September 13, 2021 • 26 mins
Once more, it's time for a weekly dose of Stuff to Blow Your Mind and Weirdhouse Cinema listener mail...
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My
Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Listener mail. My name is Robert Lamb and my name
is Joe McCormick, and we've got a big old mail
bag for you today, Rob you cool if I jump
right in on this pair of messages, starting with the
(00:23):
one from Tabitha about mirrors and furry fish, go for it. Okay,
So the subject line here mirror hallucinations and mustachioed fish.
To refresh on the mirror subject. I think this is
connecting to a study we talked about in our Mirror
(00:44):
series about people with otherwise typical psychological histories pretty easily
experiencing hallucinations just from prolonged mirror staring, just looking at
their own face in a mirror for ten minutes or
so in low light. And so Tabitha rights, Hi, Robert
and Joe riding in with another mirror anecdote. Though I'm
sure you're sick of these by now. The only hallucination
(01:07):
I've ever had was mirror based. I was finishing up
my master's thesis, very stressed and very sleep deprived, and
binge watching Hannibal, which is a beautiful TV show, but
not particularly good for mental health. One stressful day, I
was washing my hands in the bathroom. I looked up
and my reflection in the mirror was a different person.
(01:29):
It looked like me, it had my face, but I
had a deep impression that there was a different intelligence
looking back at me, and it was not impressed. The
moment passed pretty quickly, but it shook me up. I
had a fear of looking at mirrors in the dark
when I was a child, so I think this episode
was just something swimming up from my deep psyche to
freak me out at a time of trouble. To this day,
(01:52):
I have not finished watching Hannibal. And then, on a
different subject, I enjoyed your furry fish episodes, and I
wonder if you've thought about doing an episode on catfish
and catfish mythology. They were improbable size, mud lurking, sneakiness,
and fabulous mustaches seem ripe for some fun stories. I
know of the giant earthquake causing catfish of Japanese myth
(02:15):
have heard tales of the Wells catfish. I'm not sure
what that is to be well, maybe Welsh, I'm not
sure catfish eating people and pets on a regular basis
across Europe, and I'm sure there's much more enjoying the podcast.
As always, you guys brighten my day on a regular
basis regards Tabitha. Um, So, as for that that that
(02:37):
Japanese myth, this is a cool one if you don't
know it. There's a creature I think called Namazoo or Onamazoo,
who is a a giant catfish who is believed to
swim around in in like caverns or lakes under the
ground I think, And then when they are earthquakes, it's
it said that this is because the fish is swimming.
Oh that's pretty cool. Um. Yeah. As as for not
(02:59):
finish sing Hannibal, I can definitely relate to that. I
really liked the show. I thought was very visual, but yeah, certainly,
uh maybe not the kind of thing you want to binge.
And at some point maybe I'll pick it back up
and finish it. But for now I feel like I'm
my belly is full. Yeah. I started watching it one time.
I watched a couple of episodes, but I never got
(03:21):
very far in Um, maybe I'll go back to it someday.
Oh but maybe so Tabitha actually sent us a couple
of messages. Maybe I'm gonna move right on to this
next one that she sent in response to the Vault
episode about fingernails. All right, let's do it. Tabitha says, Hi,
Robert and Joe just listen to the Vault episode fingernails too.
(03:45):
And I found myself trying not to scream into my
headphones that worms love hair. I think somehow this does
connect to the subject matter, So she says, I loved
your analysis of the symbolic and mythological roots of hair
and nail disposal. I can't help but think that all
of the hair and nail connection to fertility and plant
(04:06):
growth might stem from the fact that earthworms and other
decomposers love to eat keratin. It's a great source of
protein for them. It takes them a while to munch
through it, but earthworms dramatically increased soil health and available
nutrients for plants. So if you bury your hair and nails,
you will get boosted plant growth in that area. Interesting.
(04:27):
What that makes to me feel good about putting all
that cat hair back in the in the garden, which
I've never scientifically verified to see if that actually helps
keep creatures out of the garden. But I'm like, I
have all this cat hair. It needs to go somewhere.
It might as well be the garden. Well, this is
what she says. So Tabitha says, anecdotally, I have a
worm bin which I have kept covered with some thick,
(04:49):
untreated wool felt mats. The worms have been happily munching
through the base of the mats for the last six
months or so. Despite the coating of lanolin Uh, I
often find a worm has twined itself completely through the
felt in its travels. And then finally, she says, this
is the second email I've sent you in a week
or so. Sorry for the spam, but I'm doing very
(05:11):
boring work at the moment. Cheers Tabitha. No, keep them coming.
We're always happy to hear from from our listeners. Totally alright.
Speaking of nails, here's another one, UM, and and did
we say I think the reason for this is because
there was a vault episode. Let's we we ran the
(05:32):
nails episode. That's why everyone's writing in about this. Um
Pablo writes in it, says, Hi, Joe and Robert, my
name is Pablo. I'm a listener from Spain, and I
love your podcast because they are really interesting and for
me it's a wonderful way to practice and learn English. Anyways,
the other day I listened to the podcast from the
Vault Fingernails. I was really excited because nails are extremely
(05:52):
important for me. I spent a lot of time trimming, polishing,
and taking care of them. But you didn't mention while
nails are so important for a lot of people like
my self. I work as a music teacher and play
Spanish guitar. Maybe you don't know that we classical guitarists
play the strings with our nails and they have to
be perfectly shaped to get the nice sound. I used
to have a big problem with the thickness and fragility
(06:14):
of my nails. In fact, some amazing guitar player confessed
that he had once had to cancel an important concert
because he broke a fingernail, but he said that he
had the flu because the real reason was a bit embarrassing.
