WEBVTT - Listener Mail: Christmas at Tannhäuser Gate

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hello, and welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Listener mail.

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<v Speaker 2>My name is Joe McCormick. My regular co host, Robert

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<v Speaker 2>Lamb is out today, so I'm going to be recording

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<v Speaker 2>this episode solo. Today's Monday, the day of each week

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<v Speaker 2>that we read back messages from the Stuff to Blow

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<v Speaker 2>Your Mind email address. As always, if you would like

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<v Speaker 2>to get in touch with us to provide feedback to

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<v Speaker 2>a recent episode or add something interesting on a subject

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<v Speaker 2>we've covered, you can email us at contact at stuff

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<v Speaker 2>to Blow your Mind dot com. A brief announcement before

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<v Speaker 2>I get to your messages. Rob and I both are

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<v Speaker 2>going to be out for the rest of this week

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<v Speaker 2>and also part of next week, so we've got some

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<v Speaker 2>vault episodes in the pipeline for you until we're back.

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<v Speaker 2>All right, I'm going to kick things off with an

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<v Speaker 2>excellent response to our episode on rakings by our listener Chad,

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<v Speaker 2>and for a refresher on the ratking episode. A ratking

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<v Speaker 2>is the common name for a group of rats joined

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<v Speaker 2>by the tail, usually with their tail tips tangled in

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<v Speaker 2>a large knotted ball, and dozens of ratking finds have

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<v Speaker 2>been reported from especially Central and Eastern Europe since the

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<v Speaker 2>sixteenth century, and a few have been preserved in museum collections,

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<v Speaker 2>though there is still some debate about whether ratkings occur

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<v Speaker 2>naturally or whether they are all the work of hoaxers

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<v Speaker 2>like the Fiji Mermaid or other manipulated biological remains. A

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<v Speaker 2>couple of the best sources we looked at concluded from

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<v Speaker 2>various lines of evidence and reasoning that ratkings probably do

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<v Speaker 2>occur naturally in the species Rattus ratus, the black rat,

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<v Speaker 2>if not in other rats, and it happens when the

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<v Speaker 2>rats tails become stuck or frozen together while the rats

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<v Speaker 2>are huddling in their nests during cold weather, and then

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<v Speaker 2>from the natural movement of the rats, the tails end

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<v Speaker 2>up tied in an inescapable knot. And I think I

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<v Speaker 2>said at the end of the episode that I am

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<v Speaker 2>basically persuaded that rat kings probably do occur naturally along

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<v Speaker 2>these lines, but that at the same time some questions

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<v Speaker 2>still remain, such as why do the reports of them

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<v Speaker 2>only go back to the sixteenth century. That is kind

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<v Speaker 2>of strange if they occur naturally, And so there are

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<v Speaker 2>also still some reasons to be skeptical. But anyway, onto

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<v Speaker 2>Chad's message. Chad says, in the rat king episode, y'all

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<v Speaker 2>suggested one particular sighting was unlikely to be fabricated because

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<v Speaker 2>the people probably hadn't heard of ratkings, had no obvious motive,

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<v Speaker 2>and let some of the tails loosen. Now I think

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<v Speaker 2>I need to pause in the message here and respond

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<v Speaker 2>to this part directly for a couple of reasons. One

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<v Speaker 2>is that in the case in question, and Chat is

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<v Speaker 2>talking about the rat king of saru Estonia. In the

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<v Speaker 2>case in question, these were not our original observations. They

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<v Speaker 2>were observations made by the author of a journal article

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<v Speaker 2>that we were talking about. And I'll mention the full

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<v Speaker 2>citation again in a minute. But the second clarification I

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<v Speaker 2>would make is that the way I understood it, the

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<v Speaker 2>author of the paper did not cite the things you

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<v Speaker 2>just mentioned as like the main reasons for thinking that

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<v Speaker 2>ratkings occur in nature and are not all man made. Instead,

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<v Speaker 2>these observations were meant to elaborate on the author's judgment

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<v Speaker 2>that there was no particular reason to suspect falsification in

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<v Speaker 2>this case, And I guess the distinction I'm making there

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<v Speaker 2>is that in addition to examining the physical evidence, the

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<v Speaker 2>author was also saying, there's nothing about the people who

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<v Speaker 2>found this rat king that would obviously suggest they're pulling

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<v Speaker 2>a hoax. Of course, they still could be pulling a hoax.

