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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 you welnot the Stuff to Blow

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Speaker 1: your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick,

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Speaker 1: And as we promised last time, we're back with part

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Speaker 1: two of our Halloween hangover a listener mail. We're not

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Speaker 1: usually going to be doing two part listener mail back

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Speaker 1: to back like this, but there was a lot of

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Speaker 1: great stuff that came in over the October season related

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Speaker 1: to our Monster Science episodes, and we're also just using

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Speaker 1: a little help, I think, to get through the Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: week here. Yeah, American Thanksgiving is how, there's no denying it,

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Speaker 1: and we have a number of different things cooking here.

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Speaker 1: We of course we're continuing to pump out stuff to

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Speaker 1: blow your mind, but we also have the Invention podcast

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Speaker 1: launching next month, and we've been researching and uh writing

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Speaker 1: and recording these episodes so we can start dishing those up.

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Speaker 1: So definitely keep an eye out for that. Speaking of

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Speaker 1: strange technology and can traptions, I have noticed that Carney

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Speaker 1: is uh not only still haunted. Last time we discussed

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Speaker 1: a little bit how he's seen. He's got a ghost

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Speaker 1: in the machine thing going on. And his gears are

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Speaker 1: moaning in the in the night winds a little bit.

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Speaker 1: But have you noticed also a slight elongation of his

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Speaker 1: mouth antennae. Oh yes, I'm never was sure why he

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Speaker 1: had those installed to begin with, but now they are

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Speaker 1: definitely pronounced. Yeah, they're almost becoming fang like in appearance.

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Speaker 1: One could wonder if he is undergoing a transformation to

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Speaker 1: robot vampoiism. That may be the case. Um oh, before

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Speaker 1: we get go in here too, I want to remind everybody, Hey,

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Speaker 1: check out our t public store. That's where you can

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Speaker 1: find some merchandise for the show. There's a store tab

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Speaker 1: at the top of our homepage. Stuffabole your mind dot com.

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Speaker 1: It's the best way to get to it. We have

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Speaker 1: a number of cool bits of merchandise logo designs, but

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Speaker 1: also episode centric designs, including I am told there should

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Speaker 1: be some new squirrel based merchandise in there for you,

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Speaker 1: some nice dark skug Uh content for you to have

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Speaker 1: put on a shirt or a mug or a sticker

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Speaker 1: or what have you, as well as a potential holiday

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Speaker 1: great basilisk shirt. So get excited about those. Check those

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Speaker 1: out because buying merchandise like this it's a cool way

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Speaker 1: to support the show. Uh. And of course, if you

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Speaker 1: don't want to spend money supporting the show, you can

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Speaker 1: also help us out for free by simply reviewing the

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Speaker 1: show wherever you have the power to do so. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: some merch up or give us some stars. Now should

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Speaker 1: we jump right into our first bit of listener mail

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Speaker 1: from Joshua, let's do it? Okay? This concerned our episode

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Speaker 1: about monster slayers the slayer tradition, So Joshua writes in

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Speaker 1: to say, Hi, I'm a first time listener and I

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Speaker 1: just heard your episode The Slayer. I studied ancient Near

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Speaker 1: Eastern myth and the Hebrew Bible at the University of Chicago,

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Speaker 1: so imagine my surprise when the first episode I heard

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Speaker 1: focused on the myths that I love. You did an

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Speaker 1: amazing job discussing the stories. And my only correction is

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Speaker 1: that the second A in I guess what I pronounced,

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Speaker 1: Acadian is pronounced with the long A like hey, so

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Speaker 1: that'd be Acadian and I guess this, of course refers

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Speaker 1: to the ancient Mesopotamian culture, the Acadians. Uh. So Joshua continues,

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Speaker 1: there is one thing particularly interesting about the uma a leash,

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Speaker 1: and this is, of course, the ancient Mesopotamian creation epic,

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Speaker 1: where you've got the battle between mar Duke and the

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Speaker 1: sea dragon Tiamat. Joshua writes, there is one thing particularly

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Speaker 1: interesting about the Numa a leash that I wanted to

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Speaker 1: tell you about Tiamat. The monster who has slain in

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Speaker 1: the story is the sea goddess. The hero who slays

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Speaker 1: her is the storm God. When he slays her, he

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Speaker 1: summons his winds, you remember the evil wind robert Um.

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Speaker 1: She swallows them, and then he shoots an arrow at

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Speaker 1: her belly and she pops like a balloon. This causes

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Speaker 1: her body to be cut in half, and dry ground

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Speaker 1: appears on which we live. In the creation story, in

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Speaker 1: the by bowl, before anything existed, there was just a

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Speaker 1: chaotic void to who and vo who. God created the

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Speaker 1: heavens and the earth by gathering together all the waters

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Speaker 1: from that void and then separating them to let dry

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Speaker 1: ground appear. When we picture the Biblical creation story within

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Speaker 1: the context of our cosmology, we tend to picture a

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Speaker 1: puddle of water floating in space. Then a hole appears

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Speaker 1: in the middle, and dry ground rises from the hole

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Speaker 1: in the puddle. But in the context of ancient near

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Speaker 1: Eastern cosmology, it's better to picture outer space as nothing

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Speaker 1: but water. Think of an aquarium filled with water. Floating

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Speaker 1: dead center. In the middle of the aquarium is an

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Speaker 1: upside down glass bowl with a lid. We live in

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Speaker 1: the bowl, standing on the underside of the lid. Everything

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Speaker 1: outside the bowl is water. This is why the Hebrew

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Speaker 1: word rakiya means both sky and a solid hammered surface.

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Speaker 1: I think this is where we sort of get the

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Speaker 1: idea of the firmament right, that there's like a a

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Speaker 1: solid surface up in the sky that you could walk

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Speaker 1: around on. Observationally, this works from the perspective of a

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Speaker 1: person standing on the bowl's lid. The sky is the

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Speaker 1: color of water because there's water up there. The sky

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Speaker 1: reaches down to the horizon. If you drill into the earth,

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Speaker 1: you find water, and if you go far enough on land,

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Speaker 1: you find the terrible chaotic primordial water the ocean. This

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Speaker 1: explains why the storm god was often the chief god.

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Speaker 1: Storms weren't events when the storm god caused destruction for

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Speaker 1: humans and needed to be placated so he wouldn't wipe

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Speaker 1: us out. Instead, they were battles when the primordial waters

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Speaker 1: above started falling back down, threatening to fill the bowl.

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Speaker 1: The storm God used the strength of his winds to

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Speaker 1: reinflate the bowl, pushing the primordial waters back up above

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Speaker 1: the solid sky, keeping the bowl open for us to

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Speaker 1: live in. Perhaps it's counterintuitive for us with our cosmology,

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Speaker 1: but in the cosmology of the ancient Near East, humanity

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Speaker 1: should thank the storm God for constantly inflating the bowl

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Speaker 1: and saving us all from drowning. So, in my mind,

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Speaker 1: the point of the Enuma a leash was to tell

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Speaker 1: the Acadians, don't be afraid of terrifying storms. Instead, you

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Speaker 1: should fear the day when the waters fall and there

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Speaker 1: is no storm, because that will be the day when

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Speaker 1: it all comes crashing in again. I could go on,

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Speaker 1: but this is too long already. Anyway, great job, and

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Speaker 1: I'm excited to keep listening. Thanks now, Robert, this raises

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Speaker 1: This is a fantastic email, by the way, I love

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Speaker 1: all this inside on the ancient Near Eastern cosmology. Uh

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Speaker 1: And and this fits pretty well with a lot of

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Speaker 1: what I've read about about their kind of view of

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Speaker 1: the shape of the cosmos and stuff. But one of

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Speaker 1: the things that I hadn't considered before is that given

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Speaker 1: all of this should we, in fact picture the events

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Speaker 1: of the Enuma a leash somehow happening underwater, like if

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Speaker 1: the Earth hadn't been created yet, if there wasn't yet

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Speaker 1: an inflated bull. Was this all somehow under the primordial

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Speaker 1: total ocean of the void. Maybe this is why the

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Speaker 1: deep sea peril movies of the of the nineties resonated

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Speaker 1: so is that they're they kind of connect with a

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Speaker 1: primordial cosmology, the idea that our existence is essentially a

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Speaker 1: deep sea abotant. I like that, or wait, are you

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Speaker 1: talking about the nineties or the nineteen like eighty nine

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Speaker 1: under it? But the enthusiasm and the VHS enthusiasm of

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Speaker 1: course pills over there, right, Okay, you're talking the Abyss, Leviathan,

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Speaker 1: Deep Star six, Lords the Deep all that. Oh yeah, yea,

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Speaker 1: because I know that's your jam, because essentially all those

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Speaker 1: stort tales are encapsulated versions of the surface world beneath

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Speaker 1: the deep. Yeah, but they're also the stories about space.

