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Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature Feature production of I Heart Radio Today.

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Speaker 1: On the show Evolutionary Horror Stories. Who we love horror

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Speaker 1: movies and horror stories, but when it comes to pure

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Speaker 1: blood curdling terror, there's nothing competing with Mother Nature. We'll

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Speaker 1: compare some classic horror tropes to their real life counterparts,

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Speaker 1: and let me tell you when it comes to evolution,

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Speaker 1: the director's cut holds nothing back. Parasites that contort your

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Speaker 1: body and mind to their will, evil flowers and even

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Speaker 1: more evil worms. Discover this and more as we answer

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Speaker 1: the angel question how much DNA do you have to

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Speaker 1: steal to survive radioactive blasts? So guess what I bought you?

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Speaker 1: A one way ticket to a little place I like

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Speaker 1: to call imagination Station. Imagine that you're happily living your

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Speaker 1: slow pay, comfortable life, eating a salad and being a

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Speaker 1: generally chill person. One day you notice your salad tastes

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Speaker 1: a little funny, but paint no sweat. But that's when

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Speaker 1: all the trouble starts. You begin to feel weird inside,

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Speaker 1: as if something is happening in your body, as if

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Speaker 1: something is growing. Then you start to feel a strange

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Speaker 1: pressure in your eyeballs. It feels like something is shifting, moving, multiplying.

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Speaker 1: Over the course of a few weeks, your eyes begin

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Speaker 1: to swell, bulging out of your skull. As your eyes swell,

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Speaker 1: you begin to lose your sight, and you can only

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Speaker 1: imagine how horrifying you must look. With two huge, ballooning

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Speaker 1: eyes hanging out of your sockets. All you can make

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Speaker 1: out is the faint difference between light and dark. You

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Speaker 1: feel dizzy and out of it, and only compelled to

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Speaker 1: follow the faint light up up, ascending almost blindly up

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Speaker 1: a staircase until you feel a gentle breeze on your

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Speaker 1: horribly mutated face. Are you on a roof? Is that

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Speaker 1: the sun? The next thing you know, a huge bird

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Speaker 1: descends upon you and rips your eyes out of your skull.

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Speaker 1: Joining me today is writer, retired film critic, elephant apologist,

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Speaker 1: and co host of the podcast Night Call, Emily Yoshida. Hello,

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Speaker 1: thank you for having me. Did you enjoy our little uh?

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Speaker 1: I am a story? They're so intrigued. I'm so glad

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Speaker 1: I came for a gross episode. Ready to do this? Um?

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Speaker 1: Did you watch the movie bird Box? Yes? You know how? Okay?

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Speaker 1: So I watched it? Actually had an advanced screening of

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Speaker 1: it because I was doing I have pro bird rights

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Speaker 1: is my Twitter and so did a little advertisement on it,

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Speaker 1: and so they said it was like, huh, interesting, the

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Speaker 1: birds don't fare very well. I feel like in bird box.

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Speaker 1: Now they're put in a box. Yeah, outrage, it's an outrage.

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Speaker 1: So I called it out on its anti birddhism. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: I guess the premises like you, if you look the thing,

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Speaker 1: it infects your eyes and makes you go crazy, right that,

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Speaker 1: like there is something in the atmosphere, something we never

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Speaker 1: really quite see that is so horrifying that it makes

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Speaker 1: you lose your mind in your eyesight right right and

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Speaker 1: into a zombie type creature, right, and you like do

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Speaker 1: something crazy and you try to get other people to

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Speaker 1: open their eyes right right exactly. And then John Malkovich

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Speaker 1: is like, Hey, it's me John Milkovich in this movie.

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Speaker 1: How's it going? I forgot he was in that. Um

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Speaker 1: this this the movie. I watched that movie maybe on

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Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, I can't remember. I had to write about it,

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Speaker 1: and it was like a really bad way to bring

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Speaker 1: out last year. Wise, I did not enjoy that movie.

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Speaker 1: I totally forgot that John Malkovitch isn't it. I have

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Speaker 1: wiped most of it from my brain. Well that's good

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Speaker 1: news for you, because I have a real life version

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Speaker 1: of that is much better. Um. So, I want to

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Speaker 1: talk to you today about luco Chloridium paradox um. Okay.

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Speaker 1: So it is an indo parasitic flat worm, and indo

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Speaker 1: parasites live inside the body. And it lives in the

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Speaker 1: temperate forests of North America and Europe, so you know,

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Speaker 1: close close to here, close to home. Yeah. It likes

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Speaker 1: to parasitize snails and birds, and it does this in

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Speaker 1: a really weird cronenberg Askay, first, I'll just the cute

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Speaker 1: little snail happily munched on leaves and being cute and

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Speaker 1: harmless snails much on leaves. Yeah, oh, I didn't realize that.

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Speaker 1: That's so cute of them. They're very they're very cute animals.

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Speaker 1: Yeah uh. And they accidentally eat the eggs of a

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Speaker 1: Lucochloritium paradox um. Then these eggs begin to hatch inside

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Speaker 1: the snails bodies. So think back to our little horror

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Speaker 1: story where you feel something growing and shifting inside you.

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Speaker 1: This is the this is the life of the snail. Now,

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Speaker 1: the first stage larva are small, thin, transparent worms with

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Speaker 1: no mouths, and they travel through the snail's body and

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Speaker 1: up into its eye stalks. Uh So, inside the eye

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Speaker 1: stalks the lucochloridium paradox um. I'm going to say that

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Speaker 1: word as much as I can go. Chloridium paradox um. Yes,

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Speaker 1: they transform into sporro cysts, which is a sack of

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Speaker 1: undulating tissue that, after a process of asexual reproduction, contains

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Speaker 1: up to hundreds of luco claridium paradoxum larva. I mean,

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Speaker 1: same big mood, Yeah, so sack. So these these spores

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Speaker 1: cysts cause the snail's eye stalks to become unnaturally engorged.

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Speaker 1: So just big throbbing sacks of spor a cysts are they?

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Speaker 1: Is this like noticeable? If you saw a snail, you

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Speaker 1: would know like is there a picture of a little

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Speaker 1: better than a picture. I have a gift for you,

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Speaker 1: a video, and it is this video that you get

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Speaker 1: to watch with me right now. So here you have

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Speaker 1: the snail. What's that? Well is that the worm? Oh

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Speaker 1: my god, Oh my god. I'm going to paint a

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Speaker 1: visual picture for the listeners, strobing and pulsating. It looks

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Speaker 1: like a thing is throbbing and breathing. Inside of the ts,

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Speaker 1: it looks like it has a heartbeat, like the eyes

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Speaker 1: have a heartbeat. It's crazy. It looks like it looks

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Speaker 1: like a terrible organic accordion scrunching, and inside of the

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Speaker 1: eye there's bands of green and white and it's it's moist,

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Speaker 1: I would say, very moist, moist looking. That's always a good,

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Speaker 1: good descriptive moist. So they pulsate in the snail's eyes

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Speaker 1: and create a strobe effect of red, green, white, and

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Speaker 1: yellow bands and brown spots. It's very hypnotic looking, very psychedelic. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it kind of looks like two wriggling caterpillars attached to

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Speaker 1: the snail's head. This is accurate, and this is the

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Speaker 1: exact effect that the luco Chloridium paradox um is after.

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Speaker 1: So birds find this caterpillar mimicry displayed to be very

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Speaker 1: enticing and tasty looking. One thing you've got to understand

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Speaker 1: about luco Chloridium paradox um is that it has one

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Speaker 1: goal in life to make it inside of a bird

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Speaker 1: and mature into their adult forms, at which point they

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Speaker 1: can reproduce in a decadent hermaphroditic orgy inside the bird.

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Speaker 1: I gotta get inside that bird kinda get inside that bird.

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Speaker 1: I like. I can imagine this being a musical And

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Speaker 1: from the point of view of the worms, like the

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Speaker 1: opening number is like the I want I'll be inside

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Speaker 1: of a big bird. See that bird up there. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna be inside at one that would be inside of

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Speaker 1: that bird mating. Oh God. So the luco cloridium has

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Speaker 1: one problem, which is that snails don't really want to

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Speaker 1: be eaten by birds, so usually they are within the

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Speaker 1: dense foliage of the forest where birds are less able

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Speaker 1: to access them. And the loucal Cloridium paradox um. Gonna

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Speaker 1: keep saying that word as much as I can do.

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Speaker 1: Could you know what each parts of the Latin mean

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Speaker 1: or can you break it down? Well? Paradox Um I

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Speaker 1: think means paradox right, that seems like a good And

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Speaker 1: luco chloridium I think means luke you have chloridiums luke? Oh,

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Speaker 1: chloridium isn't that didn't like isn't MITOCHLORIUMA cloriums is the

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Speaker 1: thing in Star Wars? Yeah, so we're very we're in

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Speaker 1: that neighborhood. It sounds like a Star Wars name doesn't

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Speaker 1: Luco cloridians paradox um. Yeah, that does. It's like it's

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Speaker 1: a very it sounds like, oh it's it's a paradox,

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Speaker 1: so it's a paradox um. Star Wars Universe it's he's

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Speaker 1: a bad guy, so he's bad drags mean face uh,

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Speaker 1: like like a vaguely altered synonym for bad right mean

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Speaker 1: bar gross texts. Yes, that's great, that's really good. There

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Speaker 1: should be more parasites than um in Star Wars. There

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Speaker 1: should be. Maybe maybe the Force is a parasite. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's the whole thing with the midichlorines is that it's like, oh,

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Speaker 1: it's just a little organism that lives in your blood

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Speaker 1: that will tell you that like whispers the force to you. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it sounds like a parasite to me. But they, I

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Speaker 1: think they go and it causes wars, right, So maybe, yeah,

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Speaker 1: maybe that's how it happens. Oh my god, you should

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Speaker 1: do a whole episode on cloris. Nerds would love it.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure they would love it and not criticize me

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Speaker 1: every tiny inaccuracy. So, uh, the Luca Clordium has the

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Speaker 1: problem needs to get inside bird. It has a solution

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Speaker 1: mind control so it controls the snail's tiny brain and

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Speaker 1: over rides these snails instinct to avoid sunlight. UH. So

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Speaker 1: the snails crawl up the plant or tree into the sun,

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Speaker 1: where it's easily spotted by hungry birds. The birds eat

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Speaker 1: the snails dancing, strobing eye stalks. Uh. And if the

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Speaker 1: snail survives, it can actually regret them and start the

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Speaker 1: horrible process and new. But when the eye stalks are

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Speaker 1: eaten by the bird, is the is the luco clarity

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Speaker 1: and then out of its system or out of the

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Speaker 1: snail out of the snail. It's a good question. I

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Speaker 1: guess it depends on sort of the timing of events,

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Speaker 1: like if it ate a bunch of it and like

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Speaker 1: there could be more inside of it still um, but

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Speaker 1: it could be at that point if it's alive. The

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Speaker 1: birds are not discerning, they're not snail eyes exactly. The

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Speaker 1: question is how do these terrible luco clarity in paradox

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Speaker 1: um control the snail's brains? So, uh, we're not sure.

