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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Listener mail.

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Speaker 2: This is Robert Lamb.

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Speaker 3: And this is Joe McCormick. And it is Monday, the

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Speaker 3: day of each week that we read back messages from

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Speaker 3: the Stuff to Blow Your Mind email address. If you

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Speaker 3: have never gotten in touch before, why not send us

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Speaker 3: an email. You can reach us at contact at stuff

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Speaker 3: to Blow your Mind dot com. Whatever you want to

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Speaker 3: send us fair game. But of course we always appreciate

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Speaker 3: if you have something interesting to add to a topic

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Speaker 3: we've talked about on the show, and Rob if you

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Speaker 3: don't mind, I am going to kick things off by

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Speaker 3: reading this message from Elena, which does just that. It

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Speaker 3: adds to our series on the monstrous cats of Japanese legend.

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Speaker 2: Go for it, let's hear it.

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Speaker 3: So I think this is probably connecting to our digression

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Speaker 3: in that series where we were talking about why it

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Speaker 3: is that sometimes cats seem like a powerful beings in

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Speaker 3: a way that other domestic animals do not. Elena says, Hi,

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Speaker 3: Robert and Joe, given the recent episodes about cats, I

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Speaker 3: wanted to share the cat entry in the first edition

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Speaker 3: of the Encyclopedia Britannica seventeen sixty eight to seventeen seventy one.

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Speaker 3: I read about this recently, and then she includes just

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Speaker 3: a paragraph here. I shall now read from the eighteenth

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Speaker 3: century Book of Wisdom. It says, of all domestic animals,

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Speaker 3: the character of the cat is the most equivocal and suspicious.

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Speaker 3: He has kept not for any amiable qualities, but purely

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Speaker 3: with a view to banish rats, mice, and other noxious

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Speaker 3: animals from our houses, granaries, et cetera. Actually it doesn't

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Speaker 3: say et cetera. It says ampersan c. I don't know

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Speaker 3: how you pronounce that. Although cats, when young are playful

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Speaker 3: and gay, they possess at the same time an innate

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Speaker 3: malice and perverse disposition, which increases as they grow up,

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Speaker 3: in which education learns them to conceal but never to subdue.

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Speaker 3: Constantly bent upon theft and rapid though in a domestic

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Speaker 3: state they are full of cunning and dissimulation, they conceal

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Speaker 3: all their designs, seese every opportunity of doing mischief, and

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Speaker 3: then fly from punishment. They easily take on the habits

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Speaker 3: of society, but never its manners, for they have only

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Speaker 3: the appearance of friendship and attachment. This disingenuity of character

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Speaker 3: is betrayed by the obliquity of their movements and the

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Speaker 3: ambiguity of their looks. In a word, the cat is

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Speaker 3: totally destitute of friendship. He thinks and acts for himself alone. Man,

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Speaker 3: they did encyclopedias different back then. That is so good.

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Speaker 3: I had to look it up and see for myself.

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Speaker 3: So Elena was telling the truth. This is indeed what

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Speaker 3: the original Encyclopedia Britannica said about the cat. But the

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Speaker 3: entry does not stop there. That's just like the second

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Speaker 3: paragraph of a longer thing. And there is so much

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Speaker 3: other good stuff there. So rob, do you mind if

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Speaker 3: I share a few more titbits.

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Speaker 2: Let's have some more blatant anti cat propaganda from a

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Speaker 2: bunch of dead men.

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Speaker 3: Yes, okay, okay. It also says the cat is incapable

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Speaker 3: of restraint and consequently of being educated to any extent. However,

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Speaker 3: we are told that the Greeks in the island of

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Speaker 3: Cyprus trained this animal to catch and devour serpents with

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Speaker 3: which that island was greatly infested. This, however, was not

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Speaker 3: the effect of obedience, but of a general taste for slaughter,

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Speaker 3: for he delights in watching, attacking, and destroying all kinds

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Speaker 3: of weak animals indifferently. He has no delicacy of scent.

