November 28, 2022 • 38 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, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow
your Mind. Listener mail. This is Robert Lamb and for
I think one last time, it's Seth Nicholas Johnson. That's right.
We're actually recording this one before the week of Thanksgiving break,
which is why we're not going to be reading any
(00:24):
listener mail that has come in after that point or
during that week. Hopefully we'll get some good stuff in,
especially concerning on the weird house side of things, the
Flight of Dragons. That one just came out hours really
before we came in to record this, and I was
already seeing some some folks comment on it on social
media and and say, oh, yeah, I love that movie
(00:46):
when I was a kid, and so forth. So hopefully
we'll get some good stuff in on that. And yeah,
by the time this episode publishes, Joe should be back
from his parental leave, so you'll be hearing from Joe
very soon. It must have been mildly confusing to our
audience that throughout the entire parental break we had him
pre record a bunch of the intros for vaults and stuff.
(01:07):
So so Joe was also here the whole time he
wasn't here. And uh, but now he's really back, not
not just a ghost voice from the past, but real
Joe is back. By the time you're hearing this, Yeah,
and if you just started listening to stuff to blow
your mind four weeks ago, then well, the coming of
Joe is almost here. Behold, a Joe shall be delivered
(01:31):
to you. All right, let's jump into the mail bag here. Uh.
This first one comes to This is a response to
something that came up very briefly in one of the
Ignoble Prize episodes that we did, specifically talking about studies
(01:52):
involving not just crash test dummies, but crash test dummies
based on the the physiology of a moose. And so
the um A listener by the name of Robert writes
in and says, hi, Robert and Seth main resident here.
I was listening to your Ignoble Part two episode. When
I got to the section about moose. I was taken
aback to hear you say moose and elk are the same,
(02:13):
as they certainly are not. Here's a link to some
information that may help clear it up. Uh. And they
included a link that is a moose versus elk guide,
and this is from a a Colorado based website, and
and all the all that that data is accurate, So
I think that the interest. So the thing here is
this is the part of the paper that we referenced
(02:36):
that that mentions this he goes quote. In certain areas
of our planet there are big wild animals. One big
species is the moose called elk in certain regions. Scandinavia
has a very large moose population and car moose collision
is a huge problem, etcetera, etcetera. So this is the
part you can say, it's saying that it's that the
moose is called elk in certain regions. So I believe
(02:58):
that the name confusion that some listeners maybe having here
stems from the fact that what we call a moose
in North America is called an elk in Eurasia. And
while the North American use of elk refers to an
entirely different species um but also in North America the
use of elk refers to an entirely different species. So
from a European standpoint, moose and elk are the same,
(03:21):
and this particular paper is European in origin, So hopefully
that clears everything up for everyone out there. We can
never clear up the deep, deep well and uh, the
labyrinth that is just language confusion and origins of words.
And I still remember being young and trying to find
(03:42):
the like concrete logic behind the origin of words and
really really trying to like hammer it down so I
could really understand it and really put it together, and
then just giving up at a certain points and just going,
I can't figure this out, like like you know, we
we were too diverse of a world with two any
languages to really make definitive answers and origins to anything
(04:04):
like a big one for me. And this is this
is going on a tangent, but but I still remember
this one. I was trying to figure out the difference
between till and until, like, hey, I'll wait till tomorrow
or I'll wait until tomorrow. Why isn't till in I'll
wait till tomorrow? Why does it have two l's, Why
isn't it apostrophe t I L? That would make perfect
(04:25):
sense in my mind. Then I looked it up, and
it seems that both words have completely separate origins. They
just both happened to sound very similar and function in
a very similar way, and I was like, forget this, like,
I can't, I can't go down this rabbit hole. Yeah,
they're They're a number of little linguistic issues like that
that will still come up from me when I'm reading
(04:46):
over something that I that I'm putting together for like
non notes purposes, I'll look back and I'll think, oh, well,
do I have this right. I'm gonna have to look
this up again, and yeah, do a Google search the
word it's. I still think that the correct usage is
incorrect all the time because I feel that, like, so,
(05:07):
for example, I'm gonna use a person and I'm gonna
refer to myself as an it. Okay, so if I'm
looking right now at some cough drops, I go, these
are Seth's cough drops. Now I'm gonna refer to myself
as it. These are its cough drops. I feel that
apostrophe S is still possessive. Therefore I would use I
t apostrophe s. But nope, it's not the case. You
(05:29):
only use it's when you're using it as a contraction,
for it is period, full stop. And I'm like, that's
not right, and I know it's right, but anyway, this
this is a small window into my brain. I spent
a law a lot of time trying to figure these
things out, for like the definitive real rules, and then
hitting a brick wall and just saying, forget it. I'm
(05:49):
not there is no answer here. Yeah, when I turn
on my proof reading brain, I just I go ahead
and pronounce I t apostrophe as as it is. It
just that's that's the only way I can really barrel
through that process. You have to. Yeah, alright. Our next
(06:12):
message here is from Alex starts off this way. Hello,
Robert and Joe. I've been recently thinking about an episode
that you released a while back that was essentially about
the science of being lost. Great episode, if I recall correctly,
I believe you described it as an emotional state and
referenced studies, etcetera that described the phenomenon and unintuitive actions
(06:34):
that lost people take. When I go to search for
the episode, I can never seem to find it, So
it's possible that I'm completely off base, and perhaps another
group of podcasters released the episode I'm describing. However, I'm
fairly confident that it was your soothing voices that educated
me in the first place, and how ironic that she
lost the episode about being lost. That's wonderful. Continuing the message,
(06:57):
if you can provide any insight as to what I'm
rambling about, it would be greatly appreciated. Much thanks to
you both and your team for providing endless hours of
entertainments and knowledge. Alex all right, well, I say, first
of all, just because we're all involved in the production
of the show doesn't mean we two can't become lost
(07:17):
in what we recorded or may have recorded. I'm did
Joe and I are often engaging in conversations like that,
did we do an episode on this? And I had
to I had to search through my notes. Luckily, that's
my main way of solving these issues. Uh. And as
it turns out, it was the leshy episode I believe. Um. So,
that was an episode that dealt, at least on the
(07:39):
surface with the Russian myths and folklore about creatures that
live in the woods and represent like the wildness and
danger of nature. And then we kind of use that
to get into the topic of becoming lost in the woods,
how it feels, how it happens, how easyly it can occur.
Um And I guess in that too, it's also kind
(08:00):
of like a typical stuff to blow your mind move
where we take something highly relatable but it's kind of
beyond the behind the paywall of something more esoteric, which
I mean, you might say we should probably do it
the other way around, but I don't know that's the
way we end up doing it. And uh, yeah, I
remember this being a great episode. I hope you enjoy it, um.
And yeah, if anyone else is looking to get lost
(08:22):
in an episode, check out The Less You One. It's
it's it's definitely a fun episode. And you know what,
I kind of miss we haven't done one of these
uh crypto zoological deep dives in a while, like, like
you know what, maybe we end up doing them like
every month or so, but it's never enough. I really
like them. Yeah, I love I love diving into the
into the folklore mythology for sure. That's kind of a
(08:44):
fun thing about this show in general, is that, um,
there are so many different kinds of episodes that you
and Joe do that are so beloved that no matter
how often you do them rightfully, so every audience member
can go, yeah, but what about inventions? Do more inventions?
You know, there's always why not more because you have
like such a bad catalog of different kinds of angles
(09:06):
to take on these things. So so yeah, it's it's
it's a good problem to have, but unfortunately it also
leaves you open to a lot of requests for things
that you just did, but do it more. Yeah, yeah,
And of course some topics do deserve re exploration years later.
So yeah, any anytime there's a question like this about
a possible past episode or a topic that you're not
(09:28):
sure we cover, just right in and we'll sort it
out alright. This next one comes to us from Trey,
and this one is kind of a fun, just conversational one.
Uh and Tray rides. Dear Robin Seth, what is a
favorite for you and the family to put on the
television after Thanksgiving? I always throw on National Lampoon's Christmas
(09:52):
Vacation to get me in the spirit of setting up
the tree and all. I look forward to hearing your responses.
Maybe it will give me something new to add in rotation.
