WEBVTT - From the Vault: Anthology of Horror, Volume 4 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:09.039 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. This is 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:12.280 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's time for 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:17.599 a vault episode. This one originally aired on October. It 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.279 was the fourth one of our Anthology of Horror episodes. Yeah, 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.480 this this has become a tradition, and uh, this one 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:25.920 was a lot of fun. I think we talked about 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.600 an episode of the Outer Limits revival, Hammer House of Horror, 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:32.600 the Simpsons Tree House of Horror, creep show and are 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:34.839 You Afraid of the Dark? You know what, we actually 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.320 never got around to the Hammer House of Horror segment, 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.400 we did? We not? We that maybe that one will 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.440 be brand new this year. That's right, that's right, because 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:48.560 this is publishing I believe October, uh my birthday, and 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:52.920 we are probably doing a um an Anthology of Horror 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:55.440 episode later in this month. So yeah, maybe it'll be 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:57.920 time for Hammer House of Horror to to uh to 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:04.240 hit the airwaves. Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:13.600 the production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:15.920 to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:18.920 I'm Joe McCormick. And it's still Halloween season, so we're 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.560 going into the anthology territory. That's right. We have a 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:24.759 long tradition here on stuff to blow your mind of 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:28.000 taking short spooky stories around this time of year, uh, 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:30.440 snipping them out of their host, drying them, and then 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.280 stuffing them with science to create an informative and entertaining 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.959 Halloween sausage. We did this for a few years based 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.240 on creepy pasta stories, and then we kind of felt 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:43.240 like that well was running a little dry, so we 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.319 turned to an even richer and deeper treasure trove of 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:51.840 horror fiction, and that is horror and sci fi anthology series. Uh. 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:53.680 A lot of these are shows that aired on TV. 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:57.040 A lot of them are also films that feature, you know, 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:00.880 several different stories in an anthology format, and there's just 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:04.600 a tremendous amount out there. We're We're talking the likes 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.760 of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Tales from the 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.520 Dark Side, Tales from the Crypt, Monsters, Black Mirror, and 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.480 just so many many more. Uh. Plus there's the highly 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.880 popular Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes, as well as various 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.160 against cinematic horror anthology such as The Vault of Horror. 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:24.720 So this is gonna be volume four and then we're 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.600 gonna do volume five this year. We did volume one 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.240 in two thousand eighteen, minted volumes two and three and 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.800 twenty nineteen, so we're continuing the tradition. And uh and 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:35.600 again yeah, I just have to say, there's just so 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.120 much out there in terms of horror and sci fi 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.679 anthology television. Uh, and then there's this an additional ton 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:45.000 of horror and sci fi anthology cinema. So once again 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.240 this year I found myself just combing through contenders that 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.440 I'd either forgotten about, was half aware of, or just 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.920 had flat never heard of. Like like a lot in 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.480 horror especially, I feel like the horror anthology genre tends 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.320 to feel like low hanging fruit. But but the kicker 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:05.200 is that when well done, there's nothing else quite like it. Well, yeah, 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.480 I think that's true. I mean there's almost an ancient 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.480 memory aspect to a horror anthology because it feels like 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:14.440 people sitting around a campfire, going around the circle, each 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.800 taking a turn to tell a story. Yeah, and the like, 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.360 the literary short story provides wonderful opportunities that full length 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.440 or episodic mediums don't provide. Like a lot of times 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.120 you can really put a particular idea in the forefront. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.639 You can put a particular twist in the forefront. Uh 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:33.440 And it can work better than it would if you 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.480 tried to build an entire you know, uh TV series 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:41.119 around this, or an entire feature leath length film around us. 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:43.600 I was actually just thinking the other day about the 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.960 good things about having a short format for horror, because 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.440 we watched a new horror movie that came out this year. 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.680 It was a Shutter original film called Host. It was 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:58.480 like a Zoom horror movie. It takes place entirely on Zoom, 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:02.400 but the characters do a say on and there's demonic shenanigans, 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.400 and the movie is about an hour long. And I 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.760 thought that worked fantastically because it's, you know, it's not 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.960 a super deep film. It's not especially like thoughtful or interesting, 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.400 but just for an excellent little boo frolic, an hour 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.119 is a perfect length. Uh And, And I wish more 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.080 horror movies would just kind of embrace that and say, no, 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:25.360 we're not going to be as long as it's supposed 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:27.480 to be. We're not gonna pad this out to eighty 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.080 six minutes. We're gonna be an hour long. I mean, 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.560 if it's good enough for Attack of the Crab Monsters. 