February 15, 2021 • 29 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your
Mind listener Mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm
Joe McCormick, and we're bringing you the messages that you
have sent us. Uh So, this episode is going to
feature some responses to our episodes about the Shannhaijing, the
(00:23):
Classics of the Mountains and Seas or the I guess
that's singular the Classic or the Cannon of the Mountains
and Sees, our episode about the bonds eye Tree, our
episode about stolen heads and stolen brains. It's gonna be
a lot of fun. All right, Well, let's let's kick
right in to uh to full gear on this listener
mail episode. Here comes the robot, Here comes the listener mail. Okay,
(00:50):
should I do this one from? I can do this
one from Alexandra if you want to go for it, Okay.
Alexandra writes in about the Shannhaijing, says, Hi, guys, I
was listening to the episode about the Shanhaijing, and I
wanted to say I really empathized with the childhood I
believe dragons existed feeling you mentioned and wanted to share why.
I come from Krakow, Poland, which used to be Poland's
(01:12):
capital for many centuries, and our local mythical slash folklore
symbol is a dragon. We have a beautiful castle Vovl,
located on Jurassic limestone on the bank of the Visa
or the Vistula River, and there is a legend saying
a dragon used to live in a cave below the castle.
(01:33):
The basic version of the legend I always heard goes
like this, no night could slay the beast. When a
local cobbler, Draftevka, showed up, he said he had a
trick in mind. He got a sheep carcass and filled
it with sulfur. The dragon, tricked by Drafteva's work, ate
the sheep and suddenly felt very, very thirsty because of
(01:54):
the sulfur. He started drinking from the Viswa river and
drank and drank and drank until he finally burst, and
thus Drutevka became a hero. Tadah, Yeah, good legend. I
think it operates on the assumption that a dragon is
much like a dog. Like it does not stop to
taste its food. It just wolve, sit down. The goal
(02:14):
is to get it down the gullet as fast as
possible so it wouldn't be thrown off by the scent
of sulfur. It's just going to swallow that sheep. Alexander
goes on, But it's just a legend. Why would I
believe it? Well, there's an actual limestone cave under the
castle now a tourist attraction, and it's called Dragon's Den,
which I believe in Polish is a smokee Sha Yama,
(02:36):
Alexander says. There's even a really cool metal dragon sculpture
that breathes fire next to the entrance. Now that sounds
like some burning man stuff. Uh. There is also an
ancient bone hanging on the cathedral located on the Vavel Hill,
said to be the Dragon's bone, So how could that
be just false? All the proof is there. Why would
(02:58):
somebody just lie about dragon? Uh? And then there is
a little tongue sticking out emoticon. Thanks for reminding me
of that feeling, and thanks for the amazing podcast. Love
listening to you. Stay safe and healthy, Alexandra. Well, I
looked at the photograph of the bone hanging there and uh,
yeah it looks legit. Yeah, what is that? Actually? It
(03:18):
looks like a large kind of tongue shape. Maybe it's
a rib bone. Yeah, I mean well, one's mind instantly
goes to like whales, um something something of that nature
for sure. M yeah, I wonder what that is. All right,
here's another one for us. This one comes to us
from Erica. Erica writes high There. I was recently introduced
(03:41):
to your podcast and I'm loving it. Thank you for
reminding me what interesting conversation like sounds like in the
midst of a pandemic. I'm sure you get lots of mail,
so I forgive me while I learned out a bit
and share a few thoughts that were sparked by the
few episodes I've listened to so far. I'll keep it
as brief as possible. While I was listening to Monsters
of the shan Haiji, you talked about how the Italian
(04:01):
words for Dante's demons sound more interesting to English speakers
than the translations. Um like malacota sounds better than evil tale.
I think this is why many people find watching films
in their original language with subtitles so much better than
a dub bad lip reading. Aside, by using subtitles, you're
able to retain the original sounds of the dialogue while
(04:22):
understanding the meaning in your native language. I was a
latecomer to anime because growing up I'd never seen it
in the original Japanese, and I generally loathed the sound
of the American voice actors chosen to dub those shows. Now, though,
I really enjoy watching Japanese anime and listening to the
cadence of the language, which for me is up there
with Italian in terms of phonetic beauty. One thing that
(04:44):
struck me when I started watching anime was that when
characters perform magic, they would often use English or German
for spell casting. I'm really fascinated by this. What does
magic sound like to people in different parts of the world.
For English speakers, I think it's pretty fair to say
that Latin is the fual magic language. In addition to
the hocus pocus that evolved from listening to religious services
(05:05):
in Latin for many centuries, Latin is a language known
only to the elite learned. It has the lyricism of Italian,
and it's something from the distant past when wizards, dragons, ETCETERA.
Quote used to exist. As you mentioned, you believed as
a kid in the Monsters episode, But what is it
that makes mouth sounds sound magical to people from other
(05:26):
parts of the world. Then I got to thinking about
how Token invented Elvish to sound beautiful, and contrasting with that, uh,
and contrasting that with Klingon, which is meant to sound warlike.
And I just had to email you to unload these
thoughts on someone and hope that you know about some
kind of study that's been done on this. Unrelated to that.
(05:47):
I'm listening to your podcast Brain and Head Theft Part
one while I was between chapters on Worms by this
w y R M s by Orson Scott Card. Uh.
There's so much in that book that links up with
what you were talking about in that episode that it
was actually a little creepy. You made it this far
through the email. Thanks for reading. I'm excited that there
(06:07):
are so many more of your podcasts I have yet
to hear. B Well, Erica, Oh thanks Erica. Well, yeah,
a lot of interesting ideas here. I don't know if
i'd ever put that together before about in the English
speaking world, Latin being a very common convention for for
the language of magic, and yeah, I think that would
probably have a lot to do with Latin being the
(06:30):
scholarly lingua franca of medieval Europe and and Renaissance Europe.
So at the time when alchemists would have been writing,
you know, they're there occult tomes. I think probably a
lot of these tombs would have been written in Latin
because it was the language of elite learning and scholarship,
even though nobody actually liked spoke it. Yeah, yeah, I
mean you see some other languages thrown in the mix,
(06:53):
like especially post Exorcist, you see Aramaic thrown around a lot.
Anytime you have a demon they're probably gonna be then
they may be speaking in Aramaic. Uh if you can,
you know, wing it um, But you know other I
guess other ancient languages can work as well. But it
does make me wonder. You know, we touched in recent
weird hol cinema on um Chinese black magic films, and
(07:16):
I wonder what languages, uh like Chinese films turned to,
or what languages Japanese films turned to, especially if they're
historic and scope you know, UM be interested to find out.
