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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.

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Speaker 1: Myname is Robert Lamb, and I'm really This is yet

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Speaker 1: another Halloween themed episode. They can also be enjoyed throughout

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Speaker 1: the year. The theme is is not Halloween specific, but

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Speaker 1: it goes very appears nicely with Halloween, like a nice,

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Speaker 1: very subtle, right subtle tones of Halloween nests. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: we were wearing, yet again some Halloween costumes while we

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Speaker 1: record this way. What are you wearing? Well, I am,

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Speaker 1: of course my favorite movie monster. I am Gamera. As

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Speaker 1: you noticed from the the large plastic turtle shell on

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Speaker 1: my back, the cool little uh tusks that I've painted

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Speaker 1: on in my face and uh and the tail. You

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Speaker 1: can't see the tail, but I also have a large

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Speaker 1: turtle tail. Well, yeah, it's I did see it out

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Speaker 1: in the other room. And I've lined the floor with

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Speaker 1: tiny Japanese buildings which I'm stepping on even now. The

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Speaker 1: elaborate to I can't believe you extended it all the

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Speaker 1: way to the break room. I know there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of work I've been I've been at work for forty

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Speaker 1: eight hours doing this. Oh yeah, yes, I am dressed

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Speaker 1: as a as my imaginary friend, my creepy imaginary friend,

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Speaker 1: very timely. Yeah yeah, so um so I'm a little

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Speaker 1: girl with like a nineteen fifties dress and a huge

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Speaker 1: giant bow and giant saucer eyes and thanks, yeah, it was,

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Speaker 1: it was. It was an extra step I thought to

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Speaker 1: dilate your eyes that intensely. Yeah, I mean, just kindle hours.

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Speaker 1: It's gonna last, but it's fine. I mean, just thank

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Speaker 1: you for helping me through the hallway. That yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I'm good luck reading those notes. But but yeah,

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Speaker 1: the creepy childhood imaginary friend. This does pop up in

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Speaker 1: horror movies, of course, because it's one of those things

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Speaker 1: where as adults, we'll see a child talking to something

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Speaker 1: that isn't there and referring to it by name, and

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Speaker 1: it can be a little like, what's kind of creature

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Speaker 1: is this that lives in this house and talks to

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Speaker 1: things that don't exist? And we've seen it taken to

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Speaker 1: extremes in such horror movies as The Exorcist, where the

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Speaker 1: little girl, of course, has this imaginary friend called Bazoozoo

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Speaker 1: and she makes this a little statue of it and

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Speaker 1: it looks exactly like this ancient demon statue from the

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Speaker 1: Middle East that we've seen the opening scenes. This demon

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Speaker 1: is making dogs fight or something. That's what that is.

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Speaker 1: My daughter just fashioned one of those out of Plato

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Speaker 1: the other day. Yeah, well that's cool, that's what means.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's you know, it's it's still she made

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Speaker 1: it for you. You should still put it on the fridge.

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Speaker 1: She didn't say she made it for me, and she

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Speaker 1: lit all these tiny torches around it. Okay, um, But yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's why it's creepy, right, because because you observe this

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Speaker 1: in a kid and you think who are you talking to?

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Speaker 1: Or initially it's creepy until you get introduced to the

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Speaker 1: imaginary friend and you understand that it's part and parcel

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Speaker 1: of their imagination. Well like share your your child's example. Oh,

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Speaker 1: she has to Lily and Fifi. Okay, my kids two

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Speaker 1: and a half. So you know if she's uh, she's

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Speaker 1: not doing a lot with them. I mean she's cooking

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Speaker 1: with them. She made egg plant parmers one with them.

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Speaker 1: The other day. She made what she called the castle

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Speaker 1: home for them out of blocks. But yeah, I hear

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Speaker 1: her talking to them and the first time I did

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Speaker 1: hear her talking to lately, I kind of stopped that

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Speaker 1: I was doing and said, what who are you talking to?

