It's happened! First Contact! And in South Mimms! Only, the aliens haven't done their research very well and emerge speaking a language only a select few understand. It could have been a 'War of the Worlds' scenario, but it turned out to be a strange encounter that is both revealing and enchanting.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Strange sightings of possible extraterrestrial craft at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 kicked off the whole UFO craze not just in the United States, but the entire world. And it's STILL going on. Was it hysteria or evidence that our planet is being observed by aliens? Or was it a navigational error? Were the aliens actually heading for Roswell Farm near South Mimms, Hertfordshire, here in England? We investigate weird goings on the doorstep of our university to find out the truth about Roswell!
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Everyone is trying to get on the Artificial Intelligence bandwagon. But creating a Frankenstein monster out of Lego, giving it an AI powered brain, and then bringing it to life in a storm is probably going too far. Especially when the 'monster' turns out to be... a budding Romantic poet. Madness in the wilds of South Mimms, Hertfordshire, England.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
The Myth of Sisyphus is the ultimate description of futility. Endlessly rolling a rock up a mountain, only for it to roll back down again. One scholar believes that the modern equivalent is the humble - and annoyingly ubiquitous - leaf blower. Blow leaves from here... to there... only for them to blow back again. Is it the perfect metaphor for modern technological societies? Perhaps, especially if you combine it with AI and robotics!
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
There are lycanthropes living amongst us, quietly, carefully, controlling their reactions to the movements of the moon. And there's one in the South Mimms Zoo who just wants a quiet life. But the Zoo is thinking about highlighting its collection of weird wildlife to raise its profile and reduce its reliance on visits by annoying schoolchildren. Might they be tempted to exploit the lycanthrope living modestly within their midst? What would you do?
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
The Florida teacher who got fired for showing her class a picture of Michelangelo's David was the first sign of a revival in 'fig leaves'. Not since the Victorian era has the demand for fig leaves - actual and virtual - been so strong, and one South Mimms entrepreneur is cashing in on the big cover up. And there's one twist which will leave Mr. DeSantis wishing he'd never started his campaign of militant prudery.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Avant Garde music is notoriously difficult to like. But some people say they do. What if we made music that was so bad that it turned out to be amazingly popular amongst the chattering classes? It worked for Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring' (which is actually quite good really). Our Music Department has a technique that deliberately offends the ears to assure its future as a classic! Can you take it?
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Animals understand death, but they don't KNOW that they're going to die. Only humans really understand that they are mortal. But what would happen if you managed to teach an animal about the true nature of their mortality? The consequences might be bad. When one intelligent chimp called Gloria gets 'death wisdom' then all hell breaks loose.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Queues are a part of all our lives. We hate them. We try and avoid them. But there's no escape. So, why not understand how they work and how, every so often, they can lead to an encounter that can change your life. Our Queuing Studies Course, aptly called 'Queuing for Godot', is a great way of changing your mind about queues.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
When our Mathematics department got together with our Astronomy department and got funding from a new Las Vegas based 'college' - the results were... troubling. The odds on compromising our intellectual credentials were high.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
He might. And it's possible. More and more robots are being used to care for old people. They use AI to act as companions as well as remind old people to take their medications. So, it's perfectly possible that Putin - notorious for poisoning or defenestrating his opponents - would send a killer robot to eliminate a dissident. We play out the scenario. Hope it doesn't give him any ideas!
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Depending on your team or nationalilty, you might pick any number of vital and exciting matches from the past. But there are two which define how football evolved to become the world's most popular - and probably richest - sport. And they took place at the end of 1862 and the beginning of 1863. They defined the modern rules of the game and forced a split between soccer and rugby.
And the two heroes of the story deserve their names to be chanted at every game!
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Why bother writing our own introduction: we’ll get Chat GPT to do it. It’s almost right. “In this podcast, the host defends ChatGPT against accusations of being a plagiarism tool. The host explains that ChatGPT is a language model developed by Open AI and is trained on a massive amount of text data from the internet. The model generates text based on patterns it has learned from the data, but it does not copy or steal information. The host emphasizes that ChatGPT is a tool to assist with generating text, not to plagiarize content. The host also encourages users to always properly cite any information used from ChatGPT and to use it ethically.”
What, us worry??
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Our latest offering from the SMU Playhouse is a short play about a man who believes he's made of glass. And it's not so strange an obsession. Since the advent of domestic glass in the late Middle Ages, many men (and they're usually men) have come to believe that they are made of glass and insist on being carried about protected by hay or other soft materials. In A Heart of Glass by Anselm Rose, the predicament becomes the focus for an unexpected love story.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
A family story that evolved into a chilling myth and an empty old house, that's the start of an investigation into how the Spanish Flu pandemic made its mark on both Malta and one man's imagination.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
The media keeps telling us that politicians are getting dumb and dumber all the time. But perhaps there's a strategy behind that stupidity and ignorance. Maybe it's fake. Maybe it's a clever tactic to get brainy people into power using the votes of... people so tired of ordinary politics they vote for candidates who seem to speak their mind. We uncover a firm of political consultants behind such famous dumb moments as Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'Gazpacho' police.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Produced by the SMU Playhouse team, 'Are Two Minds Better Than None' is a short, powerful play about mind-uploading. It's the ambition of various tech billionaires (like Elon Musk) to upload their minds to a computer in a bid to achieve immortality. Is it viable? Will it work? What happens when the physical mind is replicated in digital software and then starts its own unique existence? Who gets to live forever, the person or the software? William Grass's play explores these themes to both stimulate and confound your mind... the real one... in your head!
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Having trouble getting up in the mornings even though you have an alarm clock, a phone, and maybe even a dawn simulator? All you need is a Knocker-Upper. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Knocker-Uppers walked the streets tapping on clients' windows to get them up for work in (mainly) working class districts near to factories. One of our academics at South Mimms U decided to revive the profession. He's also developing new forms of sound-based ways to help people get to sleep or stay concentrated when they work. Take an early morning walk and find out more...
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Classic 70's sitcom, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, lampooned the world of work and corporate culture. It had a BIG effect on one teenager who resolved to fight against the all-pervading work culture of the modern world. The latest trend for Quiet Quitting and the accelerating Great Resignation might be a sign that Reggie Perrin was right all along.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
We visit a small but significant business in South Mimms, a shop that makes and sells hair shirts for people seeking to do penance for their sins with some discreet mortification. It's a strange place but the logic of the service - especially if you're seeking to emulate the saints and sinners of the past and use physical pain to assuage your sins - is undeniable. Have a listen; you never know you might want to buy one!
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
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