1
00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,399
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:12,440
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lambin. This is the Monster Fact,

3
00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:15,560
Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,

4
00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:20,600
Speaker 2: focusing in no mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.

5
00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,280
Speaker 2: We just came off a five part series on various

6
00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:31,400
Speaker 2: monsters and mutants from the world of Marvel Comics, so

7
00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:33,240
Speaker 2: now we're going to dive into the world of d

8
00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:37,760
Speaker 2: C comics with another five selections to discuss. Most of

9
00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:40,600
Speaker 2: the ones I'd picked out for this runner fairly well known,

10
00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:43,440
Speaker 2: but I thought i'd start with a more obscure pick.

11
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:45,960
Speaker 2: My thanks to former Stuff to Blow Your Mind co

12
00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,360
Speaker 2: host Christian Seger for bringing this one to my attention.

13
00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:55,480
Speaker 2: Meet mister Mind, a tiny Venusian worm or caterpillar to

14
00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:59,800
Speaker 2: be clear. He has legs with enormous power at its disposal.

15
00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:03,319
Speaker 2: Created in DC comics in the early nineteen forties by

16
00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:07,080
Speaker 2: Auto Bender and C. C. Beck, Mister Mind stands as

17
00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:11,880
Speaker 2: one of the primary supervillains of Captain Marvel. Not the

18
00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:15,440
Speaker 2: Marvel Captain Marvel, but the DC Captain Marvel. Minds you.

19
00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:19,319
Speaker 2: This is the one that moviegoers may know best as Shazam.

20
00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,000
Speaker 2: Mister Mind also makes a couple of cameo appearances in

21
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:28,200
Speaker 2: those films. Now, mister Mind boats incredible psychic powers and

22
00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:32,240
Speaker 2: a genius level intellect to back those powers up, so

23
00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:35,399
Speaker 2: he's gotten into all sorts of mischief over the years,

24
00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:40,199
Speaker 2: including founding the Monster Society of Evil. He also employs

25
00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:44,120
Speaker 2: at least two key bits of technology, special classes and

26
00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:48,000
Speaker 2: an audio amplifier to interact with the larger world, because again,

27
00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:51,080
Speaker 2: despite his powers, he is a tiny worm or caterpillar.

28
00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,520
Speaker 2: But what I want to focus on is his old

29
00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:58,400
Speaker 2: and frankly odd origin story from the Silver Age of comics,

30
00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:01,280
Speaker 2: in which he makes the interplanetary void from Venus to

31
00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:07,320
Speaker 2: Earth in order to meet ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's dummy Charlie McCarthy.

32
00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:12,560
Speaker 2: This was Slash is a real ventriloquist dummy. Mister Mind,

33
00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:17,080
Speaker 2: you see, had heard Charlie McCarthy on Earth's radio program

34
00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:22,040
Speaker 2: Transmissions and apparently mistook fiction for reality. He was, of

35
00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:26,200
Speaker 2: course disappointed upon learning the truth. It's a common sci

36
00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:31,360
Speaker 2: fi trope explored on Futurama and elsewhere. Extraterrestrials pick up

37
00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:35,160
Speaker 2: on transmissions from Earth and either misunderstand the difference between

38
00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:38,160
Speaker 2: fiction and reality, or simply lack the ability to tell

39
00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:41,360
Speaker 2: the difference. There are even more sci fi works that

40
00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:46,640
Speaker 2: explore the larger idea of intercepted Earth transmissions, most notably

41
00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:51,280
Speaker 2: Carl Sagan's nineteen eighty five novel Contact the Si. In

42
00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:54,280
Speaker 2: the sci fi here is, of course that for more

43
00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:57,400
Speaker 2: than one hundred years we've been busting out commercial radio

44
00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:01,320
Speaker 2: transmissions here on Earth. However, is Robert Matthews points out

45
00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:05,560
Speaker 2: in a BBC Science Focus article. Most of these signals

46
00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,800
Speaker 2: were absorbed by the atmosphere or drowned out by solar

47
00:03:08,919 --> 00:03:13,000
Speaker 2: radio transmissions, so our radio leakage as a planet was

48
00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:17,880
Speaker 2: perhaps minimal. However, Matthews stresses that Cold War military radar

49
00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:22,560
Speaker 2: transmissions are strong enough to have already broadcast our presence

50
00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:26,560
Speaker 2: out to anyone listening within sixty light years. There have

51
00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:30,760
Speaker 2: also been deliberate radio transmissions aimed at communicating our existence,

52
00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,000
Speaker 2: such as the nineteen seventy four Arecibo message sent to

53
00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,840
Speaker 2: Messia thirteen, or at least in the spirit of such communication,

54
00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:43,480
Speaker 2: but the basic idea of such transmissions either emanating from

55
00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:48,320
Speaker 2: US or potentially picked up from an extraterrestrial source, has

56
00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:52,040
Speaker 2: garnered much discussion and debate over the decades, how likely

57
00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:56,440
Speaker 2: is alien reception or our reception of an alien transmission

58
00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:00,480
Speaker 2: based on the vast distances involved in limits of possible

59
00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:03,600
Speaker 2: travel speeds as we know them, How should we approach

60
00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:07,600
Speaker 2: such long term concerns, and just how careful should we

61
00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:10,440
Speaker 2: be when it comes to such radio transmissions or even

62
00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:14,840
Speaker 2: our radio leakage. Because while our most optimistic views of

63
00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:19,400
Speaker 2: extraterrestrial contact are rosy, indeed some of the more pessimistic models,

64
00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:24,000
Speaker 2: based in large part on Earth's own history of outside contact,

65
00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:29,240
Speaker 2: situations in which one culture encounters a technologically superior one

66
00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:34,440
Speaker 2: are perhaps best avoided. And then there's the mister Mind model,

67
00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:37,479
Speaker 2: in which we manage to attract a caterpillar supervillain to

68
00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:42,000
Speaker 2: our planet with our tantalizing nineteen forties radio comedy shows.

69
00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:45,760
Speaker 2: Thank goodness, we have so many Captain Marvels to deal

70
00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:50,279
Speaker 2: with that sort of thing. Tune in for additional episodes

71
00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:52,720
Speaker 2: of The Monster Fact each week, and if you want

72
00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:55,120
Speaker 2: to check in on the work of Christian Sager, visit

73
00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:59,520
Speaker 2: Christiansager dot org. That's hr S t I A n

74
00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:03,120
Speaker 2: SA ger dot org. As always, you can email me

75
00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:23,960
Speaker 2: at contact at stuffd blow your mind dot com.

76
00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,200
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

77
00:05:18,279 --> 00:05:22,120
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

78
00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,000
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.