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<v Speaker 2>It's entirely possible. I think the author's stipulating that, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>there's no clear evidence pointing to that interpretation, the way

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<v Speaker 2>there would be if they were obviously seeking fame and money,

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<v Speaker 2>or caught tampering with the evidence or something like that.

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<v Speaker 2>But I want to continue with Chad's message here because

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<v Speaker 2>I think it makes some really great points. Chad goes

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<v Speaker 2>on that made me think of James the Amazing Randy,

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<v Speaker 2>who spent a lifetime disproving supernatural claims. In his book Flimflam,

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<v Speaker 2>he listed quote twenty hallmarks of paranormal chicanery. These seem relevant. One,

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<v Speaker 2>it is claimed that the subject does not seek money

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<v Speaker 2>or fame, and thus no motive to deceive exists. The

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<v Speaker 2>assumption made is that only money and notoriety are plausible motives.

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<v Speaker 2>Ego and just plain fun are not thought to be sufficient. Two,

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<v Speaker 2>the subject parentheses a child peasant or a sweet little

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<v Speaker 2>old Lady is said to be incapable of the techniques required,

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<v Speaker 2>lack of sophistication precludes deception, and three faults discovered in

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<v Speaker 2>the story or performance tend to prove the phenomenon is real.

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<v Speaker 2>It is agreed, since a clever trickster would not make

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<v Speaker 2>such basic errors. And then in summary, Chad says, I

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<v Speaker 2>don't know if rat kings are natural or man made,

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<v Speaker 2>but humans can be ingenious when it comes to fraud.

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<v Speaker 2>So thank you for the message, Chad. And yes, I

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<v Speaker 2>strongly agree with all of these points, though I think

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<v Speaker 2>they apply to the rat king in question to different extents.

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<v Speaker 2>So one thing to point out is that ratkings are

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<v Speaker 2>different from most of the types of claims of like

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<v Speaker 2>supernatural or paranormal phenomena that Randy investigated. You know, he

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<v Speaker 2>would look into people who claim to have powers of

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<v Speaker 2>telekinesis or remote viewing and things like that. In ratkings,

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<v Speaker 2>even though they are rare and bizarre, they do not

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<v Speaker 2>seem incompatible with any known laws of nature, and whether

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<v Speaker 2>or not they occur naturally, it seems perfectly plausible in

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<v Speaker 2>principle that they could be created by ordinary physical mechanisms.

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<v Speaker 2>So you don't have to posit like another layer of

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<v Speaker 2>reality in order for rat kings to exist. You know

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<v Speaker 2>that they could totally be created by just like rats

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<v Speaker 2>huddling in their nest and then maybe urinating, and then

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<v Speaker 2>the urine freezes and their tails stick together, and then

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<v Speaker 2>they move around a lot, and this ties their tails

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<v Speaker 2>in a knot. That's a normal, ordinary mechanism. It's still

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<v Speaker 2>a good question whether this does in fact happen in nature,

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<v Speaker 2>but nothing seems all that implausible about it. And because

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<v Speaker 2>of that, I'd say, for me personally, like before we

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<v Speaker 2>look at any of the specific evidence for or against them,

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<v Speaker 2>the baseline probability of rat kings occurring in nature is

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<v Speaker 2>a lot higher than that of other things Randy was investigating,

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<v Speaker 2>like people being able to see through sheets of solid

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<v Speaker 2>lead or levitate objects with their minds. So anyway to

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<v Speaker 2>come to the case in question, these considerations that Chad

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<v Speaker 2>mentions came up when we were talking about the rat

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<v Speaker 2>king of Saoru, Estonia. This was an alleged find from

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<v Speaker 2>a village and I think southwestern Estonia in two thousand

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<v Speaker 2>and five, which was discussed in a paper by an

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<v Speaker 2>author named Andre Miluton published in two thousand and seven

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<v Speaker 2>in the Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Biology

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<v Speaker 2>and Ecology. And after investigating the remains of the animals

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<v Speaker 2>and the history of this find, which was found on

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<v Speaker 2>a farm in this village of Saru, the author of

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<v Speaker 2>the paper concluded for a number of reasons that the

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<v Speaker 2>rat king was most likely a genuine natural biofact and

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<v Speaker 2>not a hoax constructed by the farmer who found it.

