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The Wholesome Show

Science Podcasts

From tales of historical idiocracy and scientific genius to weird and wacky cultural phenomena, Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant are here to take you on a wild conversational journey, deep diving into the crevices of science, history and culture that you never knew existed.

Location:

Australia

Description:

From tales of historical idiocracy and scientific genius to weird and wacky cultural phenomena, Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant are here to take you on a wild conversational journey, deep diving into the crevices of science, history and culture that you never knew existed.

Language:

English

Contact:

61450105489


Episodes

Norjak: The DB Cooper Unsolved Mystery and 2024 Update

3/28/2024
On November 24, 1971, Dan Cooper, a quiet, nondescript man (wearing the classic business suit everyone wore back then) wandered into Portland airport and paid cash for a one-way ticket to Seattle. He drank his bourbon and soda in the lounge and boarded the plane like every other passenger. Cooper was your average guy, at least until shortly after takeoff, when he handed the flight attendant a note. And no, it wasn’t an attempt to flirt his way into the mile-high club. This note said that there was a bomb in his briefcase and that she should sit down next to him. She sat down. Dan opened his briefcase to reveal a mass of wires and red coloured sticks to the flight attendant, who promptly followed his instructions to send a message to the captain. He demanded that $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills and 4 parachutes be delivered to him upon landing. The flight landed in Seattle, Cooper exchanged the flight’s 36 passengers for the money and parachutes and then, with some crew still on board, took off again for Mexico City. Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, ordinary Dan walked to the back of the plane, opened a door and jumped out with a parachute and the money. The pilots landed safely and DB Cooper, as he became known, disappeared. 50 years later, we’re still looking for him, and amazingly, there have been very recent (as in March 2024) updates to this cold case! CHAPTERS: SOURCES: D.B. Cooper Hijacking — FBIhttps://www.the-sun.com/news/10528799/db-cooper-dna-sample-fbi-new-culprits/7 People Have Confessed to Being DB Cooper. A Twist in the Case Says One Told the Truth.Who Was D.B. Cooper? | HISTORYD.B. Cooper Hijacking - Topics on Newspapers.com'Missed crucial DB Cooper clue' left behind by mystery plane hijacker doesn't have to be turned over by FBI, rules judge | The US SunSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:35:57

The Memory Hole: Why Society Sometimes Draws a Blank

3/21/2024
We all forget things sometimes. We leave the car keys in random places. We look all over the house for our sunglasses, only to find them already on our heads. And we’ve all experienced the angst of double booking, completely (or conveniently) forgetting about a dentist appointment booked for the time we were meant to meet up with friends at the pub. Sometimes our brains just have enough stuff in there and there’s no room for anything new. Kinda like how the world forgot about the time when millions of people died within a six month period from the Spanish Flu. Sure, we talk about it now but back then, when the pandemic was over, no one talked about it. 5 per cent of the population died, it sucked, let’s just forget about it…? But how could a catastrophic event of this magnitude be collectively forgotten? And perhaps it’s not the only tragedy we’ve tossed into the black memory hole of history… CHAPTERS: PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED: Wittenoom: Australia's Asbestos Chernobyl Wiped Town Off The Map SOURCES: Building a collective memory: the case for collective forgettingCollective Memory and Forgetting:The rising of collective forgetting and cultural selectivity in inventors and physicists communitiesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:28:08

What scares people these days and where does your phobia rank?

3/14/2024
What are the most common fears and phobias that people have today? Most of us can relate to having a healthy fear of sharks or getting sweaty palms at the idea of being stuck in a tiny space. It’s also pretty socially acceptable for someone to opt out of bungee jumping, or for a fellow aeroplane passenger to need a few deep breaths to calm themselves before takeoff. Then of course there’s the fear of public speaking - which we all fear more than death, right? Maybe not… This claim seems to link back to a publication from 1977 called The Book of Lists, which in turn cites the London Times… which in turn references the 1973 Burskin Report. This claims that 41 per cent of people feared speaking before a group, whereas only 19 per cent feared death. But is it really true? CHAPTERS: PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED: Mary Shelley, Taphophobia and Life-Preserving Coffins SOURCES: 'Self-Reproach in Guilt, Shame, and Pride', True to Our Feelings: What Our Emotions Are Really Telling UsThe 14 Worst Human Fears in the 1977 Book of Lists: where did this data really come from?https://www.speakschmeak.com/2008/04/public-speaking-vs-death.htmlTop 10 Most Common Phobias List — TalkspaceTop 10 phobias and what they reveal about the strangeness of life | Mental health | The GuardianAmerica's Top Fears 2020/2021 | Chapman UniversityPhobias: The ten most common fears people hold - ABC NewsIs Public Speaking Really More Feared Than Death?Full article: Is Public Speaking Really More Feared Than Death?The Thing We Fear More Than Death | Psychology Today AustraliaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:32:39

The End Of Science: Will We Ever Discover Everything?

