Brain Junk

Forget raccoons digging into your trash cans, Australia has giant parrots snacking out of trash bins. Some family groups of Sulfur-crested cockatoos are teaching each other how to hack people’s trash. “bin chickens” from CNN.comSee one of these wily birds in action! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

In an unexpected turn of events, two predators with very different hunting styles work cooperatively. During the summer months, badgers and coyotes will sometimes team up during the summer months to find and catch more food than they could by themselves.image: US Fish and Wildlife Service This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

Imagine waking up from a nap to discover that you can compose music in your head. What a shock that would be! There are people who are born with savant type art or mathematics abilities, but there is also the amazing possibility that someone’s brain might suddenly unlock an out-of-the-blue talent. Scientist have theories as to what causes Sudden Savant Syndrome, but no one is exactly sure what is happening inside the brain of a person who can do something remarkable almost overnight. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

In September of 1896, the town of Crush was created for the sole purpose of crashing two steam trains together. Things did not go according to plan.Image: Baylor Collections This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

It’s fall now, but we recorded this episode during the dog days of August. The sky wore a blanket of wildfire smoke and daytime lows were in the mid 90s. All that heat got Amy thinking about the reason why we call these hot days, dog days. We love a good phrase origin story.Sirius, also called Alpha Canis Majoris or the Dog Star, brightest star in the night sky, with apparent visual magnitude −1.46. It is a binary star in the constellation Canis Major. The bright component of the binary is a blue-white star 25.4 times as luminous as the Sun.Barking dogs at the end by: Girlwithsoundrecorder on FreeSound CC0 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

The last episode with wonky sound. We got all the bugs out. (get it…bugs. cause its an episode about bees. *nudges in dad joke*Many cultures have long believed the humble honeybee was more than just a honey-making factory. It was thought those little bees might also be messengers to the Gods. The bee’s important position in society as providers of food and medicine made them more than mere livestock. It became tradition to tell them when important life events occurred.US poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote Telling the Bees in 1858:Went drearily singing the chore-girl small,Draping each hive with a shred of black.Trembling, I listened: the summer sun   Had the chill of snow;For I knew she was telling the bees of one   Gone on the journey we all must go!Painting: The Widow by Charles Napier Hemy 1895 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

We had four episodes where the sound quality was…odd (and this was one of them). Pretend you’re listening to a NASA broadcast and that we’re coming to you live from the International Space Station.On June 3, 2021 an intrepid group of baby bobtail squid hopped a ride on SpaceX and became tiny squid-stronauts! These bioluminescent critters glow blue with the help of a special bacteria. They aren’t born with this bacteria so once in space, ISS researchers will introduce them to bioluminescent bacteria to see if their microbiome is affected the same way our human astronauts’ biome is affected by space. Baby bobtail squid (Jamie S. Foster, University of Florida)image: NASA This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

Apologies–we had sound quality issues. We did not record from the bottom of a metal trash can while hiding from mystery blobs falling from the sky; we promise.In a place that gets rain up to 275 days a year, Oakville, WA. knows their precipitation. But on this day in 1994, Instead of the other 275 days a year that water falls from the sky, a torrent of jelly like blobs fell. No one knows for sure what they were.Mystery blobs image: BBC This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

On September 12, 1992, Dr. Mae Carol Jemison became the first Black female astronaut. She’s an engineer, a scientist, a physician, and an educator. We figure she can do anything she sets her mind to. Check out her Instagram! @therealmaejemisonimage: NASAHer book: Find Where the Wind GoesDr. Jemison on Star Trek! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

This episode is marked explicit because we go into details that might lead to a person catching on fire. It’s interesting science and we don’t get graphic, but it might be too much for a younger listener. If you are interested in the science of all things pyrophoric and don’t want the spontaneous human combustion content, listen until the 3:25 second mark.Warning label for pyrophoric materials. Don’t cut off a truck with this on the side.Image: Sodium metal in oil. Check out the Department of Energy (DOE) handbook for Spontaneous Heating and Pyrophoricity (something that ignites on exposure to air) https://www.standards.doe.gov/standards-documents/1000/1081-bhdbk-2014-cn1/@@images/file This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

