The Natural History Museum – a fine institution full of dusty, dead things. A bit like the House of Lords. Satire. But how do you get into the Museum’s collections? Win a raffle? The X Factor? Who knows? One man who hopes he does is Douglas Smi

Episode 49: Rights and Wrongs

Dec 5th, 2016 17m 2s

Things haven’t always been fair at Christmas. In the old days, before the Snapchat, some people didn’t get everything they wanted. Women. They haven’t always had it easy. But there are some who fight for their rights! And there’s no better time

Episode 48: Gibbon Half a Chance

Nov 4th, 2016 15m 33s

Ooh be do. I want to be like you. I want to walk like you, talk like you. Ooooh. Modelling yourself after successful people can have ups and downs. For every “being open to new ideas” there’s a “wake every morning at 4am”. If only King Louie un

Episode 47: Breaking the Mould

Oct 1st, 2016 19m 12s

Aaaaaaaachoo! Oof. Sorry about that. I really must stop rubbing my face with things I’m allergic to. Like cats. Of course scientists are doing their best to cure us of diseases – and to do this they like to stick things in our crevices. Get rea

Episode 46: Not Very PC

Sep 1st, 2016 14m 33s

The 1980s. Cool music, solid haircuts, adventurous films and neoliberalism. Everything a decade should be. And it was when the big, successful computer companies started their rise. And not only the successful ones. Join us to for a story of th

Episode 45: Bullet Time

Aug 1st, 2016 20m 53s

Guns. Dangerous things. Well, one end is. Really as long as you’re not standing in front of the little bit on the front you’ll be okay. They never point that out in gun statistics do they? What about all the people who were BEHIND the gun? Havi

Episode 44: Frank and Shine

Jul 1st, 2016 19m

Scientists. What are they like, eh? Not content with filling the world with “facts” and “ideas” they’re also very fond of weird experiments. One minute you’re waiting for the 49 bus, the next you’re being attacked by a murderous fog that’s esca

Episode 43: The Shamhattan Project

Jun 1st, 2016 20m 38s

BOOM! I love mushrooms. They’re a tasty and healthy alternative to meat. And they’re great fried in butter, like so many things in life. But what about mushroom clouds? They don’t taste so good in garlic and breadcrumbs. How about an adventure

Episode 42: Crimea River

May 1st, 2016 14m 16s

Pie charts. Not as fattening as the name suggests. They’ve been miscommunicating information for a long time now, and baffling people with their unnecessary 3D effects. Of course the reason we have them at all is down to the ‘lady with the lamp

Episode 41: Mystery Cubed

Apr 4th, 2016 22m 56s

Wait, 2 counter-clockwise turns off the upper-level should… No… 3 clockwise rotations of the left-most sector will… No. We all hate Rubik’s cubes. Hate them completely and utterly. More than life itself. But there are some total weirdos who do

Episode 40: Gone to Seed

Mar 6th, 2016 18m 5s

Have you ever had one of those friends? You know the type, will get you into trouble and then disappear when the going gets tough. Irish. Co-writer of the podcast you make. Named Brian. I think I may be giving you too much of a peek behind the

Episode 39: A Right Hook from the Back Office

Feb 4th, 2016 20m 37s

I bet you love all those expensive comic book super hero films, don’t you? I can tell by the pyjamas your you’re wearing. Well, have you ever wondered what it’s like for the people who help them? You can’t run a crime-fighting enterprise withou

Episode 38: The Marshun

Jan 2nd, 2016 16m 45s

Space. A big, empty void full of nothing. That’s what the AST writers have to contend with every month. So, the easiest thing is to take someone else’s idea. PARODY! We’ve been here before with this fella, but this time he’s getting left on Mar

Episode 37: A Point-Mass Carol

Dec 1st, 2015 22m 22s

Woooooaaaahhhhh! Wooooooaaaaaahhhhh! Scared? Enough to make you rethink your life choices and embrace the Christmas spirit? Of course. That’s how it always works. We have gone totally Christmas Carol crazy in this episode. Get ready for mistl

Episode 36: Radio Blah Blah

Nov 2nd, 2015 23m 7s

Travelling around the country is fun. And you can increase the fun by searching the airwaves to find local radio stations to listen to. The playlists, attitudes, and opinions have remained remarkably stable over the past 30 years. And that’s ex

Episode 35: Dolly Mixture

Oct 3rd, 2015 12m 46s

Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, and due to the fact I’ve been cloned it’s very similar to the wool you already have. Ah, I love a classic nursery rhyme. Get ready for this, as there’s a lot of skulking and flashbacks.

Episode 34: Uncivil Engineering

Sep 2nd, 2015 19m 48s

Nemesesises’s. We all have one. Whether it’s the newsreader who always seems to be giving all the bad news DIRECTLY TO YOU, or the man whose evil plans you keep thwarting. Or that guy who’s sleeping with your girl / boyfriend. Yep. Now you know

Episode 33: The Good, The Bad, and The Scientist

Aug 3rd, 2015 18m 40s

Which is best? Cowboys, ninjas, or pirates? The answer is cowboys. Well, it is right now. In this, the latest slice of drool-encouraging action science, we meet cowboys. And we don’t just mean the cast. Join Sheriff Brady and his assistant / si

Episode 32: Broom Raider

Jul 1st, 2015 17m 6s

Bah bah bah bah! Bah bah bah! Bah bah bah bah! Bah bah bah bah bah! You recognise it don’t you? Don’t you? Come on. No it’s not that one. The other one. The one with the guy in the hat. No I can’t just tell you in case the lawyers are reading.

Episode 31: Danse Danse Macabre

Jun 1st, 2015 12m 57s

They can’t get rid of me, you know. Do you know why? Because I know where the bodies are buried. The sweet, valuable bodies. That’s right, AST is going all dark and deathy. The best way to listen to this episode is to turn off the lights and cl

Episode 30: Gravitational Push

May 3rd, 2015 12m 44s

How does one make oneself a success? Is it by finding something one enjoys and making that a profession? Or by pursuing a successful profession that already exists? Frankly, we don’t know or care. We have other things to worry about. I mean, th

Episode 29: Radio Times

Apr 3rd, 2015 15m 35s

“Satellite, satelliiiite, of looooove…” Lou Reed was, no doubt, thinking about the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik, when he wrote those seminal words in 1972 (he may have written them before 1972 of course, we just can’t say right now, a

Episode 28: DN-Hey!

Mar 3rd, 2015 18m 29s

If I told you to put some of your bodily fluids in a bag and send it to me, what would you say? You absolute animal. Nowadays you can do this, and some chap or chapette will tell you everything you’ve always wanted to know about your fluid’s hi

Episode 27: It's All Rover

Feb 3rd, 2015 16m 6s

Space exploration. When you think about it, it’s just like darts. Hurling projectiles into the dark depths hoping to get a treble-twenty. You could get glory, or end up drinking in a pub on a Tuesday afternoon while everyone else is at work. G

Episode 26: Lark-eology

Jan 4th, 2015 14m 41s

The desert. Unchanged for millions of years. Yet witness to a prophecy come true. That one day, people will dig and find stuff. And some of that stuff will be interesting. Get out your shovel, scratch your beard and let’s get digging. Have we f