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Speaker 1: Because you know, it kind of raises the hackles a

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Speaker 1: little bit, like, well, yeah, I don't remember. Do you

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Speaker 1: remember ever having an imaginary friend or hearing about yourself

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Speaker 1: having one? Uh no, No, But there's some research I

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Speaker 1: came upon that we can talk about later that that

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Speaker 1: struck a chord with me. Yeah. I don't think I

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Speaker 1: ever ever had one. No one ever told me that

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Speaker 1: I spoke of one. And uh, my wife doesn't remember

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Speaker 1: having one either, but she there was a time when

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Speaker 1: her family may or may not have lived in a

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Speaker 1: haunted house, and she definitely came to her grandma and said,

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Speaker 1: there's a man in the bathtub, And there was no

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Speaker 1: man in the bathtub, So there's a creepy bald guy

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Speaker 1: in the in the bathtub. Yeah. So I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: thinking that's a weird imaginary friend. Well I'm not saying

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Speaker 1: it was an imaginary friend, but as well discuss the

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Speaker 1: imaginary friends tims from just this sort of imaginative, magical

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Speaker 1: thinking in general, And I could see where it could

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Speaker 1: also on occasion produce ghosts. So, yeah, just to throw

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Speaker 1: some quick stats out of the idea of ghosts. Yeah, uh,

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Speaker 1: just to throw some quick stats out there, sixty of

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Speaker 1: children up to the age of seven have had an

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Speaker 1: imaginary friend at least one time or another. Only in

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Speaker 1: firstborn children are most likely to have imaginary playmates. And

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Speaker 1: I found this really telling. Uh, girls are more likely

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Speaker 1: to have invisible friends, while boys are more likely to

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Speaker 1: transform themselves. So like where the girl might imagine that

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Speaker 1: they have a friend who is having the tea party

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Speaker 1: with them, Um, the boy would just imagine that he

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Speaker 1: is a ninja and uh, you know, follow out a

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Speaker 1: slide or something, you know, that kind of thing. And

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Speaker 1: I was I definitely looking back, I can I remember

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Speaker 1: probably to an inappropriate age, and I still have this

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Speaker 1: very rich I guess I still have an inappropriately rich

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Speaker 1: fantasy life in my head. But but I remember, you know,

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Speaker 1: getting caught up in these fictions that I would create

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Speaker 1: in my mind, and and at times I would like

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Speaker 1: pretend I was a spy or or like I remember

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Speaker 1: walking around, uh this might have been like sixth grade

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Speaker 1: and just sort of pass the time. I was pretending

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Speaker 1: that I was like a covert agent on a like

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Speaker 1: a cobra spaceship or something. Well, yeah, you know it's

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Speaker 1: funny to uh my brother and I. I don't know

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Speaker 1: that we would say this animal called Crango, which was

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Speaker 1: a stuffed girl that we had, was an imaginary friend.

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Speaker 1: But we made up so many stories about him. And

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Speaker 1: we still laugh to this day because, Uh, one of

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Speaker 1: the places we used to go with Crango was to

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Speaker 1: Marijuana Island. Whoa okay, babysitter check. Uh. It was just

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Speaker 1: so funny now because we look back and they were like,

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Speaker 1: we had no idea what Marijuana Island was, but I

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Speaker 1: know we came up with all these elaborate stories about this.

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Speaker 1: So anyway, yes, imaginative to play is really important. And

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Speaker 1: there's an article in the Wall Street Journal called the

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Speaker 1: Power of Magical Thinking, and uh, there's a quip from it.

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Speaker 1: I love it says, whenever you think about the Civil War,

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Speaker 1: or the Roman Empire, or possibly God, you're using your imagination.

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Speaker 1: Says Paul Harris, a development psychologist and professor at Harvard

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Speaker 1: Graduate School of Education who studies imagination. The imagination is

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Speaker 1: absolutely vital for contemplating reality, not just those things we

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Speaker 1: take to be near fantasy. So we know that there's

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Speaker 1: evidence that imagination and role playing is really key in

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Speaker 1: helping kids to develop perspective, which we've talked about in

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Speaker 1: terms of the theory of mind. Yeah, yeah, I love

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Speaker 1: that point about about reading about the past, because because ultimately,

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Speaker 1: if you're reading about if you're reading The Lord of

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Speaker 1: the Rings, or if you're reading, uh, you know, some like,

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Speaker 1: you know, tightly researched historical book, not not even a fiction,

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Speaker 1: but just a straight up this is what we think

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Speaker 1: life was like in ancient Rome or something, you're still

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Speaker 1: having to use like the same faculties to transport yourself

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Speaker 1: there and imagine the sense data around you of this

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Speaker 1: either fanciful or historically accurate setting. And of course you

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Speaker 1: can also fact in the whole point that we can

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Speaker 1: never be completely accurate with our historical representations, especially you know,

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Speaker 1: the farther we go back in time, right, right, So

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Speaker 1: we always think that we're grounded in reality or some

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Speaker 1: sort of realism, when in fact we are having to

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Speaker 1: engage that part of our brain quite a bit to

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Speaker 1: really inhabit a different perspective or a different time period,

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Speaker 1: as you were talking about. And again this is going

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Speaker 1: back to theory of mind, which we talked about before.