Great question. I have some very specific answers about you,
rub Um. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you go first. I want
to hear yours. I have a whole day movie marathon
that happens every Thanksgiving. Um, it's mostly just kind of
(10:12):
things that um, me and my friends and my family
have seen so many times that they just kind of
like feed into the background. So if you miss a
little bit, it's okay, you can come back to it.
So it goes in this order. First we watch both
Grumpy Old Men movies. Grumpy Old Men followed by Grumpy
or Old Men. That is followed by planes, Trains and Automobiles,
(10:32):
and then that is followed by Home Alone. That's that's
the structure and the order. And because I think the
logic well, first of all, I don't know what the
logic of including the two Grumpy Old Men movies is.
Maybe because Thanksgiving occurs in the first movie. That's like
that was enough to get us to watch it once
and then just became a tradition. Uh. And of course, Planes,
Trains and Automobiles is all about Thanksgiving, so of course
(10:54):
that one, that one sticks, and that one is like
the main centerpiece and then what Thanksgiving is over that evening.
I do feel like Home Alone is a nice you know,
ease into the the the holiday season, the traditional Christmas season.
You know, Oh, there's some some great picks in there.
I mean, obviously trains, planes and automobiles is uh great
(11:14):
Thanksgiving film. I haven't watched it in a while. I
don't think my son's quite old enough. I'm not, or
at least I'm not ready to show it to him yet.
But that's a really fun one. Yeah, if you're showing
this to your son. I remember, in particular, there's the
scene with Eadie mcclerk where she is the uh, the
car rental woman. Oh god. Yeah, and then Steve Martin
for a PG thirteen How did he get away with
(11:37):
that many F words? Like I thought there was a
limit to one F word per PG thirteen movie or
something like that, but no. In one scene he says
it it's got to be what five dozen times? I
have no idea. I've never counted, but it's just perpetual.
I don't know that that that would be hard to
introduce to a child. I think, and and and not
have them think it's very funny and then repeat it,
(11:59):
you know, yeah like that. Yeah, there are a lot
of of F bombs in that scene. And then it's
kind of punctuated by that scene where he gets picked
up by the testicles and um and then speaking in
a squeaky voice. Yeah, I could easily sort of like
edit all that out. I can skip that entire part.
Yeah yeah, so yeah, yeah, No, great movie. I love it,
(12:20):
watch it every year. But uh yeah, And I'm just
now realizing that that's to John Hughes movies back to back.
I I didn't think of that before ever, but yeah, Planes,
Trains and Automobiles and Home Alone, both written by John Hughes. Yeah,
that there's something about not only John Hughes movies, but
sort of like John Hughes adjacent films and that whole
sort of genre of of the family comedy from that era.
(12:44):
I was thinking about this recently because I have no
idea why, but the movie groundhog Day came up. Groundhog
Day is a movie movie that my son has seen,
and he was asking my wife, and I was like,
that's a Christmas movie, right, And of course, the the
obvious ants here is no, it's of course not a
Christmas movie. It's about it's about groundhog Day. But in
(13:04):
another real sense, it does feel like a Christmas movie.
In in many other respects it does. And in fact,
I don't recommend anyone investigates this route, but there are
multiple uh, Groundhog Day knockoff Christmas films that are terrible.
Don't watch them, but they exist. It's the kind of
thing of like, oh, my Christmas Day is going so
(13:25):
terribly gosh, tomorrow will be better, you know, December. But
then no, this protagonist is stuck in Christmas Day and
they have to make sure that they do it the
right way. But it's it's literally just a complete rip
off of Groundhog Day. And there are multiple movies that
do this, like I think at least two I can
think of maybe more, and they're terrible. Don't watch them.
(13:46):
At the end, the time loop plot structure can be
so interesting. I've done, You've done right, but it's often
done lazily. I guess. Have you seen a film called
Palm Springs. Can't recommend it high enough. It's an Andy
Samberg starring vehicle. Um, it's a Hulu film. I want
(14:06):
to say, I think it might be a Hulu original
and it's so so, so good, and it is a
time loop groundhog Day situation, but it's just done wonderfully well.
Like I, I can't recommend it high enough. So yeah,
Palm Springs, check it out. Nice. Oh, but you have
an answered what are your thanks. Oh yeah, our Thanksgiving film,
I guess. Currently our only real tradition is the ninety
(14:28):
four um Gorky film Studio Jack Frost or Morozoko. This
is one that we we featured on a Weird House
cinema I think last year, and uh so go see
that episode for all my my thoughts on that movie.
But it's one that are kind of originated for for
me and my wife out of watching uh Mystery Science
Theater three thousand episodes on Turkey Day, and this was
(14:52):
featured there. But now we've gotten to the point where
we're just watching it without any MST three K because
the pictures beautiful, the film quality if you get a
non riffed version of it, and it's just just a
lot of fun, totally stands the test of time. Yeah. Absolutely,
And yeah MST three K adjacent media around Thanksgiving Day
is a tradition. Everyone loves that. Beyond that, we're we're
(15:13):
plotting ways to try and introduce my son to the
Gremlins movie franchise, somehow skipping over like the really disturbing
parts of the first movie. I haven't fully mapped out
that venture yet. I mean that the The Dead Father
addressed as Santa is definitely the part that you have
to keep away from the kids for a while until
(15:34):
they reach a certain age. But yeah, yeah, that's a
fun one. Though. I feel like kids could watch two
more easily than they could watch one. Yeah, I've been
arguing for that. I'm like, let's just skip straight to
G two and my ovis like, I don't know if
he's gonna understand everything, and then I'm like, well, yeah,
and he would. He would miss out on some cuteness
and some basic exploitation explanation of the concept if he
(15:55):
skipped you one, So fair enough. It's true the origin
tale of you know, kind of the rules kind of
it where it works well in the Gremlins universe, and
I guess all film universes with creatures and monsters to
have those rules laid down as a steady foundation. Now,
some people have the Twilight Zone tradition of Thanksgiving right
because somebody some station used to do or still does
(16:17):
Twilight Zone Thanksgiving marathons. Is that right? Or am I
thinking about another holiday if it was in my mind?
And I'm not sure if I'm right either, because who
knows what television does anymore? I remember them being New
Year's Eve. That's Twilight Zone marathons. But um, but I'm
sure different stations did different things. But that's that's my memory.
That's I think you're correct on that. I was misremembering
(16:38):
that tradition. I wish it was my tradition because then,
because yeah, I'd love like a holiday dictated excuse to
watch old Twilight Zone episodes. Oh yeah, for sure, for
sure I need to make a new one. Like what
holiday can I align with? Night gallery? Oh gosh, what
is the longest night of the year? Is that? Um?
Winter Solstice? So so so it's like the longest night
(16:59):
gallery of the year and just squeezing as many as
you can from sundown till sun up. Okay, all right,
so Trey, I hope, I hope some of that helped you.
Maybe that'll give you some ideas for the future. Oh
and in a very quick ps perennial classic is, of
course the Peanuts Thanksgiving Special, serving pretzels, jelly beans and
(17:20):
toast for Thanksgiving at a big table with a bunch
of kids. Hilarious. I don't remember that one. I only
know the Great Pumpkin. I think that's a good one too. Well,
And the Christmas one, but yeah, I didn't even realize
off top of my hand. They had a Thanksgiving one.
Some of the best Peanuts ones, the lesser seen holiday ones. Um,
there's a wonderful sad Valentine's Day one, and there's a
(17:42):
wonderful Easter one. The Peanuts, the Peanuts family. Oh gosh,
they have so many specials and then many of them
are are just wonderful, just full of full of you know,
subtle childhood depression, which I just really relate with. M Alright,
(18:04):
moving on next, we have a message here from David.
Let's see what we got here. Greetings. My father was
a rocket scientist. He was literally a pioneer of American
aerospace and held a patent in solid fuel propellant. After
his retirement in the nineteen nineties, he opened up about
a few things more fanciful. I was working on a
(18:25):
sci fi concept and we were discussing it as well
as Dune, Star Wars, etcetera. I'm tempted to do a
bit more backstory on this particular discussion, but I'll cut
to the chase. Well versed in quantum mechanics, my dad suggested,
and I'm paraphrasing with due liberty, that the so called
spooky relationship between particles might indicate a sort of subspace
(18:47):
plane or medium. And this is pretty much verbatim. Construct
something around a prime particle, excite that particle. It signals
the other particle to wits. Look what I have here?
