Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from housetop work
Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb, and I am Christian Sager
Speaker 1: and I am Joe McCormick. And today we are going
Speaker 1: to be doing one of our annual summer Reading episodes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is just kind of a casual get together here
Speaker 1: where we're just coming to the studio, bring a few
Speaker 1: listening recommendations for our listeners, share some things that we've
Speaker 1: been reading, uh, hope to read in the future, et cetera. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of listeners right into us, both on social
Speaker 1: media and through email to recommend books and movies and
Speaker 1: all kinds of things to us. And I feel like
Speaker 1: this is our chance to to give back. Although I
Speaker 1: mean probably every given episode we dropped some variety of
Speaker 1: things that we've been reading or movies we've been watching,
Speaker 1: or TV or something like that. But this is all
Speaker 1: about Hey, it's summertime, right, let's go to the beach
Speaker 1: and read some books. Why is that a thing people
Speaker 1: do with the beach because you, well, in my experience,
Speaker 1: is because you you break free from your normal patterns
Speaker 1: um and you suddenly find yourself creating all this new
Speaker 1: time in a new space, craving John Grisham, No, no,
Speaker 1: I mean I thought some people like to go with
Speaker 1: the more mainstream books that are available in the beach House.
Speaker 1: But but no, I've always found it a good you
Speaker 1: can excuse you just really dive into something, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: entertaining or or really heavy. Robert, what what was that you?
Speaker 1: You went to the beach I think within the past
Speaker 1: couple of years and uploaded to the internet some pictures
Speaker 1: of the library on the shelf at the beach House
Speaker 1: where they had a they had a book about a
Speaker 1: werewolf spy. I guess um was it was? It went
Speaker 1: and Robert mccommon um came in. Is that his name? Um? Gosh,
Speaker 1: I can wish you remember which author that was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I was surprised to find some cool old genre
Speaker 1: stuff because generally you just find Tom Clancy John Grisham, uh,
Speaker 1: some various uh you know, my all romance novels. It's
Speaker 1: always Tom Clancy. The kind of people who owned beach houses.
Speaker 1: They like to know how nuclear submarines were. Well. I
Speaker 1: hope that the werewolf spy had some love in his life.
Speaker 1: Pretty sure he did pretty cud good good. Well that's
Speaker 1: a good segue into my first book, which is a
Speaker 1: document that looks at the entire history of supernatural horror
Speaker 1: and fiction. WHOA, yeah, So this is my nonfiction pick
Speaker 1: this this year, guys, and it is by a past
Speaker 1: stuff to blow your mind, guest. Mr St Joshi h
Speaker 1: He was on a previous episode that Robert and Julie
Speaker 1: did about HP Lovecraft in the Science behind his Works,
Speaker 1: and I believe you interviewed him, right, Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: chatted with him on the phone and uh, we used
Speaker 1: to interview on the episode. So those of you who
Speaker 1: are unfamiliar with him maybe go back and listen to
Speaker 1: that EPI. So, but I'll give you a little primer here.
Speaker 1: St Joshy. He's like a literary critic and an academic.
Speaker 1: He's primarily known for very close examinations of weird fiction.
Speaker 1: So HP Lovecraft and all the writers that preceded him,
Speaker 1: like Algernon Blackwood, m R. James Are, Arthur Macon and
Speaker 1: those who have followed him to like Ramsey Campbell, Ray Bradberry, Clark,
Speaker 1: Ashton Smith. He's written tomes on all of these people. Uh,
Speaker 1: and he has I guess what can be described as
Speaker 1: an acerbic style of writing about the genre. He's a
Speaker 1: little he's a little pointed in some of his criticisms.
Speaker 1: I feel like he's kind of a horror fiction horror
Speaker 1: literature ment at. Yeah, yeah, his lips stained purple. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's how you know. Ellen Datlow is um a really
Speaker 1: prominent editor in the horror field. She edits the best
Speaker 1: Horror of the Year books that come out at the
Speaker 1: end of every year. She described St. Joshy as the
Speaker 1: nastiest reviewer in the field. So, um, I'm giving you
Speaker 1: this warning ahead of time. This book is great. But
Speaker 1: he doesn't pull his punches. When he doesn't like something,
Speaker 1: he lets you know about it, and when he loves something,
Speaker 1: he celebrates it in all its glory. It's weird because
Speaker 1: I think I don't I can't remember offhand an example
Speaker 1: of him tearing something up like I tend to read Joshi.
Speaker 1: He does a lot of introductions two books and uh,
Speaker 1: and certainly puts together as at its compilations of things
Speaker 1: that he likes. So I've certainly encountered the loving as
Speaker 1: t Jo, not so much the hammer. Wouldn't it be
Speaker 1: great to read a book though that had an introduction
Speaker 1: that ripped the very book you're reading to shreds. Well,
Speaker 1: here's an example. I've got one for you. Publishers Weekly
Speaker 1: did a review of this book, and they said Joshi
Speaker 1: reserves his sharpest judgments for contemporary horror writers, especially popular bestsellers,
Speaker 1: dismissing Stephen King as quote a schlockmeister, just the literary
Speaker 1: equivalent of all the b movie and comic books he
Speaker 1: digested in his youth. So so there's that. Um, this
Speaker 1: is a great book, though, Like, if you are looking
Speaker 1: to really dive into the horror genre and to find out,
Speaker 1: like what's the best of the best, what's the history
Speaker 1: behind it, what's the stuff I should go out and
Speaker 1: look for. This is it. I mean. He starts with
Speaker 1: the Greek and Latin literature that includes supernatural elements, moves
Speaker 1: up to the Gothic era, has a whole huge section
Speaker 1: on Poe, and then talks a lot about the weird
Speaker 1: horror writers at the end of the nineteenth century. That's
Speaker 1: just the first volume. Originally, this was published in two
Speaker 1: separate volumes. In the second volume covers the development of
Speaker 1: horror literature through the twentieth century, with sections mainly on
Speaker 1: those people I just mentioned before, Makin Blackwood, Lovecraft, etcetera. Uh,
Speaker 1: Shirley Jackson has her own whole chapter all the way
Speaker 1: up to Peter Straub, Stephen King and people who are
Speaker 1: writing today like that. Well they're all writing today, but
Speaker 1: like Kately and R. Kiernan, who's like a relatively recent
Speaker 1: writer comparatively to the rest of this stuff. So I
Speaker 1: I really recommended if you're just looking to just play
Speaker 1: around and see what's out there in horror literature and
Speaker 1: what you like and what you don't like. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: definitely one of those those uh, those great authoritative um
Speaker 1: experts on the field where you can always just get
Speaker 1: a few at least a few ideas of authors you
Speaker 1: need to check out and try. Yeah, I'm loving it,
Speaker 1: especially the egg Allen post section has been really illuminating
Speaker 1: for me so far. And now, would you say his
Speaker 1: his survey of the field is more exclusively literary, just
Speaker 1: like looking at the authors and their works and the
Speaker 1: relationship to each other. Or does he do historical and
Speaker 1: other cultural contextual stuff too. Uh No, it's primarily literary. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think he not so much unless he's like
Speaker 1: previously written about an author like so, for instance, in
Speaker 1: the post section, he already had like a lot to
Speaker 1: gather from, so he could provide you with some context
Speaker 1: about like what was going on imposed life at the
Speaker 1: time that he wrote I don't know, murders in the room,
Speaker 1: morgue or something like that, and that provided some context,
Speaker 1: but but not for everything. Yeah, so yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I highly recommend it. I know from talking to some
Speaker 1: of our listeners, they always like it when we bring
Speaker 1: up the weird horror literature that we've been reading, and uh, man,
Speaker 1: this is it. This is the book if you you know,
Speaker 1: you don't have to read the whole thing. You can
Speaker 1: just get it, flipped through it and kind of find
Speaker 1: like the area that you're looking for and and dive
Speaker 1: in and you will come out with just a treasure
Speaker 1: trove of authors to go looking for. Then I gotta ask,
Speaker 1: last time we did a summer reading episode, y'all convinced
Speaker 1: me to read The Great God Pan by Arthur Makon,
Speaker 1: who is one of the writers you mentioned that he
Speaker 1: gets into. I went and read it, loved it. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: What does he think about it? I haven't gotten to
Speaker 1: the section yet where he talks about making. But if
Speaker 1: I know Joshi, I would imagine that he thinks it's awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he probably like sets up a shrine at its feet. Well,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of a lot of critics trashed it,
Speaker 1: didn't they back then? Yeah, I mean a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty years ago when nobody knew anything. Yeah, and no,
Speaker 1: I think, And certainly it's not for everybody, Like I
Speaker 1: can imagine plenty of people would maybe not dig it today.
