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. Listener mail. This is Robert Lamb and for
Speaker 1: I think one last time, it's Seth Nicholas Johnson. That's right.
Speaker 1: We're actually recording this one before the week of Thanksgiving break,
Speaker 1: which is why we're not going to be reading any
Speaker 1: listener mail that has come in after that point or
Speaker 1: during that week. Hopefully we'll get some good stuff in,
Speaker 1: especially concerning on the weird house side of things, the
Speaker 1: Flight of Dragons. That one just came out hours really
Speaker 1: before we came in to record this, and I was
Speaker 1: already seeing some some folks comment on it on social
Speaker 1: media and and say, oh, yeah, I love that movie
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, and so forth. So hopefully
Speaker 1: we'll get some good stuff in on that. And yeah,
Speaker 1: by the time this episode publishes, Joe should be back
Speaker 1: from his parental leave, so you'll be hearing from Joe
Speaker 1: very soon. It must have been mildly confusing to our
Speaker 1: audience that throughout the entire parental break we had him
Speaker 1: pre record a bunch of the intros for vaults and stuff.
Speaker 1: So so Joe was also here the whole time he
Speaker 1: wasn't here. And uh, but now he's really back, not
Speaker 1: not just a ghost voice from the past, but real
Speaker 1: Joe is back. By the time you're hearing this, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you just started listening to stuff to blow
Speaker 1: your mind four weeks ago, then well, the coming of
Speaker 1: Joe is almost here. Behold, a Joe shall be delivered
Speaker 1: to you. All right, let's jump into the mail bag here. Uh.
Speaker 1: This first one comes to This is a response to
Speaker 1: something that came up very briefly in one of the
Speaker 1: Ignoble Prize episodes that we did, specifically talking about studies
Speaker 1: involving not just crash test dummies, but crash test dummies
Speaker 1: based on the the physiology of a moose. And so
Speaker 1: the um A listener by the name of Robert writes
Speaker 1: in and says, hi, Robert and Seth main resident here.
Speaker 1: I was listening to your Ignoble Part two episode. When
Speaker 1: I got to the section about moose. I was taken
Speaker 1: aback to hear you say moose and elk are the same,
Speaker 1: as they certainly are not. Here's a link to some
Speaker 1: information that may help clear it up. Uh. And they
Speaker 1: included a link that is a moose versus elk guide,
Speaker 1: and this is from a a Colorado based website, and
Speaker 1: and all the all that that data is accurate, So
Speaker 1: I think that the interest. So the thing here is
Speaker 1: this is the part of the paper that we referenced
Speaker 1: that that mentions this he goes quote. In certain areas
Speaker 1: of our planet there are big wild animals. One big
Speaker 1: species is the moose called elk in certain regions. Scandinavia
Speaker 1: has a very large moose population and car moose collision
Speaker 1: is a huge problem, etcetera, etcetera. So this is the
Speaker 1: part you can say, it's saying that it's that the
Speaker 1: moose is called elk in certain regions. So I believe
Speaker 1: that the name confusion that some listeners maybe having here
Speaker 1: stems from the fact that what we call a moose
Speaker 1: in North America is called an elk in Eurasia. And
Speaker 1: while the North American use of elk refers to an
Speaker 1: entirely different species um but also in North America the
Speaker 1: use of elk refers to an entirely different species. So
Speaker 1: from a European standpoint, moose and elk are the same,
Speaker 1: and this particular paper is European in origin, So hopefully
Speaker 1: that clears everything up for everyone out there. We can
Speaker 1: never clear up the deep, deep well and uh, the
Speaker 1: labyrinth that is just language confusion and origins of words.
Speaker 1: And I still remember being young and trying to find
Speaker 1: the like concrete logic behind the origin of words and
Speaker 1: really really trying to like hammer it down so I
Speaker 1: could really understand it and really put it together, and
Speaker 1: then just giving up at a certain points and just going,
Speaker 1: I can't figure this out, like like you know, we
Speaker 1: we were too diverse of a world with two any
Speaker 1: languages to really make definitive answers and origins to anything
Speaker 1: like a big one for me. And this is this
Speaker 1: is going on a tangent, but but I still remember
Speaker 1: this one. I was trying to figure out the difference
Speaker 1: between till and until, like, hey, I'll wait till tomorrow
Speaker 1: or I'll wait until tomorrow. Why isn't till in I'll
Speaker 1: wait till tomorrow? Why does it have two l's, Why
Speaker 1: isn't it apostrophe t I L? That would make perfect
Speaker 1: sense in my mind. Then I looked it up, and
Speaker 1: it seems that both words have completely separate origins. They
Speaker 1: just both happened to sound very similar and function in
Speaker 1: a very similar way, and I was like, forget this, like,
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't go down this rabbit hole. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're They're a number of little linguistic issues like that
Speaker 1: that will still come up from me when I'm reading
Speaker 1: over something that I that I'm putting together for like
Speaker 1: non notes purposes, I'll look back and I'll think, oh, well,
Speaker 1: do I have this right. I'm gonna have to look
Speaker 1: this up again, and yeah, do a Google search the
Speaker 1: word it's. I still think that the correct usage is
Speaker 1: incorrect all the time because I feel that, like, so,