Of course, thinking back to our episode on the the
Oily Maniac, I guess in that movie. I don't recall
exactly how the magic worked in that movie, but that
(07:37):
was a movie about the the magic of outsiders of
other cultures. So it makes perfect sense that you would
potentially use um a language like a non Chinese language
in that scenario. So I wonder if there's a lot
of that stuff going on. But on the subject of
cling on, uh, we we'll have to come back to
that because I I've long been interested in doing an
invention style episode on invented language, oh straight up created languages,
(08:03):
the reasons for them, uh, you know, entertainment or otherwise,
and what some of the best examples are. So that's
that's still on the list of possible episodes to do
in the future. It's interesting that I think one of
the last episodes that we did of the dedicated Inventioned
podcast before we moved into this feed is um. It
was that we did invented words. But of course inventing
(08:25):
a word is very different than trying to invent an
entire language with its own rules and lexicon and grammar
and everything. And I wonder if could it be possible
that an invented language would ever really catch on or
is that pretty much just not ever going to happen. Yeah,
(08:46):
all right, are you ready for this next message about
stolen heads and stolen brains? Let's have it. This is
from Sophie. Sophie says, dear stuff to blow your mind.
Obligatory but true sentence about being longtime listener, first time caller.
Uh in your head slash brain to parter. This week,
the name Jeremy Bentham rang recognition bells in my mind. Hey,
(09:06):
isn't that? But I wasn't certain until you mentioned him
still being at University College London today. Upon reflection, this
would imply there being multiple men who decided they ought
to have their bodies preserved to hang around in perpetuity.
But honestly, humans do far stranger things all the time.
My first encounter with Jeremy Bentham was as a complete
(09:27):
surprise during our orientation tour several years back. I was
doing a semester abroad at u C l s Art School.
Our first day was the whole group before we scattered
to the many programs, So the tour guide made sure
to lead the pile of unsuspecting American college students to
the literal dead founder to tell us all about him
and U C. L our culture, being one of shunning
(09:50):
contact with death meeting, Mr Bentham was somewhat arresting. Despite
his genial demeanor in the pictures you see online. I
can assure you he's rather more unsettling in per and
especially when he's been sprung on you. The tour guide
went on to explain that a requirement for accessing the
endowment under his name is that he be in attendance
(10:10):
at all requisite meetings. Thus we got to contemplate the
tableau of quiet, serious board meeting attendees patiently waiting as
a very dead Jeremy Bentham in his glass case gets
wheeled in ideally with amusingly squeaky wheel sound effects or
something that at least amused me. I don't believe they
explained that his head was elsewhere and why, and was
(10:32):
unsure if you encountered this reason for his preservation or
evidence for it in your research. They are not mutually
exclusive pieces of lore necessarily. Although I do remember being
told about the wax face, I genuinely don't remember if
they clarified that it was all wax, as what I
gleaned was wax over his skull and an increasing urge
(10:52):
to make for the exit, never to return. As an aside,
I would presume I have a relatively strong reaction and
that most visitors are far less unnerved. I imagine as
a regular student, I would either avoid his hallway whenever possible,
or become desensitized. As it sounds most are, given that
they've taken to stealing bits of him. I know, I
(11:14):
know being uh, I know being there for only six months,
I was somewhat inured, but barely. I have very strong
hyper empathy, a terrifically active imagination, and probably am a
hyper visualizer. I have autism, contributing to my high empathy
and my difficulty in turning it off, and my family
slash friends, and I suspect I also have mirror synesthesia
(11:37):
added on for obvious reasons. It's easy to generate strong
visceral imagery and difficult to put it to one side.
My brain is rather a live wire, and I can
be tickled on the face from across the room. Much
to my dismay, my plan to respectfully never go near
dear Jeremy again was foiled by his placement at a
critical intersection of hallways. The only way to the school's
(11:59):
supply store was a set of lovely stairs directly by him.
I cannot recall there being an alternate route while I
was there, and would always brace myself for the trip,
desperately attempting not to make eye contact with his surreal
piercing gaze as I speed walked by him. With about
the success we all have when trying not to think
about the purple polar bear, I e. None. I suppose
(12:21):
I was lucky that their art supply selection was largely
insufficient for my mediums of choice, and I was tragically
forced to seek art stores off campus. Conveniently enough, they
contain no dead people. According to a recent article by
the school, he's been relocated to a student center since
I attended, which hopefully is a nicer location for all involved.
(12:42):
He's an important icon they no doubt wish to keep
accessible to visitors in the u c L community, but
also need to maintain proper collections, protocols, slash environment, and
apparently significant security. So I imagine finding the ideal balance
is difficult. Maybe the new site will prevent more head
theft if the meat jerky head is kept with the
body now, or maybe his head will be like the
(13:05):
gavel goat statue of U c L Time will tell
no doubt. I'm not sure what the gavel goat is.
It sounds fun. Thank you so much for your time
and also your research. I appreciate a good citation so
you can add me to the unofficial petition of your fans.
Hoping your new home will return to us a mother
ship website with that good good robost tagging and source linking. Sincerely, Sophie,
(13:29):
Well Sophie, I, I really appreciate that final note. I
don't know how much hope you should hold out for that.
I believe the gavel goat, by the way, is a
traditional Christmas display erected uh in Gavel, Sweden. Some some
some some very swift online research seem to provide that answer,
but who knows. There could be multiple gavel goats out there.
(13:51):
Oh that's a good look and goat. It's got big
old horns that make it look like a basket with
a big handle. Yeah all right, here's another bit of
listener mailison comes to us from Michelle. Oh and just
to clarify something, this next message mentions in the subject
line that it is about Haydn and the head theft
(14:13):
of Franz Joseph Hayden that we talked about in part
one of braindon Head Theft, Hi, Robert and Joe. I
loved your episode on head and Brain Theft. It made
me reminisce about my favorite teacher. I played violin in
elementary school, but wasn't great at it and didn't love it.
On my first day of middle school, the orchestra teacher
asked for two people to switch to to to base,
so I jumped at the chance without telling my parents beforehand. Luckily,
(14:34):
they felt bad bass playing was vastly better than bad
violin playing, and we're okay with it. The teacher loved
to tell us stories about the composers we were playing.