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.440 An hour run time is good enough for you. Yes, yeah, yeah, 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.159 I definitely thought about that when I watch when I 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.280 will watch for the first time Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:45.000 like just shorter format, but then they got everything in. 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.000 So yeah, if you're a horror director out there, don't 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.000 worry about patting it out. I mean, if your movie 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.000 is only fifty four minutes long, I think that's great. Now. 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:58.120 You mentioned zoom based horror earlier. In a bit later 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.000 on in the episode we're gonna discuss episode of the 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.440 nine nineties revival of the Outer Limits, I want to 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:06.560 mention that there this is not the episode we're gonna 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.320 be talking about, but there is an episode called dead 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:13.279 Man Switch that's that's extremely good, and it has to 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:17.880 do with individuals humans that are put into uh separate 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.880 bunkers during an alien invasion and each one is functioning 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.560 as a dead man switch for the planetary defense system. 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:26.880 But the fun thing about it is all these people 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.920 are solely communicating with each other via this like you know, 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:36.880 closed network television, basically a zoom scenario. Uh So it's 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.920 a it's a very interesting piece to watch during this 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:44.039 time of increased zoom meetings, etcetera. All right, well let's 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.320 just jump right in here to our first selection. This 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:53.080 is from the Night two horror anthology film Creep Show. Uh, 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.760 this is the Lonesome Death of Jordi Verrel. Alright, so 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:00.279 sidebar before we get started on the plot. This segment 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:04.480 stars Stephen King in the flesh. He's the actor in it. 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:07.200 So I've got to ask what are your favorite Stephen 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.880 King acting spots? And and I'll announce mine. He's got 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.560 a cameo in a movie called Sleepwalkers. If you've never 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:16.440 seen it, I think it came out in the eighties 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:21.440 or early nineties, and it is about shape shifting cat 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:26.720 demon things that suck the life essence out of young women. 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.360 And then I think they can turn invisible, they can 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.520 like look like different things, and their weaknesses that if 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:37.719 they're attacked by cats they die. But anyway, in Sleepwalkers, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.600 there is an amazing scene that features a cameo by 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:47.560 Stephen King as a perturbed cemetery caretaker who is angry 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.280 that that perverts keep coming into his cemetery at night. 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:56.640 But it also contains cameos by Toby Hooper and Clive Barker. Oh, 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:58.839 I love it when we have scenes like that, and 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:03.520 that's a fitting like is Lee cameo for for Stephen King? Um, 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.920 because I remember, probably during like the height of my 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.920 my my young obsession with Stephen King novels. Uh, the 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.600 TV series Golden Years came out, which I don't think 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.720 is anybody's favorite of Stephen King project. I don't think 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.720 they ever finished it. You know, it went maybe a season, 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.440 maybe less in a season, but I remember there being oh, 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.640 it's like a goodness, I'm having a hard time he 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.240 remembering what the gist of it was a man aging 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:36.240 rapidly I think, or aging backwards, one of the two. Um. 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.320 It had. One of the best things about it was 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.280 it had David Bowie's Golden Years as the theme music. 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:45.239 But there's a scene where Stephen King shows up as 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:47.680 a as a bus driver and at the time I 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.200 was like, this is amazing. That's Stephen He's the author 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:52.760 and he's the bus driver. Um. Of course he would 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:57.600 go on to have so many more interesting cameos and things. Um. 0:07:57.680 --> 0:07:59.720 For instance, I never saw this, but he has a 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.400 pretty whacky one in the TV version of the shining. 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.080 He's this band leader, like this really um energetic band, 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.080 big band leader with a pencil thin mustache. He looks 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.800 fabulously greased back hair, got a pencil mustache that that 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.160 is not a good look for Stephen King. I don't know, 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:17.840 you know, he's he kind of has the like the 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.080 face for for facial hair. Though he can make most 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.200 of it work. I feel it kind of works. He 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.040 does better full beard, I mean full beard. He looks 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:30.280 appropriately shaggy and kind of right early with the pencil mustache. 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:32.960 He looks like maybe he would be the guy who 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:37.160 would be discovered in the cemetery. Now in terms of 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:40.360 just his acting roles, go like things where he's not 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.880 just a cameo but he's actually playing a bit part. 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.360 He had a really fun one in the biker drama 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.000 Sons of Anarchy. Uh several years back. He played a 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.360 guy who makes bodies disappear. So he's, you know, just 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.280 kind of this stern but creepy guy in a in 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:57.640 a basement that will uh you know, make that make 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.079 that body disappear when you need it to, and he 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:04.480 insists on listening to eighties music while it happens. Well, 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:06.360 I've never seen that either, but but I'll have to 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:08.880 look it up. All right, Well, let's get into two 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.200 creep show here, So creep show for anyone who's not 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.880 familiar with it, with Stephen King and George Ramiro's tribute 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.360 to pre code horror comics of old. I think I 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.640 may have covered the crate in a in a previous episode. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.680 I'm not sure, but it has some wonderful segments, but 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:31.040 they're all like sort of mean, uh grizzly uh segments 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:32.600 that are you know, very much in the vein of 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.360 classic tales from the Crypt and so forth, where uh 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.160 there are bad people that do bad things and get 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.160 their come up. It's usually in grizzly ways with a 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:44.160 little bit of gallows humor thrown in. And like we said, 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:46.520 not only is this written by Stephen King, but this 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:50.720 segment also stars the author as well. Again, it's the 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.000 Lonesome Death of Jordy veryl And it's a little bit 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:56.760 the Color out of Space and a little bit the Blob. 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:01.480 It's about a redneck who comes in contact with space goo. Uh. 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.520 Then after coming in contact with space goo, some sort 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.000 of alien plant or plant like organism takes over his 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.079 body and then he makes the terrible mistake of climbing 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.600 into a hot bath to ease his discomfort. The alien 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:20.000 plant infection overtakes him and he ends up following papahanming 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.160 Way into the sunset. Then we hear on the t 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:26.079 V that rainy weather is moving in which will spread, 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.959 no doubt, spread the alien plants even wider across the earth. 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:34.199 You know, this connects to several other horror stories, uh, 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.080 in interesting ways. One that I didn't think of until 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:39.640 just now is the way that it connects to, especially 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:43.320 the late nineteen seventies remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:48.560 which is very good and which characterizes the spores that 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.800 come down and possess the humans and turn them into 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:56.120 the replicants. Uh, they're very plant like. I mean, obviously 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.520 they're not from Earth, so they're not exactly of the 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.920 Kingdom of the Plants, but there's clearly a similarity with 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.760 plants and an affinity for plants among the aliens. And 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:09.000 the ending of the Jordy Viril segment makes me think 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:13.120 very much of the beginning of the Invasion of the 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.880 Body Snatchers remake because in the opening credits to the 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.280 Body Snatchers remake. There is this sequence that just kind 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:23.600 of shows these filaments almost blowing in the wind, and 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:31.439 it accomplishes a very sinister visual connotation without any words 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.840 or any explanation, just of the idea of biological material 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:39.440 kind of drifting and through through the air, through space 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.520 carried on currents of various kinds. Yeah, and of course 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:44.960 the cans instantly think to other sort of plant based 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.040 horror properties, such as the Day of the Triffids, which 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:49.880 we've mentioned on here before. That's a big one about 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.760 plant plant like aliens overtaking the earth or troll too. 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:59.520 That's right, that's right. So this Jordy viral episode, it 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.200 raised the question for me, are there any plants that 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:06.280 can grow on or in the human body under you know, 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.439 sort of normal circumstances, because obviously like a dead body 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.000 filled with dirt, you could grow some some plants, and 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:14.360 that if you had some sort of somehow had an 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.160 outfit that had like lots of dirt pockets, you could 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:20.840 grow grow that way. Also wanted to, you know, avoid 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.840 discussing bacteria and fungi, sticking to just good old plants, 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:27.640 which again seems more in line with the plant like 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:32.600 organisms that we're dealing with in this short um, and 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.120 we're not counting things that might look like plants but 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.840 are in fact tumors or what have you. So for 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.040 the most part, plants don't want to be on us 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.280 or inside us, unless, of course, their seeds are traveling 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.120 on our hair or garments, or if their seeds are 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.880 traveling through our digestive systems. Otherwise, there's just not much 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:54.000 of an in game going on with the inside of 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.960 the human body or even like on the exterior of 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.640 the human body. Uh. You know, seeds need to get 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:04.480 in the dirt. But sometimes things go wrong, as horribly wrong. 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.319 As reported in by the BBC and various other outlets, 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:12.120 a man named Ron vet and I believe uh had 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.280 been battling emphysema, and he underwent an X ray as 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:19.079 his condition worsened. The doctors then discovered that a p 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.840 had gone down the wrong um, you know, the wrong 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.160 pipe and sprouted in the warm, moist environment of the 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.760 patient's lung. It had only grown a half an inch long, 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.920 but you know, still it was enough to cause some concern. 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.439 Surgeons removed it. Uh and UH, we should stress here 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.280 that what was happening is that the P was sprouting 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.240 as if it were under the soil, reaching up for sunlight. 