3/7/2024
It’s the end of the science as we know it! And I feel fine! But seriously though, is it? As a global community, we are investing 10 times more money and resources into scientific research than we did in the 1950s, yet the number of groundbreaking discoveries is dwindling. We’ve gone to the moon. We’ve discovered massive black holes. We’ve split the atom and peered through high-resolution microscopes to observe those tiny little quarks. Sure, we’re still making advancements, but a lot of science these days is refining past discoveries. We’re not really uncovering anything new. In fact, most of the Nobel Prizes awarded since the 1990s have been awarded for scientific work that went on in previous decades. So is scientific pursuit just slowing down? Or, are we nearing the end of scientific discovery altogether? CHAPTERS: SOURCES: Is science about to end? by Sabine HossenfelderJohn Horgan interview on The End of Science Was I Wrong about “The End of Science”?Lord Kelvin and the End of Physics, Which He Never Predicted Albert Michelson, notes at the Inauguration of the Ryerson Physics Laboratory Everything That Can Be Invented Has Been InventedPapers and patents are becoming less disruptive over timeAre we witnessing the end of science? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:32:56

So did you get a root? Tales, definitions and loopholes for defining sex

2/29/2024
Everyone loves a good loophole. From a clever workaround that outsmarts the tax man to exploiting a glitch in a video game (Sega Mega Drive all the way), there's something undeniably thrilling about circumventing the system. It taps into our innate desire for freedom, creativity, and that little touch of rebellion. While avoiding tax bills and gaining high scores on Sonic the Hedgehog can certainly get us going, some people have discovered loopholes that arouse a more intimate type of pleasure. We’re talking about sex. But what exactly constitutes sex? For a lot of people, the term is open to interpretation, especially if you’re trying to stay a virgin to please the Lord or deny your infidelity. We all remember Bill Clinton’s famous speech about not having “sexual relations”. Does this mean that oral sex isn’t sex? And what about anal sex? For some, there is a poophole loophole, while others consider looking at pornography and deep kissing as an act of sex. Regardless of what you consider sex to be, there seem to be a lot of grey areas as cultural, religious and contextual factors thrust their way into the conversation. Is sex only considered sex if you reach the big O? And what if it's just the tip or a little bit of shaft? Two dicks, no dicks, plastic-covered dick? Who has to do what with what to whom for it to be considered sex in your mind? CHAPTERS: PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpLAU59m61Mhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f528jx5Wgo SOURCES: What Is Sex? - Defining Sexual Intercourse and What It Feels Like11 Sexual Activities That People Don't Count As "Having Sex"Sex | Get the FactsThree Really Big Sex Loopholes In The Old Testament | Martin HughesSex Loopholes That Some Mormons Are Exploiting To Have Pre-Marital Sex | Sexographyhttps://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2%2C245879=https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2%2C245879=See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:41:36

Workplace Infantilisation: Incompetent Employees or Toxic Management?

2/22/2024
Remember as a kid, having to wear that uncomfortable school uniform every single day? We were told when to sit, when to stand, when to eat, when to play, even when we were allowed to go to the toilet. Myriad rules to crush us into oppressive obedience! Now imagine a similar scenario in your workplace. Employees are given insultingly basic commands and training that even the most sheltered individual would have learned simply in the school of life. There’s a term for it: Workplace Infantilisation. Workers denied their agency and wisdom from experience in favour of child-like over-proceduralisation. And no, workplace infantilisation is not a term for child labour, pathological smuggling of employee’s children into the office, or a worker boasting an adult diaper fetish. Infantilisation in the workplace is basically when your boss treats you like a child. Explicit instructions for straightforward tasks, insinuating that you don’t have the common sense to figure it out. They make rules for things that well-adjusted adults don’t need rules for (like you’re not allowed to masturbate on someone else's desk.) Well duh. You use your own desk; we’re not animals! But is workplace infantilisation genuinely happening on a significant scale? Or is it merely a vent for worker frustrations over the minutiae of bureaucratic tape? SOURCES: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/288384634.pdfPostmortal Society: Towards a Sociology of ImmortalityThe infantilization of the worker : r/antiworkhttps://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6535470294486839296/“I deeply resent how we've infantilized the workplace”: A manager's manifesto goes viralTreat Employees like Adults CHAPTERS: See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:29:18

Does Sheep Murmuration Explain England's 19th Century Sheep Panic?

2/15/2024
Mother Nature, in all her brilliance, has birthed some fascinating phenomena. Take the magical skies of the Aurora Borealis in Iceland for example, or the bioluminescent Maldives shores where the ocean lights up like neon blue fairy lights. Here in Australia, we have Lake Hillier, where the water is the colour of a strawberry milkshake. In England of course, they have the synchronised sheep panic at 8pm. Wait… what? Although one of the lesser known phenomena (you might even say “un-herd” of), unexplained sheep panic caused quite a stir in Oxfordshire England in the late 19th century. On November 3, 1888, tens of thousands of sheep in a 200 square mile radius in Oxfordshire suddenly went bonkers at 8pm. It was as if some unseen terror had gripped them all simultaneously. Can you hear the X-files theme music playing? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:21:36

AI Girlfriend Chatbots, UFO Cosplay Drones, and Dihydrogen Monoxide

2/8/2024
Back in the day, before robots and the internet, guys and gals who longed for the company of a significant other had one move up their sleeve: pluck up the courage to leave the house and talk to another human. Nowadays-ish, people search for love from home aided by computers and a social media background check (thanks Wayback Machine). Nowadays proper, the pool from which to select a lover has expanded to include artificial intelligence. In today’s post-ChatGPT age, AI girlfriend chatbots are on the market but you better keep it hush-hush… apparently, OpenAI don’t want you to meet their digital darlings, especially Tiffany or Nadia. Speaking of intelligence, the former director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), Sean Kirkpatrick, squashed our dreams in a recent interview, candidly admitting that UAP sightings (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - we don’t call them UFOs anymore) were likely just top secret military intelligence drones. Awesome. So why make such a big deal about releasing the UFO files? We don’t buy it. They’re definitely hiding something. On the topic of misinformation, in 1997, 14-year-old junior high school student Nathan Zohner warned his fellow students about a dangerous substance called dihydrogen monoxide, or DHMO. It’s colourless, odourless, tasteless and yet kills thousands of people every year through accidental inhalation. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage and in its gaseous form, DHMO causes severe burns. It’s found in cancers and infected wounds, and large quantities have been confirmed in every river, stream, lake and reservoir in America. But most terrifying is that everyone who drinks DHMO goes on to eventually die. How can this be legal?? CHAPTERS: PREVIOUS EPISODE MENTIONED: Smart Toilets, Brain Pics, Corpse Comfort, Nuclear Moon, Space Fashion, and Super Conductivity SOURCES: OpenAI Struggling to Destroy Onslaught of AI GirlfriendsPentagon’s Ex-Alien Hunter Admits a Lot of UFO Sightings Are Secret Military CraftsHow A 14-Year-Old Boy Convinced His Class To Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide | IFLScienceSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:16:55

