Advertise on podcast: What The If?

Who the if is Matt Stanley? He went to college to build lasers and wound up a historian of science. In this episode you'll learn some really cool science about things like Maxwell's equations, the strange early days of quantum physics, and the notebook where Einstein scribbled his way to general relativity. Come find out how young Matt with a laser ended up reading Einstein's mail.

What the if bugs were the size of us? Imagine heading out with your morning coffee and holding the door for an ant who stands as tall as you do. In this episode we explore that fanciful scenario, and along the way you'll learn some really cool science about things like the giant insects that roamed the Earth about 300 million years ago, the math that limits how big an animal can grow, and the chemical language of ants. Come on in, and mind the antennae. —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

What the if all lab work were done by robots? Imagine strolling into the lab with your morning coffee to find that a tireless mechanical partner has already run your experiments overnight. In this episode we explore that fanciful scenario, and along the way you'll learn some really cool science about things like what goes into a Western blot, how researchers sift through thousands of drug candidates in search of a single winner, and which parts of the work a machine can truly be trusted with. Come on in and meet your new lab partner. Inspired by "The Lab Never Sleeps. Can the Science Keep Up?" by Patrick Sisson, Scientific American, June 16, 2026. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/autonomous-labs-are-running-science-experiments-24-7/ —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

What the if the muses were real? Astrophysicist and folklorist Moiya McTier, author of "Mothers of Invention," takes us into a world where nine Greek goddesses are still on the job, and one of them might be on your doorstep this morning. Brain scans of jazz musicians mid-improvisation, the strange history of the word genius, and why the ancients may have been right that your best ideas aren't entirely yours. Come find out which muse has your back. —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

What the if scientists were as famous as football stars? Picture packed bars, roaring crowds, and a physicist on the big screen getting absolutely destroyed by a rival's data. Come find out who wins. Inspired by "What People Get Wrong About Scientists" by Dava Sobel, Scientific American, June 16, 2026. —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

The whole crew is off on separate adventures this week, so we've unlocked the vault for an encore of one of our most popular episodes ever. Get ready to meet a galaxy ready to tell its own life story…. —— Our special guest this week is Dr. Moiya McTier, “Folklorist to the stars & Astrophysicist to the folks.” Dr. McTier is the host of the popular science podcast Exolore, and the author of the new book, The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy. She writes on her website: "I truly am my ancestors' wildest dream. I grew up in a log cabin in the middle of the woods in rural Pennsylvania. I didn't have TV, a heating system, or running water. My chores included carrying buckets of water from our outdoor pump and chopping firewood to fuel our wood-burning stove. The nearest confederate flag was flying much closer than the nearest Black person. It was an interesting place and way to grow up. Now I have 4 Ivy League degrees and work my dream job as a full-time science communicator in New York City. I've given hundreds of talks about science around the world, written a science fiction novel, helped design exhibits for the New York Hall of Science. I write books, host shows, and consult on movies." Tune in to this gigantic, galaxy spanning (and spawning!) episode in which Moiya asks, what the if… the Milky Way were SENTIENT? Visit Dr. McTier's website: moiyamctier.com Learn more about her podcast: moiyamctier.com/exolore Learn more about her book: https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/moiya-mctier/the-milky-way/9781538754153/ --- 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 [email protected] 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

What the if one gooey substance could drink up every kind of energy around it, from sunlight and heat to a stray spark or even the smack of a moving hand, and then hand it all back the instant you wanted it? Picture a world where that Goop is as cheap and common as tap water, quietly rewiring how everything gets powered, protected, and paid for. This one starts with a real, very early lab curiosity and runs it straight off a cliff, with a detour through some 150-year-old physics and a quick tangent into how your own cells pull the same trick. Things get weird. Things get sticky. Bring a valve. Based on "'Light in a Bottle' Liquid Can Harvest and Store Energy From Multiple Sources" by Laura Martín Agudelo, published in Science on June 19, 2026. https://www.science.org/content/article/light-bottle-liquid-can-harvest-and-store-energy-multiple-sources —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

What the if birds aren't actually birds? Play it straight for a second: somewhere between 1959 and 1971, the government quietly swaps every bird for a surveillance drone, and the cover-up runs deeper than a single federal agency. Chasing the premise turns up some genuinely real science — Cold War spy satellites that parachuted film canisters down from space to be caught midair by pilots, phased-array antennas that stitch many small dishes into one giant eye, and the actual military project to train pigeons to pilot missiles. Chase a ridiculous question far enough and you land somewhere inspiring: face to face with how inventive people get when they're trying to understand the world. —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