Fortunately for me, I lately learned how to build artificial
nails using some gels and a UV lamb. Nowadays, the
vast majority of electric guitar players exchange their fingernails for
(06:37):
the plastic ones or change their fingernails for the plastic one. Uh,
those that we call picks. H thank you so much
for your podcasts. I'm really happy listening to you kind regards.
Oh yeah, Pablo, So I um, I played guitar that
I've never played a classical guitar Spanish guitar. But I
had a friend in in high school who played classical guitar,
(06:57):
and he had like a like a long well well
care four thumbnail for picking those strings. I gotta say,
I've never played those guitars, but I play, you know,
electric and acoustic guitar, and I often don't use a pick.
I often just use my fingernails, but not by plucking
with long fingernails. I keep them pretty short. I just
sort of like hit with the back of my fingernail
as if my tip of my finger was a pick.
(07:19):
I think you can see it's like really dig in there,
just just really dig in with a with a short nail. No, no, no,
it takes though. I use a pick sometimes too. Yeah
I will, I'll go go cyborg. Yeah I hadn't. I
never really, I'm not really a guitar person, don't know
much about them. So I had, I didn't really think
about that, and I never had. I had not really
thought about the fact that a guitar pick is this
(07:40):
kind of replacement for the fingernail, a stand in for
the fingernail. But that's that's fascinating. There are different variations
to Usually, if you're playing electric or acoustic guitar, people
tend to use a just a single flat pick that
you hold between your thumb and your index finger. But
like people playing the banjo often have a thumb pick
that's like a ring that sticks on the of their
thumb that they use for strumming or plucking the lower
(08:02):
strings on the banjo. Okay, what I have never seen
but would like to is somebody who who does a
fingerpicking guitar style, but they do it with like full hand,
all five fingers, finger armor, you know those things like
the whole finger ring with like a off and have
kind of a claw tip or something. Oh yeah, I
mean it seems like somebody would have done that, right,
And because it's got to be a metal band where
(08:23):
some of the some sort of crazy jewelry right there
is seems right up the right up The rock star
guitarist Sally Okay, This next message comes to us from Matt.
Matt said, also about fingernails, Matt says, Hello, Robert and Joe.
You mentioned in your Fingernails episode that many young people
(08:44):
with a habit of nail biting do grow out of it.
I was one such person. From as young as I
can remember, I had always bitten my nails and never,
not once, did I ever have to cut them. I
did not choose to bite them. I just couldn't help it.
My mom bought me bad tasting clear hooting to deter me,
but it didn't help. But one day in my mid twenties,
(09:04):
I noticed that my nails were long and I had
to cut them. Twenty years later, I have not bitten
them again. I would like to hear from other listeners
who have also outgrown this habit. I'm very curious if
it ended suddenly like minded, or if it might end
in other ways. Love the show. Thanks for all you do, Matt. Um.
I thought this was interesting because it makes me think
(09:25):
of the broader phenomenon of um. Just like when there
is a major change in our in our habits or
patterns of mind, and we have no idea why. It
just seems to come out of nowhere. Yeah, yeah, just
sort of changes, and it's sometimes it's hard to put
a finger on exactly what happened. I think the closest
thing that I have to this in my own cases.
(09:46):
You know, I've been through periods of my life where
I have like, uh, sort of heightened generalized anxiety that
is present, and then other periods where I don't no
identifiable reason that I can figure out, like what causes
the transition from one to the other, can't, can't in
any way lock it into events going on in my life.
(10:07):
Is just like, you know, this is this is what
my brain is doing at one point, and then one
day it just stops. Yeah. Greadly enough, I feel much
the same. I feel like I've spent some time trying
to to chart those periods in my life with things
going on in my life, and that the topographies don't
necessarily match up. So it's it's weird how that plays out.
(10:29):
But indeed, if there's anyone out there who has some
some feedback on nail biting, like how it stopped when
it stopped, yeah, go and go ahead, go ahead and
write in and let us know. We'll share it with
Matt and the rest of the listeners. We gotta do
these shows once a week, folks. So yeah, I'm happy
to to have these, uh these continuing conversations. All right.
(10:52):
Our next bit of listener mail comes to us from
Nick uh and this is in a response to our
episode or episodes on The Furry Fish. Hello Robert and Joe,
longtime listener, first time, etcetera, etcetera. All I can think
about while listening to The Fish have for episode was
Jonathan Colton's song Fury Old Lobsters, originally written to help
(11:13):
promote John Hodgman's book Areas of My Expertise. The singer
at first seems to be lamenting the loss of an
old species of haired lobster. Only later in the song
do we realize he is confusing the lobster with a
completely different animal. If you haven't heard the song, you
should definitely check it out. Nick, I don't know anything
about this. Oh no, no, this this uh so yeah.
(11:33):
This was the audio book for Areas of My Expertise
by John Hodgman, which I definitely listened to this and
enjoyed it quite a bit back in the day. And
I actually saw Jonathan Colton in concert shortly thereafter. He
played at a small venue here in our area, and
(11:54):
he's quite good. I feel like he's uh, he's quite
a talented musician. Um. And you know, he has some
of these songs that may to be you know, some
people might think, oh, it's just kind of like gimmicky songs,
little comedy songs. But I feel like he's a really
solid singer songwriter. So definitely worth checking out. And as
for Hodgman, you know, obviously uh, uh talented and funny guy.
But I still can't believe all those people he mutilated
(12:14):
on the nick? Who rush stuff? Who does he play
on the nick? Is he a historical figure or just
a um? I can't I can't remember just the character's name.
He plays a character who's Who's whose? Answer? I think
it's I'm pretty sure it's based on a historic person, uh,
if memory serves. But he plays a quack doctor of
(12:37):
the time who believes that the answer to any kind
of mental issue is the removal of all teeth. And
uh and he's so he's he's removed multiple people's entire
set of teeth to improve their their their demeanor and
their their their their their mental life, including the teeth
of his children. So he's this it's it's the best
(12:58):
in my opinion, it's the best, uh acting role that
I've seen John Hodgman in because he's he's he's awful.