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<v Speaker 2>And I guess I'll go through some of the claims

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<v Speaker 2>raised by the author that were singled out by Chad

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<v Speaker 2>and then compare those to the points raised by James Randy. So,

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<v Speaker 2>first of all, the author mentions that the farmer claimed

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<v Speaker 2>to have never heard of ratkings before, and that the

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<v Speaker 2>farmer did not seek or receive any financial reward for

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<v Speaker 2>the find. But James Randy, he says, you know, believers

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<v Speaker 2>often say this about people who claim they have psychic powers,

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<v Speaker 2>or that they communicated with Bigfoot, or any number of

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<v Speaker 2>other weird and unlikely claims, and it doesn't actually prove

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<v Speaker 2>all that much because even if it's true that the

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<v Speaker 2>person is not profiting from their claim in terms of

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<v Speaker 2>fame or money, sometimes that's not even true to begin with.

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<v Speaker 2>But even if that is true, people have obscure motives.

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<v Speaker 2>People do things to amuse themselves, to see if they

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<v Speaker 2>can get away with it, to get attention on a

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<v Speaker 2>very small scale, or maybe just because they truly believe

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<v Speaker 2>in the underlying phenomena they're trying to provide evidence of

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<v Speaker 2>and they want others to believe it as well, and

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<v Speaker 2>they think that perpetrating a hoax will further that belief

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<v Speaker 2>in something that they ultimately do think is real. You know,

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<v Speaker 2>you've got to do a hoax to show people the truth.

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<v Speaker 2>There are all kinds of motives people can have for deception,

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<v Speaker 2>and we should be humble in accepting that it might

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<v Speaker 2>not be obvious to us what a person's most inovation

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<v Speaker 2>would be. So in the case of the Saru rat king,

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<v Speaker 2>I think that it would be relevant information if we

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<v Speaker 2>saw that the farmer who found this ratking was clearly

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<v Speaker 2>trying to leverage their find into money or fame. But

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<v Speaker 2>the fact that they're not trying to do that provides

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<v Speaker 2>only minimal information about whether the rat king is natural.

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<v Speaker 2>The second issue Chad raises is that quote the subject

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<v Speaker 2>is said to be incapable of the techniques required, lack

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<v Speaker 2>of sophistication precludes deception. I guess the way I would

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<v Speaker 2>see this applying to ratkings is the author of the

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<v Speaker 2>paper pointing out that it is impossible to tie up

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<v Speaker 2>the tails of living rats without anesthesia without making them

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<v Speaker 2>go to sleep with the help of drugs which most

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<v Speaker 2>people would not be able to pull off. Most people

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<v Speaker 2>would not be able to esthetize all these rats and

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<v Speaker 2>glue their tails together. I think this is a more

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<v Speaker 2>solid point, especially since, as far as I'm aware, for

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<v Speaker 2>the first f few hundred years during which rat kings

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<v Speaker 2>were originally reported, there were no widely known and reliable

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<v Speaker 2>methods of veterinary anesthesia. I looked into this a little bit,

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<v Speaker 2>and I think that's the case. Though if you have

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<v Speaker 2>evidence to the contrary, please write in with it. I'd

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<v Speaker 2>be interested in that. But anyway, also remember the conclusion

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<v Speaker 2>I mentioned in the rat king episode from those very sad,

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<v Speaker 2>unfortunate experimental rat king studies, and that conclusion was that

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<v Speaker 2>tying the tales of dead rats together does not work.

