Why are there so many vitamins, what even IS a vitamin?? Well Tom finally understands, and takes us on a tour through their infuriating past. And how did the cheerful fairy we know and love today, evolve into its current form? Well we'll only tell if you can answer our riddles three and- or you can just listen to the episode. Things we Talk About:James Lind Scurvy PaintingThe Various Vitamin BsVitamin MapBrownieFirst Fairy ImageCicely Mary Barker FairiesCottingley Fairies 1Cottingley Fairies 2Illusion SpinnersBitterbloom Bearer Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:03:05) The Vitamin Saga (00:57:54) The Evolution of Fairies (01:48:20) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: Will vitamin c cure me or murder me? more people died of scurvy than combat on the seas, Lind’s biblical scurvy experiment painting, vitamin Pee, maybe oranges are the fifth humor, beri beri, the gelatin comission, come onnn man it’s the 1800s give me a break, we know proteins carbs fats and minerals but something’s missing, STUDY MINERALS THEY SAID - YOU’LL WIN A NOBEL PRIZE THEY SAID, vital amines but they’re not amines, wait are vitamins like fish?? drop the e just vitamin, *mymymymy* all the vitamins are completely different?, some vitamins only exist for a few picoseconds in a supercollider, a bunch of vitamins got pluto’d, Vitamins are like a title, vitamer, VITAMIN D IS A HORMONE, wait maybe hormones are vitamins too, we haven’t talked about how vitamins work because they do Too Many Things, “we’re trying our best but sometimes our best isn’t good enough”, lifting the shadow of death, fitnessgirl250 actually has a PhD, food science is an applied science, the LLE supplement has all the dropped vitamins, vitamins are perfect for capitalism, there is not silver bullet, you can’t supplement your way into a healthy life, an appearance from she/her Caroline, the rainbow magic fairy books, we support evil fairies, the fickle house brownies, realizing fairytales are fairy tales, both high and low class could blame fairies, dressing boys as girls to protect them from the fae, booktok loves hot Rumpelstiltskin, American leprechaun traps, fae - fatah - the fates, when did fairies evolve wings, distinguishing from angels through insectification, fairies may have shrunk to be less threatening, Tom doesn’t know what a panto is, Victorians established the modern fairy, fairies went from robbing cribs to being trapped in the nursery, Cicely Mary Barker’s flower fairies, the collectability of fairies, 350 fairy books in 5 years, the Cottingley fairy hoax, fairies went from being about protecting sons to empowering girls, spelling fairy or faerie, Evyn Fong’s insectoid fairies, the review corner riddle, weaponizing review corner to talk to us. Semba: The Discover of the VitaminsRoyal Museums Greenwich: ScurveyScience History Institute: ScurveyBeriberi Review through Chinese Medical LiteratureDrummond's Naming of VitaminsNobel Laureats in the History of VitaminsSemba: On the Discovery of Vitamin ASciAm: What Vitamins Really Do --- It seem a mischievous fairy has stolen the fairy sources... I'll return them soon!

For episode 101, we're challenging ourselves to make a technically family friendly, swear free episode! Why is the sky blue? Well it turns out it took a lot of science to understand why! And what is speech disfluency? Well it's like... um... you'll see! Images we Talk About:Green FlashSunset Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:06:43) Why is the Sky Blue (00:54:28) Speech Disfluency (01:40:45) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: it’s like playing mozart for children, mystery spires, atmospheric optics is responsible for all the bangers, they didn’t have a word for blue but they could perceive it, davinci and newton were on the right track, and thus the liberal lie of the greenhouse effect was born, Tyndell was just trying to clean an air sample and saw it turn blue, Baron’s used to be useful at least, Tom’s mind gets rocked by Rayleigh scattering, why isn’t the sky purple, When was the sky blue? the great oxidation event, sky is atmosphere, why is the sun so tiny OH ITS FAR AWAY, Ella pulled a Tom at the intro, Ella’s filler montage, no swearing no fillers challenge, there’s no fillers in the speech we watch on TV and movies, we actually um-dope our podcast in post, people used filler words in the past too, it’s found in poems and the earliest recorded sounds, the valley girl like, natural language corpuses, the 2 genders are uh and um, fillers in other languages, parasite words, uh is almost universal, the function of filler, backchanneling, measuring um reaction times, a visit from Gretchen, um is like a swiss army knife, like as quotation marks or hedging, right *slaps knees*, the power of saying something which technically means nothing. StellarNet: A Brief History of the Sky’s BluenessBlog: The bizarre myth that Ancient Greeks couldn't see blue2023 Paper: Revisiting the question “Why is the sky blue?”Wiki- John TyndallThe Conversation: John Tyndall: the forgotten co‑founder of climate scienceWiki: Rayleigh ScatteringNASA: The Electromagnetic SpectrumScientific American: MiragesIFL Science: Orange SkyThe Great Oxidation Event: How Cyanobacteria Changed LifeRoyal Museums Greenwich: Why Is The Sky BlueMars in a Box: Martian Sunsets ---Wikipedia: Filler (linguistics)Thought Co: Definitions and Examples of Filler WordsThe Register: Why Do We Say Um?Paper: Listeners' Uses of Um and Uh in Speech ComprehensionNew York Times: So, Um, How Do You, Like, Stop Using Filler Words?University of Colorado Paper: We, um, have, like, a problemGuardian: Why Do People Say Like So Much?NPR: Why Do We Say Um So Much?BBC: Teen SlangPaper: Fillers, Pauses and PlaceholdersCambridge: Hidden Use of FillersThe British National Corpus 2014Language Hat: The Mystery of FillersThe Atlantic : “Men Say 'Uh' and Women Say 'Um'”Language Log: Men and Women’s Use of WordsJStor: Filler Words and Floor HoldersTHE CALIFORNIA STORY 1906 By Thomas A. Edison

Tom & Ella are out sick! So enjoy this recast of when Tom was healthy and on SciShow Tangents! OR enjoy our 2 hours on the Project 4 Awesome livestream, basically a video podcast! OR check out all our other stuff at https://www.LetsLearnEverything.com/ Thanks for your patience y'all! - Tom, Ella, & Caroline

You asked, and we finally answered, today we are Finally, actually learning everything! Something that is definitely possible and easy to do. Caroline covers infinity, which can include basically anything, Ella covers what everything is made of, and Tom does the rest! Simple, right? Images we Talk About:Cantor's Diagonal ArgumentThe Bullet Cluster Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:04:28) Infinity (00:49:09) What's Everything Made Of? (01:29:52) Everything Else (02:08:54) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about:  Infinity is the amount I love you guys - oh I made such a noise of disgust, my infinity could beat your infinity, quoting The Fault in Our Stars, ancient Greeks had a horror for the infinite, Euclid refused to use infinity, we have no physical proof that any item can be infinite, turning water into wine and counting to infinity, next time someone says I love you infinity plus one call them a number annihilator, pre-scowling, we ask Caroline a million questions about sets, sets offer a new language for math, “actually Ella they use the word transfinite”, Caroline rage baits Ella, Ella loves Cantor’s diagonal argument but people at the time HATED it, Cantor was a “corrupter of youth”, the universe is everything, god dammit is there more than matter, pigeons and pizza and Ella’s giant gengar plush are made of quarks and leptons, ordinary matter is just 5% of the universe, 26.8% is dark matter and the rest is dark energy, dark energy and matter are not interchangeable - dark just means we can’t observe them, your MOM is massive, 1933 dark matter is theorized to make the math work, dark matter is not a theory it is an observation of missing mass, the differing mass of the bullet cluster, halos of dark matter around galaxies, red shift in every direction, don’t @ me about the accelerated expansion of the universe, dark energy is the mysterious force that keeps the universe expanding, heat death or re-contraction, dark matter and dark energy are warring siblings trying to pull everything together and apart and we’re stuck in the middle, list of all wikipedia pages, OH NO IT’S INTERESTING, monk stuff, the exclamation mark came during the humanist era of the renaissance, oh no we printed the ironic bible! inverted exclamation marks, exclamation mark haters, old comics had exclamation marks for periods! Making Beowulf Scream, Lo! per my last email, our show didn’t start with an exclamation mark - it snuck its way into being beloved, no one is sure how the exclamation mark ended up in programming languages, DO anthropomorphize the exclamation mark, please don’t be disappointed we didn’t stop the podcast, We Didn't Stop the Podcast. We Didn't Stop the Podcast Lyrics Sources:Wikipedia: Infinity SymbolWikipedia: InfinityPolytechnique: A (Very) Brief History of InfinityBritannica: InfinityStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Infinity1983 Paper: The Realization of Infinity: On the Philosophy of John M. AndersonScientific American: Some Mathematicians Don’t Believe in Infinity2017 Paper: Actual and Potential InfinitySchechter: Potential versus Completed InfinityMedium: Infinity Isn’t Just a Number — It’s a Mind-Bending Universe of ParadoxesYoutube: minutephysicsYoutube: Jim FowlerBlog: The Math of Dr Who #4.2 ---Etymonline: Etymology of EverythingWikipedia: EverythingNASA: What is the Universe?EBSCO: LeptonsHarvard: What is the Univer Made Of?ESA: What is the Unvierse Made Of?Astrobites: ΛCDMNASA: Building BlocksESA: Dark Matter and Dark EnergyAngela Collier: Dark Matter is Not a TheoryNASA: Dark MatterForbes: Who Really Discovered Dark MatterHarvad: Dark Energy and Dark MatterNASA: Bullet ClusterESA: Gravitaional LensingESA: RedshiftESA: Comsic Microwave Background ---Wikipedia List of All PagesFlorence Hazrat's "An Admirable Point: a Brief History of the Exclamation Point"Florence Hazrat InterviewThe Irony MarkStan Lee on Comic Book Exclamation MarksMarvel End of Exclamation Mark AnnouncementMaking Beowulf ScreamHistory of FactorialFiguring out the Origin of ! in Computer Science

The author, historian, and person of many fascinations Iszi Lawrence teaches us how to get into ancient Egyptian heaven! Plus we learn about a bit of everything else from dinosaurs to medieval almond milk!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:06:14) Getting Into Ancient Egyptian Heaven(00:45:31) Questions for Iszi(01:08:59) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Images we talk about:AnurognathusThe Tring TilesWe also learn about: Todays question is how to take on two attackers, “I really recommend violence if you have neurodiversity”, Ma’at, getting into the Egyptian afterlife is an escape room, why Egypt was geographically perfect, I’m going to put a mastaba on my mastaba, there were ancient Egyptian archaeologists of ancient Egypt, you don’t think with your brain that’s weird, Allan’s mummified body in the King’s College London library, the mummification industry, dodgy ibis mummy dealers, pyramids were a giant sign that said “ROB ME IM RICH”, King tut also packed too much underwear, Anubis guides you through a video game level of challenges, the hall of two truths and a lie, weighing your heart in court, Ammit has the head of crccodile body of a tiger legs of a hippo my perfect woman, your heart has to way no more and no less than a feather, the scarab is a pay to win heart silencer, pubs were public houses when you brewed too much beer and it was women’s work! almond milk was around during the medieval times, we are story brained and we pay attention to the weird things not the boring ones, he showed me his whip scorpion, nanotyrannus, why do you like dinosaurs - why do you like eating? Anurognathus, toddlers comes from drunken walking, sad means not sober, the suffragette jiu jitsu dojo, the tring tiles was teen jesus.

While we take some time to rest and plan out the new year, enjoy our episode of Escape This Podcast as the three of us use cleverness and chaos to solve this escape room!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:01:05) The Escape Room(01:20:19) Puzzle Talk BackSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Images we talk about:The Spa ControlsThe Spa SignRing TossThe Spa Sign with SunThe Full Room Write Up

It's the new year! Which means it's time to learn about the most interesting thing... ourselves?? We answer YOUR questions with OUR answers, so learn a bit more about us, science, and the show!Links we Talk About:Our Top Songs PlaylistMagnetic Fields Tiny DeskAnni DiRusso Tiny DeskDoechii Tiny DeskDr.Cal Whale Cancer TikTokTimestamps:(00:07:06) Welcome to the Q&A(00:31:45) Science(00:52:28) Fun(01:04:26) Making the Podcast(01:27:06) Personal(01:45:55) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: I was in the recording I know how long it took, tick correction corner, Caroline you gotta wrangle us, the ugly stepsister, City the Animation, Superman, playlist linked above, The Mars House, Levinia, Peak, Megabonk, Animal Crossing, Despelote, duck wraps, I’m an anytime burrito fan, falling out of and back in love with sciences, the Vera Rubin Observatory, lysosome mitochondria and ribosome, organelle astrology, AI and carbon pedantry, Ella’s PhD journey, solar system chocolate bar, our horror movie archetypes, experimenting on our cohosts, pride and prejudice romance, centaur anatomy, researcher blogs rock, scheduling and actually starting, what we hate and love about the show, we don’t have to be friends, podcasting is good for the brain actually, dream guests, Caroline runs, the rhythm game search, burnout planning and accepting mistakes and communal burnout watch, collecting magnets and yarn and weird pokemon figures, Dalek on a trampoline, why Tom wears a hat, bingo cards over resolutions, Ella’s getting marri- WELL TOM’S GOING TO MAGIC CON VEGAS BABY.

The HaLearnDays are here!! And with it come learning, laughs, and fun facts from us and friends of the show, as well as a few surprise new friends!Images we Talk About:Bat CarryingBristol Stool ChartLego Head DiagramThe Praise the Lord ShowTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:08:10) Bats(00:19:45) Livingston's Body(00:25:18) Pi & PIE(00:34:45) Lego Head Passage(00:44:02) Bird Brains(00:56:04) Tomatoes(01:10:35) Alpha-gal(01:16:27) Rice to Riches(01:26:37) Mission Impossible & Backmasking(01:42:29) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: As Hank always says: wah wah wah wah wah, it says that I should complain in the script but I like it, Egg nog is just raw eggs right? redacted is such a beautiful name, rock paper scissors video content, drunk bats slur their echolocation, bats carrying bats, weekend at burniesing Livingston, I’d carry any of you for nine months, Pi and PIE from father and son, do you think J and Gretchen got their gifts at the same store? philology, proto-indo-european, the FART of the lego head, Ella’s heart grows 3 times its size for bacronyms, lego heads pass in about 2 days, chickadees growing and shrinking their brain connections, testing bird barcoding in the chickadome, I wish I could delete part of my brain to watch eternal sunshine again, davinci would have made that flying machine earlier if he had red sauce, tomatl is nahuatl not even proto-indo-european, we can all agree tomatoes smell evil, 150 years before tomatos and pasta combined, alphagal syndrome from ticks, once bitten twice allergic, Tom Scott gifts a can of rice pudding for us to open, allegedly LLE is a money laundering scheme, Mission Impossible morse code, the hidden code in LLE’s theme, Edison was the first to notice backmasking, the Eligibles Car Trouble, here’s to my sweet satan, winners don’t do drugs, raise a cup to our sweet satan.Sources:Bats Flying Drunk PaperNYTimes Tomato HistorySmithsonian Mag Tomato HistoryThe Incredible paper: Sixteenth-century tomatoes in Europe: who saw them, what they looked like, and where they came fromRecords of Tomato ReactionsAtlas Obscura Backmasking HistoryMore sources will be added soon!

What are the most EXTREME lifeforms on Earth, and how are they surprisingly important to study? And what is the long yet recent history of astrology, and why do we reach for it?Things we Talk About:The Seal StreamSea lion runningPaper Clipping: Female AstrologerPaper Clipping: Suffragette BooksPaper Clipping: WW2 and AstrologyPaper Clipping: Pimms AdTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:23) Extremophiles(00:57:55) Astrology(01:43:59) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: We’ve put tardigrades through every red bull task imaginable but they’re NOT extremophiles, extremotolerant vs extremophiles that thrive, thermophiles at 122 celsius, anglophiles, what would it suck to experience, psychrophiles, acidophiles and alkaliphiles, hypobarophiles experiencing 500x our pressure, oligatroph, polyextromophiles, life has found a way in so many extreme places, the chernobyl black mold, not just growing towards radiation but eating Hot Particles, fungi have survived harsh radiation in the Earth’s past, melanin lets the fungi handle and perceive radiation safely, it’s similar to photosynthesis though in the same way a tsunami is similar to a glass of water, conan the bacterium can live inside nuclear reactors, DNA redundancy, krill that makes antifreeze proteins, osmoconfromers, acidophile taken to a lab and finally thriving at .7 ph, it’s also hard as hell to capture and study and keep these extremophiles alive, extremophiles gave us PCR, we also us extremophile e coli, bioremediation is what I took when I failed bio and was tutored by an extremophile, we have so much to do-actually that was pretty funny, bioplastics, what extreomophiles teach us about astrobiology, letting some bacteria chill on the outside of the ISS for 3 years, damn girl you’re making me re-evaluate the limits of life, our nuanced and conflicting feeling on astrology, yay we get to read our horoscopes- wait fuck why am I happy about that? babylonian horoscopes, star charts for things like seasons actually were right, the Enuma Anu Enlil collection of omens, what’s your mother’s maiden name and pincode horoscope,  the legacy of the endless pig, uh oh we’re having fun talking about horoscopes, medieval astrology in the royal court and the sciences, before we knew about the earth going around the sun the stars explained the seasons, in the 1700s astrology was seen as a sham, of course royal watching tabloids bring about astrology 2.0, scraping the bottom of the barrel for anything to say about princess margaret, globe conflict 2 electric boogaloo, a pims advert is a rich text, the horoscope test, god the people yearn for therapy, the barnum effect, zodiacs are part of our culture - so something to connect with, the correlation of uncertainty and horoscope popularity, how to manage uncertainty without horoscopes, video games offer a structure and challenge and reward that can help people cope with hard times.Sources:NOAA: What is an Extremophile?Life: Extremeophiles and Extreme EnvironmentsNature: Life in Extreme EnvironmentsPMC: Genomics of an extreme psychrophile, Psychromonas ingrahamiiThe Biologist: Eating Gamme Rays for BreakfastResearch Gate: A Case Study of Strains Inhabiting Chernobyl Reactor No. 4Chemical Communications: : The Incredible Cell Membrane Adaptations of Extremophiles to Harsh EnvironmentsLife: Extremophiles and Extremophilic BehaviourBiotechnology Advances: Structural Features of ThermozynesScience: Conan the BateriumMicrobiology and Molecular Biology Reviews: Oxidative Stress Resistance in Deinococcus radioduransPolar Biology: Cold Resistance the Krill Euphausia superbaExtremophiles: Picrophilus oshimaeLife: Biotechniological Applications of Extremophile ResearchWiki: Thermos aquaticusFrontiers in Microbiology: DNA Polymerases as Useful Reagents for BiotechnologyPNAS: Microbial Growth at Hyperaccelerations up to 403,627 × gFrontiers in Microbiology: Extremophiles and the Limits of Life in a Planetary ContextJournal of Indian Institute of Science: Bioprospecting Extremophiles for AstrobiologyNASA: AstrobiologyFrontiers in Microbiology: DNA Damage and Survival Time Course of Deinococcal Cell Pellets During 3 Years of Exposure to Outer SpaceNew Scientist: Radiation Resistant Bacteria Could Survive Journey From Earth to Mars---2013 Paper: The Solar Eclipse Omen Texts from Enūma Anu EnlilNational Geographic: History of HorocopesMy Modern Met: Mystical History of AstrologyBritish Newspaper Archive BBC: Who Actually Writes Horoscopes2020 Paper: The Man Behind the Horoscope Column- R H Naylor2005 Paper: A History of Astrology Part I: Origins to the RomansThe Guardian: How Astrology Paved the Way for Predictive AnalyticsBBC: Is Astrology Backed By Science?2022: Even The Stars Think That I Am SuperiorBBC: Is There Any Science in Astrology?Scientific American: Is Astrology Real? Here’s What Science SaysMcGill University: How Astrology Escaped the Pull of ScienceBBC: The Anxieties and Apps Fuelling the Astrology Boom

http://www.LetsLearnEverything.com/qIt's time to submit your questions for our annual Q&A episode!

What, when, where, why, and how... do we sneeze? There's a surprising amount of mystery to the thing we do all the time, and a lot to learn about! And how many parables and metaphors that we use are actually true? Let's actually dig in to the research and bust some myths!! I mean... break some... falsehoods!!Images we Talk About:The Rat DiagramCaseidsDiplodocus BonesPlane DiagramMoai WalkingTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:26) Sneezing(00:57:55) Parable Mythbusters(01:43:59) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Caroline was inspired by being sick,  theories of sneezing, sneezing in the odyssey, Aristotle said burping and farting are not divine, 25 sextillion molecules in every breath, it’s a wonder we’re not sneezing all the time, sneezing only goes to your brain stem, a sneeze can send particles 8 meters, what ion channel? last year we made sneezless mice, le petite mort and le petit orgasm, the incredible mid-sneeze mouse diagram, we’re gonna talk about - ghoooosts, A.C.H.O.O or the photic sneeze reflex, our explanations for sneezing reflect our understanding of science at the time, snatiation, S.N.A.T.I.A.T.I.O.N, sneezing from getting horny, pee chills, a sneeze is just a more obvious indicator that wires get crossed, diagnostic sneeze testing, finding the first sneezing animal, the earliest diaphgram, chickens sneeze, African wild dogs voting by sneeze, dolphins chuffing, bugs aren’t part of the sneeze club, unlike the mythbusters we won’t be blowing up cars, okay maybe a few, if you put a frog into boiling water it won’t jump out it will die, boiling frogs in search of the soul, the climate change metaphor works for brain dead leaders, the survivorship bias meme plane, the image is fictitious but Abraham Wald is even cooler, America’s Bletchley - The Statistical Research Group, some people believe the heads had bodies, oh my god they did, the walking Moai, the deforestation happened before the people, invasive rats without a natural predator, pretending we’re surprised about colonialism being the culprit, we didn’t need to do carbon dating to find some of these answers guys.Sources:1990 Paper: The History of Sneezing2013 Paper: The Omen of Sneezing2009 Paper: Sneeze reflex: Facts and fictionSmithsonian: Why Do We Sneeze?National Geographic: The Air You Breathe Is Full of SurprisesWiki: Sneeze2025 Paper: The Sneeze Reflex in Physiological and Pathological states: a mini review2024 Paper: Mouse Sneezing StudyNature: Cough or sneeze? How the brain knows what to unleashScientific American: Looking at the Sun Can Trigger a Sneeze2010 Paper: When the Sun Prickles Your Nose: An EEG Study Identifying Neural Bases of Photic SneezingScienceLine: Why Do People Sneeze When They Look at the Sun?OMIM: Gastric Sneezing2009 Paper: Arousal and Sneezing2017 Article: An Ancient Origin for the Diaphragm2022 Paper: Lung Evolution in Vertebrates and the Water-to-Land TransitionNational Geographic: Animal SneezingNational Geographic: African Wild Dogs Vote by SneezeOceanbites: Sneeze, Cough, Chuff: Respiratory Irritation in DolphinsNatural History Museum: HagfishesSmithsonian: 14 Fun Facts About HagfishSci-Show- Aquatic Sneezing2022 Paper: Sponges Sneeze2022 Paper: Dinosaur SicknessNational Geographic: First Dinosaur Found with a Respiratory Disease---Atlantic on The Boiling FrogKnow Your Meme: Survivorship Bias PlaneCameron Moll Blog Post about Original DrawingAbraham Wald's Plane Statistic MemorandumTerry Hunt's Incredible "Rethinking the Fall of Easter Island"The Walking Moai Paper

How have animals adapted to the digging lifestyle, and can that help us explain the Devil's Corkscrew? And what are the various ways movies can be censored across the world, and what does that tell us about the world itself?Images we Talk About:The Devil's CorkscrewMole Skeleton ComparisonMole Digging VideoMonitor Lizard BurrowMonitor Lizard BurrowsTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:30) Fossoriality(00:52:58) Movie Censorship(01:36:53) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Daemonelix or the Devil’s Corkscrew, well Tom I hope one of your facts beats Ella’s giant sloth fact, only nerds know the word fossorial, why dig is easy - how dig is harder, mole skeletons are hyper specialized, moles are herd to catch and keep, I dig holes for me, is that couscous? the silica gel of pasta, x-ray videos of moles digging in couscous, devil’s corkscrew deja vu, first and deepest lizard burough, one of the most stable egg environments for an 8 month incubation, it turns out helixes are more common than we thought, Put! Lizards! In! Couscous! Peter Jackson’s braindead, video nastys, wow blaming media for crime we’ve never heard that before, video nastys were an easy ban because politicans didnt care about them, a microcosm of the moral panics of the time, the military entertainment complex, the US doesn’t have any outright movie bans… but they do have the hayes code, self censorship, no picture show lower the moral standard of those who see it, the commercial influence on self censorship, charlie shackleton’s paint drying film, poilitical movie bans reflect real alliances and tensions, denmark’s only ever banned the disney skeleton dance, Denmark’s freedom of speech is what the US thinks it is, don’t be mean to the military uwu, only 34 foreign films can be shown in china every year, the censorship is coming from inside the house, a Bohemian Rhapsody without mention of sexuality, Tilda Swinton played an asian character to get around mentioning Tibet, World War Z was changed even though it never aired in China, why are you making me defend these bad movies, censorship is as strong as the weakest link in the chain that’s profitable, “it’s all just crazy and some food for thought, thank youuu”Sources:NPCA on the Devil's CorkscrewSmithsonian Mag Devil's CorkscrewMole Forlimb MorphologyMole Senses PaperFossorial Ventilatory ResponseMole Rat Lung Comparison PaperNWF Mole FactsNYTimes Mole MotionYi Fen Lin Mole Walking PaperYi Fen Lin Mole Burrowing PaperDeep Nesting in a Lizard: Deja Vu Devil's Corkscrew: First Helical Reptile Burrow and Deepest Vertebrate Nest.Helical Burrows Across the Animal Kingdom Paper---BBFC: Video NastiesWiki: Video NastyBFI: Unspooling the Video NastiesWiki: Film Censorship in the United StatesGuardian: Top Gun for HireWiki: List of films banned in the United StatesScreen Online: Hayes CodeVice: Why I’m Making British Film Censors Watch Paint DryWiki: Paint DryingWiki: List of Banned FilmsBBC: Cambodia Bans Thai MoviesBBC: Russia Bans Death of StalinReuters: Lightyear BannedWiki: The Skeleton DanceEBSCO: History of Censorship in DenmarkEnglish Translation of the Danish ConstitutionWiki: Denmark Motion Picture Content Rating SystemVariety: Foreign Titles Squeezed in China Film MarketHarvard: Disney censorship in ChinaPen: Made in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing

It's the podcast's birthday!! So Tom has a few ideas he wants to pitch to Caroline and Ella... but first! Ella and Caroline finally revisit the topics they promised! What are the WILD stories behind the race to discover new elements, and what are the real nuancy nuances of craftivism?Images we Talk About:William Morris' PrintTerrero's HankieHankie Given to TerreroMadres de Plaza de MayoPussyhatTom's GiftsTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:06:43) Superheavy Elements 2(01:17:58) Craftivism 2(02:01:28) Tom’s ListSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: How do we prove this is real, we pinky promise, a refresher in the form of a pop quiz, we didn’t make the elements - except for some we did make, is the gift plutonium? we never thought we’d have another element heavier - and then you happened! the quizkids element reveal, the increasing specificity of Stan’s Apartmentium, just keep adding and smashing its just math - really expensive math, the long island ice tea of nuclear materials is in the bomb, scraping new elements off the filters of flying through a mushroom cloud, the edge of the periodic table was a cold war battle field, the feuds of the transfermium wars, perhaps sodium seaborgate, while they were bickering over naming Germany discovered 5 new elements, it’s like a railgun you nerd, linear vs circular accelerators, it’s like hotwheels tracks, we could’ve designed this! “how can we differently smash this stuff?”, I’m hype about a filter, only Victor Ninov could run GOOSY, “the most audacious fraud in scientific history”, lying about discovering an element and then discovering it before people catch on to the lie, 3 elements wasn’t enough, Oganessian co discovered 14 elements - the most of anyone, I mean really we all co-discovered this topic, “we hit this wall of super heavy elements being bastards”, Goosy 2 Electric Goosyloo, you’re smashing billions of particles per second over months to hopefully get 1 atom, calcium beam of milk, the theoretical island of stability, superstable superheavy elements, disappointment on the horizon, domestic arts for political and social change, I sure wish someone had done research into this nuance, oh fuck that was supposed to be me! the arts and crafts movement was activism for crafts not crafts for activism, fucking up golf courses for women’s suffrage, some suffragettes didn’t want to include working class women, imprisoned women were given sewing needles to reform but they just made incredible protest art, Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a sense of solidarity through craft, lets tonally tokyo drift this episode baby, comparing and contrasting with the pussy hat, craft ins and yarn bombing, craftivism defies expectations and engages community, “appealing” activism, craftivism is a piece of the puzzle not the whole solution, it’s a useful tool in the toolkit, Hoisin Duck Wrap - Irn Bru - Yogurt, Tom gets a tattoo and regrets it, stopping by Tom Scott’s spinoff podcast show, Tom’s gifts, putting it to the test who’s the strongest cohost, the podcast can officially hop!Sources:Kit Chapman's "Super Heavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table"Ella's Superheavy Documentary---Britannica: Arts and Crafts MovementTextile Society of America: The benefits and pitfalls of craftivismMuseum of English Rural lift: Suffrage and the Sewing MachineAmerican Golfer 1912: The British Suffragettes Attack Golf CoursesTextile Society of America: The Political Stitch: Voicing Resistance in a Suffrage TextileThe Thread Blog: Historical Craftivism: From Suffragettes to Gandhi to ArgentinaThe Association of the Madres de Plaza de MayoLearning for Justice: Madres de Plaza de MayoV&A: The PussyhatThe Morning Crafter Blog: Craftivism: Empowerment, Resistance, and Activism Through HistoryBook: How To Be A Craftivist by Sarah Corbett2022 Paper: Negotiating the Art of Protest through Craftivism2017 Paper: KNIT + RESIST: placing the Pussyhat Project in the context of craft activism2018 Paper: Knitting Activism, Knitting Gender, Knitting RaceJ. Feliz: An Open Letter to the Craftivism MovementBBC: Police to get broader powers to restrict repeated protests

We know ghosts aren't real, but what is real is the way our brains make us imagine the creepy things that go bump in the night. What about our psychology makes it so easy to be spooked? And we've all heard of costumes and pumpkin carving, but what are the weirdest old Halloween traditions, and what can we take into our own traditions?Things we Talk About:Mooney FacesGames for HalloweenSnap Dragon Video 1Snap Dragon Video 2Caramel Pronunciation MapMischief Night MapCabbage Card 1Cabbage Card 2The Bobbing for Apples VideoTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:36) Paranormal Psychology(01:03:06) Defunct Halloween Traditions(01:36:21) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Skeleton Shattering Science Topic, anomalistic psychology is the science of ghost busting, NOT parapsychology, the first step to a ghost is someone who believe in ghosts, following the format of ghost hunting shows, spooky believers are often predisposed pattern recognizers, the Australian sheep goat scale, suggestion not priming, creepyness via agent detection, a haunted house is evolutionarily designed to be spooky to us, the scary feedback loop, no infrasound does not vibrate your eyeballs,  pattern recognizing apophenia, it’s a wonder humans aren’t scared all the time, it’s actually good we don’t consciously perceive every single thing, wait the static says subscribe to the podcast?? I think she’s saying her hips DO lie, the yeti, hiring a magician on halloween, Ella’s pattern recognizing brain can sense Tom’s bit voice, all the names Halloween goes by, Samhain was basically new years eve, Mary Blain’s Games for Halloween and her caveat, Silent Supper or Reverse Dinner, don’t play snap dragon, imagine risking third degree burns for a RAISIN, the heat map of words for the night before Halloween, mischief night or Halloweeneen, youth honor day, the worst boy police, did you pull a bisexual cabbage? why is everything so romantic?? silent supper seems cute until you’re sprinting over a fence and smashing a window, bobbing for apples is FERAL, our tradition of a spooky episode.Sources:2021 Paper- Super-natural fears2022 Paper- Believing is seeing: The link between paranormal beliefs and perceiving signal in noisePsychology Today: Why Some People See Ghosts But Others Never Do2018 Paper: The Australian sheep-goat scale: An evaluation of factor structure and convergent validityWiki- Australian Sheep-Goat Scale2003 Paper- An investigation into alleged ‘hauntings’1997 Paper- Context-Induced Paranormal Experiences: Support for Houran and Lange's Model of Haunting Phenomena2010 Paper- It's still bending: Verbal suggestion and alleged psychokinetic abilitySmithsonian Magazine- On the Science of Creepiness2016 Paper- On the nature of creepiness2022 Paper- Why Some People See, Hear, Or Feel “Ghosts”2020 Paper- Things That Go Bump in the Literature: An Environmental Appraisal of “Haunted Houses”2009 Paper- The “Haunt” project: An attempt to build a “haunted” room by manipulating complex electromagnetic fields and infrasoundBBC- The science behind seeing ghosts2022 Paper- Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia2014 Paper- Auditory PareidoliaMichael Nees Interview with The ConversationDigicult: Joe Banks: Rorschach Audio---Smithsonian Mag Halloween TraditionsMary E. Blain's Games for HalloweenMidwest Folklore: Silent SupperJournal of the Folklore Institute: Silent SupperAtlas Obscura: Silent SupperNYTimes Dialect QuizSmithsonian Mag: Mischief NightSmithsonian Mag: Old Halloween PranksAtlantic: Halloween Pranks and the Worst Boy PoliceRobert Burns Halloween PoemNJ.com Mischief NightNPR Apples & Halloween

Wait... ELLA is doing a math topic?? Not only that but she finds the beauty in searching for answers among the toughest math problems. Then, friend of the show Ellen Weatherford takes us through a tour of video game controllers. My favorite is the- wait how did we end up talking about World War 2??Images we Talk About:Tesseract GifTennis for Two ControllersMagnavox OdysseyGame.comTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:05) Unsolved Math Problems(00:54:47) Video Game Controllers(01:46:42) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Today Caroline is played by Tom and Tom is played by Ellen, I’ll fall on the bad british accent sword for our guests, Ellen speed runs failing math, famous bad lawyer Fermat, I’m learning about math?? from Ella??? Ellen’s Last Theorem: lentil’s cure cancer, “mathematics like any science requires advancements and research and discovery”, basic math starts as early as mesopotamia, a brief history of mathematics, I gotta make math to describe this apple, math begets math, new ways to solve old problems, is this problem hard or will it take thousands of years to solve, the oldest unsolved math problem is 2000 years old, you’re scientifically wrong that all numbers are perfect, we know of 52 perfect numbers, merseene primes and perfect numbers, we don’t know if odd perfect numbers exist, Hilbert’s 23 unsolved math problems, it’s not the answers to the questions - its the tools built to solve them, new list just dropped - the millenium prize problems, the million dollar prize doesn’t account for inflation, the power of an interesting question, multidimensional play-doh, bumblebee - the tesseract! the poincare conjecture had only not been solved in the third dimension, perelman turns down the fields medal, they can offer a million cause if you solve it you’re only thinking about play-doh and 10 dimensions, is the mellenium prize problematic? eh, after researching a lot… the Riemann hypothesis actually probably won’t break cryptography, pure mathematics deserves the benefit of the doubt for its purpose, go forth with Ella’s blessing, new Ella loves math and libertarianism, I don’t know if the convergent evolution argument for controllers holds up in court, Ellen’s radical definition of a game, I don’t think the gate should be closed but don’t push me through it, the murky search for the first video game, Birdy the Brain - the Tic Tac Toe machine, controllers transmit human intention into a computer, some of the first controllers used dials, I was going to say the manhattan project as a joke, a brief and unexpected nuclear disarment detour, Higinbotham doesn’t like being remembered for tennis for two, Space War! the Magnavox Odyssey, some controllers were tabletop not handheld, Atari stole pong, the anatomy of a controller, stolen valor for logitech controllers piloting submarines, kids and parents learning to use controllers, Ella thought RT and RB meant top and bottom, rumble is purely for experience not input, the game.com had the first touch screen, a urinal controlled driving game, interviewing resident elderly expert Donna Jones.Sources:MacTutor: Pierre Fermat BiographyWiki: Fermat's Last TheoremMacTutor: History of MathematicsSimon Fraser University: A Brief History of MathematicsMedium:The Oldest Unsolved Problem in MathPillars Taylor University: Odd Perfect NumbersRoyal Society: David HilbertSimons Foundation: Hilbert’s ProblemsClay Institute: The Millennium Prize ProblemsNature News: Maths 'Nobel' Prize Declined By Russian recluseAnatoly Vershik: Thoughts on the Clay Millennium PrizesBBC In Our Time: The Poincare ConjectureMedium: The Poincaré Conjecture[BBC News: Russian Maths Genius Perelman Urged to Take $1m Prize](BBC News - Russian maths genius Perelman urged to take $1m prize)Clay Mathematics Institute: Riemann Hypothesis---Probably the Oldest Interactive Electronic Game - Jeremy Norman’s History of Information“Bertie the Brain Still Lives” - Popular Mechanics“Tennis for Two – A Pioneer in the Video Game Industry” - GameSpeak Mag“Who was Willy Higinbotham?” - Federation of American Scientists“Spacewar!” - Museum of Play“The Magnavox Odyssey: The Forgotten Pioneer of Gaming Consoles” - SlashgearBad Game Hall of Fame“Place to pee: new Belgian urinal-based video game” - Ars Technica“Sega Begins Sales of Urine-Powered 'Toylet' Videogame” - WiredPerifit Care, Original Kegel Exerciser

What does chemistry have to do with computers? Well it might just be the best way to understand what's actually going on inside a CPU! And how could there have been a moon hoax back in 1835? Well it involves cosmic pluralism and Edgar Allen Poe so buckle up!Images we Talk About:Vaccuum Tubes in ComputersThe First Integrated CircuitAnother early Integrated Circuit PrototypePeople Etching a Circuit MaskTED How are Microchips Made VideoEtching from the Great Moon HoaxTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:23) The Chemistry of Computers(01:04:27) The Great Moon Hoax of 1835(01:49:15) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: BOOOO, a first time interview for this podcast, tom tries to define an integrated circuit, semiconductors, being mid at conducting is vital, silicon silica and silicone, quartz is one of the most abundant minerals and it’s just silica, the metalloids, transistors are so important but so vague, Caroline and Ella were not expecting a trans rights joke, for once of your jokes deserved more appreciation, the quest to make the smallest switch, semiconductors or on the edge of flipping between conductive or not, vacuum bulbs, The Tyranny of Numbers, photo-lithography, etching shrinking then stenciling a circuit, then computers would help make computers, Moore’s predictions of the future of computing, wait did you just explain Moore’s Law? my new graphics card comes with a new unified theory of physics, transistors are now the width of a few strands of DNA, quantum troubles, relying on moor’s law can stifly creativity, but also making transistor’s smaller is interesting science! Ella & Caroline never thought they’d understand computers like this, it’s almost like they’re going to announce they’re discovering aliens, cosmic pluralism, Sir William Herschel discovered Tom’s Anus, we were in a way disproving life on other planets, Gruithuisen sees roads on the moon, “the power of imagination on the man is large”, alien theories sold papers, Edgar Allen Poe’s SciCom satire, quoth the lunarian - nevermore, the daily drops escalated the and on the fifth day we got moon racism, the etchings of lunar life, lets get bibles and colonialism on the moon baby, Richard Adams Locke is the true author, Herschel was on a research trip while this was going down, it sounds like we’re the perfect team for a hoax, aside from being a critique of science communication it also made bank and made the sun the most bought newspaper in the world, Locke’s non denial denial, selling property on the moon, this changed journalistic standards, the occasional hoax actually isn’t okay but fine, Herschel actually thinks it’s hilarious, Locke X Poe collab balloon hoax, this sparked a trend of science fiction.Sources:Cornell History of SemiconductorsEuro Physics News 100 Years of Semiconductor ScienceRoyal Society of Chemistry on SiliconPBS History of TransistorsPBS Invention of the Integrated CircuitIEEE Historhy of the Integrated CircuitMoore's Original Paper: Cramming more Components onto Integrated CircuitsUPenn: Is Moore's Law Really Dead?MIT: The Death of Moore's Law---Wiki: Lunar Pareidolia Book- The Moon in the Greek and Roman ImaginationWiki- Anaxagoras Futurism: Franz von Paula Gruithuisen's Venus Science FictionSmithsonian Blog- The Great Moon HoaxLibrary of Congress: Blogs Paper- The "Great Moon Hoax" of 1835Linda Hall Library: Richard Adams LockeBritannica: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835Library of Congress: Blogs : Belief, Legend, and the Great Moon HoaxLibrary of Congress: The Sun (New York) 1833-1916Internet Archive: Great Moon Hoax PapersEdgar Allen Poe Society: Richard Adams Locke

Is pointing rude? I'm sure it's a simple question with a simple answer that won't completely break our brains in rethinking all we take for granted about gesture. Also, what is Lauren’s holy grail lost media of gesture studies?Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:05:01) Is Pointing Rude?(00:48:11) Questions for Lauren(01:25:26) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Diverse but incredibly niche interests is the sweet spot, studying the holes in emoji, Tom wasn’t a rude pointer child like Ella, the Disney point, when you point you don’t direct to the end of your finger - you psychically project forward, dogs and horses are great points - cats not so much, we are the only primate that points in the wild, you likely pointed before you spoke, ITS CALLED THE INDEX FINGER BECAUSE IT POINTS LIKE AN INDEX, non index pointing, “that is one lens through which we could consider this”, lip pointing in Encanto, travel guides will simplify to pointing is rude because it’s complex and nuanced where it’s rude, we haven’t even gotten to rainbows, taboos for pointing at specific things, who dude watch where you’re pointing it’s threatening, what if hypothetically a host just went to japan and pointed a lot, Japan is often on the linguistics bingo card, pointing is the pronoun system in ASL, spacial pronoun tracking, you can be a better pointer than someone, gesture and speech have different strengths, Tom’s gestures are more honest than his words to his cohosts, pointing was some of the earliest emoji, “medieval illuminated manuscript marginalia creators would be disappointed with you Ella”, the finger pointing came before the arrow, “we had hands before we had writing”, gesture studies is still new and very interdisciplinary, the way you study gesture is every way, you gesture bigger in loud environments, computers are good at reading hands but not hands in context, the only thing Tom can correct Lauren on is that it was Just Dance not DDR, gesture is ephemeral to study, a huge reason we have gesture study now is video exists, the holy grail lost tapes of gesture, using gesture studies to prove the nazis wrong, are gestures are both for you and the person you’re talking to, I’m not analyzing your gestures if what you’re saying is interesting, metaphorical gesture space, we move ideas around like little apples, you’ll never be able to watch a ted talk again, the archery V myth, exploiting the ambiguity of gesture, we’ve been gesturing with communicating for so long and only reading and writing so recently - so of course we yearn for emoji, “we’re adding the body straight back in the moment we get the chance to”, the rate of literacy is weird, Lauren insisted no emotion on the head shake emoji because it’s not universally negative, sign language has gesture, for the Aymara language the future is behind you - i cant see whats going to happen, iconic resources, cognitive linguistics is obsessed with our meat puppets, we all experience the same gravity and that influences how we think, part of the joy is being the meat puppet.

