In this very special episode of Totally Cooked, Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick and Iain Strachan sit down with one of Australia's most beloved science communicators: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki. With his signature mix of curiosity, clarity and charisma, Dr Karl has spent decades explaining the universe, one radio segment, podcast, and bestselling book at a time. He joins hosts Iain Strachan and Prof Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick for a conversation about climate change, misinformation, science storytelling, and why making facts fun still matters.

We trace the arc of his science communication career from the 1980s to today’s social media battlegrounds, ask whether you really need to ‘dumb things down’ to reach an audience, and discuss what it takes to talk about global warming in a world that sometimes seems to prefer fiction over fact. For listeners around the world, Dr Karl is Australia’s answer to Brian Cox, Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson rolled into one, an icon of scientific clarity in chaotic times.

Iain records Totally Cooked on the lands of the Bunurong People of the Kulin Nation. Sarah records Totally Cooked on the lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging and recognise their unqieu and continuing connection to the land, skies, waters, plants and animals.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can the human body survive climate change? That’s the burning question in this episode of Totally Cooked. With the world already experiencing more frequent and intense heatwaves, we sit down with Professor Ollie Jay from the University of Sydney to explore how our bodies respond to extreme heat, and what happens when they can’t keep up.

Ollie walks your co-hosts Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick and Iain Strachan through the science of sweating, hydration, and heat stress, and explains the critical tipping points between heat exhaustion and deadly heatstroke. We discuss who’s most at risk, why heat is often overlooked as a killer, and what governments, communities and individuals can do to stay safe in a hotter world. We also find out what it’s like to sit in a room set to 54°C, and why your fan might not be helping as much as you think.

Plus, it’s quiz time: from Death Valley to the Ashes, the FIFA World Cup to the Sahara, we put Sarah and Ollie to the test with a scorcher of a quiz on record-breaking heat. If you’ve ever wondered whether climate change is cooking us alive (and how long we can keep turning up the thermostat) this episode has the answers.

Iain records Totally Cooked on the lands of the Bunurong People of the Kulin Nation. Sarah records Totally Cooked on the lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging and recognise their unique and continuing connection to the land, skies, waters, plants and animals.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most extraordinary natural wonders on Earth, a vast, living ecosystem visible from space and home to thousands of species. But it is also one of the most vulnerable. As ocean temperatures rise and marine heatwaves intensify, this Australian icon faces an uncertain future. In this episode of Totally Cooked, recorded in Cairns, we ask a confronting question - can we save the Great Barrier Reef?

Your hosts Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick and Iain Strachan are joined by Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, marine biologist, climate advocate, and one of the world’s leading experts on coral reefs. Ove has spent decades at the forefront of reef science, from uncovering the mechanisms of coral bleaching to shaping global climate policy through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He brings both deep scientific knowledge and an unwavering sense of both hope and realism to a conversation that spans reef resilience, climate tipping points, and what Australia must do next.

Whether you’ve snorkelled the Reef, seen it on screen, or simply care about our planet’s future, this episode is for you. We explore the science behind what’s happening to the Reef, the efforts to protect it, and why Ove still believes, despite the odds, that we can turn things around.

A minor correction for the sharp-eared among you. Around 35m7sec, Ove meant to say carbonate ions rather than calcium ions - Iain

To find out more about Totally Cooked, go to: https://www.21centuryweather.org.au/engage/totally-cooked-the-weather-climate-podcast/

Iain records Totally Cooked on the lands of the Bunurong People of the Kulin Nation. Sarah records Totally Cooked on the lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging and recognise their unique and continuing connection to the land, skies, waters, plants and animals.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.