He told us about the Surprise Symphony being written because
his benefactor kept falling asleep during concerts, and about the
Farewell Symphony, which involves musicians leaving the stage as the
last movement progresses until it's only two violinists because the
(14:57):
orchestra had been stuck there longer than they expect did,
and Hyden wanted to give his benefactor the message that
they wanted to go home. But now that I've learned
about Hyden's head theft, I think my teacher left out
the best story of all. I can't think of a
better story to get middle schoolers into classical music than
something as gory as decapitation and missing heads. I'm still
playing the bass in local community orchestras back when we
(15:18):
could still have those, and I'll never look at a
hide and piece the same way again. He's always been
one of my favorites, and I'll enjoy them all the
more now once we are all allowed to play in
groups again. Also in response to Robert's comments about cats
and food names, my cat growing up was called pancake
because my parents got her when she ran under our
car and they almost smashed her flat as a pancake.
(15:41):
Thanks again, you guys have been keeping me going through
these weird times. Thanks Michelle, rob How does pancake stack
up in your in your cat food names? I think
pancake is a perfect name for a cat, because Smith
there was a there was an ignoble prize winning paper,
wasn't there about how cats are neither solid nor look
quid there Um, let's say you forget the details of that.
(16:04):
But but as they their shape is in flux, sometimes
they are flat like a pancake. Yes, that ignoble paper
was about the rayology of cats. Reology being the field
of physics that studies how how fluids and liquids flow.
Uh so, and and cats, I mean, I think one
would be hard pressed to argue that they do not flow.
(16:27):
Let the Let the cats flow. Okay. This next message
comes from Zolt. Zolt said, Oh, and it's about our
episodes on sinkholes. Results says, Hi, Robert and Joe, I'm
writing regarding your recent episodes on sinkholes. You mentioned that
(16:48):
various sources of waters, such as wells or rivers, often
serve as sacred or spiritual sites for locals. I thought
i'd mentioned an example. Sacred or holy wells are quite
common in Hungary. One can often come across them while
while hiking in the countryside. These natural wells supposedly possess
healing power, with stories of magical recoveries from various illnesses
(17:10):
and disabilities, with the healing power often attributed to patron saints.
The sacred nature of these wells is often discovered or
confirmed by the appearance of a saint or very often
the Virgin Mary in the vicinity. There are more wild
stories too, such as a healing well being created by
a lightning strike. Interestingly, I noticed that these wells are
(17:32):
often nearby other religious sites, such as small chapels or
calvary hills. Maybe people attributed certain religious significance to areas,
or it was just easier to make a pilgrimage to
the same general place to fulfill all their religious needs
instead of going all over the forest one stop shop. Uh.
Calvary hills, otherwise known as crosswalks if you're not familiar,
(17:55):
are also pretty interesting. UH. They are usually a hill
with at least thirteen stations of crosses along a path
that people hike up on around Easter time as a
form of pilgrimage. Each cross along the path represents one
stage that Christ goes through during his crucifixion, with three
crosses on the top of the hill. Usually, these hills
are barely a few hundred meters above sea level, but
(18:17):
they still tie back to the idea of sacred mountains
as well. Anyway, thanks for all your good work, zolt PS.
I'm loving the Weird House Cinema episodes. I found a
few movies that I enjoyed quite a lot that I
didn't even know existed before. Well, if you find a
few movies that you enjoy quite a lot in that mix,
that you you're doing pretty pretty well. I mean, I
don't think to think we we love all of them. Well,
(18:40):
maybe the spirit of Weird House Cinema is that we're
exploring movies that are always fun to talk about whether
or not they're fun to watch. True, Yeah, and finding
finding the things to love even in films that are
sometimes very uneven. I would say that's that's also a
court of the spirit of the thing. All right. This
(19:02):
one comes to us from Toronto. Hi, Robert and Joe.
I'm a big fan of the show and have been
for ages. I have to say I am joined the
new format of the show with more content and variety. Okay,
maybe except Weird Al Cinema. I think I'm not ready
for that yet. I was listening to your episode on
Bonds Eyes, and when you mentioned the story of the
stolen Bonds Eyes and the plea for them to be returned,
(19:23):
I thought that I had heard that before. Furthermore, I
thought I remembered a happy ending to it. Sure Enough,
a quick search of in my podcast library brought me
to an episode from Stuff You Missed in History Class six.
By the way, not sure if I found them through
you or vice versa, but also a great podcast. I'll
quote from from there, and this is the thirty two
(19:45):
minute scond mark. The museum put out a call on
social media for the returning, promising that they would not
ask any questions. They were just afraid that these irreplaceable
trees would die without proper care. Three days after the theft,
that trees reappeared in the museum's driveway and uh. Then
they also included a link to a Smithsonian mag dot
(20:07):
com article to stolen Bonsai trees mysteriously returned Washington Museum. Um. Anyway,
they continue, I thought I would give you the good
news best regards train no ps the explanation of one
of you regarding why cutting onions from pole to pole
to cry less was pure stuff to blow your mind.
Can't wait to test it? Is it gonna be your
(20:29):
first time cutting an onion that way? Me or the listener?
No to the listener to uh, to train o or
to toronto. I apologize that I don't know how to
pronounce your name t r A n O. Uh. Well
that's funny. I I hope you enjoyed the poll to
poll cutting I mean pulled a pole. Cutting of onions
is something I recommend in all kinds of scenarios. I
mean they're there are different reasons that you cut onions
(20:49):
in different directions, but one of the main ones that
I would say is that if you want the onions
to kind of fall apart over cooking, cut them cross
wise into the ring shapes, because and you're you're sharing
more of the cells and they're just going to fall
apart more, especially if you're like braising them or cooking
them in liquid. If you want them to retain their shape,
more cut and pull to pull, because then you're cutting
(21:10):
along with the direction of the long cells, you're sharing
less of them. There's just gonna be less falling apart
as the cooking goes on. All right, tip tips we
can all use right there. Sorry, this is this has
been onion news. You can use. But anyway, regarding the
subject of your message, I really do appreciate hearing that
the bonsai trees were returned. That's that's that's heartwarming. Alright,
(21:37):
looks like we have some more bonds eye listener mail. Yeah,
this one comes from Matt. I think Matt has written
to the show several times before about agricultural scientific topics
and Matts emails are always good. Matt says, Good day,
Fellas love the episode on bonsai trees, particularly since you
delved briefly into several biotechnology topics. I just wanted to
add a couple of bits to the conversation as you
(21:59):
described the green revolution and the dwarf ization of major
crops was indeed a tremendous agricultural leap. You were also
right on the topic of lodging. Remember this is the
issue where lodging is where crops end up falling over
like the stalk bends near the ground, and this causes
a lot of crop loss in farms around the world.