What this bamp? Now? I'm now I'm boiling down not
one but a few long conversations into a cute see
(19:08):
cartoon strip. But I'm sure you'll find that interesting and
I'm happy to share more about its happy trails. David
m hmm. Well, um, uh, I love what what David
is essentially getting at here. Yeah. That that when you
start looking into the realm of quantum mechanics and all there,
there are these various areas where, um, what we believe
(19:31):
to be true or possibly be true about the universe, uh,
can begin to align with some of our are seemingly
more fantastic sci fi concepts. And I don't I don't
think we've done an episode where we really get into
this sort of thing recently, but in the past we
have talking about things like I think warp bubbles and
so forth. Um, which isn't necessarily died to quantum discussions
(19:53):
but still when you get into some of these more
far out ideas about how things like faster than like
travel could a actually be achieved, it gets it gets
pretty pretty neat. Yeah, I mean from like the most
basic point of view ever when it comes to science. Uh,
Albert Einstein, he basically did prove time travel as possible,
and yet you know the limitations of that. You can
(20:15):
go forward, you can't go back, you know, like like
just like those little things, and it's it is fun
to just kind of see that reality in of of
science fiction concepts, but not really like you can't really
have like the fun you want to have with it.
But it's like it's like close enough. It's like just
a hint of what's like beyond that veil. And it's
funny too. I have a couple of friends who work
(20:36):
in aerospace and uh one's a rocket scientist, one is
uh in space exploration, and both of them, whenever I
hear about like the kind of projects they're working on,
first of all, they're always very hush hush and they
can't tell me lots of details. But I'm very used
to working in the entertainment industry, where you start something
and then you finish it, you know, within a year,
(20:57):
but usually within the week. You know. Uh, their projects
take longer than their lifetime, you know, like that they'll
be working on something that they know they'll never finish
that they they they're just you know, putting in their
time on a project, contributing to something that perhaps you know,
two more generations after them will actually reach this final
conclusion when it comes to whatever liquid physics or something
(21:20):
who knows, what's you know, whatever aerospace rocket scientists are
are focusing on these days. All right, I'm grabbing another
one here, this one. This we I don't think we've
ever done this before, but I was, I was doing
a quick search to see if anyone had written in
about the weird House on Congo yet, and uh we
(21:41):
did here for some from some folks, but I found
this one that is actually from much earlier this year,
from January, actually, well before it was announced that we're
going to discuss Congo and UM. A listener by the
name of Mark wrote in in response to one of
our I think crab discussions that is re airing or
would have re aired last week, so anyway, Mark writes
(22:04):
in with an email titled time Crabs and says in
the novel Congo, a guerrilla named Coco, and I think
it's actually Amy, but very easy to make that confusion
because I believe Amy is in large part based on Cocoa.
Um So Mark continues, a guerrilla named Coco or Amy
has the same spatial time orientation. The past is in
(22:25):
front of us because it is known. But if Coco
was told that someone was coming soon, she would look
over her shoulder. Wonder where Michael Crichton got this idea, Martin, Yeah,
I remember that discussion. The discussion back about time in general,
and about the future being in front of you and
the past being behind you, and how that relates often too,
something as simple as just literally like traveling down a road,
(22:46):
you know where It's like if you say to someone this,
you know, this is five days from now, you think spatially, like, oh,
how far is that ahead of me? If I walked
down a road or no, like, oh this was a
week ago, It's like, oh, where could I have been
one week behind to me if I was walking Like
that kind of like relating space to time in a
literal way, and that's pretty fun. Yeah, Yeah, I think
(23:07):
the Crab discussion was what how would superintelligent crab focus
on this, given that it kind of made it move
side to side. But but this is a great detail
from the novel Congo and totally the sort of thing
that Michael Crichton would just throw in there here and there.
I mean, that's one of the reasons the books were
so much fun to read. All Right, We've got one
(23:30):
last message here. This is from Jamie via Facebook. Here's
what Jamie has to say. I'm listening back to the
two thousand and seventeen episode Alien Abduction Experience, Part one,
kind of binging episodes while working on this ongoing cross
stitch of of the planet Saturn. That sounds wonderful. A
(23:50):
train of thought occurred to me while Roberts and Christian
Hey an old Christian episode Christian Seger briefly discussed up
this book called The Seven Sins of Memory. Robert touched
on absent mindedness, using as an example of when people
try to recall where you were when September eleven two
one happened, and how you probably don't actually remember with
(24:11):
accuracy what you were wearing or what you had for
breakfast that day. A sudden question slash idea I pondered
about which may make an interesting future episode. I don't
know is this and then paraphrase and quickly Jamie gives
us the idea to focus on an episode about the
instinct of trying to remember where you were on nine eleven,
(24:32):
which is definitely an interesting idea. I'm just coming away
from the message for a moment here. I feel like
it's got something to do with touch points for humanity.
Is there There are a few things that we all
have in common, and sometimes we have them and we
can all focus on them and have a shared experience
and have a kind of like a shared knowledge base,
And nine eleven is definitely one of those, Like like, here,
(24:52):
here's an example of that that's that's not tragedy related. Um.
I remember in college, I was taking a film course
and the instruct after he very early on in the class,
said to everyone's like, all right, who's seen Wizard of Oz,
you know? And most of the class raised their hand.
He's like, all right, who's seen Titanic? And most of
the class raised their hand, and he's like, okay, okay,
(25:13):
just checking every year, I have to check in on
this because I know I'm always trying to find the
common film that almost everyone has seen when I'm when
I'm starting, just so we all have a common language,
and it used to be Wizard of Oz. But as
as I'm aging, I think it's getting closer and closer
to Titanic. And it's been a while since I was
in college, so I'm sure it's changed again since then.
(25:33):
But uh, but yeah, you're just finding that that touch
points that commonality amongst a large group of people. And
nine eleven, you know, was that events. You know, we
all experienced it one way or another. Yeah, and there
would be not not to say that they certainly wouldn't
be the same emotional state, but there are comparable, uh
emotional states to discuss their um So yeah, there there's
(25:56):
This would have been for many people a noteworthy touch
don't event and uh and you can revisit it by
asking other people where they were and how they felt.
Getting back to Jamie's message, it seems to serve as
a kind of socially bonding activity remembering and recalling. But
what if you cannot recall exactly where or when or
(26:17):
what you were wearing where you were when an event
of some significance happens. I wonder if there's a certain
taboo or stigma societally at work, if we can't remember
something like that. For instance, around the anniversary of nine eleven,
you'll see posts asking others what they remember about it.
I have to imagine there's a percentage of people who
see that post and scroll past, possibly because they don't
(26:40):
have a formed answer. I wonder how that person feels.
Does it bother them? Is there an obligation of some
kind to reminisce what happens if you don't. Is there
a feeling of loss? Do you lose something on some
level when you can't participate or if you refuse to
Speaking from experience, in two thousand and one, I was
in elementary school. I have almost no member of nine
(27:00):
eleven to speak of. I also enjoy these episodes discussing
alien abduction and the subject of Incubi. And then she
mentions that we never talked about the band Incubis, which
of course we should, so we're mentioning it. Now there's
a band called Incubus. They exist. Getting back to the message,
the idea of alien abduction absolutely terrifies me anyone else,
(27:20):
So glad I can put some of my personal hang
ups to bed. And uh yeah, thank you so much, Jamie.
You know, there's one part of this that, um, I
think you can relate to a little bit. But a
big part of this of like having something happening in
society that either through choice or reality, you're opting out of.
I'm a vegan, so when I walk through a grocery store,
(27:41):
I see most of that store. I was just like
not for me, you know, like whenever I'm walking through,
I'm just like, nothing over there for me, Nothing over
there for me. People talking about like these like kind
of um food traditions that happen every year, whether it's
eating turkey on Thanksgiving or whether it's um, you know,
rilling up some burgers for uh the fourth of July,
(28:03):
whatever it may be, all these food traditions that are
non vegan, which are most of them of course. Um
I I had to put a place in my mind
years ago when I became a vegan just going like,
you know what, that's just not for me, period, Like,
like I'm not involved in any of that. And thankfully
there are many food substitutes at this point that you
can't have, you know, fake burgers, a fake Treu ducan
(28:24):
or whatever. But uh, but yeah, no, no, that that's
that's an element that I see in my life, especially
interacting with most of my friends who are primarily not vegans,
and just going like, oh, I'm not a part of this.
