'What If? 2' is Randall Munroe's second round of answers to absurd questions

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Randall Munroe's first book of scientific answers to the absurd questions people have was so popular that he wrote another one. In What If? 2, the author and cartoonist answers confusing and often unusual questions submitted by adults – and children – using science and humor. He spoke to NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about why it's important to lean into this confusion, and how that actually makes way for curiosity.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Edmere's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. There was a solid stretch in my life
0:07.1	when it seemed like all of my friends would be sharing the latest hilarious thing from the webcomic
0:12.1	XKCD. If you don't recognize the name, it's that webcomic featuring usually a couple stick figures,
0:17.2	making some wry and funny observation about science or math or office culture
0:22.0	or something. It's by Randall Munro, who's on the pod today, talking about his latest book,
0:26.7	What If Two? And it's a funny exploration into these wild hypothetical scientific questions.
0:33.6	And by funny, I don't mean to say that it's unsurious, because the book's humor comes from taking these ridiculous questions.
0:40.7	Like, could you hang on to a helicopter blade as it starts spinning with utmost seriousness?
0:49.1	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:53.9	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:00.6	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant
1:05.5	events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:13.9	So question for you. If you unleashed a T-Rex in New York City, how many humans would it
1:19.8	have to eat to meet its basic caloric intake each day? My next guest says just half an adult per day or an entire 10-year-old. And he estimates New York
1:32.2	could sustain a population of 350 T-Rexus. That's good to know, but we don't want to have to use
1:39.4	that information. Randall Munro's latest book is What If 2? Additional Serious Scientific Answers to absurd hypothetical questions.
1:48.9	He's a former NASA roboticist who's now a writer and a cartoonist and he joins us from Washington, D.C.
1:56.1	Welcome to the program.
1:57.4	Hi. Thanks for having me.
1:58.9	So this is a follow up to your first What If book. So this is a follow-up to your first what-if book. And this is a book
2:04.2	that is full of wild and fantastical questions in which you try to answer the questions with
2:13.2	serious answers. So why did you decide to do another round of this type of book?
	...

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