(22:19):
And so one of the advantages of dwarf crops like wheat,
for example, is that by not getting as tall, they're
less likely to fall over and bend at the bottom
of the stalk and and waste or make harder to
harvest the weight at the top of the stalk. Anyway,
going on, Matt says, lodging is still a major issue
for farmers in many crops and can be caused by
(22:40):
both extra weight on cropheads due to excess moisture as
well as blowdown from wind. It hurts yields quality and
certainly makes for harvest trouble. If I could recommend a
cool example to illustrate some height differences, you might want
to check out some indigenous land race maze varieties. Sierra
mix a comes to mind. We bread away from these
(23:02):
varieties over the eons, but researchers are now actually looking
to incorporate some of the genetics from these varieties back
into modern high production hybrids. In the case of Sierra
mix a, the traits allowing it to fix nitrogen from
the air are of particular interest. Plus, Sierra mix a
can make for some pretty weird pictures see attached. Rob
(23:23):
I did include the picture down here for us to
look at. I guess that is supposed to be a
maze plant, but though it looks like, I don't know,
it looks like using red goblin fingers with yellow nails. Yeah,
it's very um it's very alien looking. Yeah, Matt goes on.
You might have said this already. Apologies if you did,
but it's worth remembering. Dwarf varieties also produce more food
(23:45):
per plant, less energy spent growing up, more spent growing out.
It's producing more with less, which continues to be a
major factor in bettering food security. I know I've pestered
you guys with agriculture related subjects several times in the past,
so thank you once again for begging my indulgence here.
Keep getting that science out there. We all need it. Matt, Well,
(24:06):
thank you, Matt. Yeah, this is interesting. I think we
did talk about how the dwarf crops also do tend
to have a higher yield or a higher percentage of
I can't remember exactly what the term is. That's something
like the the harvest index or something. It's like the
percentage of the above ground way to the plant that's
the harvest able part of it. All. Right, here, we
(24:31):
have one more listener mail. This one comes to us
from z Z rights In and says, Hey, Joe and Robert,
I hope you're both well. I've been listening to your
show for years and years, and suffice to say, I'm
really glad the show is still going strong. It happened
that I put the Bondsai episode on as I was
starting a walk through the Tory Pine State Natural Reserve
(24:51):
at the northern end of Coastal San Diego. It's one
of my favorite places in the world, and it's full
of what i'd call natural bondsai inform, if not always
in size, the kinds of unique shapes you find in
swamps like the cypress you mentioned, or as crumb holes
formations near mountain Arctic tree lines, or in this case,
on wind swept coasts. It's really too dry in this
(25:14):
area for trees to grow naturally other than down by
rivers and creeks. The one exception is the tory pine,
which only grows wild on the headlands on either side
of a particular estuary, where the valley topography channels the
summer fog so that the trees get just enough moisture
to survive the rainless summer and fall. Supposedly, these trees
(25:35):
are a relic of a formerly more widespread pine forest
throughout coastal southern California. I sa age relics might be
a cool topic on its own. In any case, I
think these lovely contorted trees are a great example of
the kinds of environmental constraints that lead to bonsiesque growth,
growing as they do on the windy slopes of eroding
(25:56):
sandstone cliffs without much in the way of soiler rain.
The infos of the conditions you guys talked about is
also underscored by the ornamental tory pines planted all throughout
this area, which instead grow quickly into tall, rounded canopies
when they're liberally watered, and the same effect is visible
(26:16):
just on the two sides of the ridge here, with
small bent over bonds eye on slopes facing the sea,
taller open canopies in the canyon bottoms and on the ridge,
and much fuller, rounder trees on the sheltered leeward slopes.
The California coast actually has a bunch of endemic conifers,
mostly pines and cypresses, that only grow in really restricted,
(26:39):
often disjoint, uh distributions near the ocean, and many of
them grow in these strange bonds I shapes. I'm a
big fan of the idea of bioregionalism, and I find
these strange, rare trees to be a really lovely symbol
of the particularity of this stretch of coast, which helps
me feel like I'm more connected with the placiness of
the land, especially in southern California, where there are hundreds
(27:02):
of kinds of ornamental plants from all around the world
just in one suburb. In any case, I'm looking forward
to what you do next and am holy in support
of more plant tree themed episodes. Sincerely, Z Rob. I've
attached some of the photographs that Z sent us to
look at. These are mostly what they were referring to
as like Bonsai trees, but growing wild, not not necessarily
(27:24):
in size, but in shape. And these are a lot
of really beautiful trees. I like them. Yeah, the trees
finding their way in a um in a unique landscape
sometimes you know, with some some some some some definite
restraints in place. I think in in the Bonsai episode,
we did make the comparison to poetry, right, the idea
(27:47):
that in some cases, UH poets often feel that creativity
is driven by the constraints imposed by a certain rhyme
or meter scheme. Because you can't just say anything. It
leads you to say things that you wouldn't have said otherwise,
you know, because you've got to fit it into the
meter or something. And UH, I think that that looks
(28:07):
true of many trees, even if they're not having constraints
imposed by humans, but maybe having constraints imposed by the
harshness or weird conditions of the natural environment where they're growing.
They kind of form a poem because of how hard
their life is. All right, well, that is it for
this particular listener mail mail bag. But there's stuff we
(28:29):
didn't get to this week. There's stuff that will come
in between now and next week, and we will read
even more listener mail, So feel free to to chime in.
You have responses to old episodes, new episodes, uh, you know,
ideas about what future episodes could consist of. Everything's on
the table. You've got corrections, let us know. You've got
responses to other people's listener mail. Uh, let us have it.
(28:52):
Do you want to correct other listener mails? Do so
you want to correct corrections? Yeah? Well whatever you like
this is this is kind of your show at this point,
so uh yeah, let us know. In the meantime, you
want to check out other episodes of Stuff to Blow
Your Mind or the Friday episodes of Weird House Cinema.
You know where to find it. Go to the Stuff
to Blow your Mind podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.
