The No Such Thing As A Fish podcast team is to receive the The Heinz Oberhummer Award for Science Communication. They have been awarded the prize for ‘outstanding efforts in science communication‘, which includes prize money of 20,000 euros and a glass of alpaca excrement. Heinz Oberhummer was a great admirer of alpacas. The presentation will be on Monday, 25th November 2019 in Vienna‘s ‘Stadtsaal‘.
Since 2014, James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber have gathered in front of the microphones in London to present their favourite four facts from the last seven days, ‘in no particular order’. They do this in an inimitable way with a mixture of comedy, word play, and a thirst for knowledge.
No subject is too absurd, no fact too unbelievable, no discovery too bizarre. The topics range from the gender characteristics of an octopus to Charles Darwin’s bassoon; they discuss what the Second World War has to do with carrots and how long to cook a Space Egg. And, for the 40 minutes you are listening, with a sense of wonder and a lot of laughter, you often don’t notice just how much you have learned.
This kind of indirect transfer of knowledge is just what Heinz Oberhummer had in mind when he co-founded the Science Busters in 2006.
The Fish got to know each other as ‘Elves’ during their research work for the BBC2 panel show QI (Quite Interesting) which was previously presented by Stephen Fry and is currently hosted by Sandi Toksvig.
However, there were always more interesting facts and too many curiosities, which didn’t find their place in the TV show, so they launched their podcast as a QI spin-off. Originally a private project, published more or less unintentionally, No Such Thing As A Fish over the last 5 years has developed into one of the most successful and popular podcasts in the UK.
The four have also participated in other BBC projects such as Radio 4’s The Museum of Curiosity and their weekly segment on Zoe Ball’s Breakfast Show, on BBC Radio 2, the ‘Why Workshop‘. They also co-presented 2 series of the television series ‘No Such Thing As The News‘, publish their own topical take on the year – the latest being ‘The Book of the Year 2018‘, and are now touring the world with live shows. Their shows regularly sell out, including last year’s gig at the Sydney Opera House and 2019’s appearance at the Hammersmith Apollo in London.
Their current tour ‘In No Particular Order‘ is taking them to mainland Europe for the first time and their first performance in Austria will be at the Heinz Oberhummer Award 2019. On 25th November they will share the ‘Stadtsaal‘ stage with the Science Busters.
The Heinz Oberhummer Award is intended to encourage people to do as Heinz Oberhummer did and share their fascination for science with a large (theatre sized) audience. Not least to counterbalance the age of ‘fake news‘ and the irrational lust for the apocalypse with science and enlightenment … and humour. The ensemble of No Such Thing As A Fish grandiosely succeeds in that. The glass of freshly harvested alpaca excrements is more than earned! And the four of them are looking forward to it. And hopefully they can take the trophy with them to England after Brexit...