The Emu War: A Deep Dive Into Australia's Feathered Fiasco

2/1/2024
After the horrors of World War I, the Australian Federal Government gave thousands of discharged veterans money, land and the promise of a bright and happy agricultural life in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. Life as a farmer wasn’t easy, but at least these veterans had seen the last of the battlefield. Or so they thought. The war was over but followed soon after by the great depression in 1929. Hoping to ease the pressure and literally put bread on the table for Australians, the Federal Government promised subsidies to the new farmers to increase their crop production. Wheat prices began to fall and farmers were left wanting when the subsidies never came. The farmers were screwed. And on top of all of this, they found themselves in a battle with an unexpected adversary, pillaging their wheat and destroying their rabbit fences: the emu. As if plummeting wheat prices and broken promises weren't enough, the veterans-turned-farmers found themselves neck to ample neck with a literal army of emus. 20,000 birds had descended upon the wheat fields (coincidentally smack bang in the middle of their migration route), wreaking havoc on crop yields and perimeter infrastructure. The solution was, of course, clear to these battle-hardened farmers: Guns. Lots of guns. CHAPTERS: SOURCES: Looking back: Australia's Emu Wars - Australian Geographic19 Nov 1932 - "EMU WAR" DEFENDED. - TroveEmu War - WikipediaBBC Earth - The Great Emu War in Western Australia was a... | FacebookAustralia's Emu War spawns feature film, jokes and memes 90 years on - ABC NewsAustralia’s emu war: John Cleese outrun in race to shoot movie of how flightless birds thwarted army’s machine gunsAustralia Once Lost a War With the Mighty Emu | by Matthew Gault | War Is Boring | MediumAre Emus Dangerous? (Reasons They Attack + How To Avoid) | BirdfactTrailer Drops for Monster Fest 2023 Official Selection THE EMU WARSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:35:37

John Chau's Fatal Mission For God To Earth's Most Isolated Tribe

1/25/2024
In our modern society, most people live their lives lurching from fix to fix from the digital syringe; relying on social media and telecommunication advances to feel connected to the world around them. Facetime, Instagram, LinkedIn, we froth it. Well, most people do. Some people want absolutely nothing to do with not only modern technology but with the rest of the world in general. Around the globe, there are 100 or more "uncontacted" tribes, Indigenous peoples who avoid all contact with outsiders. Many of these people groups are in places like Brazil, Venezuela and Peru, probably hoping the beautiful rainforest they call home doesn’t get completely decimated by the white man. Over the years, outsiders have made some attempts to build connections with such tribes, in the hopes of understanding their cultures and respecting their way of life (well, we’d like to think that was their intention anyway). But the title of the most “uncontacted” people today goes to the Sentinelese people, an isolated tribe living on North Sentinel Island located off the coast of India. And if weren’t for the noteworthy, and quite frankly, arrogant efforts of John Chau, a devout Christian missionary in 2018, we doubt we would have ever heard of them. CHAPTERS: SOURCES: 5 of the Most Isolated Peoples on Earth | Discover MagazineStephen C. GeorgeNov 28, 2021The life and death of John Chau, the man who tried to convert his killers by J Oliver Conroy 3 Feb 2019 The Sentinelese: Who Are The Most Isolated Uncontacted Tribe On Earth? | IFLScienceTom Hale The man who spent decades befriending isolated Sentinelese tribe by Andamans: US man's death puts spotlight on 'tribal tourism'North Sentinel Island: How can the Sentinelese people avoid contact with the outside world? - ABC NewsLiam ButterworthBackground - The SentineleseSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:45:29

Mary Shelley, Taphophobia and Life-Preserving Coffins

1/18/2024
We’re all afraid of something. Many people live with significant anxiety due to their fear of things such as heights, flying, public speaking, the number 8 for example (Octophobia - it’s a real thing). But one fear puts disproportionately more heebies in our jeebies: taphophobia, or the fear of being buried alive as a result of being incorrectly pronounced dead. To a mad few, it may seem a genuine irrational fear (like omphalophobia - the fear of belly buttons) but at least some solace can be taken in the fact that it is exceedingly rare… right? There wouldn’t be an episode if that was the case! Perhaps being trapped 6 feet under is more reality than nightmare. This was certainly the case in centuries past. In the early 19th century, when Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, it was remarkably common for people to be accidentally buried alive. It happened so frequently in fact, that some clever people came up with innovative escape coffins to help the poor buried people get out. CHAPTERS: PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED: World's Most Kissed Face: Why CPR Doll Resusci-Anne Looks Like A French GirlThe Resurrectionists!The Vague Silver Lining of Tobacco SOURCES: The Science of Life and Death in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – The Public Domain ReviewSharon RustonWhat are life-preserving coffins? – How It WorksTaphophobia and ‘life preserving coffins’ in the nineteenth century - Marco Cascella, 2016Life-preserving Coffin in Doubtful Cases of Death | Hagley Digital ArchivesMary Shelley - WikipediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:43:41