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Speaker 1: The short answer. The long answer is a study by UH.

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Speaker 1: I believe it. It's a university in Poland. I think

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Speaker 1: it's called row Claw. UH found evidence that the local

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Speaker 1: chloridium does indeed mind control its snail victims. But they

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Speaker 1: said that quote, both the ecological influence of the parasite

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Speaker 1: and the mechanism by which it accomplishes its visibility have

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Speaker 1: remained more of a puzzle than one might expect. We

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Speaker 1: think that such a situation is quite embarrassing, and thus

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Speaker 1: we would like to encourage the readers to undertake studies

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Speaker 1: of this host parasite association. Which I think. So, I

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Speaker 1: think this is like a translation thing of probably from

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Speaker 1: Polish to English, but I just think it's funny, like

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Speaker 1: this is embarrassing that we don't this parasite controls a

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Speaker 1: brain and we don't know how. It's embarrassing. It's a

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Speaker 1: scourge for the scientific community. Well, I mean, is it

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Speaker 1: not just something as simple as I mean, I'm sure.

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Speaker 1: I'm not a scientist, so they can't figure it out.

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Speaker 1: I can't figure it out. But but it's not just

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Speaker 1: like it turns off whatever part of the brain of

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Speaker 1: the snail wants to seek darkness and be it could be.

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Speaker 1: It could be because we know so. Another parasite that

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Speaker 1: we've talked about on the show before, and it's quite famous,

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Speaker 1: is the toxoplasma gandai or gandhiai uh, and it uh

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Speaker 1: infects rats and makes them unafraid of cats, and that

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Speaker 1: they've found it, there's an actual they cause an actual

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Speaker 1: lesion in the rats brain that kind of fuses two

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Speaker 1: parts of the brain that the fear and arousal sort

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Speaker 1: of parts of the brain, and it makes it so

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Speaker 1: that rather than fearing the cats, they actually feel the

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Speaker 1: slight attraction towards them. Yes, it's definitely possible that they

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Speaker 1: could be just physically shutting off that part of the brain,

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Speaker 1: like with a legion or something, or it could be

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Speaker 1: modifying the neurochemical balance of the brain. It's hard to

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Speaker 1: say because it's embarrassing, but they don't know yet. Somebody's

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Speaker 1: got to get on this. So once the bird eats

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Speaker 1: the parasite, it reproduces inside the birds and the bird

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Speaker 1: poops out their eggs and it doesn't really hurt the

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Speaker 1: birds other than it is still a parasite. It siphons

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Speaker 1: off some of the bird's nutrients, so that's always a

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Speaker 1: negative thing for the bird, but it doesn't it doesn't

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Speaker 1: kill them, um. But then it poops it out and

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Speaker 1: the whole cycle begins a new The circle the circle

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Speaker 1: of worms Circle worms. So this body wore kind of

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Speaker 1: makes me think of the thing, you know how, like

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Speaker 1: like the thing and infest the people causes and then

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Speaker 1: it's what does it like, Okay, remind me of it.

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Speaker 1: It eats them and turns them into a thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact mechanics of it, but yeah,

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Speaker 1: something like that. I yeah, it's um. Yeah, Like I

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Speaker 1: think I any kind of organism or a thing that

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Speaker 1: feels like it just as easily exists as sort of

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Speaker 1: like a disease, like a possessing force, not just not

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Speaker 1: just a worm or an organism that's got like a parasite,

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Speaker 1: but something that you know, shifts your mind and everything.

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Speaker 1: That's always really creepy to I mean that, like I

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Speaker 1: don't know if this is on the docket for today,

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Speaker 1: but if you talked about the the barnacles um that

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Speaker 1: infect the crabs, we talked about this, We talked about

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Speaker 1: this on nightcall. This is a big focus of obsession

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Speaker 1: for us. I believe we have an entire up like

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Speaker 1: or it's like it's in the title of the episode

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Speaker 1: because we were so into these guys um. But they

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Speaker 1: do a similar thing where they they kind of Um,

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Speaker 1: they actually like effectively switched the gender of the crab

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Speaker 1: that they they've infected, and then um kind of also

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Speaker 1: infect its brain as well to make it um want

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Speaker 1: to reproduce. Like it's pretty wild, like that stuff is.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I guess we're lucky as humans that so far,

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Speaker 1: nothing as far as we know, can really do that

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Speaker 1: to us or cannon. Maybe I don't know that that's

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Speaker 1: so interesting. Uh it says it's okay, it's called uh

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Speaker 1: sacculina carcini. I've actually not heard of this parasite. I'm

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Speaker 1: really excited. It is parasitic castrator. Yeah, crub it gets

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Speaker 1: into that's a nice combination of words. Parasitic castrator. Um.

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Speaker 1: So it's uh, it basically turns, it takes over its

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Speaker 1: reproductive system, robe prices that with the barnacles reproductive system.

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Speaker 1: It like grafts itself onto it and then turns and

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Speaker 1: then tries to get like its eggs fertilized. I believe

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Speaker 1: I don't know it spent a second since I looked

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Speaker 1: at this, but yeah, so the parasite messes up with

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Speaker 1: the development of the crabs genitals and then they atrophy. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and then the I see so the parasite makes the

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Speaker 1: male crab developed feminine characteristics. The eggs of the parasite

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Speaker 1: are secured under the abdomen um. Yeah, it's it's a

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Speaker 1: feminist hero. Oh I see. So so if the parasite

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Speaker 1: is removed from the host, the female crabs will regenerate

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Speaker 1: their ovaries, but males will start developing ovarian tissue and

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Speaker 1: basically turn into females. That's so interesting, that's crazy. It's yeah,

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Speaker 1: that that one kind of blew my mind a little

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Speaker 1: bit when we had a listener send that to us.

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Speaker 1: I want to so the thing in the movie it

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Speaker 1: like basically steals like human DNA. You know, at least

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Speaker 1: there's not like a real animal that steals DNA or

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Speaker 1: is there boom uh there is? Yeah. Okay, so welcome

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Speaker 1: to our horrible little stage. The deloid rotifer. So I

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Speaker 1: bet you're wondering, what's a deloid rhodifer. Well, it's a

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Speaker 1: class of rotifer. Well, so what's it's a wheel animal?

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Speaker 1: Does that clear things up? A wheel animal? Okay, So

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Speaker 1: you want to know what a wheel animal is. It

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Speaker 1: is a microscopic or near microscopic invertebrate or type of zooplankton.

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Speaker 1: They live in mostly fresh water all over the world,

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Speaker 1: and they're called rotifer or wheel animals because their mouths

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Speaker 1: look like a teeth wheel. Uh, it isn't like the

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Speaker 1: tart degrade. Is it like that? Similar to that he

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Speaker 1: has a little he's got a circle mouth to mouth. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but his doesn't actually, so he's not a wheel animal

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Speaker 1: because his doesn't look like it's rotating. These ones they

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Speaker 1: almost look like, you know, the the like electric shaver

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Speaker 1: with the rotating blades. It looks like that. They look

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Speaker 1: like a tube with a sharp butt and a rotating

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Speaker 1: shaver head mouth. Um, and their mouths don't actually rotate,

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Speaker 1: but there's fan like movement of the cilia, which are

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Speaker 1: the little moving hairs, which makes it look gives the

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Speaker 1: illusion that they're spinning. So let me I've actually got

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Speaker 1: a video here for you to enjoy. Oh they're so tiny,

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Speaker 1: Yes they are. They are almost microscopic, although some of

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Speaker 1: them can grow up to about a millimeter. Kind of cute. Cute,

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Speaker 1: I say, description is so much more scary than the

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Speaker 1: actual I like catching his little beads. This video that

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Speaker 1: we're watching, there's this caption that says their favorite mode

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Speaker 1: of locomotion is creeping. Uh So they their appearance is

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Speaker 1: weird enough, but it's actually their DNA stealing that makes

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Speaker 1: them like a movie monster. So the deadlaid Rhodifer are

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Speaker 1: an all female class of animals, so they have reproduced

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Speaker 1: a sexually for around eighty million years. Despite being a

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Speaker 1: sexual reproducers, they managed to increase the diversity of their

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Speaker 1: genetics by borrowing DNA from other animals. Uh. They have

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Speaker 1: acquired about ten percent of their genes from other creatures,

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Speaker 1: including bacteria, fungi, and plants. So these are acquired through

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Speaker 1: a process known as horizontal gene transfer, which is the

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Speaker 1: transfer of genes from one organism to another uh, rather

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Speaker 1: than through reproduction. So reproduction is vertical transfer. Like you

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Speaker 1: have babies, They get your genes horizontals, like some random

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Speaker 1: stranger just gives you their genes. That happens all the time, Right,

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Speaker 1: you bump into somebody on the subway, you got your

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Speaker 1: genes on me. Jesus. So pro karyotes, which is like

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Speaker 1: bacteria um, are really good at horizontal gene transfer um,

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Speaker 1: but you carryoute are They're more complicated. Their cell cellular

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Speaker 1: structure is more complicated. Uh. So it's a little more

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Speaker 1: difficult for them to do this. UM when they gather

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Speaker 1: genes from other organisms. It's thought to maybe be from

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Speaker 1: a process called endocytosis, where the eukaryotic cell engulfs another

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Speaker 1: cell and it starts to break it apart, and then

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Speaker 1: like some of the genes survive that process and then

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Speaker 1: get incorporated into its own DNA. So this occurs in

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Speaker 1: many different species of animal, but the deloid rotifer is

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Speaker 1: unique in the extent to which it uses foreign DNA,

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Speaker 1: so it's collected genes from over five species of organisms. Uh.

