WEBVTT - Zombie Apocalypse PSA 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:07.160 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:16.760 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.320 My name is Robert lamp This is Julie Douglas, and 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.200 this is this is a different episode that we're doing 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:26.200 here today. Normally, we we distract you with with the 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:28.120 you know, various cool things that are going on in 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.639 the world scientifically speaking, and today is very much a 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:35.080 reactionary episode. Well it's kind of a distraction for us, yeah, 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.400 because we're we're here in Atlanta, stuck in the house 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.400 Stuff Works office. Um, I can't really get home. The 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.680 highways or are just a complete parking lot of you know, 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:49.040 cars are not moving. The Marta tracks have completely shut down. 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.159 Some people were trying to to walk the tracks through 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.640 the tunnels, and I believe that is meeting with varying 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.760 degrees of success. But a lot of people are calling 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.040 what's going on now as the outbreak, and we're going 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.560 to use the term zombie, but but really it is 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.240 a it's a it's a misleading term, as we'll discuss. Well, 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:10.720 the media keeps throwing it around because I mean the 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.640 effects of this parasite seems very zombie like. But look, guys, 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.759 we realized that you may not even actually hear this episode. UM, 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:21.760 we don't know when you'll hear it. Think if you 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.600 do hear it, things might have changed since this recording 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:26.880 that it's made first, and we're just trying to document 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.720 what's going on here in Atlanta. Yeah, so I'm gonna 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.280 I'm gonna just run through some of the facts, some 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.120 of the things we know about what's going on right now. 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.240 There's a lot of misinformation on out there. Hopefully if 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:39.880 if you were in the area that's affected, which seems 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:44.360 to be largely um uh confined to the Atlanta area 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.000 and a few other parts of the of the Southeast, 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.680 then hopefully you're listening to to uh you know, your 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:54.120 local radio, trying to find reliable TV signals. But we 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.240 do know that a severe zombie outbreak has occurred in 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:01.440 the Atlanta area. These these bombie packs are roaming the 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:07.760 city UH generally pursued by buzzards UH and coyotes occasionally raccoons. UH. 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:12.160 They are attracted by the smell of the king flesh 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.440 and UM. It was actually it was at first reported 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.080 as as a flash mob parody of the Walking Dead, 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.560 because as we are, Walking Dead is filmed here in Atlanta. 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.400 But no, it's the real deal, apparently. Yeah, and and 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.680 certainly that the pop culture idea of the zombie is 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.160 is something to take into account here, because take The 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.120 Walking Dead for example. The characters in that show are 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:36.360 dealing with zombies or walkers, and they seem to be 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.480 dealing with it outside of the pop culture idea of 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:42.639 the zombie. Like they don't seem to have any preconceived 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.720 notions about walking dead and walkers and zombies and what 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.560 have you. But but we have to contend to contend 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:53.520 with that. So again, these infected individuals are roaming the city. 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:59.240 They are they they are behaving violently. They are striking 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.760 out against uh really any kind of of non infected 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:07.160 individual that they're encountering. Um. Meanwhile, everyone else is either 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.360 holding up in their homes if and this is definitely 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:11.519 the thing to do, hold up in your homes. The 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.079 infected individuals are not going to be able to access 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.359 your home. They're not gonna be able to figure out locks. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:18.519 So if you're locked up, you're good. If you're going 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:20.359 out and trying to engage with them, that is where 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.240 the danger comes into play. Because again, everyone's been watching 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.520 all these zombie programs. We have a certain preconceived notion 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:27.560 of what this is supposed to be, and then what 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:32.640 is allowed. You have individuals that are behaving violently towards 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:37.640 the infected. Uh. So the hs W employees are fellow 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:42.760 podcasters have have have taken refuge inside the hs W offices. Yeah, 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:44.760 and we're all okay, but I mean there are some 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.720 signs of strain. Um, Josh Clark keeps ripping strips off 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:51.280 his shirt to make Rambo