WEBVTT - Listener Mail VII: Fill Your Ears 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from How Stuff 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:13.880 Works dot Com. Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.360 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb, I'm Christian Sea, 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.160 and I'm Joe McCormick. In today, we're coming at you 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:23.120 with some listener mail. That's right, Carney, our mail bot 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:28.520 is currently go undergoing routine self virus scanning, so he's 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:31.520 kind of in a dormant state, but he's still able 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:35.280 to print out listener mails, your listener mails first to 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.040 sort through and read. So he's just continuing to to 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.600 sport out this massive pile of a dot Matrix printer. 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:44.080 And guys, I know this is an inconvenience, but it 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.480 really does make sense because when Carney gets infected with malware, 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.360 it is a bad scene. Yeah. I actually heard that 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.800 somebody hacked into Carney through the Internet of Things in 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.880 order to commit a di DOS attack. Really yeah, against 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:00.640 what against what I believe is the targets Stuff to 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.520 Blow your Mind dot com. Yeah, they turned our own 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:07.679 listener mail robot against us. That's vile. Yeah, it's just 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.320 real despicable guys, these hackers, and not quite as well 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.240 as the people who sees the baby monitors but it's close, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.120 all right. Well, well, without further ado, let's see what 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:20.039 we've got here. We haven't done one of these in 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:22.480 a few months, and we've received a lot of listener mail, 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.399 a ton, yeah, of some wonderful stuff, and sadly, you know, 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:26.520 we're not gonna be able to get to all of 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.280 it here, and we're not able to directly respond to 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:31.760 a lot of it. But we do appreciate all the 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.600 wonderful takes, all the wonderful tidbits, all the wonderful bits 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.000 of feedback that you send in on each and every week. Okay, 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.840 And first off, our listener, Kelly writes to us on 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.520 Facebook in response to our episode about being eaten by 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.280 a giant spider, And just a note on that episode, 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.240 We did have to publish that one twice because first 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:53.080 time it came out maybe that was during our di 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:56.920 Dos attack. I don't know, Uh, something happened with the publishing. 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.000 And so if you saw that episode show up twice, uh, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:01.720 or if you had a problem with it the first time, 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:03.800 you might want to check that that second version of 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:08.720 it anyway, right, Uh, So, Kelly writes, Hi, guys, I 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.640 just listened to your giant spider episode. I was never 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:16.000 skittish with spiders. My friend even had the sweetest tarantula 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.040 that like to cuddle more than a puppy. Somehow I 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.919 doubt that, but okay, I was always the designated quote 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:25.760 spider remover of our family because I thought we had 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:28.839 a great symbiotic relationship. And Kelly, you are exactly right. 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:33.920 Humans and spiders peas in a pod. The we're friends. 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.120 They're not our enemies. But Kelly, Kelly does have a 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.799 little case of friendly fire to mention to us. Here, 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.520 Kelly writes about a decade ago, I woke up with 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:46.359 the left side of my face so swollen. Just by 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:48.600 looking out the corner of my eye, I could see 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.040 my cheek. I sleep stumbled into the bathroom to find 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.519 huge bloody sores from my forehead down to my nose. 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:58.280 I got an appointment of my doctors that day. He 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:00.960 informed me that I'd been attacked by a brown recluse 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:03.520 in my sleep, and also let me know that if 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:05.720 I hadn't come in so quickly, the venom would have 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.480 likely eaten through my skin and muscle and started to 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:14.720 ulcerate my skull. Wow, that sounds horrible. Months of medication later, 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.880 plus a few glycolic face peels to soften the scarring 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.520 from ulceration. I'm almost normal. I do refer to myself 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.520 as Scarface to give myself more street cred. By the way, 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:27.880 and we get some pictures, you can still see my 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.359 spider scars on my forehead and nose, although they're blessedly 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:35.040 just a fraction of the original sizes. Well, I hope 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.000 you out there listening will not take this as justification 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:42.080 for global spider panic. We still stand firmly against spider panic. 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:44.280 But if you can avoid being bitten on the face 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.640 by a brown recluse, that is something to to do. 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.240 I grew up in New England and that the brown 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:54.200 recluse was like always the um the scariest thing that 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:55.800 you could run into up there. Like we don't have 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.360 scorpions or you know, poisonous snakes or anything like that, 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.200 but about like a New Hampshire county with a shotgun. 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.880 Well those, yeah, I mean I guess technically, yeah, I 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.120 was always on the lookout with more than two legs? 