Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your Mind and listener Mail. My name is Robert Lamb
Speaker 1: and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Monday listener mail time.
Speaker 1: We hope you are ready to hear some messages that
Speaker 1: have slammed into our inbox over the past few days.
Speaker 1: So Rob, if you're ready, I'll jump right in on
Speaker 1: this message from Matt about our episodes on beans. Let's
Speaker 1: do it. Matt says, good day, fellas love the recent
Speaker 1: bean episodes. My family and I grow corn, wheat and
Speaker 1: soybeans here in Ontario, so I was thrilled to see
Speaker 1: you focus so much attention on the humble legume. I
Speaker 1: thought I knew quite a bit about them before, but
Speaker 1: learned much more. The mythical historical context of beans was
Speaker 1: something I was largely unaware of and from particularly interesting.
Speaker 1: Had a couple of thoughts. You mentioned the use of
Speaker 1: a couple of different beans slash lagoons in the developing
Speaker 1: plant protein market. There's a huge push here in Canada
Speaker 1: to capitalize on this for many different crops, particularly in
Speaker 1: the West, lentils, chickpeas, soybeans, and a bunch more. Each
Speaker 1: one has a lot of potential uses beyond what's already current,
Speaker 1: and not just for food products destined for direct human consumption.
Speaker 1: On a related note, I think looking into how useful beans, grains,
Speaker 1: and other field crops are in industrial processing would be
Speaker 1: a neat subject. Like animal byproducts, they are in many
Speaker 1: things we use or depend on every day without realizing it.
Speaker 1: The number of subsequent uses one particular crop can have
Speaker 1: is another thing. For example, the use of barley grain
Speaker 1: in beer production, then the subsequent use of the spent
Speaker 1: mash as feed for livestock. That's interesting. One last thing.
Speaker 1: The Listener mail episode contained a letter suggesting you cover
Speaker 1: animal science. There's a lot of interesting work going on
Speaker 1: in this field in the agricultural space. I don't know
Speaker 1: much about the met ecal side, but that's surely pretty
Speaker 1: interesting too, so I would similarly suggest the subject. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for your work, Matt, Well, thanks Matt. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's a great idea. Keep growing those chickpeas, all right.
Speaker 1: Here's one that comes to us from Spencer. Spencer says Hi, Robert, Joe,
Speaker 1: and Seth. I've listened to your show NonStop since, and
Speaker 1: I adore the work y'all put out. I picked this
Speaker 1: show up on the Alphabet and the Goddess episodes while
Speaker 1: working on a sustainable vegetable farm, and I haven't looked back.
Speaker 1: I recently switched from a career in farming to become
Speaker 1: a high school science teacher, and I can proudly say
Speaker 1: that you were pivotal in making that decision. Sharing in
Speaker 1: the joy of investigating curiosities across the natural world, the
Speaker 1: expansive universe, in our fascinating inner worlds has made such
Speaker 1: an impact on me. I only hope to bring to
Speaker 1: my students that same level of joy and curiosity. I'm
Speaker 1: sure your work inspires all sorts of educators across the field.
Speaker 1: At which field? The bean field? Oh wait, I just realized.
Speaker 1: I think I think I told Matt to keep growing chickpeas.
Speaker 1: But Matt didn't say he grew chickpeas. He said he
Speaker 1: grew corn, wheat and soybeans. Sorry, Matt, keep growing those,
Speaker 1: whichever one you like best. Grow the soybeans, love them?
