WEBVTT - X-Files Science Part I: Mutants & Parasites 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from house Stop 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:14.640 works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.560 My name is Christian Sager and I'm Joe McCormick. And 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.120 our regular host Robert Lamb is out on vacation this week. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.040 So this is Baby's first solo flight. Yeah, this is 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.319 our first time the two of us since we joined 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:30.960 the show early in the two of us doing an 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.879 episode without Robert, and we knew this was coming up 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.960 because it was a scheduled vacation. We also knew that 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:41.240 The X Files is coming back on January. This isn't 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:43.239 a commercial. I didn't get paid by Fox to do 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.960 this January. I think it's a Sunday Joe and I 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.519 are crazy X Files fans. We basically talked about the 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.120 X Files. I would say at least once a day 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:55.320 with each other. Yeah, we've referenced in on the show 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:57.280 a decent amount of times too. And I think that's 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:01.440 been basically because pretty much since we took over as 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.200 as hosts on the show. I think we've both been 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.160 going back through the back catalog of of the X 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:09.360 Files on Netflix. My wife Rachel and I have been 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.680 watching them and it has been so much fun. Yeah, 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:16.040 I'm the same. I've been rewatching them along with comal 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:20.240 Non Johnny's podcast, The X Files Files, uh and just 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.680 loving every second of it. But um so, this is 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.120 our two part X Files extravaganza where we're going to 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.119 talk about the science of the X Files. Really kind 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.120 of the perfect angle for stuff to blow your mind, right, 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.679 because it's weird, it's interesting, it's sort of about the 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.200 strangeness of reality, and and it hits all of our 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.280 big themes here. I'd i'd say what we do on 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:46.160 this show is science the bizarre and big questions and mysteries, 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:48.600 and that's sort of what the show is all about, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.520 though within with an admittedly conspiratorial kind of angle. If 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:54.360 you're not familiar with The X Files, we hope you'll 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.160 still be able to enjoy this episode anyway. So just 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.280 to give a brief set up of what the show is, 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.480 there are two FBI agents named Molder and Scully. Molder 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:08.640 is David Duchovny. Scully is Gillian Anderson Jillian or Gillian Jillian. 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.440 I think it depends because uh, you know, she's she's 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:14.600 I believe, like half British or something like that, So 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.400 maybe it's Gillian when she's on The Fall and Jillian 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.239 when she's on Hannibal. I'll just have to call her Scully. 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.600 So Molder and Scully are are investigating paranormal phenomena for 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.280 the FBI. And Moulder is a true believer. He believes 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.800 in whatever you could believe in. He believes in its 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:36.239 psychic powers, alien abductions, pyrokinesis, whatever it is. Yeah, he's 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.480 on board. And Scully is a skeptic. She's a scientific skeptic, 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:41.720 and she always wants to come up with an explanation 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.680 of phenomena based on what we actually know about science, 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.079 rather than referring to unproven phenomena that are just sort 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:53.440 of speculative, like alien abductions, and is usually trying to 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:57.040 find some kind of empirical way to figure out what happened, 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:00.600 and whereas Moulder just goes with these hunches. And let's 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.200 be honest here, like nine times out of ten, mulders 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:07.240 hunch is current. It's more than nine times out of ten, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.000 it's every single time we were we were struggling to 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.880 think of an episode where the skeptical viewpoint turns out 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:16.359 to be correct. It never does, you, I think there's 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:21.720 a couple and the Scullies character. Along the way. As 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.520 she has exposed somewhere and more of this stuff, she 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.600 becomes less of a skeptic and more of like she's 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:31.680 willing to believe as long as there's quantifiable evidence available 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:33.799 to her, well as one should be. I mean, that's 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.040 sort of the spirit of skepticism. It's not that you 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.680 should never believe, but you shouldn't believe until until you've 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:41.960 got a good reason to. That reminds me at my 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.720 desktop here at work on my laptop that I'm reading 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:46.760 