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<v Speaker 2>It does not create the kind of not ball in

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<v Speaker 2>the tail that rat kings are reported to have. And

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<v Speaker 2>also many rat kings are reported to contain animals still

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<v Speaker 2>alive when they're found, So these would have to be

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<v Speaker 2>created by people who are tying together the tales of

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<v Speaker 2>living rats, and to do that you pretty much would

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<v Speaker 2>just have to put the rats to sleep somehow, and

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<v Speaker 2>that would take modern techniques in pharmacology. So while I

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<v Speaker 2>do take Randy's general point that we shouldn't be too

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<v Speaker 2>quick to judge a superficially unsophisticated person as being incapable

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<v Speaker 2>of pulling off a clever fraud, in this case, I

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<v Speaker 2>think the physical and pharmaceutical requirements for creating a rat

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<v Speaker 2>king are a kind of big hurdle to get over,

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<v Speaker 2>especially historically, I guess, less so in the modern day,

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<v Speaker 2>and while it wouldn't be impossible to do today, it

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<v Speaker 2>would be difficult under what the author calls farm conditions.

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<v Speaker 2>So this is not conclusive about the sorry rat king

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<v Speaker 2>doesn't prove its real, but I do think this is

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<v Speaker 2>a stronger piece of evidence that makes a fraud seem

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<v Speaker 2>less likely. And then third Chad says quote false discovered

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<v Speaker 2>in the story or performance tend to prove the phenomenon reel.

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<v Speaker 2>It is agreed since a clever trickster would not make

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<v Speaker 2>such basic errors, and I think this one is a

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<v Speaker 2>really good point. It goes to the observation that even

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<v Speaker 2>though the tail knot of the rat king loosened as

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<v Speaker 2>the rats dried out, no one made a sub sequent

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<v Speaker 2>attempt to tighten it, And I agree that does not

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<v Speaker 2>actually prove all that much, except that you know it's

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<v Speaker 2>worth flagging in the negative, as in, there was no

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<v Speaker 2>obvious attempt made to tamper with the evidence to make

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<v Speaker 2>it look more convincing, and it would be notable if

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<v Speaker 2>there had been such an attempt, but there wasn't. Though again,

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<v Speaker 2>this in itself is not strong evidence that the rat

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<v Speaker 2>king was natural. Now, the author of that paper we

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<v Speaker 2>were looking at did conclude, on the basis of examining

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<v Speaker 2>the physical evidence and relying on past where concluding the

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<v Speaker 2>reasoning of Martin Hart, whom we also cited in the episode,

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<v Speaker 2>that rat kings probably are genuine. And remember another piece

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<v Speaker 2>of reasoning that Heart offered is that they are essentially

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<v Speaker 2>always made up of the species Ratus ratus instead of

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<v Speaker 2>other species like Ratus Norwegicus, even in places where both

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<v Speaker 2>species are present, suggesting something about the behavior and biology

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<v Speaker 2>of Ratus ratus could be what allows the kings to

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<v Speaker 2>form anyway, Coming back to Chad's point about the wisdom

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<v Speaker 2>of the late James Randy, I agree with all these points,

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<v Speaker 2>and I would say, as a general rule, I think

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<v Speaker 2>we should be careful about trying to determine what really

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<v Speaker 2>happened in an unsolved situation or an ambiguous situation by

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<v Speaker 2>relying on what you might call theory of mind considerations,

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<v Speaker 2>like making internal inferences about the people involved. You know,

0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.800
<v Speaker 2>what they know, what their motivations are, how you think

0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.560
<v Speaker 2>they would behave in a given situation, and so forth.

0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:38.040
<v Speaker 2>In other words, if somebody tells a weird story and

0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:41.280
<v Speaker 2>you're trying to figure out if the story is true,

0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.160
<v Speaker 2>I just wouldn't place a lot of weight on evidence

0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.920
<v Speaker 2>such as my opinion about whether the person would have

0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.280
<v Speaker 2>a motive to lie or not, or my opinion about

0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.880
<v Speaker 2>how a person would have acted if they were lying

0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.280
<v Speaker 2>versus if they were telling the truth, and so forth,

0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.120
<v Speaker 2>so forth. That kind of stuff might provide a little

0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.040
<v Speaker 2>bit of information, but not a whole lot, And it

0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:06.720
<v Speaker 2>just it relies on unverifiable speculation about the mind states

0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.480
<v Speaker 2>of other people. And in a case where you actually

0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.439
<v Speaker 2>do have like physical and scientific evidence to refer to.

