What The If?

We're taking a break this week while Philip recovers from the 'double-whammy' of flu and COVID boosters. (Science works, but sometimes it makes you nap!) However, we couldn't let January 7th pass unnoticed. On this day in 1610, Galileo first spotted Jupiter's moon, Io. To celebrate, we’ve unlocked the vault for an encore of one of our most popular episodes ever. Strap in for a tour of a lava-covered world with Robin Andrews in... "Walking on IO". ---- DR. ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS, science writer for The NY Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, and many more, joins us with an IF that'll keep you on your feet: What The IF we could walk on Jupiter's ultra volcanic moon, IO? Would you walk on a hot pizza? If so, you're ready for the trip! The views of Jupiter would be spectacular, but bring your kevlar umbrella because lava's gonna come flyin' out of the sky. One of the most spectacular places in the solar system, Io is also terribly mysterious, bizarre, and confusing to even the greatest scientists of our time. Pack your bags, bring some galoshes, and let's go! --- Robin Andrews is a doctor of experimental volcanology, a full-time freelance science journalist, a part-time photographer, a scientific consultant, an occasional lecturer, public speaker and explain-how-volcanoes-work TV guest, as well as a pending author of a rather curious book. He can tell you exactly how powerful the Death Star is, how cryovolcanoes on alien worlds work, why a supervolcano probably isn’t what you think it is, and why the Moon is shrinking. His work has appeared in THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE ATLANTIC, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, EARTHER, GIZMODO, FORBES, THE VERGE, ATLAS OBSCURA, DISCOVER MAGAZINE, WIRED and elsewhere. VISIT his website: robingeorgeandrews.com -------- REVIEW the show: itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 SUBSCRIBE for free: pod.link/1250517051 EINSTEIN'S WAR by our very own MATT STANLEY is on sale now! The Washington Post says "Stanley is a storyteller par excellence." A starred review recipient from KIRKUS, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, and BOOKLIST. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/60811…81524745417 Thanks & Keep On IFFin'! -- Philip, Matt & Gaby

What the if your New Year's resolution became a biological compulsion you literally could not ignore? Imagine waking up on January 1st with the same unstoppable urge that drives salmon to swim upstream, except instead of spawning, you absolutely must get to the gym three times a week. In this world, the darkness of winter triggers something deep in our ancient brain, locking us into whatever commitment we scribbled down at midnight. You'd have to rules-lawyer your own resolutions like a contract with a malicious genie. Society would develop rituals around helping eight-year-olds avoid accidentally resolving to rule the world. Plus, discover a surprising new theory about why Stonehenge exists that has everything to do with cabin fever and nothing to do with astronomy. --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

What the if time suddenly started running backwards? Your breakfast un-eats itself, LEGO sets come pre-assembled, and you get younger every day. The dead have unfunerals, your room cleans itself, and teenagers slowly regress through middle school—backwards. Professor Ian Durham of Saint Anselm College stops by to explain the real physics behind time reversal and why photons might start shooting out of your eyeballs. Want to see time reversal in action? Check out The Palindrome Paradox, the mind-bending short film Ian recommends: https://youtu.be/hUcXGv-NzFQ?si=X086RFpXEj0ZNJmX Explore more physics at the Foundational Questions Institute—Ian's top 5 physics stories for 2025 will be out in a week or two on the FQxI Podcast Series: https://qspace.fqxi.org/podcasts And check out FQxI Master Classes, where Ian's course on the nature of time will be out within the year: https://qspace.fqxi.org/qac --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

Listener Anne of Queens got us thinking about flying reindeer for the holidays. Imagine herds of 1,500-pound mammals migrating through your town like Canada geese. Suddenly those goose droppings don't seem so bad. Discover why the classic Santa sleigh makes no aerodynamic sense (eight reindeer in parallel? Your cargo's dragging on the ground) and why the real solution is a reindeer dirigible with forty hovering reindeer and a sleigh dangling underneath. Watch Santa relocate from the North Pole to a Sri Lankan mountaintop, where his reindeer have evolved big fennec-fox ears to vent heat in the tropics. Strap on your hard hat and join us for a holiday flight. --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