Jose Delgado's Alternative To Lobotomy: The Stimoceiver Implant

1/11/2024
The 20th century was a golden era for ethically dubious brain studies. In 1950, Dr Jose Delgado had a vision to control aggressive behaviour using a device surgically implanted in the brain known as the Stimoceiver. How science fictiony is that?! Delgado's journey toward creating a peaceful human race started with a bully macaque monkey who had been terrorising his cage mates. After successfully pacifying the angry monkey with the Stimoceiver, Delgado took the bull by the horns, quite literally. In 1963, a pivotal moment unfolded as Delgado tested the limits of the Stimoceiver in a dramatic experiment in the bull fighting arena. The public spectacle that followed thrust Delgado into the spotlight, drawing both admiration and ethical concerns. Delgado’s desire to create a "psycho-civilized society" caused some discomfort, with critics fearing the implications of the technology in the wrong hands. Whether controversial or revolutionary, Delgado's work remains a testament to the power of asking "What if..." PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED: The Terrible History of The Lobotomy Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation SOURCES: The Man Who Fought a Bull With Mind Control | Discover MagazineJack El-HaiTribute to Jose Delgado, Legendary and Slightly Scary Pioneer of Mind Control - Scientific American Blog NetworkJohn HorganJose Manuel Rodriguez Delgado | NeuropsychopharmacologyJosé Manuel Rodríguez Delgado - Wikipedia‘Matador’ With a Radio Stops Wired Bull- New York Times, Neuroanatomy, Amygdala - StatPearls - NCBI BookshelfTimothy C. MarzulloJ Undergrad Neurosci Educ. (2017) Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone WrongSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:32:16

St Lidwina: The Patron Saint Of Ice Skating (and Chronic Pain)

1/4/2024
There are a lot of patron saints out there in the Catholic multiverse. They have saints for every day of the year and then some. We’ve all heard of the more famous saints like St. Paul, St. Peter and St. Patrick. What, no Saint Gary? Pfft. But then there are some lesser-known saints, but by no means less holy. Take St. Bernardino for an example. He travelled all over Italy and preached to the public instead of reading boring sermons in church. He became known as one of the greatest orators of his time, drawing big crowds with his captivating sermons. Sounds great, until you learn that he preached anti-Semitism, the brutal persecution of homosexuality, and the occasional witch hunt. Nevertheless, his gift of the gab led him to be venerated as the saint of marketing, communications and PR. No joke. Then there’s St. Lawrence, who while being executed by the Romans (by being cooked on the grill) allegedly exclaimed after quite some time, “I'm done on this side, turn me over” and became the saint of cooks, chefs, and comedians. You just can’t make this stuff up. And then some saints are very niche indeed. Like St. Lidwina of Schiedam, the patron saint of ice skating. At age 15, she fell over ice skating and broke her rib, which one source ominously states was the beginning of her martyrdom. No matter what medical intervention was applied, her rib just did not heal. She became progressively paralysed, soon unable to walk, her body slowly deteriorating to the point where she was confined to bed for the rest of her life. But paralysis was just the beginning. Soon after her injury, gangrene set in and spread across her entire body. She had three large open wounds on her body where maggots feasted on her rotting flesh. She barely ate anything, surviving mostly on the Eucharist and had literally zero sleep for days, weeks, and even months on end. Then she began to shed. Skin, bones, parts of her intestines. Some stories suggest that she may have even puked out some bone. Her parents kept the offcasts in a vase, which would give off a sweet odour, making her quite popular with the townspeople. All she could do was meditate on the ‘gift’ of pain and suffering that God had given her. At about 25 years of age, Lidwina began to experience ecstasies and visions and apparently, many miracles took place at her bedside, gaining her the reputation as a healer and holy woman. But despite her blissful spiritual experiences, Lidwina continued to suffer every imaginable pain. She had intense headaches, toothaches, fever, dropsy, (generalised swelling), she couldn’t see out of her right eye, and her left eye was so weak that any light caused her pain. She was one big sore from head to foot and greatly emaciated. What a life. Not only did she become the patron saint of ice skating, but she was also canonized as the patron saint of the chronically ill. And, as it turns out, Lidwina is thought to be one of, if not the first documented cases of multiple sclerosis. Perhaps all that suffering was not so much God’s will, but an awful degenerative disease of the nervous system. But to live in that amount of pain, she must have received help from St. Drausnius, the patron saint of invincible people. Or maybe she prayed to St. Genesius, the saint of torture (as well as clowns, actors, lawyers and many other random things). What else will they come up with? Patron saint of the internet? (Spoiler, they already have) PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED: Dying For It: A Scientific Look At Death During Sex SOURCES: St. LidwinaSt Lydwine of SchiedamLidwinaR Medaer10 Most Bizarre Patron Saints in Catholicism25 Patron Saints of Really Random ThingsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:24:42