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Speaker 1: They're like they Leviathan is just alien underwater in a way, again,

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Speaker 1: making the connection between the ocean and the space beyond

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Speaker 1: very nice. I love this. No, I'm thinking of some

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Speaker 1: obvious reasons that my my guests about the Numa alis

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Speaker 1: here doesn't really make sense because obviously there are winds

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Speaker 1: and so like there wouldn't be winds underwater, would there be? Well,

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Speaker 1: but there are winds underwater. In a sense, we do

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Speaker 1: have tides and crewerrents, I guess, And of course we

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Speaker 1: also have the movements and migrations of marine species. Not

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Speaker 1: that all of that would necessarily be known to ancient peoples,

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Speaker 1: but some of it would be, especially if they were seafaring. Well.

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Speaker 1: I also think about the deep sea braving nature of

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Speaker 1: other ancient Mesopotamian heroes, like if you think of the

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Speaker 1: epic of Gilgamesh, one of the feats that Gilgamesh does

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Speaker 1: is he walks down to the bottom of the ocean

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Speaker 1: to get like some kind of sacred plant he needs.

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Speaker 1: I can't remember quite why he needs it, but he

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Speaker 1: needs a plant down there, so he just like walks

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Speaker 1: down to the bottom of the sea, gets it, and

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Speaker 1: he comes back up. Well, of course we've all That

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Speaker 1: reminds me of some of our discussions in the Ancient

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Speaker 1: Aliens episodes about about the idea that first contact occurs

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Speaker 1: with some sort of entity that arises from the d

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, so this was something Carl Sagan talked about

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Speaker 1: in his work. Now, of course, like us, Carl Sagan

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Speaker 1: did not credit the idea of ancient aliens, didn't believe

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Speaker 1: in uh you know, the Eric Fondanicken ideas and stuff

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Speaker 1: like that. But he was asking the question of Okay,

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Speaker 1: if earthlings had been contacted in the past by ancient aliens,

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Speaker 1: what would the evidence look like. And the closest thing

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Speaker 1: he and his co author thought they could come up

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Speaker 1: with was this, Uh, I don't remember. Was it Sumerian?

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Speaker 1: I think it might have been like a retelling of

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Speaker 1: some Sumerian epic or something. It was some ancient Near

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Speaker 1: Eastern epic about these beings that came up out of

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Speaker 1: the water and brought culture to the people. What was

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Speaker 1: the name of that entity again? Uh? Oh, honest, yes,

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Speaker 1: and or Adappa I think, yeah, I just love that,

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Speaker 1: and then I find the the the mythic image of

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Speaker 1: it all all the more haunted. Yeah, that's great stuff. Anyway, Well,

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Speaker 1: thank you, Joshua. That was an awesome piece of listener mail,

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Speaker 1: and we really appreciate the clarification of the shape of

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Speaker 1: the world. Now, should we explore another response to the

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Speaker 1: Slayer of episode from maybe this one from our listener Taylor. Yes,

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Speaker 1: this is another great piece of listener mail. Taylor rights, Hello,

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Speaker 1: Robert Joe. I absolutely love the Monster Slayer episode. I

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Speaker 1: really like how you tied in the fear and courage

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Speaker 1: aspects of the episode. I would like to share a

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Speaker 1: personal experience of how a fictional tale of heroics can

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Speaker 1: really change the way you respond with threat or whatever

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Speaker 1: is generating the fear response. I we actually asked that

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Speaker 1: question in the episode, like whether there's any evidence that

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Speaker 1: thinking about her mythical heroics makes you more courageous, And

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Speaker 1: we didn't find any evidence or like research on that,

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Speaker 1: but it sounds like Taylor has an anecdote here. Yes,

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Speaker 1: Taylor continues, I am a combat veteran and served in

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Speaker 1: Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. We were relieving the unit

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Speaker 1: that was taking heavy cashually at Casually and they were

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Speaker 1: withdrawn in their stead. We took on the task of

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Speaker 1: finishing what they had started, and I will spare the

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Speaker 1: details of the actual mission. I was a combat engineer

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Speaker 1: and I would sometimes spearhead infantry platoon with a handheld

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Speaker 1: mind detector, sweeping for explosive hazards. I have to say

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Speaker 1: fear was part of an everyday phenomena that I experienced,

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Speaker 1: and when I was mind sweeping for improvised explosive devices

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Speaker 1: UH and old anti personnel minds, I was especially fearful.

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Speaker 1: But I had to somehow overcome this fear in order

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Speaker 1: to complete my role in the mission. The whole time,

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Speaker 1: I could only think of what I was doing to

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Speaker 1: prevent a catastrophe from taking place by detecting these hazards,

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Speaker 1: and I actually recalled the heroics of the old Lord

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Speaker 1: of the Ring series to give me a boost encourage.

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Speaker 1: We had a laptop that we watched movies on and

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Speaker 1: had watched all three Lord of the Rings films several times.

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Speaker 1: Many acts of bravery took place in those stories, but

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Speaker 1: some stuck with me. Boromir sacrifice was one and Ewen

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Speaker 1: was another. I personally had always felt a small part

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Speaker 1: and I didn't realize the act sual reality of deploying.

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Speaker 1: For some reason, my morals had always led me to

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Speaker 1: believe that war was inherently wrong. The guilt had always

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Speaker 1: played a role in my fear to die. For a reason,

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Speaker 1: I did not fully understand what was I contributing to

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Speaker 1: humanity by being part of all this. I felt a

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Speaker 1: little helpless, and I took myself out of the big

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Speaker 1: picture and downsized to my immediate circumstances, which were my

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Speaker 1: fellow humans. If I were to die, then let it

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Speaker 1: be from my fellow humans, the ones I was sharing

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Speaker 1: this unfortunate experience with. For some reason, I could clearly

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Speaker 1: recount Owen's bravery against Saron. She was no super human

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Speaker 1: or legendary warrior, but just a human woman who only

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Speaker 1: wanted to protect those she loved. Her love for her

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Speaker 1: friends and family gave her the courage to overcome Saron

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Speaker 1: and stab him in the face. Saron, to me, was

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Speaker 1: acting like a metaphor for these destructive devices, someplaced by

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Speaker 1: Taliban soldiers and others left from previous wars. Like saw on,

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Speaker 1: these things laid in wait for the right moment, then

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Speaker 1: afflicted terrible destruction on those who came across them. These

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Speaker 1: things did not discriminate and killed not only soldiers in

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Speaker 1: the war, but also helpless locals. I use these fantastical

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Speaker 1: stories of bravery to help me through some of my

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Speaker 1: ordeal in Afghanistan, and even though I knew they were

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Speaker 1: all fictional characters, they have played a vital role in

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Speaker 1: inspiring me to face my own fears and overcome them.

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Speaker 1: Sorry for the long response, but it felt good to

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Speaker 1: share these considering I don't get to talk about it much.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for the wonderful episode, and I look forward to

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Speaker 1: the rest of October's podcast. Cheers from Alaska. Well, Taylor,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for getting in touch. These were

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Speaker 1: really some, uh, some fascinating insights. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: I've ever heard that directly. It seems like a kind

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Speaker 1: of common thing to be inspired by heroics from stories

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Speaker 1: to to do something actually, you know, requiring of courage

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Speaker 1: in real life. But I can't think of examples other

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Speaker 1: than what Taylor has just given us here. Well, what

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Speaker 1: I love about this examples of course that it's it's

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Speaker 1: from a combat scenario, so it's a thing that you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't have any personal experience with, but it. But

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Speaker 1: of course it's always great to hear from our listeners

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Speaker 1: who do, because they can put new twists on topics

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Speaker 1: such as this, and uh, it's actual physical courage. By

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Speaker 1: the way, I mean a lot of the kind of

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Speaker 1: courage I was thinking about people needing in that episode

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Speaker 1: was more mundane day to day courage, Like, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you have a fear of public speaking, you've got

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Speaker 1: to somehow get up the guts to do it for

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Speaker 1: a work scenario or something like that, or you know,

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Speaker 1: those kind of mundane things. But here you're actually talking

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Speaker 1: about putting your life on the line. Yeah. And I

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Speaker 1: also like the idea of associating Saron with just sort

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Speaker 1: of the the nature of war, you know, like he's

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Speaker 1: it's ultimately what the great enemy is all about. Now,

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Speaker 1: at the risk of being doubly wrong, I think some

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Speaker 1: of our more nitpicky listeners might say, I think the

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Speaker 1: character Taylor is thinking about there is the witch king

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Speaker 1: of Angmar who gets stabbed in the face by a

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Speaker 1: o N. Is that not the case? I believe that

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Speaker 1: is the case, Yeah, because that looks exactly what I mean.