off of now, it's that picture of Scully, and it says, 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.440 our lady of skepticism. She is. She is a wonderful 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:54.000 patron saint and a good guiding light for us on 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:56.920 this show. Because while, as we've said on the show 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.040 The X Files, it's pretty much always the paranoia a 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.400 mole or the aliens or whatever that turns out to 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:04.720 be true, what we do on stuff to blow your 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.440 mind is often look at strange phenomenon and try to 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.880 understand what a scientific explanation for that phenomena is or 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.400 could be. Yeah, I think if Scully was born like 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.760 twenty you know, years later, she would have been a 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.240 great podcast host rather than at the I Agent, she 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.679 probably would have found herself working at How Stuff Works. 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.599 She's very she's very taciturn um. So we should mention 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:32.200 at the top here that we have one primary resource, uh, 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.719 that we're using on these episodes, and we we'd like 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.000 to give a shout out to that, especially that we're 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.560 gonna bring in some other sources to but our but 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.840 our best resource on this was a book by Gene 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.760 Cavelos called The Science of the X Files. It was 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:50.560 published in Gene Cavelos is an astrophysicist and mathematician now 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.440 a science and science fiction writer. And I was, I've 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.080 been enjoying this book. It's great, isn't it. Yeah, it's 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.960 a well researched book. One thing about it though, is 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.520 that it was written in nine and playing of science 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:04.479 has changed since then. So we'll also be trying to 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:08.279 update and incorporate new sources to go along with some 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.599 of the leads that she established in this book, which 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.840 by a large the double check whether the facts that 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.919 she said in nine were either still accurate or maybe 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.160 there had been some new scientific discoveries since then. Yeah. Yeah, 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.120 And there was another book there there were two books 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:25.640 that were published in the nineties about the science of 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.960 the X Files. It was such a popular show, then 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.640 it makes sense. The other one is called The Real 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:34.000 Science of the X Files Microbes, Meteorites and Mutants. And 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.880 unfortunately we couldn't get a hold of a copy of this, 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:39.760 and you know, I stupidly was like, oh, yeah, I'll 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:41.720 just download one of these to my Kindle or something 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:43.840 like that. Note they're not available on Kindle. They're out 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.919 of print. But luckily the local library here and we 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.919 we live in while I live Indicatur, Georgia, you're in 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:55.240 Atlanta now, uh, but it had a copy, so I 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.080 was able to reserve it and we've been sharing it 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.800 and it's you know, I gotta say, not only is 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:01.839 it great for these episodes that we're going to do 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:03.680 about the science of the X Files, but there are 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.239 topics in there that she just kind of casually brings 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.479 up that I'm like, oh, this is great fodder for 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:11.599 future episodes of stuff to blow your mind. So I 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:13.600 think we're marked that for later. Yeah, this is a 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.400 rich resource for us. Well, I think we should actually 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.599 get into some of the topics. Some of these, uh, 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:20.960 some of these episodes of the X Files and what 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:23.400 we can say about the science behind them or the 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:27.080 not so scientific concepts behind them. Uh and and at 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.839 least find some kind of foothold in the real world. 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.400 So if we're going to start, we've got to start 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:36.520 with what is probably the most recognized monster of the 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.480 week for the X Files, and that is, of course, 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:43.440 the Flukeman. If you have never seen the Flukeman, pause 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.440 this right now. Yeah, going google Flukeman and look at 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.719 a picture of this monster. I love this monster design. 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.159 It looks to me, I've said this before, like a 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.960 toilet paper mummy that gotten wet and has lipstick on. 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.200 So it's got this occurring open mouth with red lips, 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:07.359 creepy eyes, and then this kind of like melted white exterior. Yeah. 