Explainercast

Episode 30: How the FBI Can Read Your Signal Messages

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 30, Shane and Dave explain how Apple secures push notifications, and how the FBI took advantage of this architectuure to read supposedly encrypted Signal messages.

Episode 29: Quicksand and Non-Newtonian Fluids

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 29, Shane and Dave explain quicksand and non-Newtonian fluids, including the longest-running laboratory experiment.

Episode 28: Weather Part 3: What goes up must come down

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 28, Shane and Dave explain common powerful movements of air that you didn’t know existed: downbursts, microbursts, gust fronts, haboobs, and derechos.

Episode 27: Weather Part 2: Hurricanes

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 27, Shane and Dave explain hurricanes! Why do they form? Where do they go? Why are they ONLY ever hitting North America? Find out in this episode!

Episode 26: Weather Part 1, Lightning

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 26, Shane and Dave kick off a saga about the weather, starting with lightning!

How does lightning work?

What are the mechanisms that cause it?

Episode 25: Human Visual Perception

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 25, Shane and Dave explain how humans perceive things visually: shapes, focus, spatial density, and much more.

Episode 24: Color Perception Part 2 of 2

Wed, 28 May 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 24, Shane and Dave explain how researchers at UC Berkeley created a color that no human has ever experienced, until now. How did they do this? Is this even possible?

Episode 23: Color Perception Part 1 of 2

Tue, 27 May 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 23, Shane and Dave explain how the human eye and brain perceive color. Fun fact: there is no yellow on your phone screen (or purple or brown or white or gray), and there might not be any yellow in your yellow shirt either!

Episode 22: The Signal CloudFlare Hack

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 22, Shane and Dave explain how a clever 15-year-old discovered a way to geolocate Signal users, despite Signal’s reputation for strong security.

We’ll explain how he did it, and you’ll learn about content distribution networks on the internet.

Episode 21: Scaling Laws

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 21, Shane and Dave explain how things lose features when they get bigger and why. Why can full-sized helipcopters not fly upside down, but small RC helipcopters can?? And so much more!

Episode 20: Skiing

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 20, Shane and Dave explain skiing! First principles: Types, materials, physics, techniques.

Episode 19: High Performance Driving

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 19, Shane and Dave explain high performance driving:

How to drive at the performance limit
The physics of racing
Racing strategy

Episode 18: How NAT works on the internet

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 18, Shane and Dave explain how the internet inventors were able to cram billions of IP addreses into a much smaller space. And, this is how your home internet connection works too!

Episode 17: Rainbows

Fri, 17 May 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 17, Shane and Dave explain the surprising science of rainbows. Can you touch one? Does everyone else see the same rainbow that you see?

Episode 16: ChatGPT

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 16, Shane and Dave explain how GPTs work. GPTs are a type of large language model, and the most famous is ChatGPT.

Episode 15: DNS on the Internet

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 15, Shane and Dave explain the Domain Name Service, which is how your web browser figures out the IP addresses to use for domain names like google.com

Episode 14: Alexa

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 14, Shane and Dave explain how Alexa works. Alexa is the most popular household voice assistant. Find out how Alexa works on the inside!

Episode 13: Telecommunications part 5, reliable communication with TCP

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 13, Shane and Dave explain how the internet ensures that data is delivered between computers reliably and in order.

Episode 12: Telecommunications Part 4, the internet!

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 12, Shane and Dave continue explaining the saga of telecommunications. Computer networks! How the technologies work that power the internet.

Episode 11: Explaining Computers Part 2

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 11, Shane and Dave continue explaining computers. This is the 2nd part in a to-be-determined-length saga.

Episode 10: Explaining Computers Part 1

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 10, Shane and Dave start to explain how computers work, from the very bottom: transistors, digital logic, binary, math, and much more. This will be the first part of an awesome saga!

Episode 9: Eclipses Part 2, an Addendum!

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 13:00:00 +0000

In episode 9, Shane and Dave correct some errors from episode 8 about eclipses, and add even more explaining!

Episode 8: Eclipses

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 15:00:00 +0000

What makes eclipses happen. Learn about the physics that causes the spectacular phenomena that turns day into night and the moon into blood.

Episode 7: Telecommunications part 3, party lines!

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 15:00:00 +0000

Onward to party lines! After the telephone was invented, the next thing people wanted to do was talk to their friends. But this was expensive! In this episode, we explain how the telephone gained mass market adoption, including the party line, and finally, the first digital (yes, ones and zeros) telephone transmission.

Episode 6: Telecommunications part 2, onward to the telephone

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 15:00:00 +0000

Technology advanced from the telegraph, but how did it work? Did you know they tried using compasses? What about error correction? Did you know Thomas Edison figured out a way to transmit 4 independent telegraph conversations on a single wire? We promise you will be surprised to learn how the telephone evolved from the telegraph.

In this episode:

Serendipitous user interfaces
Deep dive on the electromechanical telegraph
Morse code
Failure rates and probability
Overseas telegraph parties
Multiple telegraph conversations on a single wire
Frequency division multiplexing
Mirrors and threads
How Thomas Edison got rich
Duplex vs. half duplex vs. simplex
The accidental invention of the telephone

Episode 5: The telegraph is not what you think

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 15:00:00 +0000

We promise you; you don’t know what the telegraph is. You think you know, but did you know the first telegraphs had no wires? Did you know they used 30-foot tall towers with people standing on top of them? Did you know that electrical telegraphs were originally discovered thanks to a frog leg?

Episode 4: Moore's Law

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 15:00:00 +0000

Gordon Moore declared that CPUs would get better and better at a very ambitious rate, and it turns out, he has been mostly right for over 50 years! We talk about the technology innovations that have allowed Moore’s amazing law to continue from 1965 to the present.

Episode 3: Cookies

Fri, 26 May 2023 15:00:00 +0000

What are cookies on the web? You’ve heard about them. Now go deep on what they are, how they work, and what they let your web browser do.

Episode 2: Sailing part 2 of 2

Sat, 20 May 2023 15:00:00 +0000

Part 2 in the thrilling saga: The surprising physics of sailing!

This is the second episode of Explainercast where Shane and Dave explain sailing!

We covered more physics, optimization strategies, racing, and how to get started in sailing.

Episode 1: Sailing part 1 of 2

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 12:00:00 +0000

The surprising physics of sailing!

This is the first episode of Explainercast where Shane and Dave explain sailing! This is the 1st episode in a series about sailing.

The main question to answer is whether this will truly be 1 of only 2 total episodes on sailing given Shane’s profound depth of knowledge on this topic.