We’ve been doing a lot of talking lately about The Martian author Andy Weir and Thing Explainer extraordinaire Randall Munroe — now we get them both in one room. The pair recently linked up to chat everything from the future adventures of Mark Watney, to Munroe’s favorite questions raised on his brilliant blog, What If?. It’s enough science-filled goodness to keep you hooked for the full 30 minutes, so we suggest carving some time out of your day.

(Click to play!)

I’ve long wondered what fueled Munroe’s illustration style, which manages to feed readers an immense amount of information, while still being fun. “I really loved Where’s Waldo as a kid,” he says with a smirk. “It’s an influence that’s less obvious, and I didn’t really like looking for Waldo … but I loved looking at the rest of the scene. It taught me the virtue of a disorganized page with tons of small stuff to look at.”

I won’t spoil the rest, and of course, there were some amazing questions left unanswered for part two (guys, please give us part two). My personal favorite, submitted by Chris Couper, asked Weir which hypothetical enemy he would take on in battle: one hundred potato-sized Matt Damons, or one Matt Damon-sized potato monster.  

We’d take our chances with the animated potato. We know what dozens of small things can do when they work together – just look at these liquid-metal ants.

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IMAGES: Andy Weir, Randall Munroe/Facebook