1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:06,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:12,119 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the 3 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,480 Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. 5 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:26,480 Speaker 2: Given that video versions of our episodes are now being 6 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:29,240 Speaker 2: published to Netflix, I thought it fitting to cover a 7 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:32,640 Speaker 2: Netflix monster and they have quite a few to choose from. 8 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:35,560 Speaker 2: In fact, we've previously discussed on Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 9 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 2: everything from Black Mirror's Bandersnatch to the creature from Panos Cosmotos. 10 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 2: Is the viewing today, though, I want to take you 11 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:46,920 Speaker 2: back to a twenty twenty two episode of the third 12 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,360 Speaker 2: season of the animated series Love, Death and Robots titled 13 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 2: Bad Traveling Now. This episode was directed by David Fincher, 14 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:59,120 Speaker 2: with Frank Balson, Jerome Den Jean, and Jennifer U. Nelson. 15 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 2: An adapted the Neil Asher short story by none other 16 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:06,600 Speaker 2: than Andrew Kevin Walker. The setting is a fantasy twist 17 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,319 Speaker 2: on the age of sails, with a crew of sailors 18 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:12,880 Speaker 2: who brave alien oceans on the hunt for javel sharks, 19 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:15,960 Speaker 2: which are harvested for their oil. The ship in our 20 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:18,680 Speaker 2: story encounters a terrible storm and is bordered by a 21 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:23,479 Speaker 2: monstrous crab called a panopod, which takes up residents below deck. 22 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:26,640 Speaker 2: Lots are then drawn among the crew to see who 23 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:29,200 Speaker 2: has to go down to deal with the monster, and 24 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:32,440 Speaker 2: our protagonist Torren winds up with the duty. Now this 25 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 2: is where the plot gets clever. The phanopod, we learn, 26 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:37,520 Speaker 2: can use the bodies of the dead to talk, it 27 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:40,319 Speaker 2: can puppet them. It's a nice twist that also seems 28 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:42,959 Speaker 2: to channel some of that attack of the crab monster's energy. 29 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 2: The phanopod lays out what it wants to reach the 30 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:50,560 Speaker 2: populated island of Fate Torn strikes a deal with the monster. 31 00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 2: He will give it what he wants in exchange for 32 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 2: his own life and a key from the captain's body. 33 00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 2: The captain's body was previously eaten by the phanopod, so 34 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:05,000 Speaker 2: we then follow Tora and as he employs this key 35 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 2: to unlock the captain's pistol and uses this pistol to 36 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 2: claim control of the ship, and he puts the matter 37 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 2: of Fadan Island to a vote. Should we bring the 38 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:16,919 Speaker 2: creature to the densely populated island or drop it off 39 00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:20,359 Speaker 2: on a nearby deserted island and just tell the giant 40 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:23,000 Speaker 2: crab that this is where you wanted to go. There's 41 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 2: a great deal of turmoil over this. Some crew members 42 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:28,120 Speaker 2: may be more than a few simply want to give 43 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:31,679 Speaker 2: the monster what it wants, like whatever it takes. Meanwhile, 44 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:34,600 Speaker 2: it becomes clear that the monster is a parent, and 45 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:37,960 Speaker 2: now the depths of the ship are crawling with its young. 46 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:41,919 Speaker 2: It's a fun action horror ride, and the central monster, 47 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,760 Speaker 2: the phantopod, is just a real grotesque treat. Lots of 48 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 2: excellent crab vibes to it as well wonderful monster design. 49 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 2: So Bad Traveling concerns a monstrous invasive ship born organism, 50 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,280 Speaker 2: but it serves as a fantastic exaggeration of the very 51 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:03,160 Speaker 2: real history and present reaction of ship born invasive species. Now, 52 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 2: there are multiple avenues by which invasive species plant or 53 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:10,239 Speaker 2: animal have been and are still being spread through human activities. These, 54 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:13,799 Speaker 2: as outlined in twenty eighteen's Animals and Human Society by 55 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 2: Skeins and Tikshadi, include species introduced just for aesthetics or 56 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 2: for as a game, species for biological control which often 57 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:26,119 Speaker 2: doesn't go well, or for fur, as well as populations 58 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,920 Speaker 2: of feral domestic animals, pets thoughtlessly released into the wild, 59 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 2: and of course animal stowaways much like our phantom pod, 60 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:37,560 Speaker 2: and these occur not only via boat, they can also 61 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 2: occur via airplane. One example of this is the brown 62 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 2: tree snake. This particular snake is native to eastern and 63 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 2: northern coastal Australia, eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and many 64 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:55,000 Speaker 2: islands in northwestern Melanesia. The brown tree snake is only 65 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 2: mildly venomous to humans, but its venom packs quite a 66 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:03,440 Speaker 2: punch when comes to birds, and according to biologists Brian 67 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 2: Frye of the University of Queensland, you know that can 68 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 2: pose quite a problem. The brown snake has been particularly 69 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:12,360 Speaker 2: rough on the bird population of Guam, which it apparently 70 