headbands. Yeah, which is fine, 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.520 just a little weird. And then Tracy Wilson um has 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:56.920 used her library bar code software and tagged each of 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.840 us with a call number. Well, you know, in stressful situations, 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:05.160 people handle things differently. They organize, they do some prep work. Um, 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.560 it's understandable. I do wish we could find Ben Bolen um, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.360 so if anyone out there has seen him, UM, let 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:15.240 us know. Um other things that we know. The main 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.719 CDC centers for Disease Control compound here in Atlanta has 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:23.160 uh has fallen. Perhaps we're not sure if their communication 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.680 system is just out but um, we're not hearing any 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:28.680 word from them. But but this was after they did 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.520 release some preliminary findings. The research continues elsewhere, but we 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.480 do know that the quote unquote zombies are not undead 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.400 but living human specimens whose systems have been hijacked by 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.200 a parasitic organism. Right, this is very important, This is 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.600 what's This is really the nut of what's going on 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.640 right now. Yeah, the parasite seems to reprogram the patient 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:53.480 over a period of hours, uh, gradually introducing skin necrosis 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.000 and instilling a shambling gage. So the the the appear 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.280 to be rotting, But what is going on here is 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.599 the skin itself undergoing necrosis and taking on the appearance 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.359 and eventually the odor of rotting flesh. Um, they're shambling, 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:10.719 they're groaning, severely depleted will, and extreme aggressive behavior toward 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.520 all other organisms, typified by a desire to claw, bite, 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.039 and quote unquote eat human flesh, and a lot of 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.360 name calling. There are a lot of name calling zombies, 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:23.799 which I mean, it is funny, but it's not funny. 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:27.160 It's because they want to eat your face. Um, it's 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:30.760 like Don Rickles becoming super aggressive and being sort of 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:35.200 rabies written. Yes, and we'll get to the rabies question 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:36.680 in a bit too, because I know that has been 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.240 something that a lot of people have have been bringing up. Um. 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.760 The other thing is that popular consumption of zombie fiction 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:45.880 again has prepared everyone to respond in a violent, merciless 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.200 nature towards the infected. And this is only escalated the 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.400 unrest people see this happening and it it creates just 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.560 anarchy in the streets. Well, that's the question right now, 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.200 like what is what is the bigger threat here the 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:02.679 unrest or this out? Yes, yeah, that and and certainly 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.040 they're they're more than enough guns to go around, which 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:09.320 also complicates the situation. Uh c DC preliminary findings indicate 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.120 that the parasite may complete its life cycle within the 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.680 body of a scavenging organism of some sort, perhaps coyotes, buzzards, 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.480 or maybe even bears. We're not sure. Certainly you have 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:23.159 uh in the situations where bears in other countries are digging, 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.599 dig up graveyard corpses and consume them. They're attacked attracted 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.800 to the smell of rotting flesh. Uh. And the CDC 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:33.200 also indicates that the parasite is transferable from human to 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:37.359 human via the infected blood and saliva. Now, some of 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:41.560 that is maybe not taking hold of your brains right away. 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.200 Exactly how this is working within the life cycle of 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:47.279 the parasite that we're still trying to understand, how it 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.920 can how it needs to enter another organism such as 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:52.799 a buzzard such as the coyote or maybe a bear 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.240 to complete its life cycle. UM, but then can still 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:58.960 be spread from human to human. Well, in this episode, 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:01.360 what we're going to do in an attempt to try 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.120 and understand this unknown single cell parasite that is that 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.640 it seems to be causing the situation. We're going to 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:13.320 look at known examples, scientifically chronicled examples of parasitic organisms 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.000 that hijack a victim, hijack a host, and uh and 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:21.000 in some cases actually create zombie like behavior in that host. 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:23.120 We're gonna look to these examples and an attempt to 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.320 understand what's going on now. Yeah, because I mean, really, 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.560 this is the best information we have so far about 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:32.840 how to approach this outbreak in humans. So of course 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.320 the rabies thing keeps coming up, Yes, and uh, I 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.200 need I need to distress that this is not rabies. 