So what are you guys working on today?Today I believe we are working on a go-cart thats going to be an analogue for a Marlin fish to test whether a fishing reel can spin so fast it would catch on fire. So were going to hook a fishing line to it and then just run it as fast as the fastest ever recorded fish and see if it can catch on fire. You know how that goes, a little bit of a [inaudible], its probably lots faster. [Laughs] We like to live in the absurd.You guys have actually had a suicidegirl on the show. Nixon from the Bone Room in Berkeley, CA.Yeah, weve had her on a couple of times.Do you know her personally, outside of the show?Just from the Bone Room! Ive gone in there a couple of times. Shes a smart girl, really interesting.You started a new show, Head Rush , as part of the STEM initiative. What is the STEM Initiative Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics is what the acronym is for. Its trying to get kids interested in science and math and keep them interested. Its part of a push to try to get the next generation into problem-solving, really.What are some of the limitations of television for depicting science?Limitations? I dont think weve run into limitations, so far. The hardest part is that, something like, we try to make it a commercial-free enterprise, make it something that we dont have to throw commercial money into, and it makes it really difficult, because obviously television is a profit-generating method of getting information across. Doing something likeis a really ambitious project. We have to ask a lot of people to work for very little money -- just kind of do it for a good cause. I think the limitation of science on television is that youre trying do it within an industry.Is that frustrating? I mean, here youre doing this almost for charity, and on the other hand Discovery has a half-dozen shows about ghosts and Bigfoot.[Laughs] Well, heres the thing. As a skeptic, I believe youve got to question everything, including skepticism. If people want to investigate ghosts, go ahead! Investigate ghosts! I think its important to have an open mind and try it all. I personally dont believe in ghosts, and I dont believe in Bigfoot, but I would never fault anybody for giving it a shot.But you dont feel that the science content is in any way a token effort as far as the network is concerned?[Laughs] I would say the network is pretty wholeheartedlyscience. I dont think its a token effort for them. I think its actually something that they believe in pretty strongly. [Baby begins to cry] Hold on a second, let me hand off my daughter to my husband.Sure! Has becoming a mom with a daughter made that issue more personal for you? Do you worry about what sort of world shes going to grow up in?Oh. Ive got as much optimism as pessimism when it comes to [the future]. I mean, she was born into a world that had our first black President; shell never know a world that didnt. In general, just watching her... a child has this sort of questioning spirit thats enlightening to me. Sometimes, in the past, I became kind of closed off and had a lot of cynicism, but when I became a mom I started to see the world with her eyes.She has no preconceived notions.Yeah, exactly. Shes like a [inaudible]. She knows knows.Youve referred to the science content onandas hiding the broccoli in the cheese sauce. Is that how you felt about science growing up? That it was like eating broccoli?[Laughs] You know, I have to say I. The reason thatbecame a passion project for me is that Im trying to speak to the 12 year-old girl Ito be. I cant honestly say I was interested in science or anything like that at that age. Its kind of sad. Somewhere around puberty things become very, very difficult for us. You start being more interested in the opposite sex and rock stars, and your role models definitely change. Before that, science is fun, and its just kind of part of life, you know? Then all of a sudden, it becomes part of, and its hard and its not quite like... Like how kids are continually interested in art because you get your hands dirty, you get messy -- you get into it and its very experiential. For some reason, somewhere around junior high, science often becomes a list of things to memorize. What are the properties of a cell? I think I became interested in science later in life because of the fact that I started to do it in a different way, and so Im hoping to make... an effort to get your hands dirty, to make science more like art.You mentioned earlier that being a mom has made you less cynical. Theres a quote on your wikipedia page about your art, that it helps you explore your cynical view of contemporary issues. What issues were you cynical about?Art just helps me quarantine the world into smaller pieces that I can digest. What isnt there to be cynical about? [Laughs] I actually am tryingto be cynical and just to be skeptical. Politics. The government. Thats probably going to put me on a red flag list. [Laughs] Everything you come across is just... difficult and hard to digest. Its hard to believe there are people out in the world who want to be serial killers. I like to try to find things yoube cynical or skeptical about. [Laughs]You started as an intern at M5 just whenwas getting off the ground. Do you ever imagine a world where it didnt get renewed for a second season and you went into special effects and modeling instead?You know, quite honestly Imhappy thathappened and I never got to break into the field of special effects, because I was trying to get into itas it was taking a new turn. The kind of special effects I was trying to get into is almost extinct -- you know, the model making and the actual physical creation of small objects, the sculptural side. Itsmuch about computers now. I never would have really gotten into the beautiful, old-school field where they were making giant puppets. Theres still aof it, but itsscarse.I dont know why, no matter how good computers get... I mean, your friends have worked at ILM, and the oldmovies lookthan the new ones.I know! See, Im not sure if thats just because thats how I grew up and maybe Im just kind of clinging on to that, but Ifeel that way. Remember the? How cool was that freaking movie? I would watch thatover all of the digitized junk that I see now. Sure, [digital effects are] beautiful, but the [old-school effects] are so visceral and so real -- the actual puppets and models, and actors interacting with monsters that they could see instead of a green screen.It might be a puppet, but its actuallyYeah. Yeah!Are you still a vegetarian?Im a pescetarian.So you eat fish.Yeah. Somewhere in my twenties I started eating fish again. It just became such a strange category. To explain your diet all the time is just silly. Its just a personal choice, for no particular reason other than thats how I like to eat.But Ive read that your husband isnt a vegetarian. Youve talked about cooking steak for him. How do you deal with that?You do strange things for love. [Laughs] Hes a good ol southern boy. He likes his meat and potatoes. We are definitely on opposing sides of the spectrum in so many ways. I just love him. [Laughs] Hell cook tofu for me; its a two-way street!You did mention, though, in the Wet Jeans episode, that you have a fascination with blood.