{"podcast":{"title":"What The If?","slug":"what-the-if-2494024","podcast_index_feed_id":2494024,"rss_url":"https://feeds.feedburner.com/WhatTheIf","website_url":"https://whattheif.com","image_url":"https://i1.sndcdn.com/avatars-6bpoeT7LIDOyW3jp-f2Domg-original.jpg","author":"Philip Shane (info@whattheif.com)","episode_count":450,"summary":"Welcome to the show where we learn science by exploring the universe by pushing it... to the limit. A dangerous mix of Science & Fiction, hosted by Philip Shane & Matt Stanley","last_synced_at":"2026-06-17T12:18:21.742498+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-the-if-2494024"},"episode":{"title":"Santa's MEGA Fauna!","slug":"santa-s-mega-fauna","published_at":"2025-12-20T16:33:33+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-the-if-2494024/santa-s-mega-fauna","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-the-if-2494024","url":"https://soundcloud.com/whattheif/mega-fauna","audio_url":"http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2233382123-whattheif-mega-fauna.mp3","summary":"Listener Anne of Queens got us thinking about flying reindeer for the holidays. Imagine herds of 1,500-pound mammals migrating through your town like Canada geese. Suddenly those goose droppings don't seem so bad. Discover why the classic Santa sleigh makes no aerodynamic sense (eight reindeer in parallel? Your cargo's dragging on the ground) and why the real solution is a reindeer dirigible with forty hovering reindeer and a sleigh dangling underneath. Watch Santa relocate from the North Pole to a Sri Lankan mountaintop, where his reindeer have evolved big fennec-fox ears to vent heat in the tropics. Strap on your hard hat and join us for a holiday flight. --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention","meta_description":"Listener Anne of Queens got us thinking about flying reindeer for the holidays. Imagine herds of 1,500-pound mammals migrating through your town like Cana…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2627,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-the-if-2494024/episodes/santa-s-mega-fauna/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-the-if-2494024/santa-s-mega-fauna.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}