You know, this is interesting. I was actually reading a
little about studies that have looked at at at a
similar topic here, like what does it take to cause
(28:47):
a division between like one group and another like that?
One of like there's about political examples, but also it
gets down to things like cat people versus dog people,
which of course is a kind of a ridiculous distinction. Um.
And then you have other things like, for instance, take
take the band Incubus. I don't think I've ever listened
to Incubus, and I don't have a strong opinion about
(29:08):
that fact or the band, Like I'm not a never
Incubus person. I don't don't really have an opinion. Just
it just never happened for me. Um. And there are
a lot of things like that in our life where
we're just like, oh, well, that's yeah, I guess that's
not my thing, but I don't have an opinion on it.
Then there are plenty of other things where you're going
to have more of an opinion. Maybe the choice is
(29:30):
based in some sort of you know, I mean a
moral standpoint or environmental standpoint, etcetera. Certainly that can be
said for a lot of dietary preferences. Um, And then
there are other elements as well. But even something like
you know, well I'm a you maybe have a more
of a heated response on something like uh, let's say
the band Kiss. You might say, well, I'm not a
(29:52):
kiss fan, and it's it's not a neutral stance. It's
more of an assertive and aggressive stance. That's an excellent point, um.
Bringing it back to a food preferences, like you were
saying to uh, yeah, there's like, you know, different kinds
of people who don't eat meat. Like for me, it's
just like, oh, it makes me feel better when I
don't eat meat, so I just don't do it. Other
(30:12):
people are like, no, this is a moral stance and
I'm judging you for eating meats, and so yeah, that
is like a difference where it's like me because I
I you know, I know people eat meat, and I
don't really care when I walk through a grocery store,
I do just kind of block it out as like
oh whatever, you know, that's just not for me. That's
it's almost like it doesn't exist. Whereas if you're the
kind of person who's like, no, I hate that people
(30:34):
eat meat, you you may perhaps you do see it,
and it's it's it's it's it's a sore point for you.
It's a no, I I don't like that this exists.
So yeah, that that's that's an interesting idea. The difference
between um, a positive thought, a negative thought, and a
neutral thought. The neutral thought truly can't ignore, but positive
(30:54):
or negative you you are thinking about it more. Yes,
I think we will do an episode in the future
on this, because he gets into questions like what is
the what is the smallest thing that could lead to
a division like this? And then why does it? I
think a lot of the times too, there's gonna be
you're gonna slip to more extreme visions of it, and
you're gonna be holding to this schism without it being
(31:16):
a real conscious effort, without like waking up and going
through like these are the reasons I believe this thing.
This is why I'm opposed to you know, this sports
team or this sport or whatever the division happens to be.
I remember years ago some toilet paper company, don't remember
which one. They were trying to create a false schism
in their in their in their user base, which I
(31:37):
guess is everyone that uses toilet paper, and they were like, hey,
are you the kind of person that has it flip
over or flip under? And they were doing like a
survey and there was you know, it's just a joke
for for an ad campaign or whatever, but I remember
the result that I still remember the result of this day.
So there's there's no real, you know, distinct answer or
(32:00):
definitive like right or wrong. It's just some people put
it over, some people put it under. And I'm like,
that's that's a line. We all we all do it somewhat.
So you picked you've picked a path. Yeah, we're a
fifty household. I'm not gonna spoil who goes which way
on it. But um, but every time that I noticed this,
I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode where where they're written
(32:21):
up or Marge is written up for having it in
the underhanded fashion. Yes, yes, yeah, well, hey, someone someone's
gonna make rules. Someone needs to make divisions. You got
you gotta exclude people somehow. I guess it's the natural
human feeling. Unfortunately. Alright, three three more things about this email. So,
first of all, The Seven Sins of Memory, How the
Mind Forgets and Remembers is a book by Daniel Shackter h.
(32:42):
This came out in two thousand and one, so bear
in mind it is over twenty years old now, so
I can't speak for how it's really holding up and
how it relates to more recent research in memory. But um,
I imagine it holds up pretty well, and I remember
it just being it's just really thought provoking content that
will really make you think more about how you remember
(33:05):
things and the different ways that the brain remembers things. So, um, yeah,
go go check that out if you're interested. Um. But
one of the things about something like nine eleven, the
question being like, well, what if you don't fully remember,
you're gonna feel left out. Well, part of the answer
is your brain will fill in the blanks. Even those
of us who think we remember, we don't necessarily really
(33:26):
remember what was going on. Our brain creates some a
simulation of what what occurred. So you might think you
know what you're eating, you might think you know remember
what you were wearing. Uh, And in many cases you may.
It's not saying that no one has precise memories of this,
but the way memory works, it fills in the blanks,
(33:47):
and this is where we get the potential for strongly
held false memories about things. Oh and finally, yeah, the
idea of alien abduction and uh incubi and succubi and
so forth. Yeah. I I used to find these concepts
very frightening, Which is probably one of the reasons that
we've looked at them time and time again on the show,
is that exploring them logically kind of helped to understand
(34:10):
like why these concepts frightened me, especially when I was
a child, and then um, and then also sort of
making sure that the scary things stay in the realm
of fantasy for me. Uh so, Yeah, I totally, I
totally can relate to anyone who finds these concepts kind
of creepy. My big um. I guess anxiety about aliens
(34:32):
is this. I think we could all agree, probably for
the most part, that there is some sort of life
probably somewhere in the universe. Even if it's just like
a little amiba crawling in some dirt somewhere, there's probably
something somewhere, you know. I think I think both people
can agree on that, at least are the more advanced.
Who knows that's that's a whole other question. But the
potential for someone to arrive here at any points, it's
(34:57):
just on the table, you know, just just just at
some point some creature from another galaxy who has developed
space travel just like we have. You know, we've done it,
so why couldn't someone else could just arrive and it's
just like oh well, now what like just yeah, at
any point it's it's you know that that that that
door is right there, and someone could just come in
and just be like, hi, we've we've come now like
(35:18):
that's I think, I think that's that's part of the
anxiety some people have. It is just the the open
ended nature of of of alien contact. Oh yeah, absolutely,
and and new stuff will come out that that seems
to keep that door nice and cracked. How However, of course,
there are plenty of of people out there who want
to jump in and try and widen that crack as
(35:39):
much as possible, or discussed just how absurdly wide the
crack is when it isn't. But uh, I mean, that's
also part of fun of the discussion. As long as
you don't let it um inconvenient your life for the
lives of anyone around you. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Just remember
that speculation is fun, but facts are better, you know. Yeah,
all right, Well it's seen is that the mail bag
(36:00):
is empty at this point. Hopefully it will begin to
to fill back up. So yes, keep your thoughts coming
right in. We'd love to hear from you about past episodes,
uh way, past episodes, recent episodes, possible future episodes, weird
how cinema, artifact, monster fact, core episodes, or just responses
to other listener mails. All of that is fair game. Also,
(36:24):
if if you were a fan of of recent Listener
Mail guest host Dr Anton Jessup, I have heard he
may be returning close to the holidays, So go back
and listen to the recent listener Mail episode with Anton Jessup.
You'll get a feel for the sorts of messages he
likes to respond to. And if you would like to
contribute a message of that caliber, well you can send
(36:46):
it to us at the email We're gonna list here
and just a bit, uh let's see other housekeeping stuff.
Uh yeah, Listener mails every Monday, Core episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Wednesday's Artifact or Monster Pact. Fact Friday is Weird How Cinema.
That's their time to set us most serious concerns, to
just talk about a weird film. Um places you can
follow us, Well, there's the Stuff to Blow your Mind
(37:07):
discussion module on Facebook. That's the Facebook group. You can
request access to that. If you want to join us
on discord, just shoot us an email and again the
emails coming up and we'll send you the link where
you can join and engaging discussions with other listeners and
let's see is there anything else? Oh, if you if
you like Weird House Cinema, you can go to letterbox
(37:27):
dot com. It's l E T T E R b
o x d uh and our user name is weird House.
That's where we list all the films we've discussed on
Weird House Cinema. Thanks as always to Seth Nicholas Johnson
for producing the show and of course guest co hosting
slew of them during the parental break here and if
you want to reach out to any of us, you
can email us at contact at stuff to blow your
(37:47):
Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a
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 you welcome to Stuff to Blow
your Mind. Listener mail. This is Robert Lamb and for
I think one last time, it's Seth Nicholas Johnson. That's right.
