WEBVTT - Anthology of Horror, Volume 4 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:05.280 My Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:14.560 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.400 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.080 it's still Halloween season, so we're going into the anthology territory. 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.200 That's right. We have a long tradition here on Stuff 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:27.080 to Blow Your Mind of taking short spooky stories around 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:29.520 this time of year, uh, snipping them out of their host, 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.960 drying them, and then stuffing them with science to create 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.920 an informative and entertaining Halloween sausage. We did this for 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:40.680 a few years based on creepy pasta stories, and then 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:42.760 we kind of felt like that well was running a 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:44.760 little dry, so we turned to an even richer and 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.760 deeper treasure trove of horror fiction, and that is horror 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.680 and sci fi anthology series. Uh. A lot of these 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:54.920 are shows that aired on TV. A lot of them 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:58.320 are also films that feature, you know, several different stories 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.720 in an anthology format, and there's just a tremendous amount 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:06.160 out there. We're We're talking the likes of the Twilight Zone, 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.240 The Outer Limits, Tales from the Dark Side, Tales from 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:13.800 the Crypt Monsters, Black Mirror, and just so many many more. Uh. 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.360 Plus there's a highly popular Simpsons Treehouse of horror episodes, 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:21.440 as well as various against cinematic horror anthology, such as 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.360 The Vault of Horror. So this is gonna be volume four, 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.160 and then we're gonna do volume five this year. We 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:29.600 did volume one in two thousand eighteen, we did volumes 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:33.200 two and three and twenty nineteen, so we're continuing the tradition. 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:35.160 And uh and again, yeah, I just have to say, 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.759 there's just so much out there in terms of horror 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.960 and sci fi anthology television. Uh. And then there's this 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.000 an additional ton of horror and sci fi anthology cinema. 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.080 So once again this year I found myself just combing 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:50.760 through contenders that I had either forgotten about, was half 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.600 aware of, or just had flat never heard of. Like 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:56.600 like a lot in horror especially, I feel like the 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.320 horror anthology genre tends to feel like low hanging route. 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.400 But but the kicker is that when well done, there's 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.160 nothing else quite like it. Well, yeah, I think that's true. 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:09.040 I mean there's almost an ancient memory aspect to a 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.919 horror anthology because it feels like people sitting around a 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.520 campfire going around the circle, each taking a turn to 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.920 tell a story. Yeah, and uh, like the literary short 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.959 story provides wonderful opportunities that full length or episodic mediums 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:25.280 don't provide. Like a lot of times, you can really 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:29.079 put a particular idea in the forefront, you can put 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:32.359 a particular twist in the forefront. Uh. And it can 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:34.840 work better than it would if you tried to build 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.480 an entire you know, uh TV series around this or 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.919 an entire feature leath length film around us. I was 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.440 actually just thinking the other day about the good things 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.320 about having a short format for horror, because we watched 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.840 a new horror movie that came out this year. It 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.360 was a Shutter original film called Host. It was like 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.760 a Zoom horror movie. It takes place entirely on Zoom, 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.600 but the characters do a say once and there's demonic 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:05.440 shenanigans and the movie is about an hour long. And 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.880 I thought that worked fantastically because it's, you know, it's 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:12.400 not a super deep film. It's not especially like thoughtful 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:16.040 or interesting, but just for an excellent little boo frolic, 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.720 an hour is a perfect length. Uh And and I 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.840 wish more horror movies would just kind of embrace that 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:24.560 and say, no, we're not going to be as long 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.040 as it's supposed to be. We're not gonna pad this 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.119 out to eighty six minutes. We're gonna be an hour long. 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:31.880 I mean, if it's good enough for Attack of the 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:36.720 Crab Monsters, an hour run time is good enough for you. Yes, yeah, yeah, 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.680 I definitely thought about that when I watch when I 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.560 watched for the first time, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.280 like just shorter format, but nan they got everything in. 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:48.280 So yeah, if you're a horror director out there, don't 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:50.280 worry about patting it out. I mean, if your movie 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.280 is only fifty four minutes long, I think that's great. Now. 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:58.400 You mentioned zoom based horror earlier. In a bit later 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.120 on in the episode, we're gonna discuss an episode of 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.560 the nine nineties revival of the Outer Limits. I want 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:06.600 to mention that there this is not the episode we're 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.680 gonna be talking about, but there is an episode called 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.440 dead Man Switch that's that's extremely good, and it has 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:17.680 to do with individuals humans that are put into uh 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.680 separate bunkers during an alien invasion and each one is 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.839 functioning as a dead man switch for the planetary defense system. 