He's awful in it. He's just she's like, oh my god,
this guy is completely nuts. One of these days, I'm
gonna have to watch that show. It's it's good. It's
it's not necessarily for the faint of heart, but it's
it's good. I think it's all on HBO what is it,
HBO Max these days. Yeah, I think it's all been
(13:21):
moved over there because that was one of the problems
when it came out. Terrific show, But how many people
were actually subscribing to Cinemax at the time in order
to watch uh historic medical drama. No, I don't think
many people were. Uh So a lot of people missed it.
But now it's all out there and it's easy to
dive into it if you can get past like some
(13:41):
rough stuff right at the top of the first episode,
all right, this next message is about our episode on
gears Gears in biology. So in this episode about gears
(14:01):
in the biological world, we talked about the scarcity of
examples of gears in animal bodies. But several listeners wrote
in after this episode to point out that actually, if
you zoom in far enough, not looking at macroscopic uh,
you know, body structures, but if you zoom in all
the way down to the molecular level, there are in
(14:22):
fact tons of gears in biology. And so an example
of this type of message comes from Cody. Cody says, Hi,
Joe and Robert, in your Gears episode, you mentioned that
you couldn't find another biological example of toothed gears, but
you've overlooked how a t P is synthesized in mitochondria
as a side No, a TP is a denizine triphosphate.
(14:43):
It is the sort of main energy source that powers
the life of cells in in the bodies of I
think basically all organisms. Cody goes on this process involves,
uh the use of a sort of brownie and ratchet
mechanism that exploits the chart differential on either side of
the mitochondrial membrane. There are more protons on one side
(15:05):
of the membrane than the other because of a deliberate
disequilibrium that the mitochondria produces for this purpose, and this
causes the protons to want to flow through the membrane
To establish charge balance, the membrane is periodically perforated with
microtubules that have embedded in them a bona fide mechanical
ratchet see pictures below. Rob you can look at the
(15:28):
pictures that Cody attached absolute I would say this is
bona fide. Yes, h, Cody says uh. And the motion
of the protons turns the ratchet, which is connected via
a CAM to the A T P synthase molecule, thus
extracting energy from the voltage across the membrane via mechanical
gear action to produce a highly energetic compound a TP.
(15:52):
This process even leverages mechanical advantage, as the ratchet through
which the protons flow has several teeth, but the connected
match it in the synthesis molecule has only three teeth. Incidentally,
many antibiotics target this system, either by gumming up the gears,
preventing protons from flowing through them, or permanently uncoupling the
(16:12):
cam connecting the two ratchets. Since all of life on
Earth relies on ADP to do literally anything, you could
say at a very basic level We're all made of gears.
Very cool contribution Cody and others who wrote in on
this subject, So so yeah, thank you, and folks at
home look up this gear. Yeah, I find this this area.
(16:34):
You know, it's super fascinating but also very challenging to
understand at times. I've I've attended a couple of talks
at the World Science Festival about the idea of constructing
nano bots out of this sort of thing, and uh, yeah,
it's it's it's it always blows my mind. But I'm
also kind of like really kind of struggling to to
understand like that smaller realm, you know. Yeah, oh yeah,
(16:55):
I mean with a lot of molecular biology, like I
don't understand and enough well enough to really make judgments
about it on my own. I just gotta take your
word for it, all right. We heard from Jim in
response to a recent artifact or as it is for
(17:17):
the months of September and October, the Monster fact. Uh.
Jim Wrightson and says, when I saw the title Satanic
Writes of Drugula come up in the feed, I assume
the song was about an actual event or person like
Slayer's Angel of Death or Celtic Frost into the Crypts
of Raids, But you were talking about the actual song.
Electric Wizard is one of my favorite bands and one
of the few whose music I can actually they can
(17:39):
actually put me into another state, transporting me or whatever.
I hope you saw them at the Tabernacle just before
COVID hit. It was a great show and they played
that song, which is actually one of my favorites. Although
they have a ton of great songs, I still can't
believe you brought up Electric Wizard. You guys do have
a very eclectic and varied podcast. Keep up the great work.
Jim Well, um, well, Joe was the I guess the
(18:02):
the o G Electric Wizard fan here. I I was
a latecomer to Electric Wizard, but have been listening to
them a lot recently. You've had Wizard on the brain,
I can tell the past past month or so, it seems.
Were you at this show? You've actually seen them live?
Oh yeah, Rachel and I went, yeah, okay, it was heavy, No,
it was really good. Yeah yeah, yeah. Well maybe maybe
(18:23):
one day I'll get to see him after. Everything's a
little saying or out there. But one thing that was
really funny was so of course it's you know, it's
a very debauched heavy metal show. But I remember sitting
near us in the balcony there was like maybe like
a twelve year old kid there clearly with his dad,
like he I think he really wanted to go to
(18:44):
the show, and so his dad took him to Electric
Wizard the Young Wizards. All right. I thought it was sweet. Yeah.
My my son's not really at the point where he's
much into any of the music that I played, but
occasionally he'll say something. I think I was playing some
Evangelists or Tangerine Dream and he was like, hey, this's
an song, and I was like, yeah, that's right, that's right, son,
(19:05):
It is all right. Let's do a little weird house
cinema listener mail. This one comes to us from Frederick
Dear master, podcasters, Robert and the show. Thank you for
your excellent work exploring the depths of the human experience.
I'm sorry, that's all we making me laugh because I
know this is mostly regarding weird house cinema. I enjoy
(19:28):
every minute of it. I've considered writing a few times,
for example regarding uh queuing phenomenon and Swedish versus German subways. Oh,
I'd love to hear about that, but I felt you
might have had enough waiting related correspondence already. Send it
on anyway. Frederick continues, I'm writing now listening to the
Weird House Cinema episode called Devil's Express, and it inspired
(19:50):
me to write this email. It's not much of a
question or a mark, rather a challenge. Here's the background story.