We're actually recording this one before the week of Thanksgiving break,
which is why we're not going to be reading any
(00:24):
listener mail that has come in after that point or
during that week. Hopefully we'll get some good stuff in,
especially concerning on the weird house side of things, the
Flight of Dragons. That one just came out hours really
before we came in to record this, and I was
already seeing some some folks comment on it on social
media and and say, oh, yeah, I love that movie
(00:46):
when I was a kid, and so forth. So hopefully
we'll get some good stuff in on that. And yeah,
by the time this episode publishes, Joe should be back
from his parental leave, so you'll be hearing from Joe
very soon. It must have been mildly confusing to our
audience that throughout the entire parental break we had him
pre record a bunch of the intros for vaults and stuff.
(01:07):
So so Joe was also here the whole time he
wasn't here. And uh, but now he's really back, not
not just a ghost voice from the past, but real
Joe is back. By the time you're hearing this, Yeah,
and if you just started listening to stuff to blow
your mind four weeks ago, then well, the coming of
Joe is almost here. Behold, a Joe shall be delivered
(01:31):
to you. All right, let's jump into the mail bag here. Uh.
This first one comes to This is a response to
something that came up very briefly in one of the
Ignoble Prize episodes that we did, specifically talking about studies
(01:52):
involving not just crash test dummies, but crash test dummies
based on the the physiology of a moose. And so
the um A listener by the name of Robert writes
in and says, hi, Robert and Seth main resident here.
I was listening to your Ignoble Part two episode. When
I got to the section about moose. I was taken
aback to hear you say moose and elk are the same,
(02:13):
as they certainly are not. Here's a link to some
information that may help clear it up. Uh. And they
included a link that is a moose versus elk guide,
and this is from a a Colorado based website, and
and all the all that that data is accurate, So
I think that the interest. So the thing here is
this is the part of the paper that we referenced
(02:36):
that that mentions this he goes quote. In certain areas
of our planet there are big wild animals. One big
species is the moose called elk in certain regions. Scandinavia
has a very large moose population and car moose collision
is a huge problem, etcetera, etcetera. So this is the
part you can say, it's saying that it's that the
moose is called elk in certain regions. So I believe
(02:58):
that the name confusion that some listeners maybe having here
stems from the fact that what we call a moose
in North America is called an elk in Eurasia. And
while the North American use of elk refers to an
entirely different species um but also in North America the
use of elk refers to an entirely different species. So
from a European standpoint, moose and elk are the same,
(03:21):
and this particular paper is European in origin, So hopefully
that clears everything up for everyone out there. We can
never clear up the deep, deep well and uh, the
labyrinth that is just language confusion and origins of words.
And I still remember being young and trying to find
(03:42):
the like concrete logic behind the origin of words and
really really trying to like hammer it down so I
could really understand it and really put it together, and
then just giving up at a certain points and just going,
I can't figure this out, like like you know, we
we were too diverse of a world with two any
languages to really make definitive answers and origins to anything
(04:04):
like a big one for me. And this is this
is going on a tangent, but but I still remember
this one. I was trying to figure out the difference
between till and until, like, hey, I'll wait till tomorrow
or I'll wait until tomorrow. Why isn't till in I'll
wait till tomorrow? Why does it have two l's, Why
isn't it apostrophe t I L? That would make perfect
(04:25):
sense in my mind. Then I looked it up, and
it seems that both words have completely separate origins. They
just both happened to sound very similar and function in
a very similar way, and I was like, forget this, like,
I can't, I can't go down this rabbit hole. Yeah,
they're They're a number of little linguistic issues like that
that will still come up from me when I'm reading
(04:46):
over something that I that I'm putting together for like
non notes purposes, I'll look back and I'll think, oh, well,
do I have this right. I'm gonna have to look
this up again, and yeah, do a Google search the
word it's. I still think that the correct usage is
incorrect all the time because I feel that, like, so,
(05:07):
for example, I'm gonna use a person and I'm gonna
refer to myself as an it. Okay, so if I'm
looking right now at some cough drops, I go, these
are Seth's cough drops. Now I'm gonna refer to myself
as it. These are its cough drops. I feel that
apostrophe S is still possessive. Therefore I would use I
t apostrophe s. But nope, it's not the case. You
(05:29):
only use it's when you're using it as a contraction,
for it is period, full stop. And I'm like, that's
not right, and I know it's right, but anyway, this
this is a small window into my brain. I spent
a law a lot of time trying to figure these
things out, for like the definitive real rules, and then
hitting a brick wall and just saying, forget it. I'm
(05:49):
not there is no answer here. Yeah, when I turn
on my proof reading brain, I just I go ahead
and pronounce I t apostrophe as as it is. It
just that's that's the only way I can really barrel
through that process. You have to. Yeah, alright. Our next
(06:12):
message here is from Alex starts off this way. Hello,
Robert and Joe. I've been recently thinking about an episode
that you released a while back that was essentially about
the science of being lost. Great episode, if I recall correctly,
I believe you described it as an emotional state and
referenced studies, etcetera that described the phenomenon and unintuitive actions
(06:34):
that lost people take. When I go to search for
the episode, I can never seem to find it, So
it's possible that I'm completely off base, and perhaps another
group of podcasters released the episode I'm describing. However, I'm
fairly confident that it was your soothing voices that educated
me in the first place, and how ironic that she
lost the episode about being lost. That's wonderful. Continuing the message,
(06:57):
if you can provide any insight as to what I'm
rambling about, it would be greatly appreciated. Much thanks to
you both and your team for providing endless hours of
entertainments and knowledge. Alex all right, well, I say, first
of all, just because we're all involved in the production
of the show doesn't mean we two can't become lost
(07:17):
in what we recorded or may have recorded. I'm did
Joe and I are often engaging in conversations like that,
did we do an episode on this? And I had
to I had to search through my notes. Luckily, that's
my main way of solving these issues. Uh. And as
it turns out, it was the leshy episode I believe. Um. So,
that was an episode that dealt, at least on the
(07:39):
surface with the Russian myths and folklore about creatures that
live in the woods and represent like the wildness and
danger of nature. And then we kind of use that
to get into the topic of becoming lost in the woods,
how it feels, how it happens, how easyly it can occur.
Um And I guess in that too, it's also kind
(08:00):
of like a typical stuff to blow your mind move
where we take something highly relatable but it's kind of
beyond the behind the paywall of something more esoteric, which
I mean, you might say we should probably do it
the other way around, but I don't know that's the
way we end up doing it. And uh, yeah, I
remember this being a great episode. I hope you enjoy it, um.
And yeah, if anyone else is looking to get lost
(08:22):
in an episode, check out The Less You One. It's
it's it's definitely a fun episode. And you know what,
I kind of miss we haven't done one of these
uh crypto zoological deep dives in a while, like, like
you know what, maybe we end up doing them like
every month or so, but it's never enough. I really
like them. Yeah, I love I love diving into the
into the folklore mythology for sure. That's kind of a
(08:44):
fun thing about this show in general, is that, um,
there are so many different kinds of episodes that you
and Joe do that are so beloved that no matter
how often you do them rightfully, so every audience member
can go, yeah, but what about inventions? Do more inventions?
You know, there's always why not more because you have
like such a bad catalog of different kinds of angles
(09:06):
to take on these things. So so yeah, it's it's
it's a good problem to have, but unfortunately it also
leaves you open to a lot of requests for things
that you just did, but do it more. Yeah, yeah,
And of course some topics do deserve re exploration years later.
So yeah, any anytime there's a question like this about
a possible past episode or a topic that you're not
(09:28):
sure we cover, just right in and we'll sort it
out alright. This next one comes to us from Trey,
and this one is kind of a fun, just conversational one.
Uh and Tray rides. Dear Robin Seth, what is a
favorite for you and the family to put on the
television after Thanksgiving? I always throw on National Lampoon's Christmas
(09:52):
Vacation to get me in the spirit of setting up
the tree and all. I look forward to hearing your responses.
Maybe it will give me something new to add in rotation.
