Will’s gone walkabout, so Rod’s raided the archives and pulled out four of his favourite segments for you to enjoy.

You’ll get a philosophical gut punch about the Experience Machine and why a perfect fake life still feels wrong, a genuinely weird global mystery with Havana Syndrome and the uncomfortable question of what’s actually causing it, plus the bad news that venting might be making you angrier, not calmer. Then we finish with the surprisingly brutal social cost of being labelled “boring”, and why that stereotype sticks harder than it should.

Will’s back next week. Probably with a snake in one hand and a chunk of Antarctic ice in the other.

 

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Just Rod Here

00:55 Nozick Experience Machine

03:37 Would You Plug In

04:50 Why Authenticity Matters

08:50 Havana Syndrome Origins

11:25 Weapon Theories and Reports

14:41 Norwegian Microwave Test

21:46 Official Flip Flops Summary

23:25 Why Venting Feels Good

24:25 Venting Myth Busted

25:57 Meta Analysis Breakdown

27:29 Calm Down Techniques

28:48 Jogging Makes It Worse

31:14 Why We Love Anger

32:42 Playful Exercise Exception

33:37 Boring People Study

34:28 Boring Jobs And Traits

36:29 Escape Boring Conversations

40:57 Pay To Hang Out

43:44 Stereotypes And Wrap Up

 

SOURCES:

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/life/2024/04/13/april-11-boring-day

https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/Why-Is-April-11,-1954,-the-Most-Boring-Day-in-History#:~:text=Using%20an%20algorithm%20to%20scan,who%20was%20born%20that%20day

https://bigthink.com/personal-growth/seven-thought-experiments-thatll-make-you-question-everything/

https://slate.com/technology/2014/07/rokos-basilisk-the-most-terrifying-thought-experiment-of-all-time.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/02/14/havana-syndrome-cia-norway-experiment/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pentagon-reportedly-testing-radio-wave-device-linked-to-havana-syndrome/

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/13/politics/havana-syndrome-device-pentagon-hsi

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Microplastics are everywhere. Birds are masturbating. A trillion dollars is still not a real number. And somewhere in the middle of all that, a mushroom case study pops up and reminds you Alzheimer’s is not just a punchline.

This week, we ping pong between lab gear that can fake a crisis, wildlife behaviour that is way more common than we pretend, billionaire maths that breaks your sense of scale, and one weird medical result that is making researchers quietly lean in.

Microplastics might be getting overcounted because of something painfully basic: lab gloves. University of Michigan researchers measured outdoor microplastics and got results about a thousand times higher than earlier studies, then did the sensible thing and assumed their method was being sabotaged. It was. Vibrational spectroscopy can mistake stearate salts from glove manufacturing for polyethylene, meaning the “plastic everywhere” signal can be partly your own equipment shedding junk into the sample.

Then we swing to birds, because science loves a tonal whiplash. Bird masturbation is real, widespread across species, happens in both sexes, and is more common in the wild than in captivity, which flips the usual “it’s a stress behaviour” assumption. After that, we try to make a trillion dollars make sense, and mostly fail because human brains were not built for it. And finally, there’s a single Alzheimer’s case study where a woman reportedly showed unexpected cognitive improvement after a large dose of psilocybin, which is not a DIY cure, but is exactly the kind of odd result that makes researchers lean in and pay attention.

 

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Intro

00:45 Microplastics Shock Study

01:57 Lab Protocols And Jerkins

03:46 Glove Contamination Twist

05:40 How Bad Is Shedding

07:11 Science Skepticism Lesson

07:54 Onanism Bible Origin

10:41 Animals Doing It Too

13:38 Bird Masturbation Explained

17:19 New Research And Takeaways

20:18 Trillionaire Brain Melt

21:38 Why Big Numbers Fool Us

23:40 Time Scale Money Trick

24:33 What Buys A Trillion

27:07 Inequality Airplane Metaphor

29:07 Mushrooms And Alzheimer Case

32:44 Science Skepticism And Ethics

38:06 Signoff And Ratings

SOURCES:

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-found-a-big-problem-with-how-we-measure-microplastics 

https://theconversation.com/scientists-may-be-overestimating-the-amount-of-microplastics-in-the-environment-and-the-culprit-is-lab-gloves-258545 

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/ay/d5ay01801c 

https://theconversation.com/birds-masturbate-and-thats-perfectly-normal-284232 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2022.2044446 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/15/can-you-spend-1-trillion-we-hand-you-musks-fortune-to-find-out 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-brains-underestimate-elon-musks-wealth/

https://futurism.com/health-medicine/elderly-woman-high-dose-psychedelic-mushrooms 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2531319-woman-with-alzheimers-starts-conversing-again-after-taking-psilocybin/ 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia has a list of baby names you are not allowed to use, a church once removed a devil statue for being distractingly hot, and one German bloke accidentally kayaked from Europe to Australia. This week, Will and Rod bounce between naming laws, scandalous art, and a seven-year adventure that sounds fake, but absolutely wasn’t.