I must have been somewhere between five and seven years
old and my parents had some guests over. I was
minding my own business as I heard the adults call
directed at me, don't look at the TV, smart or
as apparently something scary was shown. I was nowhere near
(20:12):
the TV at the moment, so what does a child
do in that situation. I obviously ran straight into the
living room where the TV was on, to see what
not to look at. I remember seeing a scene out
of what must have been a horror film. There was
a woman sneaking around in an abandoned subway car. She
sees someone and walks up to him. Scary soundtrack intensifies.
(20:32):
The person turns around and it's a skeleton. The vision
of the scary skull with the empty eye sockets must
have burnt itself into my innocent subconscious as the scene
did not only frighten me senseless back then, but it
has popped up every now and then as a memory. Lastly,
as you were talking about a demon in the subway
in the aforementioned podcast, I suspect that if I see
(20:55):
it again, I can laugh at the silliness of it
all and send myself some comfort. Uh, send some comfort
back through time to the child version of myself. But
what was the movie eighties Earle horror movie with a
woman sneaking around in an abandoned subway car frightened by
a skeleton monster. If anyone on this earth would have
an idea, I believe you guys are the ones to
talk to, or indeed your audience. I can think of
(21:16):
none other better educated on the topic. Wishing you a
wonderful weekend to head best, Frederick. This is really funny
because it the the dynamic you're describing reminds me of
an experience that I had where there was a time
when I was a child and I was flipping TV
channels and I came across some horrible movie on TV
(21:38):
and it had the scene of somebody like getting shot
in the knees. That really just shook me, and like
years later, i'd still think of it and feel a
chill and then, but I never knew what the movie
was until I started like going on the internet and
and trying to like go to those those forums where
you can like describe a movie scene you remember and
people will try to help you figure out what movie
(21:59):
it was. I finally figured it out and it was
the dumbest looking Michael Doodakov action movie. Uh and so
so yeah, I got to have that experience of looking
back on the thing that terrified me and realizing it
it is actually hilarious tripe. Yeah. Well, I was fascinated
by this question from Frederick in part because I love
(22:19):
subway movies and there's a subway scene in the movie.
I'm instantly a little more into it, even if the
film is not that good. Um and if you know,
throw a skeleton man into the mix and and I'm
definitely there. But I was I was racking my my
brain here trying to think what it could be. And uh,
I was thinking of of Terror Train as one possibility.
(22:41):
That's the Jamie Lee Curtis and that one does feature
a number of masks but I don't think there's a
skeleton mask in the mix. There's also Horror Express, which
is that Spanish co production that we've we've discussed recently
on Weird House that has tell Telly savalas Christopher Lee
Peter Cushing uh in it, and that does have kind
of a skeletal looking creature in it, though I don't
(23:03):
know if there's a scene. I haven't seen it recently.
I don't know if there's a scene that completely matches
up with this, So you might look to those two films.
I'm not sure, of course, with any kind of childhood
memory situations possible that you know, you have sort of
things combined and recombined. Every time we pull a memory
out of the out of the closet, we manipulated a
little bit. So the memories that stick with us the
(23:24):
longest like this are actually the ones that we can
trust the least. Uh So it's entirely possible that that
monster No has has no true predecessor in the cinematic world.
Perhaps he is your monster, and therefore we can do
nothing to expel it. Sweet Dreams, Frederick. But I'm gonna
keep a lookout. I'm gonna keep a lookout, because I
(23:45):
a few things are certain in life, except that I'll
probably keep watching terrible movies with subway scenes in them,
and if I see this creature, I will let you know. Okay,
we got around things out with one last message. This
comes from Brian subject line Bomba Dill. The entire message
(24:07):
reads Ian Anderson? Why not so? Ian Anderson the the
singer and composer of the what what genre? Would you
call him? Prog rock band Jethro Tell? Yeah, I think
that's where they're generally classified. I'm actually not very well
versed in Jethro Toll. I have to admit I had
(24:28):
to look up to see who Ian Anderson was because
I'm just not familiar with him or his work. You know,
like Locomotive Breath. You know you've heard that one, right, Yeah,
I mean I've heard some some Jethro Tolls songs. I
mean it's you know, they're they're unavoidable. But I just
I don't have a good you know, haven't I haven't.
I haven't done a deep dive on them, and I
never listened to them growing up, So I just don't
(24:48):
have a good feel for for him or his work.
But I looked you know, looking up a picture of him,
I'm like, yeah, I could, I could see this man
is Tom Bomba Dill. I don't know. I want to
be open minded about this, and I've sily we know
Ian Anderson can can sing. I'm sure he could built
out those rob English songs. He probably has already done it.
I bet I bet Jeff Rotell has like recorded Bomba
(25:09):
Dill songs on albums before, because I think they're those
kinds of weirdos. Um. But but I don't know. I
don't know if he seems round enough to be like
I feel like Tom Bomba Dill has gotta be gotta
gotta have a rounder more cherubic energy. Yeah, yeah, I
think you're probably right. All right, Well, we'll leave everyone
else to to to weigh in on this. If not
(25:29):
Jethro Tull, then who uh? The quest for Obamba Dill continues. Um,
you know, there are a lot of great still got
a lot of great possibilities out there. In the meantime,
if you would like to check out other episodes of
Stuff to Blow Your Mind listener mail, well it comes
out every Monday, and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind
podcast feed. We've got core science episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
(25:51):
We have an artifact or for a couple of months,
The Monster Fact, publishing on Wednesday's Weird How Cinema on Fridays,
and a vault episode over the weekend. 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
(26:13):
Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for 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 production of My
Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Listener mail. My name is Robert Lamb and my name
is Joe McCormick, and we've got a big old mail
bag for you today, Rob you cool if I jump
right in on this pair of messages, starting with the
(00:23):
one from Tabitha about mirrors and furry fish, go for it. Okay,
So the subject line here mirror hallucinations and mustachioed fish.