Great question. I have some very specific answers about you,
rub Um. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you go first. I want
to hear yours. I have a whole day movie marathon
that happens every Thanksgiving. Um, it's mostly just kind of
(10:12):
things that um, me and my friends and my family
have seen so many times that they just kind of
like feed into the background. So if you miss a
little bit, it's okay, you can come back to it.
So it goes in this order. First we watch both
Grumpy Old Men movies. Grumpy Old Men followed by Grumpy
or Old Men. That is followed by planes, Trains and Automobiles,
(10:32):
and then that is followed by Home Alone. That's that's
the structure and the order. And because I think the
logic well, first of all, I don't know what the
logic of including the two Grumpy Old Men movies is.
Maybe because Thanksgiving occurs in the first movie. That's like
that was enough to get us to watch it once
and then just became a tradition. Uh. And of course, Planes,
Trains and Automobiles is all about Thanksgiving, so of course
(10:54):
that one, that one sticks, and that one is like
the main centerpiece and then what Thanksgiving is over that evening.
I do feel like Home Alone is a nice you know,
ease into the the the holiday season, the traditional Christmas season.
You know, Oh, there's some some great picks in there.
I mean, obviously trains, planes and automobiles is uh great
(11:14):
Thanksgiving film. I haven't watched it in a while. I
don't think my son's quite old enough. I'm not, or
at least I'm not ready to show it to him yet.
But that's a really fun one. Yeah, if you're showing
this to your son. I remember, in particular, there's the
scene with Eadie mcclerk where she is the uh, the
car rental woman. Oh god. Yeah, and then Steve Martin
for a PG thirteen How did he get away with
(11:37):
that many F words? Like I thought there was a
limit to one F word per PG thirteen movie or
something like that, but no. In one scene he says
it it's got to be what five dozen times? I
have no idea. I've never counted, but it's just perpetual.
I don't know that that that would be hard to
introduce to a child. I think, and and and not
have them think it's very funny and then repeat it,
(11:59):
you know, yeah like that. Yeah, there are a lot
of of F bombs in that scene. And then it's
kind of punctuated by that scene where he gets picked
up by the testicles and um and then speaking in
a squeaky voice. Yeah, I could easily sort of like
edit all that out. I can skip that entire part.
Yeah yeah, so yeah, yeah, No, great movie. I love it,
(12:20):
watch it every year. But uh yeah, And I'm just
now realizing that that's to John Hughes movies back to back.
I I didn't think of that before ever, but yeah, Planes,
Trains and Automobiles and Home Alone, both written by John Hughes. Yeah,
that there's something about not only John Hughes movies, but
sort of like John Hughes adjacent films and that whole
sort of genre of of the family comedy from that era.
(12:44):
I was thinking about this recently because I have no
idea why, but the movie groundhog Day came up. Groundhog
Day is a movie movie that my son has seen,
and he was asking my wife, and I was like,
that's a Christmas movie, right, And of course, the the
obvious ants here is no, it's of course not a
Christmas movie. It's about it's about groundhog Day. But in
(13:04):
another real sense, it does feel like a Christmas movie.
In in many other respects it does. And in fact,
I don't recommend anyone investigates this route, but there are
multiple uh, Groundhog Day knockoff Christmas films that are terrible.
Don't watch them, but they exist. It's the kind of
thing of like, oh, my Christmas Day is going so
(13:25):
terribly gosh, tomorrow will be better, you know, December. But
then no, this protagonist is stuck in Christmas Day and
they have to make sure that they do it the
right way. But it's it's literally just a complete rip
off of Groundhog Day. And there are multiple movies that
do this, like I think at least two I can
think of maybe more, and they're terrible. Don't watch them.
(13:46):
At the end, the time loop plot structure can be
so interesting. I've done, You've done right, but it's often
done lazily. I guess. Have you seen a film called
Palm Springs. Can't recommend it high enough. It's an Andy
Samberg starring vehicle. Um, it's a Hulu film. I want
(14:06):
to say, I think it might be a Hulu original
and it's so so, so good, and it is a
time loop groundhog Day situation, but it's just done wonderfully well.
Like I, I can't recommend it high enough. So yeah,
Palm Springs, check it out. Nice. Oh, but you have
an answered what are your thanks. Oh yeah, our Thanksgiving film,
I guess. Currently our only real tradition is the ninety
(14:28):
four um Gorky film Studio Jack Frost or Morozoko. This
is one that we we featured on a Weird House
cinema I think last year, and uh so go see
that episode for all my my thoughts on that movie.
But it's one that are kind of originated for for
me and my wife out of watching uh Mystery Science
Theater three thousand episodes on Turkey Day, and this was
(14:52):
featured there. But now we've gotten to the point where
we're just watching it without any MST three K because
the pictures beautiful, the film quality if you get a
non riffed version of it, and it's just just a
lot of fun, totally stands the test of time. Yeah. Absolutely,
And yeah MST three K adjacent media around Thanksgiving Day
is a tradition. Everyone loves that. Beyond that, we're we're
(15:13):
plotting ways to try and introduce my son to the
Gremlins movie franchise, somehow skipping over like the really disturbing
parts of the first movie. I haven't fully mapped out
that venture yet. I mean that the The Dead Father
addressed as Santa is definitely the part that you have
to keep away from the kids for a while until
(15:34):
they reach a certain age. But yeah, yeah, that's a
fun one. Though. I feel like kids could watch two
more easily than they could watch one. Yeah, I've been
arguing for that. I'm like, let's just skip straight to
G two and my ovis like, I don't know if
he's gonna understand everything, and then I'm like, well, yeah,
and he would. He would miss out on some cuteness
and some basic exploitation explanation of the concept if he
(15:55):
skipped you one, So fair enough. It's true the origin
tale of you know, kind of the rules kind of
it where it works well in the Gremlins universe, and
I guess all film universes with creatures and monsters to
have those rules laid down as a steady foundation. Now,
some people have the Twilight Zone tradition of Thanksgiving right
because somebody some station used to do or still does
(16:17):
Twilight Zone Thanksgiving marathons. Is that right? Or am I
thinking about another holiday if it was in my mind?
And I'm not sure if I'm right either, because who
knows what television does anymore? I remember them being New
Year's Eve. That's Twilight Zone marathons. But um, but I'm
sure different stations did different things. But that's that's my memory.
That's I think you're correct on that. I was misremembering
(16:38):
that tradition. I wish it was my tradition because then,
because yeah, I'd love like a holiday dictated excuse to
watch old Twilight Zone episodes. Oh yeah, for sure, for
sure I need to make a new one. Like what
holiday can I align with? Night gallery? Oh gosh, what
is the longest night of the year? Is that? Um?
Winter Solstice? So so so it's like the longest night
(16:59):
gallery of the year and just squeezing as many as
you can from sundown till sun up. Okay, all right,
so Trey, I hope, I hope some of that helped you.
Maybe that'll give you some ideas for the future. Oh
and in a very quick ps perennial classic is, of
course the Peanuts Thanksgiving Special, serving pretzels, jelly beans and
(17:20):
toast for Thanksgiving at a big table with a bunch
of kids. Hilarious. I don't remember that one. I only
know the Great Pumpkin. I think that's a good one too. Well,
And the Christmas one, but yeah, I didn't even realize
off top of my hand. They had a Thanksgiving one.
Some of the best Peanuts ones, the lesser seen holiday ones. Um,
there's a wonderful sad Valentine's Day one, and there's a
(17:42):
wonderful Easter one. The Peanuts, the Peanuts family. Oh gosh,
they have so many specials and then many of them
are are just wonderful, just full of full of you know,
subtle childhood depression, which I just really relate with. M Alright,
(18:04):
moving on next, we have a message here from David.
Let's see what we got here. Greetings. My father was
a rocket scientist. He was literally a pioneer of American
aerospace and held a patent in solid fuel propellant. After
his retirement in the nineteen nineties, he opened up about
a few things more fanciful. I was working on a
(18:25):
sci fi concept and we were discussing it as well
as Dune, Star Wars, etcetera. I'm tempted to do a
bit more backstory on this particular discussion, but I'll cut
to the chase. Well versed in quantum mechanics, my dad suggested,
and I'm paraphrasing with due liberty, that the so called
spooky relationship between particles might indicate a sort of subspace
(18:47):
plane or medium. And this is pretty much verbatim. Construct
something around a prime particle, excite that particle. It signals
the other particle to wits. Look what I have here?