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Speaker 1: We're when we recorded Don't Eat the Panda about the

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Speaker 1: reason why we we sometimes have our hard time, uh,

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Speaker 1: squaring the fact that we eat an animal um with

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Speaker 1: the fact that we can't help but inhabit the perspective

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Speaker 1: of an animal, just because we're hardwired to survive like this.

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Speaker 1: So you've got to try to anticipate with the next

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Speaker 1: move will be whether or not you're seeking, you know,

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Speaker 1: your next dinner, or you're trying to make some sort

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Speaker 1: of strategic play on the court. Yeah, we have this

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Speaker 1: ability as humans to take what we know about ourselves

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Speaker 1: and use it to understand and predict the behavior of others.

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Speaker 1: And uh, it gives us a, like you said, a

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Speaker 1: basic evolutionary advantage. But then there's a certain amount of

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Speaker 1: bleed over into these other areas of our thought life,

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Speaker 1: like like imaginary friends, like imagined realities that aren't real,

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Speaker 1: I mean, just as being you know, we've we've just

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Speaker 1: discussed multiple times. We're part of a world of fixed

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Speaker 1: and movable objects, of symbols, of social organizations. We have

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Speaker 1: to navigate this world, and part of part of that

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Speaker 1: is being able to predict what other people are gonna

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Speaker 1: do theory of mind what other settings will be like.

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Speaker 1: For instance, anytime you go to say a doctor's office,

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Speaker 1: say you're going to a new doctor's office, you have

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Speaker 1: a basic idea in mind what that experience is going

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Speaker 1: to be like based on previous experiences, so you you

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Speaker 1: have a fictional version of that place before you actually

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Speaker 1: reached that point. Any of this have have probably spoken

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Speaker 1: on the phone with somebody that we know in a

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Speaker 1: setting that we don't know. Uh say, like if you

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Speaker 1: have a spouse or friend or family member that is

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Speaker 1: staying in a hotel room out of town and you're

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Speaker 1: talking to him on the phone, you end up picturing

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Speaker 1: where they are in your mind. I mean, you may

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Speaker 1: not even be putting a lot of thought into it.

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Speaker 1: You may not be building this false room piece by piece,

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Speaker 1: but your imagination is kicking in to predict what that

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Speaker 1: space is like. I was thinking about it even in

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Speaker 1: a more dramatic context, and I was thinking about the

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Speaker 1: third man syndrome, which we talked about in our Toppelganger podcast.

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Speaker 1: And that's when all of a sudden, a third you know,

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Speaker 1: it's let's say it's you and me and we're sitting

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Speaker 1: here and something life threatening happens to us, and all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, I imagine a third man or a

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Speaker 1: third woman with us, possibly helping us through whatever this

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Speaker 1: life threatening situation is. And this has been documented, right,

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Speaker 1: and we've seen this um with mountain climbers who were

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Speaker 1: stranded No eleven UM survive the account where there was

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Speaker 1: like this other guy in the stairwell with them, like

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Speaker 1: helping them escape, and it later, you know, it turns

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Speaker 1: out there was no such man. No, but he felt

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Speaker 1: like that person was so real and that person actually

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Speaker 1: helped him to get out of the building and instructed him.

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Speaker 1: And I was just thinking, like, this is a great

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Speaker 1: example of how your imagination kicks in to really help

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Speaker 1: you not just predict the future, but to even deal

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Speaker 1: with the present. Yeah, our imagination far from being just

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Speaker 1: this curious little trinket we we haul out to pass

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Speaker 1: the time and make the world a little more fun.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's an important, an essential part of our

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Speaker 1: mental faculties and allows us to navigate this world around us,

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Speaker 1: which is why it's so important that kids engage in

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Speaker 1: this right as you As you said, kids actually do this.

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Speaker 1: And it's funny because before a really a landmark study

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Speaker 1: on this was done um and This was a study

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Speaker 1: that was done by Marjorie Taylor. She's a psychology professor

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Speaker 1: at the University of Oregon and the author of a

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Speaker 1: book called Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them.

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Speaker 1: Before she did the study, which was a study that

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Speaker 1: then had a ten year follow up on it, people

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Speaker 1: thought or psychologists thought that maybe one and three kids

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Speaker 1: were engaging in this, but again, we know that a

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Speaker 1: lot of kids are doing this. Um and fantasy play

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Speaker 1: is really correlated with other positive attributes in preschool children.