To refresh on the mirror subject. I think this is
connecting to a study we talked about in our Mirror
(00:44):
series about people with otherwise typical psychological histories pretty easily
experiencing hallucinations just from prolonged mirror staring, just looking at
their own face in a mirror for ten minutes or
so in low light. And so Tabitha rights, Hi, Robert
and Joe riding in with another mirror anecdote. Though I'm
sure you're sick of these by now. The only hallucination
(01:07):
I've ever had was mirror based. I was finishing up
my master's thesis, very stressed and very sleep deprived, and
binge watching Hannibal, which is a beautiful TV show, but
not particularly good for mental health. One stressful day, I
was washing my hands in the bathroom. I looked up
and my reflection in the mirror was a different person.
(01:29):
It looked like me, it had my face, but I
had a deep impression that there was a different intelligence
looking back at me, and it was not impressed. The
moment passed pretty quickly, but it shook me up. I
had a fear of looking at mirrors in the dark
when I was a child, so I think this episode
was just something swimming up from my deep psyche to
freak me out at a time of trouble. To this day,
(01:52):
I have not finished watching Hannibal. And then, on a
different subject, I enjoyed your furry fish episodes, and I
wonder if you've thought about doing an episode on catfish
and catfish mythology. They were improbable size, mud lurking, sneakiness,
and fabulous mustaches seem ripe for some fun stories. I
know of the giant earthquake causing catfish of Japanese myth
(02:15):
have heard tales of the Wells catfish. I'm not sure
what that is to be well, maybe Welsh, I'm not
sure catfish eating people and pets on a regular basis
across Europe, and I'm sure there's much more enjoying the podcast.
As always, you guys brighten my day on a regular
basis regards Tabitha. Um, So, as for that that that
(02:37):
Japanese myth, this is a cool one if you don't
know it. There's a creature I think called Namazoo or Onamazoo,
who is a a giant catfish who is believed to
swim around in in like caverns or lakes under the
ground I think, And then when they are earthquakes, it's
it said that this is because the fish is swimming.
Oh that's pretty cool. Um. Yeah. As as for not
(02:59):
finish sing Hannibal, I can definitely relate to that. I
really liked the show. I thought was very visual, but yeah, certainly,
uh maybe not the kind of thing you want to binge.
And at some point maybe I'll pick it back up
and finish it. But for now I feel like I'm
my belly is full. Yeah. I started watching it one time.
I watched a couple of episodes, but I never got
(03:21):
very far in Um, maybe I'll go back to it someday.
Oh but maybe so Tabitha actually sent us a couple
of messages. Maybe I'm gonna move right on to this
next one that she sent in response to the Vault
episode about fingernails. All right, let's do it. Tabitha says, Hi,
Robert and Joe just listen to the Vault episode fingernails too.
(03:45):
And I found myself trying not to scream into my
headphones that worms love hair. I think somehow this does
connect to the subject matter, So she says, I loved
your analysis of the symbolic and mythological roots of hair
and nail disposal. I can't help but think that all
of the hair and nail connection to fertility and plant
(04:06):
growth might stem from the fact that earthworms and other
decomposers love to eat keratin. It's a great source of
protein for them. It takes them a while to munch
through it, but earthworms dramatically increased soil health and available
nutrients for plants. So if you bury your hair and nails,
you will get boosted plant growth in that area. Interesting.
(04:27):
What that makes to me feel good about putting all
that cat hair back in the in the garden, which
I've never scientifically verified to see if that actually helps
keep creatures out of the garden. But I'm like, I
have all this cat hair. It needs to go somewhere.
It might as well be the garden. Well, this is
what she says. So Tabitha says, anecdotally, I have a
worm bin which I have kept covered with some thick,
(04:49):
untreated wool felt mats. The worms have been happily munching
through the base of the mats for the last six
months or so. Despite the coating of lanolin Uh, I
often find a worm has twined itself completely through the
felt in its travels. And then finally, she says, this
is the second email I've sent you in a week
or so. Sorry for the spam, but I'm doing very
(05:11):
boring work at the moment. Cheers Tabitha. No, keep them coming.
We're always happy to hear from from our listeners. Totally alright.
Speaking of nails, here's another one, UM, and and did
we say I think the reason for this is because
there was a vault episode. Let's we we ran the
(05:32):
nails episode. That's why everyone's writing in about this. Um
Pablo writes in it, says, Hi, Joe and Robert, my
name is Pablo. I'm a listener from Spain, and I
love your podcast because they are really interesting and for
me it's a wonderful way to practice and learn English. Anyways,
the other day I listened to the podcast from the
Vault Fingernails. I was really excited because nails are extremely
(05:52):
important for me. I spent a lot of time trimming, polishing,
and taking care of them. But you didn't mention while
nails are so important for a lot of people like
my self. I work as a music teacher and play
Spanish guitar. Maybe you don't know that we classical guitarists
play the strings with our nails and they have to
be perfectly shaped to get the nice sound. I used
to have a big problem with the thickness and fragility
(06:14):
of my nails. In fact, some amazing guitar player confessed
that he had once had to cancel an important concert
because he broke a fingernail, but he said that he
had the flu because the real reason was a bit embarrassing.
Fortunately for me, I lately learned how to build artificial
nails using some gels and a UV lamb. Nowadays, the
vast majority of electric guitar players exchange their fingernails for
(06:37):
the plastic ones or change their fingernails for the plastic one. Uh,
those that we call picks. H thank you so much
for your podcasts. I'm really happy listening to you kind regards.