What this bamp? Now? I'm now I'm boiling down not
one but a few long conversations into a cute see
(19:08):
cartoon strip. But I'm sure you'll find that interesting and
I'm happy to share more about its happy trails. David
m hmm. Well, um, uh, I love what what David
is essentially getting at here. Yeah. That that when you
start looking into the realm of quantum mechanics and all there,
there are these various areas where, um, what we believe
(19:31):
to be true or possibly be true about the universe, uh,
can begin to align with some of our are seemingly
more fantastic sci fi concepts. And I don't I don't
think we've done an episode where we really get into
this sort of thing recently, but in the past we
have talking about things like I think warp bubbles and
so forth. Um, which isn't necessarily died to quantum discussions
(19:53):
but still when you get into some of these more
far out ideas about how things like faster than like
travel could a actually be achieved, it gets it gets
pretty pretty neat. Yeah, I mean from like the most
basic point of view ever when it comes to science. Uh,
Albert Einstein, he basically did prove time travel as possible,
and yet you know the limitations of that. You can
(20:15):
go forward, you can't go back, you know, like like
just like those little things, and it's it is fun
to just kind of see that reality in of of
science fiction concepts, but not really like you can't really
have like the fun you want to have with it.
But it's like it's like close enough. It's like just
a hint of what's like beyond that veil. And it's
funny too. I have a couple of friends who work
(20:36):
in aerospace and uh one's a rocket scientist, one is
uh in space exploration, and both of them, whenever I
hear about like the kind of projects they're working on,
first of all, they're always very hush hush and they
can't tell me lots of details. But I'm very used
to working in the entertainment industry, where you start something
and then you finish it, you know, within a year,
(20:57):
but usually within the week. You know. Uh, their projects
take longer than their lifetime, you know, like that they'll
be working on something that they know they'll never finish
that they they they're just you know, putting in their
time on a project, contributing to something that perhaps you know,
two more generations after them will actually reach this final
conclusion when it comes to whatever liquid physics or something
(21:20):
who knows, what's you know, whatever aerospace rocket scientists are
are focusing on these days. All right, I'm grabbing another
one here, this one. This we I don't think we've
ever done this before, but I was, I was doing
a quick search to see if anyone had written in
about the weird House on Congo yet, and uh we
(21:41):
did here for some from some folks, but I found
this one that is actually from much earlier this year,
from January, actually, well before it was announced that we're
going to discuss Congo and UM. A listener by the
name of Mark wrote in in response to one of
our I think crab discussions that is re airing or
would have re aired last week, so anyway, Mark writes
(22:04):
in with an email titled time Crabs and says in
the novel Congo, a guerrilla named Coco, and I think
it's actually Amy, but very easy to make that confusion
because I believe Amy is in large part based on Cocoa.
Um So Mark continues, a guerrilla named Coco or Amy
has the same spatial time orientation. The past is in
(22:25):
front of us because it is known. But if Coco
was told that someone was coming soon, she would look
over her shoulder. Wonder where Michael Crichton got this idea, Martin, Yeah,
I remember that discussion. The discussion back about time in general,
and about the future being in front of you and
the past being behind you, and how that relates often too,
something as simple as just literally like traveling down a road,
(22:46):
you know where It's like if you say to someone this,
you know, this is five days from now, you think spatially, like, oh,
how far is that ahead of me? If I walked
down a road or no, like, oh this was a
week ago, It's like, oh, where could I have been
one week behind to me if I was walking Like
that kind of like relating space to time in a
literal way, and that's pretty fun. Yeah, Yeah, I think
(23:07):
the Crab discussion was what how would superintelligent crab focus
on this, given that it kind of made it move
side to side. But but this is a great detail
from the novel Congo and totally the sort of thing
that Michael Crichton would just throw in there here and there.
I mean, that's one of the reasons the books were
so much fun to read. All Right, We've got one
(23:30):
last message here. This is from Jamie via Facebook. Here's
what Jamie has to say. I'm listening back to the
two thousand and seventeen episode Alien Abduction Experience, Part one,
kind of binging episodes while working on this ongoing cross
stitch of of the planet Saturn. That sounds wonderful. A
(23:50):
train of thought occurred to me while Roberts and Christian
Hey an old Christian episode Christian Seger briefly discussed up
this book called The Seven Sins of Memory. Robert touched
on absent mindedness, using as an example of when people
try to recall where you were when September eleven two
one happened, and how you probably don't actually remember with
(24:11):
accuracy what you were wearing or what you had for
breakfast that day. A sudden question slash idea I pondered
about which may make an interesting future episode. I don't
know is this and then paraphrase and quickly Jamie gives
us the idea to focus on an episode about the
instinct of trying to remember where you were on nine eleven,
(24:32):
which is definitely an interesting idea. I'm just coming away
from the message for a moment here. I feel like
it's got something to do with touch points for humanity.
Is there There are a few things that we all
have in common, and sometimes we have them and we
can all focus on them and have a shared experience
and have a kind of like a shared knowledge base,
And nine eleven is definitely one of those, Like like, here,
(24:52):
here's an example of that that's that's not tragedy related. Um.
I remember in college, I was taking a film course
and the instruct after he very early on in the class,
said to everyone's like, all right, who's seen Wizard of Oz,
you know? And most of the class raised their hand.
He's like, all right, who's seen Titanic? And most of
the class raised their hand, and he's like, okay, okay,
(25:13):
just checking every year, I have to check in on
this because I know I'm always trying to find the
common film that almost everyone has seen when I'm when
I'm starting, just so we all have a common language,
and it used to be Wizard of Oz. But as
as I'm aging, I think it's getting closer and closer
to Titanic. And it's been a while since I was
in college, so I'm sure it's changed again since then.
(25:33):
But uh, but yeah, you're just finding that that touch
points that commonality amongst a large group of people. And
nine eleven, you know, was that events. You know, we
all experienced it one way or another. Yeah, and there
would be not not to say that they certainly wouldn't
be the same emotional state, but there are comparable, uh
emotional states to discuss their um So yeah, there there's
(25:56):
This would have been for many people a noteworthy touch
don't event and uh and you can revisit it by
asking other people where they were and how they felt.
Getting back to Jamie's message, it seems to serve as
a kind of socially bonding activity remembering and recalling. But
what if you cannot recall exactly where or when or
(26:17):
what you were wearing where you were when an event
of some significance happens. I wonder if there's a certain
taboo or stigma societally at work, if we can't remember
something like that. For instance, around the anniversary of nine eleven,
you'll see posts asking others what they remember about it.
I have to imagine there's a percentage of people who
see that post and scroll past, possibly because they don't
(26:40):
have a formed answer. I wonder how that person feels.
Does it bother them? Is there an obligation of some
kind to reminisce what happens if you don't. Is there
a feeling of loss? Do you lose something on some
level when you can't participate or if you refuse to
Speaking from experience, in two thousand and one, I was
in elementary school. I have almost no member of nine
(27:00):
eleven to speak of. I also enjoy these episodes discussing
alien abduction and the subject of Incubi. And then she
mentions that we never talked about the band Incubis, which
of course we should, so we're mentioning it. Now there's
a band called Incubus. They exist. Getting back to the message,
the idea of alien abduction absolutely terrifies me anyone else,
(27:20):
So glad I can put some of my personal hang
ups to bed. And uh yeah, thank you so much, Jamie.
You know, there's one part of this that, um, I
think you can relate to a little bit. But a
big part of this of like having something happening in
society that either through choice or reality, you're opting out of.
I'm a vegan, so when I walk through a grocery store,
(27:41):
I see most of that store. I was just like
not for me, you know, like whenever I'm walking through,
I'm just like, nothing over there for me, Nothing over
there for me. People talking about like these like kind
of um food traditions that happen every year, whether it's
eating turkey on Thanksgiving or whether it's um, you know,
rilling up some burgers for uh the fourth of July,
(28:03):
whatever it may be, all these food traditions that are
non vegan, which are most of them of course. Um
I I had to put a place in my mind
years ago when I became a vegan just going like,
you know what, that's just not for me, period, Like,
like I'm not involved in any of that. And thankfully
there are many food substitutes at this point that you
can't have, you know, fake burgers, a fake Treu ducan
(28:24):
or whatever. But uh, but yeah, no, no, that that's
that's an element that I see in my life, especially
interacting with most of my friends who are primarily not vegans,
and just going like, oh, I'm not a part of this.
