Column: Weekly Web Watch; Getting smarter with the ‘Quirks and Quarks’ podcast

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m smarter than you.

I’m smarter, not because I was born this way and definitely not because I work harder in school. I’m smarter because I listen to “Quirks and Quarks.”

“Quirks and Quarks” is a weekly radio show broadcast by our good friends to the north over the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s Radio One. It airs every Saturday from 12:06 to 1 p.m. in the Great White North.

Fortunately for those of us in the rest of the world, the CBC has decided to ride the Internet phenomenon of podcasting and has put all the episodes on their site for easy download to an iPod or personal computer.

Each week host Bob McDonald visits with scientists and researchers from across Canada and the United States about their current projects. Topics range from “Headless Males Make Great Lovers,” to “Snails and their Slime.”

I’m sure to many of you, this doesn’t sound like enthralling entertainment. You should at least give it a chance. The guests are people who have dedicated their whole lives to studying this stuff. They’re passionate about this stuff and that rubs off on the listeners.

Every show features several topics usually no more than 10 minutes in length, which keeps the show from getting bogged down.

Each show ends with question of the week that allows listeners to ask those burning scientific questions.

So if you’re a science geek like me, who’s been wondering what Canadians with the same interests are learning, head on over to http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/quirks.

If you don’t, I’ll always be smarter than you.

Steve Shinney is a junior majoring in computer science. Comments can be sent to

steveshinney@cc.usu.edu.