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Speaker 3: Like the dog, he hunts only by the eye. Neither

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Speaker 3: does he properly pursue. He only lies in wait and

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Speaker 3: attacks animals by surprise, And after he has caught them,

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Speaker 3: he sports with and torments them for a long time,

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Speaker 3: when at last kills them parentheses, when his belly is full,

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Speaker 3: purely to gratify his sanguinary appetite. Okay, okay, not enough, right,

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Speaker 3: you want to hear more cats. Lander author here says,

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Speaker 3: although cats live in our houses, they can hardly be

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Speaker 3: called domestic animals. They may rather be said to enjoy

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Speaker 3: full liberty, for they never act but according to their

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Speaker 3: own inclination. Besides, the greatest part of them are half wild.

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Speaker 3: They do not know their masters, and frequently only the

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Speaker 3: barns outhouses amper san sea, unless when pressed with hunger.

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Speaker 3: Cats have a natural antipathy at water, cold and bad smells.

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Speaker 3: They love to bask in the sun and lie in

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Speaker 3: warm places. They likewise have an affection for certain aromatic smells.

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Speaker 3: They are transported with the root of the valerian.

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Speaker 2: I have read that the valerian root has a similar

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Speaker 2: effect on them to catnip, but I can't remember if

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Speaker 2: I've tried it. I may have tried it.

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Speaker 3: What actually is catnip? What is the plant?

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Speaker 2: The plant joe is a Nepetacatarium, also known as cat'swort

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Speaker 2: and cat miant. So yeah, it's a particular variety of

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Speaker 2: plant that they like. It has a psychotropic effect on them.

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Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna wrap this up with two more short selections.

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Speaker 3: The editors of Encyclopedia Britannica say cats eat slowly and

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Speaker 3: are particularly fond of fishes. They drink frequently. Their sleep

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Speaker 3: is light, and they often assume the appearance of sleeping

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Speaker 3: when in reality they are meditating mischief. They walk slowly

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Speaker 3: without making any noise. As their hair is always dry,

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Speaker 3: it easily gives out an electrical fire, which becomes visible

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Speaker 3: when rubbed across in the dark. Their eyes likewise sparkle

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Speaker 3: in the dark like diamonds. The wild or savage cat

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Speaker 3: couples with the domestic one, and is consequently the same species.

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Speaker 3: It is not unusual for domestic cats, both male and female,

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Speaker 3: when stimulated by love, to repair to the woods in

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Speaker 3: quest of these savage cats.

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Speaker 2: Wow, I think I have I have heard descriptions of

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Speaker 2: purely fantastic animals that contained fewer lies than this particular

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Speaker 2: rite up. I mean it sounds. I mean, some of

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Speaker 2: it is sort of like like exaggeration of cat character

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Speaker 2: as it is often observed, but a lot it's just like,

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Speaker 2: where'd they even get this had this person been around

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Speaker 2: a cat at all?

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Speaker 3: Well, I'm struck by how much of this is is

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Speaker 3: like not even in the realm of descriptive fact true

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Speaker 3: or false. It's just sort of like a personal evaluation

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Speaker 3: and speculation about the inner life of a cat. The

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Speaker 3: stuff that like would not, whether it was true or false,

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Speaker 3: be in an encyclopedia.

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Speaker 2: Today.

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Speaker 3: This is way more just like qualitative and almost appreciate

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Speaker 3: and lyrical than than I'm used to.

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Speaker 2: It's Yeah, it makes me want to hear that the

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Speaker 2: dog entry. I wonder if it's like really glowing and

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Speaker 2: they're like the dog is an animal of wonder and

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Speaker 2: kindness that never smells of excrement and so forth. I mean,

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Speaker 2: one can only imagine.

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Speaker 3: It is, though, like so expressive and like relentless in

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Speaker 3: the way it develops its picture of cats. It's almost

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Speaker 3: like one of those ancient Mesopotamian hymns about a god.