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Speaker 1: For example, kids who have imaginary friends are more creative,

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Speaker 1: they have a greater social understanding, and they're better at

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Speaker 1: assuming the perspective of others. As we talked about, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're the theories that say that really imaginative children and

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Speaker 1: ones that have imaginary friends. It's it's showing that the

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Speaker 1: theory of mind is actually kicking in a little early

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Speaker 1: because this is not something that the child is born knowing.

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Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons like small children are also

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Speaker 1: kind of like aliens because it takes them a lot

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Speaker 1: to develop that point where they can they can put

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Speaker 1: themselves in another person's shoes if they were taking that

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Speaker 1: replicant test in Blade Runner, they would fail it and

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Speaker 1: Harrison Ford would arrest them. Uh, it's true. And actually

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Speaker 1: I was just thinking about this is a marker of genius. Um,

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Speaker 1: the fact that a child can do this early right,

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Speaker 1: this imagine play and not just have imagine friends, but

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Speaker 1: create imaginative worlds. So it's definitely something that parents should

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Speaker 1: be happy about when they see their kids engaging in this.

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Speaker 1: But I found it really fascinating that Taylor found these, uh,

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Speaker 1: that that imaginative friends could very you know, wildly across

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Speaker 1: the board, right, Like, it's more than just little girls

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Speaker 1: and another little girl plays with or a little boy

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Speaker 1: that convinces one another little boy that he needs to

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Speaker 1: do something bad. Right, it continue. They could have one

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Speaker 1: imaginative friend, they could have fifteen amagement to friends. Um.

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Speaker 1: And here are some examples. One one girl had an

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Speaker 1: invisible nine year old squirrel. And then there was a

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Speaker 1: little boy who had skateboard guy. Um and this was

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Speaker 1: an invisible eleven year old who lived in his pocket

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Speaker 1: and popped up at boring moments to do tricks on

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Speaker 1: his skateboard. And then um again, one of my favorites.

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Speaker 1: All this is kind of horrible elephant, a seven inch

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Speaker 1: high packaderm that wore a tank top and shorts and

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Speaker 1: sometimes was mean. But I thought that was fascinating just

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Speaker 1: because I've heard about this before. I've heard about imaginary

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Speaker 1: friends that were jerks, and psychologists say that they that

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Speaker 1: some times kids have jerk and mentionary friends just because

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Speaker 1: they're working out that again, assuming perspective and role playing

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Speaker 1: and becoming a little bit more sophisticated in how to

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Speaker 1: navigate the social world unfolding before them. Yeah, this is

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Speaker 1: where we get to. They have the idea of like

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Speaker 1: the kid who has the imaginary friend that either that

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Speaker 1: either tells him to knock over a vase or actually

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Speaker 1: did knock over the vase and is getting blamed for it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and this is this is another funding that Taylor found

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Speaker 1: that kids as old as twelve years old had imaginary playmates,

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Speaker 1: and she cited a German researcher who thinks that teen

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Speaker 1: diarists uh diarists keeping a diary experienced a similar phenomenon

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Speaker 1: when they addressed their musings to a specific person and

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Speaker 1: you know, dear diary um, and that this person takes

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Speaker 1: on the guys of a friend and this is where

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Speaker 1: I found some similarities in my own life when I

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Speaker 1: was that age, because I felt like I had a

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Speaker 1: a the same kind of relationship with my diary or

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Speaker 1: something that someone was there listening. Is it possible that

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Speaker 1: your diary was a hor crux? Now? Okay, I checked

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Speaker 1: it out. Okay, I'm just making sure. Uh, and no,

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Speaker 1: there's there's absolutely no possibility that my diary would be one.

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Speaker 1: Taylor interviewed about fifty adult novelists, okay and including Mry

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Speaker 1: writers Sue Grafton, to see if the same kind of

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Speaker 1: relationship existed between them and their characters, and nearly all

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Speaker 1: reported that at some point their characters seemed to come

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Speaker 1: to life and outside of their control. Yeah, which brought

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Speaker 1: Taylor to, you know, to this point of, well, maybe

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Speaker 1: an imaginary friend doesn't necessarily go away as you age.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it morphs into something else to find fascinating. Well, excellent.

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Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break, and when we come back,

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Speaker 1: we'll get into this. This podcast is brought to you

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Speaker 1: by Intel, the sponsors of Tomorrow and the Discovery Channel.

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Speaker 1: At Intel, we believe curiosity is the spark which drives innovation.

