September 4, 2024 • 7 mins
The extraordinary Dr Karl Kruszelnicki joins Jonesy & Amanda for a super fascinating chat!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
How very exciting this man is Australia's most beloved scientist.
But how did doctor Carl become this eccentric genius that
we know today? After wandering down more than a dozen
career paths, studying five degrees, living the life of a
crazed hippie, Doctor Carl is sharing all of this in
his new memoir called A Periodic Tale Doctor Carl.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hello, doctor Amanda, how lovely to be with you again.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You know what's interesting is that when I was a
segment producer on the Midday Show, probably forty years ago,
would have been made more than that I was. You
and I were both junior Burgers. You were studying a
medical degree and I was a producer, and I was
producing your stories for the Midday Show, and you were
talking about climate change. Then it's the first time anyone
(00:48):
had ever heard of it.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Wow. And I remember that how you started off with
a guest not turning up and so they shoved you
on air and blow me down. You performed like a
professional and it was a lucky break. Isn't a wonderful
how sometimes you need that mixture of luck and talent
and hard work. And in your case of paid off.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
For you is that when the ferret guy didn't shop up,
so our man had to shove a ferret down a pan.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Now I just chose to the pope. Wasn't there a
ferret down the airport?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I think? And they weren't there or something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh, something like that. I'd probably still have triggered dreams
about being a producer.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
There's a chapter in your memoir about drug crazed hippy
years and you're a long haired, dope smoking taxi drive.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah. I was very lucky in retrospect, and that firstly,
I didn't end up being busted by the cops doing
illegal things, which I was, and I do not. I
highly recommend do not do illegal things because you might
end up sharing yourself with a very large man with
love and hate tattooed on their knuckles, which is a
bad thing to have happened. And the other thing, I
was lucky when I did the dope smoking thing, doing
(01:51):
it after my brain had matured around in my early twenties.
And I was also lucky that I didn't have the
gene that sets you off for schizophrenia, which some people have,
so I was kind of lucky on that as well.
So would you be.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
An advocate for weed because it's for a long time.
I watched that thing on YouTube about the demon weed,
and there's a theory that alcohol demonized marijuana.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
It goes from farcological point of view. In terms of
how it behaves affects people in society, there's not a
lot of difference. Except the big difference is if you
talk to the cops in New York whereas now legal
that there's much less violence. So the people who are
still a bit off their faces, they're not making rational decisions,
and so you've got to be factoring that in. But
(02:35):
there's much less violence. And so we've have two states
in Australia where it's not demonized with South Australian Canberra yep.
So whatever the law is, don't bust the law. There
you go.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Your parents were Holocaust survivors. I've read before that some
children of Holocaust survivors are hypochondriacs because a lot of
parents say, I don't worry, this won't kill you, whereas
Holocaust survivors know that things, terrible things can happen.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Did this shape your childhood enormously? So it was the
weirdest thing. So in the case of my father, everything
he told me was true, and I didn't believe it
because he was a bit of a journalist. And in
case my mother, she lied about everything, her name, her age,
where she was born, her religion, or to cover up
the terrible things that had happened to her. It was
like she was a new person that had been reinvented.
(03:19):
And the weird thing about migrants is that the first
thing when migrants come to a country, their crime rate
is really low. Secondly, their children get educated because the
parents have got nothing. They're working all these really crappy jobs,
and they say get educated because that way you can
be an engineer and earn a good income. So the
children also have a lower crime rate. But the children
of the children, the third generation, they have the same
(03:41):
crime rate as the people in the country. So if
you want to drop the crime rate in any country,
just get rid of all the locals and bring into migrants.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
But that's what happens, though, doesn't it, Because you get,
like say, people from Middle Eastern countries that came out
here in the seventies during the Great Civil War and
stuff like that, and they were just happy to get
out of there. But now their kids, you know, who
are about my age, they've formed those gangs and things
like that. Is that because they had it too good here?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, they've just become local. So I've seen in one
of the suburbs of Sydney the words Muslims out and
wait for it. It was written in Vietnamese, right, So
it was the third generations of the Vietnamese who are
now as racist as the local it is.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I don't know what to read into any Do you think.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
That we're getting dumber?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Are we?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Like? Because all of a sudden there's flat earthers that
have a platform. Now they're talking about flat ef people
are now reasonable. People are now saying maybe the moonlight
landing was faked.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Interesting the look up ABC, Doctor Carl and Smarter or
Flinn effect fly double n SO back in the ninete
ninety so Flynn worked out that the IQ is going
up by nine IQ points every generation. And he looked
at the military records of the IQ taken in America
from nine to thirty two to the present, and the
(04:57):
IQ is going up in the military by nine IQ
point every generation, and in American civilian civilians, and in
every country around the world. We are boy the dimension measure.