[Laughs] My grandmother was a nurse and my grandfather was a doctor, so I have a fascination with skeletons. I just think blood is really beautiful. That sounds really creepy, I know. Imwith the human body -- the fact that [were] just meat wrapped around these bones, the way its put together, and all these electrical impulses that make it move around. Its an amazing, amazing creation.Youve also said that you arent really a gun person, but you always seem to have a lot of fun with guns on the show. Has being on the show changed your opinion about guns?Heres the thing. I like guns as a. I think theyre an amazing thing. I love learning about the physics behind them, and its really fun to shoot at targets. I still dont like hunting. I find it kind of silly. I dont necessarily have any different views on whether everybody should own a gun. I dont own one myself, but I like shooting them. So I would say Im somewhat... I dont know if youd say Im conflicted, but Im just.. [Dramatic breath] Im a gun-holding pacifist, how about that?That pretty much describes me as well. Im a gun-owner, but Im also an anti-war Democrat.Yeah! I like shooting. I dont want to kill anything.Youve said that you dont show your personal artwork in public anymore. Why? Do you think that will ever change onceends?I dont know. I couldnt have predicted what Im doing today five years ago. Maybe it will change. Its definitely a personal exploration for me, and I dont really feel the need to share that part of my personality with the world at the moment. Art is something that gets with you and stays with you, so I still do it. I just keep it to myself. [Laughs] I put it in my garage. Maybe someday Ill show it.Would you say that youre kind of a private person in general? You mentioned in your column on geekmom that you were reluctant to get into Twitter , for example.Yeah, I really was. I like it now. Ive kind of been having fun with it because I realized you only show what you feel like showing. I dont live in the L.A. monster. I live in San Francisco where its a little different. Theres no real celebrity up here. We dont have paparazzi and that kind of thing. Youre kind of just living your regular life, and unless we leave our little bubble you dont even realize that youre on a TV show that a bunch of people are watching. Weve got this little skeleton crew of people. You see the same 15 people every day that youre working with. Its not quite as glamorous as I think you might expect. Its really kind of a blue-collar job. We show up, we get dirty, its 8 to 6 every day. When I go home Im with my daughter, with my husband, with my friends, and I keep it kind of private.A couple of weeks ago ago on Twitter you said that you were losing sleep worrying about how gross and traumatic an upcoming experiment would be. What was it?[Laughs] Well I cant tell youuntil it airs, but it involved a dead pig, and it was... explosive. There was a... lets just say that pig was tenderized when we were done with it. It was really gross.has never done many favors for the pig species...Well, heres the thing. Science has not created a human analogue that is cheap, and the pig is cheap and its the closest thing we can get to testing on a cadaver -- and were not going to do that! So we have often turned to pig. Its a constant battle with me. Im always trying to get them to use something synthetic. Theres this funny turn -- now that weve used pig more, often the staff will, if possible, take that home, butcher it, and eat it. Jamie cooks his pigs, and weve got a guy on our staff who loves to take the pig home and cook it up. It feels somehow less of a waste to me, and Im a little more OK with it if I know somebodys going to eat it afterwards.Your co-stars are these guys with IMDB credits half-a-mile long, and Ive seen people say, Oh, they only put her on the show because shes pretty. How does that make you feel, and whats wrong with being sexy, anyway?[Laughs] Well, its funny, thats the kind of thing that in my twenties I wouldve taken as an insult, but in my thirties I take it as a compliment. Like, Awesome! They think Im pretty, and I dont care about the rest of what they say, anyway. I obviously didnt get on the show because Im pretty. I was working my butt off in the shop and just kind of ended up in front of the camera. I would like to think they put me on because Im a critical thinker and I have creative ideas and they like me! I dont really read the internet and take anything to heart. Its just futile. If you read everything on the internet about yourself and believed it was true you would goJust doing research for this interview... I cant even... youtube comments are the[Laughs]You guys have tackled some pretty controversial myths on the show, like the moon landing hoax for example. Have there ever been any myths that the network felt were too hot to touch?Ahhh... too hot to touch. You know, I dont think theres really been anything that we felt was too hot to touch so far. The one thing that we do try to stay away from is imitable behavior. We try not to give everyone an Anarchist Cookbook and show them how to do things that would endanger themselves. We try to stick with things that we can test and build and that are interesting without getting anybody hurt. We try to say, Dont try this at home, but you can never get everyone to really not try it at home.You mentioned earlier that you consider yourself a