How strange are octopuses really? We're going to be debunking some claims, then rebunking them with some real, amazing facts about our fellow earthlings. And what the history of the paralympics? What can we learn from its attempts and its failures and its importance in sports?See Tom's Science Game Show in NYC!Things we Talk About:Octopus Virus DiagramSnail Nervous System DiagramOctopus Maze ImageVideo of Octopus Opening a JarVideo of Octopus CamouflageParalympics AdTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:56) Octopuses(00:55:08) The Paralympics(01:41:44) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Censoring octopussy, 3 science communicators get rabid over a dubious study, octopi are so smart they could only have come about from fertilized eggs aboard an asteroid, cephalopods evolved a central nervous system independently with ganglia, the “head” of an octopus is where there other organs are, octopi don't have 5 brains but they do have a lot of distributed neurons, each sucker is a finger-nose-tongue that can make decisions on its own, octopi have terrible hand eye coordination but can learn to be better at it, Ella thinks “man this would be a great topic for the podcast”, octopi are aliens in the metaphorical sense - and maybe it’s a bad metaphor, I’m not a playing I’m developing flexible behavioral strategies, octopuses play pully downy rather than keepy uppy, the criteria of play, we thought Ella was going to compliment Tom but of course that wasn’t it, octopus cities have populations between 2 and 11, Ella’s gerrymandering octopus city, its more about shared resources and cheaper rent than grand designs, octopus color changing is way more than just pixel cells, but… octopuses are colorblind, their sucker opsins sense color and send directly to chromatophores, octopuses can know a color without seeing it, these are amazing earthling behaviors, Ella was looking for a simple un-nuanced not heavy misc topic, the first Stoke Manderville games, fuck you we’re doing our games on the same day, the organizer of that first game had uhhhhh bad views on disabled people, the Paralypics grew really fast because there was a huge demand for it, Ella loves murderball, goalball and boccia are Paralympic unique sports, the classification system of the Paralympics, the work that goes into the classification system and the flaws and harms it can sometimes have on the athletes, as human as it is to run fast it’s human to cheat, the Spanish ID baseball scandal halted ID sports for 10 years, how the Paralympics and the public views the Paralympians, Ella unfortunately doesn’t solve ableism by the end of the topic, I hear enough of Tom on the show already.Sources:The Infamous Octopuses from Space PaperLive Science: Octopi are Not AliensSciAm: Are Octopuses Smart?Octopus NeuroecologyHow Octopuses Control their BodyDiscover Mag: Octopus IntelligenceThe Amazing Octopus Maze StudyOPB: Octopus IntelligenceConvergent Evolution of BrainsExperimental Evidence for Spatial Learning in OctopusesSciAm: The Mind of an OctopusOctopus Problem SolvingPlay in OctopusesOctopus City StudyBBC: Octopus CityNeural Control of Cephalopod CamouflageOctopus Camouflag StudyOctopus Aging and Evolution Paper---Sage: Deaf History of SportOlympedia: George EyserWiki: George EyserOlympics: Oliver Halassy Paralympic.org: History International Wheelchair & Amputee Sports Federation: Paralympic Games 1960 - 1992Paralympic.org: Paralympic GamesBBC: Stoke Mandeville GamesParalympic.org: Who We AreParalympic.org: Paris 2024 SportsWashington Post: Wheelchair Rugby Top End Sports: Discountinued Paralympic SportsSBS News: Sports that Don't Have an Olympic EquivalentOlmypics: BocciaParalympic.org: ClassificationBBC Inside Science: ClassificationBAA.org: Parathletics DivisionsBBC: Tully Kearney Paralympics GB: ClassificationBBC: Spain ID Basketball and ID in ParalympicsThe Conversation: When Paralympic Atheletes Fake the Extent of their DisabilityVice: Spain ID Basketball (translanted)The Conversation: Why somne Disabled People are Critical of the Paralympics Dis(Empowering) Paralymoics Histories by Danielle PeersGuardian: Channel 4 Superhuman AdGuardian: Channel 4 New AdBlog: Paralympics, Good or Bad for Disabled People

Blood! We all have it, but how much do we know about it? And more importantly, what was the journey of understanding to get there? And just how deep can the history of these peculiar percussion instruments go? Well we'll be criss-crossing across the planet today to find out!Images we Talk About:The QuijadaSon Jarocho Quijada VideoThe ClapperThe Clapper in PerformanceTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:01:35) Understanding Blood(00:49:38) Peculiar Percussion(01:24:41) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: 5 liters of blood over 60,000 miles, humoral theory, phlegm - yellow bile - black bile - blood, I’m from house sanguine - our fire is strongest in our season of spring, humoral theory was around for 1500 YEARS, blood letting, a leeches detour just for Caroline, very few leeches actually suck blood, the exportation of leeches for blood letting made them endangered, we nearly killed the leeches in nearly killing us, leeches are sometimes used today after reconstructive surgery for their enzymes, Nafis’ circulatory system would not be believed for 400 YEARS, these time skips are killing me, Harvey was ALSO NOT BELIEVED, we stan Harvey cause he got witches acquitted, the government and church’s ban on blood transfusions, 1818 was the first recorded successful transfusion, 1658 Jan Swammerdam first saw “oval particles” but this was 7 years before the word “cell” was used, pop quiz on what the parts of blood do, don’t draw your blood while driving, blue and green blood in crustaceans and leeches, antigens and antibodies, “I hope this will be of some use to mankind”, sodium citrate helped blood stay fresh for transfusion, god medicine fucking rules, we reinvented humors with blood personality types, the humors are stored on the antigens obviously, “do you know what my blood type is, for no reason, I’m fine, it’s a podcast thing”, Tom has a slumdog millionaire moment because he was working on another video, there are 48 recognized blood groups each with dozens of antigens, having your own bloodtype means having your own bespoke horoscope, we’re averaging one blood group discovered a year, the journey of understanding blood is the journey of science, it’s hard to tell if rocks were used for a cup song routine, Caroline & Ella fall in love with the quijada, it’s a literal death rattle, “play my bones when I die”, make a jawbone that won’t break, the much sillier vibraslap can still sound good, vibraslap on All Along the Watchtower, the whip/clapper/slap stick, comedia dell’arte, the slap stick was a literal stick to make a slap sound, the christmas rise in slapsticks, the armenia alchemist Avedis Zildjian, since we were working with metal we went listen to this taaah tah tah taaah, a perfeclty clear cymbal is just a bell, a cymbal is crafted chaos to sound good, mmm this wine is very trash but not pingy, now we know Ella’s partner wasn’t just making shit up about cymbal sounds, confirming our sources for this wild Zildjian story, what do you think about this instrument?? I can’t stop making chocolate cymbals! Ringo made people want to drum, finding out Sabian is from the Zildjian family is like finding out Wendy’s last name is McDonald, a percussionist can literally touch history from all across the world, it’s about the reviews we don’t read.Sources:Science Museum: BloodJ Thromb Haemost: Discovery of the Cardiovascular SystemContagion - CURIOSity Digital Collections: Humoral TheoryMedicineNet: Is Bloodletting Still Used Today?Fresh Water Habitats Press Release: Medicinal Leech BreedingThe New Yorker: The History of BloodNCBI Book: The ABO Blood groupsAnnals of Clinical and Laboratory Science: The Discovery of Blood CellsRed Cross Blood Services: History Of Blood Transfusions 1628 To NowNCBI Bookshelf: Blood and the Cells it ContainsThe Conversation: Essays on blood: why do we actually have it?Blood at 70: its roots in the history of hematology and its birthPMC: A Brief History of Human Blood GroupsJapan Experience: Blood Types in JapanThe Conversation: More Blood Types than you ThinkCBS News: New Blood TypeThe Conversation: Gwada-negative---Kabeleh Bah Playing the QuijadaSalsa Blanca on the QuijadaJohn Jeremiah Sullivan on the QuijadaSon Jarocho Quijada VideoHistory of the VibraslapBoston Symphony Orchestra on Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 2Britannica on Slapstick's EtymologyThe AMNH's Slap StickThe Cymbal Test VideoNPR on Zildjian's HistoryNYT on Zildjian's History

Chances are you know what a placebo is, but... how does it really work? And what can its evolution teach us about science, medicine, and ethics? And how much art can fit a tiny postage stamp? Well enough to fill a whole history of debate, drama, and ducks.Images we Talk About:Drafts of England's First StampSydney Views StampThe Train Stamp2025 Duck Stamp WinnersMcBroom's Spite DuckTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:20) The Evolution of Placebos(00:57:13) Postage Stamp Art(01:41:17) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: The word placebo has escaped academic containment, fake mourners saying “I will please the lord”, placebo paint on birds wings, placebo as sham, The Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism, not that kind of animal magnetism, placebo as psychology, is this going to be a running bit, defining placebo not in reference to something else, “a person’s psychological response to being treated”, things like healing through time or pressure to answer are Not placebo effects, placebo effects are tricky to study, animals can get the placebo effect, goo goo ga ga am I in the contwal gwoup? conditioning rats that a smell means reduced pain, the internal and external factors of placebo, the placebo effect is actually doing things in your brain, of course we talked about that before on episode TWENTY EIGHT, Ella loves brain action, you can consciously fail a placebo but unconsciously pass it, the nocebo effect, it may be just in your head but your head is a lot of things, the murky ethics of placebos, doctors are mostly prescribing harmless placebos when patients ask for one, Caroline & Ella’s sleeping pill and recovery position placebos, HOLY SHIT PLACEBO EVOLVED INTO CHARIZARD HELL YEAH, some placebos work when you tell people it’s a placebo, placebo pills take 2 twice daily, wait is this actually just about the importance of transparent and accessible and trustworthy medical care?? the American Philatelic Society, Tom used stamps as stickers, Ella’s friend’s giant mimic stamp, the public was aroused by post office reform - not just us! every contestant of the first stamp contest was revoked, it took 4 artists to design the first stamp, no monarch stamps unless they’re hot, the Universal Postal Union is the second oldest international organization, the absolutely HATED train stamp, philatelic propaganda, Operation Cornflakes, the Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee’s incredible process, so you’re saying we can’t make an Iraq War stamp, so you’re saying the UK can make a 9/11 stamp, stamps are of the most visible pieces of art, the duck stamp is the only art competition sponsored by the government,  the super bowl of wild life art, are you a celebrity if oyu haven’t won a DEGOT? stamp advisors with reduction glasses, duck stamp royalty, Broome’s incredible spite art, stamps didn’t have to be art - but we’re glad they are.Sources:The Americal Philatelic SocietyThe Postal Museum London: The Penny BlackSwiss National Museum: StampsWiki: Postage Stamp DesignLinns Stamps: New South Wales Pictorial StampSmithsonian Postal Museum: International PhilatelyUniversal Posta Union2011 Book: Book of History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of AmericaUS Postal Service: Creating U.S. Postage StampsThe Postal Museum London: Stamp DesignWWT: Duck StampsScientific America: The Duck StampFish and Wildlife Service: 2024 Duck Stamp WinnerMillion Dollar Duck Video- Taylor and McBroom RivalryNew York Times: Rising to Glory on the Wings of DucksPrint Magazine: The Extraordinary Design Journey of a Stamp—From Quasi-Secret Society to Perforated PerfectionImage: The First Stamp Design EvolutionImage: 1869 Pictorial Stamp- 3 Cent Train Stamp2024 Duck Stamp EntriesImage: McBroom: Comrade Tim Taylor---Etymology of Placebos & Placebo HistoryPlacebo ReviewWikipedia Placebo in HistoryBeecher's The Powerful PlaceboThe Powerful Placebo: Fact or Fiction?Nature Overview: Placebo - Honesty FakeryTextbook Chapter: Placebo Analgesia in RodentsThe Neuroscience of Placebo EffectsBenedetti's Great 2 Placebos ExperimentNPR on Prescribing PlacebosGuardian on Prescribing PlacebosKaptchuk's Great Open Label Placebo StudyFinniss et al. Placebo Review

Just how complicated can animal mating rituals be, and why did they even evolve them at all? And why is true crime Everywhere, and what can we learn from breaking down what makes it feel so icky?Also see Tom's new Game Show in NYC this Sunday! www.OurFindingsShow.comThings we Talk About:Deathwatch BeetleRed-Winged BlackbirdHouse FinchLesser Florican VideoDance Analysis Video 1Dance Analysis Video 2Cruell Step-DamesCarolina Buddies Murder BalladTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:04) Mating Rituals(01:03:01) True Crime(01:46:08) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: the adorable death watch beetle, the deep sea “ah fuck it - you’re here” approach, of course the man on the podcast thinks reproduction is easy, why are people on hinge so picky, hermaphrodite sea bunnies, there’s plenty of fish in the sea and the sea is fucking huge, sexual ornaments, peacock feathers made Darwin SICK, sexual ornaments to identify you’re doing it with the right species, you can hang your sexual ornaments all year long for other purposes, finch dating shows, carotenoids from skilled foraging make a brighter pigment is an indicator trait, or just go to a tanning salon, going to the gym is the same - false muscles, active at night - gives you a fright - active at day - wants to get laid, wow flies give eye contact during courting - that’s better than a lot of humans, the fly cha cha slide, drosophila simlish, nuptial gifts, Women! Want! Regurgitated Nutrient Liquid! the arms race of jumping birds, the “I’ll have what she’s having theory”, dancing mannequins, intermediate level of asymmetric arm movement, if anything the study shows how comical it is to try to boil down human mating, the famous shirt smelling study, what are you trying to show with a human mating study? we shouldn’t be reductive for human mating or for animal mating either, ascribing the gender binary to worms, there is no one easy tip to dating in nature, a double banger for nuance, early crime tabloids like Illustrated Police News, Jack the Ripper was dubbed by the press after all, the prison chaplain’s broadsides, nature’s cruel step-dames or matchless monsters of the female sex, I can’t stop myself from coming up with names fro these murders, true crime lit was a best seller at public hangings, some broadsides sold 30x more than the news, the unmissable attraction of La Morgue de Paris, American Murder Ballads didn’t need you to be literate, true crime as an indicator of media trends, the vicious cycle of true crime consumption, icky entertainment motivations, working against the wishes of survivors, if only the victim had had our sponsor - simply safe, the commodification of people’s suffering, what stories do we choose not to tell, true crime seems to say there is “right” kind of victim, but true crime isn’t irredeemable.Sources:Combermere Abbey: A Hard Day’s Night For The BeetlesPadi: Sea BunnySea Slug Courtship and Reproduction1978 Paper: Ultraviolet reflection and its behavioral role in the courtship of the sulfur butterflies 1972 Paper: The Role of the Epaulets in the Red-Winged Blackbird, (Agelaius phoeniceus) Social SystemAudubon: Are Brightly Colored Males Really the Best Mates?Scientific America: Why are male birds more colorful than female birds?National Science Foundation: Bright colors in the animal kingdom: Why some use them to impress and others to intimidate2019 Paper: Facial masculinity does not appear to be a condition-dependent male ornament and does not reflect MHC heterozygosity in humansYale News: Yale study reveals mating tip for bird species: You should be dancingThe Guardian: Dinosaurs performed dances to woo mates, according to new evidenceNorthumbria University: Study identifies high quality female dance movements1995: MHC-dependent mate preferences in humans2023 Paper: Do humans agree on which body odors are attractive, similar to the agreement observed when rating faces and voices?2017 Paper: Humans as a model species for sexual selection research2009 Paper: Dance dance attribution: exploring the relationship between dance and attractiveness in intial perceptions 2020 Paper: Mutual mate choice and its benefits for both sexes---Podcast.co: How Many True Crime PodcastsCrime Reads: The Rise of the True Crime PodcasterJSTOR: The Bloody History of the True Crime GenreHenry Goodcole: Nature’s Cruel Steppe DamesNYT: The Bloody History of True Crime LitWellcome Collection: Paris MorgueJSTOR: The Paris Morgue Provided Ghoulish EntertainmentJSTOR: The Murder Ballad Was the Original True Crime PodcastPsychology Today: Why the True Crime Audience Is Predominantly FemaleSAGE article: Why women are drawn to tales of rape, murder and serial killersNYT: Is Our True-Crime Obsession Doing More Harm Than Good?Gawker: True Crime is Rottnig Our BrainsTIME: The Human Cost of Binge-Watching True Crime SeriesReclamation: The Fascination With All That is Morbid and MacabreBinghamton University: True Crime Adaptations and How the Public SurveilsUniversity of Oregon: The true crime genre is popular, but is it ethical?

Listeners voted for their favorites topics of the past year, so join us as we chat and relearn the best of everything!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!The best awards in podcasting that feature hosts named Tom, Ella and Caroline, the best cohost award is a tie (for Charlie and Teddy) actually introducing ourselves again, Tom is the hot one and the funny one, everyone loves dinosaurs, satisfying questions I never thought to ask, no one at the Igs knows Tom, the nuanced story of the propoganda of the propaganda, hey they happen to be some great topics we’re talking about, I had to put jokes about how bad we are so that we could compliment each other later, you can go back and discover Ella’s, we love an experimental episode as well as a classic episode, we love the quirky younger sibling of things, the World Games are coming up soon - get hype!

How many eyes do these animals have, and more importantly what are they doing with them? And how long has copyright piracy been around, and would YOU download a car? Also Ella finally drops her fake british accent.Images we Talk About:Bullfrog Parietal EyeBumble Bee OcelliScallop EyesScallop Eye MirrorsThe Home Taping is Killing Music LogoTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:01) Eyevolution II(00:56:16) Digital Piracy(01:45:06) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: How many jingles does this man have up his sleeve?? 2 eyes or not 2 eyes, what do you need glasses for - to see boobs? why have an odd number of eyes when it’s a BOGO deal developmentally, even more amazing than his eye of agamoto - Dr Strange has 2 camera eyes, “I grow fearful of the untrue eye”, bull frogs can’t doom scroll, the pineal eye is a skylight to the pineal gland, ommatidia means little eye, each compound eye only sees one image from the thousand of ommatidia, this is Caroline’s first eyevolution rodeo - we can’t answer all the questions, now you can be annoying correcting people about bug vision, ocelli are also called little eyes, triangular ocelli flight stabilization, Robobee, ocelli are useful because they’re auxiliary, they’re a fast different readout, there are so many more interesting sci fi choices for eyes, maybe they evolved ocelli to not crash when they see a sexy bug, having zero eyes would be going to far, oh wait nevermind, where we’re going we don’t need eyes, “not the implications”, well I’ll answer one of those questions, what do you need eyes for looking at boobs? YEAH I DO ACTUALLY, he complex eyes like a telescope of scallops, THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE A BRAIN, have we gone too far? the living square mirrors in scallop eyes, no one believed scallop TV would work, fair use and fair dealings, early book sellers were book copiers, authors did not make profits on early copies, Martial was the first person to be reposted on 9gag, the library of alexandria operated like OpenAI, book publishers after the printing press were like Universal Music Group - concerned over their rights - not artists, crown approved ABC books, the mid 1600s is the first use of piracy of intellectual property, ruining vinyl records with the cassette tape skull and crossbones, the 2013 Hugh Jackman Oscars performance, Napster’s origins and Metallica’s not so metal killing of it, Piracy was a technical and social phenomenon, YOU WOULDN’T STEAL A FONT, video game antipiracy that reminds you of the creative mind behind the product, none of this is legal advice, the cost of piracy is easy to calculate but the benefit is impossible to measure.Sources:The Parietal EyeCompound EyesHolger Krapp's Fantastic Paper on Ocelli2022 Paper on OcelliOtacilia KhezuThe Scallop's EyesScallop TVEd Yong on Scallop Eyes---Book: In Stock or Special OrderCoda: A Short History of Book PiracyBook: A History of Intellectual Property in 50 ObjectsBob Leggitt: The Threat of the Audio Cassette2025 Paper: Digital Piracy2009 Abstract: Understanding Online Piracy: The Truth about Illegal File SharingThe Guardian: Going for a song: the hidden history of music piracyFrontier Economics: Will piracy make us walk the plank?Viaaccess: The evolving attitudes of Millennials and Generation Z to video piracyHuck: Piracy in the UK: the failed war on illegal contentVideo- Piracy, It's a CrimeImage- Home Taping Kills MusicBBC: Getting inside a downloader's headSlate: Goodbye to PiracyYoutube Video: Mary Spender- The Birth of Music PiracyBritannica: intellectual-property lawPlagatismToday: How a Reverse Copyright Filled the Library of AlexandriaWiki: Napster2010: Digital piracy among consumers in a developing economy: A comparison of multiple theory-based modelsForbes: The Unwilling Digital Pirate: A Multi-Billion Dollar Opportunity

Vote for your favorite topics at LetsLearnEverything.com/bestof before Sunday June 8th!!!

What is it about harmonies in music that just sounds so good? Can science (and our amazing musical guest David Bennet) help us get to the bottom of it?Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:06:24) Why do we like Harmony?(00:56:10) Our Music Theory Questions(01:24:04) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Listening to Carly Rae Jepsen academically, the musical expert said Caroline has good music taste, I’m down hereeeeee, harmony is just the interaction of any two notes, Tom thinks about high school choir harmony all the time, even babies like harmony, even the oldest flutes have the same holes in them, octaves are so similar we call them the same note, watchmojo ranking of intervals, Carly Rae Jepsen - It Has Many Notes!, a spicy dissonant interval can be good in moderation - like a spicy seasoning in food, Tom is just grinning getting to ask these music questions, we invited you as a guest and you bring this dissonance to our home?? the messy sounding tones match to messy looking ratios, why can we even distinguish pitch? we use pitch in communication so much, animal sounds are the only things that make pitch, animals can recognize intervals, we call bird song song - but to them it’s probably more like language, it sounds cheesy - but in every human voice there’s a harmony, we’re asking the question backwards - we needed to understand harmony to be able to decipher a pitch, hearing the difference between notes IN YOUR HEAD, what we hear in our head is different than the world around us, harmonies are audio cheesecake - something we evolved to enjoy pumped to the max, “we can make cheesecake with our mouths”, cheesecake is just molecules, did you not have to learn human evolution in music school? oh my guilty pleasures are Tchaikovsky’s later works, Ella humble bragging about her spotify wrapped, this is going to come off as hostile but hasn’t enough already been said about the Beatles, how different generations experience the Beatles, more like DavidLegoStopMotion, it took 5 years after a dissertation on how to have a career as a musician on youtube, try song ideas and listen to them later, music theory is Descriptive not Prescriptive, liking technical music, the only way you’ll practice is if you enjoy it, the dopamine hit from the cheesecake of practice, can you send that advice to my mom 10 years ago, but you did practice… yeah, teenagers are good at learning instruments because they have free time, start learning music with the music that you love, learning sheet music at the same time as playing is like learning to write as you’re learning to speak, you learn to write after you’ve practiced speaking for years, you’re full of good ideas David who knew.

Can trees talk to each other? And how does that personifying metaphor square with the actual science behind it? And what can we learn from the stories of art on trading cards throughout history?Images we Talk About:  Trade Cards3 Modern Trading CardsYuka Morii's CardsTerrorHyalopterus LemurePreposterous ProportionsTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:08) Tree Talk(00:52:16) Trading Card Art(01:33:47) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!The answer is yes maybe sometimes and no, talking tree folklore, communication as transferring information, The Secret Life of Trees, Caroline WAS vegan, plants feel pain - GOOD, tree self defense, secondary metabollites, you got me AND Ella to write that down, tannin defense mechanism, volatile organic compounds, giraffes avoiding nearby leaves after eating, maybe trees are eavesdropping, mycorrhizal networks, could it be diffusion or a baby tree suckling on its mother, do a stanford prisoner experiment for trees, that tree is giving mother, mother trees - altruistic fungi - and the perils of plant personification, literally talking to trees, your first priority shouldn’t be to not be boring - maybe second, respect for the organisms that are fundamentally unlike us - their unfathomable lives, the modern boom of trading cards, trade cards, mass produced color images were cool and novel, how many credits for that chromo?  absurd advertising from the 1800s, anthropomorphic fruits and veggies were all the rage, trade cards were a microcosm of marketing-invention-and collecting, Ella’s baseball impression, looking at a mainstream sport through the nerdiest lens imaginable, cigarette baseball cards, Doug McWilliams photographed 8% of all major league baseball players, oh right photography is an art, and so is building relationships with players, cards began to stand on their own, Richard Garfield wanted baseball cards for nerds, Magic and Pokemon credit their artists - but YuGiOh does not, Yuka Morii’s sculpture cards, Adam Rex’s Terror, Richard Thomas’ Hyalopterous Lemure, Julie Baroh flipping off her classmates, companies screwing over artists, it’s still art in spite of being a piece of cardboard.Sources:2010 Paper: Explaining evolution of plant communication by airborne signalsNew York Times: The Social Life of ForestsBook: The Secret Life Of PlantsNational Geographic: Plants can talk. Yes, really. Here’s how.2025 Pape: Shrub anti-herbivore defenses exhibit non-linear and varied responses to increased herbivore density1990 Paper: Acacia Tree Kills AntelopeBook: Ethylene in Plant BiologyBBC News: Plants send SOS signal to insectsTED ED: Can Plants Talk to Each Other?2015 Paper: Inter-plant communication through mycorrhizal networks mediates complex adaptive behaviour in plant communities1997 Paper: Net transfer of carbon between ectomycorrhizal tree species in the field2008 Paper: Hydraulic redistribution of water from Pinus ponderosa trees to seedlings: evidence for an ectomycorrhizal pathwayScientific America: Do Trees Really Support Each Other through a Network of Fungi?2023 Paper: Positive citation bias and overinterpreted results lead to misinformation on common mycorrhizal networks in forests2024 Paper: Mother trees, Altruistic Fungi, and the Perils of Plant PersonificationFacts or Fairy Tales? Peter Wohlleben and the Hidden Life of TreesVideo: Project gives 200-year-old Dublin tree ‘a voice’[Scientific America: The Idea That Trees Talk to Cooperate Is Misleading](The Idea That Trees Talk to Cooperate Is Misleading | Scientific American)Article: The World’s First Talking Tree Helps Young People Reconnect with NatureSmithsonian: Do Trees Talk to Each Other?---Cornell University on History of Trade CardsHistory of ChromolithographyAmerican Antiquarian Society on Trade CardsPBS on Trade CardsBaseball Card Photography HistoryDoug McWilliams via Baseball Hall of FameDoug McWilliams Interview with SABRDoug McWilliams NYTimes InterviewRichard Garfield on Magic's CreationYuka Morii's Pokemon Card ArtMagic Artist Julie Baroh's InterviewMagic Artist Donato Giancola's Points Against Artist PoliciesMagic Artist Melissa Benson's Artist Advice

What is the most boring element, and just how boring could it possibly be? Turns out: VERY! And how can we decipher what Shakespeare sounded like, and who among us can lay claim to his accent?Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:52) The Most Boring Element(00:48:53) Solving Shakespeare's Accent(01:26:37) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We’re not going for the easy sappy answer, what makes something boring? all the oxygen stans updating wikipedia, the most boring is obviously bohrium, thulium is used in lasers and x-rays, about 24 grams of astatine per planet, shout out Sir Martin Poliakoff, the 4 elements that came from pitchblende, Caroline stop anthropomorphizing protactinium, the isotope brevium, you could have been called abracadabra and instead your legal name is Actinium’s dad, wow what a fascinating [Rn]5f 26d7s2 ground state electron configuration! give me more random letters and numbers Tom! protactinium is there if your smoke detector is old, the global ocean conveyor belt, THC (Thermal Haline Circulation), that’s the ocean bit- anyway here’s something completely different about protactinium, paleoclimatology sounds a lot like protactinium, Ella realizes the turn, HE DID IT, whoa Caroline doing thumbs up to climate change, they’re de-extincting William Shakespeare, where better to waste my time pursuing this than Let’s Learn Everything, shakespeare is typically performed in received pronunciation, wait this is secretly a UK vs US topic! I’m surprised it took you 3 years to figure out we just keep you for your American accent, Americans have vestigial roticity, the universal beauty of two dudes yapping, what a strange elitism to claim to have Elizabethan English, Appalachian claims of shakespearean accents as a way to boost image, if you want to know what people sounded like back then… look at what people wrote about it! more one to one spellings like “philome” for film, we can deduce the accent from rhymes and puns, I loov this topic, Tom’s accent gets miscalibrated, an open midback is really stylish these days, open mid back unrounded vowel, Ella can move your tongue with her mind, I see why this gameshow didn’t make it to television, don’t wast a reem on a droom, the Rorscach test of the Original Pronunciation created by David and Ben Crystal, flecks of every dialect, “it’s a sound that reminds people of the accent of their home, and so they ten to listen more with their heart than their head”, “American English simply isn’t good enough for Shakespeare”, the Sundry Boroughs of New York baby! the language of Shakespeare is dead but alive in English everywhere, Shakespeare was meant to be played for the public - so it should be spoken like the public, Shakespeare's accent belongs to all of us!Sources:Amazing paper from Nature Chemistry: "The Most Boring Chemical Element"HPS on ProtactiniumLos Alamos Laboratory on ProtactiniumPeriodic Videos on ProtactiniumMining Website on Protactinium's HistoryBritannica on PitchblendeNature Chemistry: "Peculiar Protactinium"NOAA on the Global Ocean Conveyor BeltNOAA on PlanktonEOS on Protactinium for PaleoclimatologyProtactinium/Thorium in Paleoclimatology TextbookCarbonbrief's Climate Tipping PointsThorium Protactinium DatingYu, Francois, and Bacon's first paper on Protactinium Ocean Current Dating---Wiki: British colonisation of the AmericasWiki: Early Modern EnglishHistory of English: Early Modern EnglishBBC: How Americans preserved British EnglishThe Historical Linguist Blog: American English – The language of Shakespeare?Dialect Blog: Shakespearean vs. Modern EnglishNational Geographic: Tangier IslandBBC: The Tiny Island with a British accentLanguage Myths BookDavid Crystal’s Original Pronunciation evidencePaper: Early Modern English PhonologyOxford Dictionary: Early modern English: grammar, pronunciation, and spellingUniversity of Toronto: Early Modern English PhonologyNPR: How Did the Bard Really SoundYoutube: Shakespeare: Original pronunciation

What laws are there to worry about in the moon? And what does space law teach us about Earth law? And what can we learn about societies throughout history from the lens of stuffing dead animals?Images we Talk About:Orbiting Space DebrisFallen Space DebrisHanging Christian CrocodileHanging Christian CrocodileTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:02) International Space Law(01:03:25) Taxidermy(01:46:48) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: The splash zone of intro to astronomy, space NCIS, the bedrock of 1967 outer space treaty, the first earthling in space (2 tortoises), countries are responsible for their damage and no WMDs, that big tangible moon in the sky, unprecedented lunar traffic this year, potential water ice on the moon could be the next big space race, there’s no moon water regulation, no nation can own the moon, buuuut can an individual - former ventriloquest and used car salesman own the moon?? god don’t call it “untapped resources on the moon”, you can’t own the moon but can you own its resources, there’s a legal officer for the UN officer of outer space affairs! we can allll frack the moon (except no one signed the treaty anyway), we can’t even agree to share moon resources One Day, only “safe and sustainable” space mining allowed, it doesn’t have to be legally binding to make countries want to follow it, a radio telescope on the far side of the moon would be SICK, sorry about all the space junk us 3 put up there, 90 metric tons of re-entry, suing nasa over space debris, if it launched from florida and hit florida it’s actually local state space law, satellite light pollution, satellites don’t die they just crash into a farm upstate, starlink burnt 120 satellites in 1 month alone, there’s no laws about safely deorbiting - no one has to do this, how we treat space is a microcosm of how we treat earth, space law is real, why can’t we bring our optimism from space back to earth instead of the other way around? Ella’s mouse doing drugs, the art of skin arranging, apologies to our ancient Egyptian listeners, the various techniques of Egyptian preservation, arresting from decay, Frederik Ruysch’s wet specimens, crocodiles make a lot of sense for the first taxidermy cause they’re big and leathery - anyway it was hanging in a church…, Tom loses his mind about A SECOND TAXIDERMIED CROCODILE IN A CHURCH, a croc that’s at least from 1623, The Great Italian Taxidermy Crocodile Road Trip, about one third of the british population went to the 1851 great exhibition, the telescope and taxidermy exhibition sounds like a trap for Caroline and Ella, “whimsy and anthropomorphism in taxidermy of the Victorian era”, anthropomorphic taxidermy was considered grotesque, taxidermy didn’t die we just stuffed it back up, environment taxidermy requires knowing an animal inside and out (pun intended), the degrees of ethical taxidermy, ethical is not a binary, it depends on your personal code of ethics, taxidermy as a lens of moral feelings through history.Sources:UNOOSA: Outer Space TreatyUN: International Space Law ExplainedRoyal Museums Greenwich: Who Owns the Moon?Lunar Embassy: Buy Some MoonPolitico: Who Owns the MoonGuardian: Moon ResourcesJet Propulsion Laboratory: Moon ResourcesNASA Moon Mining ContractsBusiness Insider: Mining Disrupting Science on the MoonNASA Artemis AccordsESA Space Environment StatisticsSpaceWatch: SatellitesNatural History Museum: Space JunkGuardian: Florida Family Sues NASAScientific American: Samantha Lawler, Space X DebirsJournal of Space Safety Engineering: Uncontrolled Re-entryUNOSSA: United Nations 2007 Space Debris Mitigation GuidelinesESA Space Environment Report 2024Rolling Stone: Space TrashFCC: Deorbiting Satellites RuleScientific American: Space Junk Polluting Stratosphere---Britannica: Taxidermy2019 Paper: Animal Bodies between Wonder and Natural HistoryBBC: Ancient Egyptian mummification 'recipe' revealedBook: Practical Taxidermy2020 Paper: The Animal Body As Medium: Taxidermy And European Expansion, 1775–1865Museum of Idaho: A brief, Gross History of TaxidermyAtlas Obscura: Crocodile at the Santuario Madonna delle Lacrime ImmacolateUniversity of Dayton: Crocodile Hunting in the Marian LibraryWandering Italy: Grazie, Italy and the Crocodile Church2006 Paper: The History of Taxidermy: Clues for PreservationJournal of Antiques and Collectables: Taxidermy: Exploring one of the Most Complicated CollectiblesThe Royal Parks: The Great Exhibition of 18512012 Thesis: The Shock Proved Fatal: Whimsy and Anthropomorphism in Taxidermy of the Victorian Era, 1851-1899Cardiff University: Frequently Asked Questions in TaxidermySmithsonian: Why Taxidermy Is Being Revived for the 21st CenturyHorniman Museum: Ethical TaxidermyGuardian: Inside the Female-Led World of Ethical TaxidermySussex Wildlife Trust: Putting the Ethical in Taxidermy

Welcome to the (preview for the) Lab Rat Games! The GAME show where we compete to learn anything and everything interesting! We love putting games into our topics, so what happens when we make a whole show of them, with each of us hosting their own section! Plus! We're joined by friend of the show and competitive chaos combatant, Sabrina Cruz!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!