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.840 Is the scar Yeah, is a brand reclusive problem down 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:16.360 here in the sound? Yeah, yeah, you could brown problem 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.120 if they do exist down here. Well, one, it only 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:21.320 takes one to be a problem, right, It really gets 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.160 in that whole scenario, like to to what extent is 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.919 it an actual problem, just to the perceived threat of 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.560 the brown. Yeah. For example, I I follow on Twitter 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:34.000 a spider researcher who named Catherine who I believe she 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.120 works out of Canada. But she does a whole thing 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.359 on Twitter that I've seen never do before, which is 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.440 just like hashtag not a brown recluse, which is going 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.159 through people's pictures that they put on Twitter and say, look, 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.359 I found a brown recluse in my house. And she's like, 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:50.240 that's a wolf spider. So you know, it's easy to 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.720 to get too worked up about a spider that's basically brown. Yeah. 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:55.760 I thought you were going to say, I follow spider 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.320 on Twitter. That would be great. I would love to 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.600 see a spider's Twitter account. It's just like it's all 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:12.280 fake news exactly. Okay, what else has Carney got for us? Well, 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:14.880 we received an awful lot of email related to our 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.640 Only Child Syndrome podcast episode. Yeah, we got there was 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.200 a lot of mails, So thank you all for sending that. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.080 A lot of people telling us their experiences being an 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:26.400 only child, or being a parent of an only child. 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.320 There were so many that we couldn't possibly read them all, 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.080 but we did pull one or two for today's episode. Yeah, 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:33.800 and this one that I'm about to read actually comes 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.680 from someone who has some experience with the one child 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.800 policy in China. Okay, so this bit of listener mail 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.440 here is from Betty. Betty rights in and says, Hi, guys, 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.960 just listen to the Only Child Syndrome podcast, which was great, 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.080 and I thought i'd share some experiences from growing up 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:51.800 in China as an only child in the nineties. Growing up, 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.599 we all knew the one child policy was out of 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.560 the norm from a global and historical standpoint, but since 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.039 almost every kid we ever met was an only child, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.039 not having siblings just felt like the norm and very 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.559 few people found it weird. And of course, my friends 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.480 and acquaintances from school ranged in personalities just like everyone 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.480 else in the world. I can't speak for other only children, 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:14.080 but I was raised in a way that would have 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.560 been pretty difficult to result in spoiled bratness. I had 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.360 to do many household chores every day from age six 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.320 to moving out of college. I was a default laborer 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:29.080 for all home reno and home improvement projects. Renovation not 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.640 not going to reno. Uh. If I wanted to buy 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.440 anything like toys or games, it was limited to my 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:36.839 Chinese New Year money, which was like ten to twenty 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.080 bucks a year, or I had to do extra chores 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:41.240 to earn it. When I turned six, team my parents 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.400 also told me to get a job. In addition, it 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:45.880 was mandatory to do well in school. Of course, at 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.320 the time, I did not appreciate doing all those things, 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:50.680 but in retrospect it kind of worked out. By the 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:54.040 time I moved out for college, I knew how to cook, clean, dow, laundry, 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.320 and all kinds of other household tests. I knew how 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:58.680 to get a job, got a job, and already had 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.039 money saved up from it. And I was the go 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.080 to handy person my dorm because I was one of 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.520 the only few, one of the few people who knew 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.760 how to use power tools and fixed broken equipment. I 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.560 live in Canada now, but whenever anyone discovers that I 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:13.640 am an only child, their first reaction is, oh, I 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.200 would have never guessed. But from what I can tell, 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:18.760 it's nearly impossible to guess if a person as an 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:22.240 only child anyway, since who they are largely depends on 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:24.440 how they were raised and what kind of environment they 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:26.720 grew up in with things have been different if I 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.520 had siblings, It's possible, but my parents wanted to raise 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.080 me as a capable, hard working, independent person, and there's 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.360 no reason they wouldn't have wanted the same for all 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.040 their children if they had had the opportunity to do more. 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:42.000 Thanks again for the great podcast, Betty. Yeah, that definitely 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:44.720 thank you, first of all, Betty for sharing the experience 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:46.320 with us. But that seems to line up with what 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.120 we uh, the conclusions we came to in that episode, 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:51.480 which is it seems like only child syndrome is not 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:55.880 a psychological issue. Uh, it's more of like a sociological 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.640 factors how you were raised, what type of home you're 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.240 raised in, what tree you were raised in, what the 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:04.760 norms were there. You know, everybody I know who fits 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:09.640 the stereotype of the only child is actually an oldest child. Yeah. 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.280 I don't think I mentioned that on that episode, but yeah, 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:17.880 I have the same experience. Yeah, yeah, the the episode. 