Speaker 1: Give men maybe a little bit stuffy, a little bit
Speaker 1: the prose style is yeah, is definitely of its time,
Speaker 1: and it's How does our friend H. E. C. Steiner
Speaker 1: refer to it? He talks about it as being like
Speaker 1: yet another one of those stories of like learned gentleman,
Speaker 1: like just sitting around by fire talking about something horrific. Right,
Speaker 1: but it's awesome. It's one of the best horror stories
Speaker 1: I think I ever written. You would not comprehend my horror?
Speaker 1: When all right, Joe, what do you have? What do
Speaker 1: you have from the nonfictional bucket here for us? Well,
Speaker 1: I've got it. I've got one fiction book and a
Speaker 1: few nonfiction books, but all I'll start with one that
Speaker 1: if you are a regular listener, to the show. This
Speaker 1: probably is not going to come as a surprise to you,
Speaker 1: because I think I've gushed about it on at least
Speaker 1: one episode before, maybe multiple episodes. But my first nonfiction
Speaker 1: pick is the Invention of Nature Alexander von Humboldt's New
Speaker 1: World by Andrea Woolf. And that's a book published by
Speaker 1: NOTAP and it's about the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt,
Speaker 1: who lived from seventeen eighteen fifty nine. And this guy
Speaker 1: has a lot of things in the world named after him.
Speaker 1: There's the Humboldt Current, the Humboldt Glacier in Greenland, Humboldt
Speaker 1: Bay in California, the Humboldt Range, Humboldt Falls, Humblet Mountains,
Speaker 1: Humbolt penguin, Humboldt squid, uh tons of other animal species.
Speaker 1: He's all over the map in the natural world. They
Speaker 1: should all get together and full formed like a Humblet
Speaker 1: super team, right like, and turn into a giant robot.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, huh. And so I I think, in fact
Speaker 1: that this is my favorite. I think he's even got
Speaker 1: a sinkhole named after him. Now, once you've got a
Speaker 1: sinkhole named after you, you you have made it squad goals.
Speaker 1: But so he traveled all over the world during his
Speaker 1: lifetime making observations of nature. He was one of those
Speaker 1: classic nineteenth century naturalists, kind of like dar Win, but
Speaker 1: preceding Darwin, and so his influence in his own time
Speaker 1: was pretty much incalculable. But I don't think I ever
Speaker 1: learned a single thing about this guy in school, And
Speaker 1: after reading this book, I think I'd say von Humboldt
Speaker 1: might be the most historically influential intellectual of the past
Speaker 1: millennium who is just completely forgotten by history. Why is that,
Speaker 1: I don't know, But reading Andrea Wolfe's book on him
Speaker 1: is just wonderful. I I absolutely loved it. So to
Speaker 1: give a little context about what's going on in Humboldt's lifetime,
Speaker 1: I want to read a quote from Thomas Jefferson that
Speaker 1: sort of reflects the attitude toward nature one might encounter
Speaker 1: in the learned gentleman, as you say, of the of
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. Turn of the nineteenth century. So Jefferson
Speaker 1: had put the mammoth on this chart he made of
Speaker 1: extant European mammals, and obviously some people were like, why
Speaker 1: the mammoth, and so he said quote. It may be
Speaker 1: asked to why I insert the mammoth as if he
Speaker 1: still existed. It may be asked in return, why I
Speaker 1: should omit it as if it did not exist, such
Speaker 1: as the economy of nature, that no instance can be
Speaker 1: produced of her having permitted any one race of her
Speaker 1: animals to become extinct, of her having formed any link
Speaker 1: in her great works so weak as to be broken.
Speaker 1: I mean today, that's obviously extremely wrong in multiple ways.
Speaker 1: But this was sort of the climate in which Humboldt's
Speaker 1: view was revolutionary. So in many ways Humboldt is responsible
Speaker 1: for the way scientists came to see nature as they
Speaker 1: do today, not as a static created order with everything
Speaker 1: in its right place and nothing really changing over the
Speaker 1: long term, but as this dynamic, changeable, massively interconnected system
Speaker 1: of ecology and biological and chemical webs of relationships between
Speaker 1: all the things on Earth, the elements, and its life forms.
Speaker 1: So in Humboldts of view, habitats could be altered and destroyed,
Speaker 1: species could go extinct, and changes in one place could
Speaker 1: have far reaching effects and others. And Humblet began to
Speaker 1: use the analogy of the world as sort of one
Speaker 1: unified organism, whereas you know in an organism, if you
Speaker 1: get gang green in one part of your body, it
Speaker 1: will affect other parts of your body. So, Uh, I
Speaker 1: loved this book. It's just full of really fascinating stories
Speaker 1: about humblets travels around the world and his experiments. I
Speaker 1: think I used it as one of our sources in
Speaker 1: the episodes Robert and I did about the early days
Speaker 1: of electricity experiments where uh one of the ones I
Speaker 1: related with Humbldt's quest to collect the bodies of lightning
Speaker 1: strike victims so he could examine the burns to their
Speaker 1: to their body hair and see exactly what that could
Speaker 1: tell us about animal electricity. Another one was humbldts experiments
Speaker 1: with bom Blonde about the electric eels of South America,
Speaker 1: collecting eels by causing horses to stay impede over a
Speaker 1: pond full of them, and then once he finally got
Speaker 1: some eels. Uh like touching the eels a lot, and
Speaker 1: it's weird, but he was a very interesting, very smart,
Speaker 1: very cool guy for his time. He was like the
Speaker 1: ig Nobel Prize winner of his time. Like, instead of
Speaker 1: taking bees and holding them to his body, he just
Speaker 1: touched electrical kind of but more of a more of
Speaker 1: a scientific superstar. Yeah, he was absolutely a rock star
Speaker 1: of his time, like more than Stephen Hawking or any
Speaker 1: celebrity scientists today. He's like dead to history now. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they don't talk about him in school
Speaker 1: or or you know, I guess just in the science
Speaker 1: community in general. I don't know. It's it's a good question, um,
Speaker 1: because his his influence was absolutely huge. A big part
Speaker 1: of the book is just showing how big his influence was,
Speaker 1: like their chapters focusing on contemporaries of of Humboldts like Gerta.
Speaker 1: Darwin's Thorau, so artists, politicians, other scientists, and how they
Speaker 1: all revered him and got lots of ideas from him.
Speaker 1: And so I really don't know exactly why it is
Speaker 1: that his legacy is mostly forgotten. Well there's penguins and
Speaker 1: glaciers and sinkholes at least. Well it sounds like you
Speaker 1: really need to push the Humboldt renaissance here. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone behind and pushed Tesla back to the forefront. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think humbold more interesting than Tesla. Whoah, you heard
Speaker 1: it here first folks. Yeah, but anyway, this should we
Speaker 1: name a car after him. Well, if you want to
Speaker 1: find out for yourself, for yourself, you should read this book.
Speaker 1: So it's really really wonderful. It's not only a pleasure.
Speaker 1: It covers this massive blind spot I didn't even know
Speaker 1: I had in sort of the Western history of scientific thought. Uh.