Speaker 1: for example, I'm gonna use a person and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: refer to myself as an it. Okay, so if I'm
Speaker 1: looking right now at some cough drops, I go, these
Speaker 1: are Seth's cough drops. Now I'm gonna refer to myself
Speaker 1: as it. These are its cough drops. I feel that
Speaker 1: apostrophe S is still possessive. Therefore I would use I
Speaker 1: t apostrophe s. But nope, it's not the case. You
Speaker 1: only use it's when you're using it as a contraction,
Speaker 1: for it is period, full stop. And I'm like, that's
Speaker 1: not right, and I know it's right, but anyway, this
Speaker 1: this is a small window into my brain. I spent
Speaker 1: a law a lot of time trying to figure these
Speaker 1: things out, for like the definitive real rules, and then
Speaker 1: hitting a brick wall and just saying, forget it. I'm
Speaker 1: not there is no answer here. Yeah, when I turn
Speaker 1: on my proof reading brain, I just I go ahead
Speaker 1: and pronounce I t apostrophe as as it is. It
Speaker 1: just that's that's the only way I can really barrel
Speaker 1: through that process. You have to. Yeah, alright. Our next
Speaker 1: message here is from Alex starts off this way. Hello,
Speaker 1: Robert and Joe. I've been recently thinking about an episode
Speaker 1: that you released a while back that was essentially about
Speaker 1: the science of being lost. Great episode, if I recall correctly,
Speaker 1: I believe you described it as an emotional state and
Speaker 1: referenced studies, etcetera that described the phenomenon and unintuitive actions
Speaker 1: that lost people take. When I go to search for
Speaker 1: the episode, I can never seem to find it, So
Speaker 1: it's possible that I'm completely off base, and perhaps another
Speaker 1: group of podcasters released the episode I'm describing. However, I'm
Speaker 1: fairly confident that it was your soothing voices that educated
Speaker 1: me in the first place, and how ironic that she
Speaker 1: lost the episode about being lost. That's wonderful. Continuing the message,
Speaker 1: if you can provide any insight as to what I'm
Speaker 1: rambling about, it would be greatly appreciated. Much thanks to
Speaker 1: you both and your team for providing endless hours of
Speaker 1: entertainments and knowledge. Alex all right, well, I say, first
Speaker 1: of all, just because we're all involved in the production
Speaker 1: of the show doesn't mean we two can't become lost
Speaker 1: in what we recorded or may have recorded. I'm did
Speaker 1: Joe and I are often engaging in conversations like that,
Speaker 1: did we do an episode on this? And I had
Speaker 1: to I had to search through my notes. Luckily, that's
Speaker 1: my main way of solving these issues. Uh. And as
Speaker 1: it turns out, it was the leshy episode I believe. Um. So,
Speaker 1: that was an episode that dealt, at least on the
Speaker 1: surface with the Russian myths and folklore about creatures that
Speaker 1: live in the woods and represent like the wildness and
Speaker 1: danger of nature. And then we kind of use that
Speaker 1: to get into the topic of becoming lost in the woods,
Speaker 1: how it feels, how it happens, how easyly it can occur.
Speaker 1: Um And I guess in that too, it's also kind
Speaker 1: of like a typical stuff to blow your mind move
Speaker 1: where we take something highly relatable but it's kind of
Speaker 1: beyond the behind the paywall of something more esoteric, which
Speaker 1: I mean, you might say we should probably do it
Speaker 1: the other way around, but I don't know that's the
Speaker 1: way we end up doing it. And uh, yeah, I
Speaker 1: remember this being a great episode. I hope you enjoy it, um.
Speaker 1: And yeah, if anyone else is looking to get lost
Speaker 1: in an episode, check out The Less You One. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely a fun episode. And you know what,
Speaker 1: I kind of miss we haven't done one of these
Speaker 1: uh crypto zoological deep dives in a while, like, like
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe we end up doing them like
Speaker 1: every month or so, but it's never enough. I really
Speaker 1: like them. Yeah, I love I love diving into the
Speaker 1: into the folklore mythology for sure. That's kind of a
Speaker 1: fun thing about this show in general, is that, um,
Speaker 1: there are so many different kinds of episodes that you
Speaker 1: and Joe do that are so beloved that no matter
Speaker 1: how often you do them rightfully, so every audience member
Speaker 1: can go, yeah, but what about inventions? Do more inventions?
Speaker 1: You know, there's always why not more because you have
Speaker 1: like such a bad catalog of different kinds of angles
Speaker 1: to take on these things. So so yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a good problem to have, but unfortunately it also
Speaker 1: leaves you open to a lot of requests for things
Speaker 1: that you just did, but do it more. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And of course some topics do deserve re exploration years later.
Speaker 1: So yeah, any anytime there's a question like this about
Speaker 1: a possible past episode or a topic that you're not
Speaker 1: sure we cover, just right in and we'll sort it
Speaker 1: out alright. This next one comes to us from Trey,
Speaker 1: and this one is kind of a fun, just conversational one.
Speaker 1: Uh and Tray rides. Dear Robin Seth, what is a
Speaker 1: favorite for you and the family to put on the
Speaker 1: television after Thanksgiving? I always throw on National Lampoon's Christmas
Speaker 1: Vacation to get me in the spirit of setting up
Speaker 1: the tree and all. I look forward to hearing your responses.
