Who we are—and why we started the show

3:25>> [music]

3:39>> So today we're going to have a little bit of fun. We will give you the best science, but we've left out the banter for several months as we've tried to really focus on being as information dense as possible. But there's so many of you who are new to the show, and we thought it would be helpful to help you understand a little bit more about who we are. Note, I am not Lamorne Morris from New Girl, okay? Uh we barely look alike. Uh although we did I did get approached >> No, in person. >> That was crazy. Here in the valley by a very nice older gentleman whose daughter apparently loves New Girl. Uh so, Lamorne, I just want you to know,

4:21um as your apparent celebrity doppelganger, um you really are loved out here in the streets but uh for those of you who may be new to the pod, and just for us to have the chance to talk about why we are doing this again. Do you remember it was July It was June, July of last year >> Mhm. >> that we finally decided to maybe do something. >> Yeah. Yeah, and we we had we had flirted with doing something with other formats, and this is finally the format that we came up with with the which is just like the two of us bantering and talking about science like we've done for the past 10 >> [laughter] >> 16 plus years.

5:02>> Yeah, it's it's And what's so interesting about this, and I don't think people understand like we literally will just do this. >> Yeah. >> regardless. >> Yeah, yeah, we've been doing this since college, right? [laughter] Among other friends, like at Princeton undergrad, we would just like be hanging out and we would be talking about the newest paper that came out in whatever field, and whatever people are talking about, and there would be so many other people that were bantering with us. And now it's just the two of us. Um but, yeah, it's it's like it was so natural, and we're just like, let's just put some microphones and some cameras. And I was like, Lestor, you handle that. >> Right. [laughter] And you handle the science, and, you

5:43know, a part of how we connected initially or among other things is, you know uh we both have science families. And so that that was obviously a connection point. Indian Zimbabwean um And I think you got more of a physics lens, I got more of a biology lens. And it's immigrants to the US in different ways and you know, LA for you growing up. >> Jersey, shout out >> Jersey for me. A little bit of North Carolina, but you guys were kind of at the tail end, you know, that wasn't formative. >> Yeah. Yeah, for me it was like India and then

6:23LA was high school. So kind of at the tail end, but then it became formative because it was high school and it was, you know, when you when you come from a place like India to America, the first place you really put your roots down becomes a formative experience. Although, you know, I spent a year plus in Huntsville, Alabama. >> Yes, that's right. >> Where Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA, so my dad was a solar physicist there. And so, you know, Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama is still I remember Challenger Middle School. I don't know if there's anyone out there that >> [laughter] >> who went to Challenger Middle School.