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Speaker 1: Is one of Sauron's generals or whatever. Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: in a sense, it's stabbing the witch king in the face.

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Speaker 1: It is like stabbing saw On in the face. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? Climb that tower and stab

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Speaker 1: the eye? That makes sense? Yeah, there's no face for stabbing.

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Speaker 1: So uh but we knew we knew what what Taylor

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Speaker 1: was talking about. Yes, sorry, I did not mean to nitpick.

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Speaker 1: This is a great story. Yeah, and it ties in

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Speaker 1: because we are going to have other listener mails in

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Speaker 1: this episode that involved the Lord of the Rings. Oh

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Speaker 1: that's right. Yeah, man, we have got so many excellent

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Speaker 1: pedantic Tolkien nerds out there. Uh. I just had to

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Speaker 1: say that or I knew that we would get a

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Speaker 1: flood of listener mail like that wasn't so on. We

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Speaker 1: love you, We love you anyway. Thank you so much, Taylor.

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Speaker 1: Uh and uh yeah, I feel free to get in

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Speaker 1: touch again. Okay. Our next piece of listener mail comes

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Speaker 1: from Zolts result says hello, Robert and Joe. And this

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Speaker 1: is also about the Slayer. By the way, I was

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Speaker 1: writing to you about one part of the recent Monster

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Speaker 1: Slayer episode and the episode you mentioned that babies have

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Speaker 1: been shown to be afraid of spiders and snakes, and

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Speaker 1: that's the type of fear that sticks around, unlike the

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Speaker 1: fear from bears or other predators. I don't really have

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Speaker 1: any proof of my idea. It just makes sense to

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Speaker 1: me intuitively, if a baby or a youngster is left

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Speaker 1: alone in nature for a while or just not looked

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Speaker 1: after that closely by the parents, and it is afraid

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Speaker 1: of snakes and spiders, it has a survival advantage. If

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Speaker 1: a venomous snake comes along and the baby picks it

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Speaker 1: up and tries to chew on it, it will most

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Speaker 1: likely get bitten, highly reducing its chance of survival. So

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Speaker 1: fear of snakes or spiders being hardwired, even in infancy,

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Speaker 1: can increase the survival rates of young humans and animals.

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Speaker 1: On the other hand, if a bear, wolf, or lion,

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Speaker 1: or any other large predator comes along, the baby has

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Speaker 1: no advantage if it is afraid of them. Obviously, if

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Speaker 1: the baby doesn't make any noise, it has a higher

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Speaker 1: chance of not being noticed, but that would require a higher,

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Speaker 1: more specific type of recognition to differentiate between large predators

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Speaker 1: or members of its own species or even its parents

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Speaker 1: based on limited information, and babies are not really known

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Speaker 1: for being quiet when it would be ideal, So being

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Speaker 1: inherently afraid of bears doesn't give infants much survival advantage.

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Speaker 1: So it wouldn't develop evolutionarily, and it wouldn't get hardwired

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Speaker 1: into our brains anyways. Just an idea, keep up the

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Speaker 1: good work and greetings from Hungary. Uh, I can maybe

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Speaker 1: see what you're talking. That's possibility to consider like that. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, the question is like why snakes and spiders specifically,

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Speaker 1: especially when they're not the most threatening animals out there.

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Speaker 1: And the idea could be that if this is a

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Speaker 1: hardwired instinct kind of fear instead of a learned cultural

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Speaker 1: fear taught by the parents, then that could be advantageous

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Speaker 1: to very young children because well, I mean, for one thing,

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Speaker 1: because those animals are not predatory, so they would not

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Speaker 1: be usually seeking to like attack a baby. It would

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Speaker 1: be more like if the baby stumbles across them that

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Speaker 1: they would be dangerous. They would need to know to

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Speaker 1: leave it alone. Yeah yeah, whereas like I leave it

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Speaker 1: alone instinct just wouldn't really matter in the case of

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Speaker 1: a large predator that wants to eat you, because you're

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Speaker 1: not going to get away from it and get in.

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Speaker 1: If they were to get away from it, it would

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Speaker 1: be it would be the domain of the parents. They

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Speaker 1: would be the ones who would have to have to

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Speaker 1: stick him into a cave or a tree or however

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Speaker 1: it happened in clan of the cave Bear Um, I

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Speaker 1: want to say it was what stuck her into some

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Speaker 1: sort of enclosure or the bear you could only scratch

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Speaker 1: at her. Yeah, a while since i've seen it, I've

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Speaker 1: never seen that one. Basically the same idea that's explored.

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Speaker 1: I think in um one of the Ewok movies. Oh,

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Speaker 1: which one, the one with Wilford Brimley. Maybe that's the

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Speaker 1: one I've seen the most. I think maybe that's the

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Speaker 1: one because that's the one where she loses her parents,

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Speaker 1: her entire family. They just kill off the entire family

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Speaker 1: and bring in Wilford Brimley. I think they shove her

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Speaker 1: into a tree trunk or something to save her from

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Speaker 1: some wild beast. Well at least she got a consolation Brimley. Uh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so that's an interesting ideas old. Yeah, I'd have to

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Speaker 1: think about that. See see what's some evidence for against

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Speaker 1: that would be. But yeah, we're we're thinking about Thanks.

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Speaker 1: All right, on that note, we're gonna take a quick

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Speaker 1: break and we come back more listener mail. Thank you. Alright,

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Speaker 1: we're back. Okay, we got a big email covering several

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Speaker 1: topics from our listener, Dan Robert, do you want to

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Speaker 1: read part of that one? Sure? I'm going to read.

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna read parts of it and I'll explain why.

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Speaker 1: But Dan writes in and says, hello, Robert and Joe,

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Speaker 1: a Newish fan here. I found about your podcast back

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Speaker 1: in March of this year and have been listening to

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Speaker 1: you since then, gorging myself on your mercifully vast back

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Speaker 1: catalog heedless of date. Like Baker's Gods are Scott Baker's Gods,

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Speaker 1: I scan your timeline as a single moment before I

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Speaker 1: get along, I just wanted to say I find you

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Speaker 1: guys and prior host too, can't forget them to be phenomenal,

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Speaker 1: and wanted to thank you for being consistently insightful, well researched, informative,

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Speaker 1: and at times hilarious. Oh thank you, Dan. Stuff to

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Speaker 1: Blow your Mind is, without a doubt, one of my

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Speaker 1: top tier podcasts. You guys bring science to the average

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Speaker 1: person in a way if you do and will not

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Speaker 1: no doubt be classed as one of the better methods

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Speaker 1: of science communication, an application to everyday life thought and

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Speaker 1: fiction of this generation of podcasters. Now at this point

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Speaker 1: in the email, um Dan goes on to ask and

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Speaker 1: bring up a couple of of issues that have a

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Speaker 1: lot to do with the specifics of our Scott Baker's

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Speaker 1: um Second Apocalypse saga, the you know, the way the

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Speaker 1: God's work in it, the way one might potentially take

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Speaker 1: Julian James bichmeral mind Um hypothesis and sort of fold

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Speaker 1: it into at least one aspect of Baker's work. I

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Speaker 1: really enjoyed chatting with him about this and it it

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Speaker 1: makes me want to go back and maybe check out

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Speaker 1: a few of these things again um in in Baker's work.

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Speaker 1: But I do want to pick up on his third

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Speaker 1: point that he brought up in the list of mail.

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Speaker 1: He says, moving on, I don't want to take up

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Speaker 1: too much time, so I'll keep it simple. Way back

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Speaker 1: in one of your episodes on space not helpful, I know.

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Speaker 1: I think it's the Moons of Jupiter or Saturn. Sorry,

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Speaker 1: you mentioned how you don't see slow acting, slow thinking

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Speaker 1: monsters or aliens and fiction that often. Oh, I think

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Speaker 1: this was the Moons of Saturn episode because we were

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Speaker 1: talking about aliens that might live on the extremely cold

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Speaker 1: moon of Titan. That was, if they're in a cold environment,

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Speaker 1: they might have a very slow metabolism and slow slow everything. Well,

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Speaker 1: Dan goes on, He says, I was reminded of the

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Speaker 1: Watchers in William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land. To summarize briefly,

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Speaker 1: in the Night Land, the sun is dead, the stars

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Speaker 1: are gone, and humanity survives within a gigantic miles tall

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Speaker 1: pyramid and is beset by monsters, both from billions of

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Speaker 1: years of evolution in the endless dark and of a

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Speaker 1: supernatural variety. The Five Watchers are only quickly described and

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Speaker 1: not well at the start of the novel. What is

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Speaker 1: clear is that they are vast, seemingly mountainous beings that

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Speaker 1: move on a timescale charitably described as geologic, slowly advancing

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Speaker 1: upon the aforementioned great Pyramid. They are also referred to

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Speaker 1: as some of the most dire beings known to man,

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Speaker 1: hinted it beinging the coordinating powers behind behind the otherworldly

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Speaker 1: monsters within the Land. They've been known about for millions

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Speaker 1: of years, advancing slowly over the epics all that time.