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 2: reached aboard Australian troop transports during the Second World War, 71 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 2: and fry also points out that the US was still 72 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:22,520 Speaker 2: flying military planes from Guam to Hawaii at the time 73 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:25,760 Speaker 2: of the riding, and brown snakes have been intercepted at 74 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 2: Hawaiian airports in the past, so the potential is there 75 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:31,400 Speaker 2: for plane based introduction of the species to the Hawaiian 76 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,520 Speaker 2: islands as well. And as for why this particular snake 77 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 2: is so adept at hitching rides on planes well. One 78 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:41,279 Speaker 2: reason seems to be their lasso locomotion, which allows them 79 00:04:41,279 --> 00:04:46,600 Speaker 2: to climb large, smooth cylinders. But when talking about animal stowaways, 80 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:51,520 Speaker 2: especially ships play a huge role, with rats and mice 81 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 2: standing as one of the best examples of creatures that 82 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,479 Speaker 2: have spread to every continent except Antarctica, where I believe 83 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:00,279 Speaker 2: the only invasive species is a variety of muscle and 84 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:04,560 Speaker 2: these likely traveled by ship as well. But stowaways include 85 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:08,120 Speaker 2: far more than rodents and monster crabs. According to Grasping 86 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:11,680 Speaker 2: at the Routes of Biological Invasions by Hume at All, 87 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:15,640 Speaker 2: Journal of apply Tocology, two thousand and eight, stowways include 88 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:18,880 Speaker 2: organisms that foul the wholes of ships, are transported as 89 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:22,560 Speaker 2: seeds or resting stages, in soil attached to vehicles, and 90 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 2: in ballast water, as well as in shipping containers, cargo 91 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 2: and air freight. So for instance, as the authors point out, 92 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 2: brown seaweed sargasm A muticum is a great example of 93 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,760 Speaker 2: a stowaway species thought to have spread from its native 94 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:41,560 Speaker 2: Japan to northern France, the English South Coast, and to 95 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:45,600 Speaker 2: the Netherlands via contamination of commercial oysters and then via 96 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:50,160 Speaker 2: drifting plants. The authors share that vessels provide numerous interior 97 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 2: and exterior possibilities for species to spread, but one of 98 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:56,600 Speaker 2: the most pervasive is just the hull of the ship itself, 99 00:05:56,880 --> 00:05:59,599 Speaker 2: so species don't need to climb inside the hull to 100 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 2: use it the means of traveling from one far flowing 101 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:04,680 Speaker 2: island to another. They need only a fix to the 102 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 2: outside of this vessel, this artificial island that will then 103 00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:12,799 Speaker 2: drift from one place to another. There are other examples 104 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:15,960 Speaker 2: that we can point to. Oar boreal monkeys have also 105 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,880 Speaker 2: spread to various places as invasive species, and there are 106 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 2: accounts of monkeys taking up residents in a ship's rigging. 107 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:27,000 Speaker 2: It seems like most of these introductions, though, were via 108 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:29,599 Speaker 2: monkeys that were kept as pets, but still there have 109 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:33,120 Speaker 2: been accounts from this century of monkeys stowing away on vessels, 110 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:36,120 Speaker 2: such as I believe a twenty fourteen report of monkeys 111 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:39,800 Speaker 2: who boarded in Malaysia and arrived in the Netherlands. I 112 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:42,479 Speaker 2: think in this case the monkeys were caught and caged 113 00:06:42,520 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 2: in transit and then handed over in the Netherlands upon arrival. 114 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:49,520 Speaker 2: One of the challenges of stowing away is, of course 115 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:52,920 Speaker 2: being able to survive a lengthy sea voyage without detection 116 00:06:53,839 --> 00:06:56,719 Speaker 2: and being able to just survive with some sort of 117 00:06:56,720 --> 00:07:01,000 Speaker 2: dependable food source. Mice and rats remain the best example 118 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:03,839 Speaker 2: of note, because of course they're highly skilled at living 119 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:08,320 Speaker 2: in humanity's shadow, eating what we eat or cast aside, 120 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 2: and so forth. There are other interesting examples of animal stowaways. 121 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:16,520 Speaker 2: Invasive earthworms are a great example, spreading via transported soils 122 00:07:16,520 --> 00:07:19,960 Speaker 2: and plants. Birds can also stow away. The house sparrow 123 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 2: is thought to have spread aboard Roman ships, and this 124 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:26,040 Speaker 2: is how they reached Great Britain. So while we don't 125 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:29,680 Speaker 2: see anything as singular and gigantic as the panopod in 126 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:33,760 Speaker 2: our own invasive ship born species, it still works nicely 127 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:36,640 Speaker 2: as a fantastic symbol of it all. None of our 128 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:40,920 Speaker 2: real world stowaways are actually aiming to reach specific destinations 129 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 2: that they have heard about or inquired of with their 130 00:07:45,400 --> 00:07:49,560 Speaker 2: puppeted corpses, but they are still ultimately following their genetic 131 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 2: mission and taking full advantage of new environments they might 132 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 2: never have reached otherwise. Tune in for additional episodes of 133 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,560 Speaker 2: the monster fact, the artifact or animaliust Opindium each week. 134 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 2: As always, you can email us at contact at stuff 135 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:13,840 Speaker 2: to Blow your Mind dot com. 136 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:16,920 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. 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