Hello everyone and welcome to Talk Nurdy. Today is Monday, June 24th,

2024 and I'm the host of the show Dr. Kara Santa Maria and as always before we dive into this week's

episode I do want to thank those of you who make talk nerdy possible.

Remember talk nerdy is and will always be a hundred percent free to download and

the way we keep this thing going is mostly by relying on

listener support from folks just like you.

If you're interested in pledging your support on an episodic basis for the show.

All you've got to do is visit Patreon.com

slash Talk Nurdy.

This week's top patrons include Anu Baravage, Daniel Lang,

David J. E. Smith, Mary Niva, Brian Holden, David Compton,

Gabriel F. Herrameo, Joe Wilkinson, Pasqualee,

and Ulrichrika Hagman.

Thank you all so much.

All right, let's get into it.

So this week I got to reconnect with an old friend.

We go way, way back to the Science Online days.

His name is Ferris Jabor and he's a contributing writer for the New York Times magazine

as well as Scientific American and has written for the New Yorker,

Harpers, the Atlantic National Geographic,

more outlets than you can count.

He's the recipient of a Whiting Foundation

...