Oh yeah, Pablo, So I um, I played guitar that
I've never played a classical guitar Spanish guitar. But I
had a friend in in high school who played classical guitar,
(06:57):
and he had like a like a long well well
care four thumbnail for picking those strings. I gotta say,
I've never played those guitars, but I play, you know,
electric and acoustic guitar, and I often don't use a pick.
I often just use my fingernails, but not by plucking
with long fingernails. I keep them pretty short. I just
sort of like hit with the back of my fingernail
as if my tip of my finger was a pick.
(07:19):
I think you can see it's like really dig in there,
just just really dig in with a with a short nail. No, no, no,
it takes though. I use a pick sometimes too. Yeah
I will, I'll go go cyborg. Yeah I hadn't. I
never really, I'm not really a guitar person, don't know
much about them. So I had, I didn't really think
about that, and I never had. I had not really
thought about the fact that a guitar pick is this
(07:40):
kind of replacement for the fingernail, a stand in for
the fingernail. But that's that's fascinating. There are different variations
to Usually, if you're playing electric or acoustic guitar, people
tend to use a just a single flat pick that
you hold between your thumb and your index finger. But
like people playing the banjo often have a thumb pick
that's like a ring that sticks on the of their
thumb that they use for strumming or plucking the lower
(08:02):
strings on the banjo. Okay, what I have never seen
but would like to is somebody who who does a
fingerpicking guitar style, but they do it with like full hand,
all five fingers, finger armor, you know those things like
the whole finger ring with like a off and have
kind of a claw tip or something. Oh yeah, I
mean it seems like somebody would have done that, right,
And because it's got to be a metal band where
(08:23):
some of the some sort of crazy jewelry right there
is seems right up the right up The rock star
guitarist Sally Okay, This next message comes to us from Matt.
Matt said, also about fingernails, Matt says, Hello, Robert and Joe.
You mentioned in your Fingernails episode that many young people
(08:44):
with a habit of nail biting do grow out of it.
I was one such person. From as young as I
can remember, I had always bitten my nails and never,
not once, did I ever have to cut them. I
did not choose to bite them. I just couldn't help it.
My mom bought me bad tasting clear hooting to deter me,
but it didn't help. But one day in my mid twenties,
(09:04):
I noticed that my nails were long and I had
to cut them. Twenty years later, I have not bitten
them again. I would like to hear from other listeners
who have also outgrown this habit. I'm very curious if
it ended suddenly like minded, or if it might end
in other ways. Love the show. Thanks for all you do, Matt. Um.
I thought this was interesting because it makes me think
(09:25):
of the broader phenomenon of um. Just like when there
is a major change in our in our habits or
patterns of mind, and we have no idea why. It
just seems to come out of nowhere. Yeah, yeah, just
sort of changes, and it's sometimes it's hard to put
a finger on exactly what happened. I think the closest
thing that I have to this in my own cases.
(09:46):
You know, I've been through periods of my life where
I have like, uh, sort of heightened generalized anxiety that
is present, and then other periods where I don't no
identifiable reason that I can figure out, like what causes
the transition from one to the other, can't, can't in
any way lock it into events going on in my life.
(10:07):
Is just like, you know, this is this is what
my brain is doing at one point, and then one
day it just stops. Yeah. Greadly enough, I feel much
the same. I feel like I've spent some time trying
to to chart those periods in my life with things
going on in my life, and that the topographies don't
necessarily match up. So it's it's weird how that plays out.
(10:29):
But indeed, if there's anyone out there who has some
some feedback on nail biting, like how it stopped when
it stopped, yeah, go and go ahead, go ahead and
write in and let us know. We'll share it with
Matt and the rest of the listeners. We gotta do
these shows once a week, folks. So yeah, I'm happy
to to have these, uh these continuing conversations. All right.
(10:52):
Our next bit of listener mail comes to us from
Nick uh and this is in a response to our
episode or episodes on The Furry Fish. Hello Robert and Joe,
longtime listener, first time, etcetera, etcetera. All I can think
about while listening to The Fish have for episode was
Jonathan Colton's song Fury Old Lobsters, originally written to help
(11:13):
promote John Hodgman's book Areas of My Expertise. The singer
at first seems to be lamenting the loss of an
old species of haired lobster. Only later in the song
do we realize he is confusing the lobster with a
completely different animal. If you haven't heard the song, you
should definitely check it out. Nick, I don't know anything
about this. Oh no, no, this this uh so yeah.
(11:33):
This was the audio book for Areas of My Expertise
by John Hodgman, which I definitely listened to this and
enjoyed it quite a bit back in the day. And
I actually saw Jonathan Colton in concert shortly thereafter. He
played at a small venue here in our area, and
(11:54):
he's quite good. I feel like he's uh, he's quite
a talented musician. Um. And you know, he has some
of these songs that may to be you know, some
people might think, oh, it's just kind of like gimmicky songs,
little comedy songs. But I feel like he's a really
solid singer songwriter. So definitely worth checking out. And as
for Hodgman, you know, obviously uh, uh talented and funny guy.
But I still can't believe all those people he mutilated
(12:14):
on the nick? Who rush stuff? Who does he play
on the nick? Is he a historical figure or just
a um? I can't I can't remember just the character's name.
He plays a character who's Who's whose? Answer? I think
it's I'm pretty sure it's based on a historic person, uh,
if memory serves. But he plays a quack doctor of
(12:37):
the time who believes that the answer to any kind
of mental issue is the removal of all teeth. And
uh and he's so he's he's removed multiple people's entire
set of teeth to improve their their their demeanor and
their their their their their mental life, including the teeth
of his children. So he's this it's it's the best
(12:58):
in my opinion, it's the best, uh acting role that
I've seen John Hodgman in because he's he's he's awful.