So on one hand, the kids are getting smarter and
we don't know why. On the other hand, the knowledge
is different again. And so for example, on TikTok okay
question without notice, document dot doctor jonesy. On TikTok what
(05:18):
percentage of medical information is accurate? Doctor Jonesy pick a number.
I'd say twenty percent, Doctor Amanda seven two two. That's
why I go on TikTok to try and set it
straight again. That's why I went there the first time,
because they're all these lives. So on one hand, there's
massive disinformation powered by the desire to do advertising. So
(05:40):
each time you click on a home page, now I
must see something like Amanda Jones has suddenly been reincorporated,
revealed to be an alien? Anything true? I believe that
you did. You see click on it, but by the
act of clicking in their first one hundreds of a
second before things start to appear on your screen, your information.
(06:02):
And have you ever seen your Google doc information? No,
it's about fourteen gigs. So you had a cup of
coffee here, then you stopped over there for and then
you bought some shoes for somebody so everything you've done
is map there. All that information is then offered to
five hundred advertisers around the world, who then bid between
one and five cents for the right to show you
the twenty ads on the next home page.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You go, why can't the information be correct? If we're
going to be on those platforms? And yeah, sure, I
know I'm being data mind why can't the information be correct?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Very deep question, you know, doctor Jones. This is what
I love about Amanda. She is frightening me. Intelligent. You
are in fact smarter than me because you don't know
to ask the better questions. On the other hand, I'm
better educated because I've been to university for longer, because educated.
Once upon a time, the Australian government thought that education
was worthwhile investment in the future. Now they don't.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I've got a free one too.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah. So getting back to your question, so we are
wired up for anything unusual. So two hundred thousand years
ago walking around Africa and there's a rustling in undergrowth
and it's a bit of carci flash and you think,
is that a lion? So if you we are wired
up to pay attention to anything that's unusual. So if
we see something saying Amanda Jones is going to be
(07:12):
on radio tomorrow, or Amanda Jones is an alien, you'll
click on that because we are wired up to look
for things that are different because it might be threatening.
Yeah yeah, and it might kill you. So it's a
survival characteristic built into us from evolution.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Well, Carl, we want you to stick around because we've
got some questions. We've put a there's questions from people,
reasonable questions around for us, and I'll hang around for everything.
Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
How very exciting this man is Australia's most beloved scientist.
But how did doctor Carl become this eccentric genius that
we know today? After wandering down more than a dozen
career paths, studying five degrees, living the life of a
crazed hippie, Doctor Carl is sharing all of this in
his new memoir called A Periodic Tale Doctor Carl.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hello, doctor Amanda, how lovely to be with you again.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You know what's interesting is that when I was a
segment producer on the Midday Show, probably forty years ago,
would have been made more than that I was. You
and I were both junior Burgers. You were studying a
medical degree and I was a producer, and I was
producing your stories for the Midday Show, and you were
talking about climate change. Then it's the first time anyone
(00:48):
had ever heard of it.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Wow. And I remember that how you started off with
a guest not turning up and so they shoved you
on air and blow me down. You performed like a
professional and it was a lucky break. Isn't a wonderful
how sometimes you need that mixture of luck and talent
and hard work. And in your case of paid off.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
For you is that when the ferret guy didn't shop up,
so our man had to shove a ferret down a pan.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Now I just chose to the pope. Wasn't there a
ferret down the airport?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I think? And they weren't there or something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh, something like that. I'd probably still have triggered dreams
about being a producer.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
There's a chapter in your memoir about drug crazed hippy
years and you're a long haired, dope smoking taxi drive.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah. I was very lucky in retrospect, and that firstly,
I didn't end up being busted by the cops doing
illegal things, which I was, and I do not. I
highly recommend do not do illegal things because you might
end up sharing yourself with a very large man with
love and hate tattooed on their knuckles, which is a
bad thing to have happened. And the other thing, I
was lucky when I did the dope smoking thing, doing
(01:51):
it after my brain had matured around in my early twenties.
And I was also lucky that I didn't have the
gene that sets you off for schizophrenia, which some people have,
so I was kind of lucky on that as well.
So would you be.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
An advocate for weed because it's for a long time.
I watched that thing on YouTube about the demon weed,
and there's a theory that alcohol demonized marijuana.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
It goes from farcological point of view. In terms of
how it behaves affects people in society, there's not a
lot of difference. Except the big difference is if you
talk to the cops in New York whereas now legal
that there's much less violence. So the people who are
still a bit off their faces, they're not making rational decisions,
and so you've got to be factoring that in. But
(02:35):
there's much less violence. And so we've have two states
in Australia where it's not demonized with South Australian Canberra yep.