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Speaker 1: Join us at curiosity dot com and explore the answers

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Speaker 1: to life's questions. Right, and we're back before we get

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Speaker 1: into the idea of adult imaginary friends, um, which is

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Speaker 1: really fascinating. There's also this idea that the young children

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Speaker 1: when they engage with imaginary friends, they're using something that

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Speaker 1: is essentially a socialization simulator. It's like a Star Trek holiday,

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Speaker 1: except they're running through simulations of what it's like to

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Speaker 1: interact with other people. Yeah, it's a safe place to

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Speaker 1: work that up. Again, that's why they might have an

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Speaker 1: imaginary friend who's not so nice, right, because then once

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Speaker 1: they kind of go through the role playing of that,

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Speaker 1: then they can, you know, in theory, be able to

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Speaker 1: better handle kids that might be jerks to them. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it makes sense of like a kid encounters

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Speaker 1: in a a role jerk at at preschool, that they might

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Speaker 1: have a simulated jerk to work out exactly how these

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Speaker 1: scenarios would go. You know, it blows my mind, but

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Speaker 1: it does make make perfect sense. I can see how

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Speaker 1: that would be the case. Well, you know, we've talked

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Speaker 1: about how nuanced human beings are, even sometimes we don't

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Speaker 1: feel like it right given the day, but how complex

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Speaker 1: we are and how complex our emotions are, and how

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Speaker 1: we have those micro expressions in which an emotion can

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Speaker 1: pass over our face and under like eighteenth of a

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Speaker 1: second or something. And in order to be able to

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Speaker 1: get that, to be able to to look at another

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Speaker 1: human being and detect that micro expression really takes a

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Speaker 1: lot of practice, right, And it all starts with these

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Speaker 1: very basic things, like, you know, how do I deal

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Speaker 1: with negotiating this social circumstance, you know, give me back

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Speaker 1: my banana or my stuff toy or whatever whatever it is.

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Speaker 1: So adult imaginary friends. Yeah, okay, well not with me currently? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she because this week she's a she is not she's

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Speaker 1: she took a little break. She's not actually allowed in

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Speaker 1: the podcast booth. But um, there's some interesting information coming

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Speaker 1: out on this. So consider this. The average American watches

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Speaker 1: more than four and a half hours of TV a day. Okay, now,

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Speaker 1: considering this other fact, According to researcher John Kapiocho at

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Speaker 1: the University of Chicago, of all people are unhappy because

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Speaker 1: of social isolation at any given moment. Right, all right,

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Speaker 1: So there's this idea that para social relationships are emerging

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Speaker 1: in that that adults are in particular, are creating these

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Speaker 1: relationships with characters on TV, and these are basically one

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Speaker 1: sided pseudo relationships. Yeah. In a two thousand nine article

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Speaker 1: published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers tested

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Speaker 1: the social seriousy hypothesis and the findings suggested that people

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Speaker 1: spontaneously seek out social surrogates when real interactions are unavailable,

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Speaker 1: which would make sense right to an extreme. It's like

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Speaker 1: the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks in the volleyball all right, right, Wilson, Yeah, right, right,

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Speaker 1: take what you can get at the time, and you've

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Speaker 1: got your imagination and you have this person in front

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Speaker 1: of you that looks like they could be your friend, right,

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Speaker 1: was the show friends that you brought up the other

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Speaker 1: day or people felt such an affinity with them, yeah,

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Speaker 1: Or in my case, I remember being in college. There

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Speaker 1: was a point in college when I didn't really have

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Speaker 1: that many acquaintances or were friends. I had a few,

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Speaker 1: but there was a lot of alone time, and I

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Speaker 1: remember having this affinity for news radio and and and

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Speaker 1: and it would it really kind of felt like those

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Speaker 1: characters were my friends. And looking back, and it was

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Speaker 1: kind of weird and a little creepy. But that's so

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Speaker 1: when you hear MPR, Now do you hear like there's

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Speaker 1: certain voices that you feel like, Yeah, in a sense,

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Speaker 1: I feel like that's one of the values of radio

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Speaker 1: and podcasts because the individuals that you listen to are

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Speaker 1: kind of like they're right there with you. They're in

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Speaker 1: your head with you. They're almost there's as close as

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Speaker 1: your breath. When you're listening to say Irach Glass or

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Speaker 1: or maybe you're listening to us, there's a brickishing around

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Speaker 1: in your head right now. Yeah, you get this affinity

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Speaker 1: for for the voice. You feel like they're that you're

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Speaker 1: You're kind of paled on some sort of unreal level.