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:41.400 We don't we don't have to worry about this being 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.760 a raby situation. UM. Human to human transmissions of rabies 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.280 are almost unheard of. UM. The Centers for Disease Control 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:53.760 speculates that it can happen due to sexual contact, kissing, 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:58.080 um organ tissue transplants, etcetera. But for the most part, 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:02.560 humans are actually catching rabies from other animals, from rapid animals, 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:04.840 and and outside of the United States where we only 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.880 have one or two, you know, three human rabies cases 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.960 a year in humans, between thirty thousand and seventy people 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:16.960 worldwide contract rabies. The thing is is that there's a 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:21.640 correlation with the symptoms of rabies and what we see 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:26.400 outside of our course today. There's the anxiety, confusion, Uh, 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.960 what seems like hallucinations, yeah, partial or total put paralysis yeah. 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.920 And Uh. The thing is is that with rabies, we 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.800 know that this doesn't really take hold of these symptoms 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:41.840 anywhere from like ten days to a year as the 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:46.360 virus incubates in the body. So the question is is 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.480 there a way that this rabies virus could have maybe 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:55.400 mutated um well and be responsible for what we see UM. 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:59.000 The CDC is saying no. But but theoretically it has 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:04.280 been proposed in the past that if rabies we were 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:08.920 to to mutate and and and take on flu light symptoms. Essentially, 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.120 if you had a hybrid of rabies and the flu 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.800 and influenza, then you could have an airborne rabies that 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:19.920 would spread with the would spread faster, and would have 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:23.640 a higher potential to spread from human to human. Now, 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:27.680 virologists at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.760 and Florida, Samita Andriansky, she has said that sure she 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.760 could imagine a scenario where you could mix rabies with 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:38.560 a flu virus to get airborne transmission, a measled virus 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.320 to get personality changes, and cephalitis virus to cook your 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.680 brain with a fever, and then increase aggression even more 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:48.560 by throwing in ebola, okay, so that you began to 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.560 bleed from your guts. She said, if you combine all 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:55.640 these things, you could get something like a zombie virus. 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.200 But she says nature doesn't allow all these things to 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:00.559 happen at the same time. Yeah. It. We're of course, 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.600 we're talking in this about theoretical chimera virus is UH, 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:08.240 and this is a big part of bioweaponry UH. The 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:12.000 and the idea that we could take existing pathogens and 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:16.559 and combine them to make something even more devastating. But again, uh, 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.800 CDCs told us is not rabies. This is not any 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.880 kind of bioterrorism attack or anything of that nature. Um. 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:24.640 And and when it comes to rabies in general, it's 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.480 worth noting that, yes, you can look at a list 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.280 of symptoms for rabies, and you can you can cherry 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.600 pick the symptoms that would make a zombie, but that 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.960 does not mean that every human case of rabies is 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.400 going to resemble something you saw in a zombie movie, 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.240 or resemble what's going on in the world right now. True. True, 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:46.760 But the paralysis, the extreme aggression, these are all things 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.520 that again we're seeing. Um. But as you say, this 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:53.720 seems highly unlikely as a cause of the parasite that 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.400 has stricken humans right now. On how Stuff Works dot Com, 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.400 we have an article by Tracy V. Wilson, uh, which 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:05.120 I understand she's revising right now, over and over and photos, 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:09.040 lots of photos, um, how Zombies Work, where she breaks 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:13.079 down some of the issues with rabies we've already discussed, uh, 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.640 the pop culture aspects of zombies, but then also gets 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.960 into this, uh, this idea that this the reality of 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.720 Haitian zombie powder, which is another thing. We want to 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.760 special specify that this is not there's nothing going on 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:29.240 out here in the streets of Atlanta that is related 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:34.319 to Haitian voodoo practices and and sorcery and and uh 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.960 in neurotoxins. Right, it's more of a question of bioweapons 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.160 and