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Speaker 3: You know, there's just like these repetitive forms of statements

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Speaker 3: that are just like dwelling on the same idea but

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Speaker 3: expressing it in different words over and over.

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Speaker 2: You know, I went ahead and looked it up. You

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Speaker 2: can pull all this up on the Britannica dot com website,

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Speaker 2: pull up the old entries from the first edition, and yeah,

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Speaker 2: the dog entry is full of just blatant pro dog

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Speaker 2: propaganda about how, Yes, in his savage state, he is fierce,

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Speaker 2: cruel and voracious, but when civilized and accustomed to live

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Speaker 2: with men, he is possessed of every amiable quality. He

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Speaker 2: seems to have no other desire than to please and

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Speaker 2: protect his master. He has gentle obedience, submissive and faithful,

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Speaker 2: and so forth he goes.

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Speaker 3: It says, it says, he will this, This seems on brand.

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Speaker 3: He will not eat the bones of a goose, crow

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Speaker 3: or hawk, but he devours even the putrid flesh of

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Speaker 3: most other animals. What that can't be true?

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Speaker 2: The dog runs around when about to lie down, in

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Speaker 2: order to discover the most proper situation. That seems like

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Speaker 2: a just a flowery way of saying. He like just

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Speaker 2: turns around before.

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Speaker 3: Oh, so the dog walks in circles.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, but runs around. That makes it sound like

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Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, all these descriptions just take actual,

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Speaker 2: realistic observations and like twirl them into some sort of

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Speaker 2: poetic maelstrom. Now this this has some some has some

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Speaker 2: fact to it, I think, for the excrements of a

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Speaker 2: dog destroy almost every vegetable or animal substance. They are

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Speaker 2: such a putrid nature that if a man's shoe touches

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Speaker 2: them when recently expelled, that particular part will rot in

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Speaker 2: a few days. I guess part of the shoe will rot.

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Speaker 3: What.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I've stepped in some dog crap before,

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Speaker 2: but I've never noticed that it made my shoe rot.

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Speaker 2: That's they were feeding them differently back then.

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Speaker 3: Oh, here's some more science facts. When oppressed with sickness,

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Speaker 3: to which he is very subject, especially in the beginning

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Speaker 3: of summer, in order to procure a puke, he eats

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Speaker 3: the leaves of the quickened grass, the bearded wheat grass,

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Speaker 3: or the rough cock's foot grass, which gives him immediate relief.

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Speaker 2: Oh.

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Speaker 3: Also, when he steals a piece of flesh. As conscious

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Speaker 3: of the immorality of the action, he runs off with

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Speaker 3: his tail hanging and bent betwixt his feet. I think

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Speaker 3: the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica first edition did not have

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Speaker 3: large enough sample sizes of dogs and cats to observe

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Speaker 3: when drafting these entries. They just got like one guy

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Speaker 3: who hated cats and had seen two or three cats, ever,

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Speaker 3: and he did the whole thing. And this guy doing

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Speaker 3: the dog entry is just talking about his dog, who's

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Speaker 3: the sweety.

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Speaker 2: Pie And that one dog Poopy stepped in that rotted

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Speaker 2: his boot, Yeah, rotted his boot. Still, this is remarkable.

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Speaker 2: I did not know that the ill Britannica entries that

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Speaker 2: had this much wonder in them.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, despite their dubious quality as a source of true information,

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Speaker 3: they're wonderfully written.

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Speaker 2: All right. It's not all cats and dogs. Though. We

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Speaker 2: also heard from listeners about our episodes on shadows. This

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Speaker 2: one comes to us from Matthew Good Evening Team. First off,

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Speaker 2: a great series on shadows and the cultural attachments to them.

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Speaker 2: I've always thought that shadows were also a way of

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Speaker 2: showing one's vitality, the shadows shrinking when one ages because

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Speaker 2: of the human body stooping and shrinking. But that's just me.