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:22.040 In the episode, we explore the idea that only children 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.880 are spoiled or they're lonely. I mean all the various ideas, 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.920 they just won't go away culturally despite all of the 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.480 evidence to the contrary for like over a hundred years now, 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.640 because of just that one guys bad methodology and a 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.720 psychological report. Yeah, but this is a great bit of 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.000 listener feedback though, because it it highlighted both the just 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.800 just the the only child aspect as well as the 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.920 one child's policy a bit. I think it's always interesting 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.839 to get a different perspective on that. Yeah. So this 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:57.560 next letter comes from someone who wants to talk to 0:08:57.600 --> 0:08:59.680 us about an episode from I think it's over a 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.160 year go, but this is a really interesting message, so 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:05.319 I wanted to address it now. It's from the episode 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.360 that Robert and I did on the Unlanguaged Mine and 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.280 Feral Children. Uh, and if you haven't heard that, please 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.360 go back and listen to it. We had I wouldn't 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.839 say fun with that episode, but it was very educational 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.120 for us learning about this sort of history behind that, 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.679 and we got a lot of good feedback about Yeah. Yeah, so, uh, 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.720 she says, Hello, Robert and Christian. My name is Candice. 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.760 I just recently discovered your podcast and have been going 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.640 through the archives. I stumbled upon and listened to the 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.720 two episodes titled The un Language Mind. I found the 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.920 information you presented and your perspectives fascinating. Those two episodes 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:41.240 resonated with me because I am a teacher of the 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:43.960 deaf and heart of hearing and have come into contact 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:48.640 with Unfortunately, multiple students born into hearing homes without access 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:54.160 to American Sign language. Several of these students resulted in developmental, social, behavioral, 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.960 and academic delays because of the lack of language. One 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.120 student in particular, who I have been working with for 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:02.960 the past three years, is the closest I have come 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.120 to a feral child. He was not locked away in 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.600 a room, but he did miss the critical periods for 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:12.040 learning language. When he entered the school system in kindergarten, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.880 it was clear that he had no language, no respect 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.120 for social norms or rules, or any desire to communicate 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.800 with other humans in a truly meaningful way. To communicate 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:25.840 his needs, he resorted to pointing, mimicking, gesturing, and violence. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.760 Multiple other team members and myself have been punched, kicked, 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.240 cut bitten, scratched, and had our hair pulled by this student. 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.040 He has thrown feces at our staff and urinated on 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:42.199 classroom floors intentionally. However, with intense language, academic, and social intervention, 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.440 the student has improved and matured by leaps and bounds. 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.480 He is now functioning in a classroom with typically hearing 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.360 peers while using an a s L interpreter. He is 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.640 still learning to express himself in a s L and 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.440 is using two to four word phrases. He now values 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.560 relationships with adults and peers and under dance how to 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.720 nurture and keep those relationships, and is currently eight years old. 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.480 Thank you for shedding light on this difficult subject and 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:10.319 informing the public of a humans dire need for language. 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.640 So that's really interesting to me because I know it's 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:15.319 been a while since we did those episodes, but I 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:21.200 don't remember coming across specific examples of children, uh, in 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:26.000 present day scenarios where they were they unless they were 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:29.800 like totally neglected, but in this situation because they're deaf, 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:32.160 it makes it even more difficult. Yeah, it's been a 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:34.599 long time since we we looked at the research to 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:36.680 data there, but yeah, I don't remember a specific case 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.480 like that. Yeah, but this was really fascinating. Thank you 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:41.600 for sharing it with this Candice and I'm really glad 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:44.360 to hear that this this kid is is getting so 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.320 it sounds like world class treatment and help so that 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:51.280 he can adapt better with his peers. It is amazing. 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:56.240 You know. One thing I actually recently was thinking about 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.960 your episode on The Unlanguaged Mind because of a movie 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.800 I just saw. They came out. Did y'all see Arrival yet? Yes? 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.840 In Arrival they we're not talking about the one with 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:11.440 was it with the Sheen in it? Right? Not? Martin. 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:14.480 Charlie Sheen was in a movie called The Arrival. I 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.720 know you're talking about heron silver in it that I've seen. 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.280 There's actually two of those. Those are about the aliens 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.360 with the backward legs. This is just Arrival without of 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.680 the in front of right, the one with Amy Adams Whittaker. Yeah, 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.240 it's about It's a movie about language in a lot 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.000 of ways. And they discussed the sapire warf hypothesis, which 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:33.880 actually plays into the plot. I don't want to give 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.720 anything away, but they talked about the sapiar warf hypothesis 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:38.880 and I was like, oh, yes, the un language Mind. 