Stuff to blow your mind
Stuff To Blow Your Mind
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Poison Arrows, Chinese Medicine and Werewolves
Perhaps you’ve heard of wolf's bane as curative or even ...
Perhaps you’ve heard of wolf's bane as curative or even causal agent in the mythology of lycanthropy, yet the appeal of this very real plant reaches far beyond the realm of werewolves. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Christian consider the role of wolf's bane in traditional Chinese medicine, early biological warfare and natural insect defenses.
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One-Armed Bandits: The Science of Slot Machines
You may call it a slot machine, a fruit machine ...
You may call it a slot machine, a fruit machine or a one-armed bandit, but the reality is the same: an algorithmically precise machine designed to drain the human gambler of all his or her earnings. Where did these insidious machines come from? How do they ensorcell us? In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe explore the science and psychology of slot machine gambling behavior.
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The Unlanguaged Mind: A World Built With Words
How can we even imagine a life without language when ...
How can we even imagine a life without language when language itself plays such a crucial role in human cognition? Can you even imagine a world in which nothing has a name? Join Robert and Christian as they continue their exploration of the brain’s linguistic operating system.
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The Unlanguaged Mind: Feral Children
The feral child occupies two worlds: that of lighthearted myth ...
The feral child occupies two worlds: that of lighthearted myth and depressing reality. We entertain ourselves with fantasies about wolf-reared infants, but most studies of feral children stem from cases of extreme child abuse and neglect. Join Robert and Christian as the explore human language acquisition and childhood without words.
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Palimpsests: Reading History’s Blank Pages
Historians learn a great deal from historical texts -- and ...
Historians learn a great deal from historical texts -- and not only that which was written, but that which was unwritten. Join Robert and Christian as they explore the world of palimpsests, the erased books just under the surface of ancient tomes. Modern technology allows us to uncover more and more of their secrets, while the idea of the palimpsest itself serves as a powerful metaphor for media, the mind and maybe life itself.
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Wes Craven Tribute: Serpents, Rainbows & Zombie Powder
With the recent passing of horror director Wes Craven, it ...
With the recent passing of horror director Wes Craven, it seems appropriate to cover the science behind his 1988 film “The Serpent and the Rainbow.” Join Robert and Christian for a discussion of Haitian folklore, zombie powder and the challenges of filmmaking.
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Tail as Old as Time: Part 2
Where is the human tail? Our embryos lose them in ...
Where is the human tail? Our embryos lose them in the womb and our great ape kin lost them in the shadows of evolutionary history. Join Robert and Joe as they continue to explore the worlds of human tails and even a Utopian dream of tailed transhumans.
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Tail as Old as Time: Part 1
Tails are a common feature in the animal kingdom, fulfilling ...
Tails are a common feature in the animal kingdom, fulfilling just about every role from comfy blanket to instrument of venomous death. Join Robert and Joe as they explore some of the more outstanding uses, including your dog’s caudal language and the scorpion that sheds its own tail and anus.
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The Science of Necrophilia
Don't run away! True enough, this episode of Stuff to ...
Don't run away! True enough, this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind considers a most repellent sexual atrocity, but there's more to necrophilia than the sexual abuse of human corpses. Join Robert and Christian as they discuss necrophilia in the animal kingdom, including one rare case of "functional necrophilia" that actually produces offspring. Stay for the later half of the episode and you'll also plunge the psychological depths of human necrophilia in all its varied forms.
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V2K: The Microwave Auditory Effect
Voice-to-skull or V2K technology is generally the stuff of paranoid ...
Voice-to-skull or V2K technology is generally the stuff of paranoid government conspiracies, and yet the microwave auditory effect is very real. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe consider the military and commercial applications for what some people call microwave telepathy.