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Speaker 1: These genes allow the deloid rotifer to survive extreme environments,

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Speaker 1: so they're aquatic, but they can survive being dried out

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Speaker 1: desiccated for at least nine years. So imagine like a fish,

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Speaker 1: just like you dry it up, it's basically a mommy,

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Speaker 1: and then nine years later you sprit some water on

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Speaker 1: it's just like flops back to life. They can survive

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Speaker 1: high amounts of radiation UM, and they can break down

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Speaker 1: the toxic chemical benzel cyanide, which allows them to live

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Speaker 1: in sludge like sewage treatment plants, so they're almost indestructible. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and they kind of I know, so you mentioned the

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Speaker 1: tartar grade, which is another one of these very tiny

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Speaker 1: animals that are really good at surviving. This this one

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Speaker 1: gives them a run for their money. Yeah. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean it feels like it feels like a superhero power

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Speaker 1: or something to be able to absorb. Yeah, because she

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Speaker 1: she absorbs other people's powers like siler from heroes, like

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Speaker 1: eat their brains and gets their powers. R Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's exactly like that. I mean, how come It's the

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Speaker 1: thing I always wonder about, Like, I mean, not that

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Speaker 1: I know of too many species like this, but like

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Speaker 1: why do they remain so tiny? Like why wouldn't isn't

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Speaker 1: there like some gene that they could absorb that would

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Speaker 1: like make the absorb as a bigness gene. But if

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Speaker 1: they're so small, how are they going to absorb an elephant? Huh?

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Speaker 1: I guess that's true. I have to eat the entire

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Speaker 1: organism or just like so, the real reason I think

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Speaker 1: that they're that's small is that there there. It's similar

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Speaker 1: to the reason why like insects can't get really huge

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Speaker 1: and such. So it's like when you have a certain

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Speaker 1: cellular structure and metabolic system, it isn't really sustainable at

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Speaker 1: larger sizes, so through evolutionary processes, obviously sometimes these very

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Speaker 1: tiny organisms do end up becoming larger animals, but a

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Speaker 1: lot of them just there's not really any reason for

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Speaker 1: them too, And they wouldn't survive being like blown up,

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Speaker 1: like say they have some kind of gigantism gene that

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Speaker 1: like just blows them up. They wouldn't they wouldn't necessarily survive.

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Speaker 1: There is um something and we've talked about it a

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Speaker 1: little bit on the show, something called deep sea gigantism,

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Speaker 1: where UH animals who are on the ocean floor are

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Speaker 1: often bigger than their counterparts that are more towards the

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Speaker 1: surface of the ocean. And that's due to uh some

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Speaker 1: of the difference in environment like that deep And is

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Speaker 1: it like a pressure thing or something or that it's

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Speaker 1: actually yeah, it's actually thought that maybe because the uh

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Speaker 1: the nutritional density is so low, like you have to

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Speaker 1: be bigger. First of all, the bigger you are, the

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Speaker 1: slower your metabolism, so the log you can go between feeding,

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Speaker 1: and also the more distance you can cover so you

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Speaker 1: can pick up food uh over longer distances. UM. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I wasn't shaming the rotor for whatever. A little bit

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Speaker 1: like you were. I just I want I would love

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Speaker 1: my micro schaming. I would love I would love for

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Speaker 1: it to be whatever size it wants. Then you can

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Speaker 1: cuddle it like I love a giant tartar grade or

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Speaker 1: a giant rotor for just like little baby, cuddle like

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Speaker 1: giant comparatively like we're we're we're like size and no larger.

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Speaker 1: I would be yeah, I would love that, like i'd

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Speaker 1: like a pet rootifer. You use it and then you

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Speaker 1: use it to mop things with just something like yeah,

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Speaker 1: like organic room. But that's an amazing idea. Let's do

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Speaker 1: you think horizontal gene transfer is reserved for freaky zooplankton,

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Speaker 1: Other animals, including humans, can get on on this freaky

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Speaker 1: sideways gene action. It's thought that humans can acquire foreign

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Speaker 1: DNA through retroviruses when they infect reproductive cells and inject

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Speaker 1: their genetic material. However, studies on how much of the

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Speaker 1: human genome is from virus is very, some claiming we

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Speaker 1: have up to two D three genes from viruses, while

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00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:55,360
Speaker 1: other studies call this number into question. While pro karotic

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Speaker 1: organisms such as bacteria are experts at horizontal gene transfer,

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Speaker 1: karyotes which include plants, animals, spongi, and single cell protozoa

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Speaker 1: are usually less adept, except for our friend, the deloid rhodafer. However,

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Speaker 1: there's also a wily protozoan that has stolen human DNA

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Speaker 1: to engage in some cellular espionage. Plasmodium vivax is a

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Speaker 1: protozoan and a parasite one of the causes of malaria.

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Speaker 1: There's evidence suggesting and it has adopted some human DNA

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Speaker 1: into its own genome, which allows it to stealthily stay

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Speaker 1: inside the human body and may help it evade the

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Speaker 1: immune system. It's like a protozoan put on a human

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Speaker 1: mask and waves to our white blood cells, going hello, Yes,

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Speaker 1: nothing to see here, just a normal human cell doing

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Speaker 1: norman human things. What's that somebody has been infecting red

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Speaker 1: blood cells. Oh no, that's terrible. Hope you catch them anyways,

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Speaker 1: see you in just a bit we'll discuss more devious,

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Speaker 1: dastardly creatures, including an animal who's obsessed with death. But first,

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Speaker 1: I have a quick message to deliver from bombas the

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00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:04,560
Speaker 1: sponsor of this episode, So I'd like to welcome you

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00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:08,320
Speaker 1: now to Creature Feet Pod. That's right, we're finally talking

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Speaker 1: about feet, specifically the things we put on our feet.

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Speaker 1: Here's the problem with human feet. They're naked, no fuzzy

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00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 1: fur hooves to protect them. That's where socks come in.

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00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,959
Speaker 1: Bombas is reinventing the sock from being a mere cloth

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00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,560
Speaker 1: tube that we used to see their foot parts to

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00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 1: being one of the most comfortable experiences known defeat. I've

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00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 1: tried out these socks and it's truly like having your

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00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:33,959
Speaker 1: feet placed in a chariot made from a thousand soft

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00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 1: baby koalas. Don't worry, they're not actually made out of

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00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: baby koalas. But these socks are adorable with beautiful patterns

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00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: and colors. Bombas isn't just kind to our feet, They're

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00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:47,719
Speaker 1: kind to our neighbors. Did you know that socks are

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00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:51,200
Speaker 1: the number one most requested clothing item in homeless shelters.

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Speaker 1: Bombas is on a mission to change that. For every

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00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 1: pair of socks purchased, Bombas donates a pair to someone

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00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 1: in need. Again, these socks mean business, and our business

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00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:03,360
Speaker 1: has given your feet the most comfortable right of their lives.

422
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423
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:09,280
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424
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Speaker 1: right amount of thickness. I'm a huge sock aficionado, and

425
00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 1: I freaking love the socks I got from Bomba's. They

426
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:18,120
Speaker 1: come in gorgeous designs and they're so comfortable I never

427
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 1: want to take them off. Save on your first purchase

428
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,240
Speaker 1: when you shop at bombas dot com slash creature. That's

429
00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 1: Bombas dot com slash creature to save Bombas dot com

430
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:37,199
Speaker 1: slash creature. Death decay, bodies moldering in the ground, flesh

431
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:40,679
Speaker 1: dripping off bones. This is not typically the kind of

432
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 1: imagery we like to dwell on, but there are some

433
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 1: people who are obsessed with the thought in an unhealthy way.

434
00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 1: Those with Coutard delusion, also known as walking corps syndrome,

435
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: believe they are dead or decaying. In some case studies,

436
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 1: the sufferer even described smelling themselves rotting from the in

437
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,200
Speaker 1: side out. As this is a rare mental illness, it's

438
00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 1: rather mysterious, though there have been a few documented connections

439
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:11,400
Speaker 1: to schizophrenia, depression, brain tumors, or migraine, and it's thought

440
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 1: to have something to do with lesions in the parietal lobe,

441
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 1: the part of the brain that processes body sensory information.

442
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:23,160
Speaker 1: And spatial awareness. A dysfunction within the parietal lobe may

443
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:26,640
Speaker 1: cause a self negating delusion where you think you don't

444
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:30,520
Speaker 1: exist or are dead and rotting. But there are some

445
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:34,480
Speaker 1: animals who are obsessed with decay and happily so their

446
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: whole lives revolve around future faction. They live, eat, breathe,

447
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 1: and mate within the underworld of decay. So, Emily, you

448
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 1: want to talk about carrion beetles, sure, as if you

449
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 1: have a choice anyways. Carrion beetles are a family of

450
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 1: beetles found all over the world who like to eat. Well,

451
00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:02,760
Speaker 1: ye um, I'm afraid to do the Google immage. It's

452
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:06,320
Speaker 1: not so bad. They just look like beetles and probably

453
00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 1: eating a dead thing. So Carrion beetles have an adorable

454
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 1: habit of laying their baby larva onto the carcass of

455
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,400
Speaker 1: a decomposing animals so their babies have a corpse to

456
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 1: feed on. Us they pupate nice good parents, Yeah, nice parenting.

457
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 1: So the problem that they have is that a lot

458
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,040
Speaker 1: of other insects also love to eat dead, rotting things,

459
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:32,280
Speaker 1: so they have a lot of competition. Carrion beetles have

460
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: developed a few interesting solutions so the genus ncrophorest or

461
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: bearing beetles are the are the undertaker of the animal kingdom.

462
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 1: Bearing beetles will engage in wrestling matches. It's just like

463
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 1: out of nowhere to determine who will be the undertaker.

464
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:59,040
Speaker 1: So males will fight males, and females will fight females

465
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:04,760
Speaker 1: until only to emerge victorious. These undertakers, damn it? What

466
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:09,720
Speaker 1: is that? Alright? Sorry? Last one? I promise. They work

467
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:13,200
Speaker 1: in pairs to bury the bodies of recently dead animals

468
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 1: like rodents, even up to the size of a rat,

469
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: So a pair of these undertakers can bury a rat

470
00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:23,400
Speaker 1: in just a few hours. They dig under the carcass,

471
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 1: which sinks deeper and deeper into the earth. Then the

472
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 1: bearing beetles complete their undertaker duties by shoving the loose

473
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:37,120
Speaker 1: soil on top of the carcass so inside of the tomb.

474
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 1: The bearing beetles stripped the fur or feathers off the

475
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 1: carcass and use it to line the burrow. So cute

476
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:47,160
Speaker 1: and sweet, so cuddly and cozy, to have my final

477
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 1: resting place inside of my own skin and rfe right

478
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: exactly so then it gets better. They rub their butts

479
00:30:55,160 --> 00:31:00,719
Speaker 1: and mouths all over the body, releasing antimicrobial excretion anti

480
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 1: microbeal excresia. So GoF that was pretty goffe. So these

481
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 1: excretions helped preserve the body and prevent odors of decay

482
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: from attracting other scavengers. The female bearing beetle will then

483
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,800
Speaker 1: lay her eggs in the nursery tomb, where they have

484
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 1: a soft, delicious dead body waiting for them to feed on. Nursery. True,

485
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 1: it's kind of paradox man life death. It's all the

486
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 1: same new life sprouting out of dead things. D uh.