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:42.160 Arrival is a movie that I feel like is made 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.280 for us and for listeners who like stuff to blow 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.920 your mind. Like it's like such a great sci fi 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.920 movie that really latches onto real world concepts and we're 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.760 dealing with ideas, Yeah, and works them really well into 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:57.000 the story. I really enjoyed it was. Yeah, I was 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:00.720 so impressed. The one based on the novel by Ted Sang. Yeah, 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.319 it's a short story, I think, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:06.280 you'd love it. You gotta check it out. Cool, Yeah, 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:08.439 it's on our on our list, So I will, I will. 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:10.199 I definitely look forward to seeing that one because I 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:15.440 actually I am just finishing reading finally The Three Body Problem, 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.120 which which deals with some similar themes, you know, communication 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:24.120 with an alien uh species and what the what what 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.600 the what the the the ramifications of that communication might be. 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:29.640 In the meantime, we should all go back and watch 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:33.479 those Charlie Sheen movies. I didn't realize there's more than one. 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.800 Should we watched The Wraith? Did that have Charlie Sheen 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.720 in it? I don't know, but that is but The Arrival, Wow, 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:45.240 that movie had an effect on me. Yes, The Wraith, 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.880 it does have Charlie Sheen and I just looked it up. Okay, 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:49.920 he plays like a guy. I think he gets killed 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.120 in a drag racing accident or something, and he comes 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.040 back for it. Is it Soultaker? Essentially? It sounds very 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.920 soul Taker. Soul Taker might be a remake of the 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:01.920 Wraith sense like, we need to do some coverage on 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.000 both of these. This this reminds me, Actually, it's a 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:08.360 good opportunity to point out casually that we've been doing 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:12.840 some Facebook Live experiments where we've been showing movie trailers 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.640 of movies related to the episodes that we're doing that week. 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:17.360 So if you're on Facebook and you have time to 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.760 watch Facebook Live, you can hear us talk. You guys 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.960 did one about spiders, right, Giant spider movies. That was 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.760 the the second one. And we're a bit disrupted by 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:29.080 various holiday occurrence is right now, but we'll hopefully get 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.640 right back into the back of the regular routain with that. Yeah, Okay, 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.480 we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.800 we will hear from our listener Jen. With the holidays 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:41.600 almost here, you don't have time to go to the 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:45.360 post office traffic parking. It's gonna be packed and everyone's 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:47.680 gonna be mailing off gifts and packages, so you need 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:48.760 to do what we do. You need to go to 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:51.640 stamps dot com instead. Go with stamps dot com. You 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:53.640 can avoid all the hassle of going to the post 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.320 office during the busy holiday season. Everything you can do 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:57.840 with the post office you can do right from your 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.760 desk instead. By in print Official you US postage using 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.680 your own printer and computer print postage for any letter 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:05.360 or package the instant you need it, and then the 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:07.000 mail person just picks it up and you're good to go. 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:09.680 It's easy and it's convenient. Here at how stuff works 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:11.520 dot com, we use stamps dot com and we need 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.840 to send out the odd bit of merchandise or correspondence, 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:15.640 and we want you to try it out as well. 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:17.920 So right now, go to stamps dot com and use 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:21.480 our promo code stuff That's Stuff. For this special offer, 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.840 you'll get a four week trial plus a hundred and 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.000 ten dollar bonus software that includes postage and a digital scale. 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:29.040 So don't wait. Go to stamps dot com right now 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:31.120 before you do anything else, click on the microphone at 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.080 the top of the homepage and type in stuff that 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:38.920 stamps dot com inter stuff and start mailing things. So 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:42.080 our listener Jin got in touch with us over Facebook, 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.040 and she's responding to our episode. The episode Robert and 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.600 I did a while back about Undead Jenes, so brief 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.000 refresher from that episode. Some researchers made public a paper 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.960 on a pre publication server claiming to show that some 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.880 certain genes in the bodies of dead animals were still 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:03.800 transcribe being RNA after the organisms died, meaning that you'd 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.480 have whole body death right organismal death. The organism is dead, 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.480 but on the molecular level, some life, or some version 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:13.760 of life is still going on. The genes are still 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.960 encoding for for RNA. And so Jen gets in touch 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:21.440 with us about this. She says, hey, guys, I love 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:23.880 your podcast and finally had time to listen to last 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.160 week's Undead Jeans episode. As a molecular biologist, I was 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.960 really excited for an episode right in my wheelhouse. There 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:31.800 were a couple of things that stuck out to me 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.120 while listening that made me go hunt down the paper. 