Shirtloads of Science

This week we're joined by Gerry Griffin, an aeronautical engineer and Apollo flight director who worked on every single moon landing during the Apollo mission, from Apollo 11 to Apollo 17. In this chat, he shares how the Mission Control team worked to manage each mission, second by second, in rotating shifts. With far more data on the ground than on board, Mission Control was better positioned to help the astronauts solve problems as they arose.
Gerry walks through some of the "showstopper" moments that could have ended in disaster, including the lightning strike on Apollo 12 and the 1202 alarm during the Apollo 11 landing. He also talks about Apollo 13, where an oxygen tank failure led to the famous call, "Houston, we've had a problem." Gerry's firsthand experience of that mission led to his role as an advisor on the film Apollo 13.
Gerry is coming to Australia next year for a series of events called SPACELIVE. Visit the website for more details
https://www.spaceliveofficial.com/

When Robbie Williams announced he had been diagnosed with scurvy earlier this year, Professor Clare Collins was relieved… why?! Because he was bringing attention to a major issue arising from the use of the popular class of weight loss medications, GLP-1s. Professor Collins joins me on Shirtloads to discuss how nutrient deficiencies have increased among those using these medications.
Clare agrees that GLP-1 medications DO have an overall net positive effect as effective and beneficial medications, but warns that without proper nutrient intake (due to a suppression in appetite) nutrient deficiencies are much more common than they should be. 

This is an aspect of the GLP-1 discourse that does not get enough attention - particularly when discussing adverse side effects.

Visit No Money, No Time to read the article
www.nomoneynotime.com.au/

In mid-2026, a swarm of AI agents coordinated a cyberattack on Hugging Face, a platform where machine learning communities can collectively work to improve AI models and capabilities. This breach happened without human supervision.

Friend of the show and science communicator Dr. Petr Lebedev brings us up to speed on what is now being referred to as the first true AI safety incident.
A crucial conversation on why the AI race needs to hit the brakes so regulations can be implemented to reduce the risk of AI misalignment.

This conversations was recorded in late August, 2026.

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Petr's conversation with Yoshua Benjo - www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvvvtbBvh6Q
https://sciencepetr.com/

Science writer and journalist Marcus Chown returns for a shorter, more philosophical chat. When Einstein first proposed gravitational waves, atoms hadn't even been discovered, so who knows what the next century holds? We dig into the strange idea of the universe's "mathematical twin," and discuss the Standard Model of physics - a brilliant framework, but riddled with holes.

www.marcuschown.com

Science writer and former astrophysicist Marcus Chown joins us to discuss the elusive graviton - the theoretical particle behind gravity. 

 In this chat we dig into the four fundamental forces of nature, why gravity is so uniquely hard to pin down, and why detecting a graviton would require a detector larger than Jupiter. Marcus also unpacks string theory, the only framework that manages to fold gravity in with the other forces, and why it's fallen out of favour with much of the physics community.

www.marcuschown.com/