Episode 41: Soonish with Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

Written By Beth Mund
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Beth, Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith have way too much fun geeking out about:

  • Whether or not we would put an Elon Musk- invented NeuroLink implant in our brains…

  • How Kelly and Zach had to really focus on only 10 technologies for their book, “Soonish”

  • Kelly’s extreme fear of being bored and her many career achievements from bugs to asteroids…and how she keeps parasites in her ice cubes in her kitchen freezer sometimes (not really).

  • Asteroid mining and the future of accessing raw materials while we’re traveling in space

  • How Zach captures his cleverness all in one (single-panel) cartoon

“We can agree that it’s weird to have parasites in the freezer, right?”

Dr. Kelly Weinersmith

About Kelly:

From www.weeklyweinersmith.com:

“I’m a parasitologist, podcaster, mom, and sci writer (not necessarily in that order). I study parasites that manipulate the behavior of their hosts, making the host behave in ways that benefit the parasite. My favorite parasite is the crypt-keeper wasp, which you can read more about here. I am an adjunct assistant professor at Rice University in the BioSciences Department. You can find out more about my research here.Follow me on twitter, where I occasionally post photos of the cool parasites I study.”

-Kelly

Read and learn more about Kelly’s work at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/01/crypt-keeper-wasps-parasites-new-species/and www.weinersmith.com  

“In a good comic, you should have some kind of physical reaction to the idea…You have sort of an honest, visceral reaction for the concept, then that’s usually a good sign.”

-Zach Weinersmith

About Zach:

Zach Weinersmith is the creator of the popular webcomic SMBC, the creator of the nerd comedy show BAHFest, and the co-author of the New York Times-bestselling popular science book, Soonish.

Read and learn more about Zach’s work at: Zach’s graphic novel on immigration (Open Borders, with Bryan Caplan) http://openborderscomic.com/

And http://theweinerworks.com/ 

Watch great videos with BOTH Zach and Kelly: WATCH NOW

Beth Mund https://www.bethmund.com