Speaker 1: So that's Andrea Wolf Alexander von Humboldt's New World. Uh
Speaker 1: check it out. Big, big thumbs up from me. All right, well,
Speaker 1: um from my part um. You know, we a lot
Speaker 1: of scientific books, especially the mainstream general scientific books across
Speaker 1: our desk, and of the ones that have come out
Speaker 1: in the past year, I really have to say that
Speaker 1: mar j Hart's Sex in the CEA our intimate connection
Speaker 1: with sex, changing fish, romantic lobsters, kiki squid, and other
Speaker 1: salty erotica of the deep, it's probably the one that
Speaker 1: right at the top of my list. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: great book. And we talked about it in our Osadas
Speaker 1: bone Worm episode. We didn't talk to her with Ma
Speaker 1: and there and and we're planning to do another interview
Speaker 1: with her later this summer. Uh. She was delightful down
Speaker 1: to Earth and really is into the kinky stuff between
Speaker 1: marine life. Yeah, like she does. I thought she did
Speaker 1: just a fabulous job, not only you know, in the book,
Speaker 1: but in the interview as well. I mean, just really
Speaker 1: conveying I love for these creatures, but also a great
Speaker 1: willingness to enjoy the ridiculousness of totally inhuman weird nous,
Speaker 1: of the sense of humor about it. The way that
Speaker 1: um she frames each of her chapters. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: enjoyed that. It reminded me of Mary Roach. I'd love
Speaker 1: to see more come out from Marra sort of along
Speaker 1: the same lines as how Mary Roach has got this
Speaker 1: series of books over time. Yeah, she has a similar voice,
Speaker 1: but but coming from you know, more of a devoted
Speaker 1: expert background, because this this is her her area of expertise,
Speaker 1: and she really brings across a clear passion for ecological preservation. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it it's probably would say it's a perfect scientific
Speaker 1: beach read for obvious reasons. You're going to the beach
Speaker 1: and not better than the werewolf spot. Then you go
Speaker 1: swimming around in the ocean and have all the various
Speaker 1: fluids of marine life spawning just flowing around over your body. Now,
Speaker 1: this gives me an idea has anybody ever tried to
Speaker 1: create a wear bone worm story? Well, you know, it
Speaker 1: would be hard because you'd have to swim all the
Speaker 1: way to the bottom of the ocean near a whales
Speaker 1: carcass and then be bitten by a bone worm. So
Speaker 1: it starts like the abyss. Yeah. Well, but then I
Speaker 1: don't see how I don't think think see how they
Speaker 1: would be a threat to anybody. Like basically they'd be like, oh, well, Carl,
Speaker 1: he caught this bone worm illness, and now he just
Speaker 1: he keeps to himself a lot because he goes down
Speaker 1: the whale car because we'll remember we were talking about
Speaker 1: in that episode though about maybe it was just me.
Speaker 1: But but like how it would be great if you
Speaker 1: could use bone worms as like a weapon, like in
Speaker 1: BioShock or something like that, and you just throw them
Speaker 1: at people and they immediately start drilling through. So they
Speaker 1: could be like that. You could just you could just
Speaker 1: change into a ware bone worm. But but a spy
Speaker 1: took Uh. The other book that I thought i'd mentioned
Speaker 1: this is another one that I've definitely mentioned on the
Speaker 1: podcast before, uh, and that is a Chinese mythology and
Speaker 1: introduction by and Beryl. I found this to be just
Speaker 1: a first of all, it's it has provids a great
Speaker 1: overview of mythology as it's studied in general. So even
Speaker 1: if you're going into it without a whole lot of
Speaker 1: religious studies in your past or you know, mythological understanding,
Speaker 1: she provides just a great introduction to just what mythology
Speaker 1: is now it works, and then then a wonderful overview
Speaker 1: about what's distinct about Chinese myth cycles uh, compared to
Speaker 1: the West, compared to even other Asian myths cycles UM.
Speaker 1: And there's just also a cool arrangement of themes, so
Speaker 1: she she groups everything and to for instance, they'll be
Speaker 1: at there's a section on on miraculous births, section on heroes,
Speaker 1: the section on immortality, on strange creatures, etcetera. So I
Speaker 1: feel like the the information is very well presented. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, it's more of a more of a scholarly
Speaker 1: textbook for sure, compared to U to to my my
Speaker 1: previous recommendation. But if you were at all interested in
Speaker 1: Chinese culture, if we were all interested in UM in
Speaker 1: Eastern mythology, I think it's a great book to pick up.
Speaker 1: And I picked up a few different Chinese mythology texts
Speaker 1: found a few of them a little a little harder
Speaker 1: to engage with, So of those books, I feel like
Speaker 1: this is the this is the best, And this was
Speaker 1: a resource that I'm guessing that you turned to for
Speaker 1: a couple of different things that we've done over the
Speaker 1: last few months, Right, like the mythology episode that you
Speaker 1: and I did. You guys did an episode on the Zodiac.
Speaker 1: Did it come into play there? Um? I picked up
Speaker 1: the book after the Zodiac, So I think I actually
Speaker 1: stopped this one out when I was working on that
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works Now piece of Superhero that was going
Speaker 1: to be the next thing I mentioned. Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: one particular story, um from Chinese folklore conserving concerning the
Speaker 1: seven to ten brothers, however many you want to count,
Speaker 1: and I was just determined to find a good scholarly
Speaker 1: resource on this. As it turns out, it's not really
Speaker 1: dealt with in this book, but it ended up acquiring
Speaker 1: it anyway, And after I got it, I realized, well,
Speaker 1: this is not really gonna help me with this particular assignment.
Speaker 1: But then the more I started reading it, everyalized it
Speaker 1: was just a faculous text and couldn't put it back down.
Speaker 1: Cool that sounds great. I hope we get more out
Speaker 1: of it too, don't Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's tons of
Speaker 1: inform in there. So if if you guys want to hear, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, anything else concerning mythology from us, if we
Speaker 1: have not filled our quota from based episodes, because we've
Speaker 1: had a couple of them, right, we've had the the uh,
Speaker 1: the overall look at mythology and then Joe, didn't we
Speaker 1: just record one dealing with myth as well. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: did one with on a mythical creatures mythology. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we we we have a couple of us feel like
Speaker 1: really strong myth based episodes. In mythology of course continually
Speaker 1: comes up in our episodes. Anyone, we don't bust myths.
Speaker 1: Here is stuff to blow, all right, we embrace them,
Speaker 1: we build them. Okay, so we're gonna take a quick break,
Speaker 1: but when we get back, we're going to delve into
Speaker 1: our fiction picks for the year. Okay, so we're back, guys.
Speaker 1: I have been talking about this book, probably to you
Speaker 1: off air, but to pretty much everybody in my life
Speaker 1: for the last year. It is Jeff Vandermere's Annihilation. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is the first first book in his trilogy of
Speaker 1: the Southern Reach story. Have I have I torn your
Speaker 1: ears apart yet? Oh? Yes, I I pushed hard for
Speaker 1: it to for its inclusion in a book club that
Speaker 1: I'm in it and it was it was just I
Speaker 1: guess too, Sci five. This is the stuff to blow
Speaker 1: your mind book. I'm telling you, like it's all like
Speaker 1: all the things we're going for with this podcast are
Speaker 1: in this book. UM. So, if you don't know who
Speaker 1: vander Meer is, he's a weird fiction, sci fi horror
Speaker 1: author together with his wife, and he's compiled a lot
Speaker 1: of just excellent anthologies as introductions to those genres that
Speaker 1: he writes within. Um. In fact, last year, his book
Speaker 1: The Weird was on my list and I've probably talked
Speaker 1: about it on almost every single episode since then because
Speaker 1: I just loved that book. Um and so you've probably
Speaker 1: heard me mention it a lot of times. But Annihilation
Speaker 1: is his book. It is a novel. Uh. And if
Speaker 1: you're a fan of what we do on the show,
Speaker 1: really I can't recommend you have to check it out.
Speaker 1: Combines weird science with this haunting prose in a great mystery. Uh.