(29:13):
Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth
Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch
with us with feedback on this episode or any other,
to suggest a topic for the future, or just to
say hello. You can email us at contact at stuff
to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your
(29:36):
Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your
Mind listener Mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm
Joe McCormick, and we're bringing you the messages that you
have sent us. Uh So, this episode is going to
feature some responses to our episodes about the Shannhaijing, the
(00:23):
Classics of the Mountains and Seas or the I guess
that's singular the Classic or the Cannon of the Mountains
and Sees, our episode about the bonds eye Tree, our
episode about stolen heads and stolen brains. It's gonna be
a lot of fun. All right, Well, let's let's kick
right in to uh to full gear on this listener
mail episode. Here comes the robot, Here comes the listener mail. Okay,
(00:50):
should I do this one from? I can do this
one from Alexandra if you want to go for it, Okay.
Alexandra writes in about the Shannhaijing, says, Hi, guys, I
was listening to the episode about the Shanhaijing, and I
wanted to say I really empathized with the childhood I
believe dragons existed feeling you mentioned and wanted to share why.
I come from Krakow, Poland, which used to be Poland's
(01:12):
capital for many centuries, and our local mythical slash folklore
symbol is a dragon. We have a beautiful castle Vovl,
located on Jurassic limestone on the bank of the Visa
or the Vistula River, and there is a legend saying
a dragon used to live in a cave below the castle.
(01:33):
The basic version of the legend I always heard goes
like this, no night could slay the beast. When a
local cobbler, Draftevka, showed up, he said he had a
trick in mind. He got a sheep carcass and filled
it with sulfur. The dragon, tricked by Drafteva's work, ate
the sheep and suddenly felt very, very thirsty because of
(01:54):
the sulfur. He started drinking from the Viswa river and
drank and drank and drank until he finally burst, and
thus Drutevka became a hero. Tadah, Yeah, good legend. I
think it operates on the assumption that a dragon is
much like a dog. Like it does not stop to
taste its food. It just wolve, sit down. The goal
(02:14):
is to get it down the gullet as fast as
possible so it wouldn't be thrown off by the scent
of sulfur. It's just going to swallow that sheep. Alexander
goes on, But it's just a legend. Why would I
believe it? Well, there's an actual limestone cave under the
castle now a tourist attraction, and it's called Dragon's Den,
which I believe in Polish is a smokee Sha Yama,
(02:36):
Alexander says. There's even a really cool metal dragon sculpture
that breathes fire next to the entrance. Now that sounds
like some burning man stuff. Uh. There is also an
ancient bone hanging on the cathedral located on the Vavel Hill,
said to be the Dragon's bone, So how could that
be just false? All the proof is there. Why would
(02:58):
somebody just lie about dragon? Uh? And then there is
a little tongue sticking out emoticon. Thanks for reminding me
of that feeling, and thanks for the amazing podcast. Love
listening to you. Stay safe and healthy, Alexandra. Well, I
looked at the photograph of the bone hanging there and uh,
yeah it looks legit. Yeah, what is that? Actually? It
(03:18):
looks like a large kind of tongue shape. Maybe it's
a rib bone. Yeah, I mean well, one's mind instantly
goes to like whales, um something something of that nature
for sure. M yeah, I wonder what that is. All right,
here's another one for us. This one comes to us
from Erica. Erica writes high There. I was recently introduced
(03:41):
to your podcast and I'm loving it. Thank you for
reminding me what interesting conversation like sounds like in the
midst of a pandemic. I'm sure you get lots of mail,
so I forgive me while I learned out a bit
and share a few thoughts that were sparked by the
few episodes I've listened to so far. I'll keep it
as brief as possible. While I was listening to Monsters
of the shan Haiji, you talked about how the Italian
(04:01):
words for Dante's demons sound more interesting to English speakers
than the translations. Um like malacota sounds better than evil tale.
I think this is why many people find watching films
in their original language with subtitles so much better than
a dub bad lip reading. Aside, by using subtitles, you're
able to retain the original sounds of the dialogue while
(04:22):
understanding the meaning in your native language. I was a
latecomer to anime because growing up I'd never seen it
in the original Japanese, and I generally loathed the sound
of the American voice actors chosen to dub those shows. Now, though,
I really enjoy watching Japanese anime and listening to the
cadence of the language, which for me is up there
with Italian in terms of phonetic beauty. One thing that
(04:44):
struck me when I started watching anime was that when
characters perform magic, they would often use English or German
for spell casting. I'm really fascinated by this. What does
magic sound like to people in different parts of the world.
For English speakers, I think it's pretty fair to say
that Latin is the fual magic language. In addition to
the hocus pocus that evolved from listening to religious services
(05:05):
in Latin for many centuries, Latin is a language known
only to the elite learned. It has the lyricism of Italian,
and it's something from the distant past when wizards, dragons, ETCETERA.
Quote used to exist. As you mentioned, you believed as
a kid in the Monsters episode, But what is it
that makes mouth sounds sound magical to people from other
(05:26):
parts of the world. Then I got to thinking about
how Token invented Elvish to sound beautiful, and contrasting with that, uh,
and contrasting that with Klingon, which is meant to sound warlike.
And I just had to email you to unload these
thoughts on someone and hope that you know about some
kind of study that's been done on this. Unrelated to that.
(05:47):
I'm listening to your podcast Brain and Head Theft Part
one while I was between chapters on Worms by this
w y R M s by Orson Scott Card. Uh.
There's so much in that book that links up with
what you were talking about in that episode that it
was actually a little creepy. You made it this far
through the email. Thanks for reading. I'm excited that there
(06:07):
are so many more of your podcasts I have yet
to hear. B Well, Erica, Oh thanks Erica. Well, yeah,
a lot of interesting ideas here. I don't know if
i'd ever put that together before about in the English
speaking world, Latin being a very common convention for for
the language of magic, and yeah, I think that would
probably have a lot to do with Latin being the
(06:30):
scholarly lingua franca of medieval Europe and and Renaissance Europe.
So at the time when alchemists would have been writing,
you know, they're there occult tomes. I think probably a
lot of these tombs would have been written in Latin
because it was the language of elite learning and scholarship,
even though nobody actually liked spoke it. Yeah, yeah, I
mean you see some other languages thrown in the mix,
(06:53):
like especially post Exorcist, you see Aramaic thrown around a lot.
Anytime you have a demon they're probably gonna be then
they may be speaking in Aramaic. Uh if you can,
you know, wing it um, But you know other I
guess other ancient languages can work as well. But it
does make me wonder. You know, we touched in recent
weird hol cinema on um Chinese black magic films, and
(07:16):
I wonder what languages, uh like Chinese films turned to,
or what languages Japanese films turned to, especially if they're
historic and scope you know, UM be interested to find out.