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Speaker 1: Later fan works extrapolate the Watchers, and given various contextual

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Speaker 1: clues within the book, have cobbled together an interesting handful

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Speaker 1: of takes on these Titans of the Dark. The interpretations

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Speaker 1: range a fair bit, but my favorite was that they

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Speaker 1: were gigantic colony creatures, the night Land itself possibly being

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Speaker 1: a long dried ocean floor whose life force has been

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Speaker 1: summoned by demonic agencies. In essence, the Watchers are slowly

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Speaker 1: growing mountains of demonically possessed coral, incrementally inching toward humanity,

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Speaker 1: presumably by growing towards the light of their souls gathered

428
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:50,320
Speaker 1: in a single location. I figured that's a lot slower

429
00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:52,919
Speaker 1: than the Inns, and certainly a monster to be afraid of,

430
00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,400
Speaker 1: albeit in a more abstract fashion. Anyway, you guys rock.

431
00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:59,439
Speaker 1: Love the recent episodes on the Basilisk and classics like

432
00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:02,040
Speaker 1: being do to repeat history and especially the science of

433
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,439
Speaker 1: it from last year. You guys do great work, and

434
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:06,080
Speaker 1: I look forward to many more years of having you

435
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,960
Speaker 1: dwell in my ears, secreting knowledge and interesting connections. Take

436
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,600
Speaker 1: care and all the best. Well. I have never read this, Robert,

437
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:16,000
Speaker 1: have you the Night Lands? I have. It's been a

438
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:18,000
Speaker 1: it's been a while since I read it, uh, and

439
00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:21,320
Speaker 1: I forgot about the Watchers. But The Night Lands is

440
00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:26,560
Speaker 1: a is an inspiring early work like of of post

441
00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:31,000
Speaker 1: apocalyptic science fiction, and it is it is a challenging

442
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:33,280
Speaker 1: book to read because it is is written in a

443
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:38,919
Speaker 1: very antiquated style. Um, it's easy to to grow frustrated

444
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:40,679
Speaker 1: with it. I know I grew frustrated with it when

445
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:44,240
Speaker 1: I read it initially. I need to give it another rereading, though,

446
00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:49,360
Speaker 1: because buried within the at times challenging pros, there are

447
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 1: some just fabulous dark fantasy and sci fi ideas, a

448
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,920
Speaker 1: lot of it. Regarding again, as he described the Last Redoubt,

449
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 1: this enormous pyramid in which the last of humanity is

450
00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: is living out it's dying days against the horrors of

451
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:10,879
Speaker 1: a dark, cold earth. It's a great concept, and I

452
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:14,920
Speaker 1: especially love the idea of like a menacing coral. That's

453
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:17,880
Speaker 1: just that's wonderful. Yeah. Well, I wasn't familiar with any

454
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,400
Speaker 1: I've never read any fiction that kind of springboards off

455
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:24,040
Speaker 1: of the night Lands. Wait was that? Was that from

456
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 1: the fan fiction or the fan Yeah, I believe, I

457
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:29,000
Speaker 1: believe so, or not necessarily fan fiction, but just you know,

458
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:32,320
Speaker 1: short stories that continue the tradition in the same way

459
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:35,480
Speaker 1: a lot of writers write in the within the mythos

460
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:38,040
Speaker 1: of HP Lovecraft. But I think that's one of the

461
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,439
Speaker 1: that's one of the values of the night Land is

462
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:43,280
Speaker 1: that there are these elements in there, they're not necessarily

463
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:44,960
Speaker 1: given a lot of time, and you're like, wow, what

464
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:48,000
Speaker 1: is that about? Wait, don't tell me about this character's

465
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:50,760
Speaker 1: love story and is pining for this lost love? Tell

466
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 1: me more about the Watchers in the Night. Well, yeah,

467
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,280
Speaker 1: I always love when somebody can come up with what

468
00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:58,920
Speaker 1: feels like a truly original kind of monster mythos, something

469
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 1: that isn't just like basically a variation on the vampire

470
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,360
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, but again, the Night Land William Hopes

471
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 1: Hope Hodgson. It's out there. You can buy copies of it.

472
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:12,680
Speaker 1: It's it's on kindle um. But it is. It is

473
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:15,399
Speaker 1: a pretty it is an original work there there there

474
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,600
Speaker 1: are things about it that haven't been retrod uh in

475
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 1: fiction in the in the decades, says since it came out,

476
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of original wonder there to be had. Okay,

477
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,200
Speaker 1: This next piece of mail comes from our listener, Me

478
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:33,240
Speaker 1: Call or Michelle m I C H A L. I'm

479
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 1: not sure how you pronounced that, but this is following

480
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:40,200
Speaker 1: up from the Vampire Clinic episodes. So I think I'm

481
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:43,480
Speaker 1: gonna say me call, So Me Call writes, thanks for

482
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:45,879
Speaker 1: the great and creepy content. This October, I was listening

483
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,920
Speaker 1: to your vampire podcast and I have remembered a story

484
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 1: that a guy was working with a few years ago

485
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 1: told me, I love a third hand story from a

486
00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:56,560
Speaker 1: guy you used to work with. All right, we call right.

487
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,320
Speaker 1: So I am Polish and I've been living in a

488
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 1: small Polish town almost my entire life. Growing up surrounded

489
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 1: by woods, bogs and misty river banks and having a

490
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,640
Speaker 1: family which enjoys spooky folk tales worked out really good

491
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 1: for me. I mean, I like a decent scary story,

492
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:14,679
Speaker 1: but I'm getting a bit off topic. The guy I

493
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:18,440
Speaker 1: have mentioned used to help out local archaeologists with their

494
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:22,240
Speaker 1: dig sites as a voluntary passion project. They have found

495
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,800
Speaker 1: a medieval graveyard once which is located on a church land,

496
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,240
Speaker 1: but has been forgotten and discovered again by these archaeologists.

497
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,000
Speaker 1: My colleague told me that there were about twenty bodies

498
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:35,800
Speaker 1: buried in that cemetery, all ordinary skeletons, but one which

499
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:38,879
Speaker 1: belonged to a person people who buried him believed to

500
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:42,760
Speaker 1: be a vampire. That skeleton had his head chopped off

501
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:46,919
Speaker 1: and placed face down between the person's legs. Hands and

502
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,280
Speaker 1: ankles were tied behind his back and bound together. And

503
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 1: here comes the creepy part of that wasn't creepy before

504
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:56,919
Speaker 1: here comes the creepy part. The skull had a huge

505
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 1: stone jammed into the mouth, jaws broken, most of the front,

506
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,200
Speaker 1: teeth bent backwards from the impact. Those were the kind

507
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 1: of precautions Polish people used to take to make sure

508
00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: no vampires will haunt and hunt them at night. I

509
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 1: wish you all the best and hope you enjoyed my

510
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:15,680
Speaker 1: little vampire story. Me call well, Nicole. We've read about

511
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 1: other stories, like I think even in one of the

512
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:21,480
Speaker 1: episodes we mentioned brick in the mouth vampire burials. Yeah,

513
00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 1: but I'm delighted to hear another take on it though. Yeah,

514
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:28,439
Speaker 1: there was I think around the same week that our

515
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 1: episodes came out, there was another story in the news

516
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:34,480
Speaker 1: about a new brick in the mouth vampire grave. To say,

517
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: I almost say, grahampire vampire grave discovered somewhere. What didn't

518
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,720
Speaker 1: we see that on our Facebook discussion module or something,

519
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:45,560
Speaker 1: Robert I believe. So Yeah, anyway, yes, that is super creepy.

520
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 1: So thanks for sharing, Nicole. I love this legacy of

521
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:53,639
Speaker 1: graveyard desecration and vampire prevention. Here's another free idea I'm

522
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:57,639
Speaker 1: throwing out there to the cinema world. Everyone loves to

523
00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:01,000
Speaker 1: remake the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and of course, the family

524
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: in the Texas Chansal mascre Is is heavily into the

525
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:07,720
Speaker 1: desecration of graves and corpses. Some lady should do one

526
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:11,199
Speaker 1: where it's essentially the chainsaw family versus vampires. And the

527
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 1: whole reason they're raiding all of these surrounding textsan uh

528
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 1: graveyards is not because they just love messing around with

529
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 1: corpses that though, of course they do. It's that they're

530
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 1: fighting the vampire menace. Okay, that would be wonderful. Get

531
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:28,480
Speaker 1: like that. That sounds like if Joe Lansdale hasn't written

532
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 1: it already, that would be a terrific story right there.