Speaker 1: In fact, this is a description of the book just like,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to just give you a bare bones
Speaker 1: summary because I don't want to spoil anything. It describes
Speaker 1: a team of four people therefore women, a biologist and anthropologist,
Speaker 1: a psychologist, and a surveyor, and they are sent into
Speaker 1: an area known as Area X, and this area has
Speaker 1: been completely abandoned and cut off from the rest of civilization.
Speaker 1: All they know is that they're the twelfth expedition to
Speaker 1: go into this area. All of the other expeditions have
Speaker 1: met with disappearances of their members, suicides, aggressive cancers, or
Speaker 1: mental trauma when they get back, so pretty much everybody
Speaker 1: who goes there either dies or comes back and dies
Speaker 1: or goes crazy. Um. It's narrated by the biologist, and
Speaker 1: as such, Vandermuir does this really good job of giving
Speaker 1: it an eye towards the field of biology, and the
Speaker 1: character explores this weird setting, and it makes use of
Speaker 1: the flora and the fauna both within the setting of
Speaker 1: the story in this Area X, but also in the
Speaker 1: book's narrative. It's it's just wonderful at that. I don't
Speaker 1: want to spoil it any more than that, but there's
Speaker 1: some there's some weird stuff in Area X. Uh annely
Speaker 1: Knew It's give a great review of it over at
Speaker 1: I O nine, and she referred to it as the
Speaker 1: tale of an ill fated scientific expedition to a piece
Speaker 1: of coastline that has developed strange new physical properties that
Speaker 1: defy explanation, and it will make you believe in the
Speaker 1: power of science mysteries again. Uh. It is currently being
Speaker 1: adapted into a film by Alex Garland, who most people
Speaker 1: know because he directed X Makina last year. I know,
Speaker 1: I'm from writing The Beach, which I read in high school. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's well, he's done a bunch of great stuff. Twenty
Speaker 1: twenty days later. Um believe Judge Dred, Judge Dread he wrote,
Speaker 1: and I don't. I don't know if he directed Judge Dread,
Speaker 1: but yeah, Alex Garland's great. So I'm psyched that he
Speaker 1: is making a movie version of this, and Natalie Portman
Speaker 1: and Oscar Isaac are both going to be in it,
Speaker 1: so I'm really looking forward to it. I don't want
Speaker 1: to say too much more about it other than that
Speaker 1: it's the first part of a trilogy. There's two more books,
Speaker 1: and I I hear those are good too. There on
Speaker 1: my list. Awesome, Well, I am going to get into
Speaker 1: my fiction pick now, and it is also a science
Speaker 1: fiction book. In fact, I actually just finished reading this
Speaker 1: book this week. Earlier this week or a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago. I guess I didn't know what my fiction
Speaker 1: pick for this year was going to be, but now
Speaker 1: I know. I absolutely loved this book. It's called Aurora
Speaker 1: by Kim Stanley Robinson and it's it was published by
Speaker 1: orbit In and it was just absolutely excellent, powerful, smart, thrilling,
Speaker 1: deeply researched, a very emotionally resonant and a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: And I again, I have a similar problem with you.
Speaker 1: I don't want to spoil too much about the plot.
Speaker 1: Uh So I guess I'll keep my synopsis very brief,
Speaker 1: but the the story begins on a Generation starship, Robert.
Speaker 1: Have you ever in the back Yes? That's what No.
Speaker 1: I mean. Have you ever done an episode in the
Speaker 1: back catalog about like arc ships? Um? No, you know,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that comes up. It has
Speaker 1: come up, been passing before, but never devoted episodes. That
Speaker 1: would be Yeah, I think that'd be a good thing
Speaker 1: to focus an entire episode on someday. But generally the
Speaker 1: idea is um is that if you were planning on
Speaker 1: going to colonize an extrasolar star system in the galaxy,
Speaker 1: the limits imposed by physics say that, well, okay, you
Speaker 1: can't actually travel faster than light or anything like that.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be a multi hundred year journey at
Speaker 1: the at the very least. Um, So what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: What happens if you need to make a you know,
Speaker 1: three hundred year journey to a star system, Well, you
Speaker 1: basically have to take enough of earth bio diversity with
Speaker 1: you to uh to create a self sustaining atmosphere and
Speaker 1: ecology on a ship. Um. And that's by a challenge.
Speaker 1: I mean, we we find we found significant challenges just
Speaker 1: creating uh, like the biospheres here on Earth. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I believe one of the episodes we've done we
Speaker 1: talked about dirt. Didn't we about like the challenges of
Speaker 1: like how much dirt you would need to bring? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I don't remember this, but yeah, I can imagine that
Speaker 1: absolutely features into this novel. So it's the novel starts
Speaker 1: on this this generation ship with multiple generations of passengers.
Speaker 1: I will say it starts into the journey. So all
Speaker 1: the characters are people who did not choose to embark
Speaker 1: on this journey. They were all they were all born
Speaker 1: on the way, which is a strange position to imagine
Speaker 1: yourself in because you didn't sign up for this, right,
Speaker 1: the original generations and their descendants and their their children
Speaker 1: and their grandchildren are all dead. Uh. Well, in a way,
Speaker 1: you have to recycle all biological matter within these systems,
Speaker 1: so sort of, I mean, they don't directly cannibalize the flesh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I was imagining that in their atoms, their atoms
Speaker 1: and energy go back into the ship system. But so, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're bound for this extrasolar star system known as
Speaker 1: Tao STI. And I think I can safely say that
Speaker 1: this is the most deeply and thoroughly scientific science fiction
Speaker 1: book I have ever read. Uh. And I will say
Speaker 1: that because the plot is one of fundamentally it's a
Speaker 1: plot of scientific discovery, and that most of the conflicts
Speaker 1: in the plot are not like you know, your standard
Speaker 1: energy weapon battles, but they are scientific and engineering conflicts.
Speaker 1: It's uh, coming from smart people trying to struggle with
Speaker 1: the limitations imposed on them by physics, chemistry, and biology.
Speaker 1: And this is one of those books that I think
Speaker 1: I knew I was gonna like it once I saw
Speaker 1: what the negative reviewers had to say. Do you ever
Speaker 1: have that experience? This got a lot of positive reviews,
Speaker 1: but when I saw what the negative reviews said, there's
Speaker 1: just a certain kind a negative review that makes me
Speaker 1: know I'm gonna love something. So I'm guessing this isn't
Speaker 1: something that the sad puppies would vote for a Hugo on. No,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Well. Some people didn't like it,
Speaker 1: I think because it had certain environmentalist themes. And then
Speaker 1: also I think some people found it boring because there
Speaker 1: wasn't enough like fighting and killing in it. Yeah exactly, okay, um,
Speaker 1: but there. But I thought it was just absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 1: I I fully, holly loved this book. Cool alright, Well
Speaker 1: for my fictional choice, UM, I'm definitely gonna give you
Speaker 1: the Cannibals that you wanted. Thank you. Question. I find myself.
Speaker 1: I found myself in the in the first half of
Speaker 1: this year. Um, not reading a lot that I ended
Speaker 1: up really loving. Like I read, I've read some good books.
Speaker 1: I mean I read The Fixer by Bernard Malamud, which
Speaker 1: is which is great and it actually ties into some
Speaker 1: stuff I've written about for stuff to play your mind
Speaker 1: having to do with the blood, libel and person and
Speaker 1: Jewish persecution of the Jews. I also read The knee
Speaker 1: On Bible by John Kennedy Tool, which is about the
Speaker 1: most impressive thing you'll ever read read by a sixteen
Speaker 1: year old if you really want to, really want to
Speaker 1: depress yourself about your your your teenage writing ability. Sixteen
Speaker 1: year old? How old was he when he wrote Confederacy
Speaker 1: of Dunces? Oh not, what was he older? You know,
Speaker 1: he was definitely older, lived tremendously long since the killed himself.