0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.000
<v Speaker 2>There's just not a lot of reason to rely on

0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:19.720
<v Speaker 2>those theory of mind considerations. So anyway, thank you chat okay,

0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.400
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to move on to some messages in response

0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.000
<v Speaker 2>to our series called the Sunken Lands, about areas that

0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.320
<v Speaker 2>within the last few thousand years were dry land but

0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:39.760
<v Speaker 2>are now submerged in water. This first message comes from Chris.

0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.600
<v Speaker 2>Chris says, Hi, Robert and Joe really enjoying the series

0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.600
<v Speaker 2>on sunken Lands. Your mention of the church tower and

0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:50.400
<v Speaker 2>submerged village in Italy prompted me to share the story

0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:55.040
<v Speaker 2>of vale House Reservoir in Derbyshire, UK. It was built

0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.160
<v Speaker 2>along with a series of adjoining reservoirs in the eighteen

0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.680
<v Speaker 2>sixties to provide drinking water to the the nearby city

0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.920
<v Speaker 2>of Manchester and surrounding towns. Once construction was completed, the

0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:07.960
<v Speaker 2>local village and its mill were flooded. I will let

0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:11.520
<v Speaker 2>Wikipedia take over from here quote. The chimney at the

0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.280
<v Speaker 2>Valehouse mill survived the construction of the reservoir and became

0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:19.680
<v Speaker 2>known as the Whispering Chimney as it produced ghostly noises

0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.280
<v Speaker 2>during strong winds. It was demolished in eighteen eighty seven

0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.760
<v Speaker 2>at the request of the Manchester to Sheffield Railway Company,

0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:32.360
<v Speaker 2>who feared for the stability of their trains when all

0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.280
<v Speaker 2>the passengers crowded over to one side of a carriage

0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:39.280
<v Speaker 2>to see the chimney protruding from the waters of the reservoir.

0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.560
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for all your hard work. Best wishes, Chris Well,

0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.960
<v Speaker 2>Thank you, Chris. You know I went to this is

0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:47.760
<v Speaker 2>a great story. So I went to the wiki to

0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:50.600
<v Speaker 2>check out the source of that story, and unfortunately the

0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.440
<v Speaker 2>citation goes to a dead link. I did a little

0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:55.200
<v Speaker 2>more digging. I didn't have a lot of time, but

0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.040
<v Speaker 2>some brief digging and didn't find much on this. So

0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.960
<v Speaker 2>if anybody listening has a good source on this chimney

0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:05.080
<v Speaker 2>from the Valehouse Reservoir, I send it our way. Please

0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:07.760
<v Speaker 2>contact that stuff to blow your mind dot com because

0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.200
<v Speaker 2>that's a great story about the railway company. I would

0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:20.920
<v Speaker 2>love to know more about that, all right. This message

0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:25.400
<v Speaker 2>comes from Harry. Harry says, Hey, Robert and Joe. Happy holidays,

0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:29.120
<v Speaker 2>longtime listener, first time writing in. I finally have a

0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:33.400
<v Speaker 2>relevant anecdote. I loved your inclusion of the Hoffiker paper

0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:38.239
<v Speaker 2>and the Beringian hypothesis in the third Sunken Lands episode.

