What The If?

We celebrate APRIL FOOLS DAY by taking on one of the greatest news pranks ever, The BBC Spaghetti Tree hoax. From jokes to facts... grab your basket and let's get stuffed with delicious spaghetti science!!! "BBC: Spaghetti Harvest in Ticino" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU -- is a famous 3-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC current affairs program Panorama. It told a tale of a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from the fictitious spaghetti tree, broadcast at a time when this Italian dish was not widely eaten in the UK and some Britons were unaware that spaghetti is a pasta made from wheat flour and water. Hundreds of viewers phoned into the BBC, either to say the story was not true, or wondering about it, with some even asking how to grow their own spaghetti trees. Decades later CNN called this broadcast "the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled." -- from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax ---

Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Check out our membership rewards at Patreon.com/Whattheif And you can review the show on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Check out our membership rewards at Patreon.com/Whattheif And you can review the show on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Gaby read an article in the Atlantic called "The Never-Aging Ants With a Terrible Secret: A parasite gives its hosts the appearance of youth, and an unmatched social power in the colony" by Katherine J. Wu and asks what if humans could experience this bizarre, better that your average parasitic experience? So Matt volunteers to become Queen for a day... or a decade... until he's eaten by a Polar Bear. Ya never know what the IF will bring, and this week, it's a doozy, so grab your golden crown and prepare to live large in your social group when you get the tapeworm that makes you royal! Here's the Atlantic article: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/05/ant-tapeworm/618919/ And here's the original scientific paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8131941/ --- Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to s

(Producer's note: Kudos to our listener Gary from Atlanta who discovered a tech glitch in the previous upload of this episode. This is a fixed version. Thanks Gary, you are a super IFFer and super listener! -- Cheers, Philip) Build A Better Virus Trap? What the IF we could eradicate ALL VIRUSES from the planet? How would we do it? Can we create super NANO BOTS to protect us? Would you want nano bots inside you? (Philip says, “yes, please!”) A special episode in which we imagine a wonderful future, where the Queen of England gets well soon, and has a super awesome bejeweled box she can stay in, surrounded by Beefeaters wearing HAZMAT suits, and of course their silly hats. Imagine! Gaby guides us on a tour-de-force of sci and sci-fi towards a hopeful future where disease is relegated to past, forever. Also, Matt gets chased by Llamas…. What the… Yep! So suit up, strap in, and give a listen. Gaby’s Sci-Fi Story! Gaby’s newest sci-fi horror story, “Hotel Ygg” has just been published on Grim & Gilded. It’s

Check out our membership rewards at Patreon.com/Whattheif Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Enjoy the show and keep on IFFin'!

Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Check out our membership rewards at Patreon.com/Whattheif And you can review the show on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

The Solar System is in your hands! Careful, don't drop it, but do keep it warm... by exploring it! The awesome DAY OF ACTION, led by The Planetary Society is coming up in less than a month, on March 8th, 2022 -- and you can still sign up! In honor of this awesome annual event, we're rebroadcasting this super fun show we did with CASEY DREIER of The Planetary Society which brings to life just how important, and how rewarding an experience each individual can have by getting involved, even with the simplest of means, in their own country's space program. Check it out. --- Want to support the show and get fabulous IF merch? Visit our dazzling new Patreon page at patreon.com/whattheif and see all our great rewards for new members. --- NASA just announced a new mission to VENUS... how'd that happen? Did you know that you can play a role in exploring space? Yep. With a simple phone call you can keep space missions alive, and growing, and exploring! WHO YA GONNA CALL? The hardest working man in planetary p

Patreon Update: We have another Patreon member, Don from Pennsylvania who has joined at the $10/month “Clockwork Universe” Tier where he receives the monthly newsletter and a logo sticker. Welcome, Don! Join Don and all our other Patreon supporters, check out our page now at Patreon.com/Whattheif and see all our great rewards for new members. --- And from the Mailbag: Devoted listener Beckett ascends to Super IFFer status as the question he emailed in to us becomes the IF of the week! Brandon writes, "I’ve been devouring the back catalogue as quickly as I can! I even had a dream about time travellers who were called iffers