Biosphere 2: Sloppy Steve Bannon's Claim To Climate Fame

12/28/2023
When we think of champions in the battle against climate change, names like Greta Thunberg, David Suzuki, and David Attenborough come to mind. But would you ever associate former US President Donald Trump with climate action? Probably not. But, his 2016 presidential campaign manager, Steve Bannon - you know the former investment banker, Hollywood executive, the guy who’s continuously being charged and convicted of crimes - well, he played a surprising role in an incredible scientific endeavour which has been aiding in climate change research for decades. You think you know someone. The story goes back to the 1970’s at an ‘intentional community’ in New Mexico called Synergia Ranch. Whether or not it was a fancy name for a hippy cult, Synergia Ranch became a breeding ground for ideas about creating a self-contained, ecologically sustainable environment. Co-founder John Allen, an ecologist and playwright, dreamed of blending high-tech and ecological principles to create a self-sustaining wonderland. Allen believed that the earth was already as good as dead, so he wanted to build a big ass terrarium where plants, animals and humans could thrive. But he needed cash. Heaps of it. Enter stage right, Allen’s billionaire buddy, Texas oil tycoon, Edward Bass. Bass contributed a staggering $150 million (petty cash really) and became the Chair of the Space Biosphere Ventures company which administered and managed the whole project. In 1991, Allen’s dream was realised and the construction of the Biosphere 2 was complete - biosphere 1 is Earth. Makes sense. A 3.14-acre terrarium with 6,500 windows, reaching nearly 28 meters in height and sealed by a 500-ton welded stainless steel liner. Containing a small ocean, mangrove wetlands, tropical rainforest, Savannah grassland, and a fog desert, Biosphere 2 was the solution for the survival of humanity. The goal was to house eight "biospherians" who would live entirely within this self-contained ecosystem, growing their own food, recycling waste, and demonstrating that humans could potentially survive in space. Could they really pull this off? Or would the whole thing turn into green slime? Well, there were a few challenges. Within two weeks, they’d broken the rules by sending one biospherian to the hospital (she chopped off her finger) and she sneakily brought back some supplies. They also tuckered into their emergency food supplies way sooner than expected and then around the 8-month mark, oxygen levels were dangerously low because of an explosion of oxygen gulping bacteria in the soil. You’d think there’d be excess CO2 because of that, but no, it chemically bonded with the concrete in the structure. You can’t make this shit up. Hummingbirds and honeybees died, crops went unpollinated, bugs attacked what remained and cockroaches reigned supreme. It was a hot mess. Needless to say, Biosphere 2 wasn’t getting good press. Bass had already put in another $50 million into the project and needed to get the finances under control. Enter stage left, Steven Bannon, who was managing his own investment banking firm at the time. Bannon was interested in Biosphere 2’s potential and, after failed attempts to secure venture capital, Bannon proposed a bold marketing plan: sell biospheres to governments worldwide and build Biosphere 3 as a Las Vegas casino and resort. Can you imagine… gambling amongst the corpses of hummingbirds. Anyway, Bass agreed, and the solution was to remove John Allen from control and appoint Bannon as acting CEO. But Bannon's takeover in April 1994 was nothing short of dramatic. In an audacious move, accompanied by U.S. marshals, Bannon entered Biosphere 2 and purged the entire management team just as the second team of biospherians moved in. It was a shit show. Ecologist, Abigail Alling and engineer, Mark Van Thillo, two passionate defenders of the project, were concerned about safety but were arrested after trying to break the system's safety valves and open the...

Duration:00:35:47

A Very Scary Christmas: Fierce Folklore, Macabre Meals and Ghastly Gifts

12/21/2023
Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year. Festive feasting on sweet delicacies, children filled with wonder, awaiting Santa’s visit on Christmas Eve. Unless of course, you subscribe to some of the lesser-known Northern European traditions. Then Christmas is downright horrifying. Hans Trapp for example. After being excommunicated from his local catholic church, Hans Trapp roamed the countryside disguised as a scarecrow, obsessed with the idea of tasting human flesh. He lured a young shepherd boy to his death, cooked him over a fire and just when he was about to eat him, God struck him down with lightning. He’s dead now, but legend has it that at Christmas time, Hans Trapp goes from door to door looking for tasty young children. There’s also Krampus, a demonic half-goat Christmas monster who kidnaps children and either drowns them, eats them or drags them to hell. Okaaay. And we mustn’t forget Grýla, a giant ogre who lives in a cave and emerges at Christmas to hunt for children to cook into a stew. Nothing says Merry Christmas like child cannibalism apparently. Speaking of eating, not every country is into Christmas cookies. Some cultures prefer more unique delicacies, like the Russian favourite, Holodets, AKA meat jelly. It’s not the most appealing looking (or sounding) thing. The Soviets could work a little harder on their branding and aesthetics. Or how about some Lutefisk? It’s made from aged fish and caustic lye. You basically turn the fish into poison, then add enough water so it’s edible. Oh, and it corrodes silver. But if you want to go fancy this Christmas, how about you try Kiviyak, a classic recipe from Greenland. You take about 500 auks (you know those birds that look like a mini penguins). Then you stuff them, beaks, feathers and all, into the hollowed-out carcus of a seal. Cover it in grease, put it in a hole and cover it with rocks for three to 18 months while it ferments. Delicious. Now for those more inclined toward festive pastries, you better hope there’s enough butter, unlike the great Norwegian butter crisis of Christmas in 2011. The Nordic brethren got a little crazy when butter shortages left them imagining Christmas without their buns and biscuits. There were supermarket stampedes, butter smuggling arrests, and desperate Norwegians paying up to 50 pounds per stick. Much like the great Hawaiian toilet paper shortage in 1971. By the time Christmas rolled around, Hawaii was a post-apocalyptic scene of people guarding their TP supplies with their lives We all know Christmas is about giving, and what better gift than Hasbro javelin darts. These outdoor missile darts were fun for the whole family in the 1960s until the ER visits started ramping up. There were also a few deaths. Let’s just say these things could pierce skulls, and in one case, they definitely did. Another super fun toy was the Wego kite tubes, a giant ring you tie to the back of a speedboat. Certainly not your average floatation device, Wego resulted in riders losing consciousness, breaking vertebra, rupturing eardrums and puncturing lungs. That product got recalled and quickly became illegal to use in the USA and Canada. So, whatever you’re into at Christmas, maybe steer away from deadly toys, poisonous food and terrifying your children with tales of cannibalism. Also, let’s hope you get some new clothes for Christmas so you don't get eaten by an evil giant cat. It’s an Icelandic thing. SOURCES: Swedes arrested for butter smugglingLet us Celebrate the Anniversary of Norway's Infamous Butter CrisisJust TickledThe Worst Christmas Shortages in HistoryRemembering The Short Lived And Deadly “Kite Tube” CrazeFrancis XavierThe seven most terrifying Christmas traditions around the...