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Speaker 2: On the aspect of gaming itself, there is a great

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Speaker 2: twist on the show from Dark Sun. Dark Sun being

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Speaker 2: a a world in the Dungeons and Dragons universe. I

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Speaker 2: don't think it. I don't think it has been has

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Speaker 2: yet been reintroduced into fifth edition, but it had a

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Speaker 2: lot of great art back in the day. Gerald Brahm

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Speaker 2: was involved in much of it. Is like a world

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Speaker 2: that's been destroyed by sorcery and wizardry and now just

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Speaker 2: like a barren, post apocalyptic world for the most part.

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Speaker 3: So sort of like Dungeons and Dragons meets Mad Max.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, kind of, Okay, so the author continues here.

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Speaker 2: They are known as the Shadow Giants, and they are

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Speaker 2: not actually giants compressed lore. The previous inhabitants of the

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Speaker 2: Dark Sun's setting disappeared into the shadow plane and they

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Speaker 2: were taken over by the shadows themselves. Shadow Giants are

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Speaker 2: actually hobbit halfling size when there is one hundred percent

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Speaker 2: light all around them. The changes come when the lighting

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Speaker 2: is reduced. If someone were to hold only a torch,

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Speaker 2: these creatures would grow to giant size and have the

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Speaker 2: same strength and temperament as a giant would. It is

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Speaker 2: a delightful twist on shadows and the trope of carrying

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Speaker 2: a light source. If you have one light source on you,

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Speaker 2: you doom yourself and your party to the destruction at

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Speaker 2: the hands of these giant beasts. You would be better

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Speaker 2: off submitting to the darkness completely and letting the shadows

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Speaker 2: consume you, especially if you can't get the light of

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Speaker 2: the sun to bathe the area for every step you take.

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Speaker 2: Just imagine how chilling it would be to have your

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Speaker 2: trusty night light betray you because you wanted to keep

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Speaker 2: the shadows at bay. Great shows is always much appreciated,

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Speaker 2: and I am looking forward to more so I can

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Speaker 2: start jotting down some ideas. All the best, take care,

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Speaker 2: and you are more than welcome to use this email

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Speaker 2: in any broadcast or podcast or shadow cast as you wish.

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Speaker 3: Matthew, I knew about none of this, but I'm a

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Speaker 3: little confused on So why is it worse to have

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Speaker 3: a one single light source than to have none at all?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm assuming if you're encountering this creature, I guess

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Speaker 2: it would depend on where you were encountering it. Right,

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Speaker 2: If you were, So let's let's put it together. Let's

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Speaker 2: let's imagine the encounter. I guess. Let's say we're in

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Speaker 2: a in a room with sort of like mild ambient

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Speaker 2: lighting from outside. Right, what kind of shadow does this

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Speaker 2: is cast by this hobbit being hobbit size being, and

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Speaker 2: then by having a light source in the room, are

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Speaker 2: you creating an elongated shadow? And I'm guessing that's kind

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Speaker 2: of the idea here.

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Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, directional light source will Okay.

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Speaker 2: But this does make me interested to look up the

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Speaker 2: old monster entries for Dark Sun. I never had any

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Speaker 2: of the Dark Sun material when I was younger, and

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Speaker 2: like I said, they haven't reintroduced it, so I haven't

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Speaker 2: picked up anything new for it. So I am curious,

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Speaker 2: though I might have to dive into it.

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Speaker 3: All right, I'm going to do another message about shadows.

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Speaker 3: This one is from well. I don't think this person

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Speaker 3: meant to be anonymous, but they did not provide a name,

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Speaker 3: so we'll say anonymous for now. If you want to

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Speaker 3: add a name next time you write in, go for it.