How can scientist's unravel the mystery of what dinosaurs ate? Well the clues are right in front of our eyes, or should I say their teeth! And poop! And listener you may already know what a podcast is, but how did proto-podcasts in a chicken coop give us the DNA for what we love, and how did podcasts even happen?Images we Talk About:First Iguanadon ToothPuffer Fish TeethFish TeethsIncisivosaurusSaurolophusDinosaur Stomach Contents FossilHam ComicSybil's Baby's Radio RebutTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro
(00:04:33) Dinosaur Diet Detectives
(01:00:51) Support our Show!
(01:04:27) Proto-Podcasts
(02:02:49) Bonus Content!
(02:07:24) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Deep Dive Discovering Dino Diets, dinosaur time, imagining us discovering a new animal, well we know it doesn’t eat nerds, Ella describes teeth perfectly - “is that what you meant to say Tom?”, the mouth is the first stomach, we found the teeth of the first herbivorous dinosaur before the body - and before we had the word for dinosaur, cinderella/goldilocks teeth, dental microwear, food print, the topography of a grasshopper’s mandible, teeth can be more indicative than stomach content, maybe you just tried in and out for the first time when you got captured by aliens, dinosaur teeth are the old coins of ancient civilizations, egg eating oviraptors, it’s not just us but experts that are confused about oviraptaurs teeth, reconstructing the crime scene of a bit mark, this case has been closed for 70 million years! the tarbosaurus seems to have separated the chicken leg to make eating easier, a tyrannosaur leaving a tooth in the scene of the crime, they not only got bit but lived to tell the tale, this proves tyranosaurs hunted living animals - and weren’t just scavengers, hard foods stay in the stomach longer, some dinosaurs used Gastrolith rocks as stomach teeth, rocks natures teeth, Bromalite can be regurgitalite or coprolite, 580 million year old worm poop, we didn’t think grass was that old then we found it in dinosaur poop,  we put dinosaur poop in a particle accelerator, we’re not looking at poop - we’re constructing the foodchain of dinosaurs, an ancient egyptian podcast, podcasting is NOT an oral tradition, the chicken coop boys, Sybil’s Little Ham Radio Show 20 years before a woman on proper radio, the Titanic sinking sped along radio restrictions, Tom skipped over the cassette before because its science impact was small but its misc impact was huge, explaining cassette tapes at a high frequency so it doesn’t hurt old people to hear, Lou Otten, the syrian cassette archive, mixtapes, Caroline’s family mix CDs, Tom’s custom Jack’s Mannequin Mix CDs, Pacific Horticulture Magazine being delighted that someone’s interested, Tom’s Magic Corner, I knew it was some journalist doing their thing, apple didn’t come up with podcasting - not even the name, journey back to 1999, the dream of RSS, what’s that facebook shaped cloud on the horizon? the dream of hosting your own feed, somehow podcast RSS survived, podcasts are the Horshoecrab of the internet, “wherever you get podcasts” is amazing, The Lab Rat Games!Sources:NHM London: Iguanodon TeethNHM London: Beyond Jurassic World- What We Really Know About Dinosaurs and HowNHM London: The Seven Greatest Dinosaur Discoveries of the Last 200 YearsBritish Ecological Society: What do Grasshoppers Eat?Phys.Org: Cutting Edge Teeth StudyNPR: Dental Detectives: What Fossil Teeth Reveal About Ancestral Human DietsUniversity of Tokyo: Dinosaur Teeth Reveal What They Didn’t EatBBC: Dinosaur Teeth Reveal Feeding HabitsIncisivosaurus2022 Paper: Incisivosaura Bite ForceUniversity of Pennsilvania: What Fossils Tell Us About the Dining Habits of DinosaursNHM London: Dinosaur Eating Habit Insights from Stegosaurus stenops2010 Paper: New information on scavenging and selective feeding behaviour of tyrannosauridsDave Hone's Archosaur Musings2012 Paper: Physical evidence of predatory behavior in Tyrannosaurus rexSave Our Seas: What Tools do Biologists use to Tell What is on the Menu for Wild Animals?Scientific America: Tyrannosaur’s Stomach Contents Have Been Found for the First Time2023 Paper: Exceptionally preserved stomach contents of a young tyrannosaurid reveal an ontogenetic dietary shift in an iconic extinct predatorSN Explores: Fossil Stomach Reveals a Dinosaur’s Last MealNHM London: CoproliteThe Bristol Dinosaur Project: The Grass DivideNPR: Over 500 Fossilized Poops Show How Dinosaurs Came to Rule the EarthAmerican Museum of Natural History: How Does Studying Dinosaurs Benefit Humanity?---MET on Memory Boards and Luba Oral TraditionsOED Broadcast EtymologyThe Chicken Coop Ham RadioSybil's Little Hame Radio ProgramNYTimes on Titanic's Impact on Radio LawLibrary of Congress on Recorded RadioNPR On Lout Otten and the Cassette TapeWired on Cassette HistoryNPR on the Syrian Cassette ArchiveBerkeley Audio Tape RetrospectiveCarl Malamud on Asynchronous Internet RadioThe Earliest Mention of Podcasts in the GuardianTwo-Bit History on the History of RSSKevin Werbach's Vision of the Future of RSS and the InternetTechCrunch: Rest in Peace RSS

It’s not MaxFunDrive without a wild kickoff spectacular! Former real-life VJ and host of MTV's Spring Break 1999, Dave Holmes, takes your favorite MaxFun hosts through some wacky ‘90s- and Spring Break-themed mini games!!Featuring: Dave Holmes, Jeremy Bent, Oscar Montoya, Dimitry Pompée, Tom Lum, Ellen Weatherford, Alex Schmidt, Brenda Snell, Drea Clark, Alonso Duralde, Dan McCoy, Jordan Morris, Manolo Moreno, Ella Hubber, Caroline Roper, Ella McLeod, John-Luke Roberts, Justin McElroy, Clint McElroy, Mike Cabellon, Sierra Katow, Hal Lublin, Danielle Radford, John Moe, Christian Dueñas, Christian Duguay. Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:22) Tom, Ellen, Alex, and Brenda Trivia(00:32:47) Tom, Ellen, Manolo, and Jeremy on Party Animals(00:46:34) Caroline, Ella, Ella, and John-Luke on British Spring Break

Host of Um Actually and nerd of many domains Ify Nwadiwe joins us as Tom helps him deconstruct the infamous Peasant Railgun from D&D. Could it actually work? And can we come up with something even more powerful using real science? We also dig into nerdery old and new, and see if Ify can convince Ella and Caroline to embrace their home country's greatest export: Warhammer.Images we Talk About:A Real Railgun FiringTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:06:05) The Peasant Railgun(00:43:07) Q&A/Nerding Out(01:12:19) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: After this black hole research I do appreciate my family more! we’re here to game, what is a peasant? stealing science experiments for DnD campaigns, Caroline and Ella are delighted to learn the Peasant Railgun for the first time, convincing peasants to hands across america, pandering to the audience telling them their smart, My Monster Manual is On the Origin of Species, a peasant message system/computer, let people accelerate things to the speed of light! I shouldn’t let my players do WHAT, and remember kids DONT use a bong because it gets you SO HIGH, I’m reading between the lines Gary would want us to do this, the real rail gun, UM ACTUALLY ITS A PEASANT COIL GUN, rail guns are more common in fiction, the strength of a rail gun tears itself apart and creates a fireball, Ify would make each peasant in the line roll, if your players try to make the railgun say yes then show them the picture, the peasants have the means of production and destruction - they should unionize, the fastest manmade object, the manhole cover isnt the fastest object recorded, mission to touch the sun, gravity slingshot, it’s not the mass of the planet its the orbit, its not a magnet - its a magnet on a bullettrain, DMs watch out for artificer space programs, the duke of musk keeps stealing our government funding, Morgan you’re welcome to play beyblades with Ify any time, marrying bratz and digimon, England’s main export is Warhammer, can Ify convince Ella to play Warhammer, should we do a separate zoom just talking about nerd stuff? online writing forums, audio books are real books, be mean in magic, playing DnD on stage vs at home, playing true to your character.Sources:First Edition D&D Player's HandbookKnight's Digest on Peasant Railgun OriginsEarliest Peasant Railgun MentionPCGamer on D&D 2024 Dungeon Master Guide UpdateIEEE Early Railgun ResearchVice "This Is Why the Navy Can’t Have Nice Railguns"USC on Railgun FeasabilityPopular Science Interview on Railgun TestJPL Chart of Fastest ObjectsCNET on Parker Solar ProbeNASA Gravity Assist Primer

Why is math both so easy and so hard for our brains, and how can the psychology of horses, babies, and mathematicians help answer that? And what wild journey did Sudoku take to become the popular puzzle that Ella adores?Things we Talk About:The Video of a Child Learning to CountThe Melencolia PaintingTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:59) The Psychology of Math(01:00:35) Sudoku(01:44:59) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: the Wonderful student, it’s not you - it’s math, “I did biology for a reason”, children can want a lot of complex things, it’s harder in the UK cause its Maths plural, Caroline & Ella’s math journeys, charlie solves the Riemann hypothesis, the horse the myth the legend - clever hans, clever hans was drafted into the military AS A MATHEMATICIAN, real horse math! so many animals seem to have Number Sense, counting is hard for kids, multiplication isn’t counting - it’s memorization and other strategies, Caroline doesn’t have a great Mental Blackboard, kick flipping a chair in our minds to brag to Caroline, overlapping waves, hot or not for equations, hahaha a taylor expansion?? in Lp?? ridiculous! there is no one math organ in the brain, don’t give up on math, “I don’t treat math as a monolith (I think statistics is the worst math)”, that surprises me because sudoko’s amazing and you’re wrong, the ancient mystical turtle’s magic square, a mathematical warding spell, “once something is proved true, it is eternally true”, HOW DID ELLA NOT REALIZE THIS WAS A MATH TOPIC, magic squares are unsolved, math divination, wow this is a math’s topic huh, maths in art, Melancholia, the magic square on La Sagrada Familia, wait Magic Squares AREN’T the precursor to sudoku?? I don’t know this child, if not sudoku why sudoku shaped? the Latin square originated in Korea before Euler, my parents are older than sudoku, it was originally called Number Place, even though we call it Sudoku - in Japan it’s often called Number Place for trademark reasons, the 2004 sudoku boom, sudoku is an infectious meme, this topic took so long (because Ella took sudoku breaks), figuring out the question of unique puzzles, so many ways to think about a square, advanced sudoku techniques, x-wing and swordfish, sudoku championships, of course Ella found speed running in this topic, Sudoku doesn’t seem to cure cognitive decline - but it’s also just fun to do! a beautiful sudoku poem, it’s how we learn and it’s calming - a little win, “I feel like I need to lie down”, let us know if you know the difference between 3 apples and 4 apples.Sources:Perfect Pitch StudyFeigenson et al. Core System of NumberThe Clever Hans Phenomenon RevisitedNYTimes Berlin's Wonderful HorseActual Horse Number Sense StudyNumber Sense in AnimalsRat Brain Number Sense StudyNPR Why Big Numbers Break our BrainsErikson Institute Video of Child CountingThe Development of Mathematical CognitionMath Expert Brain Activity StudyThe Beauty of Math StudyUniversity of MAryland on Math Brain ActivityKeith Devlin Stanford TalkKatie Steckles: What Do Mathematicians Do All Day?---Wikipedia: Magic SquareRoyal Institution: Magic SquareUniversity of Cambridge: Magic SquareMagic Squares in Islamic MathematicsWiki: SudokuThe Guardian: History of SudokuThe Science of Sudoku by BY JEAN-PAUL DELAHAYEPaper: There Is No 16-Clue SudokuAdvanced Sudoku Techniques:Wiki: World Sudoku ChampionshipsSudoku.com: The Fastest Sudoku PlayerSudoku.com: 4 Reasons that Sudoku is the Perfect Puzzle GameWorking MemoryBBC: Puzzle Slolving and Cognitive DeclineSudoku 15 year studyGlobal Council on Brain Health ReportSudoku Mental Fortitude

Why is the common fruit fly the perfect model organism, and the reason for 6 Nobel Prizes?? And what is the british fascination around the meal deal, lunchtime, and the sandwich?Images we Talk About:Map of the Fruit Fly BrainRat My Meal DealThe Sandwich FactoryTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:57) Drosophila Melanogaster(00:49:46) The British Meal Deal(01:37:48) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Ella’s former favorite fun fact, are 6 nobel prizes more impressive than long sperm? we need to pause, bolas, Ella’s Virgins, Dew Loving Black Belly, Dros Mel are human commensals - they migrated with us, “they’re undemanding guests”, first life intentionally put into space, maybe Jeff Goldblum became a fly so seamlessly because they share 60% of their DNA, Tom’s great Jeff Goldblum impression, they share a lot of disease related genes, Thomas Morgan - The Lord of the Flies, Morgan knew about genetics but not DNA yet, genetic redundancy, a fly geneticist’s swiss army knife, the varied list of nobel wins, are they cancelled? wait actually? guess that fly gene, “the inside jokes are becoming outside jokes”, the golden wild west era of the fruit fly may be over - but not all science, the beautiful fruit fly brain, we COULD end by talking about how this little organism has been so belovedly studied and helpful, Dros Mel has a mini bachelorette organ, the great british everything, is this a sincere answer? rating meal deals, fluctuations of lunch elitism, a beaver and a noonshine, capitalism made workers hours longer - workers rights made lunch, lunch was given by and for women, the earl of sandwich was too much of a gamer, we can’t re-litigate the cube rule, the “daring” true story of the sandwich, the sandwich storry isn’t about invention it’s about class, food elitism fads, ella invents soup in a tube, 1980s the first pre-packaged sandwich, units of sandwich (UOS), it’s almost like getting separated from the means of production…, the british sandwich association, take your lunch break! you won’t remember doing an extra bit of work - you’ll remember spending time with folks and making a bomb ass sandwich, short lunch breaks make meal deals make sense, drosophola and meal deals cancelled on this episode,Sources:Paper: Drosophila - Model Organism of ChoicePaper: Innate Immune Responses of Drosophila melanogaster Are Altered by SpaceflightNASA: Fruit Flies in SpacePaper: Drosophila – A Versatile Model in Biology & MedicinePaper: The Secret Lives of Drosophila FliesGuardian Article on DrosophilaPaper: Where are Drosphila FromPaper: Gal4 Swiss Army KnifeNobel Prize: DrosophilaNPR: Fruit Fly NamesNature News: Troublesome Names Get the BootPaper: Fly Brain MapFly Brain ImageUKRI: Fruit Fly Neuron MapPaper Drosophila Sperm Storage---Tribune: How Capitalism Stole Your LunchRate My Meal Deal InstagramBBC: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner: Have We Always Eaten Them?BBC: Sandwich Celebrates 250th Anniversary of the SandwichThe Guardian: How The Sandwich Consumed BritainGreencore: ConvenienceFoodReport: The Sandwich FactoryUniversity of Manchester: What is the Environmental Impact of Your Lunch-Time Sandwich?Scottish Government: Shopping Behaviours and Meal Deals - Consumer Behaviours: Evidence BriefThe Guardian: Yoghurts in the Meal DealFinancial Times: The FreddoBBC: FreddoHubbub: Reuse Systems UnpackedTesco: The Nations Favourite Meal DealThe Independant: The Nations Favourite Meal Deal

What can we learn from the most modern - but overlooked form of pollution? And can mistakes in art be something actually... good?Images we Talk About:Navajo Rug Ch'ihónít’iRamses II StatueEcce HomoThe Original Ecce Homo3 Versions of Ecce HomoLincoln Memorial MistakeTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:25) Light Pollution(00:48:06) Mistaeks(01:37:02) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Auctioning topics, the origins of pollution, pollution is old but light pollution is from the 1960s, the great stink, the biggest light polluter is the sun, old gas street lights used to be more like beacons than lights, the world’s getting 10% brighter each year, 80% of North American can’t see the milky way, Light Trespass, Sky Glow, light pollution makes telescopes worse, Tom’s parents hearing him scream WHY IS THERE BREAST MILK, the strange lights after the 1994 LA earthquake, amateur astronomers are vital to astronomy, light trapped moths, a 1917 study on lighthouses and bird migration, birds waking up 5 hours earlier, turtles also use moonlight navigation, just move your telescope and evolve your species it’s not our fault, “he glistens you philistine”, the big beautiful glow worm woman in the sky, street lights are like sugar light to plants, light pollution isn’t the biggest issue - but that can make it easy to ignore - and it has some easy wins! it’s solvable at the community level, Tom’s buoyancy broken hand mistake, oops I mixed up my therapy and podcast topic list, the beatles anomalies list, Michelangelo’s beautiful complaint letter poem, we are our own worst critic, the ASMR mistake was just an anomaly, Kintsugi, “it treats breakage as a part of the object’s history rather than an error or a failure to be covered up”, what’s the japanese word for mud covered boots, only god can make perfect fun facts, Ch'ihónít’i, releasing the thoughts from an object - a way out, the journey of Caroline’s darned jumper, how can you tell an old mistake was a mistake? hieroglyphic typos, oh shit control ankh control ankh, revealing an ancient mistake by mistake, Philadelphia isn’t real it can’t hurt you, the Jesus that was… made an anomaly by Gloria Gimenez, the misremembered story of Ecce Homo, art is this emotional roller coaster, wow don’t take Tom’s summary Caroline, Lincoln memorial myths, 1000 years from now a museum in Neo Egypt will carve out the lincoln memorial fix, I know a great art restoration person in spain if you need one, most mistakes are just forgotten, you need mistakes to learn, the mistake of starting this podcast, verbal kintsugi, anomalous jesus, we didn’t learn today that Ella was a contrarian.Sources:Britannica: Light Pollution2020 Paper: A Chronology of Global Air QualityWikipedia: The Great StinkNHM London: Increasing Light Pollution is Drowning out the Stars2023 Paper: Light Pollution is SkyrocketingScientific America: Light Pollution is Dimming Our View of the Sky2009 Paper: Missing the Dark: Health Effects of Light PollutionNational Parks Service: Connect with the Galaxy: A case for turning out the lightsCAPE 2023: What are the Effects of Artifical Light on Human Health? An Evidence Brief 2019 Paper: Effects of Light at Night on Laboratory Animals and Research Outcomes1918 Paper: The Destruction of Birds at the Lighthouses on the Coast of California2021 Paper: Characteristics of Light Pollution – A case study of Warsaw (Poland) and Fukuoka (Japan)1973 Paper: Light Pollution BBC: How light pollution disrupts plants' sensesDark Sky: Solutions to Light Pollution---The Beatles Anomalies ListMichelangelo's "Poem"KintsugiJill Ahlberg Yohe's Incredible Paper on Ch’ihónít’iPenn Museum's Ramses IIAncient Egyptian LiteracyNYTimes on Ecce HomoThe Guardian Ecce Homo CritiqueThe Art History of Ecce HomoAP on Ecce Homo a Year Later

As we plan out the new year, please enjoy a recast of one of my (Tom's) favorite guest appearances on Spellbound and Gagged, hosted by the wonderful friend of the show Ellen Weatherford!

It's the start of the new year which means a bunch of new questions submitted by YOU! What are our favorite words from the podcast? What's it like to scrap a topic? Would we still love each other if we were worms?Things we Talk About:Contrapoints' Twilight VideoJenny Nicholson's Star Wars Hotel VideoShaun's ChannelChina's Artifical SunXOXO 2024 VideosTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:07:42) Part 1(01:13:53) Part 2(01:54:30) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: west our weawy heads, this year we had long topics and a good spread of topics, Jono’s Q&A themes 2.0, next year I’m doing a topic on Caroline, we can neither confirm nor deny it’s the dex we know, Challengers Zone of Interest is the new Barbenheimer, games that show your personality, ahh eating your own poop has been on my list for forever, the use of pseudoscience, Caroline’s favorite word from the podcast is Quantum thanks to Tom (awww), Tom’s favorite is Kleptoparasitism, just “Light” as a topic, can we sweep Ella off her math’s feet, say hi to us! we clicked with Gretchen TOO well, the format change has been great! someone thought that with the format change one person would just not be there, next year one topic - then zero - then negative topics, Ella’s super secret question section, Head and Shoulders made these lovely locks, being non binary, Ella still collects squashed pennies, learning outside the podcast, you are a clown, actually it turns out we don’t need comedy in this show - huh, tiktok is like matches and podcast are logs, tiktok vs youtube vs podcasts, oh people are listening to this, waiting for the other fun to drop, how we resolved learning everything, 2026 is gonna be a banging year, Ella’s 2 Star review of the year.

It's the HaLearn Days!! We've gathered a whole bunch of fun facts from each other and from friends of the show to share the gift of laughter and learning!Images we Talk About:The Rat CarRat Car VideoSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:07:57) Part 1(00:59:11) Part 2(01:37:06) Outro  We also learn about: The Christmas Brussel Sprout Tradition, put christ back in halearn days, Where the Dog Ran, eclipses are more of a “huh?” moment, you might hear a frog during an eclipse - or more likely a science communicator, the turkey helicopter truth is stranger than fiction, giraffes can’t walk up anything steeper than 20 degrees, topography is important for giraffe reserves, the emu wars, Anatidaephobia, gotta define intimate, I eat and talk with tongue, our most liked tweet was from a jetlag hat, there’s nothing in the rules that says a wormhole can’t exist and a dog can’t play basketball, we got a rejection on our preprint from St Nicholas, Michel Foucault’s Elf on a Shelf, the scale of believability, when we stopped believing in santa, “Santa knows I can’t speak german”, the child psychology of Santa, William Shatner’s Halloween mask, Sleierton’s Betty Boop ghost mask, Tom finds out he’s driving a rat experiment car, the yuletide tradition of rats, rats would rather drive longer route to get food, alright “Tom Lum”, rice crispies and taco sauce, bingo bingo prison industrial complex! it’s very human to want to have tasty food, the places I would least like to have taste receptors, taste receptors and buds are different, we just discovered them on our tongues first and called them taste receptors, really our tongue has testicle and urethra receptors, screen-based phones, electronic purgatory, we will all get old, and as we say on the podcast: every year another vagina, should all our fun facts be forgot and never brought to mind, we’ll raise a cup of kindness yet, for everything.Sources:Minute Physics video on Animals during EclipsesFrog Song During Eclipse StudyWikipedia: WKRP in Cincinnati “Turkeys Away”Why Can’t Domesticated Turkeys Fly?Eureka Alert: Giraffes Struggle with SlopesThe Emu WarScientific American: 80 million microbes in a KissMicrobiome Journal: Kiss studyNature News: Shared MicrobiomeAIP Wormhole Definition & PaperAstronomy Today on Wormholes2024 Paper: Children’s Belief in Santa Claus and Moral BehaviorSnopes on Michael Myers MaskSnopes on Scream MaskWilliam Shatner interview Entertainment WeeklyIndependant: Scientists Taught Rats to DriveBBC: Rats Taught to Drive Tiny Cars to Lower Their Stress Levels2020 Paper: Enriched environment exposure accelerates rodent driving skillsSpace Shuttle: The First 20 YearsNPR: Ramen Noodle Currency2013 Paper: Taste perception: From The Tongue To The TestisNIH In Brief: How Does Our Sense of Taste Work?1992 NYTimes Article about Cell PhonesCBC Article on the First Text Message

Where are we in the universe? And what can we learn from all the hilariously wrong guesses and bad maps that got us there? And just how much carrot propaganda was there? Well, we'll see a lot of posters and a few myths to debunk!Images we Talk About:Dunn's Earth & Moon MapsHerschel's Milky Way MapWright's Island Universes DrawingThe Image of M31 from 1919First Full Image of EarthThe World Carrot MuseumCarrot Poster 1Carrot Poster 2Disney Carrot CharactersDr CarrotTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:44) Where are We?(00:45:11) Carrot Propaganda(01:24:04) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: we’re allowed to make up topics I guess, Samuel Dunn’s map of the Earth and moon, subtle thematic forshadowing, galactocentrism, the awkward teenage years of science, every human could see the milky way, the backbone of night, the milky origins of galaxy, Herschel’s heliocentric drawing of the milky way, Cosmic Pride, the zone of avoidance, island universes is multiverses for the middle ages, the great or not so great debate, can you debate something more interesting like moo deng, M31 the little cloud, the person whose telescope proceeds him: Edwin Hubble, “here is the letter that has destroyed my universe”, years of fighting over terminology, the World Carrot Museum, the moment this turned from a distraction into a topic, we do actually need vitamin A for night vision and eye health, you can only get vitamin A from meat… and vegetables… and fruits, the blackouts in WWII, carrots to help drivers be safer in the dark, incredible  podcasts - they help you see in the blackout, Cat Eyes Cunningham, no official document shows intentionally hiding radar with carrot vision, the myth happened organically, “the war could be won on the kitchen front”, Walt Disney designed carrot mascots, if you don’t think food is political I have some posters to show you.Sources:Yale History of the Center of the UniverseLibrary of Congress: History of Discovering the Milky WayNASA Archive of The Great DebateHoskin's Amazing "The Great Debate: What Really Happened"Astronomy of Today Book with the Image of the M31 "Nebula"Hubble: The Realm of the NebulaeESA Bio on Edwin HubbleNYTimes Hubble BioScience Friday Article about Henrietta LeavittKragh's Fantastic "Nebulae or Galaxies? The history of a change in astronomical terminology---NHS: Macular HealthAmerican Academy of Opthamology on Vitamin DeficiencyAmerican Optometric Society on Vitamin A Eye HealthHealthline: Are Carrots Good for Your Eyes?Smithsonian Magazine: A WWII Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth That Carrots Help You See in the DarkWeb Archive: World Carrot MuseumNYT 1940: London Urges Carrot Diet For 'Blackout Blindness'NYT 1942: Blackout Hints -- From a Blackout VeteranNYT 1942: Disney FamilyBBC: How 'Cat's Eyes' helped change the worldBritannica: One Good Fact

It's everyone's favorite holiday: the day we ask you to submit your Q&A questions!!Go to www.LetsLearnEverything.com/questions and submit your questions about truly anything at all from the science to the serious to the silly!

Why do leaves change color? No... like really?  Like, show-me-the-scientific-literature-really? After all how mysterious could the answer be? And holy frick we're finally doing a topic on swearing!! What are the eras of swearing, and what is swearing actually good for? Listen to our episode of Escape this Podcast: Oceananigans pt. 3 - The Bering-toss StraitImages we Talk About:Carotenemia HandsTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:34) Autumn Leaves(00:53:04) Swearing(01:42:57) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Congrats to Kelly & Zach on the book prize! We should write a book, chilli peppers are spicy cause mammals digest them before pooping them out, magnesium makes leaves green, it’s worth it to drop leaves because when they do work they’re so efficient, man trees are interesting, carotenemia, “yeah so if you want an unnecessary amount of detail…”, Caroline has an answer for all our questions, anthocyanins, red leaves could be aposematic, finding one explanation for a color doesn’t mean we know for sure, Tom calls the climate change turn, warmer weather keeps leaves greener in autumn (good) but there’s less sunlight to use it (bad), animals use autumn leaf colors to help with migration, wont someone think of the leaf peepers, I don’t know/we don’t know, this might be too much swearing - thats a threat and a promise, the versatility of fuck, “fuck is good”, may all your teeth fall out except one to give you a toothache, Ella read a book for this of all topics, “hmm… fuck cunt shit…”, determining a historic swear is like jazz - it’s the swear words you don’t see, stop trying to make clit a thing, Ella was totally right to put a swear warning at the top, the nuance of gender roles in ancient rome, Fuck has a beautiful equality to it, shitepokes and windfuckers, cunt used to be just a regular word for vulva, medieval ages didn’t care about shit… literally, the journey of swearing makes dull history exciting, UK US Australia swearing differences, if Ella’s dad saind cunt that’s naughty - if Tom’s dad said it they’d need to have a conversation, our swearing histories, why do we keep swearing? swearing has social benefits, swearing is intimate! swearing for emphasis and believability, we swear without thinking and yet it’s so socially complex, swearing activates different parts of the brain, the “fuck” region of our brain and the fuck region of our brain are closer than we thought, screaming neutral words as a control, swearing is why Ella is the strongest host, we still don’t know Why swearing is so powerful for us, tell us your favorite swears! review corner breaks the fourth wall.Sources:Cleaveland Clinic : Can Eating Too Many Carrots Turn Your Skin Orange?Harvard Forest: The Process of Leaf Color ChangeUSDA: Science of Fall ColorsHarvard Forest: The Biological Significance of Leaf Color Change2022 Paper: The phenomenon of red and yellow autumn leaves: Hypotheses, agreements and disagreements2004 Paper: Plant coloration undermines herbivorous insect camouflageScience Direct: Plant coloration undermines herbivorous insect camouflage2004 Paper: Nature's Swiss Army Knife: The Diverse Protective Roles of Anthocyanins in Leaves2012: Simulated herbivory advances autumn phenology in Acer rubrum2002 Paper: Foliage color contrasts and adaptive fruit color variation in a bird-dispersed plant communityCID: How Climate Change Impacts Leaf PigmentsImage: Heam VS Chlorophyll---Yiddish CurseSwearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English - Geoffrey HughesHoly Shit by Mellisa MohrStapleton et al “The power of swearing: What we know and what we don’t”Study: Swearing as a HypoalgesicStudy: Swearing Makes you Stronger

Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch of Lingthusiasm joins us to casually answer all of our pressing linguistics questions with the most mind blowing facts.  Why does science use so much dang latin, and what is so unique about internet linguistics?Images we Talk About:Gretchen's Favorite FrogsTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:10:58) Latin in Science(00:54:49) Misc & Internet Linguistics(01:22:46) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Words that change the state of the universe, a promise is a kind of magic, “people ask me how i make a living doing linguistics and it’s very simple actually” just make podcast wagers, the language of space, space pidgin language, “that’s a great hypothesis and it’s actually hte opposite of that” sometimes the answer is imperialism! English is being used in science now how Latin was back then, the vulgate bible was latin to reach more people even the “vulgar”, you’re cousins a scribe learning latin - what are you doing a podcast? “Writing is a Technology”, writings only been invented like 4 times, writing originated as reciepts and lists, the A is an upside down ox, why invent a new letter when that means having to change the printing press - just double letter! you access computing through programming and programming is linked to language, we don’t know whether the first language was spoken or signed, french linguists once banned the discussion of the origin of language bcause it was deemed “fruitless”, it’s wild we could retrofit our brains to read and write at all, changing, linguistically accurate sesame street, “Who would know aught of art must learn, act, and then take his ease”,  Ella you have goregous tripthongs, nice try Gretchen but our 69th episode was a few back, the Mini frogs, isn’t a linguistic podcast niche? you’re saying that to me in a language, Gretchen loses her words and makes perfect sense, Gretchen went back in time to give herself this mystery book, you don’t have to be the version of yourself you imagined when you were twelve, Linguistics loves undergrad researchers to explain the youths, there’s always new linguistics to study, the kids are changing language- and that’s so fascinating, linguists and polyglots are related but not the same, what makes internet language Uniquely internety, is it really internet lingo or just AAE, the internet made people write a lot more than they used to, informal and unmediated writing is uniquely internet linguistics, people have wanted a sarcasm punctuation since at least 1575, emoji are a form of gesture, postcards were sometimes numbered like twitter threads, Gretchen did Sooo much research into the literature of sarcasm, the potential for misunderstanding is the point of sarcasm, “sarcasm is this linguistic trustfall”, pushing the boundaries of what a language can be, Solresol the musical conlang, language is everything - rainbows are language, whitespace programming language,

Cryptids may be spooky, but what about the spooky animals that turned out to be... real?? And what makes a good spooky story? Could it be something secretly... heartwarming??Timestamps:(00:07:15) Intro(00:04:21) Former Cryptids(00:54:25) The Art of Spooky Stories(01:52:33) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Caroline have you never met a vampire? that was from episode number Four Three, what’s spookier than having to be known, Ella met Tom the true Cryptid, the cryptid museum was research, formerly the cryptic mascot: the Okapi, komodo dragons inspired king kong, 60 iron tipped teeth (like beavers), dragon virgin birth, yes queen life finds a way, squid squads on the hunt, only photographed in 2004, 20 years ago - don’t say that, 8 fully controllable giant tentacles, “I’m learning!” as it drags you down to the bottom of the ocean, save the whales because we need them on our team for the kraken wars, you know what’s not a cryptid? western hegemony, the head of a fox and the tail of a monkey, so many names for the jackalope across the world, are jackalopes cancer??? the Jackalope and HPV vaccine are zero degress of separation away, Ella writes a sappy ending for Tom, Ella watched The Ring at 6, being retold Evangelion in an art class, a meteor made of vampires, King’s 3 kind of scary, “don’t you like to feel the shivers?”, evangelical horror, Zhiguai - accounts of the strange, a story of a beautiful harp player, creepypastas, Ella formaly apologize for her cocktober misstep, “I see you sluts out there and I don’t want to do you any disservice, two sentence horror, the artistry of Telling a scary story, maybe the real spooky story was the friends we made along the way who were dead the whole time.SourcesGuardian: Komodo DragonsESA Journals: The Okapi of the ApadanaBBC: Facts About Komodo DragonsScientific American: Iron Tipped TeethNew Yorker: The Squid HunterBBC Science Focus: Giant SquidWiki: Giant SquidOn the Track of Unknown AnimalsThe Strange Adventures of Andrew BattellPBS: Fantastic CreaturesEvolutionary Anthropology: Discovering GorillaCambridge University Press: Hanno and GorillaeNature: The First Description of a KangarooNational Geographic: The Myth of the Komodo Dragon’s Dirty MouthShope OG paperRoyal Society Paper: Shope Papilloma VirusThe Scientist: On the Trail of the Jackalope---NYTimes Story on Exxon and Climate ChangeA History of HorrorTimothy Beal Paper on Evangelical HorrorPliny The Elder's Ghost StoryLiu Ming Ming on ZhiguaiThe Story of LiangGan Bao In Search of the SupernaturalRetelling Urban Legends StudySCP Antimemetics DivisionJSTOR Daily on Alvin Schwartz's ProcessCRR Library on Alvin Schwartz Language Arts Interview

For our birthday this year, we've each gifted a topic for one another! For Caroline, an environmental hot take: can invasive species ever be... good? For Tom, an entire topic about one of his favorite hobbies: rock climbing! And for Ella, interviews from the Ig Nobel Laureates this year.Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:09:04) Good Invasive Species(00:46:31) Rock Climbing(01:18:05) Ig Nobel Interviews(02:01:14) OutroWe also learn about: In podcast years we’re 60, Ella’s party hat, what’s your favorite color and least favorite invasive species, it’s my birthday also, the zebra mussel, Humanity: “Hubris et Brevi Perspicacia”, canetoads that can’t even reach the beatles, maybe Ella is biased being part of the largest invasive species: the brits, not all non-native species are invasive, the neutral long island wall lizards, should I stan or cancel the grass? you can’t get rid of the nonnative birds in hawaii without killing the native plants, knowing beneficial non-native species helps us triage the real problems, Caroline’s thesis was on this??? a traditional LLE answer: It’s Complicated, Tom simply screams, duck roll, GTA IV Trailer, songs when he was born, but how does this involve scientology? what makes us human, Live from the Ig Nobels, “Don’t Die”, sometimes you need to remember to breathe, “I mostly just watch clips on Lateral”, Blue Zones, Dr Saul Newman’s Poem, Skinner’s pigeon guided missiles somehow missed Ella, minority report for pigeons, “I’m from New York Most of the Times”, vortex energy capture, The Water Swims the Fish took years, a long winded way to say just keep swimming, the silly in the science, Tom rips up Caroline’s gift.Sources:Canal & River Trust: Zebra MusslesNational Museum Australia Cane Toads in AustraliaWikipedia: Beavers in PatagoniaScientific American: Hawaiian BirdsThe Conversation: Some ‘invasive species’ can help native ecosystems thrive.The Hawaii VINE projectHofstra University: Italian Wall LizardsTrends in Ecology and Evolution: Valuing the contributions of non-native species to people and natureBrown University Press ReleaseBrown Daily Herald: Rebuttal---Rock Climbing sources coming soon!---Ig Nobel Ceremony 2024Max Planck Institue on Blue ZonesUCL on Saul Newman's WorkPre-print of Saul Newman's PaperSmithsonian Mag on the Pigeon ProjectNIH on Operant ConditioningAPA Eminent Psychologists of the 20th Century SurveyJulie Vargas Queens University Belfast InterviewJimmy Liao's Dead Trout Paper