533
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 1: That is great. Yeah, leatherface chainsawing off vampire heads. Yeah,

534
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 1: turned into the hero. Here it is here it is

535
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:42,800
Speaker 1: Bill Moseley. Chop Top has metal plates in his neck

536
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 1: under the skin, which prevents him from being bitten and

537
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 1: vamped himself. So they try to bite him and they

538
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:50,200
Speaker 1: just scrape their teeth on metal. I love it. And

539
00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 1: then you you kind of you also rewrite it to wear.

540
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 1: Grandpa is not only the greatest killer that ever lived,

541
00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:58,680
Speaker 1: He's the greatest vampire killer. Van Helsing. Grandpa is is

542
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:01,360
Speaker 1: Abraham van Helsing. Soult to pull it off to the

543
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:04,480
Speaker 1: United States, and oh my god, this is so good.

544
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 1: It rights itself. Okay, we we take back all the

545
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 1: it's free now this is ours alongst Us or I

546
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 1: should be fair, Robert, it's yours. It's yours. No, no, no no,

547
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:15,320
Speaker 1: we can we can do it. I think we can

548
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 1: do this. Joe, we just gotta get We gotta get

549
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: whoever owns the Texas Chainsaw Masca rights to see things

550
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: our way. I'm sure they'll just give them right up. Alright,

551
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:27,959
Speaker 1: we have another bit of vampire lore here from a listener.

552
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 1: This comes to us from Joey in Kentucky. Joey Rights.

553
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:33,720
Speaker 1: Hey guys, I just finished listening to the first Vampire

554
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 1: Clinic episode, and during the episode you mentioned fun scientific

555
00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:40,320
Speaker 1: explanations for vamporism in fiction, and I wanted to recommend

556
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:44,640
Speaker 1: Peeps by Scott Westerfield. In it, vampiresm is a mind

557
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: altering parasite and the story is told from the point

558
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: of view of a typhoid marry type Carrier of the Parasite.

559
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:54,320
Speaker 1: It's a fun little story with some interesting parasitology facts

560
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:56,479
Speaker 1: thrown in. I'd also like to thank you for all

561
00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:59,480
Speaker 1: the great book recommendations on the show. Basically every time

562
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:01,720
Speaker 1: one of mentions a book, I write it down. I

563
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 1: love blind Side, that's the Peter Watts book. And I'm

564
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: halfway through the Culture series. That of course is the

565
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:10,480
Speaker 1: the en In Banks series. And I've got about a

566
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 1: dozen more on my reading list. Keep up the good work, Joey.

567
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 1: I have not read that, but thanks for the recommendation, Joey. Yeah,

568
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:18,680
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to look that up to all right. Now,

569
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 1: technically I think this was not Halloween monster content, but

570
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 1: really it is. We've got quite a few good messages

571
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:29,720
Speaker 1: about monstrous squirrels this this Halloween season, and so I

572
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:32,480
Speaker 1: think we should plow right into those. They fit right

573
00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:35,560
Speaker 1: that that's basically monster content. Oh yeah, and I imagine

574
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:37,720
Speaker 1: we're going to keep hearing about squirrels for some time.

575
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 1: This really has that those episodes really struck a chord.

576
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:44,080
Speaker 1: Like most recently on Twitter, somebody brought to my attention

577
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 1: that the new Fallout game follow out. Oh I didn't

578
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:52,160
Speaker 1: know about that. It has radioactive squirrels in it. Nice Okay, Yeah,

579
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 1: people like our our social media feeds have turned at

580
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:59,840
Speaker 1: least half into people just adding us with squirrel stuff.

581
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: On the subject of squirrels, I don't recall which episode

582
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 1: it was in which I did this. Maybe it was

583
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:09,680
Speaker 1: our listener Male episode, but I asked about squirrels in

584
00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:12,480
Speaker 1: the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. I remember exactly

585
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:14,960
Speaker 1: why this came up. It came up because we mentioned

586
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 1: that squirrels had been introduced outside of their native ranges,

587
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 1: and there were squirrels pretty much everywhere except Antarctica. Uh,

588
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 1: and several listeners from New Zealand got in touch with

589
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,720
Speaker 1: us to say, uh, no squirrels in New Zealand. And so,

590
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:30,040
Speaker 1: of course, because the Lord of the Rings films were

591
00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:32,239
Speaker 1: shot in New Zealand, you were asking, well, are there

592
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 1: squirrels in Middle Earth? And oh boy, we got some

593
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 1: Tolkien pedantry coming on the topic of of the squirrels

594
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,080
Speaker 1: of Middle Earth. So we're gonna run through some of

595
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 1: these uh and try to acknowledge everyone who who chimed in. Patrick,

596
00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 1: for instance, rights rights in and says there are squirrels

597
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 1: in the Hobbit when speaking of the vileness of Mirkwood.

598
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:54,680
Speaker 1: Gandalf talks about black squirrels and other unclean beasts. But

599
00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:57,680
Speaker 1: black squirrels are not even mythical animals. That's just like

600
00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:00,520
Speaker 1: there there are black squirrels. Yeah, but I guess the

601
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 1: whole thing is like you go into mirake Wood, the

602
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 1: first thing you notice is the squirrels are different than

603
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:06,440
Speaker 1: the same way that you know, the squirrels are a

604
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:09,440
Speaker 1: little bit different in like the movie, it follows just

605
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: northern forest varieties, not southern' it's a different variety. Okay.

606
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,240
Speaker 1: This next message comes from Daniel. Daniel says, Hello, I

607
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 1: have an interesting perspective to follow up on your squirrel questions. Daniel,

608
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 1: I think we'll be the judge of that um about

609
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 1: New Zealand and squirrels. I'm a US citizen and I've

610
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:31,880
Speaker 1: been living in New Zealand for the past year, so

611
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 1: I have huge exposure to squirrels in my past life.

612
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:37,360
Speaker 1: And my wife is actually a conservationist here, so she

613
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,120
Speaker 1: lets me know about all the difference in species. Not

614
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 1: only that, but we recently watched The Lord of the

615
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:45,960
Speaker 1: Rings in its entirety. Just before listening to the episode

616
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,640
Speaker 1: that I can remember the only reference of woodland creatures

617
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:53,040
Speaker 1: is tree Beard the end mentioning to Marry and Pippen.

618
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 1: How about how rats not shown climb his legs and

619
00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:01,200
Speaker 1: cause terrible tickles? But there aren't mentioned of squirrels unless

620
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:04,440
Speaker 1: he doesn't understand the difference between rodents, which is very

621
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:07,040
Speaker 1: possible as he doesn't seem to understand the difference between

622
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 1: hobbits and orcs. You remember that Mary and Pippen the

623
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: Little Hijinks, Hobbits climb up him that like the Stoner

624
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:17,760
Speaker 1: Buddy comedy Hobbits. They climb up him and he's like,

625
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:20,760
Speaker 1: are you works? That's what I remember from that in

626
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,200
Speaker 1: the movie. Okay, Yeah, my son and I had to

627
00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:26,200
Speaker 1: pause on our our reading of The Lord of the Rings,

628
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 1: so I don't recall from previous readings how that actually

629
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:33,200
Speaker 1: went down. Daniel continues quote, most of the rodents here

630
00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:36,760
Speaker 1: are ferrets and hedgehogs, though I don't actually know if

631
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:39,680
Speaker 1: either of those qualified in New Zealand. I don't think

632
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:42,560
Speaker 1: they do. They are not secure a day. That said,

633
00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 1: there is a quote from the books where l Ron

634
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 1: mentions time was once when a squirrel could carry a

635
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:51,560
Speaker 1: nut from tree to tree. From Rivendell to the Great Sea.

636
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 1: I guess talking about when how far the forests used

637
00:33:54,920 --> 00:34:00,240
Speaker 1: to Uh so, Daniel says, squirrels, they are canonical. If

638
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 1: you want to follow up on the ramifications this has

639
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: for the species on the islands of New Zealand, feel

640
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,960
Speaker 1: free to email back for more details. Well, thank you

641
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 1: so much, Daniel. You know what I'll grant you. That

642
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:12,960
Speaker 1: was interesting, I thought, so. I like the idea that

643
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:15,840
Speaker 1: so far we're learning that yes, you have the black

644
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 1: squirrels of Mirkwood, but then also Aroun's bringing up squirrels

645
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:23,160
Speaker 1: in a very like nostalgic way, like the old forest way.