Speaker 1: But this one came out after the Confederacy of Dunces
Speaker 1: because it was one that his mother had published, was
Speaker 1: written before then. I mean, they both came out after
Speaker 1: his death. But it's a I mean it's a very
Speaker 1: it's a very advanced book for a sixteen year old
Speaker 1: um and I enjoyed it, but I also I didn't
Speaker 1: just absolutely love it. And it's hard to really, you know,
Speaker 1: pick a science the ankle on it. Um. So really
Speaker 1: the book that's uh in aged me the most this
Speaker 1: year was a book of titled Off Season by Jack
Speaker 1: Ketch um Um and it wasn't it. It's kind of
Speaker 1: an infamous publication and I wasn't even really going to
Speaker 1: mention it, but because it's extremely graphic, it's an extremely
Speaker 1: nasty piece of nineteen eighties horror fiction. And in fact,
Speaker 1: I think I edited out a mention of it on
Speaker 1: a previous show. Yeah, but but I figured, hey, it's
Speaker 1: the book that that sucked me in the most, so
Speaker 1: I should probably mention it with the caveat that it
Speaker 1: is not for for you, for young people, It is
Speaker 1: not for anyone who's squeamish. It has a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of extreme violence in it. Um it is,
Speaker 1: but it's a It's a real page turner. It's exceptionally
Speaker 1: well written. You care about the characters, and you hate, hate,
Speaker 1: hate all the debased villains, which are all essentially It's
Speaker 1: about some individuals on a vacation, so it's a great
Speaker 1: vacation read obviously, who are attacked by marauding cannibals that
Speaker 1: live in the hills and I go west Craven move
Speaker 1: turned into it. It sounds like the Hills have I Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's my understanding that hills have ice. Was was kind
Speaker 1: of an inspiration on it. Like that, that, and a
Speaker 1: few other things. Um, but it's just it's really well executed,
Speaker 1: especially after you get the initial character development stuff out
Speaker 1: of the way. Once thing awful things start happening, it's
Speaker 1: just impossible to put it down. And uh, it's ultimately
Speaker 1: the book about normal folks who have to be who
Speaker 1: who are beset by bloodthirsty savages and then have to
Speaker 1: become bloodthirsty savages to survive. And you find yourself becoming
Speaker 1: kind of a bloodthirsty savage reader as you cheer them
Speaker 1: on against these awful, awful people. So it's a it's
Speaker 1: an extreme read, uh, but not to the point where
Speaker 1: I ever felt like the author was just tormenting me
Speaker 1: or the characters just for the sake of all the sufferings,
Speaker 1: because I've certainly encountered haror like that before where it
Speaker 1: just leaves me feeling a little gross with the roth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that being said, there is still plenty of bad
Speaker 1: stuff in here. So again I stressed that this this
Speaker 1: one is only for the dedicated horror fans out there,
Speaker 1: but it wouldn't be fair not to mention it since
Speaker 1: it was such a an engaging read, such an addictive read. Hey,
Speaker 1: so we need to take a quick break, but we
Speaker 1: will be right back with some more selections from our
Speaker 1: summer reading list, and we're back. Okay. So you guys
Speaker 1: know me and I am a comics fan. So I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to bring and do a summer reading
Speaker 1: list if I didn't at least mention a couple of comics. Um.
Speaker 1: So I tried to narrow it down from my usual
Speaker 1: huge list to stuff that I think really resonates with
Speaker 1: our show and our listeners. On the first one that
Speaker 1: I have to recommend is called Junction True and it's
Speaker 1: a graphic novel by Ray Fox. Uh. And it's illustrated
Speaker 1: and watercolored by Vince Locke, and it's just gorgeous water colors,
Speaker 1: really beautiful book, very uh, you know, has very painterly
Speaker 1: quality to it. Uh. And it is about a near
Speaker 1: future where subculture involves transhumanist body hacking, which just right
Speaker 1: up our alley right. Uh. It's this weird, twisted love
Speaker 1: story about S and M rebellion, alienation, and body modification
Speaker 1: where the main character really has to ask himself how
Speaker 1: far he's willing to go for love, and by go,
Speaker 1: I mean modify his body for what his lover wants
Speaker 1: him to be. Uh. It is strange and kind of
Speaker 1: creepy and horrifying, but the characters just really feel real,
Speaker 1: and Uh, I just applauded it. Ray Fox is a
Speaker 1: very smart writer. He takes a lot of risks that
Speaker 1: pay off in his storytelling and in the theme. So
Speaker 1: I recommend this book immensely. I believe it is put
Speaker 1: out by Top Shelf Productions. The second one that I
Speaker 1: would recommend, and this will come as no surprise to
Speaker 1: be who have listened to me talk about things on
Speaker 1: the show before. Warren Ellis has a new comic that's
Speaker 1: been out for the last year together with Declan Shelvey
Speaker 1: and Jordie Blair, called Injection, and Uh, it really takes
Speaker 1: that old Arthur C. Clark quote to heart. Any sufficiently
Speaker 1: advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. So you can't really
Speaker 1: tell is it is there magic in this book or
Speaker 1: is it's, you know, some kind of sci fi technology
Speaker 1: that's just beyond our understanding. And he's not willing to
Speaker 1: hold your hand and let you know. If you haven't
Speaker 1: heard me babble about Warren Ellis on the show before. Uh,
Speaker 1: last year I recommended his nonfiction book Cunning Plans during
Speaker 1: our summer reading list. He's known for doing comics like
Speaker 1: trans Metropolitan, Global Frequency, Planetary, Freak, Angels, and a lot
Speaker 1: of other superhero, video game and TV work. I went
Speaker 1: back and read the first volume of trans Metropolitan this
Speaker 1: year on your recommendation. I really liked it. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: pretty cool, it was funny. I love it. Spent a
Speaker 1: long time since I've read it. Yeah, that Spider Jerusalem, right, Yes,
Speaker 1: Spider Jerusalem is his Like sci fi Hunter s. Thompson,
Speaker 1: it's it's fun. Injection is about a team that consists
Speaker 1: of a secret agent, a scientist, a hacker, a shaman,
Speaker 1: and a detective and they make a mistake and they
Speaker 1: kind of think they're smarter than they are and they
Speaker 1: let something weird loose into the world, and subsequently they're
Speaker 1: all traumatized by this experience, but they're also trying to
Speaker 1: make things right. Uh. It doesn't hold your hand with
Speaker 1: narrative structure. Ellis is definitely trying out some interesting like flashbacks,
Speaker 1: flash forwards, jumping from character to character, not really showing
Speaker 1: you all the pieces at once, But it comes together
Speaker 1: and it's it's excellent. The artwork is stunning. This team
Speaker 1: is great. Declan Chalvey and Jordie Blair are a couple
Speaker 1: that work together. He does the illustration and she does
Speaker 1: the colors, and so it's just, you know, you can
Speaker 1: see that teamwork in the art that really flows well together.
Speaker 1: And the storytelling is superb for comics. If you like
Speaker 1: stories that deal with the following things, this is for you. Madness, weird,
Speaker 1: incursions into reality, the history of magic, especially in the
Speaker 1: British Isles, and government conspiracies. Injection has all that and more.
Speaker 1: Now are both of these that you've mentioned? Are these
Speaker 1: complete things? Are the ongoing Injection is still ongoing? Junction
Speaker 1: True is a complete work? That's cool? I uh so.
Speaker 1: I actually this year have been embarking on a project
Speaker 1: of going back and reading basically all the great like
Speaker 1: classic graphic novels that I've never read before. So I've
Speaker 1: been reading a lot of as far as superheroes go,
Speaker 1: you know, the ones that everybody had read except for me.
Speaker 1: I read The Dark Knight Returns for the first time
Speaker 1: this year, and uh some other Batman stuff. Have you
Speaker 1: done Alan moore Swamp thing run yet? I haven't, but
Speaker 1: I did read concerning Alan Moore I finally went and
Speaker 1: read From Hell, which is another one along your lines, Robert,
Speaker 1: that I certainly wouldn't recommend for our younger listeners because
Speaker 1: it is extremely graphic in terms of sex and violence.
