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This is the BBC.

Welcome to the Infinite Monkey Cage extended special edition high-value special for subscribers only podcast.

That was said with Rio Chutzpah, wasn't it?

Hey,

it's very special because it's a special.

It's our top 10 moments because we're celebrating the 100th episode.

We're looking back over, what is it, 2009?

Was it?

Yeah, looking back over.

What worries me, though, is if this is meant to be a trip down memory lane, but you recently were telling me about the block universe and the nature of time.

So, can we actually take a trip down memory lane?

Well, if you, memory lane is referring to your world line, right?

Then no, right.

Okay, so we're not going to be taking down a trip down memory lane.

You can't take a trip down memory lane anyway.

I mean, all, I would say any theory of space-time, certainly Einstein's, but any future theory of space-time will prevent trips down memory lane.

Because all theories of space-time, I think, whatever they may be, will be causal.

I mean, if you could walk down memory lane, that implies going back

in time.

And then time itself doesn't exist, then, does it?

If there's no past, then there's no...

So anyway, we're not looking at...

Let's look back at just a hundred of the episodes that are yet to come from a few years ago.

That covers it, doesn't it?

As long as I don't have to walk down memory lane, because I think that violates really fundamental physical principles.

No, let's we're just going to stay here in this particular part of the block universe, right?

In the dimensions of the block universe.

And the first thing that I remember happening sometime in the future a few years back was when we did that one in the astronauts going to Norway and meeting, amongst others, Charlie Duke,

who Apollo 16,

remarkable, beautiful stories.

In fact, I don't even think some of the things that we didn't get around to talking about, that lovely story of when Charlie Charlie Duke was obviously just so obsessed with going to the moon, just the excitement of going to the moon that every one of his dreams involved going to the moon in the days building up to going to the moon.

And he had a dream where they landed on the moon and then they're driving around in the moon buggy and eventually they see tracks from another moon buggy and they ask Houston if they can follow them and eventually they follow them and they come across a moon buggy and on that moon buggy they're on it as well.

And it was just like having this Twilight Zone episode in his mind.

And then the fact that because it was the Olympics back down on Earth, they decided to do some fun Olympics on the moon and fell backwards and nearly smashed all the equipment.

Well, he smashed his visor into the lunar surface and then realised that that was probably not a wise thing.

I think it was Houtin in particular who said, that's enough of the Olympics, lads.

The other wonderful thing I remember about that episode was Charlie saying that his dad had seen the Wright brothers fly.

and then saw his son walk on the moon.

So his dad had a memory of the whole of the history of powered flight, which I thought was a wonderful thing.

Yeah, I think it was Charlie Duke who said that his dad just couldn't believe that a human being is still on the moon.

And his son thought, yeah, whatever.

Just the generation change.

I was thinking in the kind of early ones, one of my favorite moments actually was when we had Monica Grady on and we also had Patrick Stewart.

And Monica Grady had bought a piece of meteorite.

And I remember when she put it in my hand, it's surprising at how heavy it is because it has just a mass that you wouldn't expect for something of that scale it was an iron meteorite yeah and it just didn't feel like anything i'd ever felt on earth it was unexpected in its weight and i thought how amazing you know this has traveled across the universe here this incredible object and just as people were wowing at that patrick stewart went this is my communicator badge and everyone went oh including you and they were oohing more at one of his probably many communicator badges made in a factory in burbank than they were at a piece of meteorite that had traveled through the the universe.

And I think when we're discussing the size of space, and Patrick Stewart said, he said, yes, it's very, very big indeed.

I remember that many of the Star Trek episodes we filmed, we went to planets where there was really nothing interesting at all.

And we just didn't broadcast those.

So the ones that you see are the times when we did find something interesting to do, which I thought was a wonderful thing.

Yes.

Also, I think the first time we did oceans interested because I genuinely hadn't been aware of the fact that 80% of the, you know, we know far more about the moon than we know about the oceans.

And once you start to get oceanographers explaining some that we are still finding life that is, again, it's that old Richard Feynman line, isn't it?

The imagination of nature is far greater than the imagination of man, that you just see these creatures that are so perfectly evolved to live in those high-pressured environments, strange, flat, you know, almost gelatinous creatures.

And you just go, that's far greater and far more intriguing than anything we've seen made by Hollywood in terms of aliens.

Yeah, and I think one of the things that no one will have heard, because I think we've deleted the tapes, haven't we?

We don't have the sort of tapes that we use to edit the programmes together, but Bramley,

what was Bramley's last name?

The oceanographer?

Bramley.

We're just looking it up now.

We're googling it.

But it was my favourite thing was your...

You had to repeat his name for some reason because of a microphone.

You didn't pick up the first Bramley.

Yeah, can you just do some Bramley so we can start it in different ways?

Bramley?

Bramley.

Bramley.

Bramley!

Bramley!

Because you forgot to say their names.

We never used to, yeah, sometimes we wouldn't say their.

I also particularly enjoyed that.

One of the reasons we had to start making sure we said everyone's names, when we had John Ronson on the show, some people wrote in, they found it so unusual that two northerners should be on a show that they went, they couldn't tell the difference between your voice and John Ronson.