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.440 Thus it grew in the darkness of a human body 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:48.560 as if it were going to sprout out of the 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:52.760 body and find the sun. Now an energy terms, it 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.520 couldn't keep growing like that forever, right, because eventually it 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.240 would need sunlight in order to supply new energy. But 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.679 of course, a P like any other uh, you know, 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:03.800 like the yolk of an egg or something, has some 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.240 chemical energy built into it that can propel that initial 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:11.199 sprouting from the dark place. Uh. Fortunately, it would probably 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.760 eventually not be able to find sunlight, but it still 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:15.440 would I guess, be some kind of gross thing in 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:17.280 your lung. So it's a good thing they took it out. 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.760 But in the spirit of of making the familiar strange, 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.000 I think we should dwell for a minute on the 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:29.040 idea of seeds using bodies, such as human bodies for dispersal. 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:31.640 We don't dwell on this as a parallel to any 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.600 kind of botanical body horror because it just seems so normal. Well, yeah, 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:37.840 you know, sometimes you just eat fruit with seeds in it. 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.520 But this is really kind of strange. The more you 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.640 think about it. So of course there are evolutionary pressures 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:47.680 on plants that caused them to find methods of seed dispersal, 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.640 not just to produce seeds of for a new generation 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.800 of plants, but to try to get them physically away 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:56.720 from the parent and uh. And this is because, like 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.800 the kin shared genes of the parent and offspring, plants 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.520 to want to be forced to compete directly with one 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:07.520 another for resources, and these resources would include soil space, water, 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.440 nutrients in the soil, access to sunlight. If you can 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.040 get the kids out of the house, that's good because 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.440 then you're not fighting over food. And competition of this 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.640 kind can be reduced by dispersing seeds, and nature of 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.280 course has lots of ingenious solutions for this. We've talked 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:25.280 about some on the show before. For example, you know 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:30.040 all the different structures the parachute or wing like structures 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.160 that seeds sometimes sprout in order to ride on the 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.479 wind to or to drift like the like the filaments 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.480 in in invasion to the body snatchers. Then there were 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.800 even exploding seed pods like you would find on the 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:46.600 sandbox tree or Hera crepitans. And so this is a 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:49.400 tree that has thorns all over its trunk. I think 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.880 I've read somewhere that it's called the Monkey Can't Climate tree, 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.560 and it produces seed pods that look kind of like 0:15:56.600 --> 0:16:01.600 tiny pumpkins, and they explode when they're right, literally explode, 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:05.720 sending a ballistic propulsion of seeds up to distances of 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.400 like a hundred meters away according to some reports. But also, 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.520 as you mentioned earlier, a lot of seeds rely on 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.360 animals to be dispersed, and this is known as zoo cory. 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.000 So there's epizoo cory, which is the transport of seeds 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:19.960 on the outside of the animal, so you think of 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.160 like the burrs that get stuck on a dog's fur, 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.200 stuck to your socks. One example of this is the 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.840 burdock plant, which was apparently the inspiration behind the invention 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:34.160 of velcrow, invention of the loop and fastener system. But 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:37.480 then there's also, of course what's known as indo zoo corey, 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.520 the transport of seeds inside of the animal, and this 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.560 usually involves creating a tasty fruiting body containing the seed 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:49.800 waiting to get eaten, traveling around inside an animal's digestive system, 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.400 then being released in the animals species to grow in 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:56.080 a new place. And so if you eat some tasty blackberries, 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.440 you are, in a way, Jordi Varrel, you are the 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.880 host of this plant that is using your digestive system, 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.760 using and your your legs, your mobile body in the 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:11.720 dispersal of seeds as part of its reproductive cycle. In fact, 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:14.119 there are even some seeds that are somewhat obligate in 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.760 this way. They need to be primed to grow inside 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.480 an animal's digestive system. Blackberries would be an example, which 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.440 I think usually needs some time in a bird's gizzard 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.680 before they will grow. But all the stories you read 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:29.359 of like okay, well you know my cousin knows a 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.800 guy who swallowed a watermelon seed and it grew a 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:35.560 watermelon inside his stomach. That that's not true. I could 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.520 not find any evidence that anything like that ever happens. 