Speaker 1: But it's also a really, really well researched and interesting
Speaker 1: dark graphic novels. Excellent. It's one of my favorite graphic
Speaker 1: novels of all time, and it has been a huge
Speaker 1: influence on my own work in the field. And don't
Speaker 1: let the movies do from it. Yeah, but my next pick.
Speaker 1: I had a couple more nonfiction books that I read
Speaker 1: this year that I wanted to mention because I thought
Speaker 1: they were great. So another one concerning science is a
Speaker 1: book about black holes, and it is called black Hole Colon.
Speaker 1: How an idea abandoned by Newtonians, hated by Einstein, and
Speaker 1: gambled on by Hawking became loved by Marcia Bartouschek Yale
Speaker 1: University Press. So I have to say, points deducted for
Speaker 1: having a sixteen wordlong subtitle that is obnoxious. You think
Speaker 1: it should be crunched down and yeah, point of infinite
Speaker 1: and city and zero volume black hole colon spaghettification, But
Speaker 1: points deducted for that points awarded for everything else. I thought,
Speaker 1: this is just a really superb and concise piece of
Speaker 1: science writing. Um and uh so Marcia Bartoschik, I think
Speaker 1: she is ahead of the head of a science writing
Speaker 1: program at M I T. And you can see why
Speaker 1: she has that post. She she is a really really
Speaker 1: top notch science communicator. And there's a very breezy, readable,
Speaker 1: compact style to this book. Uh and so Bartschik tells
Speaker 1: the story of our knowledge about black holes, how they're
Speaker 1: first theorized, how violently physicists oppose them, and how they
Speaker 1: eventually came to be accepted and uh. Bartosik is very
Speaker 1: true to the difficult astrophysics behind black holes, but she
Speaker 1: makes the concepts involved, like really very easy to understand
Speaker 1: for non scientists. I was am I'm not a physicist,
Speaker 1: I'm not even a very math inclined person, but I
Speaker 1: was following her the whole way. Uh and A lot
Speaker 1: of this is made possible simply by the way she
Speaker 1: narrativises the subject. It's easier to understand the ideas she
Speaker 1: presents because she tells the story historically, where she tells
Speaker 1: the story of each scientist interacting with the ideas of
Speaker 1: the other one. So you can see the logical progression
Speaker 1: of how people understood black holes. But one of the
Speaker 1: most interesting things about the book to me is how
Speaker 1: it shows this long, painful battle between our scientific theories
Speaker 1: and our common sense. So for about a hundred years now,
Speaker 1: any physicist who cared to look would be able to
Speaker 1: work out that black holes are a consequence of Einstein's
Speaker 1: general relativity. But scientists across the generations just they allowed
Speaker 1: their common sense to rebel against the idea. It's like, wait,
Speaker 1: how can the mass of many stars be compressed down
Speaker 1: to infinite density? That's just absurd, That can't happen. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's even one story in the book, how about Sir
Speaker 1: Arthur Eddington, who is one of the most respective physicists
Speaker 1: of the time, Just vicious Lee mocked the then young
Speaker 1: physicist Supermannia and Chandra Shaker after he gave a conference
Speaker 1: presentation in nineteen thirty five about the inevitability of black holes.
Speaker 1: Apparently Eddington just got up after Chandra Shaker had finished
Speaker 1: giving his talk, and he said, surely nature has some
Speaker 1: way of preventing this nonsense more or less. Uh. And so,
Speaker 1: of course, in the end, we learned through decades of
Speaker 1: painful back and forth that our common sense about black
Speaker 1: holes is completely wrong, and these objects do in fact exists.
Speaker 1: They're they're not theoretical anymore. They're a fundamental part of
Speaker 1: our picture of the universe. Um. But the every piece
Speaker 1: of common sense in our brain just rebels against it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense. How could there be something
Speaker 1: like that? Everything I know about black holes comes from
Speaker 1: the movie Interstellar. When you go when you go into
Speaker 1: did you guys know when you go into them you
Speaker 1: travel back in time? You see? Now, everything I know
Speaker 1: about Disney's the black Hole, So I know that when
Speaker 1: you go into them, you fused with a row about
Speaker 1: and rule over hell man, Was any of this stuff
Speaker 1: covered in the book? No? That's uh, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: You've seen the black Hole? Right? No, I haven't. In
Speaker 1: case anyone's misunderstanding, maybe the science is ridiculous and I
Speaker 1: met the same I was being ironic Interstellar as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: black Hole is one of those like a super dark
Speaker 1: Disney sci fi fantasy movies that they did in like
Speaker 1: the late seventies. Yeah, like a robot disembowels Anthony Perkins
Speaker 1: in it. It's one of the What's What's the Witch
Speaker 1: Mountain movie? As part of that, There's there's another one anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh that sounds pretty good. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: crazy dark movies that came out to round that time.
Speaker 1: In Black Hole was one of them. To check that. Great,
Speaker 1: it's a go into it with you know, realistic expectations.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty fun, right, especially if you're ten. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I will definitely be looking into that. I always wanted
Speaker 1: to know how I could summon the dark powers of
Speaker 1: of of infinite density to do my bidding. Uh. A
Speaker 1: couple other quick mentions, I guess of of books I
Speaker 1: read this year, one is, uh, The Confidence Game by
Speaker 1: Maria Knakova of Viking. You got a copy of that,
Speaker 1: didn't you write? Yeah? I saw her speak at the
Speaker 1: World Science Festival this year. She was on a panel
Speaker 1: that also included Mary Roach talking about about science writing,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I was really impressed with everything she had
Speaker 1: to say. Um, and that's why I also shared an
Speaker 1: article about that. She wrote about whether or not Trump
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is a con man on artists and I
Speaker 1: shared that on our Facebook feed, and some people did
Speaker 1: not like it, even though it was an objective scientific
Speaker 1: approach look at what the Trump phenomenon is. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I was really impressed with everything she had to say
Speaker 1: at the conference, and so I had to grab a
Speaker 1: copy of the book as well. I haven't read it yet,
Speaker 1: but I'm looking forward to uh reading through it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a good book. And so it's about con artists.
Speaker 1: About half historical narrative about some of the most interesting
Speaker 1: cons in history, and then the other half is science
Speaker 1: about psychological rea search on why humans are vulnerable to
Speaker 1: cons in general, and then particular tactics used by con
Speaker 1: artists and sort of the cognitive biases that they take
Speaker 1: advantage of. Uh. And I think it would be fun
Speaker 1: to discuss this book for for a whole episode of
Speaker 1: the show sometimes, especially if we could get con of
Speaker 1: COVID to come on and join us. I've touched based
Speaker 1: with her her agent and so do that. Well, that'd
Speaker 1: be great. Yeah. I did find it interesting, And we
Speaker 1: have to like set it up as if we're going
Speaker 1: to do the show, but then don't actually call it.
Speaker 1: We just take all our money, yeah, exactly because oh
Speaker 1: DoD the audience not know that we get paid to
Speaker 1: do interviews. Um. Two things that She mentioned um in
Speaker 1: in her talk that I'm wondering, you know, to what
Speaker 1: extent there there in the book. She mentioned that she
Speaker 1: was inspired by David Mannett movies. Really writing this book,
Speaker 1: I don't know. She didn't mention that in the book,
Speaker 1: and she also mentioned that she was inspired by like
Speaker 1: It's it's one thing we hear, we hear talk of
Speaker 1: con games and con artists, and it's easy to think, oh, well,
Speaker 1: that poor stupid person. But but in her talk at
Speaker 1: the World's Nice Festival, she mentioned that one of the
Speaker 1: things that really got are interested in this topic was
Speaker 1: that you have very smart people, very intelligent people, who
Speaker 1: end up getting sucked into these things. Yeah. One of
Speaker 1: the stories in the book is about a physicist, a physicist,
Speaker 1: like working physicist, brilliant guy who gets conned by an
Speaker 1: Internet person pretending to be a I think like a
Speaker 1: check model, who wants fished, who wants to marry him,
Speaker 1: and they trick him into being a drug mule. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so you don't have to be dumb to fall for
Speaker 1: a con. They exploit biases that are that are there
Speaker 1: in all of us, even even physicists like check models. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then there's one last nonfiction book I want to mention. Uh,
Speaker 1: and that is something I think it might have come
Speaker 1: out in an episode before. But it's Our Mathematical Universe,
Speaker 1: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality. By Max
Speaker 1: teg Mark, not for Robert. Did you read this? Why?