could this happen on a mass scale. And in 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.000 order to kind of give you guys an idea of 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:43.719 what we're talking about, we should probably travel back to 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:46.840 night because in nineteen eighty there was a man who 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.959 appeared in a rural Haitian village. He claimed to be 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:54.280 Clarvius Narcissa and that he had died in a hospital 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.880 in Haiti on March second, nineteen sixty two. Okay, so 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.400 in nineteen eighty he comes waltzing in. He described being 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:06.240 conscious but paralyzed during his presumed death. He had even 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.679 seen the doctor cover his face with a sheet. And 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.720 he claims that a bacoor or a sorcerer had resurrected 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.160 him and made him a zombie. And this was a 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.319 case that was explored by Dr Wade Davis traveled to 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:23.600 Haiti collected eight samples of the quote unquote zombie powder 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:27.080 that the sorcerers who are using there, and he identified 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.560 ingredients uh that contained some of these these common substances, 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:37.800 one being a tetrodotoxin from a pupper fish, toxic substances 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:42.160 from a marine toad, and some irritating substances from a 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:48.520 highla tree frog. Now, the tetrodotoxin definitely causes paralysis and death, 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.840 and researchers have documented cases in which people have recovered 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:55.640 from near fatal poisonings with this substance, so they have 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.000 maybe seemed to die and then they have come back. 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:02.640 So there's there's the possibility that this substance is the 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.920 root cause of the zombie idea in Haitian culture. Well 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:12.120 in some victims of toxin poisoning often remained conscious until 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.400 just before death. So that would explain seeing that the 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.360 sheet going over your face right, right. But there are 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:22.040 a number of problems and potential problems with Davis's work. UH. 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.960 So you have a number of individuals and the scientific 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:28.480 community who have criticized it or even called it fraudulent. 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:32.440 Some of questions in Davis's ethics since the observe the 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:35.959 desecration of graves while gathering ingredients for the powder. UH, 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.520 some of questions whether the initial experiments with the powder 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.520 were scientific or control, and whether other substances have been 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.880 added to the powder being tested. Some allege that samples 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.040 of the powder can name little or no TETRAO toxin UH, 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.840 and Davis countered by saying that putting the powder into 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:53.920 solution for testing may have destroyed the active ingredients. Some 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.160 have charged that Davis repeated his topical applications of the 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.160 powder using rats and saw absolutely no effect. And then 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.320 some individual studied this several of these alleged zombies and 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:06.719 discovered clear cases of mental illness and mistaken identity. So 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:10.480 that's a lot of there's several grains of salt there 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:12.520 that you have to potentially take into account when you're 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:16.480 considering Davis's work. Well, there's also this idea of how 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.520 much could this can really absorb the powder anyway? And 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:21.680 if this were to be used on a mass scale 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:26.240 to create you know, quote unquote zombie humans, Um, how 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.240 how would that happen in a way that would make sense? Yeah, 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.320 and then you know, the case that we we were 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.760 talking about here is an individual wandering into a village 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:36.560 and saying, hey, I died a long time ago, and 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.200 I'm I'm not dead, and I'm a little confused, then 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.200 I'm a zombie. Um. That's generally not what you see 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:44.840 in zombie movies and and certainly not what we're seeing 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:46.720 on the street where we have peep individuals who are 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:50.760 raising questions about their their status and and and suggesting 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.200 that they might be zombies. Sure they might be a 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:57.400 bit confused, right, Um, the people who purportedly have been 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:02.040 ghost with zombie powder, but are right, they're not marauding. Um. 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.200 And certainly what we see the examples that we have 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.440 seen out there, um, people are not giving their autobiographies 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.680 right right, They're they're not. They're just engaging with other 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:16.520 with humans in a very um, a very brutal and 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.520 aggressive fashion. So all right, so you know it's worth 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.239 I think talking about that. But really what we're concentrating 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.120 on today are parasites because this does seem to be 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.360 the cause here. So the life of a parasite is 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:32.800 is I think a lot of us know, is one 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:36.720 of eternal pilgrimage and cyclical return. Uh. They must leave home, 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.640 which is in a one type of organism, and they 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:43.440 must travel along strange roads through other organisms. Uh, and 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:45.720 then they must eventually return to the place they began. 