What the if the Sun suddenly turned green? Your pizza now looks like charcoal because all red things go black. Stop signs become invisible. The sky shifts from cheerful blue to permanent dusk. And plants? They absolutely despise green light—they reflect it because green photons are the M&Ms they pick out of the bowl. So with a green Sun, photosynthesis grinds to a halt, oxygen tanks, and everything that breathes is in serious trouble. The only potential survivors might be weird microbes at deep ocean vents who never cared about sunlight anyway. On the bright side, colorblind people might finally see more colors, and whoever figures out the right makeup for green light is about to make a fortune—right before we all suffocate. --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

Happy Thanksgiving! We're off this week for the holiday, so we're presenting an encore presentation of an episode that was originally broadcast on September 5, 2018, and remains one of our all-time audience favorites. What the if humans evolved into shrikes - those adorable songbirds that impale their prey on thorns and barbed wire? Dr. Kiki Sanford, neurobiologist and host of This Week in Science, transforms us into gray-and-white birds with natural domino masks, hollow bones, and respiratory systems so efficient they make mammalian lungs look pathetic. Discover why you're literally dinosaur spawn, how shrikes turn thorns into gruesome pantries, and why territorial bird disputes would make parking lot arguments look civilized. Fast forward 10,000 years and watch strike-kind conquer the galaxy, impaling entire planets and building Dyson smores around distant suns. It's the perfect blend of real bird biology and ridiculous speculation - plus you'll never look at songbirds the same way again! Check out Dr. Kiki's podcast This Week in Science at www.twis.org - they broadcast live on Wednesday evenings!Retry —— Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

Scientists just discovered ant queens that give birth to two completely different species - not twins, but actual separate species hatching from the same mother. But what the if every animal on Earth reproduced this way? Suddenly every pregnancy becomes a species reveal party, dairy farms need to manage herds where some cows give birth to regular calves while others pop out Ice Age yaks, and your family reunions include relatives from entirely different species sitting around the same table. Pet stores become absolute chaos when golden retrievers randomly give birth to wolves, and nobody knows which species they're getting until it hatches or emerges. Your family tree stops being a tree and starts looking like a biological choose-your-own-adventure book. This bizarre discovery from Science Magazine proves that when biology textbooks try to define species boundaries, nature just laughs and does whatever it wants anyway. Reproduction just got way weirder than anyone thought possible. Based on "Ant Queen Lays Eggs That Hatch Into Two Species" from Science Magazine Read the full article here: https://www.science.org/content/article/ant-queen-lays-eggs-hatch-two-species --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

This week we're trading hypothetical fungi and exploding planets for something scarier: actual government budgets. But don't worry - watching America accidentally hand the space race to China is just as entertaining as any sci-fi disaster scenario, and way more preventable. Think "For All Mankind" but with spreadsheets instead of heroic astronauts. What happens when NASA's budget gets slashed in half while China's space program keeps climbing? Chris Carberry from Explore Mars joins to explore a future where the International Space Station becomes the Chinese Space Station, lunar bases fly red flags instead of stars and stripes, and American astronauts have to hitch rides on Chinese rockets just to get into orbit. From Beijing's plans to build permanent moon bases to their ambitious Mars sample return missions that might beat NASA by years, discover how budget cuts could transform America from space exploration leader to space exploration spectator. Plus, find out why letting China dominate space science means losing more than just bragging rights - it means losing innovations in climate monitoring, planetary defense, and technologies that improve life here on Earth. Fair warning: this one gets into the nitty gritty of space policy and why funding science actually matters. Want more fascinating space content from Chris? Check out his books exploring the unexpected sides of space exploration - from the role of music in cosmic storytelling to humanity's long relationship with alcohol beyond Earth's atmosphere: The Music of Space: Scoring the Cosmos in Film and Television https://a.co/d/fQki9CS Alcohol in Space: Past, Present and Future https://a.co/d/aqCOkUz Alcohol in Space - The Movie https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0DJR1J6F8/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r And learn more about Chris' work advocating for human Mars exploration at Explore Mars: exploremars.org --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