John Ronson, yeah, I know.

And I'm definitely not as enthusiastic as you, but I'm certainly more enthusiastic than John Ronson.

John Ronson, yeah, I think

the um, I, I, I was trying to remember one of the there was Sue Black,

I think, uh, when she was talking about the forensic investigation.

I mean, one of the things that I always find intriguing is when you have people who are now able to, in a kind of nonchalant way, talk about things that in some way that they still know are emotionally devastating, terrible, but they also have that amazing mix of the human mind and then what I would call that scientific, that genuinely, as a forensic scientist, she also has that forensic mind that says, I can now, here I can distance in terms of this is about the evidence and the facts, and then I will bring in the emotion later on at the end of the workday.

Those kind of like who was it who said quite recently, I think, in fact, in fact, it may even be in the future

from this podcast because I think it's going to be in this particular series when we're talking to someone and she just went, yeah, Ebola's cool.

And then I went, I think we're going to have to just do a little bit of a retake on that.

Because I know you're not actually saying that Ebola, people die from it is cool.

You're saying it's a very fascinating thing, but it's accented coming as

the coolest thing in Ebola.

I always enjoy the ones where the panel is.

particularly unusual and and i think my favorite guest in that regard is probably Brian Blessed.

Brian Blessed was yeah, because he scared the hardest edit, no one will ever hear the actual the first time he was on the show, no one will ever hear what happened with that because the amount of swearing and it was a if if you hear it, there's almost kind of a secret Morse code going on with just the little little gaps you can see in trying to tighten up things.

That sentence is almost usable.

Apart from just one of those words.

If you've never been to an Infinite Monkey Age recording then you probably think it's very proper, very, very BBC Radio 4.

It's very polite.

But it isn't really, is it?

Not if Ryan Blessed's there in particular.

No.

And there was, I think also, the first time we've done Glastonbury a few times, but the second time we did it, we did one, and I can't remember which particular part of theoretical physics it was, but we had Faye Daucron, who's

quantum cosmology, I think.

Oh, was it quantum cosmology because that hearing the sound of 3,000 skulls just cracking open a little bit as they'd all been in glass room.

By the time we came to record there, I think most people had been on site for two to three days.

There'd been a lot of hot cider, there had been a lot of general relaxation going on.

And then suddenly at midday on a Saturday, there's quantum cosmology.

And

there was a very interesting sound, I think, of skulls just splintering a little bit.

And Faye's description of it's like the first time Faye described

general relativity and

the nature of gravity and the fact that calling it a force and that moment as she talked about when you sit down on a chair and you kind of think that you're the pressure on the chair but if you really sit in that chair for a while you can actually feel that the chair's pushing up on you and once you do that there are moments where if you get overly involved in thinking that you fall out your chair And that's a good way to learn.

And most of the things I've learned for the show has been by thinking too hard about the nature of things and falling off my chair.

And every time I see that particular bruise, it will remind me.

If you'd listened to what Faye said though she would have said that according to Einstein you don't fall out of the chair.

When you leave the chair the chair accelerates away from you.

Oh that happened as well.

I splintered the door.

You enter an inertial frame of reference when you leave the chair.

So the chair and you together when you're in contact is

not an inertial frame, it's accelerating upwards.

That is one of the reasons I never take you to AE when I've had an accident because you spent so long explaining it, I've lost about two to three points by then.

Yes, you have to get the so you see the inertial frame of reference.

Yes, but why is he

I'll get to that, but let me first refer to Minkowski.

Um, but I think all of the Glastonbury ones have been a lot of fun.

Yeah, my favourite the Christmas shows are often my favorite because I enjoy the mixture, the wonderful mixture.

Again, it was actually Brian Blessed, Brian Brett, Brian Blessed, Chris Hadfield, richard coles

and francesca stavrocopula francesca stavrocopulu yeah yes who i think francesca stavrocopulu was one of the many guests that you very quickly handed over to me to introduce because you got worried you get to you and of course we'd also like to welcome francesca

oh

robin you do that introduction it's wonderful though the atheist bible scholar Yeah, and she is very passionate about both things, the Bible and

that was what was beautiful about that episode was one, one seeing the very calm canadian astronaut chris hadfield sat next to brian blessed but two there was a lovely thing that day where um sadly on the show we never managed to have patrick moore who's obviously someone that you you did work with and you want to start night with but um brian read out a very beautiful poem that he'd meant to read to Patrick Moore and hadn't had the opportunity, hadn't had the chance to do it.

And so Patrick Moore had only very recently died by the time we were recording that show.

And Brian read it out absolutely straight.

And very, you know, that reminder that he is both a brilliant character, but also he's a wonderful performer.

And that was a very moving moment, I think.

Yeah.

Also, the Los Angeles shows.

We did the four shows in America.

The Los Angeles show stands out because of the cheeky monkeys.

The band that we introduced, the young band, we got a young band to come on stage and perform our theme tune, which consisted of Eric Idle, Jeff Lynn, and

Jeff Davis.

Jeff Davis.