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Speaker 1: You're like, how God, if Julie brings up one more

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Speaker 1: example of excrement and I have to listen to her

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Speaker 1: obsession with it, I'm just gonna die. So you start

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Speaker 1: to feel like, oh, yes, like I start to know

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Speaker 1: these people on some level, right, And to go back

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Speaker 1: to the whole social simulation things, it also helps pattern

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Speaker 1: the way that you behave in social situation. She sort

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Speaker 1: of observe how this network of characters are behaving, and

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Speaker 1: you you pattern your expectations and your behavior based on them.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it makes perfect sense. Well. In this study

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Speaker 1: that the Journal talked about, the participants were asked to

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Speaker 1: write about TV shows after being asked a series of

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Speaker 1: questions non TV related questions about their relationships, and they

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Speaker 1: found that participants who were called a fight with a

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Speaker 1: close person in their lives wrote for significantly longer about

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Speaker 1: their favorite TV show than a non favorite TV show.

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Speaker 1: They also found that these participants suffered less of a

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Speaker 1: self esteem blow, negative moods, and feelings of rejection than

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Speaker 1: their non TV watching counterparts, which I thought was pretty fascinating.

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Speaker 1: So they're able to deflect some of these uh feelings

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Speaker 1: of loss that sometimes come up in relationships that we

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Speaker 1: have to negotiate every day by basically taking the energy

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Speaker 1: and putting it into these TV characters. And to come

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Speaker 1: back to what you mentioned earlier about the authors to

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Speaker 1: like the idea that a fictional character becomes alive and

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Speaker 1: becomes its own thing, um like the fictional character they're writing.

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Speaker 1: I've always found that really fascinating, both in the way

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Speaker 1: authors describe it and then also in my own experiences,

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Speaker 1: like if I'm writing about like a fictional character, and

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Speaker 1: it's kind of like surfing anybody's ever, who's ever surfed,

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Speaker 1: there's like this magic moment, like you're swimming as hard

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Speaker 1: as you can on the surfboard, and then there's this

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Speaker 1: magic moment where the wave catches the board and it's

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Speaker 1: propelled by its own energy. And that's the way it

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Speaker 1: feels when you're writing a character. And then there's a

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Speaker 1: point where the character becomes real enough to where on

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Speaker 1: a certain level, on a varying level, you don't know

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Speaker 1: what that character is going to do on the page well,

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Speaker 1: and you're you're preoccupied with that character right whether or

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Speaker 1: not you're writing it or you're watching it on TV,

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Speaker 1: because you're really you're immersing yourself and the experience. And

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Speaker 1: that's when you know, Hey, that's when you know you've

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Speaker 1: got a good story going, right um, Or you've written

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Speaker 1: a good storyline and someone is investing time in thinking

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Speaker 1: about the psyche of another person who is fictional, right

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Speaker 1: We I talked about this, um and then I was

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Speaker 1: looking up some recipes on a certain website from the

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Speaker 1: chef and she had a slew of recipes that were

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Speaker 1: dedicated to the show True Blood, and she was saying, Oh,

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Speaker 1: I think silky what the sandwich? And so on and

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Speaker 1: so forth, and I remember thinking, oh God, really, But

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Speaker 1: then I thought, oh, well I have I have certainly

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Speaker 1: dedicated enough mental time to that show as well and

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Speaker 1: considered the characters. Um just you know, I might be

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Speaker 1: doing laundry or even doing work, and on the sudden

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Speaker 1: character will pop up in my brain and I think

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Speaker 1: that is fascinating that I am giving mental time to

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Speaker 1: this construct. Well, I have to say, I've never actually

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Speaker 1: thought about what kind of sandwich I would cook for

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Speaker 1: I would make for Silkie, or what kind of what

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Speaker 1: kind of sandwich you might make for me? But you

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Speaker 1: should think about that. Now I'll have to think about that.

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Speaker 1: I'll have to I'll have to have to ponder that. So,

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Speaker 1: but what have it is when your favorite TV show

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Speaker 1: goes away? Well, yeah, I have friends who were like

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Speaker 1: mad and to Saved by the Bell. And on one level,

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Speaker 1: I'm just kind of kind of let roll my eyes

429
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:09,880
Speaker 1: at it, you know, but because it's an awful American

430
00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:12,560
Speaker 1: TV show. It is. But but then I have to

431
00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,160
Speaker 1: remind myself, all right, this is something that they probably

432
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:17,520
Speaker 1: they're nostalgic for. It was a part of their growing up,

433
00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:19,960
Speaker 1: and you can easily imagine, say, you know, you're an

434
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:23,000
Speaker 1: elementary school, or you're or you're in junior high and

435
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:26,840
Speaker 1: there's a show that, for the most part shows you

436
00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:32,720
Speaker 1: successful social teenagers interacting with one another and doing so

437
00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:35,640
Speaker 1: in the correct way. And and so you can't help

438
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 1: but participate in that is a is a kind of

439
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:41,440
Speaker 1: social uh simulation. You probably are bonding with them, and

440
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:44,600
Speaker 1: it sort of taking them on a surrogate friends. So

441
00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:46,320
Speaker 1: even though the show has been off the air forever,

442
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:48,480
Speaker 1: you I can see where you could you could still

443
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,040
Speaker 1: put that show in and still get a sense of

444
00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:53,919
Speaker 1: that belonging with them. You know, No, I get it.