646
00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:25,560
Speaker 1: So perhaps the squirrels are just another thing that have

647
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:29,360
Speaker 1: been u you know, darkened and made perverse by the

648
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,520
Speaker 1: influence of Saron. Alright, this next one comes to us

649
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:35,399
Speaker 1: from Kevin. Kevin says, I just finished the listener Male

650
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:37,799
Speaker 1: episode of the podcast and wanted to assure you that

651
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 1: Middle Earth definitely has squirrels. I don't recall if there

652
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 1: is any mention in the Lord of the Rings, but

653
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:44,879
Speaker 1: I do recall their mentioned in the Hobbit. I did

654
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 1: a quick search on my kindle and the word squirrels

655
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:50,800
Speaker 1: has used five times. Of note are two quotes bearing

656
00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:55,280
Speaker 1: three of these instances. In chapter eight Flies and Spiders quote,

657
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:58,960
Speaker 1: there were black squirrels in the wood. As Bilbo sharp

658
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:02,479
Speaker 1: inquisitive has got used to seeing things, he could catch

659
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:05,560
Speaker 1: glimpses of them whisking off in the path and scuttling

660
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:09,200
Speaker 1: behind tree trunks. A few pages later, they tried shooting

661
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:11,719
Speaker 1: at the squirrels, and they wasted many arrows before they

662
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:14,440
Speaker 1: managed to bring one down on the path. But when

663
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 1: they roasted it, it proved horrible to taste, and they

664
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 1: shot no more squirrels. And then Kevin continues, it seems

665
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: Token's black squirrels are the darkest of skugs. Now, wait

666
00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:27,759
Speaker 1: a minute, I know why the squirrels of Mirkwood have

667
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,879
Speaker 1: black fur. This has got to be a case of

668
00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:34,440
Speaker 1: of like camouflage melanism, like like the moths, the peppered

669
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:37,480
Speaker 1: moths of of like the Uk. You know, when there

670
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:39,560
Speaker 1: was a lot of soot on the tree trunks, the

671
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:42,399
Speaker 1: moths darkened, so it would be harder to see them

672
00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 1: standing out against in contrast, the tree trunks and the

673
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 1: surfaces they sat on, right as the trunks darkened. Of course,

674
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,680
Speaker 1: in Mirkwood the trees are very dark, so the squirrels

675
00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:53,560
Speaker 1: want to blend in so as not to be plucked

676
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:56,680
Speaker 1: off of the branches by spiders and eaten. All right,

677
00:35:57,239 --> 00:35:59,880
Speaker 1: So what about the taste? Why don't they taste so bad? Oh?

678
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 1: Just because all squirrels taste bad, I don't know. He

679
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:06,000
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with them being from Mirkwood. I

680
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 1: assumed two squirrels could probably taste good. Didn't we hear

681
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,799
Speaker 1: from some peoplehood eating squirrels? And I think we did? Yeah,

682
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:14,759
Speaker 1: I mean in the right stew right, I mean, that's

683
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:18,480
Speaker 1: kind of the one assumes. One assumes maybe this was

684
00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:21,239
Speaker 1: just their mood affecting their perception of the taste of

685
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: the squirrels. And we have one more here from Fred

686
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:27,839
Speaker 1: that writes in and says, great show question. Are our

687
00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:30,440
Speaker 1: squirrels mentioned in the Lord of the Rings? Yes? And

688
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:34,680
Speaker 1: then he u he includes a quote here whether because

689
00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:37,680
Speaker 1: of Strider's skill or for some other reason, they saw

690
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:40,400
Speaker 1: no sign and heard no sound of any other living

691
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:43,960
Speaker 1: thing all that day, neither two footed except birds, nor

692
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 1: foot four footed except one fox, and a few squirrels.

693
00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 1: And Fred says the response ten thousand. I would imagine

694
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,799
Speaker 1: we're not quite ten thousand. But uh, he you did

695
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 1: add to our our new collective understanding of score of

696
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 1: the squirrels of Middle Earth. I'm still grooving on my

697
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:04,319
Speaker 1: camouflage hypothesis that the gears are grinding in my head.

698
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:07,560
Speaker 1: Proved me wrong out there, proved me wrong. Well. On

699
00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:10,720
Speaker 1: that note, we're gonna leave the squirrels of Mirkwood behind

700
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 1: and we're gonna take one more break. But when we

701
00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:19,520
Speaker 1: come back. More listener mail from October, Thank you, Thank alright,

702
00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:23,520
Speaker 1: we're back now. This piece of male concerns our Vault

703
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:27,120
Speaker 1: episode about carnivorous plants we talked about. This was an

704
00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:29,120
Speaker 1: episode we recorded a couple of years ago. I think

705
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:32,440
Speaker 1: about the like legends of human eating trees and stuff

706
00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:35,520
Speaker 1: like that, and how that connects to actual carnivorous plants,

707
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:39,520
Speaker 1: and so our listener Sean got in touch to say Hi,

708
00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:41,799
Speaker 1: Robert and Joe. My name is Sean and I'm a

709
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:47,560
Speaker 1: researcher studying and geosperm flowering, plant evolution and comparative genomics

710
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:50,440
Speaker 1: at the Leban's Mac Institute at the University of Georgia.

711
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:52,920
Speaker 1: I've been listening to the podcast for the past year

712
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,440
Speaker 1: during my commune and have enjoyed every second and I

713
00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:57,880
Speaker 1: wish I had found it earlier. I just listened to

714
00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:01,160
Speaker 1: the episode from the Vault Carnivorous Plants. Was intrigued because

715
00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:05,760
Speaker 1: one of the grad students in the lab studies speciation, hybridization,

716
00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:11,359
Speaker 1: and evolution of Saracenia picture plants. I hope I said

717
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:14,400
Speaker 1: that right. I find carnivorous plants fascinating due to the

718
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:18,600
Speaker 1: fact that carnivorian plants has evolved independently several times through

719
00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:22,040
Speaker 1: convergent evolution, which I think is really cool and interesting.

720
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:24,600
Speaker 1: One thing that I was surprised that you guys didn't

721
00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: mention is the fact that many carnivorous plants lure insects

722
00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 1: by reflecting U V light. Insects, like ants and flies,

723
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:35,560
Speaker 1: are sensitive to blue and violet light. We'll see these

724
00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:38,680
Speaker 1: plants emitting a blue fluorescence and are lured toward them.

725
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,200
Speaker 1: The reason why is yet to be understood, but it

726
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:45,680
Speaker 1: is cool predation strategy that's invisible to us humans. Sean

727
00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,840
Speaker 1: also offers that if we're ever interested in doing something

728
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:52,239
Speaker 1: on the evolution of flowering plants, so we could get

729
00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 1: in touch. But also Sean writes, furthermore, there's a lot

730
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:59,800
Speaker 1: of cool plant research. I e. Evolutionary biology, transgenics, plant

731
00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,120
Speaker 1: pathogen interactions, and much more happening here in the plant

732
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:05,360
Speaker 1: biology department at you g A and I'm willing to

733
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:08,040
Speaker 1: help you guys get in contact with the professors who

734
00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:10,520
Speaker 1: would share their research. Finally, i'd like to say thank

735
00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:12,799
Speaker 1: you again for making my commute more enjoyable and keep

736
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,359
Speaker 1: up the great work. Well, thank you, Sean. Uh Yeah,

737
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:18,120
Speaker 1: maybe we should look into flowering plants sometime. Yeah, and

738
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 1: I and I love the idea of dipping into more

739
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:22,839
Speaker 1: local talent. We've been trying to do more of that,

740
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:26,920
Speaker 1: bringing bringing experts on the show, not via telephone, but

741
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:28,919
Speaker 1: actually get them in the studio, and they're just there's

742
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 1: so many great minds in the Atlanta area. We should

743
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:33,839
Speaker 1: do more of it. All right. At this point, we're

744
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,640
Speaker 1: gonna move on to some listener mail that is related

745
00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:40,040
Speaker 1: to our episode the Curse. How about this one from Taylor?