He's awful in it. He's just she's like, oh my god,
this guy is completely nuts. One of these days, I'm
gonna have to watch that show. It's it's good. It's
it's not necessarily for the faint of heart, but it's
it's good. I think it's all on HBO what is it,
HBO Max these days. Yeah, I think it's all been
(13:21):
moved over there because that was one of the problems
when it came out. Terrific show, But how many people
were actually subscribing to Cinemax at the time in order
to watch uh historic medical drama. No, I don't think
many people were. Uh So a lot of people missed it.
But now it's all out there and it's easy to
dive into it if you can get past like some
(13:41):
rough stuff right at the top of the first episode,
all right, this next message is about our episode on
gears Gears in biology. So in this episode about gears
(14:01):
in the biological world, we talked about the scarcity of
examples of gears in animal bodies. But several listeners wrote
in after this episode to point out that actually, if
you zoom in far enough, not looking at macroscopic uh,
you know, body structures, but if you zoom in all
the way down to the molecular level, there are in
(14:22):
fact tons of gears in biology. And so an example
of this type of message comes from Cody. Cody says, Hi,
Joe and Robert, in your Gears episode, you mentioned that
you couldn't find another biological example of toothed gears, but
you've overlooked how a t P is synthesized in mitochondria
as a side No, a TP is a denizine triphosphate.
(14:43):
It is the sort of main energy source that powers
the life of cells in in the bodies of I
think basically all organisms. Cody goes on this process involves,
uh the use of a sort of brownie and ratchet
mechanism that exploits the chart differential on either side of
the mitochondrial membrane. There are more protons on one side
(15:05):
of the membrane than the other because of a deliberate
disequilibrium that the mitochondria produces for this purpose, and this
causes the protons to want to flow through the membrane
To establish charge balance, the membrane is periodically perforated with
microtubules that have embedded in them a bona fide mechanical
ratchet see pictures below. Rob you can look at the
(15:28):
pictures that Cody attached absolute I would say this is
bona fide. Yes, h, Cody says uh. And the motion
of the protons turns the ratchet, which is connected via
a CAM to the A T P synthase molecule, thus
extracting energy from the voltage across the membrane via mechanical
gear action to produce a highly energetic compound a TP.
(15:52):
This process even leverages mechanical advantage, as the ratchet through
which the protons flow has several teeth, but the connected
match it in the synthesis molecule has only three teeth. Incidentally,
many antibiotics target this system, either by gumming up the gears,
preventing protons from flowing through them, or permanently uncoupling the
(16:12):
cam connecting the two ratchets. Since all of life on
Earth relies on ADP to do literally anything, you could
say at a very basic level We're all made of gears.
Very cool contribution Cody and others who wrote in on
this subject, So so yeah, thank you, and folks at
home look up this gear. Yeah, I find this this area.
(16:34):
You know, it's super fascinating but also very challenging to
understand at times. I've I've attended a couple of talks
at the World Science Festival about the idea of constructing
nano bots out of this sort of thing, and uh, yeah,
it's it's it's it always blows my mind. But I'm
also kind of like really kind of struggling to to
understand like that smaller realm, you know. Yeah, oh yeah,
(16:55):
I mean with a lot of molecular biology, like I
don't understand and enough well enough to really make judgments
about it on my own. I just gotta take your
word for it, all right. We heard from Jim in
response to a recent artifact or as it is for
(17:17):
the months of September and October, the Monster fact. Uh.
Jim Wrightson and says, when I saw the title Satanic
Writes of Drugula come up in the feed, I assume
the song was about an actual event or person like
Slayer's Angel of Death or Celtic Frost into the Crypts
of Raids, But you were talking about the actual song.
Electric Wizard is one of my favorite bands and one
of the few whose music I can actually they can
(17:39):
actually put me into another state, transporting me or whatever.
I hope you saw them at the Tabernacle just before
COVID hit. It was a great show and they played
that song, which is actually one of my favorites. Although
they have a ton of great songs, I still can't
believe you brought up Electric Wizard. You guys do have
a very eclectic and varied podcast. Keep up the great work.
Jim Well, um, well, Joe was the I guess the
(18:02):
the o G Electric Wizard fan here. I I was
a latecomer to Electric Wizard, but have been listening to
them a lot recently. You've had Wizard on the brain,
I can tell the past past month or so, it seems.
Were you at this show? You've actually seen them live?
Oh yeah, Rachel and I went, yeah, okay, it was heavy, No,
it was really good. Yeah yeah, yeah. Well maybe maybe
(18:23):
one day I'll get to see him after. Everything's a
little saying or out there. But one thing that was
really funny was so of course it's you know, it's
a very debauched heavy metal show. But I remember sitting
near us in the balcony there was like maybe like
a twelve year old kid there clearly with his dad,
like he I think he really wanted to go to
(18:44):
the show, and so his dad took him to Electric
Wizard the Young Wizards. All right. I thought it was sweet. Yeah.
My my son's not really at the point where he's
much into any of the music that I played, but
occasionally he'll say something. I think I was playing some
Evangelists or Tangerine Dream and he was like, hey, this's
an song, and I was like, yeah, that's right, that's right, son,
(19:05):
It is all right. Let's do a little weird house
cinema listener mail. This one comes to us from Frederick
Dear master, podcasters, Robert and the show. Thank you for
your excellent work exploring the depths of the human experience.
I'm sorry, that's all we making me laugh because I
know this is mostly regarding weird house cinema. I enjoy
(19:28):
every minute of it. I've considered writing a few times,
for example regarding uh queuing phenomenon and Swedish versus German subways. Oh,
I'd love to hear about that, but I felt you
might have had enough waiting related correspondence already. Send it
on anyway. Frederick continues, I'm writing now listening to the
Weird House Cinema episode called Devil's Express, and it inspired
(19:50):
me to write this email. It's not much of a
question or a mark, rather a challenge. Here's the background story.