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:36.600 I assume you left out some detail to keep things 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.400 more accessible to amateur nerds versus those of us who 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:41.720 do things for a living. But I noticed in the 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.920 paper that they have left some glaring holes. I'd even 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:47.400 venture to guess that these holes could be the reason 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:51.000 while we're reading the article from a depository depository and 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.160 not a high impact journal. But I digress. The main 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.720 point I wanted to make, while acknowledging that you, as 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.840 the host, may already be aware, is that RNA is 0:16:59.880 --> 0:17:03.520 a extremely sensitive to degradation. The notion that you can 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.679 plunge a fish into an icy death pool and then 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.840 just PLoP it back into some normal seventy ish degree 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.600 fahrenheit tank and then come back days later and get 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:17.720 good quality RNA is literally unbelievable to me. Have you 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.199 ever had a fish go belly up and not noticed 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:22.760 right away? I don't know if I remember fish going 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:25.600 belly up? Do you guys keep fish tanks right now? 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:28.639 But luckily, so far, so good, nothing's died. So I 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:31.680 had that experience as a kid. Yeah, Jen says, it 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.560 gets stink stinky fast. Do you agree? Yeah, my dad 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:38.439 collected like exotic fish in a tank. Yeah, she's right, 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.959 all right. So she says, of course, the authors did 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.600 not give any data about the RNA integrity, and she 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:46.480 says a standard thing would be a one to tend 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:50.040 scoring system. So she says, my guess is that what 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:52.919 they are seeing as an upregulation, and that was their 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:56.080 term of, you know, RNA transcription appearing to take place. 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:58.879 So my guess is what they're seeing is as an 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.719 upregulation of new genes. May actually be transcripts that are 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.440 for some reason fairly stable but in low abundance, so 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:09.960 they're missed in freshly dead samples but seem to appear 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:14.159 in longer dead samples only because more abundant transcripts have 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.640 fallen away due to degradation. So does that make sense 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.040 what she's saying, Like, there's all this RNA there, some 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.119 are not very common but fairly stable. When you test 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:26.960 the organism right after death, you don't see a bunch 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.080 of these. But then when all the other RNA decays 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.680 and these fairly stable RNA molecules are left, that's what 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:35.880 you have left. And it makes it look like more 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.520 of this is being created after death. So it sounds 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:42.080 like more research is required. Yes, uh, And she says 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.480 it could be that or some other factors she hasn't considered, 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.440 but anyway, she says, I know that their claim is 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:51.000 that these are truly new RNA molecules, so degradation is 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.280 not a factor. But that is a huge leap for 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.000 which they do not provide support. I just wanted to 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:58.399 add a large dose of skepticism on top of the 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.720 healthy bit we should always have. This concept is still fascinating, 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:03.840 but the study is too flawed to add to the 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.080 conversation in a meaningful way. Anyway, Love what you guys 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:08.800 are doing, and always look forward to what you have 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.800 in store next. Have a great day, Jen, Thank you 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.080 so much. Jen. This is the kind of email I 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:16.280 love to get because it's from an actual expert who 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.080 has some some direct knowledge of the kinds of research 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:22.560 that we covered in the episode. So uh, those of 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:25.240 you out there who heard that episode, please take Jen's 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:31.600 considerations into into consideration. I wasn't when when thinking about 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:34.159 this research. I wasn't on that episode, but I I 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:39.080 love UH messages like this because I think it's so 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:44.840 important for us to critically evaluate the um the sources 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:47.040 that we're bringing into the episodes that we do and 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.760 and some people have asked us this before, and it's 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.399 worth reminding we are not experts in these fields that 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.000 we talk about, right. We we do the research, we 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:57.639 immerse ourselves in it, and we try to bring it 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:01.080 to you the listener in the best most accessible way possible. 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:05.080 But we're not always able to, for instance, like a 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.000 judge whether or not the r N a methodology of 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:11.480 this study. Right, we don't have the knowledge of a 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:14.560 working microbiology exactly. Yeah, and so I really like to 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.720 hear that kind of feedback. All right. We have another 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:19.439 bit of listener mail here. This one comes to us 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:22.680 from Kristen and she is responding to our episode on 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.280 a Chinese practice of ghost marriages though the right of 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:29.640 minghome that we discussed. Yeah, yeah, that was an interesting episode. Uh, 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:33.560 Chinese and also sometimes Japanese practice. We we got a 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.680 lot of email about it. Uh. One in particular that 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.239 I remember that's not on here was from a man 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.960 in Taiwan letting us know that the red envelope practice 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.920 that we mentioned, he was totally unaware of it, yet 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.240