Speaker 1: I didn't read it, but I've I've read that Tegmark
Speaker 1: stuff before. He's always great, He's awesome. And I get
Speaker 1: the feeling that tag Mark is sort of a polarizing
Speaker 1: figure in the modern astrophysics and cosmology community. And I
Speaker 1: think this is because he does very important and relevant
Speaker 1: mainstream research. Like he's not some crazy crank, but he's
Speaker 1: also not afraid to go out on a limb and
Speaker 1: explore radically strange hypothesis like the idea that there's a
Speaker 1: physical way to quantify consciousness if you think about consciousness
Speaker 1: is a state of matter, or that the entire universe
Speaker 1: at bottom is made of math, not figuratively or metaphorically,
Speaker 1: but literally. We're not described by math. We are mathematical objects. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so I think some scientists and scientifically literate people
Speaker 1: don't like it when otherwise respected scientists stick their necks
Speaker 1: out and speculate about such weirdness. Basically. Uh, But I
Speaker 1: I guess they think that it causes some confusion about
Speaker 1: what sciences. You hear people say this sometimes, like some
Speaker 1: people in the skeptic community. Uh. And with those people,
Speaker 1: I I cannot agree, because I think it's wonderful when
Speaker 1: productive mainstream scientists are also free to play at the
Speaker 1: edges of what can be known about the world, as
Speaker 1: long as you're not confusing one type of intellectual exercise
Speaker 1: with the other. But ultimately, this book concerns the mathematical
Speaker 1: universe hypothesis, and it's also just a very good introduction
Speaker 1: to many other ideas in physics and cosmology today. One
Speaker 1: example is the multiverse. I like the way Tagmark Tagmark
Speaker 1: tackles this idea, so, uh, the multi versus the idea
Speaker 1: that other universes exist and they're causally disconnected from our own.
Speaker 1: So if you if you follow like the cosmological debates,
Speaker 1: you'll know that a lot of people don't like this
Speaker 1: idea either. And one reason is that if another universe
Speaker 1: is causally disconnected from us, there's no way you could
Speaker 1: design a test to see if it's really there. So
Speaker 1: what's the point in talking about whether it's there? Or not.
Speaker 1: By definition, there's no way to know, and I think
Speaker 1: that could be a very valid criticism. But in this book,
Speaker 1: teg Mark Uh makes an interesting case. He tries to
Speaker 1: make a case for why the multiverse is not a
Speaker 1: hypothesis to be tested on its own, but instead it's
Speaker 1: a prediction or a consequence of theories for which we
Speaker 1: do have experimental evidence. So you know, we have evidence
Speaker 1: that X theory is true. If X theory is true,
Speaker 1: you would expect there to be other universes. Um. So
Speaker 1: for that alone, I think this book is worth reading Uh,
Speaker 1: and also be sure to check out some of the
Speaker 1: criticisms of tech Mark's ideas online. I remember at the
Speaker 1: time I read it, I came across a bunch of
Speaker 1: blog posts and reviews by other physicists who had a
Speaker 1: lot of disagreements with him, and they made interesting points
Speaker 1: as well. And you know, as a non scientist, it's
Speaker 1: exciting to read a science book that's not just a
Speaker 1: presentation of established facts, but that's part of an ongoing
Speaker 1: debate where you know, the ideas are not have not
Speaker 1: been settled yet. Okay, So Robert, I think you're gonna
Speaker 1: close this out right, and you're gonna close this out
Speaker 1: with something for every buddy. Yeah, certainly for the younger,
Speaker 1: I'll read about the science of black holes and cannibal
Speaker 1: uh destroyers. But well we got here. Well UM. As
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, I am the father of
Speaker 1: a four year old, so a lot of my reading
Speaker 1: these days involves reading books four or four year old
Speaker 1: and reading the same ones over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: I imagine many of our listeners I try and hide
Speaker 1: the ones they don't like to read UM or certainly
Speaker 1: return them to the library. But I thought I mentioned
Speaker 1: just three quick ones here that I that I find
Speaker 1: to be very good books that my my son really
Speaker 1: engages with um and the and they're able to to
Speaker 1: cover science topics to varying degrees. The first one is
Speaker 1: a book titled Octopus. This is by Evelyn Shaw with
Speaker 1: the illustrations by Ralph Carpentier, and this came out of
Speaker 1: one This is long out of print, but luckily with
Speaker 1: Amazon it's so easy these days to get out of
Speaker 1: print book, so you can pick up a copy of
Speaker 1: this hardback for like a dollar or two online, and
Speaker 1: I think it's really worth it. Basically, it's um. It
Speaker 1: is the story of an octopus with some wonderful kind
Speaker 1: of watercolor illustrations. But it's the story of an octopus
Speaker 1: from basically her early life to her death. And she
Speaker 1: goes out, she finds a new home, she at some
Speaker 1: point mates, so that kind of happens off camera. You're
Speaker 1: just told that that occurs. Um she finds food, then
Speaker 1: she lays her eggs, and then she dies at the end.
Speaker 1: So it's the the life cycle of an octopus. It's
Speaker 1: not it's not presented in any kind of a cute
Speaker 1: see way. She's not like personified, right, She's kindling to
Speaker 1: tie into a previous discussion we've had on this show before.
Speaker 1: Does she cannibalize other octopuses? No, but she gets in
Speaker 1: a fight with an octopus. So yeah, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: it's like a complete, no hold barred look at an
Speaker 1: octopus's life, but it is a refreshingly realistic, refreshing le
Speaker 1: naturalistic look at an animal. Uh. And so I enjoyed
Speaker 1: reading it, and my my son is really into hearing it.
Speaker 1: And and it doesn't shy away from the fact that
Speaker 1: at the at the end of the book she dies,
Speaker 1: that she she walls herself up in her little cave
Speaker 1: and spins the last of her energy looking after eggs,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, kind of beautiful. Another one that
Speaker 1: he's really into is one called all about Scabs, Bige
Speaker 1: and Eat. I would have loved that if I was
Speaker 1: a kid, Yeah, because it's all about nasty scabs. What
Speaker 1: are they? What are they not getting into that body?
Speaker 1: Horror early Yeah, and this is this one is children's
Speaker 1: That is a little bit. I mean, there's talk of
Speaker 1: in the book of do you eat scabs? Is a scab?
Speaker 1: Is it poop? Is that what it is is the
Speaker 1: body pooping out the scab. If you eat scabs, do
Speaker 1: you get ancient power? Depends on who who depends? A
Speaker 1: boy turns into a pig. At one point, I'm going
Speaker 1: to go on the record and say that my scabs
Speaker 1: when I was a kid did great. But I don't
Speaker 1: know what was in them, but they gave you the
Speaker 1: strength of the wind to go. Another great thing about
Speaker 1: this one, and this is something that I think should
Speaker 1: resonate with any parents out there who read books, is
Speaker 1: that it has a couple of different levels of depth
Speaker 1: you can get into. So there's some stuff later on
Speaker 1: in the book where you can really get more into
Speaker 1: what skin is and how skin heels. That's cool and
Speaker 1: you can sort of read to whatever is appropriate for
Speaker 1: your child's engagement. So it's a great one. I believe
Speaker 1: this was. This one is in the same book series
Speaker 1: as the Everybody Poops book. Oh yeah, okay, I'm well
Speaker 1: familiar with that one. And finally I have one. This
Speaker 1: one makes seem like a strange choice, but it's the
Speaker 1: Barrenstein Bears on the Moon by stand and Jan Berenstein.