Duration:00:32:32

The Asbestos Coverup: "Let 'Em Work, Then They Can Rest In Peace"

12/14/2023
Dr Anthony Lanza had quite an impressive career. Amongst many things, he discovered the cause of the lung disease, silicosis, and founded the discipline of industrial hygiene, making workplace environments more safe for employees. He was also a beloved teacher and researcher at New York University in the final years of his career. What a guy. But when he died in 1964, Dr Lanza's far less laudatory secret career came to light and he had a lot of haters. Over the last 2 episodes of our asbestos series, we’ve heard about the miracle of asbestos and the horrors of asbestos. But when did we learn how bad the stuff was? In Ancient Roman times, Pliny the Elder recommended not to buy asbestos mine slaves because they died pretty young. (Good advice I guess ??). So maybe they knew a thing or two back then. But let’s fast forward to more modern times because that’s when the health risks associated with asbestos started emerging in the academic and medical literature. The first asbestosis death that was officially linked to asbestos exposure was in 1924. A few other asbestos-related deaths were happening around that time too so in 1929, asbestos companies commissioned our friend Dr. Lanza to run an industrial hygiene survey of several of their asbestos plants and factories. After conducting a bunch of physical examinations and X-rays, Dr Lanza found that asbestosis was rife in the workers. But instead of gently breaking the news to them that they would die a slow, horrible death, he decided it was better to not tell them anything and instead tell the executives. Hmmm. Maybe not so nice. Later, Dr Kenneth Smith was working at one of the big asbestos companies, Johns-Manville, and a bunch of workers with early signs of asbestosis came to see him. What did he do? Well, he told the company executives to hide the results from the workers, for their own good of course. And because he really cared about the worker’s well-being, he suggested the executives purchase a shredding machine to destroy any ‘confidential’ correspondence. Dr Smith then became the medical director at Johns Manville. He was a keeper. So, by 1943, big asbestos companies knew that asbestosis was definitely a thing. But how bad was it? They decided to commission Dr Lanza again, but this time to do an animal trial. The study showed that 81.8% of the mice they experimented on developed lung tumours upon asbestos exposure. However, that study was considered inconclusive (81.8%!) and much too problematic to take to the public. Better destroy the study altogether and say everything’s fine. Just smile and wave. A bit further down the track, the asbestos industry was forced to put warning labels on bags and crates of asbestos. And they did. In the smallest font they possibly could. And when sending crates of asbestos overseas, they just removed the warning label altogether. It wasn’t until 1964, some 40 years after the official recorded death, at Irving Selikoff’s international conference on the Biological Effects of Asbestos that the link between asbestos exposure and cancer was firmly established. And in 1978,18 years later, a series of documents from the asbestos companies came to light. They were described by a bunch of lawyers as being like the Pentagon papers for the asbestos industry, revealing studies they had done, what they knew about the dangers and what they had done to cover it up. No doubt the asbestos executives regretted not buying a shredder. PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED: From Toothpaste and Cigarettes: The Lesser Known Uses Of AsbestosWittenoom: Australia's Asbestos Chernobyl Wiped Town Off The Map SOURCES: Defending the IndefensibleNew Data on Asbestos Indicate Cover-Up of Effects on WorkersShooting the Messenger: The Vilification of Irving J. SelikoffThe Real Asbestos Horror StoryThe silence: the asbestos industry and early occupational cancer research--a case studySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:23:10