So whatever the law is, don't bust the law. There
you go.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Your parents were Holocaust survivors. I've read before that some
children of Holocaust survivors are hypochondriacs because a lot of
parents say, I don't worry, this won't kill you, whereas
Holocaust survivors know that things, terrible things can happen.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Did this shape your childhood enormously? So it was the
weirdest thing. So in the case of my father, everything
he told me was true, and I didn't believe it
because he was a bit of a journalist. And in
case my mother, she lied about everything, her name, her age,
where she was born, her religion, or to cover up
the terrible things that had happened to her. It was
like she was a new person that had been reinvented.
(03:19):
And the weird thing about migrants is that the first
thing when migrants come to a country, their crime rate
is really low. Secondly, their children get educated because the
parents have got nothing. They're working all these really crappy jobs,
and they say get educated because that way you can
be an engineer and earn a good income. So the
children also have a lower crime rate. But the children
of the children, the third generation, they have the same
(03:41):
crime rate as the people in the country. So if
you want to drop the crime rate in any country,
just get rid of all the locals and bring into migrants.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
But that's what happens, though, doesn't it, Because you get,
like say, people from Middle Eastern countries that came out
here in the seventies during the Great Civil War and
stuff like that, and they were just happy to get
out of there. But now their kids, you know, who
are about my age, they've formed those gangs and things
like that. Is that because they had it too good here?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, they've just become local. So I've seen in one
of the suburbs of Sydney the words Muslims out and
wait for it. It was written in Vietnamese, right, So
it was the third generations of the Vietnamese who are
now as racist as the local it is.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I don't know what to read into any Do you think.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
That we're getting dumber?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Are we?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Like? Because all of a sudden there's flat earthers that
have a platform. Now they're talking about flat ef people
are now reasonable. People are now saying maybe the moonlight
landing was faked.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Interesting the look up ABC, Doctor Carl and Smarter or
Flinn effect fly double n SO back in the ninete
ninety so Flynn worked out that the IQ is going
up by nine IQ points every generation. And he looked
at the military records of the IQ taken in America
from nine to thirty two to the present, and the
(04:57):
IQ is going up in the military by nine IQ
point every generation, and in American civilian civilians, and in
every country around the world. We are boy the dimension measure.
So on one hand, the kids are getting smarter and
we don't know why. On the other hand, the knowledge
is different again. And so for example, on TikTok okay
question without notice, document dot doctor jonesy. On TikTok what
(05:18):
percentage of medical information is accurate? Doctor Jonesy pick a number.
I'd say twenty percent, Doctor Amanda seven two two. That's
why I go on TikTok to try and set it
straight again. That's why I went there the first time,
because they're all these lives. So on one hand, there's
massive disinformation powered by the desire to do advertising. So
(05:40):
each time you click on a home page, now I
must see something like Amanda Jones has suddenly been reincorporated,
revealed to be an alien? Anything true? I believe that
you did. You see click on it, but by the
act of clicking in their first one hundreds of a
second before things start to appear on your screen, your information.
(06:02):
And have you ever seen your Google doc information? No,
it's about fourteen gigs. So you had a cup of
coffee here, then you stopped over there for and then
you bought some shoes for somebody so everything you've done
is map there. All that information is then offered to
five hundred advertisers around the world, who then bid between
one and five cents for the right to show you
the twenty ads on the next home page.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You go, why can't the information be correct? If we're
going to be on those platforms? And yeah, sure, I
know I'm being data mind why can't the information be correct?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Very deep question, you know, doctor Jones. This is what
I love about Amanda. She is frightening me. Intelligent. You
are in fact smarter than me because you don't know
to ask the better questions. On the other hand, I'm
better educated because I've been to university for longer, because educated.
Once upon a time, the Australian government thought that education
was worthwhile investment in the future. Now they don't.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I've got a free one too.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah. So getting back to your question, so we are
wired up for anything unusual. So two hundred thousand years
ago walking around Africa and there's a rustling in undergrowth
and it's a bit of carci flash and you think,
is that a lion? So if you we are wired
up to pay attention to anything that's unusual. So if
we see something saying Amanda Jones is going to be
(07:12):
on radio tomorrow, or Amanda Jones is an alien, you'll
click on that because we are wired up to look
for things that are different because it might be threatening.
Yeah yeah, and it might kill you. So it's a
survival characteristic built into us from evolution.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Well, Carl, we want you to stick around because we've
got some questions. We've put a there's questions from people,
reasonable questions around for us, and I'll hang around for everything.
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