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.080 So you have a primary host, and the primary host 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:54.080 is is where sexual reproduction happens. That is where the 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.000 creatures are are generally born, or at least the eggs 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.200 are produced. You know. This is this is the home. 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.360 And then there is a secondary organism, uh, in which 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.080 it must travel. And so you end up with this 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:08.520 this cycle, this life cycle where just as this as 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.360 a man leaves his home and he moves to a city, 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.640 and then he eventually returns home to die or to 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:16.280 begin life again. It's kind of that kind of cycle 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:20.000 prodigal parasite, yes exactly. Yeah, all right, well, before we 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:25.000 go into another one of nature's examples of this, let's 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.600 take a quick break because I mean, assuming everything's okay, 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:32.800 we still need to take a break and acknowledge, uh, 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:34.920 what's going on. Yeah it maybe it may be the 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:37.720 zombie apocalypse for all we know, but it doesn't mean 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.360 that we're not going to do advertisements. So we're gonna 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.120 take a quick break, and when we come back, we're 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.600 gonna get into the examples of parasitic zombies in action 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:50.600 in the natural world. Alright, we're back, and if you're 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.440 just joining us. We're in the grips of what many 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.880 people were calling a zombie outbreak or even a mild 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.720 zombie apocalypse here in the Atlanta area and in certain 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:04.840 pockets of activity throughout the Southeast CDC. Even though they 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:10.080 have apparently lost control of their their main facilities here 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:11.920 in Atlanta, they are still on the case. They're trying 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.880 to get to the heart of this um. Law enforcement 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.960 is out trying to control both the infected individuals who 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:22.040 are roaming aggressively to the street and also the uninfected 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.760 individuals who have watched too many zombie shows and think 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.520 they need to take to the street with crude weapons 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:30.560 to battle the infected. It's it's there's a lot of unrest. 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:33.720 If you're listening to it, stay indoors, do not engage 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.880 with the infected individuals. But in this episode, we are 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:42.399 talking about cases in nature where a parasite reprograms a 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.479 host to its bidding and in some cases creates a 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:49.800 zombie from the host. So these are real world, natural 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:54.400 examples of parasitic zombies in action, which will hopefully help 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:56.760 us to better understand what's going on out there in 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:00.480 the streets. Yeah, and we're going to talk about Toxoplasma galandhy. 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.399 We talked about T. Gandhi before, but I think it 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:07.320 bears covering this information again because there's some Again, there's 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.600 some really interesting correlations with what we see on the 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:14.320 streets and what we know about T. Gandhi. Um to 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:18.280 Gandhi really illustrates that single fell parasitic organisms are capable 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:23.760 of rewiring human behavior an attempt to complete their life cycle. 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.600 We know this. We have seen this in animals and 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:31.480 we've seen in humans. Yeah, Now, toxoplasi plasmosis um T. Gandhi, 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:34.439 as we've discussed before, this is this is something that 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:36.880 lives in the lining of an infected cat's and testines, 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.960 and for two or three weeks following infection, millions of 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:44.840 microscopic toxoplasmos so young, which we call osis, ship out 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.960 aboard the cats feces, they leave the mother ship cat 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.919 aboard the cat poop, and any creature that encounters the 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:56.880 stowaway laden waste is susceptible to accidental infection. And this means, 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.639 you know, touching a litter box, infected soil and actuld water, 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:05.000 infected garden veggies, or of course more importantly, rats and 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:09.320 rodents digging around in the poop. Okay, because the then 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.320 the idea is that while the cat is the primary host, 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.840 then the rat or rodent or squirrel chipment