ANTIMATTER On Demand! by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia

Behind every voice you've come to love on this show is a life full of stories you've never heard. With our eighth anniversary just around the corner, we're doing something we've never done: each of us takes a turn in the guest's chair to answer all the questions the rest of us have always wondered about. First up is Gaby, a microbiologist at Harvard. What's it really like to spend your days in her world? Step into a lab alive with invisible wonders, head out to a beach where secret animal rituals are hiding in plain sight, and meet the kid who once chased frogs across a backyard and grew into a scientist chasing the deepest mysteries of life. —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Listener Kevin Towers asks: what the if the internet made everyone use their real, traceable name? No usernames. No masks. No hiding behind a clever handle at 2am. In this universe, every comment you fire off comes permanently stapled to your actual identity, your job, and your reputation. Would all that sunlight finally make us kind? Or would we go quiet, too nervous to ever post again? There's a crash course in why we turn feral online, a trip back to the dial-up Stone Age, and a rowdy brawl over whether forced honesty saves us or sinks us. So log in as your true self and come hang out where everybody finally knows your name. —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

What the if Lamarck was right? Stanford historian Jessica Riskin, author of "The Power of Life," is our guide into a universe where living things aren't passive passengers waiting for evolution to happen to them, but the active architects of their own bodies, their offspring, and the world around them. The line between creature and environment dissolves. Even the smallest beings turn out to be busy reshaping the planet. Stretch your neck. Reshape your descendants. Welcome to the Lamarckian universe. Want more Jessica? Grab her book at https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/763654/the-power-of-life-by-jessica-riskin/ Find her at Stanford here: https://history.stanford.edu/people/jessica-riskin —————————————————— In the show, I mentioned a wonderful note from longtime listener Steve Scalici about our recent "no gasoline" episode. Here's Steve's full message: —————————————————— From: Steve Scalici Subject: No gasoline, phase 2 "Maybe THE best IFisode I've heard, perhaps because I've been noodling with that inevitable coming world without petroleum…how'd we function, how would society break down, would we be in a Soylent Green-scape? "Seems to me that this too was a corollary of the IF I sent in regarding an aeroplane-less world. My supposition culminated with small self-supporting cities of a certain drivable radius from the city limits. "But overlaying the petro-less factor into the equation, we would devolve berryyyyy quickly to an agrarian localized world perhaps reminiscent of sometime in the 1800s. "The curveball to this is the Industrial Revolution would not, could not be. No power source! This leads me back to my Malthusian philosophy is coming: population does invariably increase when the means of subsistence increase. "Well then the opposite is true…population would curtail as our means of food harvesting ebbs. And it'd happen rather quickly as our food stocks diminish and famine would occur. "Back to the Middle Ages of castles, moats, bows and arrows, and self-sustained populations. "So my newer IF is 'how and what would a powerless world happen, assuming a stasis occurs in, say, 20 years?' "Shout out to my grandson Matteo here as we drive to a gas station to fill up, he posed a mini-IF: where does the gas come from. Tough to explain to a 5-year-old, but then last week's IF struck and I listened to it multiple times with my wife hearing it replayed and yelled 'WTF!'" —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

What the if you were born on the Moon and Earth was the alien planet? Picking up from last month's cliffhanger, our travelers from the lunar surface finally touch down — and nothing about this place is what they expected. There's some physics, some biology, a detour through ancient Greece, and a first encounter with the locals that nobody could have prepared for. The view from another world makes home look stranger than it has any right to. Settle in for the second half of a two-part thought experiment about what it's like to visit the planet everyone else calls home. —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Listener Helina asks: what the if we just pumped the last drop of gasoline? The answer goes well beyond empty parking lots and quiet highways. Along the way there's some chemistry, some geology, a detour through ancient history, and a look at how a single resource quietly weaves through agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and the food on your plate. Join us for this super fun thought experiment with some genuinely surprising science along the way. —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

What the if you had to invent the alphabet from scratch? The Pharaoh hands you a stone tablet, a chisel, and an impossible assignment: condense every sound a human mouth can make into a handful of squiggles. Where do you even start? How do you decide what makes the cut? And once you do, how do you convince anyone else to use the thing? Linguist Danny Bate, author of "Why Q Needs U", takes us into the chaotic, contingent workshop of the ancient world's most consequential project, and the strange, very human accidents that shaped the 26 symbols you're reading right now. Want more Danny? Visit his home base at https://dannybate.com and grab his book at https://geni.us/WhyQNeedsU. —— When she's not studying zombie fungus at Harvard or helping us break the universe every week, our very own Gaby Paniccia writes science fiction. Her short story "The Automatic Grocery Store" is now featured on the popular podcast Escape Pod! Listen here: https://escapepod.org/2026/02/19/escape-pod-1033-the-automatic-grocery-store/ —— 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! Visit https://whattheif.com/contact and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby