No Such Thing As A Fish: Bizarre, Extraordinary And Hilarious Facts Shared

 The No Such Thing As A Fish podcast proves that there is still a receptive audience for narrative, informational, and hilariously funny indie podcasts. This superb show swims in shark-infested waters as large podcast networks pack their show rosters with either celebrity-driven interview shows (cheap to do) or true-crime shows that take a more performative than investigative (also cheap to do). 

The phrase "no such thing as a fish" refers to the idea that the term "fish" is not a scientifically valid biological group, because it is a paraphyletic group, meaning it doesn't include all descendants of a common ancestor. The podcast No Such Thing As a Fish uses this concept as its namesake, as a way to highlight interesting and often surprising facts about the world.

No Such Thing As a Fish is a British comedy podcast hosted by the writers of QI, and explores unusual and interesting facts, often playing on the idea that the world is full of things we don't fully understand, like the definition of "fish."

 The BBC game show "QI" (Quite Interesting) is a British comedy panel game quiz show. It is known for its focus on obscure and often humorous facts, with points awarded for correct answers, interesting facts, and deducted for obvious errors.
The regular presenters are James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski, and Dan Schreiber. 

The format is simple, straightforward, and endlessly fascinating. Each week, the presenters share their favorite facts, often bizarre or obscure, that they've encountered during their research. The results of that information sharing is much like wandering aimlessly through unfamiliar territory but enjoy being lost.

The show launched back in March 2014, and has released over 550 episodes, with over 500 million listens. The show has won multiple awards, been named one of Apple Music’s most downloaded podcasts of 2016, 2017 and 2018, and Amazon Music's Best Podcasts of the Year in 2022. It was also one of Apple's Top Shows of 2022, won the Heinz Oberhummer Award for Science Communication in 2019, and been declared one of the Top Podcasts of the Decade by Spotify.

The show has also been transformed into the topical BBC2 series No Such Thing As The News; been adapted into three bestselling books, The Book of the Year 2017, 2018, and 2019; performed live to sell-out crowds in the UK and abroad, from The London Palladium to the Sydney Opera House; and spawned a no.1 chart-topping, behind-the-scenes documentary Behind The Gills.

In March 2021, No Such Thing As A Fish hosted a marathon 20-hour podcast to celebrate 35 years of Comic Relief. 


The co-hosts welcomed 35 different guests - each of whom brought along a fact of their choosing. In total, they raised over £155,000. Podcasting to help the world, which is a concept seemingly disappearing among the focus on quarterly financial results by the large podcast networks. 

I listened to several episodes that were at live events, such as the Crossed Wires Festival, where the co-hosts discussed podcast studios, parking spaces, robust mustaches and Robert Miles. The show also has a subscription-based option called Club Fish. 

Each episode is titled No Such Thing...with the next quirky phrase related to the information presented on the show. For example, the August 15th episode was titled, No Such Thing As Dance Floor Book Club. On each episode, four facts are presented by the panel. 

For instance, a recent episode ranged in scope from punks and clowns to dinosaurs and post-Kantian transcendental idealism. While often trivial yet sometimes insightful information flows during these episodes, so does cheeky wit, outrageous humor, and British understated smart-alecky in liberal doses. 

It's one of those rare shows where you can learn something and have a blast while you're doing that.  

If you're an American who loves the TV game show Jeopardy, or goes to weekly trivia nights at the local brewery,  No Such Thing As A Fish is the podcast for you.