746
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:41,600
Speaker 1: What do you think? Let's go for it? All right,

747
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 1: So Taylor writes in your episode about curses, you pondered

748
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:47,920
Speaker 1: whether or not there could be legal ramifications for uttering

749
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:51,040
Speaker 1: a curse on someone In Canada. We actually have a

750
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:55,760
Speaker 1: law which would impact cursing someone in limited situations. Section

751
00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:58,239
Speaker 1: three sixty five of the Criminal Code of Canada is

752
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:03,680
Speaker 1: entitled pretending to pry to switchcraft. It states, uh, everyone

753
00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:07,600
Speaker 1: who fraudulently a pretends to exercise or use any kind

754
00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 1: of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration be undertakes for this

755
00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:17,440
Speaker 1: consideration to tell fortunes or see pretends from this skill

756
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:21,640
Speaker 1: in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science to

757
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 1: discover where, or in what manner anything that is supposed

758
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:28,760
Speaker 1: to have been stolen or lost maybe found, is guilty

759
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:32,759
Speaker 1: of an offense punishable on summary conviction. I already have

760
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:36,279
Speaker 1: so many questions about this um regarding like what the

761
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:40,560
Speaker 1: difference is between practicing a religion and pretending to practice

762
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:43,120
Speaker 1: a religion, But we'll wait to the end of the

763
00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:46,040
Speaker 1: email to bring it all up. Okay, Quote, this law

764
00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:49,640
Speaker 1: only applies if you are fraudulently doing an activity and

765
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:52,480
Speaker 1: therefore goes to the men's rea of the act e g.

766
00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:55,200
Speaker 1: If you act as a psychic and you believe you

767
00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,160
Speaker 1: are a psychic, then there is no crime. Whereas if

768
00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:00,799
Speaker 1: you act as a psychic solely to take money from

769
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 1: a believer, then you have committed a crime. How would

770
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:07,840
Speaker 1: you determine that that would be so difficult. Um anyway,

771
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 1: how would this apply to curses? I can think of

772
00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:13,560
Speaker 1: two scenarios where this law may come up. Scenario number one,

773
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 1: you not believing in curses, know someone who has a strong,

774
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:21,520
Speaker 1: irrational belief in curses. You do not like this person

775
00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:24,520
Speaker 1: and want to cause ill will on them, and despite

776
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:27,560
Speaker 1: not believing in curses, you cast one on this believer.

777
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:31,240
Speaker 1: It causes a severe negative downturn in this person's mental

778
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:34,239
Speaker 1: well being, physical well being, or their financial well being,

779
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,680
Speaker 1: because of course they must find someone to dispel this curse.

780
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:40,400
Speaker 1: You will be guilty under section three sixty five of

781
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:43,839
Speaker 1: the Criminal Code of Canada. Maybe if you like, write

782
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:47,520
Speaker 1: out a manifesto is stating all your plans, I don't know, Yeah,

783
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:49,160
Speaker 1: you would have to. They would have to catch your

784
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:54,319
Speaker 1: your villainous admission of guilt on tape or yeah, you

785
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: have a bond villain monologue. Of course it would make

786
00:41:56,640 --> 00:41:59,920
Speaker 1: it not efficacious, right if you if you actually monol

787
00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:04,399
Speaker 1: to the bond, you recursing. Scenario number two, you not

788
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:07,719
Speaker 1: believing in curses, once again accept funds from someone to

789
00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 1: dispel a curse which which this person believes has fallen

790
00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:14,440
Speaker 1: on them. This person may be working in conjunction with

791
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:17,880
Speaker 1: the you in scenario one to extort money from this person.

792
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:20,560
Speaker 1: In this scenario, once again there is clear fraud on

793
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:22,919
Speaker 1: your part and you will be guilty under section three

794
00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:26,360
Speaker 1: sixty five of the Criminal Code of Canada. Of course,

795
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:29,880
Speaker 1: this requires very specific circumstances, and if in either of

796
00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:32,799
Speaker 1: the above scenarios you in fact believe in curses, then

797
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:35,799
Speaker 1: no crime has been committed. Seems like this law would

798
00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:39,480
Speaker 1: never be used for curses, right Well, someone was charged

799
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:44,200
Speaker 1: under section three sixty twelve in Toronto for charging thousands

800
00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:48,160
Speaker 1: of dollars to remove a family curse, and Taylor links

801
00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:52,480
Speaker 1: to a source slightly different. But man in ten was

802
00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:55,800
Speaker 1: charged under this section for charging six figures to remove

803
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:59,080
Speaker 1: an evil spirit from a family member. And then Taylor

804
00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:03,720
Speaker 1: links to another source and finally, in the Edmonton Police

805
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:06,799
Speaker 1: Force had to release a statement warning people not to

806
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:10,960
Speaker 1: fall for paranormal frauds, which includes curse removal. I thought

807
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:13,000
Speaker 1: you would find this interesting and I do not know

808
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:17,560
Speaker 1: if there would be any comparables in the US. Uh. Well, there,

809
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:21,240
Speaker 1: I mean there are certainly in the US fraudulent predatory

810
00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:25,680
Speaker 1: practitioners of occult and crafty sciences. Yeah you can. You

811
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:28,760
Speaker 1: can turn on the TV and see them every day. Yeah.

812
00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:32,040
Speaker 1: The mediums who will like charge you a premium to

813
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:35,239
Speaker 1: talk to your dead family members and stuff that I try,

814
00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:38,719
Speaker 1: I mean, I try not to harp too much. Would

815
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:41,759
Speaker 1: be like hateing non people who believe in things that

816
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:44,239
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any good evidence for. But that

817
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:46,680
Speaker 1: is one that really just makes me mad, Like the

818
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:50,440
Speaker 1: you know, selling access to dead family members and stuff

819
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:52,920
Speaker 1: like that that I get kind of furious when I

820
00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:54,440
Speaker 1: read about that. Oh yeah, I mean that's the kind

821
00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:57,840
Speaker 1: of thing that Harry Youdini to get you with. Yeah,

822
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:01,200
Speaker 1: because really we're talking about the difference between practicing religion

823
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:06,720
Speaker 1: or practicing some sort of supernatural belief system and simply

824
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:11,319
Speaker 1: praying upon those who do um, you know, going after them,

825
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:15,080
Speaker 1: trying to milk them for for money um. And clearly

826
00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:19,359
Speaker 1: one of those two scenarios is definitely bad. I think,

827
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:21,759
Speaker 1: you know, anybody out there who is just going out

828
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:25,319
Speaker 1: there to uh, to manipulate people and prey upon whatever

829
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:28,640
Speaker 1: kind of superstitious ideas they might already have, uh, you know,

830
00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 1: that's that's deplorable and that that should be punishable under

831
00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:34,520
Speaker 1: criminal codes. But where it's great for me is the

832
00:44:34,560 --> 00:44:37,560
Speaker 1: idea of like, well, I can certainly partake in religion

833
00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:41,239
Speaker 1: and partake in in rituals of that that faith or

834
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:46,200
Speaker 1: belief system without completely believing in it, even want struggling

835
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 1: to believe in it. You know that every day? Yeah yeah,

836
00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:51,520
Speaker 1: A lot of the people go into church sitting in

837
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,680
Speaker 1: the pew next to you, might not really believe everything,

838
00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:58,319
Speaker 1: but they're seeing some kind of value in what they're doing. Right.

839
00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:00,680
Speaker 1: And then ultimately, like we discussed, like how different is

840
00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:03,319
Speaker 1: a curse than a prayer? You know, it depends how

841
00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:05,279
Speaker 1: you're you're framing it. I guess I've heard some some

842
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:08,480
Speaker 1: prayers before. That sounds a bit like curses. Yes, um,

843
00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:11,759
Speaker 1: you know, and uh and you know where would that

844
00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:13,799
Speaker 1: fall under such a ruling? I don't know. It's just

845
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:16,160
Speaker 1: all interesting food for thought. This is a really interesting

846
00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: listener mail that we received. Yeah um yeah. Again with

847
00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:22,480
Speaker 1: the like selling access to dead family members through you know,

848
00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:25,600
Speaker 1: a spirit medium or something like this, You never it's

849
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 1: hard to prove fraud in those cases like the like

850
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:31,640
Speaker 1: Taylor mentioned in the email. You need specific kinds of

851
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:33,839
Speaker 1: evidence and stuff that probably aren't going to be there

852
00:45:33,960 --> 00:45:36,600
Speaker 1: most of the time. So then again, I think about

853
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:38,319
Speaker 1: the fact that if you're going to be like a

854
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:42,080
Speaker 1: spirit medium, you're probably going to be better at it

855
00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:44,840
Speaker 1: if you know you were a fraud, because then you

856
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:49,120
Speaker 1: can consciously practice cold reading techniques and trickery and all that.