487
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:42,160
Speaker 1: So in a lot of insects, parents are kind of

488
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 1: like they lay their eggs and then they just go

489
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:48,360
Speaker 1: and then that's it. But the bearing beetles are really nice,

490
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: good parents, so the parents continue to care for their

491
00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,720
Speaker 1: larva inside of the crypt. They will feed the larva

492
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:59,360
Speaker 1: regurgitated rat corpse in response to begging from the larva.

493
00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,720
Speaker 1: I know I've talked about in this. In certain species

494
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 1: of bearing beetles they have that wrestling match, but in

495
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 1: other species they will bury large cadavers as a group effort,

496
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:16,040
Speaker 1: and then they raise their larva communally adorable, so sweet,

497
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:21,040
Speaker 1: just like everybody's sharing a dead body getting along singing

498
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:25,200
Speaker 1: much more harmony than many humans. Exactly if we could

499
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:30,000
Speaker 1: all just come together over one, over one corpse et

500
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 1: corpse's plur bum. Yeah. So some carrion beetles have developed

501
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 1: a rather different strategy from burial. Here. I want you

502
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: to look at this photo, boy and enjoy it. Oh boy,

503
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: So what could you describe that for viewers? It looks

504
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: like a beetle that has a bunch of maybe little

505
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:54,520
Speaker 1: beetle larva all over it, A coat of babies basically

506
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:59,360
Speaker 1: of little mites, is what's going? Yeah, so he's wearing

507
00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:03,240
Speaker 1: a It's from a distance like, oh cool for coat

508
00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:09,360
Speaker 1: you've got there. Oh it's moving. So some carrion beetles

509
00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 1: species and mites have developed a symbiotic relationship. The carrion

510
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:17,840
Speaker 1: beetle allows mites to completely cover its body like a

511
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:22,600
Speaker 1: taxi for mites. Um the mic hitch arride to the

512
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:27,200
Speaker 1: nearest dead mouse or whatever. Once the carrion beetle parked

513
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 1: itself next to a dead animal, the might disembark, but

514
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 1: rather than eating the carcass, they like to eat the

515
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:39,800
Speaker 1: carrion beetles competitors. So the mites will eat fly eggs, maggots,

516
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 1: and the larva of other scavengers. Exactly, yes, so incredible.

517
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,560
Speaker 1: So the mites will leave the carrion bee beetle alone,

518
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 1: who enjoy its metal beetle beetle meets uh it's meal

519
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:58,280
Speaker 1: of rotting mouse while the mites destroy the beetles competition

520
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 1: and clears the path for the beetle to lay its

521
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,560
Speaker 1: own eggs on the body. It feels like succession or something.

522
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:07,720
Speaker 1: You're right, succession and might just you know, like in

523
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 1: that movie Willard where he he makes friends with the rats.

524
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: It's it's got this like Ben, you are a rap,

525
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:21,040
Speaker 1: but I love you, goes right, um, And it's this

526
00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:24,880
Speaker 1: like loner, reclusive guy who like he's browbeaten by the

527
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:27,840
Speaker 1: rest of society and his work and his boss and everything.

528
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 1: And then he makes friends with a bunch of wraps

529
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,520
Speaker 1: and the rats eat eat all of his like competitors

530
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:35,920
Speaker 1: and stuff. So um, that's basically this, but with a

531
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:40,840
Speaker 1: beetle and lights on it good to have friends, it is,

532
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 1: that is like yeah, like might it's good to have

533
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:53,960
Speaker 1: a lot of friends eat all of my competition. So

534
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:58,840
Speaker 1: many species of carrion beetles actually have warning coloration because

535
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:03,319
Speaker 1: surprised to They taste like death, probably after eating all

536
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 1: those dead things, I would imagine. So they are bright

537
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:10,680
Speaker 1: red and orange, kind of like biohazard signs, um. And

538
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:15,400
Speaker 1: they can excrete nasty stuff out of giftswear gifts where yeah,

539
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:22,279
Speaker 1: I mean where else exactly. So these this nasty go

540
00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:25,560
Speaker 1: that they excrete out of their anuses turns predators off

541
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 1: and it apparently smells like death but death. So who

542
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 1: would have thought that a beetle that like eats lives, mates,

543
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:39,239
Speaker 1: raises their children inside of dead things would have, like

544
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:43,120
Speaker 1: their perfume smell like death. Yeah. I mean it's like

545
00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:47,800
Speaker 1: your lifestyle at that point. Do more? Yeah? Um? So,

546
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:52,799
Speaker 1: speaking of smelly dead things, have you seen stranger things? Yes?

547
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:55,359
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to call stranger things of smelly dead things,

548
00:35:55,400 --> 00:36:00,480
Speaker 1: but I'm going somewhere and you see the demogorgan yes face.

549
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:04,800
Speaker 1: Um So I want to talk about the Reflegia ARNOLDI,

550
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:09,239
Speaker 1: which is also known as the corpse Lily. That's pretty golf,

551
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:12,759
Speaker 1: isn't it. That sounds like a like a goth name.

552
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 1: High they're on corpse Lily Lily. You can call me

553
00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:21,759
Speaker 1: Lily Corpse. That's actually a really good like goth character. Yeah.

554
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:25,600
Speaker 1: So here's here's a picture of the reflegia or corpse lily.

555
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:27,840
Speaker 1: It's such a big boy. It's a big boy, a

556
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:30,840
Speaker 1: big flappy boy with the big mouth in the center.

557
00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:33,680
Speaker 1: The hole. Is that the alarming thing? It's like that,

558
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:37,520
Speaker 1: you know, the fear of holes. Yeah, that's really triggering

559
00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:40,200
Speaker 1: for Yeah. The the it's sort of that that gingi

560
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 1: eto kind of look of like a thing that just

561
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:46,239
Speaker 1: has a big hole in it. What's in the hole?

562
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:49,880
Speaker 1: Is it more death? Yea, a mouth filled with death.

563
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:55,920
Speaker 1: So um. So it uses it's cadaverous odor to entice

564
00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:59,880
Speaker 1: things rather than deter them. So it is the largest

565
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,800
Speaker 1: of the genus roughly Asia. Uh. And it's the largest

566
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:07,040
Speaker 1: single flower on earth, with a diameter of three and

567
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:09,600
Speaker 1: a half feet, and it weighs up to twenty four

568
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:13,279
Speaker 1: pounds and basically the size of a small dog. Yeah.

569
00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:17,840
Speaker 1: Is most of that way the corpses of corpse beetles

570
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:21,680
Speaker 1: that are in its flower stomach. Yes, probably the weight

571
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:25,440
Speaker 1: of the flesh and there the corpse smelling goo inside

572
00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:27,320
Speaker 1: of it. I've never seen one of these in person.

573
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:29,680
Speaker 1: I mean I know of them, but like it's because

574
00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:34,880
Speaker 1: they're extremely rarely so they're found almost exclusively in the

575
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 1: rainforests of sumatra Um. And it is a dark blood

576
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 1: red with white spots and uh, like I said, it

577
00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:46,480
Speaker 1: looks like that demogorgon face has got these concentric flaps

578
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 1: and then a big hole in the middle. So uh,

579
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:53,640
Speaker 1: it is extremely rare and in fact endangered due to

580
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:58,879
Speaker 1: its convoluted way of reproducing. This plant is actually a parasite.

581
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,920
Speaker 1: It can't grow on its own, and it has to

582
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:05,240
Speaker 1: infect a host plant in this case, and it infects

583
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:09,960
Speaker 1: a specific species of grape vine um and the seeds

584
00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:14,040
Speaker 1: embed themselves into the host vine and sucks nutrients out

585
00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:17,320
Speaker 1: of it. Uh, which is a you know, about what

586
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 1: I would expect from something called a corpse. When it's

587
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:24,400
Speaker 1: ready to reproduce, it creates a bulbous growth in the vine,

588
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:28,440
Speaker 1: which develops into a bud. The bud forms over a

589
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:31,919
Speaker 1: year and it just looks like it's like a normal vine,

590
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:34,600
Speaker 1: and then you just have this big bulbous like pustural

591
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:37,719
Speaker 1: coming out of the vine, and then the bud will

592
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:42,600
Speaker 1: bloom into a huge red flower with a cavernous center.

593
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:46,759
Speaker 1: And it's one of the worst smelling things on the planet. Uh.

594
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:51,720
Speaker 1: It has a very powerful smell of rotting flesh designed

595
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:55,600
Speaker 1: to attract flies and beetles. Uh. In fact, the chemical

596
00:38:55,719 --> 00:39:02,000
Speaker 1: composition of the odor is extremely similar to actual rotting flesh. Um,

597
00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:04,640
Speaker 1: how does it? How does it get that? How mean

598
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:07,520
Speaker 1: does it come from? But well, it's it just produces

599
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:10,040
Speaker 1: the the chemical It's sort of like, you know how

600
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:14,800
Speaker 1: we can create mimic smells like fake banana. Have you

601
00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:18,000
Speaker 1: ever seen Nathan for you? Um, a little bit of it? Yeah,

602
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 1: just can't watch Comedian And he like pretends to help businesses,

603
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,960
Speaker 1: but really he's just doing terrible stuff. And he convinces

604
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:31,960
Speaker 1: a frozen yogurt place to try out a poop flavored

605
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:34,880
Speaker 1: ice cream. So he has to go to this like

606
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 1: production place where they make um, artificial flavoring, and he

607
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 1: makes artificial poop flavoring. So something. It's something like that,

608
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:48,239
Speaker 1: but happening inside the flower. The flower only last a

609
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:52,120
Speaker 1: few days. It is unisexual, meaning that it is either

610
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:56,600
Speaker 1: male or female, and so the pollinator, the flies or

611
00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 1: beetles who are hoping to get some of that sweet

612
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:03,040
Speaker 1: corpse goo, have to cross contaminate the male and female

613
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:07,640
Speaker 1: flowers in order for them to be successfully pollinated. And

614
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:11,640
Speaker 1: the of course, because they can't do anything that's not disgusting.

615
00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:16,040
Speaker 1: The pollen of the corpse lily is the consistency of

616
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:19,680
Speaker 1: thick snot um, and it just kind of coats the

617
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,960
Speaker 1: beetles and the flies that that gets in there, and

618
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:27,880
Speaker 1: the rare instances that they actually are successfully pollinated. Uh,

619
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:31,000
Speaker 1: they produce a fruit that's filled with tiny seeds that

620
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:35,680
Speaker 1: looks like a pile of poop. Basically, um, why is

621
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:39,279
Speaker 1: it so foul? Why is everything about It's like, it's

622
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: like my name is corpse lily, and my seeds are poop.