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:43.080 But while it's unlikely that you would grow a plant 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:45.960 from a seed in your body while you are alive, 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:50.520 could it happen after you're dead? Again, you mentioned earlier, 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:52.760 Rob that if a seed was maybe in your pockets, 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:54.960 in your pockets were full of soil, it could grow 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.840 out of that. But could it actually grow from inside 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:01.560 your body? Well, I could not find a verified example 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:05.119 of this. I found a disputed claim about a fig 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.399 tree that grew out of a murdered man's stomach in 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:11.439 a cave in Cyprus, But it looks like that that 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:15.639 account is has has generally been refuted. But I was 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.320 reading an article that talks about that that rumored story 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:22.560 in Life Science by Laura Geigel, and the author here 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:26.720 consulted a soil science professor from Oregon State University named j. Knohler, 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.439 and it was Nhler's opinion that such a thing is 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.960 actually plausible. He said that seeds can sometimes emerge from 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:38.240 dead animals, so he imagines they could likewise emerge out 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.080 of a dead human um. But he said it wouldn't 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:42.880 have to be in their stomach. It could actually grow 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.720 from any part of the dead person's digestive tract. It 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.280 could be in their large intestine, small intestine. And the 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.920 way it breaks down would work like this, So you 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:54.800 have a dead, decaying body all around the plant seed 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:57.760 that would sort of help it out with nutrients, very 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:00.800 possibly with the third party of fung us involved. So 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.680 microscopic fungi in the soil would help decompose the dead 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.879 body breakdown. You know, the fungus would break down fats 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:12.240 and proteins into simpler constituent nutrients, and then the fungus 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:16.480 would share these nutrients with nearby plants, possibly even seeds 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.160 that are among the decaying organic material of the body 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:24.320 in a symbiotic relationship. So they would exchange simple sugars 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.600 that the plant produces for these nutrients that they're getting 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.880 from decomposing the body. But I wanted to think about 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.600 another way of possibly framing infection by an alien plant, 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.720 apart from directly becoming the host or substrate of the 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:42.080 plant itself, And that's the idea of infection via a 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.800 plant vector. Or to put it as a question, would 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:49.520 you let a zucchini flower cough in your mouth? And 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.000 I was looking around for for answers to this question 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.560 can you get infected from a plant? And I found 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:59.600 an article by a plant pathologist and diagnostician at Iowa 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:04.240 State University named Dr Lena Rodriguez Salamanca, and she said 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.560 that sometimes her lab receives questions from the public, including 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.360 the question of can I catch and infectious disease from 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.080 a plant? The answer is in most cases no. You know, 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.440 pathogens that are specialized to infect plants, and of course 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.120 there are many of these. Plants can be infected by fungi, 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:23.919 by viruses, by bacteria, just like animals can. But usually 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.800 a pathogen that is specialized for one kingdom of life 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:29.040 is not just going to jump, you know, from that 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:31.639 one into another kingdom of life and infected. It is 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:36.000 not adapted to that. But there are cases of a 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:40.480 few known opportunistic pathogens that will make this jump, and 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.000 this is especially true for people with compromised immune systems. 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:47.560 So one example is an infectious bacterium known as a 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:53.000 pseudominous erugenosa and Rodriguez Salamanca says that it can cause 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:57.119 a weak soft rot on plants such as lettuce, and 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:59.600 this bacterium has been known to jump the kingdom barrier 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:03.520 and sometimes infect people with compromised immune systems. This can 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.680 lead to infections of the urinary tract, of the lungs, 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:10.280 the blood, and wounds including burns, but for most people 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.439 it does not represent a threat. But then there are 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:17.639 other ones. For example, there is a fungal infection caused 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:22.000 by the fungus Sporothrix shanky i, which thrives on the 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:25.520 dead thorns of a rose stem, and this has given 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:29.600 rise to the name rose pickers disease or rose handler's disease. 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:32.439 So if you're handling a rose and you, you know, 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:35.280 get pricked by one of these dead thorns that has 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.439 the fungal infection, or get a scratch, this way, the 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.560 fungus can get into your scan, potentially into your lymph system. 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:44.960 And apparently you can also inhale spores of this fungus 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:48.080 and this can cause all kinds of problems infections of 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:50.680 the skin, of course, but of the eyes, the lungs, 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:54.480 the nervous system, bones, and joints. And then finally she 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:59.080 mentions that there are infectious agents of plants that can 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.720 produce secondary byproducts that are harmful to humans, and she 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:06.919 gives the example of fungi that attack corn. The phrase 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.720 she used specifically is ear rots, which is a new 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.960 sort of words quick for me. But this includes the 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:20.679 genus Fusarium, and these fungi produced secondary microtoxins including quote 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:26.360 few Monison's z r alinone and the aptly named vomitoxin, 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:29.399 which yes, that that is what it sounds like. And 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:31.439 of course these are byproducts that can affect you in 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:34.000 all kinds of ways. She talks about how most of 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:37.840 the things like this, like like Aspergillis flavius also is 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:40.440 a is a contaminant that you could find in grains 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.280 that produces secondary micotoxins. A lot of these things that 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:47.520 produce these secondary microtoxins that can harm you would be 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:50.560