857
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:52,040
Speaker 1: Whereas you act if you actually believe you have power,

858
00:45:52,560 --> 00:45:55,080
Speaker 1: it seems like you'd be less likely to produce really

859
00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:57,760
Speaker 1: impressive results, you know what I mean. Yeah, Now, something

860
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:01,719
Speaker 1: worth exploring in a future episode would be to what

861
00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:04,400
Speaker 1: extent we have that space between though, where someone is

862
00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:08,320
Speaker 1: utilizing these various tricks but doing so from a place

863
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:10,920
Speaker 1: of belief, you know, like you're essentially going out out

864
00:46:10,960 --> 00:46:14,560
Speaker 1: there and doing a cold reading. But but what if

865
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:16,839
Speaker 1: you're doing it and you're believing that these are like

866
00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 1: the tools of reaching out into the ether and you know,

867
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 1: um and connecting with the spirit realm, Like it seems

868
00:46:24,480 --> 00:46:28,120
Speaker 1: like it's possible. But I haven't read anything yet to

869
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:31,080
Speaker 1: really answer that for me. Well, yeah, people's powers of

870
00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:36,319
Speaker 1: self justification are incredibly powerful at any rate. I hope

871
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:41,800
Speaker 1: Taylor is considering a future in Canadian curse law, because

872
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:45,360
Speaker 1: can you specialize in this It sounds like a great

873
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:49,759
Speaker 1: um CBC show. I would watch, you know, the Canadian

874
00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:55,000
Speaker 1: Curse Law Attorney show, Abraham van Helsing interning at law

875
00:46:56,520 --> 00:46:58,879
Speaker 1: now speaking that that wouldn't be it? What who who

876
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:01,799
Speaker 1: who gets rid of curses? Is? I'm not sure off hand,

877
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:06,960
Speaker 1: um Daniel Webster. Maybe I don't know UM any right.

878
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:10,080
Speaker 1: Speaking of Van Helsing, though, we did have someone right

879
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:12,799
Speaker 1: in Rolf who wrote in and said, hey, guys love

880
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:16,680
Speaker 1: the show. Might Minola, the creator of hell Boy, did

881
00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:19,680
Speaker 1: some of the character designs on the Dracula movie. The

882
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 1: armor is classic Magnola, and if you're looking for some

883
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:26,600
Speaker 1: really cool aquatic stuff, check out the comic low by

884
00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:31,239
Speaker 1: Rick Reminder and Greg go Toccini all the best role.

885
00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:37,840
Speaker 1: I'm not familiar in my Magnolia Magnolia, Magnola, Magnola, Magnolia Manola.

886
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:40,759
Speaker 1: I think Mike Manola, I believe is how I'd read that.

887
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:44,040
Speaker 1: But I do love that armor. I think he's referring

888
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:47,120
Speaker 1: to the armor we talked about in uh, Francis Ford

889
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:51,640
Speaker 1: Coppola's Dracula movie. Ford Coppola's Brown Stoker's Dracula. Yes, the

890
00:47:52,239 --> 00:47:55,080
Speaker 1: Coppola one where he wears this like muscle looks like

891
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:59,319
Speaker 1: exposed raw muscle in the armor and it's so good. Yeah.

892
00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:02,279
Speaker 1: I love Mike's work. Um. I used to read hell Boy.

893
00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:06,120
Speaker 1: I read the first several volumes of that, the Conqueror

894
00:48:06,120 --> 00:48:08,799
Speaker 1: Worm being my favorite of those. But then his work

895
00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:12,360
Speaker 1: also shows up in a number of different film projects

896
00:48:12,560 --> 00:48:16,280
Speaker 1: he worked, of course, most notably he worked with Giamo

897
00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:19,200
Speaker 1: de Toro on the hell Boy movies, but his work

898
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:21,439
Speaker 1: also shows up. I think it's some other adult Toro

899
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:24,920
Speaker 1: films as well. Uh, you know, set in monster design,

900
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:27,680
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. I only saw the first Hellboy movie,

901
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:30,480
Speaker 1: but I remember thinking it had some great design in it. Yeah.

902
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:32,799
Speaker 1: The second one has some tremendous design in it as well.

903
00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:36,360
Speaker 1: You've got you know, evil fairy kings and queens, that

904
00:48:36,440 --> 00:48:40,280
Speaker 1: sort of things. There's some some wonderful elements in it. Okay,

905
00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:43,960
Speaker 1: Well does that wrap it up for today? I think so.

906
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:46,440
Speaker 1: Let's see. I have one last little bit of email

907
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:49,640
Speaker 1: here that's just a general, um fun email that I

908
00:48:49,640 --> 00:48:51,600
Speaker 1: just want to read real quick. This comes to us

909
00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:56,040
Speaker 1: from Chris. I've listened to almost every podcast of YouTube

910
00:48:56,120 --> 00:48:58,440
Speaker 1: Christian and Julie as well. Needless to say, I like

911
00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:01,359
Speaker 1: the ideas your podcast turns out at a truly staggering rate,

912
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:04,160
Speaker 1: despite the colossal amount of time researching must be put

913
00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:07,200
Speaker 1: into it. A mighty a commendable thing it is. Indeed,

914
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:10,440
Speaker 1: my favorite episodes are definitely the ones regarding potentially upsetting

915
00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:14,600
Speaker 1: or highly stirring philosophical subject matter. The Boltzman Brain episode,

916
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:17,960
Speaker 1: the Mind Flavor episode, the bicameral mind. Anything with borheyes

917
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:20,719
Speaker 1: are Scott Baker all ought to be put on the

918
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:23,480
Speaker 1: Greatest hit c D. Okay, when I'm not feeling well,

919
00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:25,040
Speaker 1: I put on my headphones, turn on some stuff to

920
00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:27,359
Speaker 1: buy your mind and start relaxing. He goes on to say,

921
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:28,920
Speaker 1: I've been listening for a very long time, and I've

922
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:31,480
Speaker 1: never written in but just wanted to tell you, folks,

923
00:49:31,520 --> 00:49:34,400
Speaker 1: your work and consideration is appreciated. Right now, I'm reading

924
00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:38,560
Speaker 1: The Three Body Problem by c. Chin Lou, Preacher by

925
00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:43,760
Speaker 1: Gareth Innis and Steve Dillon, and Altruism by Matthew Richard.

926
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:46,680
Speaker 1: I'm not familiar with that one. That sounds familiar. I

927
00:49:46,680 --> 00:49:50,839
Speaker 1: think that's a book I've seen referenced around excellent. Well,

928
00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:52,399
Speaker 1: I'll have to I'll have to check that one out

929
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:54,120
Speaker 1: as well. I did read Preacher back in the day,

930
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:56,439
Speaker 1: but it's been a very long time. Glad you're reading

931
00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:59,399
Speaker 1: three Body Problem, Chris, I hope you enjoy it all. Right, Well,

932
00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:01,359
Speaker 1: there we go, hope fully we've gotten a lot of

933
00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 1: the the the the supernatural bugs out of out of

934
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:09,040
Speaker 1: our mail body here. Well, now that we've read Taylor's email,

935
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:11,640
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if we actually should have paid that Canadian

936
00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:15,600
Speaker 1: machine exorcist. That may have been a bad call. Do

937
00:50:15,640 --> 00:50:17,800
Speaker 1: you think we got scammed? We might have been scammed.

938
00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:21,239
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but uh, I think he's doing better.

939
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:22,640
Speaker 1: I think he's doing better. So I think we're in

940
00:50:22,640 --> 00:50:24,880
Speaker 1: a in a place where we can continue. Now we

941
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:27,800
Speaker 1: can actually we actually have the the courage to press

942
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:31,120
Speaker 1: on through the holidays and continue to bring some great

943
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:32,960
Speaker 1: episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind and some great

944
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:35,799
Speaker 1: episodes of invention as well. In the meantime, check out

945
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:37,759
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. That's where you'll

946
00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:40,840
Speaker 1: find all the podcast episodes. Links out to our various

947
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:44,040
Speaker 1: social media accounts, including Facebook, where we have that discussion module,

948
00:50:44,080 --> 00:50:47,439
Speaker 1: a great place to interact with other listeners as and

949
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:49,840
Speaker 1: and also with the hosts. Here. Again, this is Stuff

950
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:53,440
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind discussion module on Facebook. Also Stuff

951
00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:55,000
Speaker 1: to blow your Mind dot com has a link to

952
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:57,960
Speaker 1: our merchandise store. You'll find all those cool designs we've

953
00:50:57,960 --> 00:51:00,400
Speaker 1: been talking about. Big thanks as all is to our

954
00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:04,319
Speaker 1: wonderful audio producers Alex Williams and Torry Harrison. If you

955
00:51:04,400 --> 00:51:06,080
Speaker 1: would like to get in touch with us to let

956
00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:08,480
Speaker 1: us know feedback on this episode or any other, to

957
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:11,920
Speaker 1: suggest a topic for the future, or just to say hi,

958
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:13,680
Speaker 1: let us know where you listen from, how you found

959
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:15,279
Speaker 1: out about the show, all that kind of stuff. You

960
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:17,800
Speaker 1: can email us at blow the Mind at how stuff

961
00:51:17,840 --> 00:51:29,400
Speaker 1: works dot com for more on this and thousands of

962
00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:54,480
Speaker 1: other topics. Does it how stuff works dot com