Speaker 1: Lagoon faux pas there make me tellfu Alright, anyway, this
Speaker 1: this letter continues, I have two things I'd like to
Speaker 1: share one. I recently listened to the two parter on
Speaker 1: beans and found myself putting my farmer hat back on. Specifically,
Speaker 1: when you spoke about the storage capacity of the lowly
Speaker 1: being and how crucial that was to the development of
Speaker 1: settled civilizations, I found myself going back to June afternoons
Speaker 1: in the North Carolina muck. We would often soak dried
Speaker 1: beans before planting them to assist their germination success. This
Speaker 1: got me thinking about something that's always astounded me. How
Speaker 1: does an inert, dried object so obstensibly not alive have
Speaker 1: the capacity to live so vibrantly once it's in the
Speaker 1: right conditions. I would love to hear an episode about
Speaker 1: the magic of germ nation. Not just the mythical and
Speaker 1: metaphorical connotations of seeds giving way to life, but how
Speaker 1: is it that stale, crusty seeds can suddenly burst into lush,
Speaker 1: green platforms. That's a great idea. I feel like that's
Speaker 1: come up in bits and pieces on subjects in the past.
Speaker 1: I know, I know. Um. In a pair of episodes
Speaker 1: we did about about natural fires, about like fires in
Speaker 1: the forest, we talked about some germination that depends on
Speaker 1: the stimulation of of a forest fire to get going. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, speaking of education and all, I
Speaker 1: think I thought about this but ended up not mentioning
Speaker 1: in the Beans articles Beans episodes rather, but it reminded
Speaker 1: me of those the science experiments that I think a
Speaker 1: lot of us uh conduct when we're children in school,
Speaker 1: where you take the being and you have it in
Speaker 1: the zip block bag with some like a wet paper towel,
Speaker 1: and then you watch that germination process take place. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's ultimately such a you know, magical
Speaker 1: feeling and amazing spectacle to watch, and we kind of,
Speaker 1: I don't know, we kind of forget it over time,
Speaker 1: We forget how how amazing it is, uh that seeds
Speaker 1: do what they do. It reminds me of in the
Speaker 1: office Creed sprouting mung beans on a damp paper towel
Speaker 1: in his desk. Oh man, we I don't think we
Speaker 1: even't got to discussmong beans in those episodes. I had
Speaker 1: like a few notes on mung beans and had some
Speaker 1: a source highlighted, but I just don't think we had
Speaker 1: time to get into it. Yeah, there are like tons
Speaker 1: of beans we didn't have time to get into. I
Speaker 1: guess We're coming back for three or four or five, six,
Speaker 1: seven more episodes on beans. The beans saga continued. The
Speaker 1: people want it alright, Spencer continues, though he had to
Speaker 1: two things to bring up. That was just the first
Speaker 1: number two. I went back into the vault and rediscovered
Speaker 1: the excellent episode on teething. In this episode, you made
Speaker 1: a call out to educators, what is it like to
Speaker 1: teach children how to tease? I thought i'd chime in
Speaker 1: with a unique take. Since I've been in a one
Speaker 1: year teacher preparation program that started in a pandemic, I
Speaker 1: have only interacted with my students through zoom and email.
Speaker 1: You can imagine that impedes natural social relationships with anyone,
Speaker 1: but I think this is especially important for young people
Speaker 1: regarding teasing. I don't think you can tease others so
Speaker 1: easily when you've only met online. Not to mention that
Speaker 1: most students keep their cameras off. Yeah, it's also difficult
Speaker 1: to gauge someone's off the record cues for a teasing moment.
Speaker 1: As a result, my classes have mostly taken a no
Speaker 1: teasing policy. Sometimes a student will chime in a response
Speaker 1: in the zoom chat to other students comments and it
Speaker 1: just seems like bullying. There ain't much of a nuanced
Speaker 1: way to delineate playful from harmful teasing when you're just
Speaker 1: working with a chat lock. Oh yeah, I can absolutely
Speaker 1: see that. Um. Obviously, good natured teasing can be a
Speaker 1: lot of fun in person, and it's I think it's
Speaker 1: an important thing for the development of kids to like,
Speaker 1: you know, learn learn to tell the difference, to read
Speaker 1: those subtle cues. But that's gonna be a lot harder
Speaker 1: over the internet. Yeah, I mean it's harder for adults too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think a lot of us have probably
Speaker 1: encountered that with using zoom for you know, special for
Speaker 1: for social scenarios, catching up with friends and all like.
