Welcome back, friends. How was your holiday? Michael has returned too, so this week we learn a bit about Sri Lanka and then dive into a properly existential question of whether we're all living in a simulation. Plus, some interesting Science News and a revelatory mailbag. This episode's mistakes include:

• Hiding one big new development from this description.
• Michael's good audio died halfway through so we jumped to my Skype recording backup, sorry.
• Forgot to declare international travel as business expense for tax purposes.
• Egregious factual inaccuracies.

Get into the groove, then like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, rate us on iTunes, and send your questions to [email protected].