What the if mosquitoes were helpless against the sweet smell of their own doom? Scientists genetically engineered Metarhizium fungus to smell so irresistibly delicious that mosquitoes can't help but fly straight into deadly traps with a 90-100% success rate. Discover why these bloodsuckers are actually tiny recycling agents in nature (who knew?), learn why we can't just eliminate them without the whole ecosystem throwing a tantrum, and find out why one will inevitably end up on a future space station driving the crew absolutely bonkers. From glowing green fungus-covered mosquitoes that look like tiny Marvel villains to biological pest control that beats slathering industrial chemicals on everything, explore humanity's eternal quest to outsmart bugs that have been annoying us since the dawn of time. Based on "This Genetically Engineered Fungus Could Help Fix Your Mosquito Problem" by Jason Dinh, published in The New York Times on November 1st, 2025. Read the full article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/science/fungus-mosquitoes-genetic-engineering.html?unlocked_article_code=1.y08.x0jx.9OuE2HKzYyez&smid=url-share --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

What the if Frankenstein was real and doctors actually tried stitching corpses together to create new people? Forget dramatic lightning strikes and brooding in Gothic towers - the real adventure is managing the world's most complicated pharmacy order when seventeen different immune systems meet for the first time and immediately start fighting. Join us as we explore why creating a functional monster requires less "It's alive!" moments and more "Does this insurance plan cover interdimensional tissue rejection?", discover the eternal question of whose blood type gets to be in charge, and meet today's synthetic biology scientists who figured out you can just build new life from genes like tiny biological LEGO blocks. Turns out whether you're using body parts or DNA, humanity's been enthusiastically playing god for centuries - we've just gotten way better at the paperwork.

What the if all bodies of water on Earth were fizzy like soda? In the real world, Seneca Lake in New York produces mysterious underwater booms called "Seneca guns" that scientists think come from occasional gas pockets, but nobody knows for sure. But in our imaginary world where every lake constantly fizzes like champagne, Chicago would relocate to the mountains as Lake Michigan burps methane clouds all day long. New York and London would move to higher ground, while only brave "soda dwellers" would live at water level like Mad Max characters in vans by the river. Niagara Falls would transform into a methane-harvesting factory with enormous vacuum cleaners shipping gas to Texas for barbecue. Cities would rebuild on mountainsides and clifftops, everyone would construct homes on stilts near shores, and Mentos would become weapons of mass destruction capable of triggering lake explosions. Based on "Why is this lake burping?" published in The New York Times on Oct. 8, 2025: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/nyregion/seneca-lake-guns-drums.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vU8.hjhV.kfNyB5WcMwSr&smid=url-share --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

Honey guide birds in Africa respond to culturally distinct human calls and lead hunters to beehives, where humans crack them open and birds feast on the exposed beeswax. But what the if humans could whistle for any wild animal to help with tasks? Call a deer to haul your Costco groceries home (extra cabbage as payment), summon crows to find your lost earring for peanuts, or live in a Viking village where bears help with the salmon harvest then hibernate in someone's hut all winter. From turkey truffle-hunting to dolphins demanding space station aquariums, explore a world where wild animals and humans exist in bizarre symbiotic relationships that might have prevented industrialization altogether. Based on "Honeyguide Birds Learn Culturally Distinct Calls Made By Honey Hunters" by Walter Beckwith, published in AAAS Science on December 11, 2023. Read the full article at https://www.aaas.org/news/honeyguide-birds-learn-culturally-distinct-calls-made-honey-hunters --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

