Could it be magic?
The Infinite Monkey Cage
BBC
4.7 • 9.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2024
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brian Cox and Robin Ince pull scientific explanations out of a hat and go down the rabbit hole to explore the science of magic with comedian Alan Davies, sleight of hand artist Laura London and two experts in the psychology of magic Richard Wiseman and Gustav Kuhn. They ask what our predilection to be bamboozled by sleight of hand can tell us about how our minds work. Alan has a card trick played on him and we learn how our choices aren’t always what we think they are.
Producer: Melanie Brown Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan |
| 0:05.2 | I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy |
| 0:10.2 | podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really. |
| 0:13.0 | Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh, |
| 0:18.0 | making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things. |
| 0:22.0 | But you know I also know that comedy is really |
| 0:24.4 | subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer |
| 0:29.6 | from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you |
| 0:36.2 | fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.3 | You're about to listen to the infinite monkey cage. Episodes will be released on Wednesdays, wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:46.0 | If you're in the UK, the full series is available right now. |
| 0:48.0 | At first, on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:50.0 | Hello, I'm Robin Ince. |
| 0:51.0 | And I'm Brancox, and this is the infinite monkey cage. |
| 0:54.0 | Now anyone who has been to a Barry Manilow concert, how many have been to a Barry Manilow concert? |
| 0:58.0 | Yeah, and there's no shame it. |
| 1:00.0 | Right? That's the whole, obviously the listeners at home can't see, but the whole audience, their hands went up there. |
| 1:06.0 | All of us fans, and I'm not saying this ironically, Mandy and Copicabana, Stone Cold Classics. |
| 1:12.0 | But if you have been to a Barry Manilow concert... and Copicana, Stone Cold Classics. |
| 1:12.5 | But if you have been to a Barry Manilow concert |
| 1:14.8 | and I believe he's on tour again next year, |
| 1:17.2 | then you will know that if Brian is ever in the audience, |
... |
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