Speaker 1: Maybe it will give me something new to add in rotation.
Speaker 1: Great question. I have some very specific answers about you,
Speaker 1: rub Um. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you go first. I want
Speaker 1: to hear yours. I have a whole day movie marathon
Speaker 1: that happens every Thanksgiving. Um, it's mostly just kind of
Speaker 1: things that um, me and my friends and my family
Speaker 1: have seen so many times that they just kind of
Speaker 1: like feed into the background. So if you miss a
Speaker 1: little bit, it's okay, you can come back to it.
Speaker 1: So it goes in this order. First we watch both
Speaker 1: Grumpy Old Men movies. Grumpy Old Men followed by Grumpy
Speaker 1: or Old Men. That is followed by planes, Trains and Automobiles,
Speaker 1: and then that is followed by Home Alone. That's that's
Speaker 1: the structure and the order. And because I think the
Speaker 1: logic well, first of all, I don't know what the
Speaker 1: logic of including the two Grumpy Old Men movies is.
Speaker 1: Maybe because Thanksgiving occurs in the first movie. That's like
Speaker 1: that was enough to get us to watch it once
Speaker 1: and then just became a tradition. Uh. And of course, Planes,
Speaker 1: Trains and Automobiles is all about Thanksgiving, so of course
Speaker 1: that one, that one sticks, and that one is like
Speaker 1: the main centerpiece and then what Thanksgiving is over that evening.
Speaker 1: I do feel like Home Alone is a nice you know,
Speaker 1: ease into the the the holiday season, the traditional Christmas season.
Speaker 1: You know, Oh, there's some some great picks in there.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously trains, planes and automobiles is uh great
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving film. I haven't watched it in a while. I
Speaker 1: don't think my son's quite old enough. I'm not, or
Speaker 1: at least I'm not ready to show it to him yet.
Speaker 1: But that's a really fun one. Yeah, if you're showing
Speaker 1: this to your son. I remember, in particular, there's the
Speaker 1: scene with Eadie mcclerk where she is the uh, the
Speaker 1: car rental woman. Oh god. Yeah, and then Steve Martin
Speaker 1: for a PG thirteen How did he get away with
Speaker 1: that many F words? Like I thought there was a
Speaker 1: limit to one F word per PG thirteen movie or
Speaker 1: something like that, but no. In one scene he says
Speaker 1: it it's got to be what five dozen times? I
Speaker 1: have no idea. I've never counted, but it's just perpetual.
Speaker 1: I don't know that that that would be hard to
Speaker 1: introduce to a child. I think, and and and not
Speaker 1: have them think it's very funny and then repeat it,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah like that. Yeah, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of of F bombs in that scene. And then it's
Speaker 1: kind of punctuated by that scene where he gets picked
Speaker 1: up by the testicles and um and then speaking in
Speaker 1: a squeaky voice. Yeah, I could easily sort of like
Speaker 1: edit all that out. I can skip that entire part.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so yeah, yeah, No, great movie. I love it,
Speaker 1: watch it every year. But uh yeah, And I'm just
Speaker 1: now realizing that that's to John Hughes movies back to back.
Speaker 1: I I didn't think of that before ever, but yeah, Planes,
Speaker 1: Trains and Automobiles and Home Alone, both written by John Hughes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that there's something about not only John Hughes movies, but
Speaker 1: sort of like John Hughes adjacent films and that whole
Speaker 1: sort of genre of of the family comedy from that era.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this recently because I have no
Speaker 1: idea why, but the movie groundhog Day came up. Groundhog
Speaker 1: Day is a movie movie that my son has seen,
Speaker 1: and he was asking my wife, and I was like,
Speaker 1: that's a Christmas movie, right, And of course, the the
Speaker 1: obvious ants here is no, it's of course not a
Speaker 1: Christmas movie. It's about it's about groundhog Day. But in
Speaker 1: another real sense, it does feel like a Christmas movie.
Speaker 1: In in many other respects it does. And in fact,
Speaker 1: I don't recommend anyone investigates this route, but there are
Speaker 1: multiple uh, Groundhog Day knockoff Christmas films that are terrible.
Speaker 1: Don't watch them, but they exist. It's the kind of
Speaker 1: thing of like, oh, my Christmas Day is going so
Speaker 1: terribly gosh, tomorrow will be better, you know, December. But
Speaker 1: then no, this protagonist is stuck in Christmas Day and
Speaker 1: they have to make sure that they do it the
Speaker 1: right way. But it's it's literally just a complete rip
Speaker 1: off of Groundhog Day. And there are multiple movies that
Speaker 1: do this, like I think at least two I can
Speaker 1: think of maybe more, and they're terrible. Don't watch them.
Speaker 1: At the end, the time loop plot structure can be
Speaker 1: so interesting. I've done, You've done right, but it's often
Speaker 1: done lazily. I guess. Have you seen a film called
Speaker 1: Palm Springs. Can't recommend it high enough. It's an Andy
Speaker 1: Samberg starring vehicle. Um, it's a Hulu film. I want
Speaker 1: to say, I think it might be a Hulu original
Speaker 1: and it's so so, so good, and it is a
Speaker 1: time loop groundhog Day situation, but it's just done wonderfully well.