Speaker 1: It's not the same in so many ways. Anyway, Spencer continues,
Speaker 1: I wonder what the virtual year of education will do
Speaker 1: to our young people, still in their most formative periods
Speaker 1: of social and emotional development. Well, this got rather long winded.
Speaker 1: Hope y'all are well. Please keep sharing your curiosity, joy
Speaker 1: and humor with us. It is so necessary. Cheers Spencer,
Speaker 1: ps weirdhouses dope. Well, thank you, Spencer, thanks for for
Speaker 1: writing in with all those thoughts. Yeah, I mean especially,
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, open question on what the the the
Speaker 1: the Tela era of of education and work and socialization,
Speaker 1: like what how will we look back on this a
Speaker 1: year from now, two years from now, etcetera. UM, it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's gonna it's gonna be interesting to to discuss it
Speaker 1: in in here here folks analyzing it. But congrats on
Speaker 1: your move into teaching. That's awesome. Helps sprout those young minds.
Speaker 1: Like mung beans on a damp paper towel, Yes here
Speaker 1: we got one that's sort of beans, but maybe edges
Speaker 1: into weird house cinema. I don't know. This is from
Speaker 1: someone who calls themselves the Golden Sardine. Fair enough, call
Speaker 1: yourself what you want to call yourself, Okay, doky, golden
Speaker 1: Sardine says, how do you again? I guess I don't
Speaker 1: remember the last time they say. Today, I was listening
Speaker 1: to your two parter about beans when you mentioned the
Speaker 1: lack of bean themed horror in cinema. That's right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can only think of one horror movie related to beans,
Speaker 1: and that would be My Name is Bruce, starring Bruce Campbell.
Speaker 1: I like to think of it as the unofficial Evil
Speaker 1: Dead for The gist of the plot is that a
Speaker 1: bean curd demon is released in a small town. The
Speaker 1: town folks then decided to kidnap Bruce Campbell due to
Speaker 1: his extensive demon fighting experience hijinksin sue. It might not
Speaker 1: be weird house material, but it's at least worth a watch. Anyways.
Speaker 1: I enjoy the show and look forward to future episodes.
Speaker 1: The Golden Sardine. Um, I haven't seen that movie. I
Speaker 1: do enjoy Bruce Campbell and he's a He's a delightful
Speaker 1: ham But that sounds like that's played for comedy, and
Speaker 1: that's not what I had in mind when I was
Speaker 1: saying there should be more being horror. I mean, like
Speaker 1: straight scary being horror. Well, this was not an example
Speaker 1: I was familiar with, but I think it's a solid one.
Speaker 1: But it reminds me of another example. And this is
Speaker 1: not a straight horror film. It's more of a like
Speaker 1: a fantasy film for all ages, but it is. But
Speaker 1: it is by Takashi Mickay, who is kind of a
Speaker 1: notable Japanese filmmaker because of some of the more I
Speaker 1: guess extreme and troubling material that he's created over the years.
Speaker 1: But this one The Great Yokai War from two thousand
Speaker 1: five is as I remember it, and it's been a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a family fantasy affair with a
Speaker 1: bunch of Japanese spirits and there's like an evil guy
Speaker 1: that kind of looks like m Bison that they're opposing,
Speaker 1: and I think they if I remember correctly, they end
Speaker 1: up using a zuki beans to defeat the enemy, like
Speaker 1: a zuki beans are the are the are the final
Speaker 1: weapon they turned to and it successfully rids them of
Speaker 1: the demon horror. Well, that sounds interesting, but you're saying
Speaker 1: that that's probably sort of played for for comedy two.
Speaker 1: Mika is all over the map in terms of genre
Speaker 1: and tone, right, Like he does extremely dark, serious, violent,
Speaker 1: nasty horror and like family movies and musicals and comedies
Speaker 1: and stuff. It's it's like everything right, Yeah, Like this
Speaker 1: is a pretty pretty far away from like Audition or
Speaker 1: something like that. This one I think is for the
Speaker 1: for the family. Um, it was played for laughs, but
Speaker 1: it also I think was clearly getting into some of
Speaker 1: those traditions we were talking about earlier about the idea
Speaker 1: that beings have this innate power to dispel demons. If
Speaker 1: you're listening. Whoever you are, film Gearmo del Toro or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: give give us the straight dark bean horror. All right,
Speaker 1: here's one. This one comes to us from Wonco. Uh.
Speaker 1: This one is titled Cats and Humans in Boxes. Hello again,
Speaker 1: Robert and Joe. I'm writing in today with an interesting
Speaker 1: counterpoint to the cats love boxes argument. The wife and
Speaker 1: I live in the employee of three cats. Two of
Speaker 1: them will climb into a box as expected, but the third,
Speaker 1: who is blind, actually has a borderline fear response. My
Speaker 1: theory is that the box is a sudden change to
Speaker 1: her accustomed environment. If we leave it for a while,
Speaker 1: she will begin to investigate. But I have never seen
Speaker 1: her climb into one, nor will she use an enclosed
Speaker 1: litter box. Thanks again, keep up the great work. Welcome.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. I've never heard of that before. I mean,
Speaker 1: sometimes I feel like, you know, the cats are just
Speaker 1: they're going to break the rules. They're going to break
Speaker 1: your expectations of them. If there's something that is considered
Speaker 1: like a general rule of cats, well a cat will
Speaker 1: come along and violate that rule. Cats love boxes. No,
Speaker 1: you someone out there, you will have the cap that
Speaker 1: of whrrors boxes And there's nothing you can do about it,
Speaker 1: because cats ultimately have the final say. Okay, another one
Speaker 1: about the two parter we did about cats and boxes
Speaker 1: and humans in boxes. This one is from Simon. Simon says, Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: love the podcast. Just wanted to give you a heads
Speaker 1: up on pronunciation from a recent show. The A text
Speaker 1: about how to become an anchor s came up and
Speaker 1: I called it the on cream we's the a n
Speaker 1: c r E n E and then w I S
Speaker 1: s E. But Simon says, the oncream wee popped up
Speaker 1: and you pronounced both words with a silent final e.
Speaker 1: The consensus pronunciation would have those final volves voiced, rather
Speaker 1: like a German speaker might pronounce porsche. I think so.
Speaker 1: I believe it would be on crena wesa I guess
Speaker 1: if if Simon is correct. A great and entertaining resource
Speaker 1: for old English pronunciation is the History of English podcast,
Speaker 1: where this book appears in episode one oh three. Again,
Speaker 1: love the work. Thanks Simon. All right, we had an
Speaker 1: email here from Josh and uh, it's a good email.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I
Speaker 1: do to just to highlight a couple of things they
Speaker 1: bring up that are pretty solid about cats in their boxes.
Speaker 1: Because Josh brings up the idea of opening a drawer
Speaker 1: and then taking things out of the drawer, you turn
Speaker 1: around cats in the drawer. I have also observed this
Speaker 1: as well, if the drawer is open and it is
Speaker 1: not like completely stuffed, if the cat is around, the
Speaker 1: cat will just appear. It will summon the cat out
Speaker 1: of out of midair, and then she will climb into
Speaker 1: the drawer. The The other thing that Josh brings up
Speaker 1: is that they think that their own cat when it
Speaker 1: comes to sitting on papers, you know, be at mortgage documents,
Speaker 1: medical bills, etcetera. They say, um, quote, I think this
Speaker 1: is because she can kill two birds with one stone,
Speaker 1: she gets to sit on paper and she gets to
Speaker 1: demand my attention. Uh. And the Josh also included pictures
Speaker 1: of the cat doing just this. Yeah, I hypothesized something
Speaker 1: like this when we were talking about cats on squares
Speaker 1: and stuff that I wonder if a significant amount of
Speaker 1: this is just that the cat notices you paying attention
Speaker 1: to a square of paper or even a square you've
Speaker 1: laid down with tape or something like that, and the
Speaker 1: cat is trying to be in your center of attention. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It seems to be the case at times.
Speaker 1: I know that there are times where the cat want
Speaker 1: I have. I can relate to a cat wanting my
Speaker 1: attention like it wants to be fed. She wants to
Speaker 1: be fed, so she is going to be conspicuous by
Speaker 1: where she is, you know, generally underfoot or crawling on me,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Okay, I got one more though
Speaker 1: about the when you say cats sitting in drawers. I
Speaker 1: just remembered a friend of mine had a cat who
Speaker 1: loved to sit in the bathroom sink. And so if
Speaker 1: you're at his house, every time you go to the
Speaker 1: bathroom you go to wash your hands, the cats there
Speaker 1: in the sink and will not move. Uh So the
Speaker 1: question is do you turn on the water or not?
Speaker 1: It seems like it would be cruel to do so,
Speaker 1: But how else are you gonna wash your hands. I
Speaker 1: have a friend who used to have a cat like
Speaker 1: this that you would go to the sink and the
Speaker 1: cat would be at the sink, and this cat wanted
Speaker 1: you to turn the water on because it also wanted
Speaker 1: to drink the water from the sink. Sure not soapy water, no, No, no,
Speaker 1: the fresh water from this pickett nice, but they didn't
Speaker 1: know how to do it themselves. So you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: clearly go in there. When a human is in there,
Speaker 1: they're going to turn it on. And maybe from the
Speaker 1: cat's point of view, that's why the humans here, Like
Speaker 1: at last, a human has come to give me water
Speaker 1: from the faucet. Alright. Actually, a number of listeners got
Speaker 1: in touch about their about their cats. I'm gonna mentioned
Speaker 1: parts of another email here. This one we got from
Speaker 1: longtime listener shel Dean. Sheldean mentions having four cats in
Speaker 1: her house, and she says they all love boxes to
Speaker 1: some extent. But our oldest cat, Lily, she's fourteen, basically
Speaker 1: lives in a box in the kitchen. We've always thought
Speaker 1: it was a warmth thing, only it's in a corner
Speaker 1: under the radiator. But your episode has made me reconsider this.
Speaker 1: It might also be a social thing. Uh. The Sheldean
Speaker 1: says that apparently she's the dominant cat, though that's based
Speaker 1: on some slew things she did based on a cat
Speaker 1: behavior article she read on the internet, So maybe we
Speaker 1: should take that with a grain of salt um. But
Speaker 1: she says, regardless, the other three cats are male, and
Speaker 1: two of them fight with Lily, So I think her
Speaker 1: behavior might also have a social component. In her box,
Speaker 1: she's out of the way and safe, so that that
Speaker 1: might connect to the thing we talked about in the
Speaker 1: episode where a possible reason cats might see boxes among
Speaker 1: the many others is just a way of mediating social conflict,
Speaker 1: you know, in the box. Getting in the box could
Speaker 1: essentially just be an avoidance behavior to to avoid conflicts.
Speaker 1: Sheldean also says, uh, I think this is picking up
Speaker 1: on the story I had from my childhood where when
Speaker 1: we used to take our cat to the vetch, we
Speaker 1: would take her in a in a cardboard cat carrier
Speaker 1: that had like air holes and everything. But it wasn't
Speaker 1: like the plastic and metal crates of today. It was
Speaker 1: made a cardboard and Sheldean says Joe regarding the cat carriers,
Speaker 1: I can tell you that before immigrating, my cats regarded
Speaker 1: the cat carriers with dismay when they came out, but
Speaker 1: they would still enter them to explore, which was when
Speaker 1: I would trap them. Since they're very long flight to
Speaker 1: another country. They now regard the carriers with utter terror.
Speaker 1: It's a bit sad that it was so obviously a
Speaker 1: terrifying experience for them. Fortunately, we now have a vet
Speaker 1: who comes to us, so we only need to haul
Speaker 1: out the carriers in an emergency. And touching on the
Speaker 1: need for warmth, we have hammock beds hanging off radiators
Speaker 1: in our home, and I think if I could fit
Speaker 1: in one, I'd find them extremely warm. But the cats
Speaker 1: love the radiators, and she attaches a picture for us
Speaker 1: to look at, and so that goes along with what
Speaker 1: we've been talking about about how often cats will will
Speaker 1: seek out, you know, a hot computer or radiator or anything,
Speaker 1: because in general, if your house is comfortable for humans
Speaker 1: to be in, it's probably too cold for cats. They're
Speaker 1: their therm neutral temperature is much higher than the average
Speaker 1: humans is, you know, on the difference between cats, it
Speaker 1: is interesting to to hear from someone who owns a cat,
Speaker 1: first of all, earlier that the cat wants to drink
Speaker 1: water from a tap. Part of me is just like,
Speaker 1: what was what is that like to have a cat
Speaker 1: that will drink water? That is that not part of
Speaker 1: some meat already? Because it's it's uh, it's always a
Speaker 1: struggle to make sure that our cat has enough water,
Speaker 1: uh in its body, because it doesn't seem interested in
Speaker 1: any water that is not part of meat already. And
Speaker 1: then this idea that like the cap being drawn to
Speaker 1: the radiator, like we we got this heating pad for
Speaker 1: the pet. You know, it's kept it like a low
Speaker 1: temperature to provide some heat, and at best she'll lay
Speaker 1: next to it sometimes like like you know, maybe just
Speaker 1: picking up on some of the ambient heat. But other
Speaker 1: times she seems to be actively avoiding it, as if
Speaker 1: to say, I do not like this. This is this
Speaker 1: is unnatural, and I refuse to set on it. I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe we're doing something wrong. I'm sorry having
Speaker 1: cat problems, man, No no, no, no, I mean she's
Speaker 1: she's all right at the moment. I mean she is
Speaker 1: in general a problem. But um but you know if
Speaker 1: she's great too, so what can you do? One last
Speaker 1: thing Sheldean mentions is the idea that you raised in
Speaker 1: the Cats and Squares episode, uh Rob about the possibility
Speaker 1: And I still think this is a very very good
Speaker 1: idea that that should be explored more, the possibility that
Speaker 1: maybe a lot of cats that live in houses like
Speaker 1: squares and sheets of paper and things like that on
Speaker 1: the ground. Uh, not as an instinctual thing about being
Speaker 1: a cat, but as a conditioned behavior where they've become
Speaker 1: accustomed to sitting on a square of sunlight that pours
Speaker 1: through the window onto the floor to get warm, and
Speaker 1: so now they always think, oh, a square on the floor,
Speaker 1: that that that that will be warm. I do think
Speaker 1: that that that seems very plausible to me. And Sheldean
Speaker 1: says that indeed her cats do follow the squares of
Speaker 1: sun all around the house. That would this would be
Speaker 1: an interesting one to see some some sort of experimentation
Speaker 1: take place, ye figuring out exactly to what extent uh
Speaker 1: they're drawn to the you know, the geometric aspects of
Speaker 1: the light as opposed to just the presence of light
Speaker 1: and warmth. Anyway, Sheldean says, hopefully you guys already know
Speaker 1: that I love the show and appreciate all the effort
Speaker 1: you put in. Best wishes, Sheldan, Uh, Sheldon, Oh, And
Speaker 1: Sheldon has a ps about the the collective noun for cats,
Speaker 1: which she claims, I don't know if she's she's teasing
Speaker 1: us here. She says, the collective noun for cats is
Speaker 1: a clouder c l O W D E er that
Speaker 1: sounds made up, and that for kittens it is a
Speaker 1: kindle also sounds made up. I don't know. I'll take
Speaker 1: your word for it, all right. This one comes to
Speaker 1: us from Carlton. Hello, Robin Joe. I wanted to share
Speaker 1: a connection to your artifact episode titled the Toad Vomit Miracle.
Speaker 1: I'm a middle school reading specialist and I use a
Speaker 1: program with my students to help improve their comprehension which
Speaker 1: features short, high interest passages. One of them, which happens
Speaker 1: to be a student favorite, is called frog Vomit. I
Speaker 1: have included the text below. The program is grounded in
Speaker 1: dual coding theory to help facilitate improvements in reading comprehension
Speaker 1: through the use of mental imagery. In order to accomplish this,
Speaker 1: the students spend lots of time reading, visualized and talking
Speaker 1: about passages written to stimulate visual imagery. The striking imagery
Speaker 1: of a frog or toad vomiting up its own stomach
Speaker 1: and using its quote unquote hands to scrape out the
Speaker 1: contents is usually very effective. The way I check for
Speaker 1: understanding is by asking my students to show me a
Speaker 1: hand motion of the hands scraping the stomach if their
Speaker 1: hands are in the right place where a stomach would
Speaker 1: dangle from their mouths making a scraping down and out motion,
Speaker 1: and they are giggling that I know they have created
Speaker 1: a strong mental image of the concept, or a castalt
Speaker 1: as the program describes. I was so excited to listen
Speaker 1: to an episode about a topic that I have had
Speaker 1: the joy of helping students cover through reading. On that note,
Speaker 1: have you considered an episode about the science of reading.
Speaker 1: It's an extremely broad reaching topic with plenty of controversy,
Speaker 1: and there have been time periods described as the Reading
Speaker 1: Wars where proponents of science and popular practices clashed. The
Speaker 1: raise science of reading is a hot topic and education
Speaker 1: right now as well. I would love to hear you
Speaker 1: guys discuss the multiple topics it could bring up. Recently,
Speaker 1: I have been super interested in how the dyslexic brain works.
Speaker 1: The amount of cognitive processes that happened before we construct
Speaker 1: meaning from print is not only amazing, but also something
Speaker 1: our brains aren't actually designed to do. I often wonder
Speaker 1: what life would be like for my students with dyslexia
Speaker 1: if they lived in a time or alternate reality where
Speaker 1: the printed word was not such a ubiquitous and important
Speaker 1: feature of our society. On another note, and to connect
Speaker 1: to a previous episode, and I am thinking of this
Speaker 1: as I write this. I wonder how a corpus colostodomy
Speaker 1: this to remind everybody, this is the when the corpus
Speaker 1: colossum between the two hemispheres of the brain is severed
Speaker 1: um as a medical intervention. Um they ask how this
Speaker 1: affects reading and if it would affect a dyslexic brain's
Speaker 1: ability to read in a different way. Anyways, thank you
Speaker 1: for the awesome show, and hope you get a chance
Speaker 1: to read this, Carlton. And then they include that bit
Speaker 1: of text. This is the text that again Carlton is
Speaker 1: using in these uh these exercises to to stimulate mental
Speaker 1: imagery and the red in the young reader's brain. It
Speaker 1: goes as follows. When a frog has eaten something that
Speaker 1: makes him feel sick, he vomits up his entire stomach.
Speaker 1: He heaves until his stomach flops out and dangles from
Speaker 1: his mouth like a sack. Then he reaches up with
Speaker 1: his four legs and scrapes out the stomach sickening contents.
Speaker 1: Once the stomach is clean and empty, he swallows it
Speaker 1: down again. Dude, you did that like the narrator of
Speaker 1: Beast of Yucca Flats. That's really good, caught in the
Speaker 1: wheels of vomit. I have to say, though, reading that,
Speaker 1: the frog I'm pick picturing doing it is like the
Speaker 1: like a Mr. Toad's wild Ride, kind of a frog
Speaker 1: with a hat and suit and an old timey car
Speaker 1: automobile behind him on the road. I don't know why
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to say the frog your
Speaker 1: pick ring was Tour Johnson, so you know he's maybe
Speaker 1: he's kind of he had kind of a frog like appearance,
Speaker 1: didn't he. But no, I think maybe it's the mention
Speaker 1: to the hands. Actually you mentioned frogs. You mentioned hands.
Speaker 1: That makes me think Mr. Toad's wild Ride and related media.
Speaker 1: And then therefore, when we get into this description here,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm picturing. I'm not picturing an actual frog
Speaker 1: doing it, though of course actual frogs do this all
Speaker 1: the time. I'm picturing a cartoon frog doing it with
Speaker 1: his cartoon human hands. My much less cultured brain, I
Speaker 1: think pictures the frog character from Chrono Trigger. I don't
Speaker 1: know this frog, you know, played Chrono Trigger for the
Speaker 1: s and e s No, no I had I had
Speaker 1: to say of Genesis, So I missed out on some
Speaker 1: of this. You know, Rob, I was playing Altered Beast.
Speaker 1: Oh altered. Well that's a good one too, when you
Speaker 1: go into beast mode. But uh, but but but and
Speaker 1: not to be like that. Oh, you gotta play this
Speaker 1: RPG guy. Butchrono Trigger really is magical. It's worth going
Speaker 1: back to revisit if you finally getting later of it
Speaker 1: or something. It's it's great. Okay, one last one here.
Speaker 1: This is about weird house cinema and it's from Ryan.
Speaker 1: Ryan says, Hi, Joe and Rob. Not sure if this
Speaker 1: movie is B enough, but have you seen Wavelength? I
Speaker 1: believe it was from either eighty one or a D two.
Speaker 1: Actually I think I looked it up and it's eighty three,
Speaker 1: but Ryan says, and features one of the Carrateen brothers
Speaker 1: and Sherry Curie from Joan Jet and the Black Hearts.
Speaker 1: It also features a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. I know
Speaker 1: you know the key to Rob's hard here, Uh, Ryan says,
Speaker 1: I drive for Lift and always have you guys delivering
Speaker 1: excellent content through my earbud. Thanks for the awesome shows
Speaker 1: and I'm looking forward to many more. Ryan, Well, I
Speaker 1: have not seen Wavelength, but I looked it up and
Speaker 1: the first thing I saw was the poster, which is fabulous,
Speaker 1: as like these pods with extraterrestrials like stuck in them
Speaker 1: are preserved in them. I'm not sure which so great
Speaker 1: poster throwing a Tangerine Dream score in a less or
Speaker 1: Karendy brother and my curiosity is certainly raised, though, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to put it on the potential list. This
Speaker 1: is one of those that has two different taglines on
Speaker 1: the same poster that always to me seems it signals
Speaker 1: marketing insecurity. So one of them is up near the
Speaker 1: top and it goes two weeks ago they landed on
Speaker 1: Earth today beneath an American city. The experiments begin dot
Speaker 1: dot dot, but then down at the bottom right it
Speaker 1: says the alien terror is here on Earth exclamation point.
Speaker 1: I'm not neither one is very good, but they kind
Speaker 1: of don't complement. Yeah, at any rate, it looks interesting,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure it sounds very interesting what with the
Speaker 1: Tangerine Dream. I'd give it a go. All right, Well
Speaker 1: that's the end of this mail bag. We thank everybody
Speaker 1: for writing in one note, I believe we're Usually we
Speaker 1: record our listener mails a lot closer to the publication date,
Speaker 1: but I think we're recording this one like a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks out or maybe one week out, I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: more time than usual. Uh, so there's gonna be more
Speaker 1: listener mail that accumulates for next time. And if none
Speaker 1: of these listener mails uh touched on very recent episodes,
Speaker 1: well that is why, because you are in the future
Speaker 1: and we are here in the past. Hello. If you
Speaker 1: would like to write in, then hey, do so. We'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you regarding some of these listener
Speaker 1: mails or past episodes, possible future episodes of Stuff to
Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind or Weird House Cinema. Uh, just let
Speaker 1: let us have it. Uh. In the meantime, if you
Speaker 1: want to listen to other episodes of Stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: Your Mind or Weird House Cinema, you can find them
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Speaker 1: more listener mail on Mondays, and on Wednesdays, we tend
Speaker 1: to bust out an episode of the Artifact Huge Things
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