0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:43.680
<v Speaker 2>This was the paper about the so called Berringian standstill hypothesis,

0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:48.800
<v Speaker 2>which argues for several reasons that the ancestors of the

0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:53.560
<v Speaker 2>people who eventually spread in to populate the Americas lived

0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.440
<v Speaker 2>in the area of Beringia, in the area sort of

0:16:56.480 --> 0:17:01.520
<v Speaker 2>between modern day Russia and Alaska for thousands of years, specifically,

0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.480
<v Speaker 2>stayed there isolated from the rest of the Asian population

0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:08.000
<v Speaker 2>for thousands of years before they spread down into the

0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:12.320
<v Speaker 2>rest of the American continents. So, anyway, picking up in

0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:16.879
<v Speaker 2>Harry's message, Harry says, my professor at Saint Andrew's University

0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.359
<v Speaker 2>in the Earth and Environmental Science department, told me a

0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:21.920
<v Speaker 2>story of how he met one of the authors of

0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.400
<v Speaker 2>the Hoff paper at a conference. They mentioned the hypothesis

0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:27.359
<v Speaker 2>to him, and it happened to be that he had

0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:31.199
<v Speaker 2>just conducted research on modeling and proxy data in the

0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:35.359
<v Speaker 2>North Pacific. He had found that during the last glacial maximum,

0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:40.280
<v Speaker 2>changes in the Couroshio Current, which makes Vancouver temperate at

0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:45.280
<v Speaker 2>high latitude today, drove warm water and mild climate to Beringia.

0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:50.359
<v Speaker 2>This supported the hypothesis and further explained a long time

0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.760
<v Speaker 2>gap in the DNA evidence, Beringia could have been a

0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:58.600
<v Speaker 2>haven with populations potentially blocked from moving elsewhere by continental

0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:02.600
<v Speaker 2>ice sheets for many thousands of years. Together, they managed

0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.240
<v Speaker 2>to book time on a Bearing Sea research cruise to

0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:09.479
<v Speaker 2>sonar for evidence of the civilization. In a devastating twist

0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.920
<v Speaker 2>that partially explains why evidence of Boringia is so scarce,

0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:17.000
<v Speaker 2>the notoriously bad weather of the Bearing Sea forced them

0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:20.240
<v Speaker 2>to cancel part of the cruise and the research couldn't

0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.280
<v Speaker 2>be completed. That would mean that it certainly was a

0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.520
<v Speaker 2>standstill of a kind, even to those living at the time.

0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.000
<v Speaker 2>As migration has been a constant for our species, few

0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.959
<v Speaker 2>of us could imagine living in such a constrained context.

0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:36.399
<v Speaker 2>Yet such people may be the ancestors of all North

0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:40.639
<v Speaker 2>American first peoples. Keep up the great work, Harry. That

0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.280
<v Speaker 2>is fascinating. Thank you, Harry. Okay. One last message, this

0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:52.480
<v Speaker 2>comes from Erin. Aaron says, gentlemen, I very much enjoyed

0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.240
<v Speaker 2>your recent episodes on sunken lands, and it brought to

0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.800
<v Speaker 2>mind a place not far from y'all, a Disto Island,

0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:02.240
<v Speaker 2>South Carolina. The history of the island connects with your

0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.760
<v Speaker 2>recent episodes in two ways. First, the coast of what

0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.639
<v Speaker 2>is now South Carolina extended far out into what is

0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.280
<v Speaker 2>now ocean during the Last Ice Age. See this article

0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.560
<v Speaker 2>for a map showing the approximate location of the old coastline,

0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:20.480
<v Speaker 2>and then Erin attaches a link to a US Geological

0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:22.520
<v Speaker 2>Survey article that does have a map that shows the

0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:25.159
<v Speaker 2>coastline going way out from where it is today. The

0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.040
<v Speaker 2>message goes on because of this, there is a particular

0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.400
<v Speaker 2>part of the beach in Edisto State Park where numerous

0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:35.320
<v Speaker 2>fossils from prehistoric land animals can be found, particularly after

0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.640
<v Speaker 2>a storm. I've attached a little map showing the location

0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.800
<v Speaker 2>in case y'all ever visit. I've also attached a picture

0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.760
<v Speaker 2>of some of our discoveries from our last visit. It

0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:49.520
<v Speaker 2>includes sharks, teeth, and other marine fossils. Occasionally, pottery, shards

0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:53.359
<v Speaker 2>and stone tools from prehistoric human inhabitants of the area

0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.440
<v Speaker 2>can also be found. I believe the red circled rock

