This episode contains: We get off to a rough start this episode, we chat about Devon’s roof caving in, why the Beatles took so long to join iTunes and sound effect editing. Don’t worry, we eventually get to the science.

All The Lovely People, Where Do They All Come From?: World population likely to shrink after mid-century, forecasting major shifts in global population and economic power. New estimates show the world population peaking in 2064 with 9.7 billion and declining to 8.8 billion by 2100. We talk about what is changing in our world for these numbers to make sense, and how our world will change accordingly.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200715150444.htm

Light at the End of the Tunnel: Experimental COVID-19 vaccine safe, and generates immune response. The investigational vaccine mRNA-1273 was well tolerated and prompted neutralizing antibody activity in healthy adults. We talk about this amazing news and why science is so slow.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200714171338.htm

Science Fiction: We quickly touch upon such topics as breath holding, the houses in Harry Potter, and Candyland before settling on the classic book from our youth, My Teacher is an Alien. Ben is reading it to his son, who loves it. We talk more about Bruce Coville’s work before a segue into the newly announced book by Ernest Cline, Ready Player Two. We talk about if a sequel was required and wonder what it could possibly be about. Steven gets us up to speed on the newly announced show Star Wars: The Bad Batch, about a group of specialized clones and what they’re up to after the Clone Wars end. Ben has been watching Doom Patrol and Steven asks for a reason to watch, to which he is given many. Steven then talks about The Old Guard, the Netflix movie adapted from the Greg Rucka comic.  It’s a good movie.