You know, this is interesting. I was actually reading a
little about studies that have looked at at at a
similar topic here, like what does it take to cause
(28:47):
a division between like one group and another like that?
One of like there's about political examples, but also it
gets down to things like cat people versus dog people,
which of course is a kind of a ridiculous distinction. Um.
And then you have other things like, for instance, take
take the band Incubus. I don't think I've ever listened
to Incubus, and I don't have a strong opinion about
(29:08):
that fact or the band, Like I'm not a never
Incubus person. I don't don't really have an opinion. Just
it just never happened for me. Um. And there are
a lot of things like that in our life where
we're just like, oh, well, that's yeah, I guess that's
not my thing, but I don't have an opinion on it.
Then there are plenty of other things where you're going
to have more of an opinion. Maybe the choice is
(29:30):
based in some sort of you know, I mean a
moral standpoint or environmental standpoint, etcetera. Certainly that can be
said for a lot of dietary preferences. Um, And then
there are other elements as well. But even something like
you know, well I'm a you maybe have a more
of a heated response on something like uh, let's say
the band Kiss. You might say, well, I'm not a
(29:52):
kiss fan, and it's it's not a neutral stance. It's
more of an assertive and aggressive stance. That's an excellent point, um.
Bringing it back to a food preferences, like you were
saying to uh, yeah, there's like, you know, different kinds
of people who don't eat meat. Like for me, it's
just like, oh, it makes me feel better when I
don't eat meat, so I just don't do it. Other
(30:12):
people are like, no, this is a moral stance and
I'm judging you for eating meats, and so yeah, that
is like a difference where it's like me because I
I you know, I know people eat meat, and I
don't really care when I walk through a grocery store,
I do just kind of block it out as like
oh whatever, you know, that's just not for me. That's
it's almost like it doesn't exist. Whereas if you're the
kind of person who's like, no, I hate that people
(30:34):
eat meat, you you may perhaps you do see it,
and it's it's it's it's it's a sore point for you.
It's a no, I I don't like that this exists.
So yeah, that that's that's an interesting idea. The difference
between um, a positive thought, a negative thought, and a
neutral thought. The neutral thought truly can't ignore, but positive
(30:54):
or negative you you are thinking about it more. Yes,
I think we will do an episode in the future
on this, because he gets into questions like what is
the what is the smallest thing that could lead to
a division like this? And then why does it? I
think a lot of the times too, there's gonna be
you're gonna slip to more extreme visions of it, and
you're gonna be holding to this schism without it being
(31:16):
a real conscious effort, without like waking up and going
through like these are the reasons I believe this thing.
This is why I'm opposed to you know, this sports
team or this sport or whatever the division happens to be.
I remember years ago some toilet paper company, don't remember
which one. They were trying to create a false schism
in their in their in their user base, which I
(31:37):
guess is everyone that uses toilet paper, and they were like, hey,
are you the kind of person that has it flip
over or flip under? And they were doing like a
survey and there was you know, it's just a joke
for for an ad campaign or whatever, but I remember
the result that I still remember the result of this day.
So there's there's no real, you know, distinct answer or
(32:00):
definitive like right or wrong. It's just some people put
it over, some people put it under. And I'm like,
that's that's a line. We all we all do it somewhat.
So you picked you've picked a path. Yeah, we're a
fifty household. I'm not gonna spoil who goes which way
on it. But um, but every time that I noticed this,
I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode where where they're written
(32:21):
up or Marge is written up for having it in
the underhanded fashion. Yes, yes, yeah, well, hey, someone someone's
gonna make rules. Someone needs to make divisions. You got
you gotta exclude people somehow. I guess it's the natural
human feeling. Unfortunately. Alright, three three more things about this email. So,
first of all, The Seven Sins of Memory, How the
Mind Forgets and Remembers is a book by Daniel Shackter h.
(32:42):
This came out in two thousand and one, so bear
in mind it is over twenty years old now, so
I can't speak for how it's really holding up and
how it relates to more recent research in memory. But um,
I imagine it holds up pretty well, and I remember
it just being it's just really thought provoking content that
will really make you think more about how you remember
(33:05):
things and the different ways that the brain remembers things. So, um, yeah,
go go check that out if you're interested. Um. But
one of the things about something like nine eleven, the
question being like, well, what if you don't fully remember,
you're gonna feel left out. Well, part of the answer
is your brain will fill in the blanks. Even those
of us who think we remember, we don't necessarily really
(33:26):
remember what was going on. Our brain creates some a
simulation of what what occurred. So you might think you
know what you're eating, you might think you know remember
what you were wearing. Uh, And in many cases you may.
It's not saying that no one has precise memories of this,
but the way memory works, it fills in the blanks,
(33:47):
and this is where we get the potential for strongly
held false memories about things. Oh and finally, yeah, the
idea of alien abduction and uh incubi and succubi and
so forth. Yeah. I I used to find these concepts
very frightening, Which is probably one of the reasons that
we've looked at them time and time again on the show,
is that exploring them logically kind of helped to understand
(34:10):
like why these concepts frightened me, especially when I was
a child, and then um, and then also sort of
making sure that the scary things stay in the realm
of fantasy for me. Uh so, Yeah, I totally, I
totally can relate to anyone who finds these concepts kind
of creepy. My big um. I guess anxiety about aliens
(34:32):
is this. I think we could all agree, probably for
the most part, that there is some sort of life
probably somewhere in the universe. Even if it's just like
a little amiba crawling in some dirt somewhere, there's probably
something somewhere, you know. I think I think both people
can agree on that, at least are the more advanced.
Who knows that's that's a whole other question. But the
potential for someone to arrive here at any points, it's
(34:57):
just on the table, you know, just just just at
some point some creature from another galaxy who has developed
space travel just like we have. You know, we've done it,
so why couldn't someone else could just arrive and it's
just like oh well, now what like just yeah, at
any point it's it's you know that that that that
door is right there, and someone could just come in
and just be like, hi, we've we've come now like
(35:18):
that's I think, I think that's that's part of the
anxiety some people have. It is just the the open
ended nature of of of alien contact. Oh yeah, absolutely,
and and new stuff will come out that that seems
to keep that door nice and cracked. How However, of course,
there are plenty of of people out there who want
to jump in and try and widen that crack as
(35:39):
much as possible, or discussed just how absurdly wide the
crack is when it isn't. But uh, I mean, that's
also part of fun of the discussion. As long as
you don't let it um inconvenient your life for the
lives of anyone around you. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Just remember
that speculation is fun, but facts are better, you know. Yeah,
all right, Well it's seen is that the mail bag
(36:00):
is empty at this point. Hopefully it will begin to
to fill back up. So yes, keep your thoughts coming
right in. We'd love to hear from you about past episodes,
uh way, past episodes, recent episodes, possible future episodes, weird
how cinema, artifact, monster fact, core episodes, or just responses
to other listener mails. All of that is fair game. Also,
(36:24):
if if you were a fan of of recent Listener
Mail guest host Dr Anton Jessup, I have heard he
may be returning close to the holidays, So go back
and listen to the recent listener Mail episode with Anton Jessup.
You'll get a feel for the sorts of messages he
likes to respond to. And if you would like to
contribute a message of that caliber, well you can send
(36:46):
it to us at the email We're gonna list here
and just a bit, uh let's see other housekeeping stuff.
Uh yeah, Listener mails every Monday, Core episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Wednesday's Artifact or Monster Pact. Fact Friday is Weird How Cinema.
That's their time to set us most serious concerns, to
just talk about a weird film. Um places you can
follow us, Well, there's the Stuff to Blow your Mind
(37:07):
discussion module on Facebook. That's the Facebook group. You can
request access to that. If you want to join us
on discord, just shoot us an email and again the
emails coming up and we'll send you the link where
you can join and engaging discussions with other listeners and
let's see is there anything else? Oh, if you if
you like Weird House Cinema, you can go to letterbox
(37:27):
dot com. It's l E T T E R b
o x d uh and our user name is weird House.
That's where we list all the films we've discussed on
Weird House Cinema. Thanks as always to Seth Nicholas Johnson
for producing the show and of course guest co hosting
slew of them during the parental break here and if
you want to reach out to any of us, you
can email us at contact at stuff to blow your
(37:47):
Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a
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