rsquo;s oldest industries.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction
02:17 Kakapo Basics
03:59 Lek Breeding Explained
05:24 Sirocco Imprints on Humans
07:30 The Helmet Experiment
12:06 Infinite Cloning Idea
14:17 58 Generations Later
15:40 Why Clones Degrade
17:16 80s Cloning Logic
18:11 Antimatter Trucking Breakthrough
19:23 What Antimatter Really Is
20:35 Making and Measuring Antiprotons
23:11 Fridge Trap on the Road
26:16 Whisky Aging and Angels Share
28:30 Warehouse Leak Detection Problem
31:20 Robot Dog Barrel Sniffer
33:10 Spider Robots and Drones Next
34:52 Wrap Up and Listener Feedback
 
SOURCES:
<a href="https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/sirocco-kakapo-ejaculation-helmet">https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/sirocco-kakapo-ejaculation-helmet</a>&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/kakapo-parrot">https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/kakapo-parrot</a>&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.audubon.org/magazine/what-heck-lek-quirkiest-mating-party-earth">https://www.audubon.org/magazine/what-heck-lek-quirkiest-mating-party-earth</a>&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlk9u8MIv7o">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlk9u8MIv7o</a>&nbsp;
<a href="https://futurism.com/science-energy/scientists-cloned-recloned-mouse">https://futurism.com/science-energy/scientists-cloned-recloned-mouse</a>&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/meet-scotlands-whisky-sniffing-robot-dog/">https://www.wired.com/story/meet-scotlands-whisky-sniffing-robot-dog/</a>&nbsp;
<a href="https://home.cern/news/press-release/experiments/base-experiment-cern-succeeds-transporting-antimatter">https://home.cern/news/press-release/experiments/base-experiment-cern-succeeds-transporting-antimatter</a>&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69765-7">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69765-7</a>&nbsp;

Can You Actually Kinda Speak Bird? A Beer With Ornithologist Professor Rob Magrath

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