445
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 1: It's just Saved by the Bell I have a real

446
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:59,600
Speaker 1: problem with that screech character. Yeah, yeah, there there are

447
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,399
Speaker 1: some deff issues to take take with that character. But

448
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:05,240
Speaker 1: hearing you said that, and having had a roommate who

449
00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:07,960
Speaker 1: was completely m entranced by Saved by the Bell, I

450
00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:11,720
Speaker 1: I think you got something there. Well. I don't think

451
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:13,159
Speaker 1: there are any There are no TV shows that I

452
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:14,880
Speaker 1: go back and watch over and over again, but there

453
00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:18,639
Speaker 1: are certain there are certain books that I reread like

454
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:21,520
Speaker 1: every year, where the like the characters do feel very

455
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:24,639
Speaker 1: ethnic to me and I and they're like old friends.

456
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:26,560
Speaker 1: I mean the books are kind of like old friends too.

457
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:28,240
Speaker 1: I imagine that's that's the way it is, if you're

458
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:30,000
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't really watch I don't watch news

459
00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 1: radio anymore. I think I tried once and I just

460
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,120
Speaker 1: couldn't get over I can't watch anything with a laugh

461
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 1: track anymore. But but there was but I but I

462
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:40,879
Speaker 1: wanted to I remember wanting to reconnect with these characters. Well,

463
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,840
Speaker 1: this is interesting. This is according to Jonathan Cohen. He's

464
00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:47,600
Speaker 1: a researcher and psychologist who authored a study that examined

465
00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,720
Speaker 1: the responses of television viewers the potential loss of their

466
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:55,800
Speaker 1: favorite television characters. Viewers anticipated experiencing the same negative reactions

467
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:59,200
Speaker 1: to pair social breakups as they experience when they're real

468
00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:04,640
Speaker 1: social really ships dissolve. So I mean, just because these

469
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,879
Speaker 1: people don't exist doesn't necessarily mean that you can't feel

470
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:11,280
Speaker 1: the same thing for them once they go away. Right, Yeah,

471
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: Well it's true. I mean, it's I have two thoughts

472
00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:16,240
Speaker 1: on this. First of all, there's a major American HBO

473
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:20,640
Speaker 1: crime drama that was probably the best television show we've had,

474
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,080
Speaker 1: which one Well, okay, it's the Wire. But there's a

475
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:28,359
Speaker 1: character that goes away at some point. And I remember

476
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 1: when that character went away, I was like, how can

477
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 1: we go on? How can we go on with this show?

478
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,639
Speaker 1: And how can I go on without this character? In

479
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:41,480
Speaker 1: my life? You my friend had an adult imaginary friend. Yeah, yeah,

480
00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:44,160
Speaker 1: he was pretty cool. But but then the show got

481
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:48,040
Speaker 1: even more awesome without this character, So I need. I know,

482
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:51,600
Speaker 1: it brings up all sorts of questions because, um, you know,

483
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:56,880
Speaker 1: obviously we're conducting our relationships more and more online via

484
00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:01,680
Speaker 1: social media, and uh so you sort of wonder if

485
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:06,400
Speaker 1: if this is just part and parcel of our modern age, right, yeah,

486
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:09,000
Speaker 1: like if you're interacting on the message board, sure, I

487
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,600
Speaker 1: know message boards normally, you know you'll have a situations

488
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:14,520
Speaker 1: where you have threads where people will share pictures of

489
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,400
Speaker 1: themselves or depending on the community, people may often share

490
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:21,120
Speaker 1: pictures of themselves, uh in varying stages of undress, who knows,

491
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 1: and weird costumes, it varies. The internet is a big tenant,

492
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,439
Speaker 1: but I think a lot of cases you were also

493
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 1: imagining what these people look like. You don't really have

494
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:32,560
Speaker 1: a firm idea of what they look like. And it's

495
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:36,640
Speaker 1: also that case with with with the radio and podcast personalities.