0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:58.840
<v Speaker 2>in the picture is a bit of broken pottery with

0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.919
<v Speaker 2>some simple decoration, though please take my dilettantish identification with

0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.399
<v Speaker 2>a grain of salt. Second, a Disto has its own

0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.240
<v Speaker 2>Atlantis story prior to eighteen ninety three, there was an

0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:14.119
<v Speaker 2>island off the coast of a Disto called Eddingsville, and

0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.000
<v Speaker 2>it was very chic among local planters to have beach

0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.160
<v Speaker 2>houses there. There were even two churches on the island,

0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:24.160
<v Speaker 2>Episcopal and Presbyterian. A series of hurricanes over the course

0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:28.040
<v Speaker 2>of the nineteenth century washed the entire island away. The

0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.440
<v Speaker 2>churches were moved before the island's final destruction and are

0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:35.040
<v Speaker 2>now on Edisto Island. One of them is still being

0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.240
<v Speaker 2>used as a church, I believe, but some of the

0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.320
<v Speaker 2>houses were destroyed during the hurricanes, and because of this.

0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:44.199
<v Speaker 2>Nineteenth century brick fragments are also easy to find on

0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.080
<v Speaker 2>the beach in a Disto state park. They are usually

0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.439
<v Speaker 2>fairly small, but I found the big one in the

0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:52.280
<v Speaker 2>third picture on my second ever visit to the beach.

0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.840
<v Speaker 2>The golf ball is for scale. It makes a great bookend,

0:20:56.280 --> 0:21:00.439
<v Speaker 2>and of course Aaron has many pictures attached here. Finally,

0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.399
<v Speaker 2>on an unrelated note, the Omega Man has come up

0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.399
<v Speaker 2>a few times, including in the most recent episode. I

0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:08.520
<v Speaker 2>think it would be a great film to cover on

0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:11.679
<v Speaker 2>the show. The soundtrack by Ron Grainer, who did the

0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:14.760
<v Speaker 2>theme for Tales from the Unexpected, which featured in one

0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:18.320
<v Speaker 2>of your anthology of horror episodes is one of my favorites.

0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:20.920
<v Speaker 2>Somehow it manages to be groovy and thoughtful at the

0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.879
<v Speaker 2>same time. Keep up the great work, guys. The release

0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.760
<v Speaker 2>of Weird House Cinema in particular is always a highlight

0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.160
<v Speaker 2>of my week. Best erin Well, thank you so much,

0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:33.800
<v Speaker 2>erin great message. So that's going to do it for today.

0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.480
<v Speaker 2>But thanks again to everyone who wrote in. We don't

0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:38.800
<v Speaker 2>have time to feature or respond to all of the

0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:42.240
<v Speaker 2>messages we get, but we do read and appreciate everything

0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:44.399
<v Speaker 2>you send our way, so please keep it coming. It

0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.119
<v Speaker 2>really means a lot. Hey, if you're new here, Stuff

0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.960
<v Speaker 2>to Blow Your Mind is primarily a show about science

0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:54.400
<v Speaker 2>and culture, with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays

0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.000
<v Speaker 2>we do listener mail episodes like this one, though usually

0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.760
<v Speaker 2>my co host Robert is on Mike with Me. Wednesdays

0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.960
<v Speaker 2>we release a short form episode called The Artifact or

0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.720
<v Speaker 2>the Monster Fact, and on Fridays we feature a special

0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:12.000
<v Speaker 2>series called Weird House Cinema, where all we do is watch,

0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:17.000
<v Speaker 2>recap and discuss weird movies, good bad, well known, obscure.

0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:20.159
<v Speaker 2>We take all comers as long as they are strange.

0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:24.919
<v Speaker 2>Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:26.919
<v Speaker 2>If you would like to get in touch with us

0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:29.159
<v Speaker 2>to give feedback on this episode or any other, to

0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:32.120
<v Speaker 2>suggest topic for the future, or just to say hi,

0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:35.320
<v Speaker 2>you can email us at contact at stuffed blow your

0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:43.439
<v Speaker 2>Mind dot com.

0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:46.520
<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:49.399
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