Speaker 1: From this one came out what in ve um. You
Speaker 1: probably wonder how space he could this be? How how
Speaker 1: informative could this be about our solar system? This is
Speaker 1: what led all those people to write the manifesto about
Speaker 1: the Case against Space. Maybe it's a for me though.
Speaker 1: Basically in this story you have a couple of the
Speaker 1: barn steamed bears and they go to the Moon with
Speaker 1: their dog on a rocket, and that's about all that happens.
Speaker 1: They go there and they come back. But I found
Speaker 1: this to be pretty helpful and just explaining to my
Speaker 1: son what the moon is and where it is, because
Speaker 1: you know, I want to share all this great stuff,
Speaker 1: all this wonderful information about the about the Solar system,
Speaker 1: in the universe and what what what's happening on other planets.
Speaker 1: But initially I had to get over that hurdle of
Speaker 1: how do I explain to him what the moon is,
Speaker 1: That it's far away, that there's such an abstract constah,
Speaker 1: that there's nobody on it. But yes, people have been
Speaker 1: there in the past, but only a handful and only
Speaker 1: white men, two bears and their dogs, and two bears
Speaker 1: and their dogs. So it basically just as a it
Speaker 1: works as a nice illustrative adventure to say, hey, this
Speaker 1: is what the Moon is, and this is how it
Speaker 1: relates to the Earth. Yea, that's neat very surface level,
Speaker 1: but you gotta start somewhere, and I found this to
Speaker 1: be a good starting place. Now, is it the book
Speaker 1: that that movie Apollo eighteen with the Moon Spiders was
Speaker 1: based on. I didn't see that with it Moon Moon
Speaker 1: Spiders the Amne. I actually didn't see either, but I
Speaker 1: watched the trailer several times because I found it funny.
Speaker 1: It's actually a prequel to Transformers three. Dark of the Moon.
Speaker 1: The Barrenstein Bears find the Transformers buried on the Moon.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, that's those are the three that I have.
Speaker 1: I guess the best way to close it out here
Speaker 1: is if there there are any books that you're looking
Speaker 1: forward to, or you know what's next on your plate
Speaker 1: that you're excited about. Well, I have a huge queue
Speaker 1: in my kindle right now of weird horror literature that
Speaker 1: I've picked up from reading that st JO sheet book.
Speaker 1: So Brian Evanson is sort of a newish like last
Speaker 1: ten years horror writer that I'm really enjoying and reading
Speaker 1: a book by him called A Collapse of Horses. I'm
Speaker 1: going through Ramsey Campbell's back catalog. Um, those are the
Speaker 1: big ones that I can remember right now. Oh, we
Speaker 1: should I should throw this out there. A friend of
Speaker 1: the show, Michael we Hunt, has a collection of his
Speaker 1: stories out that are really good and it is called
Speaker 1: Greener Pastures. Yes, I read this as well. Um, I
Speaker 1: highly recommend anyone pick this up who's interested in contemporary
Speaker 1: horror fiction. Um. Yeah, there two stories in their in
Speaker 1: particular the title tale Green Pastures and then the first one.
Speaker 1: Oh nannon is that it. It's the one with the
Speaker 1: mountain and the women. Uh. Anyway, the first story, it's
Speaker 1: one of those collections that kicks off on a really
Speaker 1: strong note, really knocks it out of the park. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So this is a young horror writer at the top
Speaker 1: of his game. Go check it out. Speaking of friends
Speaker 1: of the show, there's a comic that I'm excited about
Speaker 1: that had just started up called Cryptocracy, and that's why
Speaker 1: our friend Van Jensen, who lives here in Atlanta, and
Speaker 1: it's illustrated by Pete Woods up from Dark Horse. It
Speaker 1: is really cool at the first two issues. And uh,
Speaker 1: I believe and at some point is going to be
Speaker 1: making an appearance with the conspiracy guys on their post.
Speaker 1: I hope. So, because his book is all about it's
Speaker 1: basically the pitches what if every conspiracy theory was true? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's also from the point of view of the
Speaker 1: conspiracy perpetrator, it's not from the people who are trying
Speaker 1: to solve the mystery. It's fun. I like it a lot. Yeah. Interesting. Okay,
Speaker 1: how about you, Joe, what are you looking forward? Dude?
Speaker 1: What's what's the next big review? I think it's probably well,
Speaker 1: actually I already started it, so I know it. I
Speaker 1: don't know why I was hedging like that. It's uh.
Speaker 1: The first novel in a trilogy, a science fiction trilogy
Speaker 1: by the Chinese author lu check Chen called The Three
Speaker 1: Body Problems but my list as well. I have not
Speaker 1: read it yet, but yeah, I I just started it
Speaker 1: and so far it's very good, so I'm very excited
Speaker 1: to continue with it. Well, for my part, I am
Speaker 1: extremely excited that our Scott Baker is the Great Ordeal.
Speaker 1: Book three of his Aspect Imperor trilogy is coming out
Speaker 1: next month. Um. I've talked about this author in this
Speaker 1: series a lot the past. This is the dark fantasy
Speaker 1: series that has a tremendous amount of philosophy and even
Speaker 1: neuroscience in it. Um. I've heard nothing but good things
Speaker 1: about this series. I'm looking forward to catching up on it.
Speaker 1: And this reminds me of a book that you let
Speaker 1: me borrow that I should mention on the show as well.
Speaker 1: Michael Shay, who we've talked about before because he my
Speaker 1: all time favorite horror story so far is written by him,
Speaker 1: The Autopsy, And when you heard that, you let me
Speaker 1: borrow a book of collection of his short fiction that
Speaker 1: The Autopsy is within. But then you also just let
Speaker 1: me borrow the Nift series, and so I'm getting into
Speaker 1: that as well. That niff Leen in in one episode
Speaker 1: we did recently, Yes, probably something with bugs because he's
Speaker 1: um or mine. Maybe it had to do with giant bodies,
Speaker 1: that's right, yeah, giants, because yeah, because he's a very
Speaker 1: biologically or he was sadly passed away a year or
Speaker 1: two ago, but he was a very biologically literate author,
Speaker 1: and there was it all. There was always a lot
Speaker 1: of biological and body horror and creature heart insect horror
Speaker 1: in his work. Yeah, his work goes all over the place,
Speaker 1: and it's the autopsy is definitely that. It's like alien
Speaker 1: body horror. But the nip the lean stuff is like
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of like sword and sorcery style
Speaker 1: kind of fantasy worlds, maybe Game of Thrones style stuff,
Speaker 1: this is that. But then incorporating all of this just
Speaker 1: absolutely weird aberrant, uh life forms and body horror. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe he took a lot of inspiration early on
Speaker 1: from Jack Vance dying our stories and then really took
Speaker 1: it into this. Uh this weird directional is alright. So
Speaker 1: there you have it. Uh, some of some examples of
Speaker 1: stuff that we have read, that we are reading, that
Speaker 1: we plan to read, and of course we would love
Speaker 1: to hear from everyone out there. What are we missing?
Speaker 1: What what do we need to check out at all costs?
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts and some of the titles we've
Speaker 1: mentioned here. Yeah, we've got twelve more months before we
Speaker 1: do another summer reading, unless summer comes earlier next year.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, and let us know the way
Speaker 1: to get in touch with us social media. We are
Speaker 1: on Facebook, we're on Twitter, we're on Tumbler, we're on Instagram.
Speaker 1: You can take pictures of your books, send them to
Speaker 1: us on Instagram, put them on Tumbler, however, or you
Speaker 1: could just write us a message. How do they do that? Well,
Speaker 1: of course they can email us at blow the Mind
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. Well more on this
Speaker 1: and pathans of other happens. Is it how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot Com