We start with banned baby names and why governments step in when a name looks like it could cause harm, invite ridicule, or create a lifelong admin headache. Then we hit art history, where the Geefs brothers made the devil too handsome for church, plus Stendhal syndrome which is the idea that beauty can literally make you dizzy.

Finally, we follow Oskar Speck’s kayak trip that escalated wildly, seven years, malaria, dangerous crossings, and prison camps, all because he was trying to outrun a collapsing economy. This week is a wild ride. 

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Banned Baby Names Setup

00:33 Germany Name Ban Game

01:50 Lucifer And Other Forbiddens

04:13 New Zealand Weird Bans

05:52 US Rules And Santa Claus

06:58 Australia Banned Names List

09:43 Name Roast Side Hustle

10:34 Hot Art Hospitalization

14:17 Stendhal Syndrome Explained

18:26 Hacking AI Agents

20:41 Prompt Hacking Agents

22:59 Ethical AI Sabotage

23:20 Nutrition Study Pitfalls

24:25 Genes As Diet Proxies

27:40 Onion Gene Surprise

30:22 Ice Cream Taste Debate

30:59 Button Sewing Fails

32:03 Kayaking To Australia

39:54 Just Do Stuff Mindset

41:30 Wrap Up 

 

SOURCES:

https://bsky.app/profile/caesarion10.bsky.social/post/3mnxix4uu7k2r

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220110-stendhal-syndrome-the-travel-syndrome-that-causes-panic

https://maritimeheritage.org.au/documents/MHA%20September%202007%20journal.pdf

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.24245

https://www.404media.co/it-is-trivially-easy-to-use-reddit-to-manipulate-ai-search-research-suggests/?_bhlid=efba6cdec7cbc45e0cd89dc96464988b2cd3bdd2

https://www.parents.com/banned-baby-name-in-germany-8779188

https://www.smh.com.au/national/todd-carney-wants-to-call-his-son-king-daryl-problem-is-it-s-one-of-89-banned-baby-names-20260225-p5o596.html

https://www.sciencealert.com/your-taste-for-onions-may-reveal-something-about-your-future-health

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendelian_randomization

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A robot exosuit now costs more than most people’s houses, scientists are pitching a telescope built from the solar system itself, and Pokémon Go has somehow ended up feeding the war tech pipeline. This week, Will and Rod bounce between expensive robotics, slow burn space ambition, biosecurity chaos, and a 5,000 year old gut microbe that can still create great beer.

We start with a little shoutout. Unitree’s GD01 exosuit, a titanium priced reminder that “the future” is now a product page. It can move on two legs or four, it has onboard AI control, and it looks like it would smash through a wall just to prove it can. At around 650K USD, it is not exactly a casual purchase.

Then we zoom out into gravitational lensing and the plan to use the sun as part of a giant telescope to see distant exoplanets in far more detail. The catch is the timeline, because the mission could take around 60 years, which is either inspiring or mildly depressing, depending on your mood.

Finally, we hit Australia’s illegal cockroach trade, Pokémon Go scans being repurposed for drone navigation, and Ötzi the Iceman’s preserved gut yeast still being useful for baking and brewing. It’s a jam-packed episode that will leave you gasping at every turn. 

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Killer Exosuit Reveal

01:00 Meet the Hosts

01:45 Robot Reactions and Jaegers

02:55 Better Future Space Lens

04:24 Solar Telescope Challenge

07:08 Electric Sail Breakthrough

07:58 Seeing Alien Continents

09:13 Illegal Cockroach Bust

13:39 Why People Buy Roaches

15:19 Biosecurity Debate and Cleanup

17:27 Pokemon Go Tangent

18:15 Pokemon Go Scans

19:37 Drones Without GPS

21:25 Niantic Weapons Pipeline

22:50 Scientists Eat Headlines

25:26 Otzi Microbiome Bread

29:19 T Rex Leather Bag

32:48 Wrap Up And Sign Out

 

SOURCES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWOyUMJWptc

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/05/live-cockroaches-seized-nsw-breeder-australia

https://futurism.com/science-energy/scientists-lab-grown-trex-leather

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273117726007660?ref=404media.co

https://dronexl.co/2026/06/09/pokemon-go-scans-niantic-vantor-military-drone-navigation/?_bhlid=59ba01ca00448ec948f397365da76b6ba3febdae

https://bsky.app/profile/paulisci.bsky.social/post/3mnnanoe3d22y?_bhlid=f589393b1087d6a8bc116f8d50ae811790ddc525

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mosquitoes are learning how to ignore your repellents, cows can recognise human faces on TV, and Wi Fi can identify you through a wall with the help of AI. This week, Will and Rod flick between animal intelligence, ocean weirdness, and technology that is getting a little too confident. 