Of course, thinking back to our episode on the the
Oily Maniac, I guess in that movie. I don't recall
exactly how the magic worked in that movie, but that
(07:37):
was a movie about the the magic of outsiders of
other cultures. So it makes perfect sense that you would
potentially use um a language like a non Chinese language
in that scenario. So I wonder if there's a lot
of that stuff going on. But on the subject of
cling on, uh, we we'll have to come back to
that because I I've long been interested in doing an
invention style episode on invented language, oh straight up created languages,
(08:03):
the reasons for them, uh, you know, entertainment or otherwise,
and what some of the best examples are. So that's
that's still on the list of possible episodes to do
in the future. It's interesting that I think one of
the last episodes that we did of the dedicated Inventioned
podcast before we moved into this feed is um. It
was that we did invented words. But of course inventing
(08:25):
a word is very different than trying to invent an
entire language with its own rules and lexicon and grammar
and everything. And I wonder if could it be possible
that an invented language would ever really catch on or
is that pretty much just not ever going to happen. Yeah,
(08:46):
all right, are you ready for this next message about
stolen heads and stolen brains? Let's have it. This is
from Sophie. Sophie says, dear stuff to blow your mind.
Obligatory but true sentence about being longtime listener, first time caller.
Uh in your head slash brain to parter. This week,
the name Jeremy Bentham rang recognition bells in my mind. Hey,
(09:06):
isn't that? But I wasn't certain until you mentioned him
still being at University College London today. Upon reflection, this
would imply there being multiple men who decided they ought
to have their bodies preserved to hang around in perpetuity.
But honestly, humans do far stranger things all the time.
My first encounter with Jeremy Bentham was as a complete
(09:27):
surprise during our orientation tour several years back. I was
doing a semester abroad at u C l s Art School.
Our first day was the whole group before we scattered
to the many programs, So the tour guide made sure
to lead the pile of unsuspecting American college students to
the literal dead founder to tell us all about him
and U C. L our culture, being one of shunning
(09:50):
contact with death meeting, Mr Bentham was somewhat arresting. Despite
his genial demeanor in the pictures you see online. I
can assure you he's rather more unsettling in per and
especially when he's been sprung on you. The tour guide
went on to explain that a requirement for accessing the
endowment under his name is that he be in attendance
(10:10):
at all requisite meetings. Thus we got to contemplate the
tableau of quiet, serious board meeting attendees patiently waiting as
a very dead Jeremy Bentham in his glass case gets
wheeled in ideally with amusingly squeaky wheel sound effects or
something that at least amused me. I don't believe they
explained that his head was elsewhere and why, and was
(10:32):
unsure if you encountered this reason for his preservation or
evidence for it in your research. They are not mutually
exclusive pieces of lore necessarily. Although I do remember being
told about the wax face, I genuinely don't remember if
they clarified that it was all wax, as what I
gleaned was wax over his skull and an increasing urge
(10:52):
to make for the exit, never to return. As an aside,
I would presume I have a relatively strong reaction and
that most visitors are far less unnerved. I imagine as
a regular student, I would either avoid his hallway whenever possible,
or become desensitized. As it sounds most are, given that
they've taken to stealing bits of him. I know, I
(11:14):
know being uh, I know being there for only six months,
I was somewhat inured, but barely. I have very strong
hyper empathy, a terrifically active imagination, and probably am a
hyper visualizer. I have autism, contributing to my high empathy
and my difficulty in turning it off, and my family
slash friends, and I suspect I also have mirror synesthesia
(11:37):
added on for obvious reasons. It's easy to generate strong
visceral imagery and difficult to put it to one side.
My brain is rather a live wire, and I can
be tickled on the face from across the room. Much
to my dismay, my plan to respectfully never go near
dear Jeremy again was foiled by his placement at a
critical intersection of hallways. The only way to the school's
(11:59):
supply store was a set of lovely stairs directly by him.
I cannot recall there being an alternate route while I
was there, and would always brace myself for the trip,
desperately attempting not to make eye contact with his surreal
piercing gaze as I speed walked by him. With about
the success we all have when trying not to think
about the purple polar bear, I e. None. I suppose
(12:21):
I was lucky that their art supply selection was largely
insufficient for my mediums of choice, and I was tragically
forced to seek art stores off campus. Conveniently enough, they
contain no dead people. According to a recent article by
the school, he's been relocated to a student center since
I attended, which hopefully is a nicer location for all involved.
(12:42):
He's an important icon they no doubt wish to keep
accessible to visitors in the u c L community, but
also need to maintain proper collections, protocols, slash environment, and
apparently significant security. So I imagine finding the ideal balance
is difficult. Maybe the new site will prevent more head
theft if the meat jerky head is kept with the
body now, or maybe his head will be like the
(13:05):
gavel goat statue of U c L Time will tell
no doubt. I'm not sure what the gavel goat is.
It sounds fun. Thank you so much for your time
and also your research. I appreciate a good citation so
you can add me to the unofficial petition of your fans.
Hoping your new home will return to us a mother
ship website with that good good robost tagging and source linking. Sincerely, Sophie,
(13:29):
Well Sophie, I, I really appreciate that final note. I
don't know how much hope you should hold out for that.
I believe the gavel goat, by the way, is a
traditional Christmas display erected uh in Gavel, Sweden. Some some
some some very swift online research seem to provide that answer,
but who knows. There could be multiple gavel goats out there.
(13:51):
Oh that's a good look and goat. It's got big
old horns that make it look like a basket with
a big handle. Yeah all right, here's another bit of
listener mailison comes to us from Michelle. Oh and just
to clarify something, this next message mentions in the subject
line that it is about Haydn and the head theft
(14:13):
of Franz Joseph Hayden that we talked about in part
one of braindon Head Theft, Hi, Robert and Joe. I
loved your episode on head and Brain Theft. It made
me reminisce about my favorite teacher. I played violin in
elementary school, but wasn't great at it and didn't love it.
On my first day of middle school, the orchestra teacher
asked for two people to switch to to to base,
so I jumped at the chance without telling my parents beforehand. Luckily,
(14:34):
they felt bad bass playing was vastly better than bad
violin playing, and we're okay with it. The teacher loved
to tell us stories about the composers we were playing.