skeptic. I know Adam in particular is really into the skeptic movement, going to TAM and all that. Youve been in Junior Skeptic and some other skeptical publications, but youre not as heavily involved. Do you just prefer to keep your opinions to yourself, or...?Not necessarily! If asked I will absolutely give my opinion. [Laughs] I think Adam has more hours in the day than most people. Hes like Einstein. He somehow getsmuch more done. Youll leave him in the evening and by the morning hes all of a sudden built a scale model of his house and taken his kids to the zoo and come up with the next days production. Hes kind of insane. I dont know how he does it. I think maybe hes built some sort of time machine. [Laughs] Im active in a lot of things but just kind of dabble in most.Well one thing Im curious about. Do you believe in God? Are you an atheist?I am an atheist, but I dont begrudge anyone for whatever belief systems they hold.Sure. Did you ever in believe in God? What age were you, and how did you realize that you were an atheist?I think somewhere around the second grade. I remember specifically having this conversation with my grandmother... I had a lot of little friends, and one of them was a Buddhist. I remember [my grandmother] telling me that that little girl wouldnt go to Heaven, and I just couldnt wrap rationalize that this little girl wouldnt go to Heaven because she believed in something else. It got me really questioning. I just kind of quietly stopped believing, and I didnt go to church after that with my grandmother any more unless she really asked. I didnt believe it. I started out religious I guess. Semi-religious. I had holiday Catholics as parents. [Laughs]As a parent yourself, would you like your daughter to be a non-believer as well? Or will you present both sides and see what she comes up with?What Id like [my daughter] to do is to be a critical thinker. I wouldlike her to keep that child-like critical thinking that she has. I wont force any belief system that I have on her, but Im not going to present a case [for her] in something that I dont personally believe in. If she comes home someday and says she wants to believe... I will love her no matter what she does, [Laughs] but Im not going to present a religious case to her. Im not religious; I dont believe in it, and I sometimes find it a little bit dangerous. But I will love her no matter what she decides.Dangerous in what way?Im a true believer in science -- its subject to change and evolve. I have a hard time sometimes with the un-evolving, stern, this is the way it is answers that religion gives you.The Build Team started off kind of informally, but its become a codified part of the show. You have your own shop now, M7. Do you, Tory, and Grant really work completely separately from Adam and Jamie, and does that ever make you miss the old days?You know I dont really think about the old days so much. I think we all romanticize whatever weve done in the past. I really like that, in the past five years or so, have become completely autonomous and work on our own as well because it gives us more to tackle. It would beif we all worked as one team to get out the volume of shows that our audience demands. So the ability to work separately and get more done is very beneficial to all of us.The work schedule onis pretty crazy. Ive read that you work sometimes 46 weeks out of the year. How hard is it to find time for your own life?You know, we manage. You just do what youve got to do. I dont think theres anybody out there that isnt working their butt off these days. Its a hard economy, and the fact is I think that most people work as hard as we do. Theres barely any such thing as a one-income family anymore. I make sure that the first thing my daughter sees in the morning is me and the last thing she sees before she goes to bed at night is me. I think shes at least got me as a role-model of somebody whos working very hard and loves her very much to try to create a good life for her. We just do what we can and try to make the time that we have together with our family quality.What sort of music do you listen to? Who are your favorite bands?Thats a hard one. My husband is one of those music nerds. Hes got the biggest collection you can imagine. Weve got some diversity. Myfavorites from when I was younger are Mazzy Star and Janes Addiction. These days I really like... have you heard of Lenny and the Piss Poor Boys Nuh-uh.Theyre. I like that guy. Ive been listening to a lot of Jessie Mae Hemphill . Do you know who that is? Hes like an old, blues-y singer. I recently discovered Headcat , Lemmys new band. Thats pretty fun. Drive-by Truckers...The last interview we did was actually with Mike Cooley from Drive-By Truckers.Theyre. I saw them at Outside Lands and I was just like, Theyre even great live!What myths do fans have to look forward to this season? What are some of your favorites?I know that this season we are starting off April 6th with some myths about guns. We took some movie myths about guns and we started to test those. Its hard to remember because we dont think in terms of seasons; I think of what Im doing now: can a fishing-reel catch on fire? We did some stuff from Youtube where this guy shot into a lake-bed and his bullets started to spin. A lot of people thought that was a hoax, and so we went to a frozen lake in neck-deep snow and shot guns to see if we could get a bullet to spin. We did some good car crashing myths. Its just a lot of mayhem. [Laughs] Youre going to like it.You havent felt like, after eight years, that its become more difficult to find new subjects to tackle?Not really, because we have aactive audience. Our audience participates with us. They go on the message boards , they do researchus. Theyre constantly finding new stuff for us to do, and the list that weve compiled alone... We just tested one of my very favorites that I think originally came from a fan. Its a historical myth called Paper Armor. In Tang Dynasty China they made armor out ofand it was comparable to steel armor. If weve got thousands of years to pull from, I dont think were ever going to run out of myths.Like Join SuicideGirls and talk about the show with fellow fans in our MythBusters discussion group ! Thanks to members DevilsReject bendingunit23 , and other members of the group for their question suggestions.