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.159 But the fun thing about it is all these people 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:31.200 are solely communicating with each other via this like you know, 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:37.120 closed network television, basically a zoom scenario. Uh So it's 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.200 a it's a very interesting piece to watch during this 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:44.320 time of increased zoom meetings, etcetera. All right, well, let's 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.600 just jump right in here to our first selection. This 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:52.640 is from the Night two horror anthology film creep Show. 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.960 Uh this is the Lonesome Death of Jordi Verrel. Alright, 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.800 so sidebar before we get started on the plot. This 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:04.120 segment stars Stephen King in the flesh. He's the actor 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:06.560 in it. So I've got to ask what are your 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:10.320 favorite Stephen King acting spots and and I'll announce mine. 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.480 He's got a cameo in a movie called Sleepwalkers. If 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:16.200 you've never seen it, I think it came out in 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:20.000 the eighties or early nineties, and it is about shape 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:26.160 shifting cat demon things that suck the life essence out 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.040 of young women. And then I think they can turn invisible, 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.080 they can like look like different things, and their weaknesses 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.880 that if they're attacked by cats they die. But anyway, 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.560 in Sleepwalkers, there is an amazing scene that features a 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:46.360 cameo by Stephen King as a perturbed cemetery caretaker who 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.200 is angry that that perverts keep coming into his cemetery 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.560 at night. But it also contains cameos by Toby Hooper 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:58.040 and Clive Barker. Oh, I love it when we have 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.200 scenes like that, and that's a fitting like Grizzly cameo 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:06.040 for for Stephen King. Um, because I remember, probably during 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.120 like the height of my my, my young obsession with 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:13.560 Stephen King novels. Uh, the TV series Golden Years came out, 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:18.600 which I don't think is anybody's favorite of Stephen King project. 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:20.520 I don't think they ever finished it. You know, it 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.760 went maybe a season, maybe less in a season, but 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:28.280 I remember there being oh, it's like a goodness, I'm 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:30.479 having a hard time he remembering what the gist of 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.960 it was a man aging rapidly I think, or aging backwards, 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.839 one of the two. Um. It had. One of the 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.200 best things about it was it had David Bowie's Golden 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.679 Years as the theme music. But there's a scene where 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.039 Stephen King shows up as a as a bus driver 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:49.120 and at the time I was like, this is amazing 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:51.960 that's Stephen. He's the author and he's the bus driver. Um. 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.440 Of course he would go on to have so many 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.760 more interesting cameos and things. Um. For instance, I never 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.160 saw this, but he has pretty wacky one in the 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.240 TV version of The Shining he's this band leader, like 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.400 this really um energetic band, big band leader with a 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:11.600 pencil thin mustache. He looked fabulously greased back hair, got 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.000 a pencil mustache. That that is not a good look 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.040 for Stephen King. I don't know, you know, he's he 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:20.080 kind of has the like the face for for facial hair. 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.080 Though he can make most of it work. I feel 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:24.800 it kind of works. He does better full beard, I 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.200 mean full beard. He looks appropriately shaggy and kind of 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:32.160 right early with the pencil mustache, he looks like maybe 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.120 he would be the guy who would be discovered in 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:38.720 the cemetery. Now, in terms of just his acting roles, 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.440 go like things where he's not just a cameo but 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.680 he's actually playing a bit part. He had a really 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.280 fun one in the biker drama Sons of Anarchy. Uh 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.800 several years back. He played a guy who makes bodies disappear. 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.120 So he's you know, just kind of this stern but 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:57.240 creepy guy in a in a basement that will uh 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.200 you know, make that make that body disappear when you 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:01.680 need it to end. He insists on listening to eighties 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.800 music while it happens. Well, I've never seen that either, 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.360 but but I'll have to look it up. All right, Well, 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:10.640 let's get into two creep show here. So creep show 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.160 for anyone who's not familiar with it, with Stephen King 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:17.600 and George Ramiro's tribute to pre code horror comics of old. 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:20.280 I think I may have covered the crate in a 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:24.160 in a previous episode. I'm not sure, but it has 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.840 some wonderful segments, but they're all like sort of mean, 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:32.160 uh grizzly uh segments that are you know, very much 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.160 in the vein of classic tales from the Crypt and 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.400 so forth, where uh there are bad people that do 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.920 bad things and get their come up. It's usually in 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:43.439 grizzly ways with a little bit of gallows humor thrown in. 