What's actually going on in the center of the Earth, and just how interesting and useful could it be?  And how did the now ubiquitous Planned Obsolescence start with... bicycles??Images we Talk About:An Early BicycleBilhert's AnimationsTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:05:06) The Core(00:58:24) Planned Obsolescence(01:45:52) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Core Memories, we live on the zest of a lemon, there’s something neapolitan icecreamy about the Earth, Bridgmanite is 38% of the Earth, The Iron Catastrophe sounds metal as hell, an audio journey to the center of the Earth, “Eat My Ass Out Radiolab”, Earth’s Internal Heat Budget is half original energy and half nuclear, the Earth won’t cool down for at least another 10 years,  the American Miscellaneous Society’s Project Mohole, in 20 years we dug 12 km and escaped the solar system, when you don’t have earthquakes- use grenades! the shadow in the center of the Earth, Inge Lehmann kicks ass, “the master of a black art”, the inner core wobbles, the core is grainy and grows faster under Indonesia, the 2 most magical things: cold beer and hand warmers, the Inner Core Nucleation Paradox, “how wonderful that we have been met with a paradox, now we have some hope of making progress” - Niels Bohr, the Earth’s magnetic dynamo, Planetary Habitability is uh pretty important, everyone say thank you to the core, the innermost inner core, sometimes the one you’re looking for has been right below you this whole time, Tom falls hook line and sinker for a sudden 175 page bicycle paper, the first bikes without pedals or steering, the boneshaker, older men used tricycles, only the rich and adventurous used bikes, the safety iphone, you’re still using a bike 8? 10% of ads had a bicycle, Bernard London coined phrase the phrase 100 years ago, Planned Obsolescence was a legal proposal, contrived durability, there’s so many flavors and they all suck, e-waste, fast fashion is a vicious cycle, please I’m so full no more obsolescence words, car scrapping, why can we only help the planet when we also make a ton of money too, I’ve never seen someone so excited over Right to Repair, what do you mean you didn’t check every country’’s legal system? SourceSEG Wiki on the Layers of the EarthForbes: Bridgmanite“Six ‘Must-Have’ Minerals for Life’s Emergence”Olsen Lecture on the Iron CatastropheBureaeu of Economic Geology on Mohole & KolaScience Article on BridgmaniteBritannica on Richard Dixon OldhamAMNH's Wonderful Article on Inge Lehmann & EarthquakesDon Anderson Paper Review of the Inner CoreSmithsonian Mag on Inge LehmannExcellent Review from Harvard on Lehmann's Groundbreaking PaperGeological Society of America on Super RotationScientific American on Core SlowingSpace on Core GrowthUniversity of Leeds on the Inner Core Nucleation ParadoxScientific American on Core Paradox2023 Paper on the Innermost Inner Core---Science Direct: Planned Obsolescence1984 Paper: An Economic Theory of Planned Obsolescence1998 Paper: The Most Benevolent Machine: A Historical Assessment of Cycles in Canada2023: A Deep Dive Into Addressing Obsolescence in Product Design: A ReviewIndieAuto: 1960's VW AdPERC: Planned Obsolescence: The Good and the BadBBC: How The Right to Repair Might Change TechnologyThe Guardian: Planned Obsolescence: The Outrage of Our Electronic Waste MountainCBS News: Apple is Sending Out Payments to iPhone Owners iImpacted by "Batterygate." Here's what they are getting.The Evening Standard: Apple Battery LawsuitIberdrola: Planned obsolescenceUNITAR: Global e-Waste Monitor 2024BBC: E-waste: Five Billion Phones to be Thrown Away in 2022European Parliament: The Impact of Textile Production and Waste on the Environment (Infographics)The Atlantic: The Neurological Pleasures of Fast FashionBritannica: Fast FashionEllen MacArthur Foundation: Fashion and the Circular EconomyWRAP: 2022 Press ReleaseWRAO: 2022 ReportNatGeo: Fast Fashion Goes to Die in the World's Largest Fog Desert.UK Parliament: Vehicle scrappage schemesCars Lost Forever In The 2009 Scrappage SchemeBBC: 2030 petrol ban2019 Paper: Consumer Responses to Planned ObsolescenceRight to Repair EUEuropean Parliament: Right to RepairBHS: Sewing Skills

Longtime inspiration and friend of the show Hank Green joins us for a very special episode!  How do colonial organisms with just one queen avoid incest? How many Ig Nobels have gone to sex science? Can the team figure out the identity of the Reverse Platypus? When was the first dick grafitti, and could the story actually be... wholesome???Watch: The video of the unexpected momentImages we talk about:MRI of SexRat Pants DiagramThe Phallodeum ImageVenus of Hohle FelsThe Debatable DickHadrian's Wall Dick GraffitiVindolanda's SECVNDINVS DickThe Vindolanda DickNikasitimos's DickTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:06:40) How Not to Colonial Incest(00:20:52) Ig Nobel Sex Studies(00:39:07) The Reverse Platypus(01:06:31) The First Dick Graffiti(01:33:10) Hank Questions(01:53:44) OutroOur Tea Affiliate Link!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about:Emmy award winning standup comedian Hank Green, the fellowship of the ning, the literal birds and the bees, the icelandic ant geneology app, icelandians are my favorite colonial organism, breeding flight, slay queen - happy pride everyone it’s when we’re recording this, sperm storage, queens have a life's worth of sperm and eggs inside them, Spermathica that’s my word of the day, the termite queen stores the sperm inside a king, “he’s not my boyfriend he’s my sperm storage unit”, naked mole rats may do incest but they dont have cancer! the answer is “all of the strategies somewhere”, after all reproduction is The Thing in evolution, the ribbed condom won all the prizes that year, any topic can be a sex topic if you try hard enough, I think the ancient greeks proved a gay bomb would make them more powerful, MRI Porn is a new fetish, we should study sex more, sex makes you want to pee, whatever you’re doing pee right now, The Sex Live of Pantsed Rats, would rats be sexier if they wore pants like this or this, our google history is fucked, polyester testicle sling contraception, The Awesome Polyester Scrotum Cup Club, if you’re creative they’re all sex numbers, shark live birth is metal, teamwork - what is this the lateral podcast? Jules Howard presents Duck Vagina VR, “if it’s Caecilians I’m going to be so mad”, Bizarre Beasts gave Tom a heart attack, the Reproduction DLC, Caroline falls in love with Caecilians, “they come in blue!”, all that matters is How Do They Bone! lots of non mammals give live births sharks to snakes to aphids,  phallodeum: penis day! “we had to make a whole new peen word!”, phallodeum photo watermark, I haven’t looked at every caecilian penis okay! “can you make it into cheeeese thoooough”, we’ve invented a new fetish and a new delicacy, Caecillians and Sicillians have a lot in common, why are not talking about this more! “it’s not surprisingly, maybe I’m just very smart!”, 40,000 year old genital sculptures, Venus Hohle Fels, the debated dick, ah the conclusive slit! “it’s like looking for a face in a cloud”, the penis test is whether it would be confiscated in school, penis art vs penis graffiti, how many penises on Hadrian’s wall, almost one dick per mile, time to penis, “are you ready for your next penis”, Secundinus deez nuts, when Nick and Tim have sex so good they carve about it on a wall, “little special moments all over the world”, Pompeii sex graffiti, eventually this will be historic! we bully Hank into following Caroline, competing on TikTok is hard and also it’s broken, Hank derails us with a mouth coil, Hank’s science journey, counting clams for the science fair, people like seeing real science, Thanks Hank!Sources:List of Ig Nobel PrizesMRI Genitals StudyVice: MRI Sex StudyRats Having Sex in Little Outfits StudyThe Rat Study but HumansSex Improves Breathing Study---NatGeo Caecilian OverviewTextbook Caecilian OverviewExcellent Caecilian Reproduction ReviewExtensive Paper on the PhalodeumVarious Non-mammal MilksThe Recent Study on Caecilian MilkNYTimes Interview on Caecilian Milk---2009 Paper: A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern GermanySmithsonian Magazine: The Cave Art DebateNew Atlas: Scientists Clash Over World's Oldest Penis Carving2023 Paper- Symbolic innovation at the onset of the Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia shown by the personal ornaments from Tolbor-21 (Mongolia)IFL Science: Ancient Roman Penis Graffiti Shows Humans Will Never ChangeBBC News: Lewd Roman Insult Found on Stone Near Hadrian's WallThe Guardian: 2,500-Year-Old Erotic Graffiti Found in Unlikely Setting on Aegean Island

It's an infamous pseudoscience, but what haven't we learned from the rise and fall of Phrenology? And Lego are ubiquitous, which means there's a lot to learn and a lot of nuance for our love of these stackable bricks.Things we Talk About:The Phrenology PampheletThe Lego Cullen HouseLego SeismometerCERN Lego DeviceThe Brick Experiment ChannelTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:32) Phrenology(00:56:34) Lego(01:38:25) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Get the lego phrenology set now! just listing all the lego sets, academic racism, the head wasn’t always so important, the Cardiocentric Hypothesis, Minds Behind the Brain, ancient egyptians just tossed the brain, Aristotle thought the brain was a radiator to keep the heart from overheating, the brain doesn't Look like it does anything, Galen suggested the brain might be important actually, sperm for brains, Caroline enjoys tricking us by saying a person’s good ideas first, Cephelocentric Hypothesis, mapping the brain in the 1600s, NOT related to the frenulum, buzz feed phrenology quizzes, flexing your brain so hard it breaks your skull, Tom is proven to be not funny, our desire for personality tests and fortune telling, travelling phrenology salesmen, there shouldn’t be medical celebrities, phrenology was a passion of the elites, reading an actualy travelling phrenology sheet, “differently bumped”, edibnugrh fringe was a lot less fun when it was the phrenology capital, we checked and it’s actually mozambique have the best brains - just gotta take the L on this one, Marie Jean Pierre Flourens kicked ass and helped kill Phrenology with real science, it comes in like a fad and leaves like a fad, I only liked phrenology before it was cool, the scammers are making our racism look bad! we’re not harsh enough about phrenology, “repoliticizing” phrenology, when it’s built its just one thing but when its pieces it can be anything, shirtless lego jacob, 20,000 lego sets, Play Well - Le go, after enough fires lets just stop using wood, stud and tube design, the lego To Kill a Mockingbird set, mindstorm was ahead of its time, Caroline’s got their lego driver’s license from legoland, lego nerd culture, adults without kids spend more, “transbranding”, Ella had to read so much corporate jargon but it’s impossible to not talk about their business strategies , lego seismograph outside the eras tour, CERN lego, their story is better than ours dad, instructions for a lego skin cell printer, LEGO: expensive for toys - cheap for science equipment! David Aguilla’s prosthetic project, Tracey Williams’ Lego Lost at Sea project, plastic’s resilience is a positive and a negative, lego replay and reuse, this is a trust test of nuance and both things being true at the same time.Sources:Minds Behind the Brain: A History of the Pioneers and Their Discoveries by Stanley FingerThe University of Queensland: Understanding the Brain: A Brief hHistoryBrain Beats Heart: A Cross-Cultural ReflectionMerriam Webster: PhrenologyThe Antlantic: The Shape of Your Head and the Shape of Your MindBritannica: PhrenologySmithsonian Insider: Study Finds Facial Structure of Men and Women Has Become More Similar Over Time2005 Paper: The Reliability of Sex Determination of Skeletons From Forensic Context in the BalkansThe Guardian: Archaeology’s Sexual Revolution2018 Paper: An Empirical, 21st Century Evaluation of PhrenologyCarnegie Mellon University: Phrenology2021 Paper: Phrenology and the Average Person, 1840–1940The University of Edinburgh: Phrenology and EdinburghGina Rippon: When Bigger Isn’t Always Better: How History Got The Female Brain WrongAuguste Comte and John Stuart Mill on Sexual EqualityThe Guardian: Django Unchained and the racist science of phrenology2007 Paper: Marie Jean Pierre Flourens (1794–1867): An Extraordinary Scientist of His Time---Lego Twilight Cullen HouseBrick Architect: Number of Lego BricksBrickset: Number of Lego SetsBrick Economy Most ValuableBrick Economy Most ExpensiveWikipedia: LegolandLego History Chapter by Lars KonzackLego Mindstorms WikipediaWhat is Transmedia? ArticleLego and Transmedia ResearchLego And “Transbranding” BlogpostLego Seismometer KitLego Seismometer Youtube ClipGuardian Article: David Aguilar Lego ProsthesesHand Solo Youtube ChannelLego Table From CERNArticle on Other Lego Scientific Tools!Cardiff University: Lego BioprinterLego 3D Printer PaperLego Inventions Video (Pancake Flipper and Super 8 Projector)Lego T-Rex SculptureLego Every Day Stuff IdeasLego Lost at Sea TwitterLego Shark TweetTracey Williams Book: Adrift: Lego Lost at SeaTokio Express Crash Context ArticleTracey Williams: Lego at Sea PaperStatista Lego CO2 EmissionsLego: 99% Outside EmissionsLego Replay InitiativeBBC: Lego from Recycled Plastic 2018Wired: Lego from Recycled Plastic 2024

While we're sending Tom "Well Wissage" and a speedy recovery, enjoy Ella & Caroline on this tremendous episode of one of our sibling shows on the network, Secretly Incredibly Fascinating!

You may have heard Epigenetics used as a buzzword, but what is it really? Is it something we know about, something still new, or... both? And what in the world are the World Games, and what makes them better than the Olympics?Links we Talk About:Ella's SciShow Video on X Chromosome DiseasesSport CastingFin SwimmingHaudenosaunee FlagChristopher Root's Incredible Paper on the Colonization of LacrosseThe Adorable NYMuseum Haudenosaunee VideoTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:21) Epigenetics(00:57:40) The World Games(01:50:54) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Ella passes her driving exam Tom’s not bitter about John Oliver, what is y’alls familialarity, epi- meaning on top of, epigentics are like tabs or blacked out text in the book of your DNA, epigentics stop your brain from turning into bone, oh did other people help Rosalind Franklin with the double helix? bases and double helixes and histones, literally blocking DNA from being read, epigentics are less cyberpunk and more exercise is good for you, epigentics is why you go blind from masturbating, it’s simpler in animals, “I’ve been here the whole time!”, “you’re enough Tom”, 2 X chromosomes means you have an extra, X Inactivation, Calico Cats are Genetic Mosaics, your epigentic markers are like your browsing cookies: you clear them before giving them to someone, are pollinators plant cucks? Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance, is it nature or nurture? generational trauma doesn’t have to be epigenetic to be real, inherited cherry blossom mouse sensitivity, the effects are subtle, Ella might have a high epigenetic age from her rock and roll lifestyle, this is so new there’s so much we don’t know, the epigenetic advice: healthy diet and exercise, how different could the world games be? casting for sport, wait did you hear me say break dancing is this a bit, the worst SEO for a name ever, Rugby 7s started at the World Games, the World Games are as old as Beyoncé, let’s do our own thing we’ll definitely be more popular than the olympics, tried at the hague? we sure did! at the least the World Games are being honest about it being a bumpy ride, the “Memorandum of Understanding” reads like a parenting agreement, grouping by sport not nation, the curse of hosting the olympics, reviving forgotten sports like Tug of War, wait who was first?? guys come on have some respect for yourself! breaking records with fins, shark skin suits aren’t biomimicry, tech doping, fin swimming and barebow archery, murderball is an official world game sport, the NYTimes officially called lacrosse “frat boy” sport, mile long hundred person lacrosse, of course sports are spiritually healing, colonizing lacrosse,  Haudenosaunee - the people of the long house, Tom cut it with the sad voice tell us what happened, “we wouldn’t be here without their medicine game… they need to be there”,  we’ll have to see if the olympics accept the Haudenosaunee, if your games are as old as beyonce you dont have to worry about breaking tradition, “nothing is silly, everything should be respected and held up”, Ella goes OFF and takes over the topic.Sources:Chromosome StructureAboud et al. What Is Epigenetics?Nature: Types of Epigenetic ModificationsStudy on Exercise and EpigeneticsNature: Diet and EpigeneticsMacdonald: Epigenetic ImprintingNature: When Imprinting goes wrongBasta & Pandya: The Beautiful X ChromosomeGetting the Right Amount of XReview on X InactivationCalico Cat X Chromosome InctivationPBS: Lamarckian EvolutionCell: Transgeneration Epigenetic InheritenceHow Epigenetics are Wiped CleanTransgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance Prisoners of War StudyTEI Dutch Famine StudyTEI Study Children of Holocaust SurviversTEI Cherry Blossom Mice StudyEpigenetic Clock Review---Casting Federation RecordsWorld Games Website: About1993 World Games at The HagueThe Olympic "Memorandum of Understanding"Reporting on the First World GamesWorld Games President Interview about Wheelchair RugbyNYTimes on Indigenous LacrosseOnondaga Nation on LacrosseChocktaw Nation on LacrosseChristopher Root's Incredible Paper on the Colonization of LacrosseHaudenosaunee HistoryNPR on Haudenosaunee Players at the Olympics

It's a word we say all the time but... what IS a species? How has it been used in the past, and could the different answers all be right?  And how does voting work in the UK?  It starts with voting for knights, and could hopefully end in the future with something even better.Images we Talk About:Ella's Zoom MoustacheTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:23) What is a Species?(01:01:54) UK Voting(01:50:46) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Jenny Lec, the definition we know is wrong, has anyone taken my title On The Origin of Species? This is my favorite! Oh shit…  generic and specific, thinking of species as logical units, Kingdom Phylum Friends Acquaintances Work Friends Genus Species, the anime dewey decimal system, dark fungi, the cognitive dissonance of science at the time, even Darwin didn’t have a good definition of species, 1942 is when the common species definition was popularized, Biological - Evolutionary - Genetic definition of species, species gerrymandering, there is only 1 species of giraffe but should there be 4? policy first science, you don’t need hard definitions to do amazing things, nature is constantly doing kickflips over our no skateboarding signs, you really put your whole polizzy into naming that hybrid, a ring of banging around the himalayans, ring species in actuality look like a biblically accurate angel, let’s just ask what definitions scientists use, you can’t tell if fossils ever fucked, we only knew about human neandrethal interbreeding since 2010, what’s so wrong with having multiple species definitions? there’s a lot to biology! in between “there’s one answer” and “there’s no answers” is “there’s many answers”, Lizzy Poll, you can just call an election early?? in the UK you just vote for your member of parliament, it’s actually really weird to have a separate vote for president, every 2 steps forward is brought 1 step back by “the monster raving loony party”, Elmo think women no need to vote, the house senate and president, coalitions, tea cups with electoral college members on them, electing knights in the first parliament in 1264, bloc voting lets you pick your top favorites, Cromwell was the first Footloose, we had discovered quantum physics before women could vote, First Past the Post was only establish in 1948 in the UK, what are the positives of First Past the Post and cockroaches? please let us loose to bash FPTP, tactical voting, Australia has a version of Ranked Choice, Tom finally gets to wax poetic about Ranked Choice Voting, france’s 2 round voting, if the definition of species should match the task why not the type of voting system? the 2011 voting reform attempt, it’s been the foundation of this country for generation, try ranked choice voting on smaller scales and locally, Ella falls in love with herself, happy hour gender confusionSourcesCarl Zimmer for NYT "What is a Species Really?"Aristotle's Use of Species and GenusQueiroz on Ernst Mayer and Species DefinitionsMontana State on Linneus and Species DefinitionsDark FungiErnst Mayer's Modern Excellent "Systematics And The Origin Of Species"Paper Debating Darwin's Definition of SpeciesBird InterbreedingScientific American on Wolf SpeciesThe Greenish Warbler Broken Ring SpeciesStankowski and Ravinet's Amazing "Quantifying the use of Species Concepts"NHM "Are Neandrethals the Same Species as Us"---Sky News: General Election ExplainedUK Parliament: Voting Systems in the UKElectoral Reform Party: How Long Have We Used First Past the Post?2019 Paper: Electoral Systems and Electoral Reform in Historical Perspective by David KlempererParliament UK: Magna CartaPDF: UK Parliament and the MonarchyUK Parliament: Women get the VoteBBC: Voting System in the UKUK Parliament: Proportional RepresentationThe Guardian: ‘Disproportionate’ UK Election Results Boost Calls to Ditch First Past the PostThe Conversation: The Conservatives May Regret Campaigning to Keep First Past the Post in 2011

After much deliberation, the academy (listeners of the podcast) has voted on the best topics from the past year! If this is your first episode, you'll get a sampling of our favorite moments of science and sillyness, and if you're a long time listener, you'll hear some behind the scenes thoughts about the topics, as well as... a secret teaser at the very end??Images we Talk About:The Jacobin PigeonThe Pouter PigeonTimestamps:(00:04:37) Intro(00:03:59) Part 1(00:55:00) Part 2(01:51:28) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: you gotta listen to the best ofs for the rock paper scissors drama, I’m not sure if Ella remembers our names, it’s not the same joke it’s a Call Back, superseding my superseded theories, Tom’s jokes are like the rain - you walk on through and hope it stops quickly, it gets Jalapeno business, I miss Comedy, Ella claimed review corner but keeps forgetting it, the art of topic writing is explaining but also what not to explain, our favorite topics of each others, wrote down the idea for public domain day the year before, Tom goofs up the La La Land Joke, ohh did you just finish episode 50? maybe, thanks everyone for the nice messages, Mum! “those stupid awards”, they’re all great episodes, we learned who in our family listens to our show, you guys wanna learn about ants??

What happens when a star collapses to a point of near infinite gravity? And just how hard could that be to actually... find? And why do we love tattoos so much, and how long have human beings across the world been loving them too?Check out Tom's first long form video that's finally out!Images we Talk About:The Crab NebulaFirst Image of a Black HolePhoto of OUR Black Hole, Sagiratius AAncient Siberian TattooTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:47) Black Holes 101(00:57:51) Tattoos(01:43:53) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: black holes are massive (mass) but not massive (size), nothing can escape a black hole, supermassive black hole by muse, the closest black hole is 1000 light years away so we don’t need to worry about them too much, matter can’t escape the Plunging Region, does your McDonald also have black holes? stellar evolution, “they’re just big gassy balls doing nuclear fusion”, the fusion in a star pushes against the gravity keeping it in equilibrium, Caroline’s fear of the sun expanding, stellar corpse, a neutron star is just made of neutrons - that can’t be right, if you add too much flour (mass) this will turn into an atomic bomb (black hole), stop saying massive and start saying voluptuous to avoid confusion, one in every thousand stars could be a blac khole, “surely that’s not sustainable” “have I got news for you about the future of all things”, theorizing a black hole in 1783, we only get the word Black Hole in 1964, betting on Signus X1, finding black holes by nearby objects’ bright hot death screams, it took 2 years to process the black hole image, sorry I think it looks like a butthole, Sagitarius A - our galaxies butthole, deslicious spaghettification, we’re all being spaghettified, I’m being raviolified here! where do you go in a black hole? into a topic for another day, “tom saw the topic on me”, no inheritance until you tattoo me onto your butt, Caroline got a tattoo to honor pigeons, the above skin - the skin - and the below skin, phagocytosis, microphages contain and become the tattoo! “the art is your immune system” and we only knew this in 2018, Ötzi the Iceman had 57 tattoos, ella regrets letting us guess what tattoos he had, ritualistic and therapeutic tattoos, egyptian women tattoos, old preserved siberian tattoo, the painted picts, Tattoo comes from the Tahitian word Tatau, famed tattoo afficianado Charles Darwin, the meaning of polynesian tattoos, sailor tattoos were inspired by polynesians but adapted to things meaningful to them, sailor tattoos were like sailing achievements, shark repeller tattoos, ancient greek tattoos were literally “skin-stigmas”, stigma affects culture and culture affects stigma in a feedback loop, “true on all accounts for my case”, gender norms in tattoos,  “ooh another means by which to put down women don’t mind if I do”, biases in the workplace,”it’s literally only skindeep”, tattoos are so personal and human of course you can’t assume or speak to all of them, they’re an art and they’re universal across cultures.Sources:NASA: Black HolesScience News Explores: What are black holes?Gravitational Collapse OverviewGoddard Space Flight Centre: The Life Cycles of Stars: How Supernovae Are FormedBritannica: End States of StarsBritannica: Evolution of High Mass StarsBritannica: Origin of Chemical ElementsBBC Bitesize: The Lifecycle of Stars (GCSE Resource)NASA: Neutron Stars Are WeirdScience News Explores: A Short History of Black HolesAstronomy: A Brief History of Black HolesLind Hall Library: John MichellAmerican Museum of Natural History: The Country Parson Who Conceived of Black HolesUniversity of Chicago: Black Holes ExplainedAstronomy: Cygnus X-1- The Black Hole that Started it AllEvent Horizon Telescope: Astronomers Reveal First Image of the Black Hole at the Heart of Our Galaxy1978 Article: A Supermassive Object in Galaxy M87Space.Com: Where do Black Holes Lead To?SYFY: How Worried Should We Be About Black Holes?Podcast: The Guardians Science Weekly- White HolesImage Source: NASA First Image of a Black HoleImage Source: Event Horizon Telescope: FIrst Image of Black Hole at the Centre of the Milyway---Pew Research: How Many People Have Tattoos?The Science of TattoosMouse Tail Tattoo StudyWellcome Collection: A Brief History of TattoosSmithsonian: More HistoryJapan’s Tattooing HistoryMaori TattoosPolynesian tattoosPazyryk Tattoos (Very Cool)First Female MP to Wear MokoSailor TattoosBroussard & Harton's Amazing Tattoo Stigma Study

How fast can a regular human accelerate from 0-60? How can you learn to love roller-coasters? And is there a terrifying experience Ella's done that even Tom Scott hasn't?? After having us on his show for so long, it's finally time for Tom Scott to join us on our show!Videos we Talk About:Tom Scott's Amazing Roller Coaster VideoTom Scott's Failed Video VideoTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:15) Human Acceleration(00:50:03) Roller-coasters and Failed Videos(01:18:05) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: herding cats and children, Thanks for the compliment you can leave now, UK metric is a mess, milk is just a blur cause it’s PastYourEyes, both Tom’s can’t be like this, stopping the angular velocity pedants, what’s so hard about orbital mechanics it’s not rocket science, this is a question full of "um actually"s, the longest second of Tom Scott’s life in the Mythen car, “would you do it again” “oh in a heartbeat”, just frame cars as IRL speedrunning, “oh my god she got sub 1 second”, please prove me wrong so I can ride it, steam catapulting a plane, the Nevis Catapult might win if you believe the hype, all politely saying roller coasters, “roller coaster nerds are like train nerds but worse”, running coasters at 100%, calibrating the weights of cars, British politeness way under-markets stealth, “I’ve done something Tom Scott hasn’t done??”, the experimental Nürburgring coaster that only operated for 4 days, Do-Dodonpa the “rattly bastard” that broke bones, dragsters going 0-60 in half a second stunned us to silence, you could buy the nitro X2 for less than a tesla but you do get to drive a tesla more than twice, “I reserve the right to turn this into a video essay”, our roller coaster journeys, dread and expectation, Ella loves the fear, “this is the worst thing I’ve ever done, YES”, LLE live episode on a roller coaster, Dick & Dom in da Bungalow sounds like a parody of something british, only americans will remember Raccoon Barrel from the Barrell Brothers! “It has been a metaphor which is possibly the highest priase I can give something like that”, making a video about failed videos “you only get to pull that trick once”, Tom’s one shot Netherlands drone video, “it was a Look How Clever I Am video”, ideally it’s both clever content and cleverly shot, “the content has to be worth it”, it’s like OKGO - matching content with production, the ratchet of quality, “the frustration I feel is a compliment to David”, “i left everything on the table”, 3 of us just mimed sword swallowing, "not a great mime"

It's Pride and Poll-jedice!  For pride month we have some pride merch including an amazing design by Caroline, with proceeds going to Pride in Stem!  Also, toss in your vote to defend the honor of your favorite topic for the next Best Of Everything episode!All of this is at LetsLearnEverything.com

What can we learn by mimicking animals in nature, and more importantly, what can we learn about the nuance behind the buzzword of biomimicry?  And just how many wild facts are hidden in a simple chess set?Images we Talk About:One of the Oldest Shatranj SetsTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:26) Biomimicry(00:50:25) Chess Chess Evolution(01:33:41) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: So nice to have a topic taken, biomemetics, the spider grabber is more like bio-stealing, “nature is a giant pool of ideas”, “nature is the OG and does it best, organism level, lily leaf umbrella, who remembers davinci? none of his flying machines even worked, a quick lesson on flying, biomimcry was only coines in the 1950s and only become trendy in the 90s, gecko feet, spinning the biomimicry slot machine, sheep wool antidepressants, a biomimicry quiz, oh right we want fewer train sonic booms, whale flipper tubercles, whale power turbines, Ella biomimics Caroline, termite AC, destroying nature to recreate nature, biomimicry 3.8, the ickyness of corporate biomimicry, we’re an organic sustainable biomemetic podcast, a person after our hearts critizing a ted talk, you can biomimic like davinci or the wright brothers, nature is not infallible, pitching our own biomimetic ideas, bumble bees saying oops, ripple, chess chess evolution you know like that game, can’t stop thinking about those anal beads, everything Caroline’s learned about chess is against their will, Tom learns about himself by talking about chess camp, scachs d’amor was so nerdy, the hornets nest of chess historians, chess comes from the indo-persian area, borders are weird why do I need so many modifiers to describe this area, calling it a horsey is more historically accurate, a chariot makes so much more sense than a castle moving across the board, oh wait does no one else call this piece a religious figure? the knight has been unchanged for 1300 years, the chad knight vs the virgin bishop, we codified white goes first after discovering quantum physics, do you want to play a game of king? Your king is in king, shah mat - the king is dead, people say check because “I won’t let you do the silly thing, we’re gonna keep playing for a little bit”, checkered comes from chess not the other way around, cheque -> exchequer -> checkered -> chess -> shah, why aren’t we talking about this more! Ella’s very good biomimicry review corner Sources:Biomimicry as a Sustainable Design MethodologyHow Biomimicry is Inspiring Human InnovationTypes of BiomimicryHistory of BiomimicryVelcroBiomimicry in Flight and Wing DesignNASA Wing MorphingNASA Successfully Tests Shape-Changing WingJapanese Bullet TrainWhale TurbinesWhalePowerSoft ToboticsTentacle RobotThe Planned City of LavasaEastgate CentreBiomimicry 3.8The Limitations of Biomimentic ArchitectureThe Ripple DeviceMosquito Inspired Needles---Davidson's Incredible "A Short History of Chess"Scachs DamorThe Beginnings of ChessOldest Shatranj SetThe MET "Chessmen and Chess"Wired: The Game of Chess had Patch Notes TooWhite and Black in ChessThe MET "Shah Mat!"gov.uk on The ExchequerEncyclopedia Britannica Chess History

How much real science is there to the Mandela Effect, and how much should we be worried about our faulty memories?  And what's the science and history behind our long love for house plants?Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:31) False Memories(00:57:30) House Plants(01:37:47) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Yes Ella my favorite host of Let’s Learn Everything, Fiona Broome - Paranormal Researcher, Ella is shocked to learn the Mandela Effect was a conspiracy first, repressed memories, the McMcartin Preschool Trial again, the concept of memories at all is bonkers, we shoudl do more experiments, flashbulb memories aren’t as “unchanging as the slumbering rhinegold”, the original study didn’t even check if the memories were accurate they just assumed, flash bulb memories only Feel more accurate, the concept of false memories can make people believe in the mandela effect MORE, don’t have an existential crisis, rebunking your memories, most memory recalls aren’t adversarial like mandeal effect questions, Metamemory effects, just like memory isn’t so simple false memories aren’t so simple either, “I wish I hadn’t said yay when you said racism”, does anyone remember the 2 president Obamas? we gave false memories to bees, having false memories makes bees MORE complex not less, false memories aren’t flaws they’re just part of memory, classic meatbrain, “my brain is a beautiful and complex thing”, movies can exist, The Four Legged Chairs, the art of putting a plant into a pot, egyptians used plants for a ton of stuff, portable plants, gillyflowers for bad breath and paying rent, peppercorn payment, (ayyy), Wes Anderson’s The Winter Hotel for Plants, renting plants for a party, the illegal orchid trade, plant hunters, pteridomania, the World War 2 potted plant boom, the millenial urge to care for plants is more of a historic urge, guilting your cohosts into talking about your plants, you’d need 10 potted plant per square foot in the home to clean the air, just imagine yourself as a Sim you need art and plants, hot or not for plants, there aren’t really huge health benefits from plants, it feels like studies are asking “why do we like plants so much??”, just enjoy plants for the sake of enjoying them, office plants are nice but I feel like work life balance will do better for my health, I just think they’re neat! Sources:Snopes: The Mandela EffectThe Wiley Handbook on The Cognitive Neuroscience of MemoryEthan Watters: The Forgotten Lessons of the Recovered Memory MovementThe False Memory Syndrome: Experimental studies and comparison to confabulationsThe Fallibility of Memory in Judicial ProcessesUCLA Med on MemoryImplanting False MemoriesHirst and Phelps Amazing Review of Flashbulb MemoriesPredicting Confidence in Flashbulb Memories (re: Michael Jackson)Fiona Broome: The Mandela Effect is Not False MemoriesFalse memory and COVID-19: How people fall for fake news about COVID-19 in digital contextsBBC on Mandela EffectFalse Memory in Bees StudyAnalysis of False Bee Memory StudyDon Hertzfeldt On Memory---National Museums Liverpool: Gardens in Ancient EgyptBritannica: HouseplantsNational Trust: A Potted History of HouseplantsHorticultural Reviews, Volume 31, The Foliage Plant IndustryGrace and Thorn: The History of HouseplantsCobham Museum: Windlesham- Peppercorn PaymentThe Plant Runner: A History of HouseplantsThe Scotsman: Our Fascination With Indoor Potted Plants has a Long and Colourful HistoryArchitectural Digest: The Most Iconic Houseplant Trends Through the DecadesThe Guardian: Indoor Plant Sales Boom, Reflecting Urbanisation and Design TrendsThe Telegraph: Houseplant Sales Soar2019 Paper: Potted Plants Do Not Improve Indoor Air Quality: A Review and Analysis of Reported VOC Removal EfficienciesUniversity of Reading: Owning Houseplants Can Boost Your Mental Health – Here’s How to Pick the Right One2022 Paper: The Appearance of Indoor Plants and their Effect on People's Perceptions of Indoor Air Puality and Subjective Well-BeingRHS: Houseplants: To Support Human Health2022 Paper: Effects of Indoor Plants on Human Functions: A Systematic Review with Meta-AnalysesBBC: Are Your Houseplants Bad for the Environment?