623
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 1: It's like I'm not afraid to offend. It's not precisely

624
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:51,399
Speaker 1: known exactly how the seeds are dispersed. Um. It's thought

625
00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:55,000
Speaker 1: that they're eaten by tree shrews and perhaps ants. One

626
00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:57,719
Speaker 1: theory is that maybe the tree shrew poops on or

627
00:40:57,760 --> 00:41:00,840
Speaker 1: around the host vine, or another theory is that ants

628
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:03,120
Speaker 1: pick up the seeds and carry them to the vine

629
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: or to their burrows near the vines, and the horrible

630
00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: process begins a new But they're like, I mean, it's unpleasant,

631
00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:15,480
Speaker 1: but it's overall like it's like a it's like a part.

632
00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:18,239
Speaker 1: It's a vital part of an ecosystem, right, Like, don't

633
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:20,280
Speaker 1: you need to have a corpse flower and a rainforest

634
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:25,000
Speaker 1: or something? I don't know, or is it like a

635
00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:29,520
Speaker 1: horrible aberration that like, I mean, the only thing it's

636
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:33,960
Speaker 1: really hurting I think are the vines, right not? I mean,

637
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 1: here's the thing, the um the flegia is highly endangered,

638
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,920
Speaker 1: whereas I don't think these vines are so uh And

639
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 1: I guess the only other thing it's hurting is like

640
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 1: humans who have to live near it and smell something

641
00:41:49,719 --> 00:41:54,160
Speaker 1: that smells like a horrible corpse just di spewing odor everywhere.

642
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:57,320
Speaker 1: But otherwise I think it's a lovely thing. And I

643
00:41:57,480 --> 00:42:03,040
Speaker 1: hope it doesn't go extinct. Uh. Man, it's you can

644
00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:06,680
Speaker 1: see like it. It is truly humongous. It's it's pretty.

645
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:09,759
Speaker 1: Just the way it looks is pretty unsettling to me.

646
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:12,319
Speaker 1: It looks like it will eat you, like you've you've

647
00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:16,120
Speaker 1: gone into a real Mario hell world where the plants

648
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:18,200
Speaker 1: want to eat you and they fall into it, right,

649
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:21,959
Speaker 1: like a gritty, realistic Mario where once you die, there's

650
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:27,840
Speaker 1: no one ups. Yeah, So why are we so freaked

651
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,360
Speaker 1: out about clowns hanging their folks? I swear this is relevant.

652
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:35,320
Speaker 1: So they're big red ringed mounds, their white faces, and

653
00:42:35,520 --> 00:42:39,560
Speaker 1: blue accented eyes. There's a theory that the grinning faces

654
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:43,320
Speaker 1: of clowns land us right in the uncanny valley, evoking

655
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:48,120
Speaker 1: the grim rictus of a decomposing head. Harvard Medical School

656
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:53,680
Speaker 1: psychiatrist Steven Schlasman told Vulture quote, the uncanny explains a

657
00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:56,400
Speaker 1: lot of horror tropes where you look at something and

658
00:42:56,520 --> 00:43:00,160
Speaker 1: it's not quite right, like a human face that's decomposed sing.

659
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 1: It's recognizable, but just enough away from normal to scare you.

660
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:07,839
Speaker 1: A study published in the journal New Ideas in Psychology

661
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 1: found that surveyed people consider clowning to be the creepiest profession,

662
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:17,040
Speaker 1: followed by sex shop owners, funeral directors, and taxidermists. They

663
00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:21,000
Speaker 1: perceived those death obsessed for sex obsessed professions to be

664
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:24,880
Speaker 1: the creepiest. Could clowns be considered death obsessed due to

665
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:29,080
Speaker 1: their ghoulish faces, or, as another theory suggests, is it

666
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:32,400
Speaker 1: that their emotions are ambiguous, making it impossible to know

667
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:35,360
Speaker 1: whether their leering smile is painted on or is a

668
00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:39,160
Speaker 1: genuinely threatening expression. Anyways, I don't know. Why don't you

669
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:43,840
Speaker 1: ask the clowns standing right behind you. When we return,

670
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:47,080
Speaker 1: we'll discuss evil worms. Why are they so evil? How

671
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:49,880
Speaker 1: are they so evil? Have the evil worms been inside

672
00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:57,800
Speaker 1: you the whole time? Hi, it's me again and welcome

673
00:43:57,920 --> 00:44:02,160
Speaker 1: to another edition of Imagination Station. Today. I'd like you

674
00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:06,040
Speaker 1: to imagine that something is growing inside you again. You

675
00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:08,759
Speaker 1: know something is wrong as you feel your body being

676
00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 1: filled up with some kind of massive, wriggling creature. But

677
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:15,479
Speaker 1: at this point it's too late. You can't speak. There's

678
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 1: some dark force preventing your voice from working. There's nothing

679
00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:21,920
Speaker 1: you can do about it. It continues to grow, filling

680
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 1: up your torso like you're being filled with some sort

681
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:29,560
Speaker 1: of nightmare spaghetti. Finally, you feel your mind start to crumble. Water.

682
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:34,240
Speaker 1: You think water, I need water. You stumble your wretched

683
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:38,040
Speaker 1: body towards a lake, numbly, aware that you probably can't swim.

684
00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:42,800
Speaker 1: Oh well, a voice commands you louder water, so you

685
00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:46,000
Speaker 1: jump into the cold, dark depths of the lake. As

686
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:48,360
Speaker 1: the light of the sun fades away and you feel

687
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:51,840
Speaker 1: yourself sinking into the dark waters, You're dimly aware of

688
00:44:52,040 --> 00:44:57,480
Speaker 1: something happening, and impossibly long hose like creature wriggling its

689
00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 1: way out of your guts. Squirming to freedom as you drown. Luckily,

690
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:07,520
Speaker 1: guess what you're not a cricket or a grasshopper? Well,

691
00:45:07,520 --> 00:45:10,640
Speaker 1: I don't think so. No, I as far as I know,

692
00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:14,280
Speaker 1: I certainly hope not. You look you look like a human.

693
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:17,839
Speaker 1: But you know, look I'm I'm not. I'm not going

694
00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:20,880
Speaker 1: to judge if there's any If there's anything we've learned today,

695
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:23,480
Speaker 1: it's that, um, you know, not all creatures are what

696
00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:29,640
Speaker 1: they appear to Fankly, we could be filled with crickets. Yeah, so, Uh,

697
00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:34,239
Speaker 1: the cricket is a very unlucky animal, as is the

698
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,640
Speaker 1: grasshopper and any other insect that is the victim of

699
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:43,320
Speaker 1: the parasitic hairworm a k A. Nematomorpha, which is a

700
00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:48,800
Speaker 1: phylum of nematode Um. So, like many parasites, the parasitic

701
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:52,880
Speaker 1: hare worm is a sadistic creep. Uh. It infects insects

702
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:57,000
Speaker 1: and arthropods. There are two species of parasitic careworm that

703
00:45:57,680 --> 00:46:00,440
Speaker 1: parasitized crickets. You want me to try to offer through

704
00:46:00,520 --> 00:46:05,759
Speaker 1: these uh, these Latin names she spinal Cordotes tellini and

705
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:12,879
Speaker 1: Paragordias tricuspidatus. Good, good, good effort. I think I got

706
00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:17,480
Speaker 1: this perfect um so they parasitize crickets and grasshoppers and

707
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:21,480
Speaker 1: force them to do their horrible bidding. They grow inside

708
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:25,120
Speaker 1: of their host cricket or grasshopper, and they occupy the

709
00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:30,759
Speaker 1: poor insects entire body cavity except for the head and legs. First,

710
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:34,000
Speaker 1: they short circuit the cricket's brain and stops them from chirping,

711
00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:37,839
Speaker 1: making them less likely to be eaten by predators. Uh,

712
00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:41,759
Speaker 1: they release a protein that alters the cricket or grasshopper

713
00:46:41,800 --> 00:46:46,600
Speaker 1: brains chemistry, causing them to deliriously seek out bodies of water.

714
00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 1: Once inside the water, the hair worms wriggle out of

715
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:53,439
Speaker 1: their hosts like eating spaghetti in reverse out of your butt?

716
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:56,880
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? So I've got a video for

717
00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:00,799
Speaker 1: you because I know you want it. You've been looking

718
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:03,359
Speaker 1: forward to this video this whole time. I've been talking

719
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:07,040
Speaker 1: about it. Here we go. So here's the cricket and

720
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:11,400
Speaker 1: it's in the water. And what's that coming out of it? Oh? God?

721
00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:15,239
Speaker 1: Is that? It's interesting? Though? Is that Is that a

722
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:19,640
Speaker 1: huge worm? That's a huge worm. It's so big, it's

723
00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:22,960
Speaker 1: so big. How is that whole worm in that cricket?

724
00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:27,960
Speaker 1: It's jammed in there, it's just it's just coiled up

725
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:31,200
Speaker 1: in there. And oh it's so gross that there's another

726
00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:33,279
Speaker 1: video of it if you want to keep watching it.

727
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:35,440
Speaker 1: There's like a bunch of them coming out of that

728
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:41,680
Speaker 1: one ker. Don't you worry, folks. I'll include a link

729
00:47:41,719 --> 00:47:44,279
Speaker 1: to this video in the show notes so you two

730
00:47:44,440 --> 00:47:47,960
Speaker 1: can experience the demon spaghetti that is the hair worm.

731
00:47:48,640 --> 00:47:51,120
Speaker 1: It's like the way it's like swinging around, just like

732
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:55,439
Speaker 1: like seeking its way out out of the butt, out

733
00:47:55,480 --> 00:47:57,520
Speaker 1: of the butt. It's actually I think it's actually bursting

734
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:02,120
Speaker 1: through the abdominal cavity, which is great. Yeah. Um, So

735
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 1: the crickets and grasshoppers drowned. They don't normally like to

736
00:48:06,120 --> 00:48:08,799
Speaker 1: jump in water because they don't really like to drown.