Speaker 1: Like I, I can't recommend it high enough. So yeah,
Speaker 1: Palm Springs, check it out. Nice. Oh, but you have
Speaker 1: an answered what are your thanks. Oh yeah, our Thanksgiving film,
Speaker 1: I guess. Currently our only real tradition is the ninety
Speaker 1: four um Gorky film Studio Jack Frost or Morozoko. This
Speaker 1: is one that we we featured on a Weird House
Speaker 1: cinema I think last year, and uh so go see
Speaker 1: that episode for all my my thoughts on that movie.
Speaker 1: But it's one that are kind of originated for for
Speaker 1: me and my wife out of watching uh Mystery Science
Speaker 1: Theater three thousand episodes on Turkey Day, and this was
Speaker 1: featured there. But now we've gotten to the point where
Speaker 1: we're just watching it without any MST three K because
Speaker 1: the pictures beautiful, the film quality if you get a
Speaker 1: non riffed version of it, and it's just just a
Speaker 1: lot of fun, totally stands the test of time. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And yeah MST three K adjacent media around Thanksgiving Day
Speaker 1: is a tradition. Everyone loves that. Beyond that, we're we're
Speaker 1: plotting ways to try and introduce my son to the
Speaker 1: Gremlins movie franchise, somehow skipping over like the really disturbing
Speaker 1: parts of the first movie. I haven't fully mapped out
Speaker 1: that venture yet. I mean that the The Dead Father
Speaker 1: addressed as Santa is definitely the part that you have
Speaker 1: to keep away from the kids for a while until
Speaker 1: they reach a certain age. But yeah, yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: fun one. Though. I feel like kids could watch two
Speaker 1: more easily than they could watch one. Yeah, I've been
Speaker 1: arguing for that. I'm like, let's just skip straight to
Speaker 1: G two and my ovis like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's gonna understand everything, and then I'm like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and he would. He would miss out on some cuteness
Speaker 1: and some basic exploitation explanation of the concept if he
Speaker 1: skipped you one, So fair enough. It's true the origin
Speaker 1: tale of you know, kind of the rules kind of
Speaker 1: it where it works well in the Gremlins universe, and
Speaker 1: I guess all film universes with creatures and monsters to
Speaker 1: have those rules laid down as a steady foundation. Now,
Speaker 1: some people have the Twilight Zone tradition of Thanksgiving right
Speaker 1: because somebody some station used to do or still does
Speaker 1: Twilight Zone Thanksgiving marathons. Is that right? Or am I
Speaker 1: thinking about another holiday if it was in my mind?
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure if I'm right either, because who
Speaker 1: knows what television does anymore? I remember them being New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve. That's Twilight Zone marathons. But um, but I'm
Speaker 1: sure different stations did different things. But that's that's my memory.
Speaker 1: That's I think you're correct on that. I was misremembering
Speaker 1: that tradition. I wish it was my tradition because then,
Speaker 1: because yeah, I'd love like a holiday dictated excuse to
Speaker 1: watch old Twilight Zone episodes. Oh yeah, for sure, for
Speaker 1: sure I need to make a new one. Like what
Speaker 1: holiday can I align with? Night gallery? Oh gosh, what
Speaker 1: is the longest night of the year? Is that? Um?
Speaker 1: Winter Solstice? So so so it's like the longest night
Speaker 1: gallery of the year and just squeezing as many as
Speaker 1: you can from sundown till sun up. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: so Trey, I hope, I hope some of that helped you.
Speaker 1: Maybe that'll give you some ideas for the future. Oh
Speaker 1: and in a very quick ps perennial classic is, of
Speaker 1: course the Peanuts Thanksgiving Special, serving pretzels, jelly beans and
Speaker 1: toast for Thanksgiving at a big table with a bunch
Speaker 1: of kids. Hilarious. I don't remember that one. I only
Speaker 1: know the Great Pumpkin. I think that's a good one too. Well,
Speaker 1: And the Christmas one, but yeah, I didn't even realize
Speaker 1: off top of my hand. They had a Thanksgiving one.
Speaker 1: Some of the best Peanuts ones, the lesser seen holiday ones. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a wonderful sad Valentine's Day one, and there's a
Speaker 1: wonderful Easter one. The Peanuts, the Peanuts family. Oh gosh,
Speaker 1: they have so many specials and then many of them
Speaker 1: are are just wonderful, just full of full of you know,
Speaker 1: subtle childhood depression, which I just really relate with. M Alright,
Speaker 1: moving on next, we have a message here from David.
Speaker 1: Let's see what we got here. Greetings. My father was
Speaker 1: a rocket scientist. He was literally a pioneer of American
Speaker 1: aerospace and held a patent in solid fuel propellant. After
Speaker 1: his retirement in the nineteen nineties, he opened up about
Speaker 1: a few things more fanciful. I was working on a
Speaker 1: sci fi concept and we were discussing it as well
Speaker 1: as Dune, Star Wars, etcetera. I'm tempted to do a
Speaker 1: bit more backstory on this particular discussion, but I'll cut
Speaker 1: to the chase. Well versed in quantum mechanics, my dad suggested,
Speaker 1: and I'm paraphrasing with due liberty, that the so called
Speaker 1: spooky relationship between particles might indicate a sort of subspace
Speaker 1: plane or medium. And this is pretty much verbatim. Construct
Speaker 1: something around a prime particle, excite that particle. It signals
Speaker 1: the other particle to wits. Look what I have here?