496
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,479
Speaker 1: I know, we've had, we've had pinched people mentioned that

497
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:41,639
Speaker 1: we don't look like we should look right based on

498
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 1: what they think, which I totally get because anytime that

499
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:46,960
Speaker 1: you've read a book and it's been made into a movie,

500
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:49,359
Speaker 1: haven't you said, that's not what I thought that person

501
00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:51,560
Speaker 1: looked right? And I find that I am that way

502
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 1: with certain radio personalities, even if I know what they

503
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:58,320
Speaker 1: look like, um or or audiobook personalities. Take that David

504
00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:01,159
Speaker 1: saderis I know what David Sdaris looks like. I've I've

505
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:03,719
Speaker 1: seen him live. I I if I stopped to think

506
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 1: about it, I can picture him. But when I hear

507
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: him speak and read his own work, I picture David

508
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:12,440
Speaker 1: Hyde Pierce. And that's the only thing that's a really

509
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:14,920
Speaker 1: good fit. Yeah, it is a good fit. It's good casting.

510
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:16,680
Speaker 1: But I know better, I know what he looks like.

511
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:21,280
Speaker 1: There is actual, real David Sedaris. Yeah, because it does

512
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,639
Speaker 1: not need to play him. But but see that reason

513
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:28,160
Speaker 1: the question what is an authentic experience and what is inauthentic?

514
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:32,240
Speaker 1: When we know we're hardwired to seek out connections with

515
00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:36,200
Speaker 1: one another, but we're also compelled to create our own

516
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:40,360
Speaker 1: reality to engage our imagination. Right, Yeah, alright, so imaginary friends.

517
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:42,680
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask my imaginary friend to hand me some

518
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 1: listener mail. Thank you, now I will I just have

519
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:51,160
Speaker 1: the one to read. But it's a really cool one listener.

520
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,640
Speaker 1: Robert McLaren writes in and I'm using his last name

521
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:58,159
Speaker 1: because it was cool because he listened to our episode

522
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,479
Speaker 1: about the cube Earth. What would it? What would cuber

523
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:04,120
Speaker 1: or a cube planet be like? And he was like, hey,

524
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:07,040
Speaker 1: I did a Google in the search. All the images

525
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: were kind of crappy, you know, because there are it

526
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:12,320
Speaker 1: is like a for the original blog post that does

527
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:14,359
Speaker 1: this stem from? I had to find like a very

528
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 1: basic here is a here is a globe and now

529
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:18,760
Speaker 1: it is a cube kind of image. It looks like

530
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:22,240
Speaker 1: it was made in photoshop. And so Robert here, Robert

531
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,959
Speaker 1: McClaren is a really talented artist, and so he's like,

532
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:27,800
Speaker 1: I can be better than that. I Am going to

533
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:30,880
Speaker 1: make an artistic representation of what a cube planet would

534
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 1: look like. And he's sent in this amazing photo. So um,

535
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:37,439
Speaker 1: I mean he actually traveled into space and photograph. Now

536
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:41,040
Speaker 1: he created this awesome work of art showing like the

537
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,560
Speaker 1: exactly how we were describing it, the way the atmosphere

538
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:46,120
Speaker 1: is still a spherical that how the end the edges

539
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:48,760
Speaker 1: of the cubes are like mountains poking above the atmosphere

540
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 1: and it's just really awesome. So, uh do check that out.

541
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:53,679
Speaker 1: It should be on the house stuff Works blogs and

542
00:27:53,680 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 1: we'll also have the reference on the Facebook. It's a

543
00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 1: really elegant representation and I want it on a T shirt. Yeah,

544
00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:01,840
Speaker 1: so thank you Robert for that, and uh yeah yeah,

545
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,359
Speaker 1: look him up. Robert mclareny has a website and everything

546
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:08,240
Speaker 1: that's mc l a r e n. So if you

547
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:10,240
Speaker 1: have stuff you want to share with us, um, be

548
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:12,639
Speaker 1: it really cool art that you've made, or just some

549
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 1: really cool thoughts that you've funk, then you may find

550
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:19,560
Speaker 1: us on Facebook and Twitter. We are blow the Mind

551
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 1: on both of those and we would also love to

552
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 1: hear about your own experiences with imaginary friends. Have you

553
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 1: had them? How many? What were they like? Were they

554
00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:31,639
Speaker 1: were they tiny pack of germs being mean to you?

555
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 1: I hope not, um, But anyway, you can always drop

556
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:36,879
Speaker 1: us a line at Blow the Mind at how Stuff

557
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:43,400
Speaker 1: works dot com. Be sure to check out our new

558
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work

559
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities

560
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 1: of tomorrow,