He told us about the Surprise Symphony being written because
his benefactor kept falling asleep during concerts, and about the
Farewell Symphony, which involves musicians leaving the stage as the
last movement progresses until it's only two violinists because the
(14:57):
orchestra had been stuck there longer than they expect did,
and Hyden wanted to give his benefactor the message that
they wanted to go home. But now that I've learned
about Hyden's head theft, I think my teacher left out
the best story of all. I can't think of a
better story to get middle schoolers into classical music than
something as gory as decapitation and missing heads. I'm still
playing the bass in local community orchestras back when we
(15:18):
could still have those, and I'll never look at a
hide and piece the same way again. He's always been
one of my favorites, and I'll enjoy them all the
more now once we are all allowed to play in
groups again. Also in response to Robert's comments about cats
and food names, my cat growing up was called pancake
because my parents got her when she ran under our
car and they almost smashed her flat as a pancake.
(15:41):
Thanks again, you guys have been keeping me going through
these weird times. Thanks Michelle, rob How does pancake stack
up in your in your cat food names? I think
pancake is a perfect name for a cat, because Smith
there was a there was an ignoble prize winning paper,
wasn't there about how cats are neither solid nor look
quid there Um, let's say you forget the details of that.
(16:04):
But but as they their shape is in flux, sometimes
they are flat like a pancake. Yes, that ignoble paper
was about the rayology of cats. Reology being the field
of physics that studies how how fluids and liquids flow.
Uh so, and and cats, I mean, I think one
would be hard pressed to argue that they do not flow.
(16:27):
Let the Let the cats flow. Okay. This next message
comes from Zolt. Zolt said, Oh, and it's about our
episodes on sinkholes. Results says, Hi, Robert and Joe, I'm
writing regarding your recent episodes on sinkholes. You mentioned that
(16:48):
various sources of waters, such as wells or rivers, often
serve as sacred or spiritual sites for locals. I thought
i'd mentioned an example. Sacred or holy wells are quite
common in Hungary. One can often come across them while
while hiking in the countryside. These natural wells supposedly possess
healing power, with stories of magical recoveries from various illnesses
(17:10):
and disabilities, with the healing power often attributed to patron saints.
The sacred nature of these wells is often discovered or
confirmed by the appearance of a saint or very often
the Virgin Mary in the vicinity. There are more wild
stories too, such as a healing well being created by
a lightning strike. Interestingly, I noticed that these wells are
(17:32):
often nearby other religious sites, such as small chapels or
calvary hills. Maybe people attributed certain religious significance to areas,
or it was just easier to make a pilgrimage to
the same general place to fulfill all their religious needs
instead of going all over the forest one stop shop. Uh.
Calvary hills, otherwise known as crosswalks if you're not familiar,
(17:55):
are also pretty interesting. UH. They are usually a hill
with at least thirteen stations of crosses along a path
that people hike up on around Easter time as a
form of pilgrimage. Each cross along the path represents one
stage that Christ goes through during his crucifixion, with three
crosses on the top of the hill. Usually, these hills
are barely a few hundred meters above sea level, but
(18:17):
they still tie back to the idea of sacred mountains
as well. Anyway, thanks for all your good work, zolt PS.
I'm loving the Weird House Cinema episodes. I found a
few movies that I enjoyed quite a lot that I
didn't even know existed before. Well, if you find a
few movies that you enjoy quite a lot in that mix,
that you you're doing pretty pretty well. I mean, I
don't think to think we we love all of them. Well,
(18:40):
maybe the spirit of Weird House Cinema is that we're
exploring movies that are always fun to talk about whether
or not they're fun to watch. True, Yeah, and finding
finding the things to love even in films that are
sometimes very uneven. I would say that's that's also a
court of the spirit of the thing. All right. This
(19:02):
one comes to us from Toronto. Hi, Robert and Joe.
I'm a big fan of the show and have been
for ages. I have to say I am joined the
new format of the show with more content and variety. Okay,
maybe except Weird Al Cinema. I think I'm not ready
for that yet. I was listening to your episode on
Bonds Eyes, and when you mentioned the story of the
stolen Bonds Eyes and the plea for them to be returned,
(19:23):
I thought that I had heard that before. Furthermore, I
thought I remembered a happy ending to it. Sure Enough,
a quick search of in my podcast library brought me
to an episode from Stuff You Missed in History Class six.
By the way, not sure if I found them through
you or vice versa, but also a great podcast. I'll
quote from from there, and this is the thirty two
(19:45):
minute scond mark. The museum put out a call on
social media for the returning, promising that they would not
ask any questions. They were just afraid that these irreplaceable
trees would die without proper care. Three days after the theft,
that trees reappeared in the museum's driveway and uh. Then
they also included a link to a Smithsonian mag dot
(20:07):
com article to stolen Bonsai trees mysteriously returned Washington Museum. Um. Anyway,
they continue, I thought I would give you the good
news best regards train no ps the explanation of one
of you regarding why cutting onions from pole to pole
to cry less was pure stuff to blow your mind.
Can't wait to test it? Is it gonna be your
(20:29):
first time cutting an onion that way? Me or the listener?
No to the listener to uh, to train o or
to toronto. I apologize that I don't know how to
pronounce your name t r A n O. Uh. Well
that's funny. I I hope you enjoyed the poll to
poll cutting I mean pulled a pole. Cutting of onions
is something I recommend in all kinds of scenarios. I
mean they're there are different reasons that you cut onions
(20:49):
in different directions, but one of the main ones that
I would say is that if you want the onions
to kind of fall apart over cooking, cut them cross
wise into the ring shapes, because and you're you're sharing
more of the cells and they're just going to fall
apart more, especially if you're like braising them or cooking
them in liquid. If you want them to retain their shape,
more cut and pull to pull, because then you're cutting
(21:10):
along with the direction of the long cells, you're sharing
less of them. There's just gonna be less falling apart
as the cooking goes on. All right, tip tips we
can all use right there. Sorry, this is this has
been onion news. You can use. But anyway, regarding the
subject of your message, I really do appreciate hearing that
the bonsai trees were returned. That's that's that's heartwarming. Alright,
(21:37):
looks like we have some more bonds eye listener mail. Yeah,
this one comes from Matt. I think Matt has written
to the show several times before about agricultural scientific topics
and Matts emails are always good. Matt says, Good day,
Fellas love the episode on bonsai trees, particularly since you
delved briefly into several biotechnology topics. I just wanted to
add a couple of bits to the conversation as you
(21:59):
described the green revolution and the dwarf ization of major
crops was indeed a tremendous agricultural leap. You were also
right on the topic of lodging. Remember this is the
issue where lodging is where crops end up falling over
like the stalk bends near the ground, and this causes
a lot of crop loss in farms around the world.