Speaker 1: What this bamp? Now? I'm now I'm boiling down not
Speaker 1: one but a few long conversations into a cute see
Speaker 1: cartoon strip. But I'm sure you'll find that interesting and
Speaker 1: I'm happy to share more about its happy trails. David
Speaker 1: m hmm. Well, um, uh, I love what what David
Speaker 1: is essentially getting at here. Yeah. That that when you
Speaker 1: start looking into the realm of quantum mechanics and all there,
Speaker 1: there are these various areas where, um, what we believe
Speaker 1: to be true or possibly be true about the universe, uh,
Speaker 1: can begin to align with some of our are seemingly
Speaker 1: more fantastic sci fi concepts. And I don't I don't
Speaker 1: think we've done an episode where we really get into
Speaker 1: this sort of thing recently, but in the past we
Speaker 1: have talking about things like I think warp bubbles and
Speaker 1: so forth. Um, which isn't necessarily died to quantum discussions
Speaker 1: but still when you get into some of these more
Speaker 1: far out ideas about how things like faster than like
Speaker 1: travel could a actually be achieved, it gets it gets
Speaker 1: pretty pretty neat. Yeah, I mean from like the most
Speaker 1: basic point of view ever when it comes to science. Uh,
Speaker 1: Albert Einstein, he basically did prove time travel as possible,
Speaker 1: and yet you know the limitations of that. You can
Speaker 1: go forward, you can't go back, you know, like like
Speaker 1: just like those little things, and it's it is fun
Speaker 1: to just kind of see that reality in of of
Speaker 1: science fiction concepts, but not really like you can't really
Speaker 1: have like the fun you want to have with it.
Speaker 1: But it's like it's like close enough. It's like just
Speaker 1: a hint of what's like beyond that veil. And it's
Speaker 1: funny too. I have a couple of friends who work
Speaker 1: in aerospace and uh one's a rocket scientist, one is
Speaker 1: uh in space exploration, and both of them, whenever I
Speaker 1: hear about like the kind of projects they're working on,
Speaker 1: first of all, they're always very hush hush and they
Speaker 1: can't tell me lots of details. But I'm very used
Speaker 1: to working in the entertainment industry, where you start something
Speaker 1: and then you finish it, you know, within a year,
Speaker 1: but usually within the week. You know. Uh, their projects
Speaker 1: take longer than their lifetime, you know, like that they'll
Speaker 1: be working on something that they know they'll never finish
Speaker 1: that they they they're just you know, putting in their
Speaker 1: time on a project, contributing to something that perhaps you know,
Speaker 1: two more generations after them will actually reach this final
Speaker 1: conclusion when it comes to whatever liquid physics or something
Speaker 1: who knows, what's you know, whatever aerospace rocket scientists are
Speaker 1: are focusing on these days. All right, I'm grabbing another
Speaker 1: one here, this one. This we I don't think we've
Speaker 1: ever done this before, but I was, I was doing
Speaker 1: a quick search to see if anyone had written in
Speaker 1: about the weird House on Congo yet, and uh we
Speaker 1: did here for some from some folks, but I found
Speaker 1: this one that is actually from much earlier this year,
Speaker 1: from January, actually, well before it was announced that we're
Speaker 1: going to discuss Congo and UM. A listener by the
Speaker 1: name of Mark wrote in in response to one of
Speaker 1: our I think crab discussions that is re airing or
Speaker 1: would have re aired last week, so anyway, Mark writes
Speaker 1: in with an email titled time Crabs and says in
Speaker 1: the novel Congo, a guerrilla named Coco, and I think
Speaker 1: it's actually Amy, but very easy to make that confusion
Speaker 1: because I believe Amy is in large part based on Cocoa.