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.520 I posted a photo of Flukeman to our Facebook page 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.679 yesterday as sort of a hint as to what we're 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:16.680 going to be working on this week, and there are 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:18.480 a lot of people who engaged with it and either 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.040 got really excited about because they recognized it from the 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.040 X Files or they condemned us to tell because they 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:29.360 were just yeah, yeah, So the premise of Flukeman, the 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.560 episode that Flukeman appears in is called The Host and 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:36.000 I believe it's right at the beginning of the second season. Um, 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.920 and so we're gonna try not to spoil the show, 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.200 but also the show is like twenty years old at 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.640 this point. You know, we're gonna basically describe to you 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:47.960 the premise of these episodes pretty quickly and then dive 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.520 into the science of of of how they work. Right, So, 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.240 the premise of the Host the Host episode is that 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.960 there's a creature that arrives in the United States. I 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.160 believe it comes over on a Russian oiled hanker. Yeah yeah, 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:02.880 or it's or maybe it's a freight or it's our 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.119 ship crossing the the ocean. It comes from a Russian ship, 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.480 and it is believed to be coming from Chernobyl. I 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.720 believe it's always like either toxic, like a combination of 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.680 like sewage and like radioactive waste from Chernobyl in this 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.239 ship or something. Why are they bringing that across the ocean. 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.480 They're probably just going to dump it in the ocean, man, right, 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:28.040 they want to dump it off the coast of New Jersey. Well, 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:32.920 sure enough they do. And or well, actually it begins 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.640 with this guy gets dragged into the sludge because the 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.040 flukeman is in there, right. But then there seems to 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:43.439 be a phenomenon emerging after this of something going on 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.920 in the New Jersey sewers, right right. Yeah, So there's 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.920 basically this creature that's crawling around in there. It's emerging, 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:53.199 and it's either feeding on humans or it's biting them 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:55.680 and infecting them with their parasitic young. And there's this 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:57.559 infamous scene from it where there's a guy who was 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.640 bitten by it, uh and and he's in the shower 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:05.120 and he just starts coughing up flukeworms and it's so disgusting. 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:08.960 I mean even now, like I rewatched it recently and 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.440 it's pretty disgusting. I can't believe that they got away 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.720 with it at the time. Eventually, the implication is that 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.920 this is some sort of strange mutant hybrid of it's 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:23.640 like a fluke and a human somewhere in between. Somehow 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:29.560 the radio activity affected the regular flukeworm flatworm, which is 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.120 also known as a trematode. Uh. These are basically parasites 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:35.880 that feed off hosts. They're real things, and they usually 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:39.400 attached themselves to our well in human cases to our 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.280 internal organs, but you can find them occasionally attached to 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:46.400 your exterior as well. So there's a human liver fluke right, Yeah, 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:50.200 it's called Clinarcus senensis, and this is one of the 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:54.559 ones that Cavellos mainly focuses on in her examination of flukeman. 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.240 But this is a flatworm that wants to get inside 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.880 your body and make a comfortable little nest in your liver. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.360 It's real and it is, you know, as with many 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:05.760 of the parasites that we've covered on stuff to blow 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:09.000 your mind over the years. Yeah. It's goal is to 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:14.360 go through a reproductive cycle and a life cycle within 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.800 a host, right, hence the title the host um. So 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:21.680 this particular flukeworm, it only becomes an adult once it 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.720 gets inside a human being and is in our bile 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.920 duct or another. Not just a human being, Yeah, any mammal. 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:30.719 And the way that they get in us is by 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.280 eating fish, by us eating us eating, So the mammal 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:36.640 eats the fish that carries the fluke. The fluke gets 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.320 in you and says I've done it. I've made it. 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:43.360 Time to mature, right, time to become a man, become 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:45.160 a fluke man, and Basically, what they do is that 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.959 once they're inside a mammal, they eat the tissue and 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:51.280 the blood close to your liver um. So this is 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.360 another common X Files theme, is it? Livers are tasty? 