Jay Ingram (2017)

CRISPR, the technology that allows super precise editing of DNA. It's going to have amazing effects.

I think quantum mechanics, a world that is completely alien to the world we experience in our daily lives.

It's not exactly a gadget, but one of my favourites was a 3-metre diameter ball made of lego that we tried to roll down a hill. It was supposed to replicate the boulder that ran down the hill in Indiana Jones.

It fell apart immediately.

If things continue the way they are (business as usual), in 50 years, the world is going to look completely different. There might be no polar bears around Hudson Bay, because there won't be any sea ice for them to hunt on. We've already seen how the weather is changing, and it might be unrecognizable. The oceans will not only have washed away coastal cities, but will be so acidic that major forms of marine life will not exist. It's inevitable that there will be effects that we haven't even dreamed of as well.

Yes. The Big Bang. When you realize that the universe is impossibly huge today, it's mind-blowing to think that if you go back 13.7 billion years, it was impossibly tiny.

How about I give you a couple?

Are we living in a computer simulation?

Why do I get hiccups, and how can I make mine stop?

No, I wouldn't say the planet is too far gone. And I think that you make a good point when you say, "Should our efforts not be concentrated on reparation of our home?" However, some of those who are most vocal about going to Mars, like Stephen Hawking, think that's our best hope––to get off the planet. Whether we could ever alter Mars to make it more like Earth is an open question. It's called terraforming, and many scientists think it could be done.

My favourite was the time I went Gombe, Jane Goodall's Chimpanzee reserve. We followed a chimp named Patty around from 6:30 in the morning until it got dark at night, and sometimes she took us right through the heart of the jungle.

You're second question is hard to answer, because hosts like me don't do the research producers do. There's no doubt that some producer some time researched a technology that never made it on the show.

I was up in Churchill, MB just a couple of weeks ago. They LOOKED really fluffy and cuddly, but if you reach out your hand to pat them, they will eat it. I'm not exaggerating. When you're out on the Tundra, it would be very foolhardy to approach a polar bear, or even be on the ground in the vicinity of one.

I have a lot of friends who still work on the show, and I loved working with them, but after 16 years of doing daily television, I thought it was okay if I quit.

I still think they're cool! And even lovable. You just have to respect them.

I don't know about underappreciated, but I wrote a book a long time ago called The Burning House. It's a book about some of the weirdest kinds of brain science. I think 8 people bought it, but I've always thought the stories in it were really interesting, and I was surprised that it didn't sell more.

The cowbird. People hate cowbirds, because they lay their eggs in other birds' nests. But why are they so common? It's our fault. We've continued to cut back the forests, and little birds that nest in the forest are now exposed to cowbirds. I see cowbirds as an indictment of human beings, and therefore should be our national bird.

Another reason to respect them is that they flourished when there were millions of bison. But when the bison virtually disappeared, they switched to cows. They're survivors.

I invented a frisbee game in my backyard, and I'm the only one who has ever played it. Therefore, I hold all the records. I play the violin in a band. I love cooking.

I'm really interested in the idea that we could extend the human lifespan. There are scientists who think, not only can we do that, but that we'll be able to do it fairly soon. For instance, change aging medically so that we could live to 150. I think that's going to be incredibly difficult. There are simple animals whose lifespans you can extend, but those are really simple. Our brains alone have more than 200 billion individual cells. How can you be sure that that can go on for another 20-30 years without breaking down in some way? The fact is, we don't even understand Alzheimer's disease yet.

That's a good question. Could a war be fought over water, climate refugees, agricultural resources? It may seem unlikely to us right now, but we should never be overconfident. The meaningful way to survive is to fight for what you think is right.

That's a good question. I have a clue to about 3/4 of them, but I always research, because there's inevitably cool details that I didn't know.

Yeah. The cool thing about this is, how would we ever know if we're really just like the SIMs, only 50 years from now when computers are all-powerful, and some kid is sitting in his basement running our civilization.

No. He hasn't met me either!