Speaker 1: Um So Mark continues, a guerrilla named Coco or Amy
Speaker 1: has the same spatial time orientation. The past is in
Speaker 1: front of us because it is known. But if Coco
Speaker 1: was told that someone was coming soon, she would look
Speaker 1: over her shoulder. Wonder where Michael Crichton got this idea, Martin, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember that discussion. The discussion back about time in general,
Speaker 1: and about the future being in front of you and
Speaker 1: the past being behind you, and how that relates often too,
Speaker 1: something as simple as just literally like traveling down a road,
Speaker 1: you know where It's like if you say to someone this,
Speaker 1: you know, this is five days from now, you think spatially, like, oh,
Speaker 1: how far is that ahead of me? If I walked
Speaker 1: down a road or no, like, oh this was a
Speaker 1: week ago, It's like, oh, where could I have been
Speaker 1: one week behind to me if I was walking Like
Speaker 1: that kind of like relating space to time in a
Speaker 1: literal way, and that's pretty fun. Yeah, Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: the Crab discussion was what how would superintelligent crab focus
Speaker 1: on this, given that it kind of made it move
Speaker 1: side to side. But but this is a great detail
Speaker 1: from the novel Congo and totally the sort of thing
Speaker 1: that Michael Crichton would just throw in there here and there.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's one of the reasons the books were
Speaker 1: so much fun to read. All Right, We've got one
Speaker 1: last message here. This is from Jamie via Facebook. Here's
Speaker 1: what Jamie has to say. I'm listening back to the
Speaker 1: two thousand and seventeen episode Alien Abduction Experience, Part one,
Speaker 1: kind of binging episodes while working on this ongoing cross
Speaker 1: stitch of of the planet Saturn. That sounds wonderful. A
Speaker 1: train of thought occurred to me while Roberts and Christian
Speaker 1: Hey an old Christian episode Christian Seger briefly discussed up
Speaker 1: this book called The Seven Sins of Memory. Robert touched
Speaker 1: on absent mindedness, using as an example of when people
Speaker 1: try to recall where you were when September eleven two
Speaker 1: one happened, and how you probably don't actually remember with
Speaker 1: accuracy what you were wearing or what you had for
Speaker 1: breakfast that day. A sudden question slash idea I pondered
Speaker 1: about which may make an interesting future episode. I don't
Speaker 1: know is this and then paraphrase and quickly Jamie gives
Speaker 1: us the idea to focus on an episode about the
Speaker 1: instinct of trying to remember where you were on nine eleven,
Speaker 1: which is definitely an interesting idea. I'm just coming away
Speaker 1: from the message for a moment here. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's got something to do with touch points for humanity.
Speaker 1: Is there There are a few things that we all
Speaker 1: have in common, and sometimes we have them and we
Speaker 1: can all focus on them and have a shared experience
Speaker 1: and have a kind of like a shared knowledge base,
Speaker 1: And nine eleven is definitely one of those, Like like, here,
Speaker 1: here's an example of that that's that's not tragedy related. Um.
Speaker 1: I remember in college, I was taking a film course
Speaker 1: and the instruct after he very early on in the class,
Speaker 1: said to everyone's like, all right, who's seen Wizard of Oz,
Speaker 1: you know? And most of the class raised their hand.
Speaker 1: He's like, all right, who's seen Titanic? And most of
Speaker 1: the class raised their hand, and he's like, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: just checking every year, I have to check in on
Speaker 1: this because I know I'm always trying to find the
Speaker 1: common film that almost everyone has seen when I'm when
Speaker 1: I'm starting, just so we all have a common language,
Speaker 1: and it used to be Wizard of Oz. But as
Speaker 1: as I'm aging, I think it's getting closer and closer
Speaker 1: to Titanic. And it's been a while since I was
Speaker 1: in college, so I'm sure it's changed again since then.
Speaker 1: But uh, but yeah, you're just finding that that touch
Speaker 1: points that commonality amongst a large group of people. And
Speaker 1: nine eleven, you know, was that events. You know, we
Speaker 1: all experienced it one way or another. Yeah, and there
Speaker 1: would be not not to say that they certainly wouldn't
Speaker 1: be the same emotional state, but there are comparable, uh
Speaker 1: emotional states to discuss their um So yeah, there there's
Speaker 1: This would have been for many people a noteworthy touch
Speaker 1: don't event and uh and you can revisit it by
Speaker 1: asking other people where they were and how they felt.
Speaker 1: Getting back to Jamie's message, it seems to serve as
Speaker 1: a kind of socially bonding activity remembering and recalling. But
Speaker 1: what if you cannot recall exactly where or when or
Speaker 1: what you were wearing where you were when an event
Speaker 1: of some significance happens. I wonder if there's a certain
Speaker 1: taboo or stigma societally at work, if we can't remember
Speaker 1: something like that. For instance, around the anniversary of nine eleven,
Speaker 1: you'll see posts asking others what they remember about it.
Speaker 1: I have to imagine there's a percentage of people who
Speaker 1: see that post and scroll past, possibly because they don't
Speaker 1: have a formed answer. I wonder how that person feels.
Speaker 1: Does it bother them? Is there an obligation of some
Speaker 1: kind to reminisce what happens if you don't. Is there
Speaker 1: a feeling of loss? Do you lose something on some
Speaker 1: level when you can't participate or if you refuse to
Speaker 1: Speaking from experience, in two thousand and one, I was
Speaker 1: in elementary school. I have almost no member of nine
Speaker 1: eleven to speak of. I also enjoy these episodes discussing
Speaker 1: alien abduction and the subject of Incubi. And then she
Speaker 1: mentions that we never talked about the band Incubis, which
Speaker 1: of course we should, so we're mentioning it. Now there's
Speaker 1: a band called Incubus. They exist. Getting back to the message,
Speaker 1: the idea of alien abduction absolutely terrifies me anyone else,
Speaker 1: So glad I can put some of my personal hang
Speaker 1: ups to bed. And uh yeah, thank you so much, Jamie.
Speaker 1: You know, there's one part of this that, um, I
Speaker 1: think you can relate to a little bit. But a
Speaker 1: big part of this of like having something happening in
Speaker 1: society that either through choice or reality, you're opting out of.
Speaker 1: I'm a vegan, so when I walk through a grocery store,
Speaker 1: I see most of that store. I was just like
Speaker 1: not for me, you know, like whenever I'm walking through,
Speaker 1: I'm just like, nothing over there for me, Nothing over
Speaker 1: there for me. People talking about like these like kind
Speaker 1: of um food traditions that happen every year, whether it's
Speaker 1: eating turkey on Thanksgiving or whether it's um, you know,
Speaker 1: rilling up some burgers for uh the fourth of July,
Speaker 1: whatever it may be, all these food traditions that are
Speaker 1: non vegan, which are most of them of course. Um
Speaker 1: I I had to put a place in my mind
Speaker 1: years ago when I became a vegan just going like,
Speaker 1: you know what, that's just not for me, period, Like,
Speaker 1: like I'm not involved in any of that. And thankfully
Speaker 1: there are many food substitutes at this point that you
Speaker 1: can't have, you know, fake burgers, a fake Treu ducan
Speaker 1: or whatever. But uh, but yeah, no, no, that that's
Speaker 1: that's an element that I see in my life, especially
Speaker 1: interacting with most of my friends who are primarily not vegans,
Speaker 1: and just going like, oh, I'm not a part of this.
Speaker 1: You know, this is interesting. I was actually reading a
Speaker 1: little about studies that have looked at at at a
Speaker 1: similar topic here, like what does it take to cause
Speaker 1: a division between like one group and another like that?
Speaker 1: One of like there's about political examples, but also it
Speaker 1: gets down to things like cat people versus dog people,
Speaker 1: which of course is a kind of a ridiculous distinction. Um.
Speaker 1: And then you have other things like, for instance, take
Speaker 1: take the band Incubus. I don't think I've ever listened
Speaker 1: to Incubus, and I don't have a strong opinion about
Speaker 1: that fact or the band, Like I'm not a never
Speaker 1: Incubus person. I don't don't really have an opinion. Just
Speaker 1: it just never happened for me. Um. And there are
Speaker 1: a lot of things like that in our life where
Speaker 1: we're just like, oh, well, that's yeah, I guess that's
Speaker 1: not my thing, but I don't have an opinion on it.
Speaker 1: Then there are plenty of other things where you're going
Speaker 1: to have more of an opinion. Maybe the choice is
Speaker 1: based in some sort of you know, I mean a
Speaker 1: moral standpoint or environmental standpoint, etcetera. Certainly that can be
Speaker 1: said for a lot of dietary preferences. Um, And then
Speaker 1: there are other elements as well. But even something like
Speaker 1: you know, well I'm a you maybe have a more
Speaker 1: of a heated response on something like uh, let's say
Speaker 1: the band Kiss. You might say, well, I'm not a
Speaker 1: kiss fan, and it's it's not a neutral stance. It's
Speaker 1: more of an assertive and aggressive stance. That's an excellent point, um.
Speaker 1: Bringing it back to a food preferences, like you were
Speaker 1: saying to uh, yeah, there's like, you know, different kinds
Speaker 1: of people who don't eat meat. Like for me, it's
Speaker 1: just like, oh, it makes me feel better when I
Speaker 1: don't eat meat, so I just don't do it. Other
Speaker 1: people are like, no, this is a moral stance and
Speaker 1: I'm judging you for eating meats, and so yeah, that
Speaker 1: is like a difference where it's like me because I
Speaker 1: I you know, I know people eat meat, and I
Speaker 1: don't really care when I walk through a grocery store,
Speaker 1: I do just kind of block it out as like
Speaker 1: oh whatever, you know, that's just not for me. That's
Speaker 1: it's almost like it doesn't exist. Whereas if you're the
Speaker 1: kind of person who's like, no, I hate that people
Speaker 1: eat meat, you you may perhaps you do see it,
Speaker 1: and it's it's it's it's it's a sore point for you.
Speaker 1: It's a no, I I don't like that this exists.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that that's that's an interesting idea. The difference
Speaker 1: between um, a positive thought, a negative thought, and a
Speaker 1: neutral thought. The neutral thought truly can't ignore, but positive
Speaker 1: or negative you you are thinking about it more. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think we will do an episode in the future
Speaker 1: on this, because he gets into questions like what is
Speaker 1: the what is the smallest thing that could lead to
Speaker 1: a division like this? And then why does it? I
Speaker 1: think a lot of the times too, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: you're gonna slip to more extreme visions of it, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna be holding to this schism without it being
Speaker 1: a real conscious effort, without like waking up and going
Speaker 1: through like these are the reasons I believe this thing.
Speaker 1: This is why I'm opposed to you know, this sports
Speaker 1: team or this sport or whatever the division happens to be.
Speaker 1: I remember years ago some toilet paper company, don't remember
Speaker 1: which one. They were trying to create a false schism
Speaker 1: in their in their in their user base, which I
Speaker 1: guess is everyone that uses toilet paper, and they were like, hey,
Speaker 1: are you the kind of person that has it flip
Speaker 1: over or flip under? And they were doing like a
Speaker 1: survey and there was you know, it's just a joke
Speaker 1: for for an ad campaign or whatever, but I remember
Speaker 1: the result that I still remember the result of this day.
Speaker 1: So there's there's no real, you know, distinct answer or
Speaker 1: definitive like right or wrong. It's just some people put
Speaker 1: it over, some people put it under. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's that's a line. We all we all do it somewhat.