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.600 Uh yeah, we'll talk about that again later. So the 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:01.000 fluke real flukes, release their larva into your bile duct 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.120 and their hermaphrodites uh so they have both male and 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:10.199 female sex organs. And these larva leave mammal bodies through 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.800 feces and then a snail comes comes along and eats 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.280 the feces, so the larva gets inside the snail. And 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.000 then if the snail is eaten by a fish or 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.280 you know, some other kind of marine animal, uh, then 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.280 it is infested with these larva which subsequently end up 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:31.920 inside of us or a bear or dog or whatever. 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:36.120 The complicated life cycle. Yeah, and it's man. Parasites are amazing, 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.600 I know, like the Robert has gushed a lot about 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:41.480 them on the show, but I agree with them, Like 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.840 they have such specialized life systems that they've evolved into 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:50.199 to to uh connect with very particular kinds of hosts too, 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:56.800 And yeah, yeah that's nice. Um. So here's the thing. 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.400 When they get inside these fish. They're inside these cysts 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.720 that they formed that are like protective. I guess bubbles 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:05.560 is a good way to describe them. Right, So what 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.160 happens if you turn that fish into some sushi, Well, 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.360 if you eat raw fish, then that cyst is inside 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:16.200 your body and it emerges and turns into its adult 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:18.920 form of the flukeworm. So one of the things that 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:22.680 Cavelos notes that we we should probably mention is that 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:27.000 the title fluke Man that's given to this creature probably 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:30.480 is not accurate because this creature would have both male 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.320 and female organs, right right, it's a Misnow, it's not 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:35.920 really a flukeman. It's a fluke person. But you know, 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.960 here's some nerdy X Files knowledge for you. Uh my 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.760 favorite and I think your favorite to X Files writer, 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:46.800 Darren Morgan was the guy wearing the costume as this 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.920 fluke creature. So he was the West toilet paper mommy 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.280 with lipstick. Yeah, he had the fruit punch mouth there, 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.199 I think, h I think he. You know, maybe that's 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.080 why they called it a fluke man because there was 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.480 a man in it. But if I remember that costume correctly, 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:05.360 it's not like there were human reproductive organs or anything 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.960 like that, not that you could see. Yeah, so all right, 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:13.240 the fluke larva though, would not be coughed up like 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.160 they were in this episode. Right. So, fluke larva primarily 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.600 exit our bodies through the digestive track and the feces. 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:22.959 They're usually not coughed up. And this is a common 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:24.960 thing for lots of types of parasites that get in 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:28.920 your body. They reproduced by by making you, so a 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.160 lot of them cause diarrhea and stuff to be expelled 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.679 in your feces deliberately, or they just get out kind 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.240 of passively that way, hopefully to get into water supply 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:40.520 or to be eaten by some creature that will eat 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.040 your feces to make it to the next stage in 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:44.840 their life cycle. And this is a common theme of 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.000 the parasites and the X Files too. We're going to 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.199 talk about ice later and that is also how that 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:53.360 particular creature exit your body. But yeah, even in real 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.360 life with lung flukes, which are attached to your lungs, 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.920 you cough up their eggs if you have them in you, 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.280 but you re swallow them so they passed down through 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:06.120 your digestive tract. It's not like you're spitting up these 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:08.520 fluke eggs and then they hatch everywhere, right, because then 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:10.920 how would the snails get to them. I have to 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:15.800 imagine it would be an evolutionary disadvantage for a parasite 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.960 to exit the body coughing up huge mature worms, because 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.640 it seems like that'd be so alarming other creatures would 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:26.280 immediately want to get away from that creature. From New Hope, 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:29.680 it works great for TV, right, like these bloody flukes 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:32.600 in the shower, But it does parasitism is a stealth 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:37.440 game exactly. Yeah, and so Cavellos also notes, you know, yes, 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:42.120 radiation does produce mutations, but probably not as dramatic a 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.400 change is what we see with the fluke man. Well, 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:46.400 this is a common thing we see in science fiction. 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.320 Is sort of a very loose understanding of the idea 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:54.080 of how radiation causes mutations and organisms like radiation can 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.840 encourage the mutation, right, especially like in your germ cells. 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.800 If you're exposed to more radiation, you might give birth 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.680 to children that have more mutations than average. But generally, 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:08.200 like if you're hanging out near the near the reactor 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:12.320 wreckage in Chernobyl, that's not gonna that's not gonna make 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.960 you into a different kind of animal. It's probably just 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:18.440 gonna kill you, right, Yeah, you're more likely to get sick, 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:24.160 have cellular degeneration or deterioration, or just die. Yeah, And 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:28.960 so okay, Flukeman. Actually, you know, Robert wrote about Flukeman 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.440 years ago for Stuff to Blow your Mind. If you 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:33.040 go to the Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com, 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:35.640 there's a great Monster of the Week piece that he 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.400 wrote about Flukeman and flukes in general. So if you're 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:40.960 you're interested in more about this, go check that out. 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:43.360 And we also dug up a little bit of information, 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.680 uh that apparently in two thousand nine and two thousand 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:48.920 and ten, well after this book was written, in after 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:53.560 the X Files was over US, flukewarm infections increased significantly. 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.640 And there's a really weird reason why. It's because people 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:00.600 were taking a lot more river cruise trips, you know 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.280 those ones where you like, you get on those um 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:05.480 what do they call them those kinds of boats, not 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.760 quite river boat maybe paddle boats, paddle boats, that's what 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.200 I'm thinking of. Uh, and they started a paddle boat 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.920 with that wouldn't be a cruise boat. Steamboats, I'm sure 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:20.600 it's a boat boat anyway, it's a pite on these boats. Yeah, 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.800 they're designed specifically for you to join a sect luxurious 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:28.760 parasite cruise. They were feeding people raw crawfish, and uh, 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:33.240 you know, basically these raw crawfish were infected with the 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:37.160 fluke larva like we've been talking about um. And so yeah, 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:39.520 in the previous forty years before that, there had only 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:44.000 been seven cases of flukeworm infection in North America, but 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:46.200 just in two thousand nine and two thousand and ten 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:50.200 there were nine because of this particular thing. So I'd 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:52.080 like to think in the last five years that these 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:58.200 riverbrook boats have stopped giving people raw crawfish and growing 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:01.520 potential flukeman's inside of them, one would hope so well. 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.080 Of course, The Host is not the only episode of 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:07.080 the X Files to feature parasites. Parasites are a really 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:10.200 common theme, especially on these Monster of the Week episodes, 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.920 because I mean, it's it's fertile ground to uh to mine, 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.800 I would say for the sort of mixing metaphors is 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.639 a fertile ground. Mind fertile ground anyway, It's a good 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.000 place to look if you want some ideas for weird 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.960 ways that animals, especially mutations or aliens or something could 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.439 take advantage of the human body in ways that make 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.600 a squirm. Yeah. And so another one of these episodes 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:38.480 that addresses parasitism in a particularly gross yet maybe scientifically 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:43.160 interesting way is called f Emasculata. Yeah, and they're more 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.119 focusing on something that there's a differentiation here that we 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:51.359 will call out in a minute. They're parasitoids, not necessarily parasites. 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.640 But the premise of this episode is that I don't 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:58.520 even remember where it was, maybe South America or something. 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.000 It will wear the bug orginally came from. There's some 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.080 kind of bug. It's like a beetle, and it carries 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:07.320 a disease that has one of these parasitoids. And yeah, 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:11.399 they're in a prison. Somebody mails a leg of bore 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.200 I think, to a prisoner that's in and this leg 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:19.040 of bore is infected with this parasitoid. Uh. And so 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.080 subsequently these two prisoners get infected as well, but they 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:25.360 just happened to escape the prison. And so the episode 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:27.639 is basically Molder and Scully chasing these guys across the 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.840 United States to make sure that they don't spread this plague. Okay, now, 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.480 what kind of infection is this is it is? It? Does? 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:36.879 It kind of outwardly resemble a bacterial infection or something. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:41.240 It's super gross. The attacks the human immune system, causing 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.639 pustules to form on your skin nice and and that 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.080 leads to death within thirty six hours. But the way 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:51.080 that it spreads is the pustules erupt So these the 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:56.040 gooey pustules pop stuff everyone people, which subsequently get more 0:18:56.119 --> 0:19:00.680 larva on the people. Yeah. Um, so, first of all, 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:04.240 this episode presents the idea that this is an undiscovered 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:08.200 species that nobody has ever heard of before. Uh, and 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.440 you know, I believe that, they say, you know, that's 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:13.520 why we were totally unprepared for this as a potential 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:19.320 health problem. Yeah, it's that is a hundred percent possible. Yeah, 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.360 there are tons of species that we don't know exists. Yeah, 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.679 at the time when this book was written in there 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.920 were somewhere between one point five and a hundred million. 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.040 That's how like vague it is. They don't know undiscovered 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.399 species Usually there's small things like ants or beetles like 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.080 that in this case, right, but the rainforest in particular 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.600 is home to an incredibly diverse set of species. So 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.439 that's why it's particularly difficult for us to catalog all 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:47.960 of them. And I know there have always been scientists 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.399 trying to update the estimate. You know what, what's the number? 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:55.119 We suspect to someday be able to find numbers of 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.840 species on the Earth that are unknown. So it seems 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.840 that the most recent estimate that I could find, at 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.320 least came in twenty eleven. There was a study that 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:08.280 estimated that Earth has almost eight point eight million species 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.399 in total, and we've only discovered about a quarter of 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.240 that eight point eight million. Uh So like there, I 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.960 think their estimate was something like one point nine million 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.360 have been found. But then this is the funny part, 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:23.800 right The study says, well, we could be off by 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.919 about one point three million species, uh and that this 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:31.879 number could anywhere be anywhere between seven point five million 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:35.359 and ten point one million total species. So it's you know, 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:39.920 again like super vague abroad reach. But yes, it's possible 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.840 that there's a bug out there somewhere in South America 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:45.200 that we don't know about, right, Well, I mean that's 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:47.320 certain that there are bugs we don't know about. The 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.720 question is like, could we discover something that really surprises 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.400 us and I think that that's plausible. Yeah, we could absolutely. Uh. 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.919 So there's about two hundred and fifty thousand or somewhere 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:02.800 between two hundred fifty five hundred thousand species of parasitoids. Um. 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:05.399 The example that they gave in the book was the 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.119 scuttle fly. That's kind of one of the more well 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:10.800 known ones. It lays its eggs in the head of 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:14.439 a fire ant, uh and when that hatches, it kills 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:16.919 the ant. And then that's not enough. It uses the 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:20.960 ant's head as a little cocoon, so a safe place 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:23.440 for it to mature in like a like a cradle 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.880 ant head cradle. And yeah, we know about wasp parasitoids 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:30.719 that can take over ants. They can take over spiders 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.119 and all kinds of other insects and they either end 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:37.040 up like draining their their life from within, or they 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:39.800 take their their resources, or sometimes they even you know, 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:43.679 we've talked about like a zombie type insects before on 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:47.760 the show. They'll they'll take over these animals, sorry, these 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:53.200 insects and force them to defend the parasitoid. Yeah, it's 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.720 not pretty. So almost all of these parasitoids are what 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:00.280 we understand as arthur pods right, uh, and these they 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:04.639 sometimes use other arthropods as their hosts, which is even 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.680 that's like imagine if a like a little person climbed 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.600 inside of you and was the parasite inside of you. 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:14.280