Scientists just used artificial intelligence to design the world's first AI-generated viruses capable of hunting down and killing drug-resistant strains of E. coli. These bacteriophages look like tiny alien pineapples with syringes that stab bacterial cells, and they're just the beginning of AI-created life. From Matt's dream of dish-cleaning bacteria that won't eat you (hopefully) to the accidental discovery that trying to make super purple petunias actually created white flowers instead, this episode explores what the if happens when computers start writing genetic code. Discover why we're running out of antibiotics, how a virus with only 11 genes works, and why your future dish soap bottle might say "now with AI inside." Plus, learn about the scientist who tried to engineer the most purple petunias ever and accidentally won a Nobel Prize instead. Based on "World's First AI Designed Viruses: A Step Towards AI Generated Life" by Katie Kavanagh, published in Nature on September 19, 2025. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03055-y Matt also mentions a book worth checking out during the episode: "The Genealogy of a Gene: Patents, HIV/AIDS, and Race" by Myles W. Jackson, published by MIT Press. The book explores how intellectual property law has transformed scientific research through the fascinating story of the CCR5 gene, examining everything from Big Pharma to personalized medicine. Learn more at https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262533782/the-genealogy-of-a-gene/ --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

What the if your brain literally ran out of storage space like a laptop refusing to save one more file? Neuroscientist Nikolay Kukushkin explains how memory isn't a filing cabinet but more like water carving rivers down a mountain - and when you carve too many paths, everything becomes a muddy mess. Discover why Mr. S, who remembered everything perfectly, couldn't recognize faces or taste food because his brain was too full of details. Learn why sleep is your brain's nightly cleanup crew and why we're all currently running at 98% memory capacity thanks to information overload. Plus, find out why forgetting your ex might also wipe out your algebra skills, and how even your kidney cells form their own minute-by-minute memories. Our guest is Nikolay Kukushkin, neuroscientist at NYU and author of "One Hand Clapping: Unraveling the Mystery of the Human Mind." You can learn more about Nikolay's fascinating book at https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/One-Hand-Clapping/Nikolay-Kukushkin/9781493090648 --- 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!Keep On IFFin',Philip, Matt & Gaby

What the if gravitational waves were big enough to see and feel? Instead of measuring distortions smaller than a proton, imagine watching your coffee table accordion in and out as ripples from distant black hole collisions pass through your local cafe. Every time Charlie the cat bats a toy mouse in Greenwich Village, sugar cubes scrunch in Williamsburg cafes. Brain surgeons would need to ask all of New York to sit perfectly still during operations to avoid gravitational interference. Even parking lots would seem impossibly far away one moment and right next to you the next as space itself stretches and compresses. From squirrels disrupting billion-dollar physics experiments to the strange world of noise-canceling gravity waves, discover why LIGO's incredible ability to detect universe-shaking events that distort space by one ten-thousandth the width of a proton might actually be humanity's most impressive scientific achievement. Based on "Happy Birthday, LIGO. Now Drop Dead." by Dennis Overby, published in The New York Times on September 10, 2025: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/science/gravitational-waves-ligo-black-holes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nE8.QM2f.ag_83DD_kR8e&smid=url-share Learn More: "Gravity's Kiss: The Detection of Gravitational Waves" - https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262535120/gravitys-kiss/ Matt mentioned sociologist Harry Collins' nearly 900-page masterpiece about gravity wave detection as the first book he ever reviewed; find this comprehensive account of one of science's most remarkable discoveries written by someone embedded in the gravitational wave community for over 40 years. Professor Tiffany Nichols - https://cssh.northeastern.edu/faculty/tiffany-nichols/ Matt recommended his friend Tiffany's dissertation (soon to be a book) about how LIGO chose their detection sites; explore her research on the epic story of selecting locations for these mile-long instruments and how surrounding environments become part of the scientific process. What are Gravitational Waves - https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-are-gw Learn about the ripples in space-time that we imagined making visible in our thought experiment, including how these waves from colliding black holes create distortions 10,000 times smaller than an atomic nucleus. What is LIGO - https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-is-ligo Discover how this unique observatory uses 4-kilometer-long laser interferometers to detect the universe's most violent events, from the instrument that Matt described as humanity's most sensitive measurement device. --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

