Up Next
Back to Show
It's Okay to Be Smart
Why the Heck Are We Ticklish?
Season 8
Episode 8
I’ve explained a lot of weird bodily functions on this show but there’s one that we haven’t covered that’s always confused me: Tickling. What are you for, tickling? What’s the point of you? Why do you exist? Why do you make us laugh even though we hate you? Let’s dig into our evolutionary past to try and find an answer.
Support Provided By
10:00
Join Joe in this whirlwind tour of the endocrine system to find the answers.
8:29
Is Everest the tallest mountain on Earth? The answer is not as simple as you might think.
17:59
Turns out we’re all at risk of being overconfident about something.
19:10
There's an absolutely weird, but surprisingly common phenomenon called sensory adaptation.
11:50
Scientists in Florida can recreate a Category 5 hurricane in a box the size of a bedroom.
10:41
Are humans still evolving? And how have our technological advances affected the process?
19:07
Illusions teach us how our brain constructs a three-dimensional reality using 2-D images.
22:18
Joe talks biology with science communicator extraordinaire Prof. Brian Cox.
9:42
We explore why animals like whales, elephants, and other large animals not get cancer.
10:16
The real magic of mirrors is far stranger and more interesting, as you’re about to learn.
16:14
We take a look at how amazing the ability to read is.
17:56
Neuroscientist David Eagleman talks about illusions that make the moving picture possible.