Looking for Nerds in Conversation

November 10, 2024 8:54 PM

I was recently entranced by this video by Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't, in which two dudes nerd out hard for an hour-plus on carnivorous plants. Watching two subject-matter experts enthuse made me so happy! Can you give me more examples of this, on any topic? Literally any topic at all. My requirements are pretty loose—just looking for good conversation between two or more well-versed people about the thing they care about most.
posted by flod to Grab Bag (16 answers total)

Best answer: The last two levels of each of the WIRED "five levels" videos are basically this, and it's delightful.
posted by eponym at 9:00 PM on November 10 [1 favorite]

Best answer: A conversation about FM radio DXing over water.
posted by Seeking Direction at 9:08 PM on November 10

You might like the podcast Completely Arbortrary where two dudes talk with great passion and detail about trees.
posted by metahawk at 9:35 PM on November 10

The Common Descent podcast is great. Two paleontologist friends talk about "paleontology, evolution, and the history of life on Earth," with topics ranging from sharks to monotremes to how feathers evolved to the major extinctions throughout geologic history. They have a great, enthusiastic energy in their friendship, too.

Recently they did a set of fun speculative evolution episodes where they brainstormed and fleshed out ideas for how various mythical creatures might actually evolve and be mistaken for having magical powers, based on the rules of evolution and nature. They do it every Halloween.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 9:38 PM on November 10 [2 favorites]

Game Studies Study Buddies is this and it is fantastic.
posted by Mizu at 10:33 PM on November 10

Response by poster: OK, I said requirements were loose, but I forgot about podcasts! My time is limited, so if you want to recommend a podcast, make it a specific episode. A singular burst of amazing-ness, let's put it like that.
posted by flod at 10:34 PM on November 10

Best answer: All the Common Descent episodes are good! Try "Dogs" and "Cats" if you like pets.
posted by Drosera at 6:01 AM on November 11

Best answer: Ologies (podcast) is exactly this. Some favorite episodes.
posted by danceswithlight at 6:59 AM on November 11

Best answer: Although not talking about a specific topic, the first episode of Louis Theroux's podcast, Grounded, where he talks to Jon Ronson, is wonderful. Two nerdy, very intelligent, erudite men having a wonderful conversation. Available on BBC Sounds, and most other podcast platforms.
posted by essexjan at 7:30 AM on November 11

Best answer: I was going to come in here and recommend Common Descent, too. I like the ones where they bring Aly in to talk about plant things. If I had to pick a specific one Episode 195 - Leaves would be it, though I'm not sure if it's recency bias. But there's so much stuff I never realized about something I see a lot of every day!
posted by Zalzidrax at 11:46 AM on November 11 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist and philosopher at Johns Hopkins public intellectual with a podcast where he interviews interesting experts +1 hr. When he talks to scientists it's often (whooosh / head) but with other domains it can be engaging.

• Liv Boeree and professional poker
• Derek Guy on men dressing smart --- [MultiMetaPrev] . . . there are 300 episodes of Mindscapes

You can't get nerdier than Randall 'xkcd' Monroe . . . except when you put him in a room with Lingthusiasm hosts Gretchen McColloch and Lauren Gawne
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:13 PM on November 11

Best answer: I know you asked that podcast recommendations be directed towards a specific episode, but I can't really do that for In Our Times, which is a long-running BBC academic discussion radio show. Melvyn Bragg invites on leading experts to discuss a topic for an hour. The topics vary wildly and cover science, literature, arts, philosophy, politics, history, you name it. Just scroll through the archive and pick any topic that strikes your fancy. It will not disappoint.
posted by robcorr at 12:49 PM on November 11 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Like robcorr, I came in to recommend In Our Time. For specific episodes, I am partial to the three with Janna Levin, because I think she's awesome, but the official Essential 10 include Circadian Rhythms, Hildegard of Bingen, and Gravitational Waves (which totally should have had Janna Levin but instead had the fabulous Carolin Crawford).
posted by kristi at 1:44 PM on November 11

@kristi I was not aware of the Essential 10! Very handy for future recommendations… thanks
posted by robcorr at 4:39 PM on November 11 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Train enthusiast extraordinaire Geoff Marshall has a series called Choo Choo Chat in which he interviews fellow train enthusiasts. Here's a full playlist of said series.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:22 AM on November 12

Best answer: One of my favourite videos on the internet is Nick Miller interviewing Greg Hatch.

Will you understand what Greg is on about? Absolutely not! I really cannot stress how much you won't understand what he's saying, about this completely absurd deck he's brewed for a single Magic The Gathering tournament. The beauty is that, as the interview goes on, and he becomes more and more excitably gleeful about this "novel he's written in his basement", Nick is clearly not 100% following either - but he just keeps on trying gamely, asking questions for Greg to enthuse about and introduce further epicycles (and puns??) to his elaborate explanation - it's just the most earnestly delightful video I've ever seen.

(I've been playing Magic for about 20 years. I can get about five minutes in before I also start struggling to follow what he's actually saying. I love it so much.)
posted by wattle at 8:07 AM on November 12