What the if you found a rock on Mars that might - emphasis on might - show signs of ancient life? NASA's Perseverance rover discovered intriguing leopard spots in a 3.5-billion-year-old rock that contain vivianite, a mineral that could potentially indicate biological activity, though scientists remain cautiously skeptical. These dark-outlined splotches bear some resemblance to patterns that microbes can leave behind, but resemblance isn't proof. Join our trio as they explore the painstaking scientific process of investigating possible signs of life from tens of millions of miles away using lasers, spectroscopes, and instruments cleverly named Sherlock and Watson. From "poppy seed" nodules to the methodical work of ruling out every conceivable non-biological explanation, discover why scientists are being extraordinarily careful about what could potentially be intriguing evidence - if it survives rigorous scrutiny. Based on "In a Rock on Mars, NASA Sees Clearest Sign of Life (So Far)" by Kenneth Chang, published in The New York Times on September 10, 2025 Read the full article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/science/mars-rock-nasa-perserverance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lE8.UiKA.kl-1r33U-Pd9&smid=url-share --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

Our guest this week is science fiction author Nicholas Casbarro, who brings us a universe-changing concept from his novel Vitalerium - a radioactive space rock that enables faster-than-light travel. What the if humans discovered this exotic material so powerful that a fist-sized chunk can propel a football field-sized spaceship at 12 times the speed of light? Matt helps us explore the real science behind faster-than-light travel, from grandfather paradoxes and causality violations to the vast scale of our galaxy and the communication delays that would plague interstellar colonies. Join us as we chart a course through the galaxy's most mind-bending possibilities. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1990, Nicholas Casbarro attended Northeastern University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program in Boston, class of 2013. Though he never practiced, he maintained his curiosity and love for the sciences. After college, he worked in the medical device field with a specialty in wound-healing and burn treatment. In 2021, he joined a regenerative medicine company where he would spend five days a week on a plane, traveling the country to work with burn surgeons and victims. While flying, he experienced a spark of inspiration, and decided to follow the thread. Since childhood, he had a deep love for science fiction, growing to appreciate the greats in sci-fi like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, and many others. Nicholas used his time on countless flights to create the Vitalerium Series and its universe. The majority of the Vitalerium novel was written at 36,000 feet. He has seven books planned in the Vitalerium Series and continues to craft the narrative of Roman Matthews. Learn more about Nick’s novel, “Vitalerium” at his website: https://vitaleriumseries.com --- 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

D'oh! We had technical difficulties this week and so we are presenting this encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes. It also happens to be Kirby's birthday, and we're eager to honor his awesomeness by sharing with you this fabulous episode we did with him on December 16, 2021. Enjoy the ride! --- 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. Read Kirby's Op-Ed in The Baltimore Sun, "Why go to space? You might as well ask: Why make music?" https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-1208-space-exploration-20211208-26uthbg4v5a6fpjqlzuetqryla-story.html Visit his website: https://kirbydanielrunyon.space Follow him on all the socials: Twitter: @nasaman58 Instagram: @kirbydanielrunyon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kirby.runyon --- 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

What the if the speed of light crawled along at walking speed instead of zipping around at 300,000 kilometers per second? Tracey McCallum from Ontario wondered about this scenario. Imagine reaching for your cat only to grab empty air because she's already somewhere else entirely. Baseball becomes a black-hole-creating death sport when pitchers throw faster than light speed. Concert audiences sing different verses simultaneously depending on their distance from the stage. Fiber optic internet becomes slower than carrier pigeons. Anyone wanting to outlive their annoying roommate just needs to jog around the apartment for a month to age slower than everyone else. The catch? They'll also get so massive that furniture starts flying toward them. Discover how messing with the universe's speed limit turns ordinary physics into extraordinary chaos. --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

Matt & Gaby are on assignment this week, so we present an encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes. This one is super fun and comes from Sept. 16, 2024. We hope you enjoy it. --- What if humans were the latest must-have pet for trendy aliens? This episode explores the hilarious and bizarre scenario of extraterrestrial beings snatching us up like puppies from a shelter. From alien vets poking and prodding us for space parasites to the culinary delights of human kibble, we dive into the wacky world of human domestication. Discover the joys of alien fashion shows featuring humans in adorable hats, and the headaches caused by mischievous humans forming underground resistance movements at the local alien graveyard. We even ponder the age-old alien question: "Do you think my human understands me when I talk to it in Zorblaxian?" This thought-provoking "what if" scenario was suggested by listener Dan Floyd. --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention