'They Might Be Giants' Sings About Science

In a conversation from 2009, the band They Might Be Giants tackles the scientific process, plasma physics, the role of blood in the body and the importance of DNA, all in song.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Flora Lichtman?

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• 0:46Speaker 01

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• 1:00Ira Flatow?

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• 1:20Flora Lichtman?

  Sometimes it's hard to understand difficult science concepts unless we sing about them.

• 1:27Speaker 03

  I mean, the song we're gonna play, if this existed in my freshman year of high school, it would have been an incredible godsend for my grades.

• 1:34Flora Lichtman?

  It's Wednesday, December 4th, and it's also Science Friday.

• 1:41Flora Lichtman?

  I'm Sci-Fri producer Kathleen Davis. In 2009, the band They Might Be Giants released an album called Here Comes Science. In it, they sing about the science of plasma, talk about what blood does in the body, and they sing an ode to the elements. In this archival segment from 2009, Ira Flatow is joined in studio by members of the band to discuss the album and play some songs.

• 2:09Ira Flatow?

  Joining me now in the studio here in New York is John Linnell and John Flansburgh. Also on the drums, Marty Beller. In the background, we'll be playing a lot of music. Welcome to Science Friday.

• 2:18Speaker 03

  It's very exciting to be here.

• 2:20Ira Flatow?

  Why would you do songs about science? I mean, not only geeks like me like science.

• 2:24Speaker 03

  Because we're like you.

• 2:27Ira Flatow?

  Are you? Did you do a lot of...

• 2:28Speaker 03

  Well, we love that. You know, this is really a big thrill for us because, you know, we've been listening to the show for a long time. It's like, suddenly, like, we're inside the TV set or the radio. It's very... It's kind of trippy.

• 2:38Ira Flatow?

  Were you sciency geeks when you were in school?

• 2:41Speaker 04

  Not exactly, no. I mean, it's actually a little bit of a stretch, in a way, for us to declare ourselves to be authorities on science.

• 2:50Speaker 03

  This is the Peter Principle in full bloom.

• 2:53Speaker 04

  Exactly, yeah, yeah.

• 2:54Ira Flatow?

  And you're stepping into a little quagmire by naming a song "Science is Real." There are a lot of people who don't believe science is real.

• 3:00Speaker 03

  Well, you see, that's not controversial for us.

• 3:01Ira Flatow?

  Not for you?

• 3:02Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 3:03Ira Flatow?

  But have you heard any reaction from people who say, "Well, why is..."

• 3:06Speaker 03

  Well, you know, I don't think, judging by YouTube flame comments, you can really get an accurate gauge of what the... In general, it seems like people are actually quite positive about the whole prospect, but...

• 3:21Speaker 04

  People we meet face to face are like you, pretty much.

• 3:24Ira Flatow?

  Well, that's good. Name the songs on the albums.

• 3:27Speaker 03

  Well, "Meet the Elements," "Photosynthesis," "My Brother the Ape," "I am a Paleontologist," "Roy G. Biv," which is about the color spectrum, light spectrum, and I don't know, John, what other titles?

• 3:41Speaker 04

  "Cells."

• 3:41Speaker 03

  "Cells."

• 3:42Ira Flatow?

  "Why Does the Sunshine?"

• 3:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 3:43Speaker 04

  "Why Does the Sunshine?" "Speed and Velocity."

• 3:46Ira Flatow?

  And now, these all sound like kids' songs. Are these aimed at kids?

• 3:48Speaker 03

  Well, it's kind of a... It's sort of a mixed bag. There are some songs that are very simple, that are kind of... That are good for little kids.

• 3:56Ira Flatow?

  Right.

• 3:57Speaker 03

  And then there are songs that are more fact-packed, that probably would, you know, be a little bit too complicated for a toddler, but, you know, if you're... I mean, the song we're gonna play...

• 4:13Ira Flatow?

  Play it.

• 4:14Speaker 03

  The song "Meet the Elements," like, if this existed in my freshman year of high school, it would have been an incredible godsend for my grades.

• 4:21Ira Flatow?

  Well, you know, when I hear the song "Meet the Elements," who am I thinking of? Not if you guys, before, way before you guys were born, Tom Lehrer, right? Do you remember the Elements song? Do you remember Tom Lehrer?

• 4:31Speaker 04

  No, actually.

• 4:32Speaker 03

  I know the song "Pollution" by Tom Lehrer.

• 4:35Ira Flatow?

  He did a whole song of the Elements, so that's much different than yours.

• 4:37Speaker 04

  Probably more satirical than ours.

• 4:39Speaker 03

  I can't believe that guy invented a time machine and went backwards and stole our ideas. Yeah, no, I don't know, I'm not familiar with that song.

• 4:47Ira Flatow?

  But he just rattles through the table of el- periodic table of elements.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  Well, that's kind of what we're doing. That's what we're doing.

• 4:52Ira Flatow?

  What made you-

• 4:53Speaker 03

  Imagine our disappointment that we find out. No, but you know what, that's-

• 4:56Ira Flatow?

  He was a folk singer.

• 4:57Speaker 03

  No, no, no.

• 4:58Ira Flatow?

  What made you write this song? Tell us a little bit about the genesis of this song.

• 5:02Speaker 04

  Well, we were working on our science album, and I guess the thing is, we wanted to cover all of the different areas of science. So we're thinking chemistry, biology, physics, earth science, applied science. You know, we're just trying, stepping into each one. And I find the periodic table of the elements to be kind of a great organizational, you know, an amazing inspiration, actually.

• 5:31Ira Flatow?

  Do you?

• 5:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, that it's a grid, you can just look at it and say, oh, it's all laid out simply. It's a lot simpler than a lot of other science charts that you have to study. So this one seemed like it was, you know, it was something you could stare at and write a song based on.

• 5:48Ira Flatow?

  I'm Ira Flatow, you're listening to Science Friday from WNYC Studios. This is an interview from our archives, recorded in September of 2009. And we're going to hear a cut from the album. Here they are, "They Might Be Giants" playing.

• 6:06Speaker 04

  Meet the Elements.

• 6:07Ira Flatow?

  Meet the Elements, let's meet them now.

• 6:28Speaker 04

  Coal, crush it together and diamonds are born. Come on, come on and meet the elements. May I introduce you to a friend, the elements. Like a box of paints that are mixed to make every shade. They either combine to make a chemical compound or stand alone as they are. Neons of acid lights up a sign at a pizza place. The coins that you pay with are copper, nickel, and zinc. Silicon and oxygen make concrete bricks and glass.

• 7:09Speaker 04

  Now add some gold and silver for some pizza place class. Come on, come on and meet the elements. I think you should check out the ones that call the elements. Like a box of paints that are mixed to make every shade. They either combine to make a chemical compound or stand alone as they are. Keep up with other elements, forming compounds when they combine. Or make up a simple element formed out of atoms of the one kind.

• 7:49Speaker 04

  Balloons are full of helium, and so is every star. Stars are mostly hydrogen, which may someday drive your car. Hey, who let in all these elephants? Don't you know that elephants are made of elements? Elephants are mostly made of four elements. And every living thing is mostly made of four elements. Plants, bugs, trees, worms, bacteria, and men are mostly carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. Come on, come on and meet the elements.

• 8:32Speaker 04

  You and I are complicated, but we're made of elements. Like a box of- Paints that are mixed to make every shade. They either combine to make a chemical compound or stand alone as they are. Team up with other elements forming compounds when they combine, or make up a simple element formed out of atoms of the one kind. Come on, come on, meet the elements. Check out the ones they call the elements. Like a box of paints that are mixed to make every shade.

• 9:12Speaker 04

  They either combine to make a chemical compound or stand alone as they are.

• 9:29Ira Flatow?

  Wow, that was great.

• 9:31Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 9:31Ira Flatow?

  That was nothing like, you know, that was much better. It's a great song.

• 9:37Speaker 03

  We haven't heard the Tom Lehrer song. I can't possibly comment.

• 9:40Ira Flatow?

  This was just terrific. How long did it take you to write that song? Months, years, decades, lifetime?

• 9:46Speaker 03

  That's a secret. We can't, because then people are gonna, if we do a work, if we do like some kind of theme for somebody, they're gonna want to pay us less if we reveal how quickly you can write a song.

• 9:55Ira Flatow?

  Well, just to remind our audience, we're talking with the band They Might Be Giants and their new album is Here Comes Science. Is it out now?

• 10:02Speaker 03

  It is out. As of yesterday, it is out everywhere. You can buy it at Target.

• 10:07Ira Flatow?

  No kidding?

• 10:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:08Ira Flatow?

  And you can download it?

• 10:09Speaker 03

  Right next to Miley Cyrus.

• 10:16Speaker 05

  After the break, more from our 2009 conversation with They Might Be Giants. Stay with us.

• 10:28Ira Flatow?

  Hi there, Ira here, letting you know that we have a dollar-for-dollar match right now, so any donation you make will be doubled. And this week, we're celebrating Giving Tuesday, which means now is a great time to double your impact and show your support for Science Friday, a nonprofit dedicated to making science accessible to the public. So please, go to sciencefriday.com/support to make your donation and invest in the future of science journalism. Again, that's sciencefriday.com/support, and thanks.

• 11:06Speaker 01

  WNYC is supported by Bear. Every day in America, science delivers. Not just in the headlines, but in the moments that matter most. Science is a journey, one of curiosity, persistence, and progress. It's about asking questions, testing, learning, and improving again and again. Science delivers harvests that feed families, tools that help farmers grow more with less, and new ways to protect land for generations to come. Let's keep asking, keep testing, keep discovering, so science can keep delivering. Learn more at scienddelivers.com.

• 11:41Speaker 06

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• 11:42Speaker 07

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• 11:43Speaker 06

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• 11:54Speaker 07

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• 12:00Speaker 06

  Listen to Machine Gods from NPR on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 12:09Ira Flatow?

  I wish I used to play the accordion.

• 12:12Speaker 07

  Man, start jamming. Feel free.

• 12:16Ira Flatow?

  With the Bear, they might be giants, and their new album is out, just out yesterday. Here Comes Science with John Flansburgh and John Linnell. Also, they're playing the music for us, and not to be outdone, is Marty Beller is here with the drums.

• 12:29Speaker 03

  The king of the drums.

• 12:30Ira Flatow?

  The king of the percussion.

• 12:31Speaker 03

  Marty is actually playing an electronic drum kit, which is brand new. It's his brand new thing.

• 12:36Ira Flatow?

  That explains why I tried to go over and use my fingers.

• 12:39Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 12:40Ira Flatow?

  And nothing happened. It's electronic.

• 12:42Speaker 03

  You need the magic of electricity.

• 12:44Ira Flatow?

  What an age we live in. And I'm surrounded by, I guess I'd call them, music geeks, music-science geeks, because they're writing albums about science. And what's the next song? We'd love to hear from you.

• 12:55Speaker 06

  Well, this has a little story behind it. We used to cover-

• 12:58Ira Flatow?

  ...a science song, in fact, we still do, called "Why Does the Sun Shine?", which is from a bunch of science, a collection of science songs that came out when we were kids with Tom Glaser, and I don't know if you're familiar with this record, but the sun was called, the song was called "Why Does the Sun Shine?", and in parentheses, "The sun is a mass of incandescent gas." And what we found out was that subsequently, they figured out that the sun is not actually made of gas after this song had become popular among kids. Sure it is. Well, apparently, it's not. Well, I better relearn something else. We're here to tell you that there are four states of matter, and the sun is actually

• 13:43Ira Flatow?

  super excited gas, which is called plasma, where the electrons have- Stripped off. Been stripped off, precisely. And so, we were forced to write this answer song to our own very popular "Why Does the Sun Shine?".

• 13:59Speaker 03

  Which is something we only do reluctantly. We don't, this whole fact-checking thing is very difficult for a rock band.

• 14:06Ira Flatow?

  Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, yeah, musicians don't normally care about whether it is plasma or gas. We care about beauty and poetry.

• 14:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:14Ira Flatow?

  Those are our main concerns.

• 14:15Speaker 03

  All our lies are in our past. We're forgetting about the lies.

• 14:19Ira Flatow?

  But it speaks very highly of you, that you want to change the song to get it right.

• 14:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was just sort of fun, too. I mean, basically, an engineer we were working with, we were actually talking about the conundrum of the whole thing, because we had already rerecorded this famous song from our repertoire for this album, and we were just like, "Well, what are we going to do? It's outdated, it's, you know, science has evolved, the consensus has moved on from the idea of the song." And this engineer, John Altshuler, actually said, "Why don't you just write a song called 'The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma'?" And that's what we did.

• 14:55Ira Flatow?

  And is that the name of the song?

• 14:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:58Ira Flatow?

  All right, here they is, here they is, they might be giants from their album, Here Comes Science.

• 15:18Speaker 04

  The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma. The sun's not simply made out of gas, no, no, no. The sun is a quagmire. It's not made of fire. Forget what you've been told in the past. Plasma, electrons are free. Plasma, full state of matter, not gas, not liquid, not solid. Ooh. The sun is no red door. I hope it never morphs into some supernova collapse.

• 16:03Speaker 04

  Oh, oh, oh, oh. The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma. I forget what I was told by myself. L, L, L. Plasma, electrons are free. Plasma, full state of matter, not gas, not liquid, not solid. Plasma, forget that song. Plasma, they got it wrong. That thesis has been rendered invalid.

• 16:41Speaker 04

  Forget that song.

• 16:50Ira Flatow?

  Wow, that's great, that's great.

• 16:52Speaker 03

  Ira, I have to say, we've been on a million radio shows and the reverence with which you show the length and ending of a song is truly a recessive trait in DJs, hosts, radio people.

• 17:05Ira Flatow?

  You want to know why that is?

• 17:06Speaker 03

  It's beautiful. Like, when you actually, at the top of the thing, where you played the entire song, science is real, like, you know, typically, you know, people just hit the fader, 30 seconds, right before it ends, it's like, oh, we don't have that kind of time.

• 17:16Ira Flatow?

  I will tell you why that is.

• 17:17Speaker 03

  That's why I love, I love, I love public radio.

• 17:19Ira Flatow?

  I come from, yes, I come from a public radio FM classical music background.

• 17:23Speaker 03

  Oh, really?

• 17:24Ira Flatow?

  And my, when I was, when I was in my learning days at WBFO in Buffalo, if I ever faded down one...

• 17:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:32Ira Flatow?

  One note of a classical music. I once had an argument that I was, I was the news director and I wanted to fade down the music so I could get a bulletin in there.

• 17:41Speaker 07

  Yeah, exactly.

• 17:42Ira Flatow?

  I heard, "You can't run a bulletin, you can't interrupt an FM radio."

• 17:45Speaker 07

  Right, right.

• 17:45Ira Flatow?

  Classical music.

• 17:46Speaker 07

  So you were like the king of dead air.

• 17:47Ira Flatow?

  I was, so you just let the song go all the way. You wrote the whole song.

• 17:51Speaker 07

  Exactly.

• 17:52Ira Flatow?

  Why don't we hear the whole song?

• 17:53Speaker 07

  You actually let a little silence in after that.

• 17:55Ira Flatow?

  Absolutely.

• 17:56Speaker 07

  You know, our guy in Boston, I guess, was Robert J. Lurcema, would just, it would seem like he'd fallen asleep. You know, it was this quiet moment.

• 18:02Ira Flatow?

  I remember him.

• 18:03Speaker 07

  Yeah. It was like, "That was..."

• 18:07Ira Flatow?

  No, that was...

• 18:07Speaker 07

  But it suggests a whole different kind of lifestyle. It's fantastic.

• 18:10Ira Flatow?

  I have a suggestion for a song for you.

• 18:12Speaker 07

  Oh, sure.

• 18:13Ira Flatow?

  You know, you talked about the mistake with the makeup of the sun. How about something about Pluto not being a planet?

• 18:20Speaker 07

  Uh, well, we do have, we do have a song, we haven't learned how to perform it in this group, but with this arrangement.

• 18:25Ira Flatow?

  Oh, is there?

• 18:25Speaker 07

  But we do have a song called "How Many Planets," where we dodge the question of how many planets there are by simply enumerating everything, planet or not, in the course of the song.

• 18:37Speaker 03

  Let the people decide.

• 18:38Speaker 07

  Let the people decide, yeah, yeah.

• 18:39Speaker 03

  What's your opinion on that, Ira?

• 18:41Ira Flatow?

  I, I don't think it really matters. You know, I don't think that it matters that Pluto is a...

• 18:45Speaker 07

  Well, then, we're in, we're in agreement then, yeah. That's more or less what we're expressing in the song. Who cares?

• 18:50Ira Flatow?

  I would, if I were pressed, I'd have to say, yes, there are eight planets, but it doesn't really matter that Pluto has been demoted, because it's just a name for something.

• 18:57Speaker 07

  Yeah, yeah. I think everybody kind of feels for Pluto a little bit, though.

• 19:01Ira Flatow?

  Yeah.

• 19:02Speaker 07

  I think Woody Harrelson should be a planet, too. So that makes nine.

• 19:10Ira Flatow?

  Well, there are people who are, you know, or space cadets, but, uh...

• 19:13Speaker 07

  What's that, what's that email address again, Ira?

• 19:16Ira Flatow?

  Don't send it to me. Don't send it to me. Send it to John Linnell, he will take all...

• 19:20Speaker 07

  That's right. I'll, I'll take questions.

• 19:22Ira Flatow?

  Go ahead, go ahead.

• 19:23Speaker 07

  Good, I'm willing to debate, to debate.

• 19:25Ira Flatow?

  Do you have a, do you have a, and you never ask anybody this, any, this question, but I'll, you know, you never ask anybody, "Who's your favorite kid," right? And you ask musicians, "What's your favorite song that you have..."

• 19:34Speaker 07

  It's funny, yeah, we do get that, and we are, yeah, it's like insulting, you know? How could you ask that? Oh, I'm appalled.

• 19:41Ira Flatow?

  I remember there was a radio station that used to advertise itself as one of two of America's great radio stations, so you never had to ask what the, what the second one is, so, um...

• 19:50Speaker 07

  Well, if we said it's a Tom Lehrer song, would we suddenly reveal something?

• 19:54Ira Flatow?

  Let's see if we can get another song in.

• 19:56Speaker 03

  It's a laughter epidemic.

• 19:58Ira Flatow?

  What should we do? Come on.

• 20:00Speaker 03

  Oh, let's do "My Brother the Ape."

• 20:02Ira Flatow?

  "My Brother the Ape." "My brother, here I am, they might be giants."

• 20:05Speaker 03

  About evolution, that controversial fact.

• 20:17Speaker 04

  Well, I got the information that she sent to everyone. And I told your family, pictures aren't exactly my idea of fun. You replied that everyone but me said they were going to come. And that's how you talked me into going to the reunion. When you said everyone, you really meant it. My brother the ape. My brother the ape. I received the photos you sent, and I don't regret that I went.

• 21:01Speaker 04

  Are the sight of everybody stiffly posing under one tent. But I don't feel I belong, and I keep wanting to escape. And I failed to see the likeness between me and my brother the ape. They all kept saying how much we look alike. I don't think that we look alike at all, but I'll admit that I look more like a chimp than I look like my cousin the shrimp or my distant kin the lichen or the snowy eagle or the moss.

• 21:44Speaker 04

  And I find it hard to recognize some relatives of ours. Like the roach of birth, the sick and mourn, the iguanas and sea stars. My brother the ape. My brother the ape. My brother the ape. My brother the ape. My brother the ape.

• 22:16Ira Flatow?

  Terrific. They might be giants. The new album Here Comes Science, John Flansburgh and John Linnell here in the studio with us. Rockin' Away and also on the drums Marty Beller back there, not saying very much to Syle Bar. Any other folks you play with? Any people in your band?

• 22:32Speaker 07

  Yes.

• 22:32Speaker 03

  Yeah. We actually are, we're just about to go out on tour. We're doing some family shows as well as a Flood show where we're playing our 1990 breakthrough album Flood in sequence. That's kind of a once in a lifetime deal for us. And then we're doing this whole new show for adults. But joining us on stage is this fellow named Ralph Carney who's famous among musicians for being the guy who plays on all the Tom Waits, sort of the classic Tom Waits middle period circus music albums. He's a multi-instrumentalist. He plays a lot of different kinds of horns. And he's going to be joining us and it's, it'll be very interesting working with somebody who's got such a clear voice as a musician. It's very different.

• 23:16Speaker 07

  Unlike the rest of us.

• 23:17Speaker 03

  Yeah. We're just hacking along.

• 23:20Speaker 07

  We also have, Dan Miller plays guitar and Danny Weinkopf plays bass. So it'll be a six-piece.

• 23:25Ira Flatow?

  And where are you going to be? Where can people see you?

• 23:27Speaker 03

  Everywhere. Where, Los Angeles.

• 23:29Ira Flatow?

  You got to schedule it all you can tell us. Your next, guess your next stop?

• 23:31Speaker 07

  I would say go to our website.

• 23:34Speaker 03

  Or go to Facebook. Facebook has got all that information. We're, we've got all these, and also there are all these videos. If people want to see videos of these songs, the entire album Here Comes Science has been made into a DVD. And so there are all these animated videos accompanying the music. And they're really, some of them are really quite remarkable.

• 23:51Ira Flatow?

  So we might see you on an MTV video sometime?

• 23:54Speaker 03

  I don't think MTV is playing videos anymore.

• 23:56Ira Flatow?

  So to how old I am.

• 23:59Speaker 03

  If they were, they certainly, no, I mean, it's shocking to everyone, especially musicians.

• 24:05Ira Flatow?

  I have two daughters. I know what you're talking about.

• 24:06Speaker 03

  It's more of a lifestyle. Music is more of a lifestyle expression these days. But no, I don't think, I don't know if they'd really warm up to science that much.

• 24:13Ira Flatow?

  I wish I could play a musical instrument.

• 24:15Speaker 03

  I just, I was just hoping that we'd be on Science Friday.

• 24:22Ira Flatow?

  Well, one of us got our wish.

• 24:23Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 24:25Ira Flatow?

  And is there a topic you'd like to take on that you haven't done yet, a subject matter?

• 24:29Speaker 03

  We're thinking, we were tossing around ideas for the next Disney-produced Giants record instructional music for young people. We're thinking maybe "There Goes Your Civil Rights" could be the next one. That was one idea I think Flansburgh had. Yeah. Here come the syndicalists. We could do like a history, like sort of a people's history of America. People's history of America, yeah.

• 24:52Ira Flatow?

  Well, we've got about two and a half minutes left. Have you got a quick song you could sing?

• 24:56Speaker 03

  Oh, sure. What should we do? Do you want to hear a non-science song?

• 25:01Ira Flatow?

  Sure, sure, whatever. We've only got a couple of minutes left.

• 25:03Speaker 03

  I say that, but I don't have anything in my mind.

• 25:06Ira Flatow?

  Well, play us out to the end of the show.

• 25:07Speaker 03

  Why don't we do a song that's factually incorrect?

• 25:11Ira Flatow?

  Go ahead.

• 25:34Speaker 03

  Istanbul was Constantinople. Now it's Istanbul, now Constantinople. Been a long time gone. Constantinople now shows July, autumn moon and night. Every gal in Constantinople lives in Istanbul. Now Constantinople's a view of a date. Constantinople should be waiting in Istanbul. Even old New York was once New Amsterdam. Why they changed it, I can't say. People just liked it better that way. So take me back to Constantinople. You can't go back to Constantinople. Been a long time gone. Constantinople, why the Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's Mr. Butters. Whoa.

• 26:16Speaker 04

  Istanbul.

• 26:24Speaker 04

  Istanbul. Even old New York was once New Amsterdam. Why they changed it, I can't say.

• 26:32Speaker 07

  People just liked it better that way.

• 26:36Speaker 04

  No, we can't go back to Cusset and Opa, but a long time gone.

• 26:39Speaker 07

  Cusset and Opa, what a goddamn, Opa got the worst.

• 26:42Speaker 04

  That's nobody's business.

• 26:48Speaker 04

  Istanbul.

• 27:01Speaker 04

  Science Fridays in stereo.

• 27:08Speaker 03

  You really aren't going to talk until the music stops.

• 27:10Ira Flatow?

  Wow, that's amazing. I love that song. I know that song. It's an oldie moldy.

• 27:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's super moldy.

• 27:16Ira Flatow?

  And that's not on this album, though.

• 27:17Speaker 03

  No, it is not.

• 27:18Ira Flatow?

  But it's still a great song. So if people go to watch you in concert, do you play other stuff besides?

• 27:22Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, I mean, these albums are only 40, even when we're doing the Flood, like, sort of, you know, tribute to ourselves show, it's only 40 minutes of the show. And the show's like an hour. The family shows are like an hour 15. The adult shows are like an hour 45, sometimes two hours when we're feeling heroic. And when we're in our Bruce Springsteen mode, things start expanding in the mannerist period of the day.

• 27:42Speaker 07

  Yeah. I think we play, we play more songs per show than Bruce, but probably only about half as much.

• 27:46Ira Flatow?

  All right. I'm gonna have to drop in.

• 27:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, come on.

• 27:49Ira Flatow?

  I'm gonna have to drop in.

• 27:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, bring, bring your accordion.

• 27:52Ira Flatow?

  Bring my accordion. Try not to talk about that.

• 27:56Speaker 03

  Plenty of room. Actually, use one of ours.

• 27:58Ira Flatow?

  I just have to bring my chopsticks is the only thing I can get. I'm a frustrated drummer, too. So I won't even, thank you, Marty. I won't even try to do that. Well, we've run out of time, but you guys were terrific for coming.

• 28:08Speaker 03

  Thank you. Thanks so much.

• 28:09Ira Flatow?

  You took up our whole studio with your musical instruments. You're welcome anytime you want to come back.

• 28:13Speaker 03

  Well, thank you so much. It was really a pleasure.

• 28:13Ira Flatow?

  You're, you're welcome. John Flansburgh, John Linnell, also on the drums, Marty Beller. They might be giants. The new album is Here Comes Science.

• 28:24Speaker 05

  That's all the time that we have for today. A lot of folks helped make the show happen, including... Efremi. Santiago Flores. Anna Plasker. John Dancoski. And many more. Tomorrow, we'll bring you to the silliest award show in all of science, the Ig Nobels, which celebrate unusual achievements in science, medicine, and other fields. But for now, I'm Sci-Fry producer Kathleen Davis. Thanks for listening.