Lateral with Tom Scott
Award-winning comedy panel game about weird questions with wonderful answers. Each week, Tom Scott is joined by three guests to ask each other questions with a sideways twist. There's no points or prizes - just reputation and bragging rights on the line. Enquiries and question submissions: https://www.lateralcast.com. Ad-free shows and bonus content: https://www.lateralcast.com/club.
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Recent Episodes
165: Donut security
Dec 05, 2025Jack Chambers, Manu Henriot and Alex Bell from QI's 'Lunchbox Envy' face questions about dietary dials, spun signage and Twitch take-outs. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions...
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Tom Scott hosts a lateral thinking puzzle show featuring three guests from the Lunchbox Envy podcast: Manu Onrio, Jack Chambers, and producer Alex Bell. They tackle food-related brain teasers ranging from tachographs and fruit bats to hockey jerseys and corporate security donuts, demonstrating creative problem-solving through wordplay, logic, and unexpected connections.
- Introduction and Tachograph Puzzle
- Lunchbox Envy Podcast Overview
164: The unplayable record
Nov 28, 2025'Map Men' Jay Foreman & Mark Cooper-Jones and Mithuna Yoganathan face questions about fort fights, cool cash and boda bodas. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderfu...
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This episode of Lateral features host Tom Scott with guests Jay Foreman, Mark Cooper-Jones (the Map Men duo), and Mithuna Yoganathan from Looking Glass Universe. The team tackles fascinating trivia questions about everything from the Brooklyn Bridge and P.T. Barnum's elephants to hot shot furnaces, retronyms, ska music technical issues, and temperature confusion on scratch cards. The conversational banter showcases both impressive knowledge and hilarious wrong turns as they work through each puzzle.
- Brooklyn Bridge Elephant Parade and P.T. Barnum
- Hot Shot Furnaces and Heated Cannonballs
163: Lightning in a bottle
Nov 21, 2025Evan & Katelyn Heling and Hannah Crosbie face questions about ceramic coins, cartoon cravats and commercial careers. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderful answer...
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This episode of Lateral features guests Hannah Crosby, Evan, and Caitlin tackling mind-bending trivia questions about everything from cartoon animation tricks to Antarctic sauna challenges. The contestants work through puzzles involving Hanna-Barbera character design, the invention of television, survey methodology, and various quirky real-world phenomena, demonstrating the creative lateral thinking the show is known for.
- Huckleberry Hound's Bow Tie and Animation Efficiency
- The Invention of Television From a Potato Field
162: Brown noise
Nov 14, 2025Melissa Fernandes, Taha Khan and Sabrina Cruz from 'Answer in Progress' face questions about secret squares, adapted accessories and celeb-spotting cetaceans. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast a...
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The Answer in Progress team (Taha Khan, Melissa Fernandez, and Sabrina Cruz) tackle an exceptionally challenging episode of Lateral, working through clever wordplay and obscure connections involving brown noise, bird restraint techniques, thermal cameras, and celebrity wax figures entertaining a lonely dugong during COVID lockdown.
- Brown Noise, Taco Bell, and Naming Origins
- Broccoli as Olympic Medal Stand-Ins