Wittenoom: Australia's Asbestos Chernobyl Wiped Town Off The Map

12/7/2023
Australia is a wondrous country with endless sights to see. The Great Barrier Reef, Sydney Opera House, Bondi Beach, the vast sunburnt deserts... and a tiny town in Western Australia where, if you breathe, your chances of dying a horrible death will be vastly increased. Wittenoom, considered Australia's version of Chernobyl, is a site that no one should visit (and yet some still do). Back in the 1930s, before Wittenoom was even a town, a young man named Lang Hancock kicked off a mining boom after discovering a beautiful blue rock: premium-grade blue asbestos. At first, the asbestos mining was more like fossicking on the surface, but things really kicked off when CSR (a famous Australian sugar refining company!) bought the mine and decided to take things underground. After World War II, the demand for asbestos grew due to the lack of imports so the Australian government decided to help CSR and make their mine go gangbusters. They even built them a town with a post office, hospital, police station, state school (and likely many pubs). They wanted everyone to go live in Wittenoom so they could mine the crap out of it. The problem is, mining sucks. It’s one of the worst jobs ever. Crawling through small, dark tunnels, miners would be covered in cuts all over their bodies, dust filling up their lungs and eyeballs. The whole mine was one giant dust cloud. CSR tried to fix it with some Rotoclone dust-collecting units, but they lasted for a grand total of 64 operating hours because the asbestos dust corroded them. The mining part was bad, but the next stage of the process was even worse. Once the rock had been extracted, it was sent to the mill to be smashed into tiny fragments. Then it had to be bagged, where workers would be covered head to toe in asbestos fibres. After the bagging, they had to do something with the leftover stuff, the asbestos tailings. What did they do with that? Oh, they just dumped it wherever they could, even in the kids’ sandpits. Sometimes the kids would chew on the asbestos tailings as a substitute for chewing gum. Hey, it corrodes metal fans, what harm could it do to kids? Needless to say, Wittenoom was a shit place to live. The town was covered in dust all the time, so much so that the Royal Flying Doctors knew exactly where the town was from 100km away because of the giant blue plume of smoke. Little did the people of Wittenoom know what was to unfold was worse yet. There are basically two diseases that asbestos causes and they go from bad to worse. The first is asbestosis, which is chronic scarring of the lungs. Death usually comes from something like heart failure because it’s so damn hard to breathe. For those who don’t die, their fate is to survive through decades of horrible pain. The other thing that can happen is mesothelioma, which is cancer in the lining of your organs. It is truly a horrible way to die and all it takes is one asbestos particle to do it. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, more and more cases of asbestosis and mesothelioma began to emerge. In 1960, Dr. McNulty did a series of chest X-rays of the Wittenoom mine workers and one quarter of them were affected. Asbestos related diseases cause approximately 4,000 deaths every year in Australia, with one person dying every 12 hours from mesothelioma. But nothing anyone did caused the mining to stop… it just wasn’t profitable anymore. Eventually in 1966, they closed the mine (only because they could import asbestos for cheaper) and in 1978 the Western Australian government decided to phase out the town. It took decades for this to happen though, gradually closing down businesses, schools and pubs. Now it’s a wasteland but there was one faithful resident who refused to leave until finally she was evicted in 2022 by a team wearing full protective gear and face masks. So, unless you want to risk dying a slow and painful death, maybe don’t go visit the largest contaminated site in the Southern Hemisphere. PREVIOUS...

Duration:00:30:45

From Toothpaste To Cigarettes: The Lesser Known Uses Of Asbestos

11/30/2023
Asbestos. Do you feel like coughing just thinking about it? Most of us shudder to hear the word - it’s a substance that has caused hundreds and thousands of horrible, painful deaths. And yet it’s one of the most goddamn amazing things on the planet. We’ve all heard about the horrors of asbestos. But what about the miraculous side of it? Think about it - it’s a rock that you can make clothes out of, and banknotes for that matter. It’s wild. A weaveable, fire-resistant, rot-resistant rock. There’s literally nothing else like it on the planet. With all our advances in science and modern manufacturing techniques, we still haven’t been able to come up with something to match it. The use of asbestos skyrocketed in the industrial era, but there are actually signs of this magical rock being used all the way back in 4000 BC. Some people even found asbestos fibres in stone age debris, dating back some 750,000 years ago (but that could be just coincidental - there were a lot of rocks being used back then amirite). For ancient peoples, asbestos was so magical that it seemed to belong more to the realm of fairy tales than to real life. Some believed that it was derived from the wool of the mythical fire-resistant salamander or the feathers of the phoenix. Others confidently claimed that it was spun from the long, silky fur of rats that lived inside volcanoes. Okay, the stories are a bit far-fetched, but they were onto something. Asbestos is freaking magical. In the Middle Ages, asbestos was considered the party trick of kings. Not only did it protect against medieval spells, but it helped with magic tricks too. King Charlemagne apparently had an asbestos tablecloth, and when his guests had finished eating, he would rip the tablecloth off and throw it in the fire. In the blaze, the cloth would turn fiery red, but not burn. He’d take it out and say (in medieval French), “Look, clean!” Now that’s a party trick. And apparently, it was so impressive that it even stopped a war from happening. Nobody messes with King Charlemagne and his magic tablecloth. Now we all know the boring modern uses of asbestos such as building materials, roofing, fireplaces etc. Boring. We want to know the more creative uses for this magical rock. Well, how does asbestos toothpaste sound to you? Or an asbestos cigarette for that extra lung-scarring flavour. And if you’re working with asbestos and are worried about inhaling the fibres, not to worry - just pop on a face mask… made out of asbestos. To really get the Christmas season going, perhaps these holidays, you could decorate your tree with fluffy asbestos artificial snow! (Don’t do this.) So much fun for the kids (for now). PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED: Iroquois Theater Blaze: The Tragic Fire That Ignited The Evolution Of Exit Lights SOURCES: AsbestosAsbestos: Geology, Mineralogy, Mining and Uses ASBESTOS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRECharlemagne's Asbestos Tablecloth Mystery History of Asbestosasbestos.comHow to be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood 1941-1981The Legend of Oscar-Winning Producer-Showman Mike ToddWhen Asbestos Was a Gift Fit for a KingSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:23:00