Speaker 1: So you picked you've picked a path. Yeah, we're a
Speaker 1: fifty household. I'm not gonna spoil who goes which way
Speaker 1: on it. But um, but every time that I noticed this,
Speaker 1: I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode where where they're written
Speaker 1: up or Marge is written up for having it in
Speaker 1: the underhanded fashion. Yes, yes, yeah, well, hey, someone someone's
Speaker 1: gonna make rules. Someone needs to make divisions. You got
Speaker 1: you gotta exclude people somehow. I guess it's the natural
Speaker 1: human feeling. Unfortunately. Alright, three three more things about this email. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, The Seven Sins of Memory, How the
Speaker 1: Mind Forgets and Remembers is a book by Daniel Shackter h.
Speaker 1: This came out in two thousand and one, so bear
Speaker 1: in mind it is over twenty years old now, so
Speaker 1: I can't speak for how it's really holding up and
Speaker 1: how it relates to more recent research in memory. But um,
Speaker 1: I imagine it holds up pretty well, and I remember
Speaker 1: it just being it's just really thought provoking content that
Speaker 1: will really make you think more about how you remember
Speaker 1: things and the different ways that the brain remembers things. So, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: go go check that out if you're interested. Um. But
Speaker 1: one of the things about something like nine eleven, the
Speaker 1: question being like, well, what if you don't fully remember,
Speaker 1: you're gonna feel left out. Well, part of the answer
Speaker 1: is your brain will fill in the blanks. Even those
Speaker 1: of us who think we remember, we don't necessarily really
Speaker 1: remember what was going on. Our brain creates some a
Speaker 1: simulation of what what occurred. So you might think you
Speaker 1: know what you're eating, you might think you know remember
Speaker 1: what you were wearing. Uh, And in many cases you may.
Speaker 1: It's not saying that no one has precise memories of this,
Speaker 1: but the way memory works, it fills in the blanks,
Speaker 1: and this is where we get the potential for strongly
Speaker 1: held false memories about things. Oh and finally, yeah, the
Speaker 1: idea of alien abduction and uh incubi and succubi and
Speaker 1: so forth. Yeah. I I used to find these concepts
Speaker 1: very frightening, Which is probably one of the reasons that
Speaker 1: we've looked at them time and time again on the show,
Speaker 1: is that exploring them logically kind of helped to understand
Speaker 1: like why these concepts frightened me, especially when I was
Speaker 1: a child, and then um, and then also sort of
Speaker 1: making sure that the scary things stay in the realm
Speaker 1: of fantasy for me. Uh so, Yeah, I totally, I
Speaker 1: totally can relate to anyone who finds these concepts kind
Speaker 1: of creepy. My big um. I guess anxiety about aliens
Speaker 1: is this. I think we could all agree, probably for
Speaker 1: the most part, that there is some sort of life
Speaker 1: probably somewhere in the universe. Even if it's just like
Speaker 1: a little amiba crawling in some dirt somewhere, there's probably
Speaker 1: something somewhere, you know. I think I think both people
Speaker 1: can agree on that, at least are the more advanced.
Speaker 1: Who knows that's that's a whole other question. But the
Speaker 1: potential for someone to arrive here at any points, it's
Speaker 1: just on the table, you know, just just just at
Speaker 1: some point some creature from another galaxy who has developed
Speaker 1: space travel just like we have. You know, we've done it,
Speaker 1: so why couldn't someone else could just arrive and it's
Speaker 1: just like oh well, now what like just yeah, at
Speaker 1: any point it's it's you know that that that that
Speaker 1: door is right there, and someone could just come in
Speaker 1: and just be like, hi, we've we've come now like
Speaker 1: that's I think, I think that's that's part of the
Speaker 1: anxiety some people have. It is just the the open
Speaker 1: ended nature of of of alien contact. Oh yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and and new stuff will come out that that seems
Speaker 1: to keep that door nice and cracked. How However, of course,
Speaker 1: there are plenty of of people out there who want
Speaker 1: to jump in and try and widen that crack as
Speaker 1: much as possible, or discussed just how absurdly wide the
Speaker 1: crack is when it isn't. But uh, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: also part of fun of the discussion. As long as
Speaker 1: you don't let it um inconvenient your life for the
Speaker 1: lives of anyone around you. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Just remember
Speaker 1: that speculation is fun, but facts are better, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, Well it's seen is that the mail bag
Speaker 1: is empty at this point. Hopefully it will begin to
Speaker 1: to fill back up. So yes, keep your thoughts coming
Speaker 1: right in. We'd love to hear from you about past episodes,
Speaker 1: uh way, past episodes, recent episodes, possible future episodes, weird
Speaker 1: how cinema, artifact, monster fact, core episodes, or just responses
Speaker 1: to other listener mails. All of that is fair game. Also,
Speaker 1: if if you were a fan of of recent Listener
Speaker 1: Mail guest host Dr Anton Jessup, I have heard he
Speaker 1: may be returning close to the holidays, So go back
Speaker 1: and listen to the recent listener Mail episode with Anton Jessup.
Speaker 1: You'll get a feel for the sorts of messages he
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Speaker 1: it to us at the email We're gonna list here
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Speaker 1: Wednesday's Artifact or Monster Pact. Fact Friday is Weird How Cinema.
Speaker 1: That's their time to set us most serious concerns, to
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Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema. Thanks as always to Seth Nicholas Johnson
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