We start with mosquitoes and conditioning, because apparently even the most annoying creature on Earth can learn, grow and develop. Then we move to cows, who can tell familiar from unfamiliar human faces even when those faces are shown on a screen, and seem especially curious about strangers.

Finally, we head underwater for remoras and their bizarre cloacal diving behaviour with manta rays, before finishing with the creepiest story of the week: Wi Fi signals paired with AI that can identify people through walls. That isn't worrying at all...

 

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Animals That Learn

00:35 Mosquito Study Teaser

01:00 Show Intro And Segments

01:44 Arctic Trip And Flower News

02:41 Why Mosquitoes Bite

04:12 DEET Basics And Mysteries

05:13 Mosquitoes Adapt To DEET

06:06 Training Mosquitoes To Like DEET

09:12 Remoras And Host Hitchhiking

11:29 Cloacal Diving Explained

14:41 Can Cows Recognize People

15:07 Do Cows Recognize Us

15:59 Cows Watching Human Faces

16:50 What The Study Found

17:38 Mutant Super Pigs Explained

20:22 Where Is Your Self

21:34 Head Versus Heart Research

23:56 Touch To Shift Thinking

25:19 Wi Fi Privacy Shock

27:43 AI Identifies People Via Wi Fi

29:34 No Privacy Future Wrap Up

30:35 Final Recap And Sign Off

 

SOURCES:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2526370-where-do-you-think-your-self-is-your-answer-is-revealing/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2022.2044446

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/onanism

Speedy’s Big O video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tSfLKTTxtc

https://theconversation.com/mosquitoes-learn-to-link-the-smell-of-deet-with-a-blood-meal-new-study-283695

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.73548

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/fukushima-nuclear-disaster-tsunami-radioactive-37180117?_bhlid=82764a8d956c8f1927ebd802c09640e569aeaaf9

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0329529&ref=404media.co

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3719027.3765062

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A relaxing trip to Japan turns into an accidental run down a double black diamond, a mathematician solves “impossible” problems because nobody told him they were impossible, and missing scientists get pulled into UFO flavoured rumours. This week, Will and Rod bounce between snowboarding psychology, statistical legend, conspiracy culture, and the strange ways expectations shape what we think we can do.

We start on the slopes, where fear is sometimes just signage, then jump to George Dantzig, who solved famous unsolved statistics problems after mistaking them for homework. Same theme, different setting: not knowing the odds can be a weird kind of advantage.

Then things get darker with disappearances, military secrecy, and the internet’s favourite genre, plus a look at the gluten conundrum and why non coeliac gluten sensitivity is still messy science. Bodies are complicated, and belief can play a bigger role than people like to admit.

Finally, we head to the Marshall Islands, where a concrete dome covering radioactive waste from US nuclear testing sits in the Pacific like a “temporary” fix that has to survive storms, rising seas, and time.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Science Snack Intro

00:43 Snowboarding The Hard Way

02:48 Expectations And Limits

03:16 Dantzig And The Simplex

06:02 Accidental Unsolved Problems

09:26 Never Tell Me The Odds

10:04 Missing General UFO Links

12:52 List Of Scientist Cases

16:28 Politics And FBI Probe

18:07 Conspiracy Dots And Anti Gravity

21:05 Flood The Zone Meteorology Tease

22:10 Hurricanes Go Backwards

23:02 Weather Control Conspiracies

25:02 Meteorologists Under Threat

27:47 Lessons From Misinformation

28:40 Nuclear Tests In Paradise

30:34 Inside The Runit Dome

34:20 Cracks Leaks And Sea Rise

36:57 Good Gluten News

40:19 Gluten Sensitivity Reality Check

42:35 Nocebo FODMAPs And Advice

46:16 Wrap Up And Listener Callout

SOURCES:

https://futurism.com/conspiracy-meteorologists-hurricanes

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/07/marjorie-taylor-greene-hurricane-helene

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/hurricane-milton-misinformation-meteorlogist-death-threats-1235130352/

https://futurism.com/space/fbi-investigating-deaths-disappearances-top-scientists

https://futurism.com/space/another-military-ufo-guy-died

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fbi-investigating-possible-links-between-deaths-and-disappearances-of-at-least-10-scientists/

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-infamous-radioactive-tomb-is-leaking-and-experts-are-worried

https://theconversation.com/your-gluten-sensitivity-might-be-something-else-entirely-new-study-shows-267098

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Crystals have been fascinating humans for hundreds of thousands of years, chimpanzees might share the same shiny object obsession, and mushrooms may be sending electrical signals through their underground networks. This episode bounces between ancient archaeology, animal behaviour, and the weird possibility that fungi are doing more than just quietly existing in the forest.

