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About This Podcast
Pour yourself something warm. Let it drizzle outside. This one's for the curious.
The Mark & Toddcast is your weekly escape from the algorithm, the outrage cycle, and whatever fresh hell is trending. Broadcasting from the rainy heart of Portland, Oregon, two friends have spent 11 years and over 300 episodes doing exactly what you wish you could do at your favorite dimly lit neighborhood pub: sitting down with a pint and wandering through whatever's genuinely interesting.
Consider us comfort food for your brain.
Instead, expect pure Pacific Northwest chill and unfiltered curiosity about topics like:
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Why we absolutely hate the sound of our own voices
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The secret origin of the biohazard symbol
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America’s classified, Cold War plan to nuke the moon
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The Stanford Prison Experiment (and why it was actually kind of BS)
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Portland’s very own infamous Barbie-hacking culture jammers
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The unsolved mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
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And yes... the actual science of farts
What’s in an Episode?
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The Catch-Up: A little life banter between two longtime friends navigating the Rose City.
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Just the Headlines: A quick spin through the weirdest, wildest science and culture news of the week.
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The Deep Dive: A 20-minute, high-level plunge into whatever strange subject one of us couldn't stop reading about.
Meet Your Hosts:
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Mark spent his twenties operating nuclear reactors for the Navy before coming home to Portland's Silicon Forest to keep the machines that build microchips running. Now, he’s a technical director helping companies get found online.
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Todd has lived several lives—ad copywriter, artist, Newsweek-published writer, and an unrepentant Madonna superfan. Today, he’s a local therapist helping people untangle their stories and reconnect with the humans around them.
Pull up a chair. Grab a local beverage.
Science is funny.
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Recent Episodes
This Episode Stinks: The Fascinating Feat of Finding the Facts of Flatulence
This week we take a look, um, "inward" with a discussion about the very real science of finally figuring out flatulence -- and more specifically, just *how* they do that, and what we can learn. Also,…
The Most Sold Product of All Time
This week we take a rollicking journey through Mark's gluten and boat news, the rise of Clavicular and LooksMaxxing, how much clouds weigh, Mark's ChatGPT humiliation fetish, hacking the French…
Birthdays, Bowels, and Beyond
tbh so much goes on in this episode there's no way to summarize it.
Meaningless + Memorable: the Biohazard Symbol
Creating a new symbol to reflect the deadly consequences of something completely undetectable required two essential components: the symbol had to be meaningless enough to carry zero current meaning…
Mark Goes to CES
Let's go to Las Vegas, CES, and the Sphere with Mark!
Why We Hate the Sound of Our Own Voice
There's a lot more happening when we hear our own voice than you'd think. We've all heard "it's because the bones in your head are conducting sound," but that's only part of it. Find out the rest of…
Ugly Laws
"Ugly Laws" were ordinances across the United States disallowed anyone who was “diseased, maimed, mutilated or in any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object” for appearing in…
3i Atlas and Locating Yourself on the Moon
This week we take a look into space by discussing the weird interstellar object known as 3i/Atlas, conspiracy theories about what the object may be, and how the original Apollo astronauts figured out…
The TikTok-ification of the Mark & Toddcast
We're finally back after a two month hiatus, and we threw out the format of the show to see where the conversation took us. The discussion veers from drying off after a shower to AI cats to what…
A Chlamydia-Free Summer Wrap-Up
It's been a minute, but Mark and Todd are back for an end-of-summer news wrap-up, including great news for promiscuous koalas! (And for those looking for a break from last week's big news story, we…
Portland at the Movies: "Blast!" (2000)
The Unipiper noted that this movie begins like "Stand by Me," but ends up like "Reservoir Dogs." While not exactly right, he's not far off describing this 2000 movie with some legitimately shocking…
Portland at the Movies: "Raising Flagg" (2006)
Our Portland at the Movies server is having issues, so in the meantime, here's the latest episode of PatM, which looks at the 2006 Alan Arkin film "Raising Flagg." "This month we head out to the…
Mining for Neutrinos in South Dakota's Black Hills
A mile underground under the tiny city of Lead, South Dakota -- a former gold mining town -- is home to one of the most sensitive scientific measurement systems ever created, all to find and measure…
What We Did On Summer Vacation and All the News We Missed
After graduations, sicknesses, hospitalizations, travel, and more, we're finally back in the saddle catching up on all the news we missed while we were out. Come for the measles, and stay for a bath!
Hetero Awesome Fest Warms Our Cockles
In this exciting all-news episode, we take a look at the dozens of attendees at Idaho's "Heterosexual Awesome Fest," asbestos is back, Washington State's proposed speed laws, Idaho brings back the…
Oops! All News
Our planned interview fell through for this week, but that gives us an opportunity to catch up on all the news we've been putting off. Come with us as we meander through 250 million bees on the…
Top 5 Aliens Living Among Us
With so many so-called "alien encounters" throughout history, has there been any consistency in people's descriptions? This week we dive into the top 5 most recounted alien types who may be living…
So Much News We May Be Arrrested
This week Todd is joined by Dave Baehler from the NotNerd podcast to plow through the giant pile of news accumulated since our last show. Join us as we dive into AI police robots, RIP Alpenrose Dairy…
Aum Shinrikyo - The Japanese Doomsday Cult
Aum Shinrikyo was an active doomsday cult in Japan throughout the 1990s, and were responsible for the Sarin gas attacks on the Japanese subway, and threatened attacks around the world -- including…
The Ingenuity of Ingenuity
Many of us know about the Mars Opportunity rover currently on Mars, but some may not know about a self-piloting helicopter called Ingenuity that traveled with Opportunity. Designed for 5 flights, it…
Frequently Asked Questions
Mark and Toddcast has published 100 episodes since November 2021, covering topics in Comedy, Science.
Mark and Toddcast is currently active with new episodes monthly. Average episode length is 1h 2m.
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