What happens when the largest living animal becomes the largest dead animal?  Just how complex could a dead whale be?  And what are the differences, flaws, and nuances of the jury system, and can we be studying it better?Images we Talk About:The Zombie WormTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:59) Whale Fall Ecology(00:52:52) Jury Duty(01:32:41) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: A bucket of mice, when whales die the people who love them will miss them, a jury of your cohosts will decide if your topic is boring, Tom stretching his arms to measure a 34 meter long whale, marine snow and whale falls, gettin ghastly gassy, a new mussel told us to go check out the whale fall, whales are mortal, deep sea mussel delicacy, how hard could it be to find a whale over 70% of the earth’s surface? let’s just wait for the carcass to come to us… wait actually?? welcome to our automatic zoo of dead things on the beach brought to you by the crown, sinking beached whale carcasses, the 3 stages of whale fall, Denial/Mobile Scavenger Phase can take 2 years, scavengers eat about one (1) Caroline of whale per day, Enrichment Opportunist Phase, Sulfophilic Phase, 7% of a whale is bone lipid, a sulfur bacteria carpet. did we walk into Caroline’s trap? This final phase can last 100 years! It’s not a trap if I’m asking you a question! 690,000 whale falls at any time, never in my wildest dreams would i be so lucky as to know the 12km distance from fall to fall statistic, whaling is deforestation for bacteria, Osedax or the zombie worm or the bone devourer or snot flower, there’s Drama in this whale fall ecosystem, dinosaur fall ecosystems, fossilized bones with fossilized deep sea snails, we got picked to talk about jury duty, UK US differences, a 900 day trial, there’s something wrong with Ella, the US is the only country to have so many civil juries, this topic has become a US UK debate, only the US requires unanimity, juror selection bias, racially diverse juries do a better job, I wish we could be surprised peremptory challenge is biased against women, oops it’s a british colinization topic, you could literally say too many asians, semi-jural systems, is this a philosophy topic about human nature?? our various biases, the confirmation bias against tom’s bad jokes, can we study jury bias? there hasn’t been any research on live jury deliberation.Sources:NatGeo: Dead whales are washing up on the East Coast.NHM: Whale Fall: What Happens When Whales Die?Review of the Impact of Whale Fall on Biodiversity in Deep-Sea Ecosystems (2022)The Discovery of a Natural Whale Fall in the Antarctic Deep Sea (2013)NPR: What Happens After A Whale Dies?Scientific American: Life at the Bottom: The Prolific Afterlife of WhalesFish Food in the Deep Sea: Revisiting the Role of Large Food-Falls (2014)NatGeo: Making a Home on PlesiosaursChemosynthesis-Based Sssociations on Cretaceous Plesiosaurid Carcasses (2008)---Cornell Law: What is Jury Duty?Jury Law UKMagna Carta538: Jury Duty is RareJury Service in the UKJuror Exemptions and Exclusions USADifferences between US and UK Legal SystemsJury Duty in UK vs USAUK Civil Case Info"Justifying ProhibitedPeremptory Challenges (2007)"Jury Under Fire: Jury Selection Can Effectively Identify Biased JurorsNACDL: Bias in Jury SelectionEJI: History of Bias in Jury SelectionComparison of Juries in Democratic Countries (2007)Jury Trial in different countriesWorld Jury Sytems: Exporting the English Jury System (2000)Monash Law: Do we need juries?Cognitive and Human Factors in Legal Layperson Decision Making: Sources of bias in Juror Decision Making (2022)Thomas Lecture on Jury BiasThe Curious Case of the Jury-Shaped Hole (2023)

What are all these rocks hurtling through space? Do we need to worry about them, and what can we learn from them? And what are guitar tabs, why don't people take them seriously, and why does Tom love them so dang much?Videos we Talk About:Osiris Boop GifTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:54) Near Earth Objects(00:56:58) Guitar Tabs(01:47:55) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| D|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|A|---------------2-|-----------4-6-4-|-----------6-7-0-|-----------6-7---| E|-0---------2-4---|-----------------|-----------------|---------------0-|(tabs via lucamashup)e|----------------B|----------------G|----------------D|-8888-10-10-333-A|-8888-10-10-333-E|-6666-8--8--111-We also learn about:I thought you were just going to just teach us guitar, still on course to learn everything in a few months! everyone’s favorite part: semantics and exceptions, Tom is a perfectly unmovable object, it’s doxxing myself if people know I’m the center of the universe, the great attractor was my nickname in high school, “naturally occurring objects traveling through our solar system which are smaller than planets and aren’t moons”, you must be 1 meter tall to be an asteroid, asteroids are metally comets are icy, a song of rock and metal dust and ice, asteroid/comet -> meteoroid -> meteor -> meteorite, 1.3 million known asteroids and only 3,800 comets in our solar system, within 50 million km it becomes a near earth object, obviously we’re all thinking about the Tunguska asteroid asteroid, 80 million trees felled and it didn’t even hit the Earth, one of the oldest meteors we know is from 2 billion years ago, the vredefort dome, 2 billion year old nuclear weapon testing??? the only time the earth makes Shatter Cones is meteors and nuclear explosions, if the meteor had hit the water it might not have been so catastrophic for dinosaurs, but it was going 20 kilometers per SECOND, a force 10,000 times the world nuclear arsenal, the crater has to be DISCOVERED, what does it mean for 50% of species to go extinct, the asteroid also vaporized the ground and water, impact winter, stopping photosynthesis kicks out the base of the foodchain, the meteor that broke the camel’s back, land animals over 25kg went extinct, there were a few lucky ducks, LLE Meteor Insurance, as long as Aerosmith is alive we’re fine, Asteroid Watch via the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, people listening 100 years from now hope you don’t have any asteroids (sucks to suck), Planetary Defense Coordination Office, Double Asteroid Redirct Mission, I cheered when we smashed into that asteroid, activating asteroids, asteroids are loose remaining legos from the formation of the solar system, OSIRIS-REx sample return, a kid named Bennu, tom loses his mind at the video of Osiris booping Bennu, personifying Rex, OSIRIS APEX, Apophis will be closer than some satellites, POV Apophis shots, Astroid Quakes, “cute is a weird way to describe a spacecraft touching an asteroid”, casual Caroline classical guitar lore drop, Tom learns guitar by accident, “too bad I picked this up so late”, Ella’s youtube ukulele era, don’t stop believing, tabs aren’t shittier sheet music, Van Halen didn’t invent tabs, tabs feel modern but also obvious, just because words are more efficient doesn’t mean diagrams aren’t useful, I’m just trying to play Don’t Stop Believing I have to worry about context? Guqin tablature dates to the 7th century! music has a lot of racism, rockin out those lute tabs, I knew this was secretly a font topic! monospace fonts revitalized tabs, sheet music software is garbage, god did not want me to use LaTeX they wanted me to use my mortal hands, OLGA, reading Beyonce tabs is not the same as listening to Beyonce, Paul McCartney’s the one who plays Blackbird wrong, let the philosophy professor enjoy his guitar! why punish the people who love your work, tabs are in a gray zone still, ultimate-guitar has a monopoly, the gray zone may benefit publishers, thanks swifties, Thomas Chesney’s tab research, it’s not a million miles away but it’s not right, ooh this song’s so commercially viable! Polphia’s tabs, Pinegrove’s tabs released before the songs, Tom’s guitar tabs, being a part of someone’s music journey in a little way, this could have been a guitar tab podcast, a cozy review corner.Sources:The Structure of the Milky WayThe Great AttractorNasa on Orbital DebrisAsteroids vs Comets vs MeteorsNasa on AsteroidsNotable Asteroid ImpactsTunguska EventAtomic Asteroid BlastsVredefort Impact StructureNASA on the Dinosaur Extincting AsteroidNHM: Why did the dinosaurs die out?Near Earth ObjectsDARTAsteroid WatchAsteroid Watch DashboardDART resultsNasa Data on BennuOSIRIS REx Touch DownBennu Sample AnalysisNasa Data on ApophisESA's Possible RAMSES Mission---NPR on Online TabsVan Halen Tab InterviewMick Goodrick's The Advancing GuitaristYang Yuanzheng on Ancient Guqin TablatureSolitary Orchid on the GuqinTantacrul's Critique of Sheet Music SoftwareLaura Gary's Amazing Legal Analysis of TabsPaul McCartney on BlackbirdNYTimes on Guitar Tab Legal TroublesUltimate-Guitars LicensingChesney's Paper Studying Guitar Tab AuthorsPolyphia TabsPinegrove Tabs NPR InterviewTom's Habanero TabsNewspeak Dictionary

With Tom as their DM, Ella, Caroline, and Ellen Weatherford team up for a dicey heist in the big apple. Only one catch: they're rats! Can Rex, Tango, and Muriel ratatouille their way to nab the cheddar, or will they crumble like feta?  Believe it or not this is only the first quarter of the full 2 hour episode that you can only get by becoming a member at MaximumFun.org/join

Can Tom finally take on his science communication white whale: Quantum Physics??  And what is gossip, what did it mean in the past, and could it actually be... good??  Find out on a very special MaxFunDrive episode!See all the MaxFunDrive events, pins, and links here!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:06:29) Quantum Physics(01:00:14) MaxFunDrive!(01:09:08) Gossip(01:44:14) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about:One minute of self indulgence, another bit?? when bugs gossip, Moby Dick was warning about the perils of teaching quantum physics, the word quantum is boring,  every grocery list is quantum (except Ella’ infinite and continuous grocery list), Ocean’s 11 is a quantum movie, quantum physics is 100 years old, why doesn’t my toaster blast me with radiation, Lord Rayleigh is literally the why is the sky blue guy, Planck really didn’t want to be right, “an act of desperation”, you’re taught quantum physics in high school chemistry, Heisenberg v Pauli v Schrodinger beef, fully just saying jackass, even smart people hate quantum physics, “nobody feels perfectly comfortable with it”, YOU ALREADY KNOW QUANTUM PHYSICS, Newton has been redeemed! we almost called photons “quantums”, some of quantum physics is bullshit but not all of it is, what has quantum physics ever done for us? we do actually have a quantum phone and quantum machines at the hospital, Quantum Nuclear MRI machines, sometimes it’s nice to remember that, Schrodinger's Cat is the worst first thing to learn, “not a real experiment, does not prove anything, does not match physical reality, and was intentionally designed to be absurd”, it’s like learning about vision through only optical illusions, “but where’s the weird?”, making peace with your whale, as long as you support us we will live forever, no Ella, there’s nothing wrong with you, “debrief”, gossip can be positive! GODSIB MEANT GOD SIBLING, you wouldn’t bang your godbrother, Tom you don’t have kids, in the 12th century you could leave your kids to watch Dune 2 whenever you wanted, a gossip is someone you can tell anything to, gossips were backup for lecherous men, gossip was a neutral term for an essential supportive community, gossiping about witches gossiping “that’s gossip as well babe”, spoiler for most social issues it’s about class and power,  scold’s bridle, “I love idle talk, I’m a witch”, coffee houses are just gossip houses, “oooh yeah, evolution and gossip, this is good stuff”, we wouldn’t be humans if we weren’t sociable and idle talking, gossiping is like primate grooming, animals would LOVE to gossip if they had language, I don’t care what you think as long as it’s about me, work stopping gossip seems neutral but isn’t, I’m not gossiping I’m receiving evaluative information about a colleague, it’s good the science doesn’t show bullying is cool actually, most gossip is neutral gossip, I wouldn’t compliment my boss - only in gossip, you think it’s not gossip cause it’s about Tom Brady?? It is!! it’s all preamble for review corner.Sources:Melville's Book on Quantum PhysicsDan Styer's Amazing Brief History of Quantum PhysicsDan Styer's Textbook "The Strange World of Quantum Mechanics"Futurama Quantum JokeChad Orzel on the Origin of Quantum PhysicsHelge Kragh's History of Planck as "The Reluctant Revolutionary"Heisenberg's Letter to Pauli (s/o to u/restricteddata)Gilbert Lewis' Naming of the PhotonChad Orzel "What Has Quantum Mechanics Ever Done For Us?"Old ComputersNobel Prize Committee on Bloch's WorkDr. Baird's Great Analysis of Schrodinger's Cat---Gossip and Resistance Among the Medieval PeasantryFrom the Whisper Network to #MeToo—Framing Gender, Gossip and Sexual HarassmentEnvy, Poison, and Death: Women on Trial in Classical Athens, Chapter 3.2The Psychological Anatomy of GossipTell Me the Gossip: The Self-Evaluative Function of Receiving Gossip About OthersBBC Worklife: The Surprising Benefits of GossipGossip in Evolutionary PerspectiveHow the “Gossip” Became a WomanGossip and Gender Differences: a Content Analysis ApproachBBC Worklife: Why Gossiping at Work is Good For You

IT'S THE MAXFUNDRIVE!!!  And we're kicking it off with a network-wide trivia competition with other MaxFun hosts!You can see all our upcoming events during the drive and become a member at www.LetsLearnEverything.comThis special network wide event is a celebration of the MaxFunDrive! If you’d like to support podcasts you love for just $5 a month and get bonus gifts in the process, go to maximumfun.org/join.J. Keith van Straaten and Helen Hong from “Go Fact Yourself” are joined by:Teresa McElroy - “Shmanners”Ross Blocher - “Oh No, Ross and Carrie!”Ella Hubber & Tom Lum - “Let’s Learn Everything!”Jordan Morris - “Jordan, Jesse, Go!” and "Free With Ads"If you’d like to hear more hosts competing for trivia supremacy, visit Maximumfun.org for the full version of this show.

What would a man-made ecosystem look like on mars?  Just how complicated could it possibly be?   And are the human and societal issues just as complicated?  Science communicators and authors Zach and Dr. Kelly Weinersmith ask and answer all of these questions and more!Check out: A City on Mars!The Weinersmith's article on Frontier Mythology and SpaceThe Weinersmith's paper in the journal Space Policy on Space CommunesBeaWolfSaturday Morning Breakfast CerealTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:05:30) Mars Ecology(00:47:28) Space Communes(01:11:59) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: The superior Weinersmith, we almost have a Doctorate majority but not quite, having a PHD doesn’t make you smarter it just makes you poor and willing to suffer, back in my day Comic-Con was only 2 pence, we only just learned about high perchlorates on mars soil, all those images of glass habitats on mars would be SO DEAD, “this doesn’t sound appealing to me… to live under the dirt”, just rinse off all your dirt how hard could it be, the engineer brain thinking “if a problem is solvable then the problem is solved”, apologies to the rotating space colony community, space waste is a pain in the ass, cows aren’t efficient but BUGS are, Biosphere 1 is Earth, Lunar palace, there aren’t many experiments and we don’t really know how this all scales, if Sarah goes we’re fine and if I go I destroy the colony by BREATHING TOO MUCH, everything’s more complicated in space, Lungs help your facility PVNRT, humanity needs a plan B but “a backup that loses that much ground on human rights is not a backup i want!”, historiography of space: history of how we think about the history of space, being a wet blanket about frontier mythology - you are speaking to the right people, “there are beautiful dreams, but I feel like the beautiful dreams tend to crack when you look at them with a little more detail”, “cows are just a nonstarter in space”, goat cheese pizza was great for morale, finally we can stop poisoning ourselves with taro, vegans are great on mars, the only life threatening scorpion you can find the US makes it onto Noah’s ark, solar is great but not when there’s dust storms, we have dormant nuclear reactors in space, Simpson reactors, in conclusion: we’re not ready, it’s not as easy as making a terrarium, closed loop ecologies are not normal, who knows what happens 10 years in, “this is the problem with talking to Zach and I”, the superior Weinsersmith has subsumed the other in a violent coup, this isn’t a hypothetical: “there’s answers to these questions”, mars religion, you can’t take your barbies and go home on mars, literally no one wanted to do dish duty, SELL THEIR HOUSES TO WHO BEN FUCKING AQUAMAN, “being able to leave is HUGE for so many reasons”, “so Zach and I are both cowards”, speculating is good to imagine problems to avoid them which is maybe the least funny answer I’ve given, “you can’t jump back to roman law”, “I think the book is much better because of our conflicts”, going on research walks,  we don’t have time for space law, “that’s not a common response Tom”Sources:A City on Mars!The Weinersmith's article on Frontier Mythology and SpaceThe Weinersmith's paper in the journal Space Policy on Space Communes

Losing your head isn't good, but what actually happens, and what can it tell us about animals, ethics, and bad science? And what is a constructed language, when does it fail, and when can it be use to make great... art? As they say, Ni Lernu Ĉion!Content Warning that today's science topic can be a bit grim, so if you want, you can skip ahead to 54:54Things we Talk About:Mike The ChickenSea Slug MovingThe Narmer PaletteTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:36) Don't Lose Your Head!(00:54:55) Constructed Languages(01:36:55) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about:Pretty clear cut or chopped, did we need to write this down? why do you die when you lose your head? let’s start with a deep philosophical question: are we our brains? Tom clearly doesn’t know Mike the chicken, Mike was the original pitch for Charlotte’s Web, mooching some slugs, The Mystery of the Beheading of Elysia Marginata, capital punishment comes from beheadings, the guillotine could behead 20 people per hour, “the most gentle of lethal methods”, …do you guys not have the death penalty? ethics of rat euthanasia, Canavero’s bogus self published head transplants, like the language you’re speaking RIGHT NOW, Auxiliary Engineered and Artistic Languages, Tom falls into Ella’s Esperanto trap, Esperanto was banned and persecuted, the benefit of Esperanto is it has no culture, English is a language of exceptions, 1850 to 1920 people were going WILD constructing languages, none of us had heard of Volapük, “a language without umlauts sounds monotonous, harsh, and boring”, the language wars, a priest and an eye doctor trying to solve the tower of babel, Esperanto has “dipthongs - ugly!”, “rattling an hard bony R”, Artlang POP QUIZ, for Tolkeins the languages came first, english is a tapestry of languages and artlangs can convey that, the use of purposefully meaningless artlangs, soo soo! NOOT NOOT! boyhowdy! nonsense languages have universality, citing the pingu fan wiki, is penguinese more universal than esperanto??? Toki Pona, newspeak, “and that brings us strangely and sharply to the end of the topic”, appreciating real turtles and robot turtles.Sources:BBC: The Chicken That Lived For 18 Months Without a HeadBritannica: How Mike the Chicken Survived Without a HeadScientific America: Fact or Fiction?: A Cockroach Can Live without Its HeadNew York Times: Meet the Sea Slugs That Chop Off Their Heads and Grow New BodiesNewsWeek: Did Anne Boleyn Really Speak After She Was Beheaded? Here's the ScienceAmerican Historical Association: Narmer Palette2023 Paper: "The Most Gentle of Lethal Methods": The Question of Retained Consciousness Following Decapitation1975 Paper: EEG Evaluation of Humaneness of Asphyxia and Decapitation Euthanasia of the Laboratory Rat2013 Paper: Electroencephalographic Evaluation of Decapitation of the Anaesthetized Rat2011 Paper: Decapitation in Rats: Latency to Unconsciousness and the ‘Wave of Death’1991 Paper: Pain Perception in Decapitated Rat BrainNew Scientist: Head transplant carried out on monkey, claims maverick surgeon2019 Paper: First Human Head Transplantation: Surgically Challenging, Ethically Controversial and Historically TemptingThe Guardian: First Full Body Transplant is Two Years Away, Surgeon ClaimsThe Telegraph: First Head Transplant Successfully Carried Out on Monkey, Claims SurgeonVice: Head Transplant Surgeon Claims Human Brain Transplants Are 'Technically Feasible'2017 Paper: Surgical, eEthical, and Psychosocial Considerations in Human Head Transplantation---Constructed languages:Francois RabelaisInternational Auxiliary LanguagesEsperantoEsperanto 2: electric boogalooNative Esperanto SpeakersWhy Learn Esperanto:English language exceptionsCreating new words in EsperantoVolapükTrüth, Beaüty, and VolapükQuenyaQuenya CourseKlingon Language InstituteTGIF in SimlishHow Simlish was CreatedPenguinesePenguinese exampleAnimaleseAnimalese examplePolygon on AnimaleseToki Pona:Sapir–Whorf hypothesisExperimental languagesNewspeakNewspeak Dictionary

How have human beings evolved, and how could we evolve in the future?  And what are some famous first messages, and what can we learn from looking at them?Images we Talk About:TelegramFirst Record ImageSecond Record ImageOther Record ImagesTom's Ingenuity ComicSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:15) Are We Still Evolving?(00:52:00) Famous First Messages(01:38:17) OutroWe also learn about:DANGER BOO BOO, Ella has her own discord?? homo sapiens were 300,000 years ago but humans were 2.5 million, homo sapiens coexisted with 8 other human species, homo habilis was chilling for a million years, the homo hunger games, neanderthals had sewing needles and clothing, they seem so human because they are, maybe it was our chins, it’s hard enough not to anthropomorphize other animals let alone other humans, humans were the same height 40,000 years ago, humans may have lost height from being shit at farming, we have smaller brains but that doesn’t mean we’re less smart, natural selection & mutation & gene flow & gene drift, the iphone gave us smaller jaws, melanin is about synthesizing that sweet sweet vitamin D, we have evolved the adaptation of diversity, physical appearance is mostly just vitamin D and warmth - that’s it, it’s not good genes vs bad genes, microevolution, “instead of a mass of clones, we are already starting to see a glorious riot of variations”, this is all speculation, “we’re very unpredictable”, hello world! I learned it by watching you!! shouting and switching places, Tom live writes fanfic, purpose & imagination & inspiration, no YOU hang up, WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT, hey is your daughter okay? tone poems, Ella bled for her art in *checks notes* We Will Rock You, the dynamic range of the alpine symphony, if found please return littered golden record to Earth, ooh criteria! images on the record are COPYRIGHTED, who knows if they’ll be in the public domain by the time aliens get it, the beauty of the calibration circle, pulsar map, Ella’s not inspired, Caroline inspires Ella a bit, mixing up the golden plaque and golden record, MIR LENIN SSSR, DISREGARD PREVIOUS MESSAGE USA FOREVERSources:Homo HabilisNatural History Museum on The Origin of Our SpeciesOther Human SpeciesThe Guardian on NeanderthalsWhy were homo sapians the winners?How have we changed?When did we become fully human?Factors Driving EvolutionFactors Driving Evolution 2The Role of Geography in Human AdaptationEarly Human Height EstimationGenetic DriftHas Human Evolution Topped?What will humans look like in 1 million yearsSickle Cell Anemia Scientific American No, humans have not stopped evolving ---All Wikipedia's Hello World ProgramsBell's Journals from Library of CongressWired on First Phone CallFirst Telegram from Library of CongressFirst Test Compacy DiscStephen Johnson What is a Tone Poem?Houston Symphony on Strauss's Tone PoemsBoston Sympohony Orchestra on Alpine SymphonyNASA on Voyager RecordNASA on Pioneer PlaqueFirst MIR Message to SpaceRay Tomlinson's First Email

How did eels evolve electricity? And when is "women's work" neither women's nor work?Images we Talk About:SocksMore SocksThimbleBagCrochet ArtTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:26) Evolving Electricity(00:51:13) "Women's Work"(01:38:46) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Happy moisturizer to all who celebrate, Ella’s just here for moral support, when did they put batteries in eels, someone's just statically charging these eels, what did we call electric eels before electricity? why would we think lightning and a fish are the same thing? the necrotizing torpedo and the torpor eel, Aristotle was a shite time traveler, “in all of humanity, if people think they can pout it up their asshole they will”, Allessandro Volta what a convenient name, electric fish gave us the battery not the other way around, the electric organ, when did electricity evolve? electric organ discharge, electrogenesis, it’s not an eel! get in line with the other animals that need their names fixed, 90% of an eel is electric organ, what does it feel like? turning fish to stone, shocks can function like a neurotoxin, the electric doublet can make fish twitch, Ella has a revelation, the physics is the biology, it’s all electric baby, magnetic animals 2 electric boogaloo, the domestic arts, This Woman’s Work, it was never always women’s work, old socks, but what does this have to do with men?? Ella predicts the British stealing a sock, male knitting guilds, knitting fishermen makes perfect sense, knitting was “compatible” with many kinds of life, mechanized knitting made it feminized,   of course it’s always intersectionality, you know what’s appropriate for a woman is to do this thing we don’t need anymore, being demoted as an art form, “male art vs female craft”, Caroline’s just doing this topic to show their crochet is art, weaponizing the male ego to bring back knitting, bequeathing a valuable and symbolic thimble, Tom gets emotional over a salacious thimble, if that’s not art what is, also I can't believe you actually read all these thanks Sources:The Amazing Paper: The Torpedo Effect in MedicineAtlantic on Electric EelsAristotle on Electric EelsGreg Gbur on Electric Eels and PhysicsPiccolino's Great Paper on the History of Volta's ExperimentationNational Zoo Electric Eel FactsNYTimes on Electric Eel ShocksTremendous Eel Behavior Writeup from Kenneth CataniaReuters on Electric Eel EvolutionScience Paper on Electric Eel EvolutionAmber Plante on Electric CellsElectric Bacteria---Melissa Hilliard Potter TalkV&A: The history of hand-knittingThe Crafty Gentleman: The History of KnittingThis Is Gendered: Knitting"2012 Paper: Knitting as Dissent: Female Resistance in America Since theRevolutionary War"Cooper Hewitt: A Revolution In StockingsBrooklyn Museum: Women’s WorkArt Margins: Recrafting Futures: Feminist Practices of Material EngagementV&A Blog: ‘A Stitch in Time: Home Sewing Before 1900’NGV: The Power of ‘Women’s Work’: CraftivismPBS: Stitch by Stitch, A Brief History of Knitting and ActivismUniversity of Bath: #BreakTheBias: Is knitting a feminist issue?Harpy: The Art of Embroidery2014 Paper: Craftivism: The Role of Feminism in Craft ActivismThe Daily Utah Chronical: Lien: Female Rebellion and Why Craft Matters2016 Paper: Quiet Activism and the New Amateur

While we take our January break we're rebroadcasting our appearance on Creature Feature!  Katie pulled out some of the wildest facts for us, so enjoy, thanks for your patience, and see y'all in 2 weeks!

It's our annual Q&A episode where we look back on 2023 and answer your questions to learn about our process, our favorite things, and each other!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Ella gets on the album, Dodie is very frog people music, pigeons fruit flies and sloths, our favorite topics of each others,  black holes and microscopes and extinct animals, there’s one whole picture of Ella and Caroline, I need more than 5 seconds of this lady, Nessie Krampus and the Jersey Devil, Who the Hell is Edgar? the cursed 2nd spot in Eurovision, just do it! build a portfolio and experience and find local stuff in your area, alergic reaction to Tom’s joke, Australian Ella, card games, moved to tears by taskmaster, Skip & Loafer and Frieren, Baldur’s Gate is a 10/10, Caroline can read?? Under the Whispering Door and Life isn’t Binary, struggling through house of leaves, DRCL, Barbie and Evil Dead, i hate the sandpaper slide, field common questions, people do actually want to know about methodology, questions that are best answered by a different question, getting your own field explained to you, our school journeys, different kinds of learning, programming decision anxiety, getting to code for a thing you care about helps you learn, FUN! we’re actually ahead of schedule to learn everything, attacking Tom from different angles, seagul-gate, Ella producing with Jono in the studio, listening to Story Break at Lunch, let’s just say the Eras tour is going to be very interesting this year, putting it into the aether, if you want to change something you’ll do it tomorrow, the mellotron and babatone, distance, fun.

It's the HaLearnDays!  The time of year when we share gifts of fun facts from us and friends of the show!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: I wish Katie and Alex were real, pooping every 20 minutes, a human creates 320 pounds of poop a year, when I think about dangerous, “when I think of dangerous bird boop”, cube pooped saves on the poly count, poopin and pleasin, Watching the Sky and Thinking a Thought, smuggling instruments to space, sonic boooooms, this is obviously a Caroline gift, The National Christmas Tree Association, liberals want you to burn your christmas trees, the ACTA is very different from the NCTA, bury me with my artificial tree  in a cemetery under an artificial lawn, rudely scrutinizing a gift from Hank, Caroline’s read The Grinch who Re-tabulated a Fact they Got, $25 Barns & Noble Gift Card, Caroline and Ella negotiate money from Tom, identifying unwrapped baked goods in Japan, hot cross buns and melanoma, Ella Laterals us, British Scorpios can’t give blood in the US, we all definitely remember Ella was born in Germany, “destroying” cows, Janet pulled out all the stops with the science, vibrissae, wash bears, Ella ones up her fly sperm fact with Kangaroo Vaginas, whaaat’s the deal with the third vagina, false cloaca, kangaroos can house 3 kids at the same time, Ella’s in her kangaroo vagina era, our first favorite Tom piss on pity, running over Christ Tarrant’s foot, plougs and shootouts, should all our fun facts be forgot and days of old lang syne.Sources:Goose PoopGoose Poop 2 Electric BoogalooHow much do human poop?Why do geese poop so much?Wombat PoopGuiness World Records on First Song in SpacePavel PopovychNasa Wakeup Calls HistorySmithsonian Mag on Schirra & StaffordHarmonica from GeminiCleo's Video on Supersonic FlightSoil Association: Real VS FakeWashington Post: Are Real or Artificial Christmas Trees Better for the Environment?NOAA Sperm Whale InfoUN FAO Data on Human Seafood ConsumptionLower Estimate of Whale PopulationHigher Estimate of Whale PopulationSabrina's RomCom VideoPeople: When Harry Met SallyNew Yorker: The Pastry AI That Learned to Fight CancerVarsity: What do Bread and Cancer Cells Have in Common?FDA Blood Donation BanUTexas on Raccoon BrainsRaccoon Brains Compared to Other AnimalsPGC on Raccoons1963 Paper on DabblingKangaroos have 3 vaginasBob the Fish Video Essay on ITV TelethonBarbara Lisicki "The Day we Pissed on Pity"NDACA on the Block Telethon ProtestDisabled People's Archive on Block Telethon

What are the superheavy elements, and how did we make them?  And what is public domain day, and why is next year's going to be so interesting?Things we Talk About:The Mickey Mouse CurveSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:17) Superheavy Elements(00:37:41) Public Domain Day(01:19:19) OutroWe also learn about: It’s like we’re in school again, ordering the periodic table before discovering the electron, Mendelev didn't even like electrons, the nucleus is an atomic juggling act, atomic high jinks, the Fermi paradox, the Fermi problem, the number of piano tuners in Chicago, smashing elements into new ones, that’s why it’s called nuclear physics, receiving a Nobel and then fleeing Italy then learning your Nobel was wrong, accidentally discovering nuclear fission instead, we all so Barbie we knew this was leading to bombs, uranium neptunium plutonium, nobody cared because they didn’t want to draw attention to this during WORLD WAR 2, how does this keep happening i thought i was smart, the radioactive avengers, metropolis, I only scream about ice cream for anticapitalist purposes, none of this is legal advice, you know the patent stealing guy Edison, trademarks patents and copyright, JK Rowling patented a new kind of transphobia, the US constitution mentions copyright, the Micky Mouse Curve, even Bobel winning economists agree copyright extension is bad, happy hbomberguy video day, YouTube sucks at Fair Use, Mr Boop, Night of the Living Dead on Wikipedia, we’re IP pilled, SO MANY DISNEY MOVIES ARE BASED ON PUBLIC DOMAIN STORIES, it’s not open season on Mickey, “he can be naughty”, canine enthusiasm is unprotectable by copyright, Pride and Prejudice but Mr Darcy is a Vape God, Frank Capra is proud that It’s a Wonderful Life grew in the public domain, “battle lines will have to be drawn”, which two elements would YOU smoosh together?Sources:Superheavy by Kit ChapmanHow to read the periodic table Fermi ParadoxFermi ProblemTimeline of chemical element discoveries ---Jennifer Jenkins' Amazing Post on Public Domain DayJennifer Jenkins Duke Law Article on Public Domain DayUS Patent and Trademark Office on DefinitionsJK Rowling is a TerfMore JK Rowling is a TerfAssociation of Research Libraries on Copyright TimelineNYTimes on Mickey Mouse Entering Public DomainThe Mickey Mouse CurveEconomists Argument Against Copyright ExtensionVariety's Review of Steamboat WillieNebula Founder Dave Wiskus on Fair UseEFF on Public DomainVerge on Enola Holmes CopyrightArgument Presented Against Enola HolmesThe Public Domain ReviewFlorence Welch Gatsby MusicalDick Cody Heese VideoBBC: It's a Wonderful Life's Public Domain JourneyWallace McLean's First Email about Public Domain DayKaryn Temple on Public Dommain

Submit your questions for our end of year Q&A episode at letslearneverything.com/question or in our discord!

Investigative journalist Amy Westervelt from Drilled asks us:  what is carbon capture and is it good or bad or... complicated?  What is the Atlas Network and why are they comically evil dark avengers of the climate world?  And how do you go from recording a podcast in your car to creating an award winning podcast network?🎤 See Tom perform comedy in Brooklyn for Earth Alliance! 🎤Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:05:14) Carbon Capture(00:39:05) The Atlas Network/Podcasting(01:08:25) OutroWe also learn about: Emailing the local radio station “Would you like an over-aged intern”, Ella’s a climate change fan, natural carbon capture, compressed carbon is a lot more dangerous than it sounds, fracking with captured carbon, “there’s a lot of creative math happening”, direct air capture, carbon capture needs to happen WITH decarbonization, warming waters make crabs produce neurotoxins, unfreezing zombie viruses, a silver lining to the climate catastrophe is the worm broth, moving the goalposts to 2050, historian of past futures, people used to think fridges were weird, are we just giving up on eating slightly less meat, greenwashing, if you’re an oil company everything looks like a pipeline or a combustion engine, direct air capture is actually cool! even if I have 0 silver bullets I can kill a werewolf with 100 brass bullets, Anthony Fisher battery farming turtles origin story, reader’s digest version of Friedrich Hayek, having an evil meeting in a chicken battery farm, now they’re cooking with gas, Margaret Thatcher’s cameo,  “what a horrible avengers this has been”, THEY LITERALLY INVENTED THE OVERTON WINDOW, they’re a real life conspiracy theory, Amy gets in a debate, “I have a very difficult mother so tense conversations, I’m good at them”, narratives in climate not just look at my chart! podcasts can communicate the people hidden in stories, producing a podcast in a car, “I want people to come away really pissed off”Sources:Mississippi Carbon Capture AccidentIPCC Carbon Capture ReportLatest IPCC ReportNature: "Carbon dioxide removal is an ineffective time machine"The New Report on when we’ll Cross the 1.5 Degree ThresholdThawed Zombie Bug VirusesRevived Worm BrothDrilled on The Atlas Network

Are we really all destined to turn into crabs?  Why are there so many animal algorithms, and are they all legit?  And just how many times have we been wrong about the lemming?Things we talk about:All the Crabs Caroline mentionsThe Big List of Animal AlgorithmsBoid VideoSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:03) Carcinization(00:42:00) The Animal Algorithm Mystery(01:25:46) The Many Lemming Lies(01:45:35) OutroWe also learn about: Endless forms most crab-like, the 2020 meme boom of carcinization, what is the extent of the carcinization crisis, watch it buddy you already got eight legs, hamburger style arthropod, BOY CAN I CAROLINE I'M GLAD YOU ASKED, it’s like CNN and Fox agreeing on something, crabs have ten legs my dude, vikavolt, crabs and false crabs and true Christians, its all human labels at the end of the day, crab shapes have evolved at least 5 times, the king, masked, coconut, and hermit crab, Ellen’s thinking like a crab, the leaf eating mangrove crab, the crab shape is good for many niches, guard your tasty bits, decarcinization, we should try decarcinizating our market share, I am THE crab researcher and y’all need to calm down, convergent evolution is like video game controller design, the Brazilian Aardvark, Ellen’s uncovering of this dark underbelly, this algorithm list is just a list of sleeper activation words, what is a metaheuristic swarm optimization algorithm? Craig Reynold’s Boids, the lateral line system, “ants aren’t smart, any colonies are”, multidimensional ants, coatis moving in the jth dimension, this is all super niche you can’t use multidimensional ants for every problem, no articles are talking about this this is Defunctland niche, Groth and the 2 Fairies, lots of these papers are not at all based on real biology, “cats do not form swarms”, the bee marriage algorithm is actually good! research for research’s sake is okay, lower your pitchforks but keep your pitchforks at the ready, things are shitty starting out i mean we named everything crabs, political cartoonists went wild for lemmings, we’ve been making shit up about lemmings for year, lemmings falling from the sky, Ole Worm’s pet coati, Popular Science’s lemmings returning to Lemuria, lemming population booms, lemmings are good swimmers, a truck full of the wrong species of lemmings, ALBERTA IS LAND LOCKED, lemmings are fight or fight, lemmings don’t explode, let’s unlearn everything about lemmingsSources:TheConversation: CarcinizationKnow Your Meme: CarcinizationNPR: Would Aliens Look Like Us?PBS Eons: Carcinization VideoNatural History Museum: Convergent Evolution2017 Paper: The Evolution of Eyes: Major Steps.2019 Paper: A Phylogenomic Framework, Evolutionary Timeline and Genomic Resources for Comparative Studies of Decapod Crustaceans2021 Paper- How to Become a Crab: Phenotypic Constraints on a Recurring Body PlanConservancy.org: The mangrove Tree CrabScientific America: Carcinization1997 Paper: Carcinization in the Anomura - Fact or Fiction?PopSci: Carcinization---The Coati Algorithm PaperList of Animal AlgorithmsCraig Reynold's Boid PaperBoids in FilmAnt Colony OptimizationSouthwest Airlines' Ant AlgorithmThe Amazing Review from Tzanetos & Dounias---Lemmings from the SkyOle WormThe Museum WormianumPopular Science's Lemuria ClaimsSnopes on Disney's Lemming FilmMore on Diseny's Lemming Film

Why do we get goosebumps when we hear nails on a chalkboard?  Obviously aliens didn't make the pyramids, but how were they made and what does that teach us about humanity?  And what's the story behind nessie and why the queer community loves cryptids?Things we talk about:Egyptian painting of using water to pull a statueVideo of modern people pulling a blockThe famous Nessie photographSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:05:59) Goosebumps(00:48:43) Not Alien Pyramids(01:23:13) Nessie and Cryptids(01:50:50) OutroWe also learn about: The bumpies you get on your skinnies, the gem trade can be pretty shitty!, Tom read 5 books for this, ahhhh! oh wait have I got goosebumps? the many and few names for goosebumps, piloerection, I just got objective chills, animal goosebumps, famous geologist and pigeon lover Charles Darwin, “I took a stuffed snake to the monkey house”, porcupine piloerection, gustatory stimuli, grima, it’s not ew it’s euggghh, Easy Lovery by Phil collins, Screaming Ape; Loop. the Head Wizard tm, biomimicry, nails on a chalkboard, Scraping Sounds and Disgusting Noises, (SOUNDBITE OF FINGERNAILS ON CHALKBOARD), so is that better or worse? I guess the kids are listening to screeching sounds for music, prehistoric chalkboard monster, ruining Ella’s spooky cold open, 118 pyramids! you’re both racist! when did the ancient aliens theory stated, von Daniken’s racist conspiracy, the racism in believing only wwhite people could make architecture, plumbobs! moving 5000 pound limestone blocks, the genius post ramp system, it took 100 years to realize the painting was showing how to move stuff with water, Gregory Marouard’s demonstration of moving a block, the Nile used to run right by the Giza pyramids, the mundane power of having a lot of people, 20,000 people to build the great pyramids, the oldest papyrus ever found: the diary of merer, the pyramid builders weren’t slaves, the bent pyramid, the plesiosaur, cryptids that turned out to be real like the thylacinem, fake cryptids, cryptid comes from cryptozoology in the 80s, Nessie swimming down the nile, you gotta try Irn Bru, Columba the Monk’s encounter with nessie from the 565 AD, Columba was a dual class monk cleric, Marmaduke’s hoaxes, hippo leg umbrella, the Nessie-sary search, eDNA, you pee you poop you die, eels in the loch, cryptids and the queer community, cyptids are the people’s mythology, token straight scientist friend.Sources:The Biology of FearDarwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and AnimalsPorcupine PiloerectionThe Psychological study of Emotional PiloerectionChills in Different Sensory DomainsThe emotion of GrimaScraping Sounds and Disgusting NoisesNPR Chalkboard TranscriptsPsychoacoustics of a Chilling SoundPsychoacoustics of Chalkboad SqueakingAnatomy of the Ear---Medium Article on the "impossibility" of Giza PyramidsThe great pyramid of GizaPseudoarchaeology and the Racism Behind Ancient AliensTools Used in Ancient Egyptian ConstructionAncient RampsUsing the Nile for blocksSliding Friction on Dry and Wet SandThe Diary of Merer Papyri---Cryptozoology Museum: What is Cryptozoology?National Catholic Register: Story of the Loch Ness MonsterUniversity of Aberdeen: The PictsHighland Pictish Trail: Pictish StonesNew York Times: Loch Ness Fiction is Stranger than TruthLoch Ness Sightings WebsiteScience Focus: eDNA and Loch NessThe Guardian: eDNA and giant eelsDaily Mail: Psychology of Loch Ness Monster BelieversNessie is My Girlfriend! Cryptids and Queer PeopleVox "How the Babadook became the LGBTQ icon we didn’t know we needed"Cryptid Queer Icons

