Simon and Rach consider listener suggestions for human body improvements. This week, adjustable digestive tracts, floral farts, and retractable testicles. In the newsElon Musk’s baby: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52557291Ocean war

Level Up Human - Sally Le Page vs James Piercy

May 19th, 2020 50m 24s

S2E12: Level Up Human is a podcast on a mission to redesign the human body.Simon and Rach chat to biologist and science YouTuber Sally Le Page and science communicator James Piercy.We discuss periods, expanding skulls and a rebooted ear.In the

Level Up Human Extra - Regeneration

May 12th, 2020 29m 46s

Simon and Rach consider regeneration. Humans are pretty rubbish at it. Some lizards, newts and salamanders are INCREDIBLE at it. How do we get it, and would we really want to? Check out…The Shining: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/THAT twe

Level Up Human S2E11 - Steve Backshall vs Kate Storrs

May 5th, 2020 49m 46s

S2E11: Level Up Human is a podcast on a mission to redesign the human body.This week, Simon and Rach chat to naturalist and broadcaster Steve Backshall and visual perception scientist Kate Storrs.We discuss enhanced vision, limb regeneration, g

Level Up Human Extra - Flight

Apr 28th, 2020 32m 51s

Episode summarySimon and Rachel take a detailed look at flight. Why can’t we fly, how could we achieve it, and wouldn't it be exhausting?An edited transcript is available here.Mentioned this episodeAlan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham in R

Level Up Human Extra - RNA

Apr 20th, 2020 24m 53s

Simon and Rachel recap Episode 10 of Series 2, where we chatted with immunologist Professor Sheena Cruickshank and microbiologist Dr. Chloe James. Plus Simon has good news for Eurovision fans.We dive deeper into what RNA is, how to train bacter

Level Up Human S2E10 - Self-scratching backs

Apr 14th, 2020 39m 51s

Rachel and Simon are locked down in London. Joining them from Liverpool and Manchester are microbiologist Dr. Chloe James and immunologist Professor Sheena Cruickshank.A full transcript is available here. Episode summary We discuss if it’s poss

Level Up Human S2E9 - Snake skin

Mar 25th, 2020 41m 59s

In the last of our Barbican centre recordings from November 2019, Simon and Rachel are souping up the homo sapien once again. Our guest experts are professor of experimental psychopathology from the university of Birkbeck, Naz Derakshan, and He

Level Up Human Extra - COVID-19 and Disease

Mar 18th, 2020 24m 52s

Simon and Rachel report from their respective bunkers during the March 2020 coronavirus pandemic. We take a long hard look at disease. Are humans a particularly diseased species? What can we learn from pandemics and is panic buying inevitable?

Level Up Human S2E8 - Uber Ovaries

Mar 11th, 2020 48m 54s

Simon and Rachel are souping up Homo sapiens once again, live at the Barbican Centre with guest experts: reproductive physiologist Kim Jonas, and cardio-vascular pharmacologist, Michael Preedy. This episode was created with the support of the P

Level Up Human S2E7 - Retinal brain

Feb 26th, 2020 48m 55s

Simon and Rachel are live at the Barbican with marine biologist, writer and documentary maker, Helen Scales and KCL professor of developmental neurobiology, Robert Hindges. Episode summary First we look at human enhancements from around the wor

Level Up Human S2E6 - Second Eyelid

Feb 12th, 2020 50m 2s

Simon and Rachel are live at the Barbican with heart specialist Dr. Vanessa Lowe and comedian, podcaster and researcher, Dr. Cerys Bradley. Episode summary First we look at human enhancements from around the world. Vanessa has news of a heart a

Level Up Human S2E5 - Poo-mail

Jan 29th, 2020 53m 26s

Simon and Rachel are live at the Bluedot festival. They are joined by geomicrobiologist, Sarah Jones, and Holly Shiels, reader in cardiac physiology at the University of Manchester. Episode summary The news is first up as we explore some of the

Level Up Human Extra - Organic robots | Cultured archaea | Diego the sex tortoise

Jan 20th, 2020 20m 59s

Simon and Rachel skype in with some interesting items from the science news.Episode summary On this episode of Level Up Human Extra, we have news that scientists have managed to build the first organic robots using stem cells from the African c

Level Up Human S2E4 - Human homing pigeon

Dec 4th, 2019 40m

Simon and Rachel are joined by writer and computer scientist Dr. Kate Devlin and digital artist Eric Drass.Episode summary We dive into the latest human enhancement developments before getting into pitches. Rach has news of a potential Alzheime

Level Up Human S2E3 - 14 senses

Nov 20th, 2019 43m 47s

Simon and Rachel are joined at the Barbican centre by renal-cardiovascular physiologist Keith Siew and evolutionary psychologist, Dr. Gillian Forrester.Episode summaryThe team have brought news stories from the world of science to share before

Level Up Human S2E2 - Brown fat

Nov 6th, 2019 51m 41s

In June, Level Up Human went to Hatch in Manchester for the Microdot festival.Simon and Rachel are joined by bioethicist Prof. Andy Miah and physiologist and cardiovascular specialist Dr. Sarah Withers, both from the University of Salford.If yo

Level Up Human S2E1 - Tempered testosterone

Oct 22nd, 2019 50m 42s

Level Up Human is back redesigning the human body! This series we are supported by the Physiological Society. This episode was created with the help of the Society for Endocrinology, a world leading authority on hormones.This episode was record

Trailer

Level Up Human Series 2 trailer

Oct 15th, 2019 41s

Simon breaks exciting news about the brand new series of Level Up Human - hitting your podcast device next Wednesday October 23rd.We've been recording episodes as part of our residency at the Barbican and you can join us at two more recordings

LUH Extra 13 - Lab Grown Meat

Mar 22nd, 2018 21m 39s

Rach and Simon dive into lab grown meat. Would you eat it, what are the pros and cons and as always, is this the beginning of the end of civilisation? Our theme music was written and performed by Laurence Owen. Graphics by Theo Weedon, web desi

LUH Extra 12 - Gene Drives

Mar 8th, 2018 22m 37s

Simon and Rach take a deep dive into gene drives this week, examining the work being done to make island conservation less lethal to the inhabitants it is supposed to be protecting.We consider how CRISPR technology might be able to help with th

LUH Extra 11 - 3D Printing and Generative Design

Feb 22nd, 2018 27m 41s

Simon and Rachel are bickering again, this time about 3D printing. Is it old news, or are recent developments in generative design enough to make it fascinating? Simon thinks it's a toy, no more likely to catch on than Betamax, Rach thinks it's

LUH Extra 10 - Giant Rockets

Feb 10th, 2018 25m 58s

Producer Rachel and Simon discuss Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy launch, what it means for the future of space travel and whether putting a Tesla onboard was the greatest PR stunt of all time.In this episode we chat with David McKeown, a real rocket

LUH Extra 9 - Flying Cars

Jan 25th, 2018 28m 20s

Simon Watt and Rachel Wheeley rifle through the science pages in search of stories about the future of humanity. This week we are excited about flying cars, considering what information the apocalypse survivors will need and considering a way t

LUH Extra 8 - Womb Tanks

Jan 10th, 2018 30m 54s

Happy New Year! Rach and Simon are fisking the science pages once again in search of human enhancement stories. This week they tackle all the most futuristic predictions that came true in 2017. The march of Artificial Intelligence, back-flippin