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:45.959 And like we said, not only is this written by 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:50.720 Stephen King, but this segment also stars the author as well. Again, 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.840 it's the Lonesome Death of Jordy veryl and it's a 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.240 little bit the Color out of Space and a little 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.440 bit the Blob. It's about a redneck who comes in 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:03.600 contact with space goo. Uh. Then after coming in contact 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.280 with space goo, some sort of alien plant or plant 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.880 like organism takes over his body. And then he makes 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:12.440 the terrible mistake of climbing into a hot bath to 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:18.120 ease his discomfort. The alien plant infection overtakes him and 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:22.480 he ends up following papahanming Way into the sunset. Then 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:24.960 we hear on the t V that rainy weather is 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.920 moving in which will spread, no doubt, spread the alien 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:31.320 plants even wider across the Earth. You know, this connects 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:36.120 to several other horror stories, uh in interesting ways. One 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.319 that I didn't think of until just now is the 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.400 way that it connects to, especially the late nineteen seventies 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.240 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which is very 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:49.679 good and which characterizes the spores that come down and 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:54.360 possess the humans and turn them into the replicants. Uh. 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.439 They're very plant like. I mean, obviously they're not from Earth, 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.800 so they're not exactly of the Kingdom of the Plants, 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:03.520 but there's clearly a similarity with plants and an affinity 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:07.160 for plants among the aliens, and the ending of the 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.160 Jordy Viril segment makes me think very much of the 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.920 beginning of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers Remake, because 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.839 in the opening credits to The Body Snatchers Remake, there 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.360 is this sequence that just kind of shows these filaments 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:27.360 almost blowing in the wind, and it accomplishes a very 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:33.400 sinister visual connotation without any words or any explanation, just 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:37.600 of the idea of biological material kind of drifting and 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:40.880 through through the air, through space, carried on currents of 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.880 various kinds. Yeah, and of course the weakenings instantly think 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.199 to other sort of plant based horror properties, such as 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:49.240 the Day of the Triffids, which we've mentioned on here before. 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.800 That's a big one about plant plant like aliens overtaking 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:57.200 the earth or troll too. That's right, that's right. So 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.920 this Jordy Viral episode, it is the question for me, 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.400 are there any plants that can grow on or in 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.720 the human body under sort of normal circumstances, Because obviously, 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:11.120 like a dead body filled with dirt, you could grow 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.440 some some plants, and that if you had some sort 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.920 of somehow I had an outfit that had like lots 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.680 of dirt pockets you could grow grow that way. Also 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.960 wanted to you know, avoid discussing bacteria and fungi, sticking 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.880 to just good old plants, which again seems more in 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.400 line with the plant like organisms that we're dealing with 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.880 in this short um. And we're not counting things that 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.840 might look like plants but are in fact tumors or 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.000 what have you. So for the most part, plants don't 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.120 want to be on us or inside us, unless, of course, 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:46.520 their seeds are traveling on our hair or garments, or 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.280 if their seeds are traveling through our digestive systems. Otherwise, 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:52.920 there's just not much of an in game going on 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:56.120 with the inside of the human body or even like 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.640 on the exterior of the human body. Uh, you know, 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:02.120 seeds need to get in the dirt. But sometimes things 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.960 go wrong, as horribly wrong. As reported in by the 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:10.480 BBC and various other outlets, a man named Ron vet 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.839 and I believe uh had been battling emphysema, and he 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:17.840 underwent an X ray as his condition worsened. The doctors 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:22.520 then discovered that a p had gone down the wrong um, 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.280 you know, the wrong pipe and sprouted in the warm, 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.840 moist environment of the patient's lung. It had only grown 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.880 a half an inch long, but you know, still it 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.320 was enough to cause some concern. Surgeons removed it. Uh 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:37.680 and uh, we should stress here that what was happening 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.800 is that the P was sprouting as if it were 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:45.000 under the soil reaching up for sunlight. Thus it grew 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.320 in the darkness of a human body as if it 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:49.880 were going to sprout out of the body and find 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:54.000 the sun. Now an energy terms, it couldn't keep growing 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.880 like that forever, right, because eventually it would need sunlight 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.480 in order to supply new energy. But of course, a P, 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.720 like many other uh you know, like the yolk of 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.840 an egg or something, has some chemical energy built into 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:10.479 it that can propel that initial sprouting from the dark place. Uh. Fortunately, 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.560 it would probably eventually not be able to find sunlight, 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:15.160 but it still would, I guess, be some kind of 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:16.880 gross thing in your lung. So it's a good thing 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.400 they took it out. But in the spirit of of 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.400 making the familiar strange, I think we should dwell for 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:27.000 a minute on the idea of seeds using bodies such 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.760 as human bodies for dispersal. We don't dwell on this 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:33.760 as a parallel to any kind of botanical body horror 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.200 because it just seems so normal. Well, yeah, you