(22:19):
And so one of the advantages of dwarf crops like wheat,
for example, is that by not getting as tall, they're
less likely to fall over and bend at the bottom
of the stalk and and waste or make harder to
harvest the weight at the top of the stalk. Anyway,
going on, Matt says, lodging is still a major issue
for farmers in many crops and can be caused by
(22:40):
both extra weight on cropheads due to excess moisture as
well as blowdown from wind. It hurts yields quality and
certainly makes for harvest trouble. If I could recommend a
cool example to illustrate some height differences, you might want
to check out some indigenous land race maze varieties. Sierra
mix a comes to mind. We bread away from these
(23:02):
varieties over the eons, but researchers are now actually looking
to incorporate some of the genetics from these varieties back
into modern high production hybrids. In the case of Sierra
mix a, the traits allowing it to fix nitrogen from
the air are of particular interest. Plus, Sierra mix a
can make for some pretty weird pictures see attached. Rob
(23:23):
I did include the picture down here for us to
look at. I guess that is supposed to be a
maze plant, but though it looks like, I don't know,
it looks like using red goblin fingers with yellow nails. Yeah,
it's very um it's very alien looking. Yeah, Matt goes on.
You might have said this already. Apologies if you did,
but it's worth remembering. Dwarf varieties also produce more food
(23:45):
per plant, less energy spent growing up, more spent growing out.
It's producing more with less, which continues to be a
major factor in bettering food security. I know I've pestered
you guys with agriculture related subjects several times in the past,
so thank you once again for begging my indulgence here.
Keep getting that science out there. We all need it. Matt, Well,
(24:06):
thank you, Matt. Yeah, this is interesting. I think we
did talk about how the dwarf crops also do tend
to have a higher yield or a higher percentage of
I can't remember exactly what the term is. That's something
like the the harvest index or something. It's like the
percentage of the above ground way to the plant that's
the harvest able part of it. All. Right, here, we
(24:31):
have one more listener mail. This one comes to us
from z Z rights In and says, Hey, Joe and Robert,
I hope you're both well. I've been listening to your
show for years and years, and suffice to say, I'm
really glad the show is still going strong. It happened
that I put the Bondsai episode on as I was
starting a walk through the Tory Pine State Natural Reserve
(24:51):
at the northern end of Coastal San Diego. It's one
of my favorite places in the world, and it's full
of what i'd call natural bondsai inform, if not always
in size, the kinds of unique shapes you find in
swamps like the cypress you mentioned, or as crumb holes
formations near mountain Arctic tree lines, or in this case,
on wind swept coasts. It's really too dry in this
(25:14):
area for trees to grow naturally other than down by
rivers and creeks. The one exception is the tory pine,
which only grows wild on the headlands on either side
of a particular estuary, where the valley topography channels the
summer fog so that the trees get just enough moisture
to survive the rainless summer and fall. Supposedly, these trees
(25:35):
are a relic of a formerly more widespread pine forest
throughout coastal southern California. I sa age relics might be
a cool topic on its own. In any case, I
think these lovely contorted trees are a great example of
the kinds of environmental constraints that lead to bonsiesque growth,
growing as they do on the windy slopes of eroding
(25:56):
sandstone cliffs without much in the way of soiler rain.
The infos of the conditions you guys talked about is
also underscored by the ornamental tory pines planted all throughout
this area, which instead grow quickly into tall, rounded canopies
when they're liberally watered, and the same effect is visible
(26:16):
just on the two sides of the ridge here, with
small bent over bonds eye on slopes facing the sea,
taller open canopies in the canyon bottoms and on the ridge,
and much fuller, rounder trees on the sheltered leeward slopes.
The California coast actually has a bunch of endemic conifers,
mostly pines and cypresses, that only grow in really restricted,
(26:39):
often disjoint, uh distributions near the ocean, and many of
them grow in these strange bonds I shapes. I'm a
big fan of the idea of bioregionalism, and I find
these strange, rare trees to be a really lovely symbol
of the particularity of this stretch of coast, which helps
me feel like I'm more connected with the placiness of
the land, especially in southern California, where there are hundreds
(27:02):
of kinds of ornamental plants from all around the world
just in one suburb. In any case, I'm looking forward
to what you do next and am holy in support
of more plant tree themed episodes. Sincerely, Z Rob. I've
attached some of the photographs that Z sent us to
look at. These are mostly what they were referring to
as like Bonsai trees, but growing wild, not not necessarily
(27:24):
in size, but in shape. And these are a lot
of really beautiful trees. I like them. Yeah, the trees
finding their way in a um in a unique landscape
sometimes you know, with some some some some some definite
restraints in place. I think in in the Bonsai episode,
we did make the comparison to poetry, right, the idea
(27:47):
that in some cases, UH poets often feel that creativity
is driven by the constraints imposed by a certain rhyme
or meter scheme. Because you can't just say anything. It
leads you to say things that you wouldn't have said otherwise,
you know, because you've got to fit it into the
meter or something. And UH, I think that that looks
(28:07):
true of many trees, even if they're not having constraints
imposed by humans, but maybe having constraints imposed by the
harshness or weird conditions of the natural environment where they're growing.
They kind of form a poem because of how hard
their life is. All right, well, that is it for
this particular listener mail mail bag. But there's stuff we
(28:29):
didn't get to this week. There's stuff that will come
in between now and next week, and we will read
even more listener mail, So feel free to to chime in.
You have responses to old episodes, new episodes, uh, you know,
ideas about what future episodes could consist of. Everything's on
the table. You've got corrections, let us know. You've got
responses to other people's listener mail. Uh, let us have it.
(28:52):
Do you want to correct other listener mails? Do so
you want to correct corrections? Yeah? Well whatever you like
this is this is kind of your show at this point,
so uh yeah, let us know. In the meantime, you
want to check out other episodes of Stuff to Blow
Your Mind or the Friday episodes of Weird House Cinema.
You know where to find it. Go to the Stuff
to Blow your Mind podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.
(29:13):
Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth
Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch
with us with feedback on this episode or any other,
to suggest a topic for the future, or just to
say hello. You can email us at contact at stuff
to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your
(29:36):
Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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