You know what happens when Amy and Trace are finally back in the same recording studio? We talk about farts. Our inner twelve-year-old selves love all things gross and we had the best time laughing about animals that pass gas and those that don’t. The very beginning of this podcast started out three years ago with the two of us giggling about whale farts–this episode is classic Brain Junk!Manateesimage by @AHEARN zoodrawscomicShow Notes:This episode is brought to you by my brother-in-law, Ryan Stewart. Come for the manatee farts, but stay for the ferrets, who are surprised by their own farts. Mental Floss Facts About Animal FartsNote: Trace and I had some discussion about animals who “can’t fart” we decided that perhaps a better way to say it is that certain animals have the physical set up to fart, but expel their excess gas in other ways, so rather than can’t, we’d say they generally don’t. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, vi

Stop snickering Americans, it’s not what you think. Starting with the industrial revolution in the UK, people were employed as human alarm clocks, waking people up for their shifts at work. It was a job that was particularly popular with women and elderly men as a way to make extra pocket money and help to support their families.Mary Anne Smith with her pea shooterA helpful fellow “knocking people up” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

If you’re like Trace, the thought of math makes you want to run and hide; that anxiety, that tightness in your chest, the weird shooting pains (wait, is that just Trace?!). You’ll be relieved to know that those pains aren’t a figment of your freaked out imagination! We’ve got the science to prove it.Show Notes: Math, or anxiety about math, really can cause physical pain!Wireless.com: Painful MathPlos One: When Math Hurts  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

It’s the Civil War and you’re in the medical tent. In the darkness the man next to you has wounds glowing an eerie blue. Turns out, the men who had the glow were more likely to survive. The curious reason for Angel’s Glow won two high school students an international science award in 2001. It’s so gross. Your inner twelve-year-old will love it.The Battle of Shiloh 1862 & nematodes with bioluminescent bacteria inside. image: from All That’s Interesting This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

Tues August 30th, 1904: Why NOT start an Olympic marathon in the middle of a hot summer afternoon? Because people aren’t going to finish. It was a complete disaster.Some of the marathon contestants before the 1904 race.Show Notes: Wikipedia: 1904 Summer Olympics Marathon-The FactsBuzzfeed.com: Weird Historical EventsSmithsonian.com: 1904 Olympic Marathon May Have Been The Strangest Ever (they’re not wrong. It was a disaster. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

There’s a long tradition of Japanese folklore around the possible relationship between large mushroom harvests and lightning. Researchers decided to put stories to the test. What they discovered was shocking. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

During the 1300-1500s there were several accounts of people being afflicted with spontaneous dancing. One group of 400 people were struck with the strange affliction, spent an entire month dancing, and some even died. Amy dives into the hows and whys of the disease.Show Notes:HistoryExtra.com: Medieval DancingHistoryExtra.com: The Medieval Dance of DeathHistoryExtra,com: 7 Oddest Moments in History This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

Talk about teamwork! Bacteria and a tiny snail work together to make an iron sulfide infused shell and scaly foot. These intrepid snails live super deep in the ocean the volcanic vents. Nature is so weird and excellent!Scaly Foot Snail image by Julia Sigwart from The Conversation (also the Smithsonian) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

Middle Island off the south-western shore Victoria, Australia had a fox problem. A man by the name of Swampy Marsh had the bright idea to protect endangered penguins with Maremma sheepdogs.Penguin meets dog. image by: Global ScreenLearn more and if you the area, you can meet the dogs! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brainjunkpodcast.substack.com

This episode is probably not safe for work. Could your middle schooler listen and giggle like only a 12-year-old could? Certainly. But we’re marking it explicit so you don’t accidentally have your littles listening to something you aren’t ready for.Amy got to wondering: what’s out there in the plant world that looks like something besides your garden variety flower. And she landed on the Naked Man Orchid (of course she did).Creative Commons 2.0 License for some of the imagesNaked Man OrchidImage by YasnaNeysa 2021Hooker’s Lipsimage by SVI(NSFW) Peter’s Pepper: you’re going to have to look that one up yourselfThe Angel OrchidPinterestDancing Girl Impatiens Image Copyright: https://img.rozbuzz.com/img/638c73f0de4c11e8902b4fLaughing Bumblebee Orchidimage: Bernard Dupont : WikipediaAlso look for the: Ballerina Orchid, The Happy Alien, Swaddled babies, Flying Duck Orchid, Dove Orchid, White Egret OrchidsSnap Dragon Skullsimage YasnaNeysa 2021Show Notes:DerbyTelegraph.co.uk: World’s Rudest FlowersEarthPorn.com: Flo