know, 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.600 sometimes you just eat fruit with seeds in it. But 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.000 this is really kind of strange the more you think 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.000 about it. So, of course, there are evolutionary pressures on 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.960 plants that caused them to find methods of seed dispersal, 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:50.880 not just to produce seeds of for a new generation 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.079 of plants, but to try to get them physically away 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.000 from the parent and uh. And this is because like 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.000 the can share genes of the parent and offspring plant, 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.559 it's don't want to be forced to compete directly with 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:07.800 one another for resources. And these resources would include soil space, water, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.760 nutrients in the soil, access to sunlight. If you can 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.319 get the kids out of the house, that's good because 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.720 then you're not fighting over food. And competition of this 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.920 kind can be reduced by dispersing seeds, and nature of 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.560 course has lots of ingenious solutions for this. We've talked 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:25.560 about some on the show before. For example, you know 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.320 all the different structures the parachute or wing like structures 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.440 that seeds sometimes sprout in order to ride on the 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.760 wind to or to drift, like the like the filaments 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:39.760 in in Invasion to the body snatchers. Then there were 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.080 even exploding seed pods like you would find on the 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.880 sandbox tree or Hera crepitans, And so this is a 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.680 tree that has thorns all over its trunk. I think 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.160 I've read somewhere that it's called the monkey Can't Climate tree, 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.840 and it produces seed pods that look kind of like 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:01.880 tiny pumpkins, and they explode in their right literally explodes 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:06.120 in ballistic propulsion of seeds up to distances of like 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:09.680 a hundred meters away according to some reports. But also, 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:11.800 as you mentioned earlier, a lot of seeds rely on 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.640 animals to be dispersed, and this is known as zoo cory. 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.280 So there's epizoo cory, which is the transport of seeds 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:20.240 on the outside of the animal. So you think of 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:22.440 like the burrs that get stuck on a dog's fur, 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.480 stuck to your socks. One example of this is the 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:30.120 burdock plant, which was apparently the inspiration behind the invention 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:34.440 of velcrow, invention of the loop and fastener system. But 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.080 then there's also, of course what's known as indo zoo 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.600 Corey the transport of seeds inside of the animal, and 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.840 this usually involves creating a tasty, fruiting body containing the seed, 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:50.080 waiting to get eaten, traveling around inside an animal's digestive system, 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.680 then being released in the animals species to grow in 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:56.360 a new place. And so if you eat some tasty blackberries, 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:59.680 you are, in a way, Jordi varrel, you are the 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:04.160 moost of this plant that is using your digestive system, 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:08.040 using and your your legs, your mobile body in the 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:12.000 dispersal of seeds as part of its reproductive cycle. In fact, 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:14.400 there are even some seeds that are somewhat obligate in 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:17.040 this way. They need to be primed to grow inside 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.760 an animal's digestive system. Blackberries would be an example, which 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.720 I think usually needs some time in a bird's gizzard 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.960 before they will grow. But all the stories you read 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:29.640 of like okay, well you know, my cousin knows a 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.080 guy who swallowed a watermelon seed and it grew a 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.840 watermelon inside his stomach, that that's not true. I could 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:38.840 not find any evidence that anything like that ever happens. 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:43.360 But while it's unlikely that you would grow a plant 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.240 from a seed in your body while you are alive. 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:50.800 Could it happen after you're dead? Again? You mentioned earlier 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:53.040 Rob that if a seed was maybe in your pockets, 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.240 in your pockets were full of soil, it could grow 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:58.120 out of that. But could it actually grow from inside 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.840 your body? Well, I could not find a verified example 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.399 of this. I found a disputed claim about a fig 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.679 tree that grew out of a murdered man's stomach in 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.720 a cave in Cyprus. But it looks like that that 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.920 account is has has generally been refuted. But I was 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.600 reading an article that talks about that that rumored story 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.840 in Life Science by Laura Geigel, and the author here 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:27.000 consulted a soil science professor from Oregon State University named j. Knohler, 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:29.719 and it was Nhler's opinion that such a thing is 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:34.240 actually plausible. He said that seeds can sometimes emerge from 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:38.520 dead animals, so he imagines they could likewise emerge out 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.359 of a dead human um. But he said it wouldn't 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:43.160 have to be in their stomach. It could actually grow 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.000 from any part of the dead person's digestive tract. It 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.560 could be in their large intestine, small intestine, and the 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.320 way it breaks down would work like this. So you'd 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.080 have a dead, decaying body all around the plant seed 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.040 that would sort of help it out with nutrients, very 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:01.920 possibly with the