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>

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