As schools across the U.S. take a break this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, NSTA members will find themselves in cars, airplanes, and trains traveling to be with family and friends. Make holiday travel more entertaining, and even edifying, by subscribing to the NSTA-supported Lab Out Loud podcast, which features the best in science education news and commentary.

Wisconsin-based podcasting duo Dale Basler and Brian Bartel previously shared their top 12 favorite episodes of their award-winning podcast. For this Thanksgiving special, the hosts offer up a comprehensive list of science celebrities who have visited the podcast, including Kip Thorne, Executive Producer and Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology, who recently discussed the science behind the movie blockbuster Interstellar.

Get inspired with one of these science celebrity episodes:

1. Teaching with @Interstellar: Our Conversation with Executive Producer Kip Thorne
2. Demos, Resources and Inspiration from Steve Spangler
3. Watching The History Inside You With Your Inner Fish (Neil Shubin)
4. BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory
5. The Sitcom Experiment (Bill Prady from The Big Bang Theory)
6. Science We Can Watch (Kari Byron from the Mythbusters)
7. Science We Can Listen To (They Might Be Giants)
8. Paleontologist Scott from Dinosaur Train
9. Mythbuster’s Adam Savage
10. Neil deGrasse Tyson on Science Education
11. Ed Begley Jr. on Science and the Environment
12. Bill Nye Talks About Energy And More

Brian and Dale work hard on each episode, and they have a hard time selecting from the catalog of favorites. But when it comes to favorite holiday foods, it is not quite the same.

“Pecan pie doesn’t need a reason to be someone’s favorite,” said Dale. “When you’re that delicious, no explanation is necessary.”

Brian goes for more of the savory flavors:

“Leftover turkey ranks right up there with leftover pizza,” said Brian. “But being a good boy from Wisconsin, I also can’t turn down cranberries.”

More Time?

Read the Lab Out Loud blog, where the hosts provide insight on episode guests, discuss themes, and provide linked resources from each podcast.

Dale and Brian actually started podcasting in 2006, for the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers in a show called Periodicity. You can still find all 52 episodes. Check out the archive.

Not a member of NSTA? Learn more about how to join.

Laura Berry of Cogberry Creative is our guest blogger for this series. Laura is a communications professional for the education community.