third party of ungus involved. So microscopic 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:06.040 fungi in the soil would help decompose the dead body breakdown, 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:08.919 you know, the fungus would break down fats and proteins 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:13.119 into simpler constituent nutrients, and then the fungus would share 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:17.240 these nutrients with nearby plants, possibly even seeds that are 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.960 among the decaying organic material of the body in a 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.840 symbiotic relationship. So they would exchange simple sugars that the 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.760 plant produces for these nutrients that they're getting from decomposing 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:31.720 the body. But I wanted to think about another way 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.520 of possibly framing infection by an alien plant, apart from 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.920 directly becoming the host or substrate of the plant itself, 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.800 And that's the idea of infection via a plant vector. 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:46.440 Or to put it as a question, would you let 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:50.080 a zucchini flower cough in your mouth? And I was 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.000 looking around for for answers to this question can you 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:56.399 get infected from a plant? And I found an article 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.760 by a plant pathologist and diagnostician at iowas a University 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:05.120 named Dr. Lena Rodriguez Salamanca, and she said that sometimes 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.479 her lab receives questions from the public, including the question 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.159 of can I catch and infectious disease from a plant. 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:15.160 The answer is in most cases no. You know, pathogens 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:17.920 that are specialized to infect plants, and of course there 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.400 are many of these. Plants can be infected by fungi, 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.200 by viruses, by bacteria, just like animals can. But usually 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.080 a pathogen that is specialized for one kingdom of life 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.320 is not just going to jump, you know, from that 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.919 one into another kingdom of life and infected. It is 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:36.280 not adapted to that. But there are cases of a 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:40.760 few known opportunistic pathogens that will make this jump, and 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.280 this is especially true for people with compromised immune systems. 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.840 So one example is an infectious bacterium known as a 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:53.240 pseudominous erugenosa, and Rodriguez Salamanca says that it can cause 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:57.399 a weak soft rot on plants such as lettuce, and 0:19:57.440 --> 0:19:59.879 this bacterium has been known to jump the kingdom barrier 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:04.080 sometimes infect people with compromised immune systems. This can lead 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.159 to infections of the urinary tract, of the lungs, the 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:11.199 blood and wounds including burns, but for most people it 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.160 does not represent a threat. But then there are other ones. 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:18.119 For example, there is a fungal infection caused by the 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:23.440 fungus Sporothrix shanky i, which thrives on the dead thorns 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.240 of a rose stem, and this has given rise to 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:30.560 the name rose pickers disease or rose handler's disease. So 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.280 if you're handling a rose and you, you know, get 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:35.679 pricked by one of these dead thorns that has the 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:39.160 fungal infection, or get a scratch, this way, the fungus 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.840 can get into your scan, potentially into your lymph system. 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.240 And apparently you can also inhale spores of this fungus 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:48.359 and this can cause all kinds of problems infections of 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:50.960 the skin, of course, but of the eyes, the lungs, 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.760 the nervous system, bones, and joints. And then finally she 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:59.359 mentions that there are infectious agents of plants that can 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.800 produce set candary byproducts that are harmful to humans, and 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:06.800 she gives the example of fungi that attack corn. The 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:10.679 phrase she used specifically is ear rots, which is a 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:15.120 new sort of words quick for me. But this includes 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:20.520 the genus Fusarium and these fungi produced secondary microtoxins, including 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:27.680 quote few Monison's z ralinone and the aptly named vomitoxin, which, yes, 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.080 that that is what it sounds like. And of course 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:32.200 these are byproducts that can affect you in all kinds 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:34.760 of ways. She talks about how most of the things 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.359 like this, like like Aspergillis flavius also is a is 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:42.080 a contaminant that you could find in grains that produces 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.080 secondary microtoxins. A lot of these things that produce these 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.760 secondary microtoxins that can harm you would be found specifically, 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.000 not in like leafy plants like let us, but on grains. 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:54.600 And she she mentions, you know, you don't need to 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.800 be too worried because like grain producers monitor for the 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:02.000 presence of these organisms. So yes, it is in fact 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.360 possible for a human to catch a disease from a plant, 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:07.679 much in the same way that we could catch a 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:11.640 disease from a mosquito or a bat, but fortunately it's 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:13.800 not very common. All right, with that, we're gonna go 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:16.880 ahead close the book on Ajority Veril and I think 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:19.120 we're gonna go and take our first break, but when 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:23.320 we come back, we will unlock another entry in horror 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:29.280 anthology history than all right, we're back. Is it time 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:31.879 to go to the Outer Limits? Yeah, let's go to 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:34.760 the Outer Limits. Uh. So I mentioned that we would 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.399 be looking at an episode from the nineties revival of 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:41.320