For our 2nd anniversary and our 50th episode (which it definitely is, don't check) we cooperatively tackled a topic folks have been asking us to do for ages: The Ig Nobel Prize!Check out our new merch! Hats! Posters! Mugs!Images and Videos we talk about:The Levitating Frog VideoThe Best of Miss Sweetie PooOcean Mixing Anchovy DiagramThe Grabbing Tentacle Robot VideoNecrobotic Spider DiagramNecrobotic Spider VideoThe Juke 8Daisuke Practicing his SpeechJoin our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:08:18) The Ig Nobel Prize(00:45:00) The 2023 Ig Nobel Winners(01:28:36) The Ig Nobel Peace Prize(01:59:09) OutroWe also learn about: Tom does an evil scientist laugh at Atto Seconds, Ella watch hours of Ig ceremonies, honoring achievements that make people laugh then think, the rotating category, six people have turned down the Nobel, comedy? with a question mark? trying to purposefully win an Ig is like recreating The Room, Limburger cheese, Andre Geim loves his Ig as much as his Nobel, “if people don’t have a very good sense of humor, they are usually not very good scientists either”, Roy Glauber the keeper of the broom ALSO WON A NOBEL, “all they wanted to ask about was that damn broom”, the 24/7 Lectures, Mandelbrot goading miss sweetie poo, Ella’s Favorite Ig-ventions, partially unboiling an egg on stage, Chernobyl Bra Face Masks, that laughing and crying human emotion, cadaver nose hairs with surprisingly few nose hair variations, we all stan replication, Tom’s dad was robbed of the Ig, boring teachers, backwards speakers, maybe their neurons work backwards, the taste of rocks, the trick condition, electric taste, sexism in the stanford toilet, statistically significant anchovy boning affecting the water column, the fish kama sutra, how can i turn that dead spider into a robot? necrobotics is surprisingly easy, anti peace prizes, Pauling’s Nobel burn on Teller, Tom gets recognized, Lal Bihari’s schemes to become undead, “Lal bihari died in 1976 but he is feeling much better”, MAMAAAA OOOoooOOOH, sweet caroline, working as a waitress, karaoke means empty orchestra, Shigeichi Negishi’s first machine, Inoue’s Juke 8 origin story, Inoue is up there with Jonas Salk for not patenting Karaoke, Inoue’s Ig Nobel standing ovation, I’m not going to cry, I just started crying what the fuck, don't tell Ella but Toms my favorite, sometimes three ding dongs can make a podcastSources:About the Ig NobelsMarc Abrahams articlesAndrew GeimLimburger CheeseKeeper of the BroomMiss Sweetie PooBest of Miss Sweetie PooWired Article: A Gala for Weird ScienceMark Hosteetler2019 Awards - Very Fun Watch2015 Awards - Even more Fun24/7 LecturesPast winnersMichigan Driving LawThe BlasterBra Gas Mask---Nose HairsCrowd Effects of Looking UpBored Students and TeachersArs Technica on the IgsBrain Patterns of Speaking BackwardsEating FossilsJamais Vu and Semantic SatiationElectric ChopsticksThe Stanford ToiletOcean Mixing from Spawning FishNecrobotic Spider Grippers---Marc Abrahams Nobel Thoughts Interview with Linus PaulingStanley Cohen Nobel Thoughts InterviewNYTimes on Lal BihariLal Bihari's Ig Nobel CeremonyMatt Alt on Shigeichi Negishi's First Karaoke Machine for KotakuDaisuke Inoue's Story told for Topic MagazineTime Magazine on Daisuke InoueDaisuke Inoue's Ig Nobel Ceremony

We all use Wikipedia, but how did it come to be? What's the first number to not have a Wikipedia page, and what does that say about math and humans? And what on Earth is Perpetual Stew?Follow Annie and Depths of Wikipedia on Instagam/Twitter/Tiktok!Images we talk about:Sloane's Gapnostalgia.wikipedia.comSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:07:33) The History of Wikipedia(00:50:16) The First Boring Number (01:12:09) Wikimania and Perpetual Stew(01:50:38) OutroWe also learn about: there’s more Wikipedia languages than google translate, Grendel would have loved Blackpink, how often do we think about the roman empire, the first encyclopedia was very wrong, all men think about is present Rome! Pliny’s child piss ab wrinkle cure, fortune did not favor the bold according to Pliny the younger, the encyclopedia Britannica, getting lazy on the later letter installments, door to door encyclopedia salesmen, Annie’s Mom’s excitement for the new encyclopedia, Encarta the forgotten digital encyclopedia, welcome to the 90s baby, webrings, soft core porn is the carcinization of the web, Jimmy Wale’s “Guy Oriented Search Engine” Bomis.com, the failed boring Nupedia, the wiki prefix from a Hawaiian bus, Cunningham’s Law, Wikipedia’s Bro culture, nostalgia.wikipedia.com, no search or sources on old wikipedia, it’s not easy but people were making this encyclopedia, this human element has always been a part of encyclopedias, Jimmy Wales got his admin privilages revoked by the community, the interesting number paradox, Ramanujan’s Taxi Cab Numbers, the OEIS sequence database, Sloane’s Gap, 20,067 sitting alone at lunch, a surprising recent number update, the notability standard of numbers, the highest negative number to not have a page is only negative 3!!! come to the dark side of the zero, the Wikimania, Annie is Taylor Swift at Wikimania, Ella’s years long Wikipedia War, Annie’s neuroscience journey, Annie’s Perpetual Stew, a stew love.Sources:Andrew Lih's Book "The Wikipedia Revolution"Pliny the Elder's Encyclopedia with Sun Shade Feet PeopleHistory of the Encyclopedia BritannicaThe Encarta EncyclopediaThe "Decline" of WikipediaJimmy Wales Guy Raz Interview---Scientific American The Most Boring NumberRamanujan's Taxi Cab NumbersThe OEISSloane's Gap PaperThe Notability Requirements for Number Pages---WikimaniaNYTimes on Perpetual Stew

What lies below the depths of the sea... and why should we stop being so afraid of it?  Okay we know crystals can't heal you, but could they actually do... something?  And why are time capsules more complicated than you'd think, and why should we love them anyway?Images/Videos we talk about:New Yorker Comic about the Deep SeaThe Phantom Jellyfish (warning for Thalassophobia)The Venus Flow Basket SpongeSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:05:04) The Abyssopelagic Zone(00:54:21) The Crystal Healing Boom(01:26:19) Time Capsules(01:54:18) OutroWe also learn about:  The Zones of the Ocean, the midnight zone, the hadal zone in the trenches, Tom forgets that water freezes, cold water and thermal vents, pompeii worm’s bacterial jacket, chemosynthesis, the deep see adaptation alarm, pisolite, it’s a myth that more people have been to space than the bottom of the ocean, the challenger deep, deep sea and moon exploration were happening around the same time, we actually DO know more about the sea than the moon, the abyssal plains is half the planet… but people don’t care, thalassophobia, there are no amateur deep sea explorers, the enigmitization of the deep sea, deep sea gigantism, why not visit the deep and eat delicious foot long shrimp, phantom jellyfish, venus flower baskets symbiosis is WILD, 500 sea pigs facing in the same direction, the burglar alarm atolla jellyfish, artificial E Jelly lure, gelatinous little guys, “i thought that bit was gonna be way better than it was”, lateral line, the cusk eel is the deepest fish, whales dive deeper to send messages farther, marine snow, Ella pulls a Caroline, deep sea nodule mining, we can still like things and not believe in them scientifically, crystals DON'T date to ancient Egypt, amethyst hangover cure, to be fair they didn’t even know what crystals were, bad economic or healthcare pressures may push folks to crystals, crystals do actually have vibrational properties just not those kinds! the piezoelectric effect, quartz watches and pickups, paranormal powers placebo or priming, a great psych experiment where no one had to take LSD, we love a repeatable study, the real benefits of crystals from placebo and community, confirmation bias is powerful and good, actually harmful crystals, don’t give babies crystals for teething, gems are just shiny, you can ship of theseus the voyager topic from every time we mention it, foundation deposits weren’t exactly time capsule but were cool, leaving notes in houses, Time Capsules are optimistic and kind of silly, the dissappointed norweigan time capsule kids, deciding what to put in a capsule is really really tricky, what is sublime and what is trivial? taking a picture of a polroid, the interesting complications of time capsules, the time travel fever, “artificial special collections”, Tom’s own time capsule from 6th grade, good teachers are so good. Caroline’s gonna cry again!Sources:The Deep Ocean: Life in the AbyssThe Abyssal ZoneHow Do Animals Survive in the Deep Ocean?ChemosynthesisWe Know More About the MoonWe Know More About the Moon 2Gene FeldmanFear and loathing of the deep ocean: why don't people care about the deep sea?"Venus Flower Basket "Eye in the SeaHow We Found the Giant SquidHuman ImpactSpecies in the CCZ---The Guardian: American Anxiety Drives A Crystal BoomOprah Daily: Healing CrystalsStanford: Understanding People's Obsession with CrystalsTime: Do Crystals WorkLivescience: Crystal HealingOED: AmethystRobert Boyle: An Essay About the Origine & Virtues of Gems1981 Paper: Piezoelectric Effects in Quartz-Rich RocksPiezoelectricity and Its Applications2008 Paper: Prescribing “placebo treatments”: results of national survey of US internists and rheumatologistsThe New England Journal of Medicine: Why Unconventional Medicine?2010 Paper: Mystical Stones in Oncology: Crystal Healing Power or Perfect Nonsense?Stanford Medicine: Patient Mindset Matters in Healing and Deserves More StudyForbes Health: Healing CrystalsNationwide Children's: The Dangers of Amber Teething NecklacesIGS: Gemstone Toxicity Table---William E Jarvis Paper on Time CapsulesEgyptian Foundation DepositsMatt Novak Interview on Time CapsulesBoring Norwegian Time CapsuleAtlantic's "The Paradox of Time Capsules"History of Westinghouse Time CapsuleThe Book Inside the Westinghouse Time CapsuleScience Reporting on the Westinghouse Time CapsuleThe Local Michigain Time Capsule

Why are lawns so bad, and what could we grow instead?  How much can we learn from an esoteric word like Psammophile? And why is the Guinness Book of World Records wonderful and terrible at the same time?Images/Videos we talk about:Snakes in SandThe Jerboa/Kangaroo Rat/Kangaroo MouseSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:05:44) Lawn Loathing(00:45:55) Spelling Psammophile(01:19:26) Guinness World Records(01:50:38) OutroWe also learn about:  lawn enjoyer (derogatory), there are 6x more lawn than corn in the US, how we developed our lawn fetish in the 17th century, the pesticide and fertilizer boom after WWII, the more money and knowledge you have the worse lawns get for the environment,  runoff powered sargassum seaweed, 30% of drinking water used for lawns, lawns aren’t even the best greenery for your mental health, “your granny cant push the lawnmower around” okay I don’t want her too! astroturf is even worse, when the sun engulfs the earth all that will remain is our plastic lawns, the no-mow-movement, the alternative lawn movement, make an animal crossing lawn! Ella and Caroline fail the spelling bee, what makes a word tricky, 3 letter words are the trickiest, Ella steals the word, ventifacts, sand actually holds water better, granular physics in a scorpion paper, sidewinder snakes drifting while doing the worm, snake scale fingerprint, ecomorphological convergence, the adorable Jerboa or Kangaroo Rat are in Dune unchanged, Jerboas can kick sand onto traps, foot drumming, “the rats would rather drum than fight”, sandy fungi, our childhood obsessions with Guinness records, people are weird! the origin of the Guinness World Records, I’ll prove to them who’s the fastest bird! the eccentric fact finding twin brothers, may we hope to turn heat into light”, the 4 types of Guinness world record, marketing records, the analog to digital downfall, over half of the top 100 brands have records, Guinness is a native advertising company, brands really need empowering, laundering governments apolitcally, most lightning strikes to a person, a good record makes you wonder Sources:Scientific American: The American Obsession with LawnsBBC: Should People Get Rid of Their Garden Lawns?Gardens Illustrated: The History of LawnsPsychology Today: The Strange Pstchology of the American LawnThe Guardian: Lawns Are Such A YawnJSTOR: Your Green Lawn is Harming the Environment2015 Paper: Lawn as a cultural and ecological phenomenon: A conceptual framework for transdisciplinary research2020 Paper: Lawns in Cities: From a Globalised Urban Green Space Phenomenon to Sustainable Nature-Based Solutions2005 Paper: Mapping and modeling the biogeochemical cycling of turf grasses in the United StatesNSF: Are Our Lawns Biological Deserts?2023 Paper: Rewilding in Miniature: Suburban Meadows Can Improve Soil Microbial Biodiversity and Soil HealthScientific American: How Fertilizers Harm Earth More Than Help Your Lawn2017 Paper: Is All Urban Green Space the Same? A Comparison of the Health Benefits of Trees and Grass in New York CityThe Guardian: Turf It Out: Is It Time to Say Goodbye to Artificial Grass?PlantLife: No Mow MayBBC: No Mow May Blamed for Rise in Hedgehog InjuriesUniversity of Cambridge: Can An Iconic Meadow Seed Wider Change?---538 Article on Spelling Bee DataJoseph White on Word Selection ProcessThe Wikipedia Page for PsammophileAmazing Paper on Psammophile Ecology and ScorpionsEnergy Cost of Walking/Running on SandNYTimes on Sidewinder SnakesSidewinder EcologySidewinder Microscopic Scale DifferencesJerboa EvasivenessJerboa Foot DrummingKangaroo Rat EcologyPsammophile Fungi---3 Months on a RollerCoasterImogen West Knights Guardian ArticleVox ArticlePlanet Money Podcast: Is Record Breaking BrokenGuinness MarketingIn the Interest of FairnessTurkmenistan ControversyGuinness response to John OliverFind Guinness Records Here

What previous scientific theories would turn into the ones we know today, and what can they teach us? Why is Tuberculosis still a thing in the modern age?  And who were the Radium girls, and what did they give us?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about:Oh Fuck Tom and Ella and Caroline, theory vs pseudoscience, scientific glow up, the LLE game show theme, any time Tom isn’t talking he’s doing a little dance, preformationism, tiny growing dinosaur gametes, miasma, spontaneous generation, the amber effect, Darwin couldn’t sleep thinking about geology, what a nerd, the expanding earth, every theory can be explained by little expanding dinosaurs, Marie Tharp’s “Girl Talk, revisiting Vulcan, planet mnemonics, Ella snipes the answer, an actual Einstein name drop, Einstein was so excited to think he could solve the mercury problem, my topic superseded yours, what is Tuberculosis, TB is at least 9,000 years old, when TB was romanticized (by the wealthy), “how interesting he looks in dying”, TOM STOP DANCING!, people think this is a disease of old but it’s not, antibacterial resistance could be as big a threat as climate change, 1 Billion people have latent TB, the real enemy once again is capitalism, novel’s rapid test, there’s no Return on Investment with TB research, unless you patent the cure, J&J COULD SELL IT FOR A QUARTER AND STILL MAKE A PROFIT, only 40,000 people have received bedaquiline in 11 years, evergreening a patent is Sinister, amnesty period of science in the misc topic, even with nobel prizes scientists didn't realize how dangerous this stuff was, the Curies are buried in led coffins, Curie’s legacy is “literally untouchable”, Will It Radium? Radium Schokolade, it’s rejuvenating! radium quackery, radium silk, the government said it MUST have radium if you’re advertising it does, alpha radiation mostly hurts when ingested, glowing radium dust dresses, surely THIS is how they got poisoned right?? touching the brush to the lips was a cost saving measure, radiation poisoning sucks, the US radium corp claimed the women were just suffering from syphilis, hiding scientific investigations, the radium girls fight against capitalism and make labor history, radium girls lead to an international nuclear treaty, but they still sold radium tonics! Byers’ photograph helped ban radithol, the podcast make you old.Sources:Wikipedias list of Superseded TheoriesMiasmaSpontaneous GenerationThomas Browne's Origins of ElectricityExcerpt on Amber from Yamamoto's "The Pull Of History"Scientific American on Darwin's GeologyCathy Barton on Expanding Earth TheoryMarie TharpHow Le Verrier came to Believe in VulcanRoyal Society: The Eclipse that Verified EinsteinNat Geo & Thomas Levenson on Vulcan and Einstein---TB PathologyTuberculosis: A Fashionable Disease?9000 Year Old TBThe Other PandemicTreating TBDiagnosing TBNovel ChegouBedaquiline ApprovalBedaquiline EfficacyBedaquiline CostBedaquiline patent---Science Museum Group: The Radium Girls Britannica: Radium Britannica: Marie Curie Nobel Prize: Marie Curie Physics awardsNobel Prize: Marie Curie- Overview The Atlantic: How We Realized Putting Radium in Everything Was Not the AnswerNature Chemistry: The Realities of RadiumCNN: When Beauty Products Were Radioactive Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity: Radithor Britannica: Radium GirlsLibrary of Congress Blogs: Radium Girls The Radium Girls Websit Inside Hook: Radium Girls Legacy NPR: Radium Girls Legacy

Special guests Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin from Secretly Incredibly Fascinating and Creature Feature answer: Have birds ever been to space?  Why does Katie love birds so much?  And how did Alex bring about the bison emoji to everyone's phones?Things we Talk About:The Quails in Space video we watched over and overThe Club Winged Manakin's "Call"Katie's Snoopy ComicsSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:07:13) Space Birds(00:38:46) Birds & Bison Emoji(00:54:59) OutroWe also learn about: Birds have home field advantage here, DIY animal behavior major, baby elephant soccer coach, a big podcast stew, why can’t birds just fly to space, we all share one brain cell, the Karman line, Ruppell's griffon vulture once flew into a jet engine, or rather the engine ate the bird, vultures are actually clean birds, high altitude vultures have blood adaptations, don’t dope vulture blood, USA lost the birds in space race, space farming, cloacal docking with the ISS, the quails in space video breaks us, who will teach the first generation of space quails? Chernobyl birds, stop doing unjustified wars and send chernobyl birds to space, Chix in Space, Katie wants to put a hummingbird in space, Canadian goose alien, Katie’s childhood Wile E Cayoe trap, birds relatable alien adorably arrogant dinosaurs, club winged manakin stridulation calls, Alex’s 18 page bison proposal, bird aliens return to the feet of a bison emoji statue, how Katie met Alex, Katie’s Peanuts comics, all great friendships start with an amazing bit.Sources:Audubon: The Amazing Story of the Cold War Space-Egg RaceAudubon's Initially Mistaken Blog on Space BirdsSmithsonian on Bird Flight HeightSmithsonian Zoo on Ruppell's Griffon VultureNasa on the Edge of SpaceCornell Bird Lab on Japanese Quail

How long have we been searching for Gravitational Waves?  What is the loneliest animal, and what does it mean to be lonely?  And what really makes graffiti... graffiti?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:26) Gravitational Waves(00:41:01) The Loneliest Animal(01:14:17) Graffiti(01:45:21) OutroWe also learn about: Invisible ripples in spacetime that move at the speed of light and squeeze and stretch spacetime, Aristotle would have lost his mind at gravitational waves, Einstein’s theory of general relativity, gravity is bends in spacetime, Einstein’s 1915 prediction, gravitational waves are stupid… unless? pulsars are cosmic lighthouses, binary pulsars are two bowling balls dropped in a lake that we think are big enough to ripple to our shore, Einstein predicted them and then we found them, I found a math drawing in space, LIGO finding gravitational waves 100 years after Einstein’s theory, thank you Yano, gravitational waves click with Caroline, LIGO can measure 1/10,000th the width of a proton, measuring the collision of 2 black holes 1.3 billion years ago, International Pulsar Timing Array, the hum of the universe, the background hum of hundreds of thousands of black holes merging, hypothetical one dimensional cosmic strings, i thought you said this was silly, have you ever been alone in a crowded room, "I want to know what loneliness is to you Ella”, the elusive snow leopard, “just tell me how snow leopards fuck Caroline”, lonely ants live 11 times shorter, giving mirrors to make cows less lonely, the song of the Kauai Oo, lonesome George sold out, Albert the Albatross’s theme song, Albie the Albatross, finding 52 Blue the whale from declassified hydrophones, capitalism isolates animals too! are we projecting and processing loneliness onto conservation, Tom’s contractual Carly Rae Jepsen mention, graffiti used to only mean ancient graffiti, farts for the old man, I am Hiyya! Lysias is Handsome, is graffiti art? Kilroy was here, Faulkner wants to write a Kilroy was here, remember the writer and the reader and me, transient and permanent graffiti, NYC Subway Graffiti, “How did they do that?!”, graffiti as high art, Ivan + Hayley, local graffiti, Taki 183, Warren Robinett’s Atari graffiti, fuck you I was hereSources:LIGO: What are gravitational waves?The History of Gravitational WavesPulsarsWhat is LIGOLIGO 2015 DiscoveryCosmic ChirpsNANOGravInternational Pulsar Timing ArrayPulsar Timing ArraysThe NANOGrav 15 yr Data SetCosmic Strings---Snow Leopard Trust2022 Paper: Neurobiology of Loneliness, Isolation, and Loss: Integrating Human and Animal Perspectives2015 Paper: Social Isolation Causes Mortality by Disrupting Energy Homeostasis in Ants2019 Paper: Can Access to an Automated Grooming Brush and/or a Mirror Reduce Stress of Dairy Cows Kept in Social Isolation?Forbes: Companion Parrots May Be Less Lonely When They Phone Their Feathered FriendsGalapagos Conservancy: Lonesome GeorgeSmithsonian: Spix’s MacawThe  Call of the Kauai OoBBC: No Romance for Lovesick AlbatrossRSPB: The Black-browed Albatross, Albie, at RSPB Bempton CliffsThe Guardian: Albie the AlbatrossNOS: Why Do Whales Make Sounds?Smithsonian: Maybe the World’s Loneliest Whale Isn’t So Isolated, After AllThe Guardian: The Search for the Loneliest Whale in the WorldPBS: Ship Noises Mute the Songs of Humpback Whales2018 Paper: Change in Singing Behavior of Humpback Whales Caused by Shipping Noise---UCL Jeanine Ancelet on History of GraffitiPenn Museum on Mayan GraffitiASOR on Ancient Near East GraffitiSmithsonian Mag on Pompeii GraffitiIAS on the Athenodoros GraffitiBoston College Pompeii Graffiti TranslationMuseum of Cycladic ArtTim O Gorman on KilroyWilliam Falkner at UVA Q&A TranscriptHistory of American Graffiti Authors on PBSColosseum GraffitiHarvard International Review on BanksyNYT Interview with Taki183Adam Clayton's Letter to AtariRobinett on Adventure Easter EggWired Interview with Robinett

How complicated is trying to scientifically study gender? Why does it feel like water get discovered on Mars every other month? And what's so great about these pigeons I see everywhere?Images we talk about:The Brain Gender ChartThe Jacobin PigeonThe Pouter PigeonSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:38) Gender Complexity(00:42:27) Mars Water Deja Vu(01:18:16) Pigeons(01:38:21) OutroWe also learn about: Caroline snipes Tom’s joke, let’s talk about sex, “I do it and I have one”, sex is a bimodal distribution, defining sex is like defining a tree, have you ever had a gender that… that…, women men girls and boys, gender as separate from sex, Money’s awful gender experiment, sample size: David, why haven’t they just tried… talking to people? Hasbro lobbying Big Hormone pink and blue brains have a lot of overlap, news of mars water is like news of the first gay Disney character, we found a full britta filter on mars, the first water on mars theory, Herschel thought people lived in the sun, all the things we’ve sent to mars, the “““first””” evidence of water on mars, “““recent””” water on mars, saying we found water on mars makes it sound like we’re tackling the same problem over and over, we’re learning all kinds of stuff about mars, yes there’s water on mars but first let’s define water, gender neutral martians, “sublimate” makes Caroline happy, there is sometimes and maybe water on mars, there definitely used to be water on mars, martian time periods, stop personifying mars Caroline, “the planet Vulcan’; the astronomers still watching intently”, the precovery of Pluto 15 years before its discovery, the rock dove became the pigeon, pigeons were  domesticated multiple times, pigeons may be the first domesticated bird, 350 breeds of domesticated pigeons, met gala pigeon looks, endurance pigeons flying for 22 hours, homing pigeon navigation, reddit quotes, the pigeon origins of Reuters, these are kinds of jokes you can support with your donation, listener submitted comeback, world war pigeons, 36 Dickin Medals went to pigeons, feral domestic pigeons, pigeons are better pets than parrots, stress egg laying, Darwin loved pigeons.Sources:Sex and Gender by Archer and Lloyd, 2002.A Brief History of ‘Gender’Nature or Nurture: The Case of the Boy Who Became a Girl PEW: On Gender Differences, No Consensus on Nature vs. Nurture2008 Paper: The Nature and Nurture of Gender1993 Paper: Physical attractiveness of boys with gender identity disorder2019 Paper: Neurobiology of gender identity and sexual orientationCleveland Clinic: Androgens2022 paper: Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity2020 Paper: Brain Sex Differences Related to Gender Identity Development: Genes or Hormones?2020 Paper: Neuroscience and Sex/Gender: Looking Back and ForwardPBS: Map of Gender Diverse Cultures Article: Indigenous Tribes Embraced Gender Fluidity Prior to ColonisationMIT: Gender Pay GapSTEM Women: The Gender Pay Gap in STEM---Early Mars Ovservations and the CanalsWilliam Herschel on Mars to the Royal SocietyBasalla on Herschel's Sun People TheoryLowell to Nature on Life on MarsLowell's Mars Canal ObsessionList of Mars MissionsVox's Mars Water ArticleNasa 2015 Press ReleaseNasa 2017 Walk Back Press ReleaseNYTimes 2015 Water on MarsNYTimes 2018 Lake on MarsSpace.com 2022 Water could be Magma"Recent" Water Found on MarsAsk a Nasa Scientist "Is There Water on Mars"Stability of the Liquid Water Phase on MarsNasa on Mars In DepthSmithsonian Magazine Water on MarsNYTimes Planet Vulcan Reporting 1876The Precovery of Pluto---Wendall Levi: Pigeon GuyJacobin PigeonPouter PigeonSquabsGilbert & Shapiro: Pigeon DomesticationDomestic Pigeons PaperWhy Pigeons, Not Parrots

It's our first Best Of episode! We sat down to listen to and talk about the topics YOU told us were your favorites!Temporal Illusions! Eurovision! Dodos, and so much more! Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: The handsome Dr. Ella Hubber, if a friend recommended this to you they’re amazing and didn’t start that orphanage fire, declaring Tom’s love for Carly in the first episode, the first “Comedy”, Tom’s Eurovision indoctrination, the grim Holiday Episode, *aggressively podcasts at man*, seeing Tom’s wheels spinning, Let’s Go To Therapy Together!

What are some of the wildest ways that eyes have evolved?  What would happen if we got rid of all mosquitos, and how would we even do it?  And how on Earth did some Canadians come to love bagged milk?Images we talk about:The  Picture Tom had on his Dorm WallThe Sheep VideoSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:05:15) Eyevolution(00:44:03) Eliminating Mosquitos(01:18:11) Bagged Milk(01:41:18) OutroWe also learn about: Ella you’ve made it! it’s bagged milk all the way down, organs of extreme perfection and complication, misquoting Darwin, this is cliche because this is where this came from, Darwin’s clickbait, Eyevolution 2 Eyelectric BoogEyeloo, eye diagrams on Tom’s dorm wall, octopi are aliens, we are the ones with backward photoreceptors, you’re perfect just the way you are, horizontal and vertical pupils, cats have built in sunglasses, taller animals have rounder pupils, using the blur gradient for depth perception most, birds have circular pupils, compensatory cyclovergence in goats, horror writers have rotating goat eyes, w shaped pupils in cuttlefish, heart shaped pupils, frog pupils are a mystery, “I ought to conquer the cold shudder”, it’s just 1 mosquito species or 3,000, mosquitos are on every continent, vegetarian mosquitos, blood drinking mosquitos only drink blood to reproduce, I thought we were capri suns, *joke about women here*, palette, no plant requires mosquito pollination, the mosquito fish, mosquitos are delectable… uh… for fish, does every entomologist eat bugs, dark clouds of arctic mosquitos, cleaning pools just lacks that wow factor, mosquitos annoy caribou to death, the ecosystem would hiccup and move on, the invisible hand of mosquitos, nearly half of all people ever to live have been killed by mosquito disease, extirpation, the classic sterile insect technique has been used since the 1950s, you are the third person I’ve known whose had to sex fruit flies, “Ella’s Virgins”, filling mosquitos with good bacteria, spider venom fungus to brutally kill mosquitos, why are you here Sabrina, casual Ella lore drop about living in Canada, milk with the skin on, you don’t raw dog the milk bag, a heavy cold hacky sack, metric system looking pretty sexy, the metrication of Canada, this new fancy bag milk technology, too much marketing brain, demetricating, DIY bag milk, Sabrina’s got big misc energy.Sources: The Origin of SpeciesSerb & Eernisse on Cephalopod EyesDavid Holmes on the "Weird Wiring" of our EyesLabin & Ribak One Theory Why Our Eyes are Wired BackwardsThe Amazing Meta-Analysis of Pupil Shape from Banks et al.NPR Interview of Eye ResearchersW Shaped Pupil of CuttlefishPupil Diversity in FrogsDarwin's Leter to Asa---Ecology: A world without MosquitoesWhat would happen if we eliminated the worlds mosquitoesThe different types of mosquitoesMalaria FactsIrradiated mosquitoesGM MosquitoesWorld Mosquito ProgramMosquito Killing Fungus---CBC on Selling Milk in BagsMetrication - A Guide for Consumers (1974)Report on Canadian Metrication ProgressCBC on Canada's Bagged Milk History

Who is the most recent human we all share our DNA with?  How can CRISPR be used to help the climate crisis?  And what do telephones have to do with music?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:22) Mitochondrial Eve(00:39:21) Climate Change CRISPR(01:14:15) Telephone Music(01:47:15) OutroImages we talk about:Early Headphone AdvertisementWe also learn about: Dartboard topics, Most recent common female ancestor, that’s actually the topic! endosymbiotically engulfing mitochondria, every animal now has this little friend, a fly gets caught in a photocopier and now we can’t live without it, mitochondrial DNA is only passed down the female line, mitochondrial DNA mutates once every 8,000 years, mitochondrial eve may have existed 150,000 years ago, eve wasn’t alone but she was our common ancestor, the eve of sperm whales was only 10,000 years ago, for squids it was 35,000 years, “won’t somebody think of the men”, Y Chromosomal Adam may have come from 210,000 years ago, concestor, simulating the concestor in a simulation, it’s not really a family tree it’s a messy web that we can draw a triangle around, GMOs vs Gene Editing, cool rad interspersed short palindromic repeats, tell them about how repairs happen! just some extracurricular learning, tom guesses cow farts in one, fartless cows without editing the cows themselves, we could eat less meet or just genome edit our way out of this, blue ribbon cow fart judge, is this a bandaid? making plants work harder to absorb CO2, photosynthesis labor laws, it’s not just “eat more carbon” it’s also grow deeper roots, “adapting the world to suit our misuse, rather than trying to improve our own behavior”, who needs pesticides when you have ugly plants, the scientific community is carefully thinking about these things, head phones, switchboard operators, that’s so gool, tom puts the podcast on hold, the devil invented hold music, hold music and temporal perception. no music makes time slow down, the fans of hold music, Tim Carleton’s stereo mistake “yeah… sorry about that”, the vocal encoder, mmm whatcha say, “it is the identity of our artistic project”, Ella’s Sherlock ringtone, Dark Blue, a book about making ringtones, 346   certified gold ringtones, Beyonce is the ringtone queen, ringtone podcasts, can only hope we’re causing as many people bodily harm as possibleSources:No, a Mitochondrial “Eve” Is Not the First Female in a SpeciesOrigin of MitochondriaBiologos: Mitochondrial Eve and Y Chromosome AdamMitochondrial DNA and human evolutionAll About Mitochondrial Eve: An Interview with Rebecca CannMolecular ClockHaplogroupsGiant Squid Mitochondrial EveSequencing Y Chromosomes Resolves Discrepancy in Time to Common Ancestor of Males Versus FemalesThe 'extremely ancient' chromosomeMost Recent common ancestor---National Human Genome Research Institue: What is genome editing?GOV.UK: Plans to unlock power of gene editing unveiledNature: History of Agricultural Biotechnology: How Crop Development has EvolvedSynthego: History of Genetic Engineering and the Rise of Genome Editing ToolsBROAD Institute: Questions and Answers about CRISPR2021 Paper: Application of Gene Editing for Climate Change in AgricultureInnovature: Gene Editing Is A Key To Environmental Sustainability2021 Paper: EU policy must change to reflect the potential of gene editing for addressing climate change2019 Paper: Application of genetic modification and genome editing for developing climate-smart bananaUC Davis: Can CRISPR Cut Methane Emissions From Cow Guts?Article: Biotech company claims genetic selection can cut methane emissions in cattle2017 Paper: Is Editing the Genome for Climate Change Adaptation Ethically Justifiable?Cut and Paste - Francis Crick Institude---Headphone History from Smithsonian MagHold Music Technicalities from NPRThe Influence of Music on Temporal Perceptions in an on-hold Waiting SituationThis American Life Hold Music EpisodeTim Carleton's Opus No 1 from The AtlanticOpus No 1 in Mono and Carleton's CommentVocal Encoder PatentLogic Manual on Vocoder HistoryDaft Punk Vocoder InterviewBook on Ring TonesCNN Ring Tone Interviews from 2006RIAA Gold & Platinum RingtonesCNN on Phone Music

Tom threw out his voice screaming about the new Zelda game (not actually) so we're delaying the next episode.  But! We're not shifting the release schedule so the next episode will still come out the Thursday after!In the meantime, check out the episode of Veritasium that Tom researched and wrote! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMQbHMgK2rw

What are the myths and facts around the hormonal birth control pill?  Why are there two highest points on Earth, and does that teach us about our planet?  And what are all the ways period products affect the world we live in?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:04) The Pill(00:52:01) The 2 Highest Points on Earth(01:28:28) Period Products(01:49:10) OutroWe also learn about: Now that’s a rabbithole I can go down, taking half the pill makes you bi, LLE now played in health classes across the nation, the Ebers papyrus, they weren’t just using contraception they were communicating it, ancient Egyptian RAs, can’t get pregnant when you’re dead from mercury poisoning, the witch bull, bundling is the x games of abstinence, Tom definitely knows how the pill works, it’s not that men don’t know about women’s health it’s that women have to know about men’s health too, 1827 we discover the egg, 1843 confirmed conception happens when sperm enters the egg, the worlds fair of contraception, the American Birth Control League, Ella has a revelation, if I were a contraception and you took me I’d be an oral contraception, the original pill was 66x stronger to try to prove it was effective, bogus bad faith birth control studies, don’t well me, the Earth is squished because it spins, Team Everest vs Team Chimborazo, what the fuck is sea level, NERD I KNOW YOU’RE DOING MATH, nonbinary sex ed is just learning about mountains, 8,000 meters above Church, the air-sea interface, the metonic cycle of 19 years, carrying sea level, that’s what Tom gets for planning a joke, the geoid, a slide from Everest to Chimborazo, the death zone, our third ancient Egypt reference, Hypatia throws a pad, i got you a 100 rock that’s what you need right? the black hole of period history, you can’t abstinence periods, if you’ve used a sanitary belt join the discord! using WWII bandages, menstrual products vs the environment, the menstrual cup recommended by 3/3 members of the podcast, period poverty, the pink tax and the tampon tax, menstrual contact “turns new wine sour” “hives of bees die”, the stigma and cost of menstrual products, efforts to reduce period poverty, sniping review corner.Sources:Paper: The history of contraception: From ancient egyptians to the "morning after"NYT: In Ancient Times, Flowers and Fennel For Family PlanningNHS: Sex and contraception after birthThe Bull of Innocent VIIIMercury Policy MIT: History Of Mercury Use in Products and ProcessesBook: Encyclopedia of Motherhood, Volume 1Paper: Resisting Reproduction: Reconsidering Slave Contraception in the Old SouthUN: Contraceptive Use by MethodPBS: The Timeline of the PillVox: Where The Pill is FreePlanned Parenthood: History of the PillPaper: Return to fertility following discontinuation of oral contraceptivesPaper: “They Destroy the Reproductive System”: Exploring the Belief that Modern Contraceptive Use Causes InfertilityThe Guardian: Contraceptive Pill 'Can Lead Women to Choose Wrong Partner'Paper: MHC-correlated odour preferences in humans and the use of oral contraceptivesPaper: The impact of combined oral contraceptives on ocular tissues: a review of ocular effectsPaper: Oral contraceptive use in women changes preferences for male facial masculinity and is associated with partner facial masculinityPaper: Relationship Satisfaction and Outcome in Women Who Meet Their Partner While Using Oral Contraception---NOAA on the Tallest MountainNat Geo on Sea LevelBritannica Definition of Sea LevelBradshaw's History of English LevellingNOAA on the Metonic CycleVox on the GeoPolitics of SurveyingNOAA's New Datum for 2025GIS Geography on the GeoidESRI on the GeoidEverest's Death ZoneScientific American on the GeoidCiro Pabon on the Practicality of Sea Level---Menstruation Products in the Science MuseumHistory of The TamponThe Evolution of Menstrual ProductsEnviromenstrual Fact SheetWhich Period Products Are Best for the Environment?The Tampon Tax: Everything You Need to KnowTampon Tax AbolishedAction Aid: Period Poverty

Special guest Ellen Weatherford joins us to ask: just how interesting can water and fish be?  And are there any pokemon inspired by strange but real animals? Check out Ellen's podcasts "Just the Zoo of Us" and "Spellbound and Gagged"Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: defining fish, “just be cool about it”, defining drowning, Ellen and Caroline teach Tom and Ella about where water oxygen comes from, history of breathing, where we’re going we don’t need bones, christmas tree worm, osmoregulation and ion gradients i love it and i wish i understood it better, keeping a salt backpack, gills and lungs, “sorry for the crisis”, I’ve been sleeping on fish, mmmmm actually gonna evolve back to the water, can I get a return on these lungs? but what we’re talking about is drowning. cold water more oxygen, arapaima, ding ding ding drowning yay! thousand mile dead zones, only some sharks need to move to breathe, Ram Ventilation vs Buccal Pumping at Coachella, buccal vs buckle, asmr buccal pumping, tuna need to swim or drown, letting arapaima rest in your arms, learning to love fish, Spiders and Commitment, alligators vs manatees, singing a B flat for gators, alligator snapping turtle, bringing Ellen to party, Wooper and Clodsire, the iberian ribbed newt, obliterating your future husband with a Whimsicott.Sources:WHO Definition of DrowningOrigin of Gills2022 Gill Ion Regulation PaperEvolution of LungsLung Conversion to Swim BladdersHow Fish Deal with SalinitySalmon OsmoregulationBullshark OsmoregulationCold Water Holds more OxygenHypoxia Adaptations in the Amazon RainforestAir Breathing ArapaimaGill RemodelingGulf of Mexico Dead ZoneHypoxia Task ForceTuna Ram Ventilation

Is there more to learn than to fear from toxic animals? How would we warn future humans about present dangers? And what are  better ways for us to be buried? Things we mention:WIPP Mock Up ImagesSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about:This ant can kill 1 million elephants, haven’t found a venomous mushroom… yet, a lot of my friends are toxic frogs, nom nom nom I eat poison, don’t touch shit, from none to death, the schmidt sting index, I want the data not the sting, what schmidts data was actually saying, some toxins don’t correlate with pain or lethality, venomous mammals are have in common that they’re disregarded, shrews beareth a cruel mind, arguably venomous slow lorises, expanding our definition of toxicity, letting tom load a joke, protecting the future from caroline’s savage burns, the waste isolation pilot plant, 573 known extinct languages, I can haz nuclear waste? skull and crossbones, cubed morphines, “this place is a message…this place is not a place of honor”, landscape of thorns, forboding blocks, it’s giving kiki, taking a photo on a spike for the gram, nucelar priesthood, ray cats, “they didnt really care what we said i think”, understanding our past to connect to our future, just leave a dvd of the mummy, we’ve been burying people for 120,000 years, inventing oven crypts in the 1800s, gotta workshop the name oven crypt, “I want to be in a big bone pit”, lots of places resuse plots, just walking past a pile of tombstones! blasting our relatives into the stratosphere, natural burials, fungus coffins, water cremation.Sources:Poison, Venom, ToxungensAtlas Obscura Schmidt Sting IndexNPR Justin Schmidt InterviewFirst Sting Index Paper: Hemolytic Activities of Stinging Insect VenomsEvolution of Stings and SocialityNYTimes Interview with SchmidtVenomous Mammals: A ReviewNekaris Paper on Loris Bites Between Each OtherLoris Venom for CommunicationLoris Venom for Cobra MimicryShrew Spit Tames Cancer CellsJustin Schmidt Obituary---The US Energy Department Waste Isolation Pilot PlantEPA What is Transuranic Radioactive Waste?Understanding Extinct Languages: When and Why They Die OffJolly RogerPirates, Poison, and Professors: A Look at the Skull and Crossbones SymbolExpert Judgement on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot PlantSummary of WIPP Team A report with imagesVice: How to Warn the Future About Toxic WasteYucca Mountain Nuclear Waste RepositoryNevada Attorney General: The Fight Against Yucca MountainThe Ray Cat Solution---BBC: Death Rituals in the Animal KingdomBBC: What Happens When We Run Out of Space to Bury the DeadBBC: The World is Running Out of Burial SpaceA Thought Experiment by J. HarringtonForbes: Rising to Heaven Dawn: South Africa's Graveyard Generation Mourns IOL: What About the Ancestors Paper: The environmental pollution caused by cemeteries and cremations: A reviewEA: The Grave Issue of Pollution From Cemeteries Sending Your Ashes to SpacesSmithsonian: What is Water CremationAsk A MorticianAsk A Mortician: Water CremationAsk A Mortician: Green Burial Options

Apologies all, Ella's computer kicked the bucket, so we'll be back next week with a fresh episode!

