This week we dive into the mystery of 3I/ATLAS, the bizarre interstellar object that flew through our solar system, baffled scientists, and left the internet full of speculation. But instead of dry science, you’re getting a full-on comedy podcast treatment, complete with gaslighting, space poo jokes, frying pans in orbit, and Dan’s heartfelt argument that it was actually an alien Winnebago on a tourist trip. If you came here for astrophysics, you may learn something by accident, but mostly you’ll get two people making each other laugh while pretending to investigate space.

The story begins with what should have been a straightforward cosmic visitor. Astronomers saw an object and called it a comet, except it didn’t have the one thing a comet is famous for: a tail. Then it sped up when it shouldn’t have, ignored the basic rules of gravity, and left everyone confused. Naturally, some people whispered “alien technology” while others muttered “space rock with issues.” Into this void of uncertainty step your hosts, ready to provide the kind of cutting-edge analysis you only get when two friends with microphones talk over each other for half an hour.

Roxy immediately derails the conversation by gaslighting Dan into admitting he said “solar sails.” He didn’t, but she insists he did, because she needs the setup for her punchline. This running argument becomes the spine of the episode, proving once again that comedy podcasts are not about truth, they’re about timing. From there she goes on to pitch her own theories: maybe it’s space poo, maybe it’s a frying pan flung across the galaxy, maybe it’s both. All of which sound only slightly less plausible than the official explanations.

Dan, trying to keep things grounded, introduces the “Space Winnebago” theory. Imagine aliens cruising through our solar system in a cosmic campervan, snapping holiday photos of Saturn’s rings before heading home. Does this explain the weird trajectory and sudden acceleration better than existing scientific models? Absolutely not. Does it make more sense if you picture aliens in socks and sandals struggling to parallel park between Jupiter and Mars? Definitely.

Between the jokes, we do actually cover the main reasons why 3I/ATLAS is strange. Its orbit doesn’t match expectations. It doesn’t behave like a normal comet. Its speed changes are difficult to explain without resorting to the idea that something intelligent might have nudged it. We even mention Avi Loeb, the Harvard astronomer who seriously argues some of these objects could be probes. But in true comedy podcast fashion, the real science gets sandwiched between riffs about frying pans in space and whether alien tourists would need intergalactic insurance.

By the end of the episode, we don’t solve the mystery, but we do deliver a conversation full of banter, jokes, and wild speculation. If you enjoy comedy podcasts where the hosts gaslight each other, lean way too hard into bad analogies, and somehow turn astrophysics into material for stand-up, this is your kind of show. We guarantee you’ll never hear the words “space poo” and “comet” used so confidently in the same sentence again.

So what is 3I/ATLAS? An alien probe? A cosmic Winnebago? A frying pan hurled from another galaxy? We can’t promise answers, but we can promise laughter, tangents, and a very silly half hour of audio. Subscribe for more episodes where we ruin perfectly good mysteries with nonsense, follow us if you like a mix of curiosity and comedy, and leave us a rating if you’ve ever been gaslit by a friend for the sake of a punchline.