what have 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.919 you is the intermediate host where the ossu continue to 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:23.639 develop and uh, and then once they have developed inside 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.399 of that rats day, then they want to return to 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.720 a cat to complete their life cycle. And they do 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.960 this by reprogramming the rats brain. So normally a rat 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.199 would say, I smell cat urine. I'm taken off right, 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.760 this is a fear signal. They processed this, but it 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:46.439 turns out that, uh, the parasite will actually cause the 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.680 rat to crave urine and be attracted to it. And 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.560 not only that, the parasite is short circuiting the fear 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:58.280 center in the rats brain. Okay, so this is a 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:02.720 huge behavioral change. It is essentially saying, hey, rat, why 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:07.440 don't you go present yourself to the cat and say here, here, kitty. Exactly? Yeah, 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:09.720 it's I mean it is that the parasite is in 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.920 the rat. The parasite needs to return to a cat, 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.359 and so it does it by taking over the rat's 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.840 brain and saying, hey, don't worry about anything, let's take 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:21.320 some risk. Let's go hang out around the places where 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.919 cats p all the time and see what happens. And 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.840 what will probably happen is a cat will eat them. Um. 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.080 There are even some studies that look at how this 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.920 affects humans when humans are the intermediate host. Yeah, that's 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:35.719 the question. How does t gandi play out in humans? Right? 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:38.320 There's a two thousand study from Charles University in Prague 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.240 made a lot of let me really made the rounds 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.520 a few years back, cut for sure, and reportedly if 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:47.200 you happen to have a recus negative blood which means 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:49.600 missing a protein on the surface of your blood cells, 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:53.800 a toxoplasmosa infection could make you two point five times 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.399 more likely to wind up in an automobile accident. So 0:20:56.440 --> 0:21:01.159 we're getting into ideas of increased risky behavior to the parasites, 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.959 tinkering with how you think and how you perceive dangers 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:07.800 in the world. Depending where you live in the world, 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.760 between thirty and six of the population is infected with 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:15.040 us already, so keep this in mind. So if you 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:18.240 if you were to have toxoplasmosis infection as a human, 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.480 as again the intermediate host for this parasite, you also 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.159 might find yourself hearing voices or worrying over your enemies, 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.200 plots against you, uh, plots against you and your cats 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:31.480 maybe even uh. And the conditions conspiral even into delusional thoughts, hallucinations, 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:35.320 social withdrawal, and even impaired movement and cognitive function. Uh. 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:39.080 These are also all symptoms, just so you know, of schizophrenia, 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.200 debilitating brain disorder that affects one point one percent of 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:50.080 US population. But they're still also symptoms of acute toxoplasmosa infection. UH. 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.960 So again it goes to show just how much influence 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:57.719 a parasite, a tiny parasite, single cell organism, can have 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.479 on the way we perceive realityity and interact with it. 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:03.680 So that's another thing to think about when you look 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:08.040 at what should be a healthy, living human behaving like 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:12.399 a wild you know, zombie. Yeah. I mean here's the 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:16.800 thing too about t GANDHI. Um. You know, in in 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:20.560 those certain cases, it does hijack your immune system, particularly 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:23.919 if if you're someone who has a family history of 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:27.640 schizophrenia mental illness. Right, there's this idea that could tip 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:34.400 the scales. But um, so far Biologist Urroslav Flagger, who 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:39.080 he himself actually has t Gandhi. He found that toxoplasmosis, 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:43.360 although really widespread among the population, is mostly responsible for 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:48.680 behavioral changes like slovenly dress and introverted behavior in men 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:53.879 and extraversion and attention to appearance in women. Yes, so 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:56.240 in a way, it kind of makes women a little better. 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:58.680 It makes the cat ladies a little more pleasant and 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.000 makes the men a little more full. Okay, so we 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.040 think about what's going on with with a parasite that 0:23:04.080 --> 0:23:07.800 has taken over humans that that are you know, clearly 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:13.320 very aggressive and slovenly. That makes sense for the male contingent, right, 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:16.840 but not the females. So we have plenty of female 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:19.240