And that I we didn't tell anyone in the audience who it was.

And I thought it was Eric's recognisable, isn't he?

Jeff Lynn, though, I think it's a cognitive dissonance occurs, because if Jeff Lynn wanders on stage and starts playing, you can't really compute that that might be Jeff Lynn.

I don't think we ever actually said that that was Jeff Lynn.

But that that was, I think that was one of the scariest shows in terms of how do we follow that.

So we haven't even started the show.

Jeff Lynn and Eric Idol and Jeff Davis have done the theme tune live.

But even before that, because it was at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre, Ricardo Montalban, of course, has both Fancy Island and Khan.

And even though he is no longer with us, there is still before the show an announcer goes, please turn off your cell phones before the show starts.

And everyone started like laughs and applause.

You think they're laughing and applauding at a recording of an actor who isn't even alive anymore.

And now they've seen Eric Idle and Jeff Lynn.

And now we have to take them through this world of, and that that was a lovely one because Sean Carroll,

who has written some wonderful books about physics, Sean Carroll, we were talking about different Hollywood films that he'd worked on.

And Sean was a science advisor on the film Thor.

And we had to talk about exactly how science-y a film about a Norse god is.

And he looked like he took a little bit of umbrage and explained that they wanted the wormholes that the gods of Asgard to travel through to be as authentic as possible.

And in many ways, you might think, first of all, well, you won't be having the gods of Asgard traveling through them.

It's also the the things that you don't see.

The backstage events that happen.

One of my favourite images from Infinite Wonkage was you turning up at Los Angeles airport in a duffel coat in the middle of summer.

Yeah, and 30 degrees then, wasn't it?

Trudging through Hollywood with

about two plastic carrier bags full of books and a duffel coat.

And then sitting by a swimming pool in the shade in your very English way.

With people who are.

Excuse me, Mr.

Paddington, could you sign this for me?

Yeah.

I love your movies.

But yeah, that was that reminds me of the final one that we did out in America, which was San Francisco, where Carolyn Porco was on that.

And of course, Colen Porco had been involved in

creating some of the most incredible images that we've seen.

Well, the Cassini family.

Cassini is amongst others, and quite remarkable.

Then, when we had her back in a UK show, and again, she was on with Monica Grady, and there was a wonderful

Joe Brown was on that episode as well, who was very much a peacemaker between the two of them, because there was a sudden, like a flaming row about the likelihood of where we're first going to find uh extraterrestrial life yeah like

enceladus or

a moon of saturn or it was going to be the capes of mars so subsurface on mars and it's a live debate because um you're talking about funding you're talking about where do we send the next spacecraft uh where do we put our efforts and so carolyn's having been very heavily involved in the discovery that this tiny moon of saturn which is only about 300 miles in diameter, has got an ocean below its surface and therefore and hydrothermal vents

and therefore could be possibly a home for life.

She's very heavily identified with that discovery.

So she wants a spacecraft to go back to Saturn, whereas Monica believes that life will be more likely found in the caves or subsurface on Mars.

And so that was a lively debate, wasn't it?

I also remember, again, something that people won't have actually seen, but I remember the Christmas recording where just before the recording started, I had a terrible attack of diarrhea.

And I took an enormous number of emodium till I was nearly nothing less than dust.

And you then, before the show started, I told the audience that we were doing an experiment and

you deliberately opened and recorked a bottle of sherry next to the microphone over and over again, believing that might create some kind of psychosomatic effect.

And it did.

Yeah, no, well, no, I got through about 50 minutes of it.

And then I left.

I think Faye Dauker, I think I asked her a lengthy question about the change in the nature of science fiction since our understanding of that it's no longer space and time but space-time.

Very, very classic.

Classic Inspector.

It was a really long question to just basically give her as, you know, I feel like answer this for ages and you have as long as you want to answer that.

And then I ran off and I came back a minute later and you were now talking to Victor Stock, the former Dean of Guild Cathedral, about the workings of the General Synod.

So I think what a lot of listeners don't know is that really the only person who keeps keeps it on track in the physics is is me not you you normally want to talk about ecumenical matters

yes

in the infinite monkey cage

till now nice again if you'd like to hear any of those episodes of the infinite monkey cage then you just need to go to the bbc website and you can search online in fact you can search anywhere online put in the infinite monkey cage currently we are still the only one.

Why did you say that?

What?

Well, why are you telling people to search online?

Because what are they listening to?

How did they find this?

Oh, I don't know.

So they don't know how to search online for the infinite monkey cage.

How is it possible that they're listening to this now?

I don't understand.

Do you know what?

This might be that example that I sent up on that golden record that I made.

On the Voyager?

Yeah, wow, it's my version of it.

I don't know how far it's got so far.

Some of the bin came off when it blew up, but the rest of it seemed all right.

If you're one of the listeners who's listening to this online who doesn't know how to find this online you're part of a paradox it's quite interesting we should do an infinite monkey cage on it yeah it's kind of a if that exists

yeah sort of like a sharian

a sharian a sharian i'll have an a sharian what's that frank i'll have an a sharian whatever you're having

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