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Speaker 3: Anonymous says, greetings, Robert and Joe. I just listened to

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Speaker 3: the two parts of your episodes on shadows. You shared

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Speaker 3: a lot of interesting aspects of the topic, many I

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Speaker 3: was not aware of, such as the halo effect of

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Speaker 3: do or highligenshine. At the end, you mentioned that three

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Speaker 3: D objects are often considered quote shadows of some higher

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Speaker 3: dimensional entity or force, like a temple being a shadow

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Speaker 3: of a god. The fact that shadows are always a

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Speaker 3: dimension lower than the object casting them actually allows them

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Speaker 3: to be used in the reverse. Shadows are one of

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Speaker 3: the few phenomena that can be actively used in an

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Speaker 3: attempt to peer into or understand higher dimensional things. This

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Speaker 3: is probably why they are associated with metaphysical things ghosts

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Speaker 3: and gods. Mathematicians and physicists also use this property of shadow, though,

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Speaker 3: to explore higher dimensional phenomena. The curvature of spacetime is

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Speaker 3: higher dimensional than we can perceive, but the shadows of

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Speaker 3: its effects can be tracked in three dimensions just as

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Speaker 3: easily as our two dimensional shadow on the ground. In

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Speaker 3: that case, three dimensional shadows maybe the most a three

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Speaker 3: dimensional being like humans can perceive of any higher dimensional entity, force,

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Speaker 3: or phenomenon. The second connection I wanted to point out

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Speaker 3: involves eclipses, with two major eclipses this month, and this

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Speaker 3: would have been October of twenty twenty three, the solar

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Speaker 3: Ring of Fire eclipse on October fourteenth, and the lunar

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Speaker 3: eclipse that the other side of the Earth saw this week.

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Speaker 3: Eclipse shadows have been more in my consciousness. One of

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Speaker 3: the fascinating shadow effects is seeing multiple partial eclipse crescents

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Speaker 3: in the shadows under trees. During assault eclipse, the leaves

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Speaker 3: are acting as camera obscura or pinhole cameras, reversing the

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Speaker 3: image of the eclipse itself. Yeah, I remember seeing this.

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Speaker 3: I didn't get into the path of totality for the

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty three eclipse, but the last one that came

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Speaker 3: through around this region it was years ago.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 3: I went out to a university campus in Tennessee to

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Speaker 3: watch with my family, and yeah, it was really great.

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Speaker 3: I was standing near a tree, and I remember exactly

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Speaker 3: this thing, like all the little bits of light filtering

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Speaker 3: through gaps in the foliage on the trees became little

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Speaker 3: like pinhole camera representations of the crescent of the sun

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Speaker 3: as it was being blocked out. It was really cool.

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Speaker 3: But the listener goes on the reason we do not

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Speaker 3: normally notice this odd camera effect within shadows is because

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Speaker 3: our light source is usually round, reversing a round object

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Speaker 3: still gives you a round object. There is no difference

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Speaker 3: or contrast. To see that this is happening all the time.

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Speaker 3: You can intentionally use the same effect in photography with

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Speaker 3: lens flares. If you photograph the sun rising or setting

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Speaker 3: at the horizon or against an object halfway there, the

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Speaker 3: light source will be a half circle, the lens flare

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Speaker 3: created will be a reversed half circle. So shadows are

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Speaker 3: as much a function of the shape and nature of

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Speaker 3: the light source as the object that just happens to

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Speaker 3: be between the light and surface. I think this has

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Speaker 3: some interesting metaphysical extensions and may further explain the association

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Speaker 3: with quote godly light and the condition of whatever physical

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Speaker 3: manifestations are connected with that God. Lunar eclipses demonstrate another

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Speaker 3: aspect of shadows, the permeability of the object casting the shadow.

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Speaker 3: Earth's atmosphere casts a different shadow on the Moon than

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Speaker 3: the Earth itself. The same difference happens through water or glass,

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Speaker 3: or any substance that lets life through. Selectively, this effect

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Speaker 3: of permeability can be used to explore the properties of

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Speaker 3: the object casting the shadow. Again with higher dimensional phenomenon.

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Speaker 3: This may be the most that can be directly perceived.