Welcome to our newest Patreon member, KEN! You, too, can support the show and get awesome rewards by joining us at Patreon.com/WhatTheIf -- see you there! --- Join Matt for a virtual class, with live Q&A! Experience his lecture, "Albert Einstein: The Man Behind the Math" on January 28, 2022 at One Day University. Check it out now: https://www.onedayu.com/videos/albert-einstein-the-man-behind-the-math-2/ ---- This week's IF comes from Joshua who asks: "Ever heard of the Mandela Effect? Basically, it's described as the idea that several various incidents in history have been switched around so that people collectively remember them happening incorrectly. In a sense, this theory believes that parallel universes are to blame for this collective memory loss. Now, what I really want to know is: forgetting the plausibility of this theory for a second, what if our history really DID overlap with a parallel universe's, and what would that look like?" Here's some brief examples: https://www.provolibrary.com/blog/

Join The Non-Opposition Party! Our long time listener Nigel of Portsmouth, UK ascends to Super IFFer status by having his question chosen as the topic of this week’s show: What the IF… Our ancestors had never evolved opposable thumbs? Want to support the show? Visit our exciting new Patreon page and check our all the fabulous rewards: Patreon.com/WhatTheIf Attend Matt’s fabulous online lecture, “Albert Einstein: The Man Behind the Math”. January 18, 2022 at 4 PM Eastern. Learn more on the event page at One Day University: https://www.onedayu.com/videos/albert-einstein-the-man-behind-the-math-2/ Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF

Happy New Year, fellow IF-ers!!! We taped a bunch of shows at the end of the year, so we're starting out 2022 with a bang: we're posting a brand new WTIF episode every day this week! Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Happy New Year, fellow IF-ers!!! We taped a bunch of shows at the end of the year, so we're starting out 2022 with a bang: we're posting a brand new WTIF episode every day this week! --- DR. KIRBY RUNYON is a planetary geomorphologist and morphodynamicist seeking to understand the evolution of planetary landscapes and the associated near-surface processes through the analysis of remote sensing imagery and laboratory experiments. He is a science team affiliate on the New Horizons mission to Pluto, Charon, and the Kuiper Belt and a science team collaborator on the HiRISE (High Resolution Imagaing Science Experiment) camera currently in orbit around Mars. Kirby is passionate about engaging the general public in the passion, beauty, and joy of space exploration and promoting scientific literacy among non-scientists. He lives in Columbia, MD, with his cat, Nixie, named after Nix, a small moon of Pluto. Keep up with Kirby, if you can! - Read Kirby's Op-Ed in The Baltimore Sun, "Why go to space? You might as w

Happy New Year, fellow IF-ers!!! We taped a bunch of shows at the end of the year, so we're starting out 2022 with a bang: we're posting a brand new WTIF episode every day this week! Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Happy New Year, fellow IF-ers!!! We taped a bunch of shows at the end of the year, so we're starting out 2022 with a bang: we're posting a brand new WTIF episode every day this week! Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Happy New Year, fellow IF-ers! We taped a bunch of shows at the end of the year, so we're starting out 2022 with a bang: a brand new WTIF episode every day this week! Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Got an IF of your own? - Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? - Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! - Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

The fearless and fabulous DR. ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS joins us for an explosive IF! Robin George Andrews is a science journalist with a PhD in volcanology. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, National Geographic, Scientific American, Atlas Obscura, and other publications. He lives in London, England. HOT off the press, his new book, "SUPERVOLCANOES: What They Reveal About Earth and the Worlds Beyond" is an anthology of magmatic mountains and fiery fountains, revels in the incomparable power of volcanoes and their eruptions. But it does more than marvel at their preternatural abilities. It also explores how their idiosyncratic, incredible displays of incandescence, past and present, reveal secrets about both themselves and the worlds to which they belong: from the forces that sculpt the sea, land and sky to the machinery that makes or breaks the existence of life. All volcanoes play their part on these dramatic planetary stages, but those in this book – those on Earth, above and below

Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby