WEBVTT - Listener Mail: Into the Void 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.080 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.879 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind a listener mail. 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:14.440 My name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.279 And I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Monday. So we're going 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:19.600 to be reading some messages from the Stuff to Blow 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.680 your Mind mail bag. If you have never gotten in 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:25.520 touch with us before, why not give it a try sometime. 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.040 You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.640 your Mind dot com. Any kind of messages are fair game. 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.839 We always like feedback to recent episodes. If you want 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:38.960 to add something interesting to something we've talked about on 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:41.320 the show, or if you want to request a topic 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.800 for the future, if you want to send a general 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:49.560 feedback or corrections. Of course, if need be all fair game. 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.640 Contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:54.880 Yeah, try it, you might like it now. 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.240 I mentioned this on last week's Male episode. We have 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.840 been getting a lot of message in response to our 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:05.880 series on childhood amnesia. Specifically, we were asking about people's 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:10.920 earliest memories, and boy, that's really been pouring in. So 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:13.760 we will still we will probably be working through those 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.200 messages for quite some time. There is no way we're 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.440 going to be able to read them all today, but 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.679 we'll try to make some headway and read several here. 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.119 Yeah, and just as usual, we have to remind everyone 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.560 we can't read everything on these episodes, especially when the 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:32.520 floodgates really open, but we do read everything at least 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.200 off the mic as it comes in. So yeah, keep 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:38.080 it coming regardless. 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.280 Right, and even if your message is not featured on 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:42.600 the show, we still do appreciate everything we get. It 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.520 always means a lot when people take the time to 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:49.360 write in. Absolutely, let's see this first message about childhood 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:59.600 amnesia comes from Mattay. Matey says, Hello, I recently came 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.040 across your podcast and I think it's great. I'm a 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.720 truck driver, so I'm always looking for new things to 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.880 listen to, and you guys will definitely be a continuing 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.320 part of that. Thanks Mite. I just listened to part 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:13.640 one of your memory episode and I want to share 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.600 some of my earliest memories. I'm in somewhat of a 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.960 unique position because I can one hundred percent verified that 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.760 these memories occurred before I turned four. This is because 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.400 I was born in Germany and then we moved to 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.040 Canada shortly before I turned four. My fourth birthday was 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.800 celebrated in Canada. I have many memories from Germany, but 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:38.040 one is particularly interesting because it was verified by my 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.920 mother years ago when we were talking about memories and 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.280 she was shocked that I could remember this random event. 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.800 I was in daycare wearing a red sweater and I 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.480 got glue on the sweater, and I remember being scolded 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.760 by my mother for not being more careful. Memory has 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:58.680 always fascinated me because I used to speak German and 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.880 I have memories with German friends, yet the language is 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.720 completely foreign to me. It's as if my brain completely 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.560 over wrote German as I learned English in Canada. It 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.920 might be interesting to note that we always spoke Slovak 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:18.120 at home because we are of Slovakian heritage, So perhaps 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.280 there's only so many languages an infant or toddler can 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.880 hold on to at one time. As for my earliest 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.720 jar memory, that would be this is referring to. There 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:31.799 is a type of test done in some psychological studies 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.320 of memory, where it's called a word Q test, where 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:37.839 you will say a random word and you will say, 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.600 tell me a memory associated with this word, and then 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.480 you'll see what ages people produce. Memories from if you 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:46.760 give them a bunch of these kind of prompts. And 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:49.200 one of the words we talked about was jar. Rob, 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:51.960 you had a memory of, I think, pulling cherries out 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:54.520 of a jar before you were old enough to be 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:55.880 allowed them. Yeah. 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.240 Absolutely, Yeah. I think it sounds like a good prompt 0:03:58.240 --> 0:03:59.880 because I think that we grow up in a world 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.320 with jars around. Jars have things in them that we want, 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.960 so it seems like we would have we would tend 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:06.800 to have those memories. 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.920 Anyway, back to Mate's message. Matesas as for my earliest 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.119 jar memory, that would be from when I was six 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:16.120 years old or in the first grade. We loved nutella. 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:18.520 My parents would buy it in Germany and they continued 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:20.960 to buy it in Canada on a regular basis, so 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.440 we always had empty jars of nutella. Anyway, we had 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.720 show and tell one day in the first grade and 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.360 I found a baby garter snake and put it in 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.360 one of the empty jars of nutella and put holes 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.839 in the plastic lid and brought that to school to 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.480 show everyone. The teacher was not happy about it, but 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.039 most of the kids loved it. Anyway. Thanks for the 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.920 great content. Keep doing what you're doing sincerely, Mattee. Well, 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.080 first of all, thank you for the message. Second, I 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:51.200 think that that is very interesting about the language thing. So, 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:57.120 if I understand correctly, you grew up initially speaking German, 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:02.920 I guess German and Slovak at home, but then at 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.280 an early age, just before you turned four, moved and 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.800 you still have some memories of the time when you 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.599 spoke when you were learning to speak German, but now 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.360 you don't speak German at all. Yeah, that is strange. 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.960 I was mostly just distracted by the nutella mentions because 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.680 this this I've never looked into this, but I had 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.400 like a cousin of who's older than me, and I 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:28.280 remember them traveling to Europe coming back with nutella, and 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:30.640 I had had no experience with nutella, and it was 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.400 like a thing that had to be acquired in Europe 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:36.719 and brought back to the States. But you can buy 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:41.200 nutella everywhere now. And I was trying to like figure out, well, 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:43.719 when did nutella become widely available in the United States, 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:45.839 And I don't know. I ended up looking at the 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.359 corporate website, which tells me that positivity is the main ingredient, 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:55.400 so but it doesn't it was sugar. That's like hazel 0:05:55.440 --> 0:06:00.960 nut and chocolate, right, but also positivity apparently. But I 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:03.680 couldn't find a ready answer on when they have other 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.520 dates on here. But I'm still scratching my head about 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.320 when this became so widespread. When did it become an 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:15.440 empire of creamy a hazel nut chocolate goodness? It eludes me. 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:16.680 We'll have to come back to it. Maybe we'll do 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.200 an Invention episode on chocolate hazel nutspread. 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:23.039 Honestly, I do remember when I first found out about nutella. 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.120 My reaction was, like, that's a thing that isn't allowed 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.360 to exist. Do you can't have spreadable chocolate like peanut butter? 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.640 That just no, Yeah, I remember my cousin had nutella. 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:38.000 And then the actual kinderregs, the German style ones where 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:42.120 you have chocolate encasing a capsule with a toy inside 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:45.040 of It's something that does not fly in the United States, 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.520 So you can't get that style of kinderreg in recent years, 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:53.320 during my son's childhood, at least probably before that, you know, 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.160 they introduced the kind that is designed differently where it's 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.880 an egg and then one half contains a spreadable chocolate 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.360 and the other half contains a toy, but there are 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:04.760 no toys inside of chocolate shells. 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:06.839 Is there positivity in there somewhere? 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.680 It depends on the toy, you know. It varies wildly. 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.360 All right, let's move on to another one. This one 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:20.520 comes to us from Jess. Jess rights to be honest 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.800 with you, I couldn't even pretend to know what my 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.160 first memory is. I've often pondered that fact and thought 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.360 it very strange that I couldn't. When forced, I can 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.120 summon a sort of memory, but I've never really felt 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:34.880 it to be real. It's a memory of crawling into 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.560 my big brother's bedroom, all the way across the single 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.040 wide trailer I grew up in. At the same time, 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.640 I recall a specific picture of me setting on the 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.640 floor of my brother's bedroom, holding a toy gun of 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.520 his and sporting a grin on my face. Because of 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:52.160 this picture, I almost feel a sort of disembodied sensation 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.920 about the memory when I try and summon it. Now 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.040 that I think about it, I'm not entirely certain as 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.480 to whether it's the potentially false memory it's self that 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:05.520 causes the sensation, or the picture. Having been forced to 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.840 have a third person perspective on something that my memory 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:12.800 allegedly recalls as being experienced as first person. I wonder 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:15.560 how much that sort of thing influences our ability to 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.840 recall memories, or whether it might influence us to recall 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.600 false memories. Anyway, thanks for making my electric brain meat 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:28.160 cogitate in new and interesting ways. Yeah, this whole subject 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:32.720 of remembered photographs is fascinating when you think of that, 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.959 a thing that certainly did not exist for the vast 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.280 majority of human history and the history of human memories. 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.439 But here is this thing that is, you know, generally 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.679 considered to be like this one hundred percent accurate, you know, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:53.240 with an asterisk there, of course, snapshot of a moment 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:58.400 in time, and then how that influences our highly malleable 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.760 memory of and and of course, at times the lacking 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:03.920 memory of our early life. 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.800 Yeah, thank you, Jess. Okay, this next message is from Jonathan. 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.440 Jonathan says, I'm just catching up on episodes after a 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:17.840 period of life changes that kept me off my regular 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.120 listening schedule and have just finished part one of Before 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.240 you could remember It might be connected with having gone 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:28.160 through those life changes that thinking about our earliest memories 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.080 put me in mind of something else. What are the 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:35.360 through connections between the way we remember ourselves in those 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:39.920 memories and our current experience remembering them. Presumably we are 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:44.360 now adults, even young adults, and very different physically and mentally. 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:46.880 It's easy to think about the situation as a ship 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.200 of theseus thought experiment. What is the real me and 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:54.000 the real ship? Belated congratulations to Joe and Rachel on 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:56.679 their parenthood. I can guarantee it will enrich both of 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.840 your lives. And congrats to your daughter. Great choice of parents, 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.720 Best Jonathan. Thanks Jonathan, This is a really good question, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.720 the ship of theseus question about ourselves and memories. Is 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.320 the person you're remembering from years ago really yourself in 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.600 a meaningful way? And how do the differences between those 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.920 two people affect what it means to remember? In fact, 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.839 we got another message along these lines from Scott rob 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:23.280 If you don't mind, I'm going to read this too, 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:26.640 because it's on a similar subject. Go for it, Scott 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.280 says Hi writing into comment on your recent episodes on 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.320 the subject of memory, formation and children, and now the 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.800 most recent listener mail, where a listener reports memories related 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.960 to sinse one thing that your episodes, and the listener 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:41.880 mail from Rose made me think of is how as 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:46.320 a child grows, their body schema updates rather quickly compared 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.280 to the speed of any normally expected updates in later life. 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:54.160 I think it's possible that old memories may become impossible 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.880 to decode due to that rapid change in one's body 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:01.960 schema as one transitions from a completely helpless infant body 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.600 into what in most cases is a less vulnerable body. 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.000 My thinking here is that as the infant body grows 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:12.760 into an adult body, the perceptions of the individual's surroundings 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:16.679 are changing so drastically that the brain can't later make 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.840 sense of any potentially stored memories from the earlier period 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.160 of life in the quote old body, once an individual 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.360 is well out of infancy. This change in perspective and 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.400 sensations from an infant who can hardly move on its 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.760 own to a child moving about freely and inspecting the 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.920 world on their own terms from multiple points of view 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.760 can be compared to attempting memory recall with a human 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.960 body from memories formed and stored using the sensory experiences 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.520 and hardware of a dog body. This chimera analogy may 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:49.439 be a bit of a stretch, but hopefully it helps 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.040 get across the idea I'm trying for here. The idea 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.240 has no backing I'm aware of, just some thoughts on 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.120 the episodes. Thank you for the show and idea flows. 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:03.280 Hmmm, now that's fascinating. I mean, our body scheme is 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.079 pretty amazing, but we also have such an amazing ability 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:10.679 to update it to make a tool of varying complexity 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.040 a part of our body and an extension of our body. 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:15.840 And I don't think I've ever read anything about it, 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:20.440 you know, leading to distortions of memory per se. This 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:22.680 would have been a good one to potentially ask David 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.040 Eagleman about because I know one of the things that 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.120 he's discussed in his book Live Wired is the idea 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:32.480 of plugging in new senses to the human brain. And 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.560 then his argument is that the brain can then make 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.679 use of those new information feeds and that has an 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:43.839 impact on just your entire mindset and your entire shape 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:49.640 of your consciousness. And would that have any change any 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.560 effect on your memory? I would tend to suspect it wouldn't, 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.280 but Eagleman would have been the one to ask about it. 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:58.200 You have to write into him. But of course what 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:00.480 we would be talking about here in this example that's 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:04.360 brought to mind is something that would occur as part 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.360 of growing out of childhood into adulthood, and not because 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.360 as an adult you suddenly started using some sort of 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:14.280 complex tool or decided to plug the stock exchange directly 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:15.560 into your brain. Well. 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:17.840 Yeah, one of the things I think highlighted in this 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:21.679 email that does seem relevant to me is the distinction 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:26.800 of basically the adaptation for agency as you get older, 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:29.760 like as you can move on your own or really 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.480 even as you can start using your hands for things, 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:37.040 there's an increasing awareness I'm sure that you can act 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.520 upon the outside world, whereas in you know, when you're 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.520 just a newborn, you can't really do anything. The world 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:46.959 just sort of acts upon you, and then you can 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.000 only do a few things. You know, you can like cry, 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.120 and you can suck and things like that, but you 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.440 really you can't like move, you can't like I want 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:56.720 to know about this to go over and look at it. 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:59.200 You can't talk, you can't you know what I mean. 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.360 Yeah, the crying is pretty effective though, Yeah, but. 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.600 Yeah, anyway, I mean I wonder if as you mature, 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.600 your increasing awareness of your ability not just to exist 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.560 in the world, but to act upon the world, to 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.760 you know, move about freely and to change things by 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:22.160 your own volition. If that changes your cognition so radically 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.760 that I don't know that it would be it would 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:28.200 be hard to make sense of experiences from before that. Yeah, 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:29.600 that makes sense to me. 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:34.280 Yeah, yeah, it's a It's wonderful, thought provoking idea, that's 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:45.480 for sure. All right. Before we go into the next listener, mail, 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:48.640 I do have to quickly refer to The Daily Beast 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:53.160 to a twenty seventeen article how Nutella Conquered America by 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:59.480 Emily Schier. I found a partial answer quote, but Nutella's 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:01.800 path to a American hearts has been far slower and 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:05.480 more meandering than its European route to success. After appearing 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:08.920 on supermarket shelves in the Northeast as early as nineteen 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:11.360 eighty three, it would be decades before it had the 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.600 kind of fan base that might spend a work day 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.760 morning queued up to celebrate its existence. So there you go. 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.120 Partial answer eighty three is maybe when it starts really 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.480 creeping into some markets, but it's still going to be 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:25.880 a couple of decades after that before. It's just really 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.200 widespread and popular in the United States. So that kind 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.760 of explains some of these my experience and part of 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:36.080 that listener mail about nutella being a primarily a European 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:36.920 thing at the time. 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.080 I've never lived in the Northeast, but I don't recall 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:45.040 seeing nutella any on supermarket shelves or anywhere really until 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:47.239 I don't know, probably the late two thousands. 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:49.600 Yeah, yeah, that would that would make sense. That'd be 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.280 about when I would have begun to notice it. But 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:54.240 it's one of those things where like at the time, 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:56.240 I was just like, oh, I guess nutella has always 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.840 been around, and I just wasn't very observant like before that, 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:03.960 you know, I didn't really put those those memories of 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.040 my cousin bringing it back from Europe on trial and 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:07.280 really think about it. 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.040 The family that I grew up knowing that I associate 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.440 with nutella were like euro traveling people. 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:17.000 Yeah, yeah, it was. It was like having like frankencense 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:17.920 or something on hand. 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:22.520 It's like, yeah, here's here's a box of Underberg shooters 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.040 and some some neutella. 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.080 All right. This next listener mail message comes to us 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.920 from Chris. Chris wrights, since says Hi, Joe and Robert. 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.360 I just finished listening to your series on childhood memory, 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:35.160 and I thought I would share an experience of mine. 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:37.320 When I was maybe six to ten years old, I 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:40.880 would have occasional nightmares about being chased down by construction equipment, 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:45.120 specifically backos, front end loader types of things. They would 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.120 have the bucket at the front with arms that could 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.960 grab me, and I don't really recall what happened next 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:55.040 apart from being scared. My parents have an excavation business, 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:57.480 so I was very familiar with this type of equipment 0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:59.960 and knew to be safe around it. It definitely wasn't 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.080 something that should have caused fear. By eight, I was 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.400 comfortable driving a back hoe. I later learned that when 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.960 I was around one year old that I was involved 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:11.320 in an accident. Dad was working with the back ho 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:14.600 with the rear wheels up. If you're not aware, when 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.400 working with the hoe, use rams to lift the rear 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.520 wheels for stability. Apparently I tried to climb up to 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.200 Dad and fell and was struck by the wheel. I'm 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:26.280 not really sure what happened. I don't remember beyond what 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.280 my parents have told me. I ended up with a 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:31.160 broken pelvis and not being able to walk until months later. 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:33.960 I've always wondered if the two things were connected. Was 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:38.080 there part of my brain that remembered when I consciously 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.119 could not? Anyway, your series prompted me to ride in 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:44.040 as always. Thanks for the content. I look forward to 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.600 it each week, even if I wait until series are 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:48.080 completed before listening to them. 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:53.280 Chris, Well, thanks Chris. That is interesting. Yeah, so like 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.800 you wonder if somehow the memory inspired the dream even 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.240 though you couldn't consciously remember the memory. 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.320 Yeah, yeah, it's an interesting argument to me made there. 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:06.520 I mean, obviously there are different memory systems in the 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.920 brain and when you know when parts of the when 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:14.679 when one memory system is impacted by one condition or another, 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:19.320 sometimes we fall back on another memory system. So yeah, 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:21.360 it's an interesting thought here. 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:23.320 All right, Well, I think we're gonna have to cap 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:27.040 it there on the before you could remember messages for today, 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:29.280 but we will keep reading through as many of them 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:31.719 as we can get to in subsequent weeks as we 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.520 as we move on down the road. But before we 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:36.560 wrap up today, we also wanted to do a bit 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:37.959 of weird house cinema email. 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:40.640 All right, Yeah, let's jump into it. This one comes 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:48.040 to us from Michael. Michael says, Hello, Joe and Rod. 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.840 I admit I usually skip the Weird House Cinema episodes, 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:53.480 but you've drawn me in again with this one. It's 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:55.320 just not my cup of tea to listen about movies 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:57.560 I've never seen. But I'm a child of the eighties, 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.000 so of course I've seen The never Ending Story. I 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:03.160 just wanted to share a thought on the comment about 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.480 it being strained. The narrator changed at some point during 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.320 the film. I haven't seen the movie recently, but I 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:11.840 remember it well. It may just be a plot hole, 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.600 but perhaps they changed the narrator at the point that 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.760 Bastian becomes part of the story. At the beginning, he's 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.960 reading the book and there's no expectation that anyone other 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:26.040 than him is taking us the viewer through the story. Later, 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:29.080 Bastian starts to leak into the story, or the story 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:33.040 starts to leak into Bastian's world. At that point, it 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.960 would be sensible to have a new narrator that is 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.960 now describing the whole world, including what's happening with Bastian 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:43.360 and Atreyu. It would be a complete misunderstanding. It could 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.320 be a complete misunderstanding on my part, But if I'm right, 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:48.520 I think that would be a pretty cool nuance to 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.520 the storytelling best Michael good insight. 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:53.119 Yeah, that makes sense to me. 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.320 Yeah, I think I think my any confusion I had 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.360 on it was probably colored by watching too many films 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:05.160 that are are less well executed, because I know I've 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:09.199 encountered a film or two before that have multiple narrators 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.600 in them. But I don't think there's any like high 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.320 concept behind it. It's just at some point they're like, 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:19.040 I think we need narration here, all right, let's add 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.360 some and then they forget that they have another narrator 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:24.199 elsewhere in the film, or they're like, well, you need 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:26.679 another narrator, let's get this character in. 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:29.919 When I think of intrusive narration, I think of the 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:33.240 abrupt ending of the animated Lord of the Rings movie, 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:36.119 where you know they they're nowhere near the end of 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.280 the story, but suddenly and thus concludes the tale of 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:41.000 the Lord of the Rings. 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:44.280 Oh man, I haven't seen it, and forever so I 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:46.520 forgot about that. I keep trying to get my son 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.679 to watch it, or to finish the book. The books 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.040 with me, but he's just like he really enjoyed the Hobbit, 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.280 and I just can't get him interested again in the 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:56.359 Lord of the Rings just yet. 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:59.160 All Right, I think I'm gonna do this message from Daniel. 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:06.600 If you don't mind, go for it, Daniel says, dear 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.280 Robin Joe. I listened with interest to your Weird House 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:15.120 Cinema episode on the Incredible Shrinking Man. This brought up 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.879 many nostalgic memories for me, as I had this film 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.280 along with it came from outer space and many others 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:27.080 on two hundred and four hundred foot condensed eight millimeter film, 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:32.000 and some full length feature movies on sixteen millimeter sound parentheses. 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:35.520 The sixteen millimeter was due to my media connections back 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:37.640 in the set. By the way, what he's about to say, 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:41.119 I had no idea about this. Back in the nineteen seventies, 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:43.960 you could buy two hundred foot and four hundred foot 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:48.240 that is, ten and twenty minute condensed versions of movies. 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.120 These were optically printed from the thirty five or seventy 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:56.080 millimeter releases and so were at the sound speed of 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.200 twenty four frames per second. Even though most were silent 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:02.639 with captions, most people saw these films at the slow 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.359