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Speaker 3: I think it's interesting that Shadow Puppetry does this intentionally.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for all you do. Smiley face. I guess

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Speaker 3: that's sort of the smiley face is the signature.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's yes, some of my excellent thoughts in there.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for writing in smiley.

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Speaker 3: Yes, thank you smiley.

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Speaker 2: All right, real quick, we heard from Brett. Brett Roode

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Speaker 2: wrote in about our Ignobel episodes. It says, hey, guys,

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Speaker 2: just getting around of the Ignobel awards, and upon hearing

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Speaker 2: the rock tasting story, I was very surprised that Robert

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Speaker 2: did not bring up Professor Farnsworth's smelloscope in Futurama. It

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Speaker 2: was the first thing I thought of. Indeed, my apologies

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Speaker 2: Professor Farnsworth. It is one of his most famous inventions

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Speaker 2: that allowed him to smell distant planets. All right, now

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Speaker 2: I'm going to move on to some weird house cinema

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Speaker 2: listener mail. This one comes to us from Jimmy. Jimmy says, hey, guys,

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Speaker 2: I've been a big fan of your podcast for a

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Speaker 2: long time. Thanks for all the great episodes. I just

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Speaker 2: wanted to let you know that I am one of

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Speaker 2: the few people out there that loves that Stone Ground

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Speaker 2: is in Dracula Ad. I am a musician that was

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Speaker 2: born and raised in Concord, California, and stone Ground was

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Speaker 2: from Concord, probably the most famous band from my hometown.

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Speaker 2: So when I was a kid in the nineteen seventies,

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Speaker 2: a couple of my older siblings were definitely stone Ground fans,

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Speaker 2: So I have always had a soft spot for them,

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Speaker 2: even if they weren't the most exciting band.

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Speaker 3: Jimmy, Oh, Jimmy, don't apologize for loving stone Ground. We

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Speaker 3: wholeheartedly endorse your love of stone Ground.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And plus, I mean, as we discussed in

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Speaker 2: the episode, it's not like stone Ground, We're awful and

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Speaker 2: they seem to have, you know, real musical pedigree. It

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Speaker 2: just felt like a random inclusion.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel random, But.

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Speaker 2: Like like the Hammer executives were like, all right, the producers,

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Speaker 2: who can we get who can we get to show

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Speaker 2: up and be the cool band playing in the in

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Speaker 2: the early part of this film to bring in the youth.

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Speaker 3: They're like the Korman movie using pre footage from pre

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Speaker 3: existing films that they had the rights to. As stone

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Speaker 3: Ground is in there.

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Speaker 2: Like that. Yeah, and hey, kudos to Stone Ground forgetting

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Speaker 2: to appear in a hammer horror film. I mean, that's

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Speaker 2: that's pretty cool.

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Speaker 3: Even for an alligator man. That is a rare accomplishment.

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Speaker 2: All right, well, we're gonna go and close up the

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Speaker 2: mail bag here, but we would love to hear from

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Speaker 2: you right in, because every Monday we do a listener

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Speaker 2: mail episode right in about past episodes, future episodes, current episodes,

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Speaker 2: stuff to blow your mind, Weird House, Cinema, anything we do,

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Speaker 2: it's all fair game. Just a reminder that our core

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Speaker 2: episodes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on Fridays. We

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Speaker 2: set aside most serious concerns to just talk about a

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Speaker 2: weird film on Weird House. You can find our podcast

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Speaker 2: wherever you get your podcasts. Check out our social media

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Speaker 2: feeds that are active again if you're on social media already,

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Speaker 2: and bear in mind that on Instagram we are stbym podcast.

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Speaker 2: That's the newer account there. The old one got all

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Speaker 2: locked up. So if you think you follow us on Instagram,

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Speaker 2: you might not. You might be following a dead account.

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Speaker 2: You don't want to do that. Following a dead account.

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Speaker 2: That's a gateway to hauntings and so forth. You never

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Speaker 2: know what's going to crawl out of there.

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Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

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Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

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Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

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Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

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Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

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Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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