From Baking To Hating: Tradwives and Terrorism with Dr Kristy Campion

11/23/2023
Imagine a slower pace of life: Growing your own vegetables, spending more time with the children, the smell of freshly baked sourdough wafting through your well-kept home, no pesky job or financials to worry about. That does sound lovely, doesn’t it? And then while your healthy kids are playing in their mud kitchen, you hop online to chat with your tradwife friends about how to ban immigration, ban abortion, and breed out the blacks. Wait, what?! To be fair, it’s quite a leap to go from baking bread to white supremacy. But there seems to be a connection between these wholesome and traditional values and something far more sinister. For some women, the tradwife movement is as simple as being tired of the rat race and genuinely wanting to spend more time with the family and less time at work. But for the more suggestible traditionalist women out there, it is a pathway to the bigoted alt-right; to the white nationalists espousing racism, misogyny, and heterosexism, sometimes to the point of explicitly advocating violence and terrorism. And because we can’t quite understand what the hell sourdough has to do with terrorism, we’ve invited special guest Dr Kristy Campion on the show to discuss the links between the tradwife movement and the alt-right. Dr Campion is a Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead of Terrorism Studies at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University. For the past two years, her research has focused heavily on right-wing extremism in Australia, and whilst investigating why there were so many women in a movement inherently dismissive of women’s rights, the tradwife connection became apparent. We’re all for everyone making their own choices and living life the way they want to. If you want to stay at home with the kids and cook and clean and greet your husband at the door with a cocktail, go for it! If you want to oppose feminism, disagree with women voting, and think women don’t belong in the workforce, whatever floats your boat! (Even if we think that is a stupid boat to float). But it’s when these hate-filled world views fuel attempts to force other people into alignment via means of violence that things get a bit… Trumpy. An intriguing aspect of extremism, similar to religion, is its attraction for individuals who crave certainty. For people who desire an existence devoid of doubt and ambiguity, with blame for all of life’s problems placed squarely on undeserving populations, the rabbit hole of extremism is all too easy to fall down. Dr Campion chats to us about the unexpected rise in conspiratorial activity during COVID and an age predisposition towards the baby boomers due to their non-existent digital filter. She also imparts a bleak truth in that at some point, you aren’t responsible for a friend's or a loved one’s beliefs. But fear not! The answer lies in reinvigorating our appreciation of democracy; a rebrand for the 21st century so that democracy once again slaps! If the youth get reacquainted with the pros of democracy and the freedoms and order it affords, then the desire to leave the mainstream lessens and extremism becomes salty af. SOURCES: Defining Ecofascism: Historical Foundations and Contemporary Interpretations in the Extreme RightWomen in the Extreme and Radical Right: Forms of Participation and Their ImplicationsSteve King's rape comments reveal the misogyny at the heart of white supremacist ideologyAlt-right women and the "white baby challenge" [Excerpted from "Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right is Warping the American Imagination" by Alexandra Minna Stern (Beacon Press, 2019). Reprinted with permission by Beacon Press.]Why Are Gen Z Girls Attracted to the Tradwife Lifestyle?, The Public Eye, Spring/Summer 2021 by Mariel CookseySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:46:09

Nellie Bly Feigned Insanity To Expose Abuse In A Madhouse

11/16/2023
What are girls good for? Well, in the 1800s, the answer to that question was plain as day: birthing children and keeping house. In fact, in 1885, the Pittsburgh Dispatch published a column declaring that a woman who worked outside the home was "a monstrosity”! This outrageously sexist column sparked a fiery response from one hell of a young woman. Born Elizabeth Cochran and known later and more famously as Nellie Bly, at age 21 wrote back a response under the pseudonym "Lonely Orphan Girl”. Something in Nellie’s passionate letter appealed to the newspaper editor, George Madden, who eventually offered her a full-time job writing on issues affecting working women. Unfortunately, the factory owners got their knickers in a knot about her writing (likely calling out sexist behaviour) so she was reassigned to where women belong - fashion, society, gardening and the like. Screw that! In a time when women were treated atrociously, Nellie fought back. Unhappy with her assignment to the lifestyle section, she embarked on a mission that would change the course of journalism forever. After a 6-month stint in Mexico reporting as a foreign correspondent during Porfirio Diaz’s tyrannical dictatorship (at age 21, mind you), Nellie decided it was time for the big smoke. Off to New York City she went, facing rejection after rejection from every newspaper (well, she was a woman) until finally she talked her way into the offices of Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper, the New York World. It was here that she began her remarkable foray into the as-yet-unknown career of investigative journalism. Her first mission: expose the appalling treatment of patients in the Blackwell Island Insane Asylum. A casual stroll around the exterior and interview with a staffer would simply not do for Nellie’s standards. She opted for undercover, which meant feigning insanity to get herself committed… and hopefully returning home. With careful consideration, and a promise from her editor to get her out, Nellie accepted the mission and took to practising her crazy eyes in the mirror, spooking herself out with ghost stories and brushing up on her acting skills. But could she really convince doctors, police officers and judges that she was insane? Surely they would do thorough tests and discover inconsistencies that would expose her? Well, unsurprisingly, the doctors and courts were all too willing to send a woman to the loony bin back then. All she had to do was act a bit confused and not blink for a while and they were convinced. She was declared “positively demented”! Off she went with a one-way ticket to the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. Now we can all imagine what Nellie was subjected to while under good and proper care in a mental asylum in the 1800s. Cold rotten food, a harsh scrubbing at bath time from a fellow legitimately insane inmate deputised by staff, dunked in freezing water in what sounded like waterboarding; good and proper care. The thing is, once Nellie was admitted to the asylum, she no longer kept up the insane act. In fact, according to her records (yes, her editor came good on the promise to get her out - phew!) plenty of the women in there seemed sane. Yet such non-insane behaviour was met with a suspicion of trickery from staff, only further confirming their judgements of these poor women, condemned to a life of inhumane treatment. What a catch-22! After her exposé on Blackwell Island, New York City spent $50k 19th-century dollars on the management of institutions housing people with mental illness. Other trailblazing journalists (pejoratively called “stunt girl journalists”) followed in her footsteps, using undercover reporting to effect change and shed light on critical human rights issues. Nellie Bly was an incredible woman! Oh, and she turned Around The World In Eighty Days into fact and set the world record for travelling around the world (72 days) and would later become a patented industrialist, novelist,...

Duration:00:37:45