IT'S THE MAX FUN DRIVE!!!See our Game Night Livestream Monday March 27th at 5pm EST!Get cool drive rewards and listen to our special bonus episode!Can Large Language Models be used for good in scientific fields?  Could space smell... good?  And what olympic events have we tried, abandoned, and completely forgotten about?Things we mention:Compulsory FiguresSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about:Using ChatGPT to break up with your partner, it’s all very dry, you have to know the knowledge going in, LLMs are tools not databases, ChatGPT as a co-author, authorship carries accountability, Galactica was only public for 3 days, you can’t use galactica anymore happy??? racist protien AI, Protien and Chemistry Language Models are amazing, transparency with AI, the Bloom Project, ChatGPT emotionally ends the episode early, be funnier, in space no one can smell you smell, Venus smells like eggs, Tom volunteers to smell space, how smell works, don’t breathe if you’re driving, olfactory epithelium, 40 million olfactory neurons. a 40 million piece slimy jigsaw in my nose, asmr smells, 1 atom per cubic centimeter in space, Tim Peake’s answer, the smell of static, getting a refund for Tim’s answer, making ozone in space, sexy dying stars, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon, your grill makes star smell, raspberries at the center of our universe, a number so big it makes you laugh, the IRAM telescope, one of the largest interstellar molecules, I’ll show you Tim Peake! I was looking for amino acids but now I know what the black hole cloud might smell like, combining all the smells into a cocktail, who knows what the rest of space smells like! No, I’m going to fight you Caroline, Koribos wins the entire Olympics, the rise in wells, ancient pump up music, armor racing a car with 4 minds of its own, the 5 month long Olympics, putting the figure in figure skating, dueling flash mob, the wonder of demonstration sports, goal ball, Olympic tiktoking, hurting Caroline and Ella with the art Olympics, write fanfiction for us, at least they had standards to not give medals, that’s my dad on a bike! trying can be more poetic than poetry.Sources:How ChatGPT worksWhat ChatGPT and Generative AI Mean for Science – NatureNature Biomedical Engineering PaperChatGPT: Five Prioroties for Research – NatureSpecialised LLMs – Toward Data ScienceGalactica Only Survived Three DaysMed-BERTNVIDIA Blog on Biology LLMsBloom: the Open LLM---TedEd: How Does Smell Work?Tim Peak- What Space Smells LikeAustralian Academy of ScienceIncreased complexity in Interstellar Chemistry 2009NASA: Comet 67P/ Churyumov-GerasimenkoSpace: Comet 67PSmithsonian: Asteroid 162173 RyuguScientific America: Four Great Scents From Outer Space---Hippias' History of OlympicsHugh Lee's Paper on the First Recorded OlympicsMET: Ancient OlympicsIOC: Chariot RacingOfficial Record of Early Olympics GamesLA Times: Compulsory FiguresSkating Scene: Compulsory FiguresWSJ: Compulsory FiguresEllyn Kestnbaum's Culture on IceRoyal Armories: Dueling at the OlympicsGliding at he OlympicsIOC: Horse SkijoringGoalball OriginsSmithsonian Mag: Art at the OlymO Sport Poem

Today we're rebroadcasting our appearance on Just the Zoo of Us as we prepare for an episode coming NEXT week for the MaxFunDrive!  On this episode we combine our shows formats to bring you a full Topic, Question, and misc, all about one of the most misunderstood, intelligent, and rascally animals: the rat!Join Tom at a MaxFunDrive Meetup!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!

Is it really possible to bring back the Dodo, and what even really happened in the first place?  Are there any games left that humans can beat computers at, and why might that be okay?  And what can art forgery tell us about art and the art world?Images/Videos we Mention:The TinkerToy Tic Tac Toe ComputerThe Rock Paper Scissors RobotSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: The Cherished Dodo, tinction, what does a dodo taste i mean look like, dodo art telephone, only 1 full skeleton, actualy lots of things die this way, invasive species also killed the dodo, Alice in Wonderland’s trendsetting the Dodo, Caroline’s clearly a Dodo person, Dodo DNA, Jurassic Park was a Documentary, I hope to die in a funny way, bringing the Bucardo back, the first De-extinction, and the first Double Extinction, DNA vaults, the nicobar pigeon, Cloacas are “Fun” according to Ella, let’s reintroduce the Dodos too why not, “bring a little bit of magic back to the mauritious”, ancient egyptian tic tac toe, the Shannon Number, The Mechanical Turk, TuroChamp, Chess was the Drosophila of AI, bad AI predictions, Deep Blue vs Kasparov, The Googolplex of Go games, Dr Fill the Crowssword AI, 100% Rock Papers Scissor Win Rate, Poker AI, this really cool game called Superluminauts, what’s “unfair” in AI? the power of art comes from yourself, the art of forgery, Han van Meegeren, Dodo in Gearl with a Pearl Earring we all make the same dumb joke, new Vermeer, don’t arrest me it’s just a forgery, there could still be Elmyr de Hory forgeries, F is for Fake, “if my work hangs in a museum long enough, it becomes real”, Tom makes a totally normal and not embaressing mixup of Van Gogh and DaVinci, how to spot a forgery, carbon dating forgeries, just look at it closely, identifying craquelure, mass spectrometry, so much of this is just about money, Salvator Mundi Ship of Theseus, were these reviews forged? Go check! the laughing peopleSources:Sources:NHM: Dodo De-Extinction Announcement Causes DebateNatGeo: The Dodo is Dead! Long Live the DodoSmithsonian: Article on Colossal BiosciencesColossal Biosciences: The DodoNature: What Would it Take to Bring Back the DodoThe Atlantic: Article on the DodoNatGeo: First Extinct Clone CreatedNHM: Frozen BanksTedTalk: De-ExtinctionBritannica: Gene EditingVideo on CRISPRRevive and Restore WebsiteMIT: The Plan to Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon---The TinkerToy Tic Tac Toe ComputerThe Shannon NumberTuroChamp Chess AINewell & Simon AI PredictionsNYTimes Deep Blue PredictionsKasparov on Deep BlueA GoogolPlex of Go GamesDr Fill Crossword AIRock Paper Scissors RobotPoker AIStarcraft AIAI SurveyAngry Birds AI PaperAnother Angry Birds AI PaperAngry Birds AI CompetitionAI Birds Competition BlogChess.com 100 Million Users---Authenticity and Viewing Art StudyIntent to DeceiveDetecting Art ForgeryDetecting Art Forgery 2Art Forgery DetectiveForgers Reveal Secrets of Paintings

Is psychology doomed, or could the reproducibility crisis a good thing?  How many senses do we really have?  And what's the history behind all the pride flags you see?Check out:Maintenance Phase's Episode on Brian Wansink's DownfallStrange Aeons (on My Immortal Authors)Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: We’re already learning! god i hate the stanford prison experiment, the four horsemen of the reproducibility crisis, the file drawer effect, honestly this horseman sounds like capitalism, what if we stopped saying “statistically significant”, Brian Wansink’s food studies and The Grad Student Who Never Said “No”, Brian this is a joke right? P-hacking the topic itself, failure to replicate isn’t the end of the world, “I Read ALL 100 Replications”, differences between the social and biological sciences, D.A.R.E for science! pre-registering a meta-analysis on pre-registration, the many good horses that work against the apocalypse, my eyes are named Dex and Sid, gustation, grilling my friends about guessing the 5 flavors, taste subclasses, touching our fingers together for half an hour, different receptors for light and hard touch, referred pain, feeling temperature in our bones, we have more cold receptors than heat, don’t test proprioception if you’re driving, it’s 10 o clock do you know where your limbs are?, the real sixth sense, losing proprioception, interoception, the holiday paradox, animal senses, ancient Egypt invented the rainbow flag, the RGB values of flags, Gilbert Baker, Harvey Milk “we needed something beautiful, something from us”, volunteers coming together to construct the first flag, oh they couldn’t just amazon a flag they had to make it, the pink is just impractical guys, the mile long flag, the Philadelphia Eagles Pride Flag, one flag to rule them all, lavender menaces, lesbian flag losing its lips.Sources:Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological ScienceNature Survey on Reproducibility CrisisThe Four Horsemen of IrreproducibilityVox on Replication CrisisWansink's Blog PostThe Cut on Wansink's DownfallArstechnica on WansinkSpurious CorrelationsAnalysis of Wansink's ErrorsGelman & Loken on P-HackingScience Reaction to Psychology Replication StudyOpen Science Foundation Data for 100 ReplicationsScience on PreregistrationNature Analysis on Pre-registrationScience on Retraction WatchLessons from Retraction WatchRetraction Watch's Earliest RetractionMeta Analysis of the Retraction PenaltyKurzgesagt RetractionsAPA Teachable Moments from the Replication Crisis---KokumiTaste BudsThe Man Who Lost His BodyThermoreceptorsReferred PainWhy Does Time Seem to Speed Up with Age?The Emerging Science of InteroceptionAlexithymiaHygroroceptionThe Weirdest Senses Animals Have That You Don't---Stradley Ronon: Evolution of the Pride FlagBritannica: The Rainbow FlagBBC Culture: History of the Rainbow FlagGilbert Baker's WebsiteThe Harvey Milk Online BiographyInsersex Inclusive Pride FlagProgress Pride FlagNCYLGBTSites: Lavendar MenaceBiangles - Liz NaniaBiscuit: Bi Flag Histroy Strange Æons: History of the Lesbian FlagHeckin Unicorn: The Gay Man FlagUONC: Other Pride Flags

Is immortality possible in humans or other animals?  What was on Earth before trees?  And what can we learn from emoji?🤔Things we talk about:The First EmoticonsKurita's EmojisSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Halloween in January, stories of immortality, the epic of gilgamesh, MR BEAST GRANTS IMMORTALITY IF YOU STAY UP FOR 6 DAYS, the first story of facing AND accepting mortality, teen alexander the immortal, shooting down 9 suns, making your own immortality serum, spoiler alert we don’t find immortality in this topic, the first blood transfusion, oh nevermind not really, testicle rejuvination solves all problems, how do we die? programmed death and antagonistic pliotropy, accumulating insurmountable damage, the Hayflick Limit, shoe telomeres, four nobel laureates behind atlos labs (aaaand also jeff bezos), we’ve never recorded a naked mole rat dying from old age, transdifferentiation in the immortal jellyfish, surprise immortality! the slow and old greenland shark, having to go through puberty and pay taxes is not worth immortality, “I sort of like that the animals are winning, and we haven’t quite got there yet”, you’d make a great tree, Caroline makes us define a tree, trees are “a human concept based on visual criteria”, NOTHING EXISTS, trees put oxygen in the atmosph- wait no that was algae, Caroline wants our bewilderment and fear in the questions, the Cambrian explosion, fossils of a tree fight, sharks are older than trees, what are these spires of life, cockroach t-rex, it really is the second Halloween episode, lovecraftian Earth, letters are pictures, emojis are language, our most used emojis, emoticons, codepoints, the first emoji, standarized emoji, no more flag emojis, people assume the internet keeps records of itself.Sources:Royal Forestry Society Tree DefinitionEncyclopedia Britannica Tree DefinitionNatrual History Museum First TreesWorld's First Tree ReconstructedGiant cladoxylopsid trees resolve the enigma of the Earth’s earliest forest stumps at Gilboa, Stein et al, 2007 (Paper)Timeline: The evolution of lifeSmithsonian Magazine: The Top 10 Greatest Survivors of EvolutionLive Science: Prehistoric Mystery Organism a Humongous FungusRotted wood–alga–fungus: the history and life of Prototaxites Dawson, Hueber 2001 (Paper)Smithsonian Magazine: Giant Mushrooms---NinevehThe Eternal Life of GilgameshThe Search for ImmortalityHistory of the First Blood TransfusionSerge VoronoffThe Long and Gruesome Hstory of People Trying to Live ForeverTheories of AgeingWhat Is Antagonistic Pleiotropy?Evolution and the Biology of AgingDNA damage—how and why we age?Hayflick limitTelomeres2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineNaked Mole RatsGreenland SharksImmortal Jellyfish---Unicode Emoji StatsLauren Schwartzberg's The Oral History of the Poop EmojiSwiftkey Regional Emoji DataEmojipedia StatsEarly EmoticonsUnicode's Emoji PrinciplesUnicode's Stance on New Flag EmojisCorrecting the Record on the First Emoji Set

What's the story of how we successfully saved the ozone?  Why and how can owls turn their heads around, and who else can?  And can Ella convert Tom to the wonder that is Eurovision?Listen to Ella's Full Eurovision PlaylistSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: defining ozone, not wrong but not right, the ozone layer is miles thick and not full of ozone, the sun is a deadly laser, tom feels stupid about the ozone, accidentally finding out about the ozone layer depleting, the dobson ozone spectrophotometer, “being an ignorant physicist”, this is why we monitor things, we need more metaphors actually, CFCs and HCFCs, the impact of humans on the planet, WARNING: MAY CAUSE DEATH FOR ALL FUTURE HUMANS, wait legal proceedings were slow??? supersonic flights between france and the UK only, you’re doing colonialism on US ACTUALLY, 198 parties ratified the Montreal Protocol, early action is important, why don’t we talk about this enough!!! thank your local environmental researcher today, owl 360 no scope, side-eyed Tom, pigeon slander, side and front facing, owls don’t have eyeballs, cone of death, I love it when there’s a but, the guiness book of world records is dumb, breaking the rule of 7, why hang upside down, the first Eurovision was formal, no english songs allowed, the big 5, bicameral voting, Britain’s losing streak, “nobody hates the british entry more than the british”, international politics and Eurovision, it’s like We Didn’t Start the Fire,  “what else would we sing about”, it’s always been political, Ella’s favorite entries, Abba surprises Tom, how eurovision changes with the times, from ballrooms to tiktok, our future plugs.Sources:National Geographic: Ozone Layer EPA: Basic Ozone Layer Science UNEP: Ozone and YouJ. C. Farman, B. G. Gardiner & J. D. Shanklin, 1985 (Paper)The Evolution of Policy Responses to Stratospheric Ozone Depletion (1989 Paper)The Impact of High Altitude Aircraft on the Ozone Layer in the Stratosphere (1994 Paper)Impacts of a Near-Future Supersonic Aircraft fleet on atmospheric composition and climate (2022 Paper)The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone LayerThe Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone LayerUN - The Climate Crisis---Krings et al Owl Neck Rotation & AnatomyMcGill on Owl EyeballsOwl Eye MobilityHuman Eye MobilityKok-Mercado & Gailloud Poster on Blood Flow AdaptationsNatGeo on Owl Head TurnsGuiness World Record for Mammal Head RotationBuchholtz & Stepien Sloth Spine PaperSloth Conservation Foundation on Why Sloths HangStudy on Sloth MusclesBecky Cliffe on Sloth Evolution---Ella's Excellent Eurovision PlaylistThe Weird and Wonderful Hisotry of the Eurovision Song ContestMore HistoryAn Actual Academic Paper On Eurovision VotingToward Data Science: Eurovision Voting BlocsArmenia–Azerbaijan Relations in the Eurovision Song ContestEurovision During the Bosnian WarCarnation Revolution

To round out the year we learn about the most interesting thing: each other!  We talk about the process of researching and writing an episode, future sciences and science fiction, and laugh and cry reflecting on our favorite things from 2022. Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: our favorite topics, this is why we don’t do topics on colors, topic lists, science ruining movies, science is just a job, anything goes as long as you don’t explain it to me, hacking the mainframe, the one flaw in the big bang theory, how do we research and when is it done? asking yourself questions, researching vs writing, research wormholes and topic duds, Caroline’s natural defense colors, London and NYC recommendations, religion and science, dealing with burnout, defeating Ella in battle, how we record, our Hollywood writers room, start a podcast if only to try, MUNA and Stromae and AJR, our favorite things this year, Everything Everywhere and Elf, Fortnite and Pokemon, Our Flag Means Death and Succession and Fleabag and Craig of the Creek and Dragula, Yotsuba, Two Headed Calf, making ourselves cry, Scoob & Shag, pandan and coke zero, our favorite pokemon, I am displeased with your lack of brevity, how each of us takes over the world, our personal take and our interest is more important than topic overlap, futue sciences, the birth of a topic, projected to finish everything soon so we can stop talking to each other, asmr speedrunning, today's topic is this pad of sticky notes, our podcast spotify wrapped, what we’re looking forward to (Breath of the Wild 2), really dumb content.

On a very special holiday episode, Tom, Caroline, and Ella give the gift of learning!  We've wrapped up our favorite fun facts to give to each other, and even gotten a few presents from some special guests!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: the the gin craze, no free gin advertisements, gin street and beer street, wrapping paper foley work, pumpkin toadlet balance, silly UK laws, yeah and maybebeallowedtoshootacrossbowatacathedral, keep your kite flying private, kite footloose, beached whales for the queen, suspicious salmon makes sense, honey tummys, more grenades on mars by 2025, dinosaur time breaks caroline’s brain, hey these brussels sprouts aren’t bad now, brussels sprouts hipsters, Britain’s dedicated tv popularity analyst, tom regifts a fun fact, and now I’m thinking about animal genitals, Cotesia and Drosophala: like a good cheese and a fine wine.Vine Pair: The Gin CrazeHistory: The Gin CrazeWilliam Hogarth’s Beer Street and Gin LaneSmithsonian Magazine: Pumpkin ToadletSemicircular canal size constrains vestibular function in miniaturized frogsInsect Orientation: Stay on Course with the SunNIH: Vestibular SystemWright Brothers FlightOdd laws you may unknowingly breakLegislation.org: Salmon Act 1986Bee BubblingHuman Objects on MarsWhy it's Hard to Land on MarsPerseverance's 10 Million NamesPhoenix Lander Mini DVDWright Flyer Cloth on MarsTyrannosaurus RexStegosaurusThe Brussel Sprouts RenaissanceTV PickupTV Pickup QuotesThe Length of a Short Sperm

What is the science of scientific naming, and could it actually be life saving?  How many cells are in a human body, and why is it important to know?  And how exactly did the British Museum... "acquire" all these artifacts?Watch Tom's PowerPoint Comedy Show!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: what does tom smell like? naming is hard for computer science, naming is a science, reading 12 million paper titles by hand, single use acronyms, polynomial naming, Ranunculus mother of dragons, the dino hip mixup, smooth transitions, the fermium wars, we all know what happened to element 102, berkelium californium americium, should we name elements after living people, Ella is the only true Swiftie, half of all exoplanets are named Kepler, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now, why? she’s a millipede, Ella will get an answer, humans have 1 cell technically, c elegans has exactly 1031 cells, don’t embarrass yourself by saying how many cells are in a mouse, we enter the wheels and doors debate, Ella sperm fact rick rolls us, the number of kinds of cells, tom is bad at math, every time a scientist questions a number an angel gets its wings, Livers Georg, Ella is heartbroken we don’t have a number, what’s the point of counting cells? the British Museum keeps 99% of things in the disney vault, offering a replica of the rosetta stone instead, Britain legally cannot return items without government approval, all the stuff we never knew about Moai statues, what does queen Victoria need with a Moai statue, her majesty declares finders keepers, actualy these stolen things mean as much to Britain now, most Britains want the items returned, there is so much to learn from this!Sources:Judith Winston's Review of Binomial NomenclatureThe Growth of Acronyms in the Scientific LiteratureThe Long and Short of Abbreviations (UA Medical Acronym)Dinosaur Hip Naming MixupHow Many Named Species are Valid?Review of the Transfermium WarsIUPAC 1994 Naming DecisionNaming ExoplanetsA Flu by Any Other NameNature on WHO NamingTaylor Swift's Millipede---Number of Bacteria In Your BodySpermTypes Of Cells In The Human BodyAn Estimation Of The Number Of Cells In The Human Body---Human Remains in the British MuseumBritish Museum: Rosetta StoneBritish Museum: Moai of rapa Nui (Easter Island Statues)CNN: British Museum Discusses fate of Easter Island StatuesBritish Museum: Benin BronzesThe Guardian: British museum ‘Has Head in sand’ Over Return of ArtefactsBritish Museum: The Parthenon SculpturesBritish Museum: Maqdala CollectionYouGuv: Should Britain Return Historical Artefacts to Their Country of Origin?Culture war: the case against repatriating museum artifactsNYT: Investigators, Citing Looting, Have Seized 27 Antiques From the MetCNN: Manhattan DA returns 58 antiquities to Italy, including 21 seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

How can you study a brain without a brain?  In what ways is a cat actually like a liquid?  And why do we say The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread?Images we Discuss:Rat BrainCats Sitting in ThingsBread Crumbs---Watch the SciShow Episode Ella Wrote!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: brains are complex and hard to access, organoids, organettes, organittos, induced pluripotent stem cells are cool, Madeline Lancaster, DNA is amazing, scientific serendipity, try to make a brain and accidentally make a heart, human neurons in rat brains, ethical concerns, that does not make Caroline feel better, brain-on-a-chip, dish brain, great words, Pong, sentience, liquid cats, solid cats, gas cats, Slime, Ig Nobel, first make you laugh then make you think, atoms, God made cats a solid so you can pet them, mountains flow, Ella does not, the joy of the surface, scientists communicating science well, bread was invented in 1954, bread archaeology, cooking is a kind of fossilization, archaeobotanist, that’s what it means to specialize in bread, throwing it all into the bread business, SLICED BREAD IS MADE HERE, sound, sensible, and a progressive refinement, bread innovation, twin style bread, Caroline is not a world leader in bread innovation, a delicious stick of butter, idioms, a manifestation of the peculiar, irreversible binomial, to sell something for a song, don’t shit in the blue cupboard, the burnt bread crumbs of language.Sources:First Brain Organoids PaperStem Cells @ Lunch Digested PodcastThe Use of Brain OrganoidsFirst Electrically Active Brain OrganoidsHuman Neurons Transplanted Into Rat Brain StudyHuman Neuron in Rat Brain ImageBrain-On-A-Chip ReviewNeurons Play Pong---On the Rheology of CatsTed Talk on the Rheology of CatsPBS: Are Cats Liquid?Crustal Melting and the Flow of MountainsA Hydrodynamic Approach To Cancer---NPR on 14,000 Year Old BreadPaper on Analyzing the Oldest BreadArranz-Otaegui's Presentation on the Prehistory of BreadInvention of Sliced BreadFirst Sliced Bread AdSliced Bread AdsThick & Thin BreadDated BreadTwin Style BreadFowler's Modern English UsageSaeed's SemanticsPolish Idiom Translation

Today our guest Ashlen Campbell asks us: how do you stop a seagull from stealing your chips?  And what can that teach us about the wild world of kleptoparasitism?Our Favorite Ash Videos: Erythrism, Blathers ExposedAsh's Kleptoparasitism ListAsh's Follow Recommendations: @luccasbiohub  @drkyliesoanes @zoe_kean_sci @sarawebbscience @astrokirstenVisit our NEW MERCH STORE!Support us with a Maximum Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Majored in zoology minored in chips, temperature effects on fish, dam spreadsheets, mosquitos don’t like skrillex, bee gom jabbar test, the beach scene, Miriam Rothschild & Theresa Clay coined Kleptoparasitism, bullying birds to throw up, not having a chip and getting hit by Ash’s ford fiesta, peacrabs have to steal to survive, messy definitions are interesting, stealing from siblings isn’t kleptoparasitism, neon cuckoo bees steal candies from babies, snails grabbing food from your throat, fossils caught stealing, mother feed me, taking care of other fishes babies, “he’s such a good father”, sneak spawning, The Real House Nest Husbands of Chesapeake Bay, swat raiding bees, kleptothermy, the answer is a seagull economy, kleptoplasty is eating batteries, floral larsony, hyenas change their sleep schedules to avoid thieving lions, green goblin otter hostage situations, eat worse chips, weighing the complexities of stealing, studying chip stealing, only you can stare at seagulls, the adorable and horny antechinus, “nothing here is okay”, nitpicking jurassic park, am I misrepresnting data? at least I have rainbow fish in animal crossing. being wrong on the internet, erudoot. Sources:Fleas, flukes, & cuckoos; a study of bird parasitesIyengar’s Kleptoparasitism ReviewKleptobiosisPea crab (Pinnotherida)Neon cuckoo bee (Thyreus nitidulus)Wentletrap (Epitonium clathratulum)Brachiopod fossilsBarn Owl Nest SwitchingThree Spined SticklebackLestrimelitta Niitkib (toxin producing bee)Fork-tailed drongoGarter snake (2001)Garter snake (2012)KleptopredationPhotosynthetic Sea SlugToxomerus Larva Stealing from SundewFloral LarcenyPlant Stealing Pollinators from Other PlantsLions and Hyenas, Change in Activity PatternsCougar/ Black Bear CompensationGulls and ploversGull gaze

How do we define pain, and what animals can feel it?  How similar are vampires to real vampiric animals?  And what are penny dreadfuls and how were they actually... good?Visit our NEW MERCH STORE!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: pain is bad, but pain is good, what animals can feel pain, if they can feel kink pleasure from pain they can feel pain, it’s time to define pain for you guys, ella swoops in on a Tom joke, pain is like art, the international association for the study of pain, a funny example of pain, nuance baby! the 2 nail people is a great couples halloween costume, Descartes' pain theory started off so well, nociceptors, how do you test pain? injured flies, are we JigSaw? injecting bee venom into fish, ASC change fish pain laws, vampires are found in almost every culture, we need to protect the ice caps or the vampires will get out, hematophagy and sanguivores, vampire bugs and fish and birds, the fake vampire squid that eats poop, monogamous but false vampire bats, vampire bats are more beautiful and there’s a reason why, super speed super climbing and super stealth bats, blood heat vision with pit organs, biting with incisors not canines, blood is a thin gruel, vampirism is a radical dietary lifestyle, bats help each other out, barfing blood for friends, Twilight has the most scientifically accurate vampires, Ella bamboozles us, as literacy booms so does the need for cheap exciting stories, Varney came before Dracula and invented the tropes, The String of Pearls: a Romance (allegedly) and the origin of Sweeney Todd, tag yourself I’m women with daggers, 45% of victorian britain was under 20, children reading books to each other, the literature of rascaldom, half-penny dreadfullers, how many books were actually popular at their time, our horror recommendations, Junji Ito.Sources:The Nature and Science of Pain - Pain AustraliaA Biological Substrate for Somatoform DisordersAre We Wrong to Assume Fish Can’t Feel Pain - The GuardianAnimals Can Feel Pain A Biologist Explains Why - VoxA History of Pain ResearchHistory of Pain: A Brief Overview of the 17th and 18th CenturyPain Principles - Neuroscience OnlineCan Ants Feel Pain?Fish Do Not Feel Pain and its Implications for Understanding Phenomenal Consciousness, 2015Insects Can Experience Chronic Pain - Smithsonian MagazineInvertebrate Nociception, 2017Do Fish Feel Pain? A Matter of Scientific Debate (Dr Sneddon Quote)Farmed Fish Feel Pain, Stress and Anxiety - The GuardianWhy Fish Do Not Feel Pain (Key, 2016)Anthropomorphic Denial of Fish Pain (Sneddon and Leah, 2016)---Vampirism LoreHematophagy in InsectsVampire SquidNYTimes on Vampire BatsField Idenfitication Guide for BatsThe 3 Vampire Bat Abilities & Biting HabitsHeat Sensing in BatsHow Vampire Bats BiteComparative Study of Bat IncisorsVampirism as a Radical Dietary LifestyleFood Sharing in Vampire BatsFood Sharing Reciprocation StudyFood Sharing after Grooming Study---Varney the VampyreThe String of PearlsLeaves from a Prison DiaryDisseminating Impure Literature': The 'Penny Dreadful' Publishing Business Since 1860How Gruesome Penny Dreadfuls Got Victorian Children ReadingBritish Library on Penny DreadfulsGuardian on Penny DreadfulsVictorian Children's Periodicals: Penny Dreadfuls

It's the show's birthday!  And we're going to celebrate with LEARNING!  How much do we really know about the history of keeping time?  When did human speech first arise, and how would we even figure that out?  And when did the concept of birthdays have its birthday?Visit our NEW MERCH STORE!Support us on Maximum Fun!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Your favorite podcast on your favorite torso, the blind watchmaker, time technology is not like iphone upgrades, Ancient or Recent, France’s decimal clocks, counting knots on a ship, of course people cared about keeping time back then, escapements brought us TikTok, the not so timey wimey etymology of clock, putting clock inventions in the right order, we had sundials in the 1800s, you’re holding like 20 different iphones, redefining the second, ephemris time was a “ridiculous decision”, keeping time in space without the Earth, the importance of NTP, UTC is confusing fairly for everyone, what is speech? language vs speech, are there speech fossils? diaphragm is the only one we don’t talk about, laryngeal descent theory, teaching monkeys to talk, is this theory good science? “you guys are so smart”, speech research is so multi-disciplinary, you love a great review, deconstructing the theory, the reconstruction was so bad the mouth wouldn’t have been able to swallow, they forgot to check other animals for descended larynxes oops, speech may have developed waaay earlier, bodies ready for speech vs brains ready for speech, research beef, quoting “mic drop”, “i thought the answer would be simple and i was really really wrong”, one of the hardest problems in science, the birthday of birthdays, what do you need for a birthday? defining birthdays by caesium, Wurdi Youang, pharaoh “birthdays” being born as gods, celebrating my birthday by driving away evil spirits, celebrating the mother on birthdays, i brought you “pure intentions” for your birthday, Claudia Severa’s birthday invitation tablet, the first birthday candles, god i hope they get the short candles this year, and a fun science burrito blanket.Sources:Scientific American Chronicle of TimekeepingHelen Morgolis' History of TimekeepingHistory of the HourglassHistory of 1900s ClocksLouis Essen's Account of Redefining the SecondAtomic Clock HistoryModern Atomic ClocksNPL on Atomic ClocksNasa JPL on Atomic ClocksHistory of NTPGoogle on NTPThe Atlantic on Modern Time Phone LinesUTC FAQ---The New Review of Speech OriginsThe descended Larynx is not uniquely humanA ‘Mic Drop’ on a Theory of Language EvolutionHuman Ancestors May have Evolved Speech more than 25 Million Years AgoNPR on When did Human Speech Evolve---BBC on Stargazing in Ancient AustraliaThe Guardian on Wurdi YouangCalendars of the PastRoman Birthday Rituals

What are the pros and perils of self experimentation? What archaeological clues do we have to the first human amputation?  And why should we actually learn to love PowerPoint?See Tom Perform PowerPoint Comedy on October 4th at Caveat NYC! (or stream it!)Go to Ella's Women in Science Photography Exhibition in London October 25th!Support us on Maximum Fun!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Santorio Santorio, sitting in a chair for 30 years, two pieces of toast, 1500s diet culture, insensible perspiration, basal metabolism, the origin of sleep studies, cave dwellers and time perception, he likes caves a little too much, sleep cycle, stomach ulcers, rats in straight jackets taking ice baths like david blaine, drinking bacteria broth and winning a nobel prize, scientists will literally drink rotten milk to get a paragraph in a paper, reaching 631mph in a rocket chair, shout out to David Hunter, setting research back several decades, venereal disease, tropical hookworm, giving yourself worms for science, do not try this at home, Caroline always starts with Egypt, ancient prosthetics, Egyptian healthcare, what is a human, 1.8 million year old tooth, Georgia is a state not a country, tackling misinformation, human remain hotspot, the earliest surgery, trepanation, ancient community care, “7 days ago, that was the end of my script”, modern humans, medical knowledge is older than we realise, we’re still figuring anthropology out, Ella loves powerpoint, sweating bullets, God named powerpoint, overhead transparencies, Caroline doesn’t know what an overhead projector is, Tom and Ella are getting old, Edward Tufty is evil, Tom Lumperson is coming for Edward Tufty, everyone is a presenter, accessibility, an unfeasible culture of productivity, David Burn, Tufty vs Burn, Powerpoint Art, Powerpoint theatre, Powerpoint comedy, Tiktok is actually Powerpoint, Powerpoint as a programming language, beautiful things in the wildest places.Sources:Santorio SantorioInsensible persirpiationWeighing chair replicaMammoth Cave StudyMichel Siffre Cave ExperimenterMichel Siffre Cabinet InterviewH. Pylori Stomach Ulcer TimelineBarry Marshall Discover Magazine InterviewInfective dose of Campylobacter jejuni in milkJohn Paul StappStewart AdamsPritchard and HookwormsJasper LawrenceJimmy Bernot TwitterWhipworm Clinical trialsHookworms for multiple sclerosis---Limb Amputation in Ancient Egyptians (2010 Paper)The Guardian - Archeologists unearth 1.8 million Year Old Human ToothA Short History of Surgery by K. M. BegelmanThe Oldest Amputation on a Human Skeleton in France (2007 Paper)Upper Palaeolithic Hand Images with Missing Phalanges (2018 Paper)Surgical amputation of a limb 31,000 years ago in Borneo (2022 Paper)---Robert Gaskins on Naming PowerPointNYTimes Reporting on Microsoft Buying PowerPointTufte's Article "PowerPoint is Evil"NYTimes Teacher Interview on PowerPointDavid Byrne's Learning to Love PowerPointDavid Byrne's UC Berkley PresentationDavid Byrne's Blog about the PresentationVulture's "Why is PowerPoint Having a Comedy Moment?"Neil Cicierega's SlideShare GemsThe Lorde and Jack Antonoff PowerPointTom Wildenhain's Paper "On the Turing Completeness of MS PowerPoint"Tom Wildenhain's Presentation "On the Turing Completeness of MS PowerPoint"

What is the history of plastic, and what could the future hold?  Why is perfect pitch, not so perfect, and do any animals have it?  And how on Earth did we end up with these meaningless names for generations?Support us on Maximum Fun!Join our Discord!Catch Sidney Gish on Tour!We also learn about: what is plastic? plastics are an invasive species, natural plastics, explosions are at the root of a lot of science, guncotton, oops we made it explosive, should have bought those 666 horses, patent drama, ella slumdog millionaires celloid tennis balls, flammable films, pronouncing bakelite, carrier bags vs plastic bags, the great pacific garbage patch, plastic quiz, all plastics made still exist, the future of plastics, testing our perfect pitch, Tom interviews Sidney Gish, being able to tell home depot paint swatches doesn’t make you a master architect, my brain is wet wet mud, the 1 in 10,000 number is bogus, guessing sine waves vs pianos, the Levitan Effect, more people have pitch memory than perfect pitch, perfect pitch in animals, dolphin octave mirroring, mosquitos matching pitch to mate, let’s bone doooooown, playing happy birthday for rats, describing happy birthday like an alien, perfect pitch RAMPANT among birds, birds understand spectal vocoder music, what is a generation? the origins of generation names, Strauss-Howe generational theory, retrofitting a logical system from a random idea, backfilling generations to arthurian times, THEY WERE PLAYWRIGHTS, there should never just be One center for research, a london doctor once said…, generational character archetypes, social theory shouldn’t sound like a D&D campaign, millennial and their avocado toast, why don’t millennials like Blue’s Clues anymore? people have always been complaining about “lewd wicked children”, scientists vs the pew research center.Sources:The Science Museum: The Age of PlasticEssentials of Polymer Science and EngineeringUN: From Birth to Ban: A History of the Plastic Shopping BagNat Geo: Great Pacific Garbage PatchThe Ocean Clean Up: The Great Pacific Garbage PatchPlastic Bag StatisticsEarth Day: Fact Sheet- Single Use PlasticsClimate Foresight: The Future of Plastics is UncertainUniversity of Birmingham: The Fate and Sustainable Future of Plastic---Carden & Cline's Excellent Review of the Myth's of Perfect PitchMarisa Hoeschele's Amazing Review of Animal Pitch PerceptionGuessing Sine Waves vs Piano Notes ExperimentPitch Memory TV Theme ExperimentThe Levitin EffectMating Mosquitos HamonizeSinging Happy Birthday to RatsSongbird Hearing AnatomyStarling Spectral Shape Experiment---Pew Research: The Whys and Hows of Generations ResearchMillennial Means NothingOpen Letter to the Pew Research Center on Generation LabelsThe Avocado Toast ArticleBBC History on Complaining about the Youths

A very special announcement!Episodes we recommend for new listeners:1: Time Illusions, Electric Bees, and Fakespeares5: The History of Pregnancy Tests, The Middlest Size, and FanFiction19: The Science of Gay, How Many Songs Fit in DNA, and Niche SportsSupport us on Maximum Fun!