737
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:12,800
Speaker 1: They usually just sip things like do drops and stuff

738
00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:15,759
Speaker 1: like adorable. They don't they don't try to, but like

739
00:48:15,800 --> 00:48:17,719
Speaker 1: when they're infected with a hair worm, they'll just like

740
00:48:18,040 --> 00:48:21,440
Speaker 1: jump right in the water is fine, and the worms

741
00:48:21,520 --> 00:48:24,279
Speaker 1: are coming out of me. I mean that is that

742
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:29,839
Speaker 1: is pretty devious. See that feels more like morally, um yeah,

743
00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:35,960
Speaker 1: like it feels more predatory than hes heinous some of

744
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:38,320
Speaker 1: these other ones. I don't know. It's like the body

745
00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:40,880
Speaker 1: takeover a thing. I guess right. It's just the the

746
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:45,239
Speaker 1: how incredibly invasive it is to like take over the

747
00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:48,520
Speaker 1: entire body like be spooled up inside of it like

748
00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:54,319
Speaker 1: a coil of hell. And then uh, just like then

749
00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:58,360
Speaker 1: it drives it to kill itself unintentionally, and then it

750
00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:01,600
Speaker 1: like bursts out the bodies and then it goes and mates,

751
00:49:01,719 --> 00:49:06,200
Speaker 1: and so it's it needs it needs to grow inside

752
00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:12,120
Speaker 1: of the crickets body. It absorbs nutrients. It's absorbing the

753
00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:14,879
Speaker 1: nutrients from the cricket like just directly through its skin

754
00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:20,160
Speaker 1: like a you know again, it's I mean really demonic

755
00:49:20,239 --> 00:49:23,279
Speaker 1: spaghetti is the best way I describe it. It's like

756
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:28,879
Speaker 1: possessed spaghetti. Getting possessed by spaghetti is what happens to crickets. Well,

757
00:49:29,080 --> 00:49:31,840
Speaker 1: so how long does it so it basically matures to

758
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:34,320
Speaker 1: like adulthood and then and then finds the water and

759
00:49:34,440 --> 00:49:36,360
Speaker 1: jumps out, and then what does it do for the

760
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:42,600
Speaker 1: rest of its life? Mates and a little uh yeah,

761
00:49:43,120 --> 00:49:47,239
Speaker 1: that will then get unintentionally eaten by the crickets, and

762
00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:51,960
Speaker 1: I don't yeah, I mean there's so there's like fearfules, right,

763
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:56,200
Speaker 1: but there's also like there's something about that like a

764
00:49:56,320 --> 00:49:58,839
Speaker 1: curvy I have like my my iPhone headphones right here,

765
00:49:58,920 --> 00:50:00,440
Speaker 1: but it's like that kind of thing, or just like

766
00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:04,800
Speaker 1: noodle phobia. Noodle phobia extremely things, especially when they're moving.

767
00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:08,080
Speaker 1: It's likely. Yeah, well, at least we're humans, so we're safe,

768
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:13,040
Speaker 1: or are we? I got some bad news? Yeah, oh no,

769
00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:18,279
Speaker 1: because I gotta tell you store about guinea worms. So

770
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:22,320
Speaker 1: guinea worms infect humans and they manipulate us in a

771
00:50:22,440 --> 00:50:26,879
Speaker 1: similar way. So normally I'll maybe jokingly say, oh, don't

772
00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:30,040
Speaker 1: google this, but then you actually google it. Uh, and

773
00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:34,000
Speaker 1: it's fun. Seriously, if you are eating, if you have

774
00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:37,759
Speaker 1: any kind of sensitivity to things like, do not this. Really,

775
00:50:37,840 --> 00:50:40,440
Speaker 1: I'll describe it. I will describe it and lure details

776
00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:42,520
Speaker 1: so you don't have to google. And I refuse to

777
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:44,400
Speaker 1: put it in the few show notes because that is

778
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 1: really Yeah, exactly, So, the guinea worm will infect humans

779
00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:54,800
Speaker 1: when we drink water containing water fleas who they themselves

780
00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:58,520
Speaker 1: are infected. Uh. So the fleas die inside of the

781
00:50:58,719 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 1: humans gut and they release the guinea worm larva. The

782
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:07,680
Speaker 1: larva develop into adults and reproduce inside the the person's

783
00:51:07,840 --> 00:51:13,080
Speaker 1: intestinal wall. Um. And the here's where it gets fun.

784
00:51:13,560 --> 00:51:18,279
Speaker 1: The female adults migrate down the host's leg, which is

785
00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:24,240
Speaker 1: apparently extraordinarily painful. Um. And then it tries to exit

786
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:29,320
Speaker 1: through the foot, which is again extremely painful, as you

787
00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:33,360
Speaker 1: can imagine. So a painful blister forms on your foot

788
00:51:33,600 --> 00:51:37,880
Speaker 1: as the female burrows her way outside. Uh. And this

789
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:41,279
Speaker 1: causes people to go seek out some cool water to

790
00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:45,120
Speaker 1: wash their foot because it's an incredible pain. Uh. So

791
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:47,560
Speaker 1: when you put your foot in the water to soothe

792
00:51:47,640 --> 00:51:51,399
Speaker 1: the blister, the female bursts out and it SPUs its

793
00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:54,399
Speaker 1: offspring into the water because that's exactly where she wanted

794
00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:57,640
Speaker 1: you to go, um, so that it could spit out

795
00:51:57,680 --> 00:52:01,839
Speaker 1: all its babies into the water. And then those those

796
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:05,040
Speaker 1: babies will infect water fleas, and then we drink the

797
00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:09,480
Speaker 1: water fleas and the cycle begins. Anew wait, wait, what's

798
00:52:09,560 --> 00:52:14,719
Speaker 1: this call? Like? Doesn't have a guinea worms? Isn't there

799
00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:18,120
Speaker 1: another kind of um worm or something that can go

800
00:52:18,239 --> 00:52:20,839
Speaker 1: in through your feet, maybe goes into your feet? Those

801
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:24,000
Speaker 1: are hookwormsokworms? Yes, Okay, that's what I was saying. Worms

802
00:52:24,040 --> 00:52:25,640
Speaker 1: just going in and out of our feet. Why do

803
00:52:25,719 --> 00:52:28,120
Speaker 1: they want our feet? So it seems like so feet

804
00:52:28,239 --> 00:52:33,000
Speaker 1: is the window into the world. Yeah, I was, I

805
00:52:33,040 --> 00:52:34,839
Speaker 1: was going to say, it's like the like the eyes

806
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:36,680
Speaker 1: of the window into the soul, but the feet or

807
00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:38,560
Speaker 1: like the gate into the rest of the world, the

808
00:52:38,640 --> 00:52:43,480
Speaker 1: feet or the revolving door into the body. Uh. Yeah,

809
00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:48,240
Speaker 1: so this is extremely gross. Um. I have a pretty

810
00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:51,400
Speaker 1: good constitution, but like seeing an image of like this

811
00:52:51,640 --> 00:52:55,200
Speaker 1: white worm coming out of like a blister in the foot,

812
00:52:55,719 --> 00:52:57,960
Speaker 1: it's not good. It's bad. It's a bad experience. I

813
00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:02,760
Speaker 1: don't recommend. It is the war. It's not so it's okay.

814
00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:06,920
Speaker 1: That part isn't so bad. It is spaghetti. It's like

815
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:13,200
Speaker 1: a spaghette. It's pretty long. Yeah, it's pretty long. I

816
00:53:13,520 --> 00:53:16,160
Speaker 1: want yeah, I don't want any I do have some

817
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:19,920
Speaker 1: genuinely good news. This used to be a much bigger problem,

818
00:53:20,200 --> 00:53:24,000
Speaker 1: but policies of water filtration and protecting water sources have

819
00:53:24,280 --> 00:53:29,000
Speaker 1: nearly eradicated these parasites in humans. So get this. In

820
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:33,239
Speaker 1: six there were over three million cases of guinea worm

821
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:37,160
Speaker 1: annually UM and this has been reduced to only about

822
00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:43,880
Speaker 1: thirty cases like three zero in So from this is

823
00:53:44,080 --> 00:53:48,280
Speaker 1: a really big success story of you know, humans conquering

824
00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:53,520
Speaker 1: horrible parasite. Um. Where did these tend to show up?

825
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:57,960
Speaker 1: I think in Asian Africa, although it can be I

826
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:01,000
Speaker 1: think it wasn't. Um South America to a certain extent

827
00:54:01,080 --> 00:54:03,120
Speaker 1: as well. I think in a lot of regions where

828
00:54:03,200 --> 00:54:07,880
Speaker 1: you can have sort of the tropical and subtropical areas

829
00:54:08,040 --> 00:54:10,600
Speaker 1: is where you get it the most. But yeah, now

830
00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:13,600
Speaker 1: I think it's like there, it's you can count on

831
00:54:13,719 --> 00:54:15,839
Speaker 1: your fingers how many cases there are, so that that's

832
00:54:15,880 --> 00:54:19,160
Speaker 1: a real real success story. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't kill

833
00:54:19,239 --> 00:54:21,840
Speaker 1: you or anything. If you have you probably get infected,

834
00:54:21,920 --> 00:54:26,040
Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, so so yes, the complications that arise

835
00:54:26,120 --> 00:54:29,640
Speaker 1: from it are like, um, infection of the of the

836
00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:33,440
Speaker 1: blister and a lot of pain and um, I think

837
00:54:33,560 --> 00:54:37,320
Speaker 1: you could get dangerous side effects from it, but it No,

838
00:54:37,480 --> 00:54:40,960
Speaker 1: it doesn't. And the and the way that it, you know,

839
00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:43,239
Speaker 1: compels you to get to the water. That's mostly just

840
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:45,319
Speaker 1: because of the pain and you because the pain. It's

841
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:49,319
Speaker 1: not a brain infection as far as we know, no, um,

842
00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:54,120
Speaker 1: we There's the only real, I think documented case of

843
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:57,840
Speaker 1: a parasite controlling the human brain is again are a

844
00:54:57,960 --> 00:55:02,359
Speaker 1: show favorite, the Toxoplasma mosisum, which is the same one

845
00:55:02,400 --> 00:55:04,959
Speaker 1: that infects the rats and makes them cozy up rats,

846
00:55:05,360 --> 00:55:08,000
Speaker 1: and that that is it's not so much that it

847
00:55:08,080 --> 00:55:10,680
Speaker 1: doesn't control our behavior like it controls the rats, but

848
00:55:10,760 --> 00:55:15,480
Speaker 1: it can potentially cause um sort of trigger certain mental

849
00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:20,399
Speaker 1: illness like schizophrenia, depression, even o c D, which is yeah,

850
00:55:21,080 --> 00:55:25,040
Speaker 1: human mind is so fragile. Yeah yeah, but no, this

851
00:55:25,239 --> 00:55:27,160
Speaker 1: is not See this is not as bad because it's

852
00:55:27,200 --> 00:55:29,879
Speaker 1: just causing horrible blisters on your feet. Yeah. I mean

853
00:55:29,960 --> 00:55:32,880
Speaker 1: that's all very understandable. That doesn't have quite the kind

854
00:55:32,960 --> 00:55:37,719
Speaker 1: of existence, right exactly. I just wonder because there's so

855
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:41,200
Speaker 1: many there's so many parasites that their whole thing is

856
00:55:41,280 --> 00:55:43,560
Speaker 1: mind control. It's just like it feels like a matter

857
00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:46,680
Speaker 1: of time before something evolves to hijack the human brain,

858
00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:50,279
Speaker 1: cause a cause a horrible apocalypse. Yeah. I'm kind of

859
00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:53,879
Speaker 1: shocked that hasn't happened, right, I know. Right, Um, well,

860
00:55:54,040 --> 00:55:56,279
Speaker 1: knock on wood unless the parasites are coming out of

861
00:55:56,320 --> 00:56:04,279
Speaker 1: the world just like brain infecting termites crawling up your nose. Yep. Um. So,

862
00:56:04,600 --> 00:56:08,640
Speaker 1: speaking of horrible things, remember the chest burster from aliens

863
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:12,719
Speaker 1: um or like the brundle fry fly from The Fly

864
00:56:13,080 --> 00:56:15,880
Speaker 1: with Jeff Goldbloom and how it's like this fly like

865
00:56:16,920 --> 00:56:21,200
Speaker 1: he gets he goes in a transporter, and he merges

866
00:56:21,320 --> 00:56:24,320
Speaker 1: his DNA with a fly and then like and he

867
00:56:24,400 --> 00:56:26,680
Speaker 1: starts to transform into a fly. But in the final

868
00:56:26,800 --> 00:56:30,200
Speaker 1: stages he just like this fly creature just bursts out

869
00:56:30,239 --> 00:56:34,680
Speaker 1: of his entire body. Good news. This actually happens in

870
00:56:34,920 --> 00:56:38,640
Speaker 1: a certain species of ribbon worm, who have a very

871
00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:45,520
Speaker 1: unique way of maturing. So, uh, these are called heteronymous Wait,

872
00:56:45,800 --> 00:56:48,919
Speaker 1: well let's try the skin. It's okay, I'm just looking

873
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:52,440
Speaker 1: at more gifts of parasitic worm. Oh good, that sounds

874
00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:55,440
Speaker 1: like a good plan for you to do. Have you

875
00:56:55,520 --> 00:57:01,840
Speaker 1: had lunch yet, Yeah, so he do. Heateronnumertians are a

876
00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:06,560
Speaker 1: species of ribbon worm um. They start out as tiny

877
00:57:06,800 --> 00:57:11,239
Speaker 1: near microscarpet near microscopic larva who look a bit like

878
00:57:11,600 --> 00:57:15,080
Speaker 1: bobbily jellyfish. Here, let me show you they're not so

879
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:19,120
Speaker 1: bad looking, honestly, until you understand what's going on. So like,

880
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:23,160
Speaker 1: they look like they look like a little uh like

881
00:57:23,240 --> 00:57:27,120
Speaker 1: a little like mushroom. They're really baby tiny guys. They

882
00:57:27,160 --> 00:57:30,680
Speaker 1: look yeah, they look like a baby pacifier, but they're not.

883
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:35,880
Speaker 1: There's nothing pacifying about this. So rather than growing and

884
00:57:36,040 --> 00:57:38,680
Speaker 1: changing in sort of the normal way, they start to

885
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:42,560
Speaker 1: grow a little worm inside of them. Uh. And as

886
00:57:42,680 --> 00:57:46,720
Speaker 1: the larva goes around eating plankton and nourishing itself, it's

887
00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:50,160
Speaker 1: also nourishing this little worm that's growing inside of it

888
00:57:50,440 --> 00:57:55,240
Speaker 1: and getting But you're rocking yourself back important, I mean,

889
00:57:55,360 --> 00:57:59,000
Speaker 1: so far it sounds like my childhood. Yeah. So there

890
00:57:59,080 --> 00:58:01,840
Speaker 1: are two worm inside of me, a white worm and

891
00:58:01,920 --> 00:58:05,720
Speaker 1: a black worm, and they both try to eat all

892
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:08,040
Speaker 1: my nutrients and then burst out of me. All right,

893
00:58:08,160 --> 00:58:11,600
Speaker 1: So once the worm reaches a certain size, it starts

894
00:58:11,680 --> 00:58:15,280
Speaker 1: to eat the larva from the inside out. Um, so

895
00:58:15,680 --> 00:58:19,240
Speaker 1: here's the here's stage one. You see, like, here's the

896
00:58:19,280 --> 00:58:22,280
Speaker 1: worm kind of inside of it. And then the ending

897
00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:24,280
Speaker 1: stage is like this huge thing and then it eats

898
00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:28,480
Speaker 1: this like little mushroom shaped larva. And then once it

899
00:58:29,120 --> 00:58:31,800
Speaker 1: starts to eat the larva from the inside out, it

900
00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:35,920
Speaker 1: actually like bursts out of the larva. And it's actually,

901
00:58:36,000 --> 00:58:39,320
Speaker 1: this worm is not a parasite or anything. This worm

902
00:58:39,520 --> 00:58:43,560
Speaker 1: is the juvenile stage, the next stage of life of

903
00:58:43,720 --> 00:58:47,760
Speaker 1: the larva. So it's basically as if you if your

904
00:58:47,800 --> 00:58:51,600
Speaker 1: teenage self chest bursts out of your child it's like, hey,

905
00:58:51,720 --> 00:58:53,840
Speaker 1: I gotta acne, check me out. It's like you just

906
00:58:53,960 --> 00:58:56,560
Speaker 1: look like a weirdly bloated twelve year old and then

907
00:58:56,720 --> 00:58:59,360
Speaker 1: suddenly a sixth year old just like bursts out of you.

908
00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:05,560
Speaker 1: It's like, I hate stuff. Oh my god, that's so incredible.

909
00:59:06,720 --> 00:59:10,600
Speaker 1: And my name is Corpse. Like I've literally burst out

910
00:59:10,760 --> 00:59:14,160
Speaker 1: of my twelve year old salf It's like they look

911
00:59:14,200 --> 00:59:19,880
Speaker 1: like poop. Um. Oh my god, that's so incredible. That

912
00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:22,720
Speaker 1: feels like a gingieto thing. Yeah, it feels like, yeah,

913
00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:25,360
Speaker 1: just like stepping out of the shell of your old,

914
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:30,200
Speaker 1: old husk of yourself. This is known as catastrophic metamorphosis,

915
00:59:30,400 --> 00:59:37,080
Speaker 1: which it sounds sounds like what any other kind because

916
00:59:37,160 --> 00:59:40,320
Speaker 1: it is very it is a catastrophic thing to happen

917
00:59:40,400 --> 00:59:43,280
Speaker 1: and to hear about. Also, oh my god, wait, so

918
00:59:43,360 --> 00:59:45,640
Speaker 1: how big is it when this happens. It's it's pretty

919
00:59:46,680 --> 00:59:49,720
Speaker 1: pretty small. But you know, like if you scale that

920
00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:52,480
Speaker 1: up and you think about that happening, just like this

921
00:59:52,640 --> 00:59:56,560
Speaker 1: creature just bursting out of this, it's pretty awful. Oh

922
00:59:56,640 --> 00:59:59,919
Speaker 1: my god. Yeah, So do you still want these these

923
01:00:00,200 --> 01:00:06,840
Speaker 1: tiny organisms to get really big? Um? No, I'm fine

924
01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:09,760
Speaker 1: with I'm fine with that size of that. I mean

925
01:00:11,280 --> 01:00:13,800
Speaker 1: that one. It feels like I would like it to

926
01:00:13,880 --> 01:00:16,360
Speaker 1: be bigger, maybe just so I could see the chest

927
01:00:16,400 --> 01:00:19,400
Speaker 1: burst t happen, Like that'd be exciting, Like it'd be

928
01:00:19,440 --> 01:00:22,280
Speaker 1: funny if more like dogs. But that's what I was

929
01:00:22,280 --> 01:00:24,480
Speaker 1: thinking of. If I was like, yeah, like if you

930
01:00:24,560 --> 01:00:26,360
Speaker 1: have a cute little puppy and then like a full

931
01:00:26,400 --> 01:00:28,760
Speaker 1: grown dog just bursts out of it, would that make

932
01:00:28,800 --> 01:00:32,000
Speaker 1: you feel Would that feel like? Um, it would feel

933
01:00:32,080 --> 01:00:35,240
Speaker 1: kind of like a like a thought experiment, a little

934
01:00:35,240 --> 01:00:36,880
Speaker 1: bit of like is it the same, like it's the

935
01:00:36,920 --> 01:00:40,440
Speaker 1: whole like like seconds or like the body duplication thing

936
01:00:40,640 --> 01:00:43,600
Speaker 1: like yeah, still my dog. Well I've had that thought

937
01:00:43,640 --> 01:00:46,320
Speaker 1: a lot, especially about like so if you compare me

938
01:00:46,480 --> 01:00:48,720
Speaker 1: to my well, okay, if you compare me to my

939
01:00:48,800 --> 01:00:51,240
Speaker 1: ten year old self, No, no, you gotta go back

940
01:00:51,280 --> 01:00:53,600
Speaker 1: further because I'm basically still tin Do you compare me

941
01:00:53,720 --> 01:00:57,440
Speaker 1: to like my five year old self? Um? Very different people?

942
01:00:58,000 --> 01:01:01,720
Speaker 1: And so is five year old me dead? And am

943
01:01:01,760 --> 01:01:04,800
Speaker 1: I a new creature? It's crazy to think about, is

944
01:01:04,960 --> 01:01:07,800
Speaker 1: like none of the cells that we're in your five

945
01:01:07,880 --> 01:01:11,000
Speaker 1: year old self are still around? Well actually so some

946
01:01:11,200 --> 01:01:13,280
Speaker 1: of them are. Some of them are which one? So

947
01:01:13,560 --> 01:01:17,400
Speaker 1: a lot of brain cells, um, so the average lifespan

948
01:01:17,720 --> 01:01:24,840
Speaker 1: of cells in your body, I think is a several years. UM.