I must have been somewhere between five and seven years
old and my parents had some guests over. I was
minding my own business as I heard the adults call
directed at me, don't look at the TV, smart or
as apparently something scary was shown. I was nowhere near
(20:12):
the TV at the moment, so what does a child
do in that situation. I obviously ran straight into the
living room where the TV was on, to see what
not to look at. I remember seeing a scene out
of what must have been a horror film. There was
a woman sneaking around in an abandoned subway car. She
sees someone and walks up to him. Scary soundtrack intensifies.
(20:32):
The person turns around and it's a skeleton. The vision
of the scary skull with the empty eye sockets must
have burnt itself into my innocent subconscious as the scene
did not only frighten me senseless back then, but it
has popped up every now and then as a memory. Lastly,
as you were talking about a demon in the subway
in the aforementioned podcast, I suspect that if I see
(20:55):
it again, I can laugh at the silliness of it
all and send myself some comfort. Uh, send some comfort
back through time to the child version of myself. But
what was the movie eighties Earle horror movie with a
woman sneaking around in an abandoned subway car frightened by
a skeleton monster. If anyone on this earth would have
an idea, I believe you guys are the ones to
talk to, or indeed your audience. I can think of
(21:16):
none other better educated on the topic. Wishing you a
wonderful weekend to head best, Frederick. This is really funny
because it the the dynamic you're describing reminds me of
an experience that I had where there was a time
when I was a child and I was flipping TV
channels and I came across some horrible movie on TV
(21:38):
and it had the scene of somebody like getting shot
in the knees. That really just shook me, and like
years later, i'd still think of it and feel a
chill and then, but I never knew what the movie
was until I started like going on the internet and
and trying to like go to those those forums where
you can like describe a movie scene you remember and
people will try to help you figure out what movie
(21:59):
it was. I finally figured it out and it was
the dumbest looking Michael Doodakov action movie. Uh and so
so yeah, I got to have that experience of looking
back on the thing that terrified me and realizing it
it is actually hilarious tripe. Yeah. Well, I was fascinated
by this question from Frederick in part because I love
(22:19):
subway movies and there's a subway scene in the movie.
I'm instantly a little more into it, even if the
film is not that good. Um and if you know,
throw a skeleton man into the mix and and I'm
definitely there. But I was I was racking my my
brain here trying to think what it could be. And uh,
I was thinking of of Terror Train as one possibility.
(22:41):
That's the Jamie Lee Curtis and that one does feature
a number of masks but I don't think there's a
skeleton mask in the mix. There's also Horror Express, which
is that Spanish co production that we've we've discussed recently
on Weird House that has tell Telly savalas Christopher Lee
Peter Cushing uh in it, and that does have kind
of a skeletal looking creature in it, though I don't
(23:03):
know if there's a scene. I haven't seen it recently.
I don't know if there's a scene that completely matches
up with this, So you might look to those two films.
I'm not sure, of course, with any kind of childhood
memory situations possible that you know, you have sort of
things combined and recombined. Every time we pull a memory
out of the out of the closet, we manipulated a
little bit. So the memories that stick with us the
(23:24):
longest like this are actually the ones that we can
trust the least. Uh So it's entirely possible that that
monster No has has no true predecessor in the cinematic world.
Perhaps he is your monster, and therefore we can do
nothing to expel it. Sweet Dreams, Frederick. But I'm gonna
keep a lookout. I'm gonna keep a lookout, because I
(23:45):
a few things are certain in life, except that I'll
probably keep watching terrible movies with subway scenes in them,
and if I see this creature, I will let you know. Okay,
we got around things out with one last message. This
comes from Brian subject line Bomba Dill. The entire message
(24:07):
reads Ian Anderson? Why not so? Ian Anderson the the
singer and composer of the what what genre? Would you
call him? Prog rock band Jethro Tell? Yeah, I think
that's where they're generally classified. I'm actually not very well
versed in Jethro Toll. I have to admit I had
(24:28):
to look up to see who Ian Anderson was because
I'm just not familiar with him or his work. You know,
like Locomotive Breath. You know you've heard that one, right, Yeah,
I mean I've heard some some Jethro Tolls songs. I
mean it's you know, they're they're unavoidable. But I just
I don't have a good you know, haven't I haven't.
I haven't done a deep dive on them, and I
never listened to them growing up, So I just don't
(24:48):
have a good feel for for him or his work.
But I looked you know, looking up a picture of him,
I'm like, yeah, I could, I could see this man
is Tom Bomba Dill. I don't know. I want to
be open minded about this, and I've sily we know
Ian Anderson can can sing. I'm sure he could built
out those rob English songs. He probably has already done it.
I bet I bet Jeff Rotell has like recorded Bomba
(25:09):
Dill songs on albums before, because I think they're those
kinds of weirdos. Um. But but I don't know. I
don't know if he seems round enough to be like
I feel like Tom Bomba Dill has gotta be gotta
gotta have a rounder more cherubic energy. Yeah, yeah, I
think you're probably right. All right, Well, we'll leave everyone
else to to to weigh in on this. If not
(25:29):
Jethro Tull, then who uh? The quest for Obamba Dill continues. Um,
you know, there are a lot of great still got
a lot of great possibilities out there. In the meantime,
if you would like to check out other episodes of
Stuff to Blow Your Mind listener mail, well it comes
out every Monday, and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind
podcast feed. We've got core science episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
(25:51):
We have an artifact or for a couple of months,
The Monster Fact, publishing on Wednesday's Weird How Cinema on Fridays,
and a vault episode over the weekend. 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
(26:13):
Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff To Blow Your Mind News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Lamb
Joe McCormick
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