How do animals sense magnetic fields? Why was the first Trolley Problem written? And who was Hitchbot?Images we talk about:- Hitchbot with SantaSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: the first compasses, captain McDonalds, “epistemologically unacceptable”, magnetic bacteria, magnetic dip, pooping north, the table of good boys, let’s do a study, it’s more intersting that dogs Sometimes poop north, alignment during excretion, I’d rather study dogs than leopards, we don’t know how animals sense magnetism, the beaks of birds the brains of seaturtles the tummies of honeybes and the nasal passages of rainbowtrouts, four years from landing on the moon and we haven’t put a magnet on a bird yet, quantumn eyeballs, the European Robin is famously racist, Phillipa Foot, putting hypotheticals to the test, mice actors, hypotheticals don’t predict real behavior, Foot’s paper was about abortion, you know the hippocratic oath is pretty cool actually, do no harm is not in the oath, the self driving trolley problem, dogs vs cats, ethics boards on hypotheticals, the real car trolley problem is more nuanced, a robot with a thumb, Ella beats Tom to the joke, can robots trust humans, hitchbot meets santa, hitchbot loves Ten Bundy, have you seen this robot? how do we feel when a robot dies, so thoughtful of review corner to be at the end, and… some exciting news???Sources:                Myths in MagnetosensationMagnetic BacteriaAviation Skybrary on Magnetic DipDogs Poop NorthLeopards Poop NorthThe Arctic Tern's MigrationMagnetoreception remains a MysteryFinding the Magnetoreception OrganQuantumn Eyeballs---The First Trolley ProblemBritannica on the Trolley ProblemOf Mice, Men, and Trolleys: Hypothetical Judgment Versus Real-Life Behavior in Trolley-Style Moral DilemmasMedical Ethics and the Trolley ProblemSelf-driving Car Trolley ProblemMIT's Moral Machine Experiment---Web Archive of hitchBOT's WebsiteThe Vessel on hitchBOTServo Mag on hitchBOTInnovation Heroes Podcast: The Hitchhiking Robot’s Guide to the UniverseDW The hitchhiking robot's guide to GermanyMcMaster University hitchBOT in the NetherlandsInternational Journal of Social RoboticsSmith and Zeller the death and lives of hitchBOTFraser et al How do we feel when a robot dies?hitchBOT’s destruction

How old did Aristotle think the Earth was? What makes a dinosaur a dinosaur? And how did our guest get into paleontology?           Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!           We also learn about: getting started in paleontology, shooting lasers at fossils, artistotle thought the earth was infinitely old, getting the 6,000 number from bible family tree math, it’s infinitely old because because, melting rocks is science, Lord Kevlin’s real name was William Thompson??? every big name in science wanted to answer this question, Darwin was embaressed and deleted his tweet about the age of the Earth, “there’s so much we don’t know, it’s hilarious”, the rock cycle, Patteron fought for lead safety, thousands millions and billions, it took 4 billion years for a species to know the age of the Earth, what is a dinosaur? “cladistics is confusing as hell”, we were naming dinosaursas as we were discovering them, rebranding dinosaurs, aquatic and flying reptiles aren’t dinosaurs, Taphonomy, who hasn’t fused their vertebra during a mating ritual, coprolite, this poop is going to inspire the shit out of someone, being okay with not using absolutes on tiktok, the new jurassic parks are trash.            Sources:                ---Aristotle's Age of the EarthKevlin's Age of the EarthClair Patterson And The Age Of The EarthHow to Calculate the Age of the Earth---Evelyn's TikTok RecommendationsArielMyria PerezHolly Simon

What happens when you gives bugs drugs? How many digits of pi do we actually need? And what is the drama behind the blackest black?Images we talk about:- Spider Webs on Various Drugs- Graph of Pi Approximations Across History- The Redemption of Vanity, MIT's Blackest BlackSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: how do you give a bee cocaine? cocaine is a natural insecticide, the waggle dance, actually im not going to dance it’s embaressing, “I want to be a bee so badly”, bees get withdrawl, some caterpillars are insensitive to cocaine, weaponizing caterpillars, giving spiders drugs because you’re lazy, charlotte’s web blood spider drug tests, caffeine isn’t really that bad for us, “morals will not stop humans from doing stupid things”, maybe giving elephants 3,000x LSD is bad science, cheap date flies, some animals want to get high, my favorite drug is math, what is pi? ancient pi estimates, 62.8 trillion digits of pi, how many digits of pi do nasa use? we could work at nasa as a package deal, by the 1400s we had enough pi to get us to space, and by the 1600s enough for the universe, selfish of pi to have so many numbers, why do we keep counting, tom gets an existential crisis, we all get an existential crisis, the bean, vantablack, how can you have a color?, the pinkest pink, paying someone to flip them off, the new blackest black, 99.995% light absorption, the power of productive spite, um thaaanks.            Sources:                ---Bees on CocaineCaterpillar CocaineWeaponizing CaterpillarsThe Spider Web Drug StudyGiving an Elephant Too Much LSD---How Much PI Nasa UsesApproximations of Pi over TimeHow Much PI Nasa UsesRecord Number of Pi DigitsNPR on Record Pi Count---Vantablack's Copyright ControversyThe Pinkest PinkAnish Kapoor's Middle FingerThe NEW Blackest Black from MIT

If all these conspiracy theories were real, what are the statistical odds they'd be kept secret? Why did Pluto get demoted from planethood? And can animals make art?Images we talk about:- Pierre’s Brassau’s Art- Erased Dekooning Drawing- Sean Thomas’ “Case Study”- Monkey SelfieSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: planes fly over Ella’s house? coincidence??, the conspiracy leak formula, gish gallop, the Tom & Caroline Show conspiracy, moon landing photos, the real conspiracy of climate change is with Exxon and Shell, pluto didn’t change - the definition of a planet changed, pluto is half the width of the US, what is a planet???, planets need a cleared orbit, the IAU assembly, it’s neptune’s fault! Ella quietly having an existential crisis, Mike Brown - the man who killed Pluto, why aren’t we talking about Eris?, what if we had 12 planets?, Ceres was also demoted like Pluto 200 years ago, the 8 planets are what aliens would want to visit, the kuiper belt isn’t packed with objects like you might imagine, Mike Brown’s humbleness of giving up Eris’ planethood, dwarf planet pokerap, what is animal art? what is art? Ella and Caroline write this topic apparently, Pierre Brassau, Erased DeKooning Drawing, enrichment, Naruto vs. Slater vs. Wikipedia, Lynda Barry and Howard Ikemoto on children’s art, everything is art!            Sources:                ---On the Viability of conspiratorial beliefsConspiracy Theories: Causes and CuresThe PRISM ConspiracyThe Tuskegee Syphilis StudyThe FBI Foresnic ScandalStudy on Disbelief of Moon Landing PhotosClimate ChangeShell and Exxon Climate Change ConspiracyHBomberGuy's Vaccine Video---Library of Congress: Why is Pluto No Longer a Planet?BBC: Why is Pluto No Longer a Planet?Washington Post: Ever wondered why Pluto is no longer a planet?-NASA: Pluto OverviewIAU 2006 General AssemblyMike Brown, Pluto KillerMetzger’s Thoughts on Pluto and what makes a Planet---Pierre Brassau's ArtJackson PollockErased de Kooning DrawingAnimal EnrichmentDo Elephants Enjoy Painting?Ars Technica on the Monkey SelfieNYT On Monkey SelfieUS Copyright Office Compendium of PracticesLynda Barry's Making Comics

What is the nuanced science behind homosexuality in animals and humans? Is there a single gay gene? No. No absolutely not. But how many songs could you fit into a gram of DNA, and why would you want to? And what are some of the most niche sports and why are they still so great?           Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Tom is an ally, 1500 observed gay animals from shrimps to apes, the adelie penguin story hidden for 100 years, dynamic region translation, dolphins are messed up, it’d be weird NOT to talk about gay animals, how is gay behavior evolutionarily beneficial? nuanced questions and bad actors, the myth of the gay gene, genes are complicated and so is being gay, the rage inducing paper that inspired this topic, Caroline’s brain is loading big numbers, what would you put write into dna?, making 70 billion copies of your own book, what’s a floppy drive?, the first iPod, the cost of DNA storage, the double but, different types of memory, storing data for longer than ipods will be remembered, we’re not allowed to take the piss out of these sports, roller derby, is throwing a goat any weirder than a sheep’s bladder or pig skin?, reaching your peak in your 40s, the sport popes have played, tickles that jiggly knowledge thing in my skull.            Sources:                ---Homosexual Behaviour in Animals: An Evolutionary PerspectiveAn Alternative Hypothesis For the Evolution of Same-Sex Sexual Behaviour in AnimalsA Genetic Study of Male Sexual OrientationThe Gay Gene?The Proof Against the Gay GeneGenetics of Sexual BehaviorThe Bad Article that Inspired this TopicPink News Analysis of The Bad Article that Inspired this Topic               ---DNA Data ReviewThe First DNA Data, MicrovenusThe First Book in DNAAdditional Review of DNA Data200MB of DNA Storage with OK GOThe OK GO Music Video Stored in DNANYTimes on the First iPodTesting the Stability of DNA DataDNA Data Storage for 2 Million YearsThe Time it Takes to Write DNA DataComputerphile Explaining Reed-Solomon Compression---Home Game on NetflixRoller DerbyRoller Derby RulesBuzkashiMore BuzkashiCalcio Fiorentino/StoricoCalcio Fiorentino Nat Geo Interview

You've probably heard of Carbon Dating, but how are Astronomy, Biology, and Nuclear Physics involved? What are the problems with having babies in space, and how many animals have had babies in space? (surprisingly more than you'd think!) And what is the history of nail polish, and more importantly, our relationship with painting nails?Videos we talk about:- Mice in SpaceSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: counting the rings in a carbon atom, Dendrochronology, Space & Life & Radioactivity, unstable tennis balls, a surprise callback to last episode, shoutout to baltimore! oh shit we can carbon date anything!! Ella is good at guessing, a rewrite of history??? OES, the real carbon dating was friendship, definitely points, what do you name a space baby? the ISS is not a safe form of contraception, sea urchin space sex, freeze dried mouse sperm resembling instant coffee, space sushi, space babies look cuter, jellyfish that don’t know the right way up, but snails do! how humans might evolve in space, Disney’s Moon Mouse Colony, what the moon teaches about Earth, Polish vs Varnish, our favorite color, fashion always goes in cycles, mummified pharaohs with nail polish, Van Gogh wasn’t color blind, he just had cheap paints, Mary Cobb was a girl boss if you will, car paint gave us nail polish, wear nail polish if you want to!            Sources:                ---History of Radiocarbon DatingRadiocarbon RevolutionJanet Ambers on Chronological MethodsDendrochronologyFritz Schweingruber on DendrochronologyCosmic Rays and Carbon DatingLibby's Nobel AddressLibby Carbon Dates EverythingCarbon Dating going 75,00 years BackOverly Dramatic Carbon Dating Error ArticleOES (Ostritrch Egg Shell)Carbon Dating gets UpdatedIntCal20 Calibration CurveEmilie Jager on Geochronology---Fertilization in MicrogravitySea Urchin Space SpermFreeze Dried Mouse SpermSperm Count in Space RatsMouse Space Baby DevelopmentJellyfish in SpaceSnails in SpaceDizzy Space RatsSpace and Bone DensitySpace AdaptationsRussian Space CockroachMice Adapting to Microgravity               ---The History of Nail PolishCleopatra and NailpolishNail Polish HistoryHow Stuff Works Nail PolishHagley History of NailpolishHistory of CosmeticsNail Polish Trends

What exactly are cosmic rays and how do they affect us? Why do humans have so many different eye colors? And why does everyone hate the triangle so much?Images we talk about:- The Sistrum           - The Angel Battle of the Bands           - The Triangle in the Painting           Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!           We also learn about: pions and tiny particles with delightful names, see the rave of space, OMG particle or the What What What particle, galactic cosmic rays, anomalous cosmic rays, shower of particles, lighting a lightbulb in space, highschool physics, auroral lights, lightning scientists, speedrunning glitches, DOTA_Teabag's single event upset, airplane failure, voter fraud, red eyes, albinism, squirrels with big ol’ baby blues, America vs the rest of the world, purple eyes, epithelium, collagen, melanin, the tingle effect, ella’s piercing blue eyes, Tom’s calming brown eyes, turn your eyes blue by drinking ocean water, climate, eye colour is a new adaptation, get that paternity test guys, everyone hates the triangle, triangle historian debate, angel music battle, Garden of Earthly Delights Where’s Waldo? the triangle belongs in hell, mmm this triangle sure sounds good, the sneaky triangle concerto, you can fill violin with 1,000 baked beans! Braham’s triangle drop, creole and brazilian folk triangle music I’m not like other girls I like the triangle, find the triangles in the world.            Sources:                ---Cern on Cosmic RaysMake your own Cosmic Ray DetectorThe OMG ParticleClive Saunders' Cosmic Ray Lightning TheoryDOTA_Teabag's Super Mario Speed RunFlight Report for Cosmic Ray IncidentCosmic Ray Election Error               ---American Association of Opthamology on Eye ColorsPercentages of Eye ColorsWhy Blue eyes are BlueEvolution of Eye Color---TV Tropes "Triangles are the Worst Instrument"James Blades' Encyclopedia Entry on the TriangleMark Berry's "From Angels to Orchestra" pt 1Mark Berry's "From Angels to Orchestra" pt 2The Percussion Encyclopedia with 5 Paragraphs on the TriangleLiza Young's Bosch Instrument AnalysisLiszt's "Triangle Concerto"Brahm's Symphony No.4 in E minorBois Sec Ardoin accompanied by TriangleAvioes' song with a triangle

This week we're releasing our very first test episode of the podcast! What are neural networks? Do butterflies remember being caterpillars? And what is Love Island?Content Warning: Mentions of suicide in the Misc TopicSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: what is a dog? stem cell hotel, the giant squid axon, neural networks will be walking and talking soon, why is it called deep learning? Deep blue and Watson, love island AI, Amazon’s biased hiring AI, black hole imaging, completely meat circle, Janelle Shane, Getting flagged on the street to answer if butterflies remember, caterpillar soup, classically trained caterpillars, the y tube, tickling chrysalises, the rules of love island, casa amor, beauty airplane.            Sources:                NYTimes AI HypeAmazon’s Hiring AIBlack Hole Machine Learning AlgorithmJanell Shane’s AI Weirdness---Caterpillar Memory ExperimentChrysalis Memories Experiment

Follow Ella's new job's tiktok!When we say save the bees, which bees are we talking about? What happens when you repeat a word and it loses meaning? And how could you design an experiment to figure that out?  And what is speed running and why do we all love it?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: solitary bees dance in their spare time, 25000 species of bees, send your enemies bees in the post, Bombus terrestris, human centric beekeeping, the billion pound honey market, honey bees are important, but also bad sometimes, local bee jobs stolen by foreign invaders, bee to bee pathogens, save ALL the bees, hanging out in the park and repeating words words words, good experimental design, the meaning test tube, tuning out meaning, Zeus, pitfalls of psychology, introspection, “familiar feels”, neutral words, clever Hans, the observer expectancy effect, dream of good experiments goodnight, don’t use flash when taking a picture of your screen, Dragster, Atari, Doom, pacifist runs, Quake done quick, games done quick, lowest percent, link stares at a rupee for 17 hours, bullet time bounceSources:                Caroline's Paper on the Western Honeybee---Sheila Black's Semantic Satiation ReviewTitchener's Early Description of Meaning LossSemantic Satiation for Poetic EffectJakobovits Naming Semantic SatiationBassett and Warne Introspective StudyLambert and Jakobovits Semantic Polarity ExperimentClever HansSchultz Constructively Criticizing Semantic SatiationSmith Category Verification ExperimentNeural Analysis of Semantic Satiation---A Brief History of SpeedrunningA Quick History of SpeedrunningActivisions Magazine Volume 1Marimoto Super Mario Bros 3 SpeedrunZikubi! Super Mario Bros 3 SpeedrunThe Speedrun Where Link Stares at Rupees for 17 HoursWhat is the hardest trick in Speedrunning?Psychonauts Devs React to SpeedrunnerTom’s Favorite TAS Speedrun

What is the Turing Test, what has it become, and what can we learn from it? How many of Ella's weird bodily quirks do you have? And how did the pub quiz come about?           For the next month only, use code "Everything" to save 60% off your first month of MEL Science!https://melscience.com/sBGM/Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: the imitation game, performative gender, the alignment problem, It’s not blade runner, artifical stupidity, have you heard about eugene goostman?! the alignment problem, CAPTTTTCAHA, archival OCR, thank Turing for Duo Lingo TikToks, Timnit Gebru, Robert Miles, the sociological and economic alignment problem, Ella Syndrome, learn to roll your tongue or else! Artistotle can’t roll his tongue, ACHOO, acronyms were a mistake, spare tendons, what is your earwax texture? the one person who liked Han dynasty tests, unlucky 13, TV quizes, what if we did that? Jay's virtual pub quiz. Jay's virtual pub quiz.Sources:                Stanford Philosophy Turing Test PageComputing Machinery and IntelligenceTuring Test 50 Year RetrospectiveRobert MilesEugene GoostmanCAPTCHA PaperreCAPTCHA InterviewCAPTCHA DifficultyGoogle's reCAPTCHA PolicyGithub Copilot's Alignment Problem Paper---Photic SneezingTongue RollingPalarmis LongusArmpit SmellCilanto Taste23 and Me Cilantro---A History of QuizzingHistory of the QuizBBC QuizzingPub Quiz HistoryQuizzism BookInternational Spelling BeeJay's Virtual Pub Quiz

Could you domesticate a fox, and what even IS domestication? What is the oldest potted plant, and, wait, what does Caroline mean by that question? And how did Tom go from hating crosswords to loving them?           The photo we mention of Mecta the Fox Pup           Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: the first domesticated animals, one of Darwin’s sequels, floppy ears, domestication syndrome, the fox bachelor, the neural crest cell hypothesis, our version of Behind the Bastards, cited comment critiques, we all just want to learn, I’ve never seen a plant in the middle ages, we completely misinterpret the question, ella’s old man wisdom, a plant older than america, the anxious keepers of the oldest potted plant, crosswords were a fad, we were always insufferable, relearnig ocular immunity, crossword fuckery, “thirsty” well shortz, what is and isn’t general knowledge? and bad jokes with friends.            Sources:                A New Origin Story for DogsDog Domestication and the Dual Dispersal of People and Dogs into the AmericasGenomic and archaeological evidence suggest a dual origin of domestic dogsThe Silver Fox Domestication ExperimentEarly Canid Domestication: interplay between behavioral genetics and developmentRed Fox Genomic Regions Associated with Tame BehavioursThe “Domestication Syndrome” in Mammals: Neural Crest Cell Behavior and GeneticsThe History of Farm Foxes Undermines the Animal Domestication Syndrome---The History Of HouseplantsPenjingKew GardensSouth African Encephalartos SpeciesCycad Palm, Ursula Bucham---New York Times History of the CrosswordMargaret FarrarYes, You Can Write More Than One Letter in a SquareNYTimes Scumbag ControversyThe Hidden Bigotry of CrosswordsHow Will Shortz Edits a New York Times Crossword Puzzle (Lorelai)DownForAcross

What happened to the golden toad? How many things did we leave on the moon, and what are they? And what is the oldest recorded bar joke?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: The World Wildlife Fund/World Wresting Federation, Agatha Christie’s Mystery of the Golden Toad, publication smackdowns, the amphibian apocalypse, outside my jurisdiction, double callback, the african clawed frog (from ep 5!), on this podcast we stan… Michael Collins, moon poop, moon scalpels, 4 undetonated grenades, moonquakes, no on vomitted on the moon, rating moon items, sneaking things on the moon, dogs in sumerian bars only want to open one thing and it’s disgusting, how many likes did that tablet have? reading sumerian proverbs, the dog understands take it, but it does not understand put it down.            Sources:                The Golden ToadThirty Years After the Last Golden Toad Sighting, What Have We Learned?El Niño–Southern OscillationCrump, Apparent decline of the golden toad: underground or extinct?Pounds and Fogden, Conservation of the golden toad: a brief historyGlobal Warming Didn't Kill the Golden ToadFirst Mammal Killed by Global WarmingThe Chytrid FungusStopping the Next Amphibian ApocalypseHope for the Golden Toad---List of Lunar MissionsWSJ Article of Things we've left on the MoonNasa Catalogue of Manmade Material on the MoonLunar RetroreflectorsMoonquakesGrenades on the MoonCorrection on Moon VomitBiomedical Results of ApolloStudying Moon PoopFamily Photo on the MoonThe Moon MuseumPBS Moon Museum InvestigationAudio Recording of Almost Forgetting to Drop Symbolic Items---Images of the TabletsSumerian Animal Proverbs and Fables: Collection FiveAskHistorians ThreadProverbs from  Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

What do heat and temperature have to do with biology? (It turns out, a lot!) We know what periods are, but why do humans have them? And stickers are delightful but how did they come about?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: what is heat? endotherms ectotherms homeotherms heterotherms and poikilotherms, being warm blooded evolved twice, heat generating plants, naked mole rats are weird, the podcast's stable of strange animals grows, kleptothermy, everyone huddles, which animals have periods? mansplaining periods, elphant shrews, convergent evolution of periods, spontaneous decidualization, "pregnancy is parasitic", women's reproductive research is underfunded, georgian beauty standards, stamp based tangents, bumper stickers, and our favorite stickers.            Sources:                Richard Feynman's "Six Easy Pieces" BookEndotherms and EctothermsThermoregulationOryx HeterothermyQuelea High Body TemperatureMcKechnie's Blog Post on the paperThe evolution of EndothermyBeehive Temperature RegulationDesert Ant ThermotoleranceThermogenesis in PlantsColor Changing Thermal BiologySloth PoikilothermyMore Sloth PoikilothermyPoikilothermy and Huddling in Naked Mole RatsKleptothermyForbes: Why Did Women Evolve Periods?DecidualizationThe Evolution of Menstruation: A New Model for Genetic AssimilationThe Significance and Evolution of MenstruationGrackhouse's History of StickersThe History of Sticker PrintingThe History of Postage StampsAvery Dennison HistorySmithers: The Value of the Sticker Market

Special guest Steve Rathje (@StevePsychology) asks us, do insects have consciousness? What, empirically, makes things go viral on social media? And what are the scientific effects of live theatre?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Outgroup effects on social media, subjective experience and qualia, except for mosquitos, we share genes with bananas are they conscious? the emotional dog and the rational tail, over-anti-anthropomorphism, tiktok survey of insect consciousness, would aliens think we are conscious? Steve’s at the party talking about qualia again! Sondheim, Sarah Ruhl’s magical realism absurdist plays, Steve’s study on the effect of live theater on empathy, solving Sondheim vs Weber scientifically, antiperfectionism, the weirdness of going viral, different types of online engagement, buy our supplements!            Sources:                Steve's Social Media Paper: Out-Group Animosity Drives Engagement on Social MediaWhat Insects can tell us about the Origins of ConsciousnessSteve's Theatre Paper: Attending Live Theatre Improves Empathy, Changes Attitudes, and Leads to Pro-Social Behavior

What can a video game teach us about pandemics? What are the different things a sneeze can smell like? And what makes game jams so magical?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Hakkar the Soulflayer, npc asymptomatic carriers, just reset the world and change the code!, a disease model with real people, death isn’t temporary, show us the patch notes, self protection fatigue, pandemics are complicated, “look for the helpers, you will always find people who are helping”, only humans can simulate humans, “I sneeze so much”, what scents can sneezes have? smells are weird, phantosmia, Ella channeling Tom’s bad jokes, “all the tubes are connected”, piss breath, “how are we functioning?”, Tom made indie games, the first game jam email, 100,000 Guys, the Ludum Dare, “There’s too many days” “Counter Clockwise”, Hungry Knight!, Tom’s first dream game, thesis jam, Pierrec’s french review of Tom’s game.            Sources:                Lancet Corrupted Blood PaperEpidemiology Corrupted Blood PaperWired Corrupted Blood ArticlePCGamer Corrupted Blood ArticleChen 2013 Epidemic GameCharlotte Eye, Ear, Note and Throat Associates on Smelly SneezesWhy does my sneeze smell bad?Acetone BreathBacterid Producing Sweet SmellsLosing Your SmellPhantosmiaAmmonia BreathCorrelation of Ammonia Breath during HemodialysisHistory of Game JamsThe First Game Jam EmailPierrec's Revied of Tom's First Game

What are the benefits of reintroducing a species after 400 years? Why do we make rats solve mazes, and can slime molds solve mazes? What is ASMR, and how did it become such a thing?           Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!          We also learn about: Beavery introductions, vanilla flavor usually isn’t castorium, beavers support everyone in the wetlands, Tom’s gonna make a joke, The Scottish Beaver Trial, impatient beavers, international legal beaver issues, failed reintroductions are beautiful, auto sound mmm rad, autonomus sensory meridian response, her royal majesty’s asmr, and Ella’s favorite ASMR videos. Sources:                Beavers and Castoreum               RSPB on Beaver Reintroductions               Scottish Wildlife Trust Report on Beavers in Knapdale               Scottish Wild Land Group on the Tay Beavers               Legal Battle over Beavers               Oranguta Reintroductions               Short-haired Bumblebee Reintroductions               Berger-Tal on Openness about Failed Reintroductions               Conservation Translocations: a Review of Common Difficulties and Promising Directions               Willard Small's First Rat Maze Study               Slime Mold Maze Study               Maze Solving Using Fatty Acid Chemistry               Tolman's Better Mazes               Dashiell Maze Criticism               Morris Water Maze               Advanced Morris Water Maze Study               Wire Interview with Mycologist Anne Pringle               Crinkle Crinkle Little Shirt               History of ASMR               The First Dedicated Whispering Channel               BBC Interview with Whispers Red               Cardi B ASMR               ASMR to Help you Sleep Beating you Until your Unconscious               1300s AD ASMR - Nun Takes Care of You in Bed (You Have the Plague)

To start the new year we learn about the science and history of recording sound, consider whether people with Prosopagnosia experience Pareidolia, and relive what it was like for Caroline to meet the one and only Sir David Attenborough.Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: The Phonoautograph, unplayable recordings, “drop the auto, just, Phonograph”, did you write that joke down tom, debunking Edison’s first recording, someone pretending to be a pigeon, Before or After Recorded Audio? Why did it take us so long to record audio? analog vs digital, Janet’s episode, turning pictures into audio, can you believe Janet’s new pennyfarthing? Do people with Farragolia experience glossolalia, cars do have faces, “you just turned into somebdy else”, the answer is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, aphantasia, throwaway sentences in studies, get high and get deep, and the Caroline Roper Studio for TikToks of Science.            Sources:                The PhonoautographDebunking Edison's Fist RecordingThe Recoording That Never Wanted to be HeardEarly Sound RecordingsAlexander Graham Bell's Ear PhonoautographThe Dawn of Digital RecordingThe Earliest RecordingProsopagnosiaFusiforum Face AreaThe Case of Ron BlackwellThe Neurons That Mistook a Hat for a FaceProsopagnosia and Functional Fusiform Face AreaFusiform Face Area And Pareidolia LinkedPareidolia Question on r/ProsopagnosiaHow Mental Imagery and Pareidolia are Linked

Today we learn about the most interesting topic of all: each other! How did we get into our science fields, and how did we meet? What's our favorite science fact to tell at parties? What advice do we have for aspiring creators?           Support us with a Max Fun Membership!   Join our Discord!           We also learn about: our science origin stories, Tom used to be a theatre kid, Tom’s first podcast, our first TikToks, we’re on a first name basis with Hank, how we met, that time we all freaky friday’d, Ella DESPISED Tom, really long fly sperm, clinical fun fact trials, the immortal jellyfish, hermissenda, moths, Interstellar, The Martian, Demon Slayer, Edge of Tomorrow, advice on getting started on TikTok, Bill Nye could never, The Mower, MMM Honey! and nightmares.Videos we Mention:                Caroline’s First Science TikTok               Tom's First TikTok               Ella's First Big TikTok               Caroline's Bloodwood Tree Video               Ella's Science Speedrun Video               Tom's RGB Video               Hank & John's Video about Having Each Other

On a surprisingly deep holiday episode, we ask, what is a genetic chimera, could it save lives, and is it moral? What are Judas Goats, and what are the challenges faced in conservation? And most importantly, what were the first toys in history and what were our favorite toys?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Why are mythological chimeras all ladies? a Tom/Joe chimera, “It was very dissapointing”, “I expect better evidence”, a Judas Kiss, goats are weird, helicopter tattoos, ring-necked parakeets, relocating hedgehogs, would you download a goat? Helping other human beings, what a concept! Tom’s yo-yo tricks, children existed! the earliest toys, Ella’s duel disk, tamagotchis, and the future of toys.Sources:                Chimeras in MythologyHuman Chimeras That Already ExistInterspecies Organogenesis Generates Autologous Functional IsletInterspecies Chimerism with Mammalian Pluripotent Stem CellsHuman–animal chimeras: ethical issues about farming chimeric animals bearing human organsFeral Goat Eradications on GalapagosGalapagos Goat EradicationGalapagos Project IsabellaGalapagos Judas GoatsVegetation and Animal Recovery on GalapagosGalapagos Invasive SpeciesIs it Ritual? or is it Children?Split Twig Observations and Carbon DatingAncient Hedgehog Cart (via @trashbandikoot on tiktok)Business Insider Toy List

When was the first pregnancy test? If we know the biggest and smallest sizes in the universe, what is the middlest size? What's the deal with fanfiction?Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!           We also learn about: Comedy!, piss prophets, we should know better that science is weird, “Looks like the frog’s ovulating!”, we are in the middle of history, what even is an object, the centi-sand, don't fudge significant figures, Dante’s Self Insert RPF, we get carried away playing the fanfiction pairing game.Sources:                Pee is for pregnant: The history and science of urine-based pregnancy testsAncient Egyptian Pregnancy TestsEffects of Hormones on Barley LeavesHuman Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG)The Long Gestation of the Modern Home Pregnancy TestKevin Kelly NYTimes ReviewSolar System Ratio CalculationMiddlest Size CalculationFanfiction.netAO3

What are the uses of randomness, and how do we even get it? What happens to your body when you don't sleep? And is Stardew Valley secretly... a horror game? Links we Discuss: Infinite Monkey Theorem ResultsThe Hollow Mask IllusionSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Ella making random noises, chiptune drums, dice fanfiction, the infinite monkey grant, gggggggggggggg, everyone guesses 7 and picks Rock, a very funny joke for our particle physicist listeners, a million random digits, minecraft seeds, the Russian sleep experiment creepypasta, sleep themed band names, the optimal nap, do the dip kids! Maureen the rocking chair champion, um actually it’s called Apophenia, tetris fanfiction, and ludo narrative disonance.Sources:                Humans Cannot Consciously Generate Random Number Sequences               The Predominance Of Seven And The Apparent Spontaneity Of Numerical Choices               Hannah Fry on Rock Paper Scissors               Winning at Rock Paper Scissors               Rock Paper Scissors Strategy               Hot Hand Fallacy and Gambler's Fallacy               How the Mind Works               Galton Discussing Dice for Statistical Experiments               LHC Tippet and the Random Number Table               A Million Random Digits               Radiation is Random               Modern Nuclear Chemistry               Sleep Deprivation               Sleep Stages               Sleep Debt               Obesity and Sleep Deprivation               Part 2               Cardiovascular Health and Sleep Deprivation               Microsleep               Hallucinations               Rat Sleep Deprivation Study               Fatal Familial Insomnia               Fatal Familial Insomnia Stories

How do mind controlling (or rather, behavior controlling) parasites work? Are elephants right or left handed? And what is so great about Naruto Bohemian Rhapsody AMVs?           Read Tom's essay on Tor.com!           Get tickets to Ella's science comedy show!           Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!           We also learn about: being cancelled by ants, Ella tries to pronounce latin names, bugs losing their butts, the parasite of the day, thanks for the parasites Charlie! Phylogenetic Inirtia, I DON’T OWN QUEEN OR NARUTO I DONT OWN ANYTHING, and Torchwood X Florence & The Machine fanvids!Sources:Mind Control: How Parasites Manipulate Cognitive Functions in Their Insect Hosts               Ophiocordyceps unilateralis               How a parasitic fungus turns ants into zombies               A specialized fungal parasiteThis Parasite Drugs Its Hosts With the Psychedelic Chemical in ShroomsParasites brainwash grasshoppers into death diveHow does rabies cause aggression?Rabies virus modifies host behaviour through a snake-toxinParasite makes mice lose fear of cats permanentlyBrain parasite may strip away rodents' fear of predators, not just of catsParasites - ToxoplasmosisRight or Left: Elephant calves pick their trunk handedness early on in life

On this SpoOoOoky Halloween episode we learn about a slew of truly spooky frogs, investigate which animal has the most bones, and see how capitalism may have led to the rise of witch hunts!       Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!           We also learn about: fluorescence, dinosaur eating frogs (technically), CAN A SPIDER EAT A DINOSAUR??? (NOT CLICKBAIT), frog shazam, Ella learns to love the Freddy Krueger Frog, wishing you a happy bones day, evo-devo, deregionalization, how would antlers wear pants?, the origin of gossip, down with capitalism!Sources:                Horror frog breaks own bones to produce claws               Frogs with Claws, Frogs with Hair               Vampire Flying Frog               New pumpkin toadlet species found               How the Newly Discovered, Mud-Loving ‘Zombie’ Frog Got Its Name               The Freddy Krueger Frog               Freddy Krueger Frog Audio               Freddy Krueger Frog VideoDevil Frog               Vampire Squid               Skeletal Structure, University of IdahoSkeleton, Postcranial, Rommel & ReynoldsNew Bedford Whaling MuseumAxial patterning in snakes and caecilians, Woltering et al.Florida MuseumFrom Lizard to Snake; Behind the Evolution of an Extreme Body Plan, WolteringWitches, Witch-Hunting and Women, Sylvia Federici

What does a time illusion look like? Why are bees electrically charged? Who is the real Shakespeare?           Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Yanney and Laurel, bad science magic tricks, Carly Rae Jepsen's seminal hit Call Me Maybe, Temporal Odor Mixtures, how many bees are in a bolt of lightning, The Flower Dome, fake flowers and fake bees, the flat moon theory, and the Voldemort Codex.Sources:          Dixon, N. F., & Spitz, L. (1980). The detection of auditory visual desynchrony. Perception, 9(6), 719–721. https://doi.org/10.1068/p090719           Stratton, G. M. (1896). Some preliminary experiments on vision without inversion of the retinal image. Psychological Review, 3(6), 611–617. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0072918           Stratton, G. M. (1896). Some preliminary experiments on vision without inversion of the retinal image. Psychological Review, 3(6), 611–617. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0072918           Cunningham, D., Billock, V., & Tsou, B. (2001). Sensorimotor Adaptation to Violations of Temporal Contiguity. Psychological Science, 12, 532 - 535. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.d01-17Alais, D., Carlile, S., (2005). Synchronizing to real events: Subjective audiovisual alignment scales with perceived auditory depth and speed of sound. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(6), 2244-2247. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0407034102Stetson, C., Cui, X., Montague P.R., Eagleman, D.M., (2006). Motor-Sensory Recalibration Leads to an Illusory Reversal of Action and Sensation. Neuron, 51(5), 651-659. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2006.08.006.Perl O, Nahum N, Belelovsky K, Haddad R. The contribution of temporal coding to odor coding and odor perception in humans. Elife. 2020;9:e49734. Published 2020 Feb 7. https://doi.org/10.7554%2FeLife.49734Montgomery, C., Vuts, J., Woodcock, C.M. et al. Bumblebee electric charge stimulates floral volatile emissions in Petunia integrifolia but not in Antirrhinum majus. Sci Nat 108, 44 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-021-01740-2

Science communicators Ella Hubber, Tom Lum, and Caroline Roper share anything and everything interesting! Each episode they teach each other about a science topic, answer a question, and learn about a miscellaneous topic. Whether it's bugs on drugs, temporal illusions, or reality tv, there's so much out there, so let's learn everything! Join our Discord, message us, and follow us everywhere at https://www.LetsLearnEverythingPod.com/