949
01:01:25,040 --> 01:01:27,720
Speaker 1: Some cells turn over at faster rates than others, So

950
01:01:27,880 --> 01:01:31,960
Speaker 1: you're a lot of your like your skin, your epithelial

951
01:01:32,080 --> 01:01:35,440
Speaker 1: cells lining your stomach and all turn over. A lot

952
01:01:35,520 --> 01:01:37,120
Speaker 1: of cells will turn over in the course of just

953
01:01:37,240 --> 01:01:39,800
Speaker 1: like a week. UM. Some turn over in the course

954
01:01:39,840 --> 01:01:42,800
Speaker 1: of a few years. There's other tissue that you're born

955
01:01:42,880 --> 01:01:45,520
Speaker 1: with and you die with, Like there's certain cells in

956
01:01:45,720 --> 01:01:48,680
Speaker 1: the disc of your eye that you're born with and

957
01:01:48,800 --> 01:01:51,760
Speaker 1: you die with so does never regenerate. And then in

958
01:01:51,880 --> 01:01:54,800
Speaker 1: your brain, your your brain goes through a lot of

959
01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:59,120
Speaker 1: changes as a child, and then after which point there's

960
01:01:59,160 --> 01:02:02,520
Speaker 1: not as much like uh, cellular change and turnover. There's

961
01:02:02,520 --> 01:02:04,959
Speaker 1: still a lot of neural plasticity in your brain, because

962
01:02:05,040 --> 01:02:08,800
Speaker 1: your brain can change at any age basically UM, although

963
01:02:08,840 --> 01:02:12,400
Speaker 1: it slows down and the amount of plasticity is much

964
01:02:12,440 --> 01:02:15,760
Speaker 1: reduced once you're about twenty five years old, but you

965
01:02:16,080 --> 01:02:19,440
Speaker 1: can still develop new synaptic connections and your brain chemistry

966
01:02:19,480 --> 01:02:22,200
Speaker 1: can change. But in terms of new cells, like, there's

967
01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:26,160
Speaker 1: not really that much UM cell change. What you're around

968
01:02:27,400 --> 01:02:30,440
Speaker 1: um or or even younger, I think it the like

969
01:02:30,560 --> 01:02:34,160
Speaker 1: you you're basically it's the same kind of cellular tissue.

970
01:02:34,240 --> 01:02:36,560
Speaker 1: But yeah, but you know, when you think about it,

971
01:02:36,640 --> 01:02:38,640
Speaker 1: like a lot of our body is replaced from like

972
01:02:38,720 --> 01:02:41,560
Speaker 1: our five year old self. Um, although it is, it

973
01:02:41,640 --> 01:02:44,920
Speaker 1: does make sense that our brains are not as frequently replaced.

974
01:02:45,360 --> 01:02:49,160
Speaker 1: We wouldn't forget a lot of things. But yeah, it is.

975
01:02:49,280 --> 01:02:51,400
Speaker 1: It is still freaky. Like if you look at your

976
01:02:51,520 --> 01:02:54,760
Speaker 1: your skin that you're in right now, that's all new skins. Yeah,

977
01:02:55,280 --> 01:02:58,720
Speaker 1: this is like new from probably a year ago. It's

978
01:02:58,800 --> 01:03:02,720
Speaker 1: like none of the yea, your bones that your bones

979
01:03:02,800 --> 01:03:06,200
Speaker 1: over It does turn over quite slowly, yes, yes, but

980
01:03:06,320 --> 01:03:11,240
Speaker 1: it does turn over, so even even your bones, and

981
01:03:11,440 --> 01:03:14,240
Speaker 1: so yeah, it is it's that ship of theseus thing

982
01:03:14,320 --> 01:03:16,120
Speaker 1: of like, well if I'm sort of made out of

983
01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:19,040
Speaker 1: new parts, now I might like the same person. Uh.

984
01:03:19,200 --> 01:03:23,880
Speaker 1: And even though the cells, your neurons don't literally change out,

985
01:03:24,000 --> 01:03:27,000
Speaker 1: your neural structures change and so it's like, you know,

986
01:03:27,360 --> 01:03:31,040
Speaker 1: is that still you because you form completely new synaptic

987
01:03:31,120 --> 01:03:33,880
Speaker 1: patterns and all these things. So it's and you're building

988
01:03:33,920 --> 01:03:35,960
Speaker 1: off the stuff and it is. It is kind of

989
01:03:36,720 --> 01:03:39,120
Speaker 1: it is a weird, but your body is like playing

990
01:03:39,160 --> 01:03:42,440
Speaker 1: a game of telephone. Yes, it is a really interesting

991
01:03:42,520 --> 01:03:44,520
Speaker 1: way to put it. I like that a lot. It

992
01:03:44,760 --> 01:03:48,240
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, that's the that is true. And then

993
01:03:48,680 --> 01:03:52,560
Speaker 1: aren't we all just like adults bursting out of children

994
01:03:52,600 --> 01:03:57,400
Speaker 1: and not understanding what's going on. I'm bigger now, but

995
01:03:57,920 --> 01:04:02,320
Speaker 1: nothing else is still essentially a child. Uh but yeah,

996
01:04:02,440 --> 01:04:06,480
Speaker 1: that's um, the human condition is basically the same as

997
01:04:06,640 --> 01:04:10,680
Speaker 1: the ribbon worm. I feel like, oh man, the ribbon worm.

998
01:04:13,080 --> 01:04:16,960
Speaker 1: So I, because this was a particularly disgusting episode, I

999
01:04:17,120 --> 01:04:21,720
Speaker 1: wanted to do a chaser of a kiddy discovering that

1000
01:04:21,880 --> 01:04:26,120
Speaker 1: he has ears. Um, so here, this isn't a trick.

1001
01:04:26,240 --> 01:04:30,040
Speaker 1: This is actually cute. Don't worry. So here's the kitty

1002
01:04:30,480 --> 01:04:34,000
Speaker 1: and she's I'll post a link to this video. But uh,

1003
01:04:34,720 --> 01:04:37,920
Speaker 1: what's that? What's that? She's looking in the mirror and

1004
01:04:38,080 --> 01:04:41,280
Speaker 1: then she's looking at her ears, and then she stands

1005
01:04:41,360 --> 01:04:45,440
Speaker 1: up on her hind legs and then she starts like touch.

1006
01:04:46,640 --> 01:04:49,680
Speaker 1: Oh my god, she's like on her hind legs looking

1007
01:04:49,760 --> 01:04:56,120
Speaker 1: in the mirror, like touching her ears and staring at herself. Wow. Um.

1008
01:04:56,520 --> 01:05:00,560
Speaker 1: So there's this thing in animal behavior called him your test,

1009
01:05:00,720 --> 01:05:02,560
Speaker 1: where you try to see if an animal has an

1010
01:05:02,560 --> 01:05:05,920
Speaker 1: awareness that it's looking at itself in the mirror. And

1011
01:05:05,960 --> 01:05:08,320
Speaker 1: you can do it by They've done it in primates

1012
01:05:08,360 --> 01:05:10,480
Speaker 1: where they put like a red dot on them and

1013
01:05:10,600 --> 01:05:12,720
Speaker 1: they subedate them so they don't know they're getting marked

1014
01:05:12,760 --> 01:05:14,120
Speaker 1: at the dot and then they look in the mirror

1015
01:05:14,120 --> 01:05:15,960
Speaker 1: and then they rub the dot off and that shows

1016
01:05:16,040 --> 01:05:22,840
Speaker 1: some awareness, that does them. I think primates, elephants, dolphins

1017
01:05:22,920 --> 01:05:25,920
Speaker 1: all show some awareness of themselves in the mirror. I

1018
01:05:26,000 --> 01:05:29,080
Speaker 1: don't think cats have ever shown this, but this is

1019
01:05:29,160 --> 01:05:34,800
Speaker 1: a cat. This is some compelling evidence it really, it

1020
01:05:34,920 --> 01:05:40,320
Speaker 1: really does look like it thinks very human right right now.

1021
01:05:40,400 --> 01:05:43,120
Speaker 1: Of course it could be something like it thinks it's

1022
01:05:43,160 --> 01:05:45,360
Speaker 1: another cat and so it's signaling to the other cat.

1023
01:05:45,440 --> 01:05:47,120
Speaker 1: But it really this does look like some kind of

1024
01:05:47,240 --> 01:05:50,120
Speaker 1: genius cat just figured it all out. It's a very

1025
01:05:50,200 --> 01:05:53,080
Speaker 1: cute cat. It is an extraordinarily cute cat kind of cat,

1026
01:05:53,200 --> 01:05:54,920
Speaker 1: that is. But it looks very very I don't want

1027
01:05:54,960 --> 01:06:02,400
Speaker 1: to get about five cats. Um, so thank you for

1028
01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:07,000
Speaker 1: hanging in there at this cat chaser at the end.

1029
01:06:07,440 --> 01:06:10,880
Speaker 1: It's a little cat chaser. Yeah. Uh so you got

1030
01:06:10,880 --> 01:06:14,800
Speaker 1: anything you want to plug? Um? Just Nightcall. Nightcall is

1031
01:06:15,160 --> 01:06:18,200
Speaker 1: on this very podcast network. Is you put out new

1032
01:06:18,240 --> 01:06:23,080
Speaker 1: episodes on Monday's And I co hosted with Molly Lambert

1033
01:06:23,120 --> 01:06:27,760
Speaker 1: and Tess Lynch who's also been guests one and yeah, yeah,

1034
01:06:27,840 --> 01:06:31,200
Speaker 1: you got caught us all um, we are all three

1035
01:06:31,320 --> 01:06:36,760
Speaker 1: put um. Yeah. And you can follow me on Twitter

1036
01:06:36,960 --> 01:06:40,280
Speaker 1: at Emily Yoshida And that's kind of it for right now. Um,

1037
01:06:40,840 --> 01:06:44,200
Speaker 1: but yeah, night calls also on Twitter social media. I gotta,

1038
01:06:44,480 --> 01:06:48,760
Speaker 1: I gotta come on on your show. Yeah, definitely disgusting things. Yeah,

1039
01:06:48,840 --> 01:06:50,800
Speaker 1: I feel like, well, we tend to do a lot

1040
01:06:50,880 --> 01:06:53,919
Speaker 1: of like creature stuff or whatever is in the news

1041
01:06:54,040 --> 01:06:57,840
Speaker 1: that week about some new weird species that was discovered.

1042
01:06:57,920 --> 01:07:00,040
Speaker 1: So it would be great to have an expert it

1043
01:07:00,120 --> 01:07:03,280
Speaker 1: such as yourself to chat about stuff with. That would

1044
01:07:03,280 --> 01:07:07,840
Speaker 1: be great an egg expert and with with an exploding eggs.

1045
01:07:07,880 --> 01:07:12,560
Speaker 1: Exploding eggs. You can find us on the internet Creature

1046
01:07:12,640 --> 01:07:16,960
Speaker 1: feature Pod dot com, Creature feature Pod on Instagram, Creature

1047
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Speaker 1: feet Pod on Twitter. That's f e A T, not

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Speaker 1: f E E T. That's something very different. You can

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Speaker 1: find me on Twitter. I'm Katie Golden and I'm also

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Speaker 1: pro bird rites, where I try to fight for the

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Speaker 1: bird's rights to eat parasitic worms. Thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for listening. If you're enjoying the show, we hit the

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Speaker 1: subscribe button, the stars, the things that happened below the

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Speaker 1: thing in the app wherever you're listening. Thanks to the

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Speaker 1: Space Classics for their super spook tacular song Exo Lumina.

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Speaker 1: Creature feature is a production of I Heart Radios How

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. You next Wednesday