We dig into evidence that early humans collected crystals long before cave paintings, then look at research showing chimps will pick crystals over plain pebbles and carry them around like prized possessions. It is either a shared cultural quirk or a shared ancestor who also could not walk past a sparkly rock without grabbing it.

Then we head to Japan, where scientists have been measuring mushroom electrical activity with electrodes to see how fungi respond to things like water and chemical signals. It is not “mushrooms are speaking English”, but it does hint at complex, responsive systems in the mycelium that we are only just starting to understand.

Finally, we get into the modern tech mess: AI powered toys like teddy bears that can be prompted into wildly inappropriate conversations, plus a brilliant detour where medieval Japanese poetry helps researchers track solar proton events using tree rings. 

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Introduction

00:42 Hippie Crystal Deodorant

01:59 Ancient Crystal Obsession

05:22 Chimpanzees Love Crystals

07:43 Crystal Plinth Experiment

09:55 Crystal Hoarding And Tradeoffs

11:41 Why Crystals Allure

13:30 Do Mushrooms Signal Pee

16:38 Urine Experiment Setup

18:48 Results And Dont Pee Dont Tell

20:17 Poetry Break And Limericks

21:25 Solar Proton Events Explained

22:23 Poetry Meets Space Weather

23:46 Kyoto Aurora Clue

24:07 Trees Confirm Proton Event

25:29 Trouble in Toyland Report

27:08 AI Toys Under Test

29:01 Guardrails Fail Over Time

35:49 Addictive Design Tricks

36:28 Privacy and Always Listening

 

SOURCES:

• https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1633599/full?ref=404media.co
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-42673-y
• https://publicinterestnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/TOYLAND-2025-11-14-7a.pdf
• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/medieval-aurora-poetry-provided-clues-to-historic-solar-storms/ 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Robot wolves are now being used to scare bears away from Japanese schools, scientists have grown mini Neanderthal brains and plugged them into little robots, and snakes are quietly topping the lethality leaderboard while everyone keeps blaming sharks. This week, Will and Rod bounce between wildlife deterrence, prehistoric brain tech, and a public health reality check that hits harder than any movie monster.

We start in Japan, where bears have been wandering into supermarkets and school grounds, and the solution is peak Japan: “monster robot wolves” with sensors, lights, and loud noises designed to scare bears off without harming them. They look like an 80s horror prop, but the goal is serious, keep people safe and avoid lethal control.

Then we head into the lab, where researchers have grown tiny Neanderthal brain organoids, nicknamed Neanderoids, and connected them to small crab like robots. It is fascinating, slightly unsettling, and a reminder that science will always find a way to make the past feel uncomfortably present.

Finally, we look at snakes as one of the world’s biggest killers, with India carrying a huge share of snakebite deaths, and we end with a cybersecurity story where a pen tester talked IT into handing over access on a phone call. Not ideal.

 

 

00:00 Japan Bear Surge

01:20 Meet the Hosts

02:58 Robot Wolf Deterrents

06:37 Upgrades and Risks

08:27 Neanderthal Mini Brains

12:03 Brains Wired to Robot Crabs

13:31 Fascism and Underlings

15:51 Torture Battalion Data

21:46 Animal Killers Teaser

22:35 Mosquitoes Kill Indirectly

23:30 Snakes Top the List

23:40 Floods and Snake Spikes

24:13 India Snakebite Mystery

25:07 Verbal Autopsies Explained

26:51 Antivenom Access Problem

28:22 Next Deadliest Animals Rundown

28:56 Parasites and Kissing Bugs

31:07 Elephants and Hunter Karma

33:15 Bears Sharks and Big Cats

35:06 Social Engineering Hack Story

38:40 Phone Calls Beat Security

39:05 Podcast Wrap and Callouts

 

SOURCES:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/japan-robot-wolves-high-demand-075406454.html

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/japan-built-robot-wolves-to-thwart-bear-attack-and-theyre-flying-off-the-shelves/

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01533-8/abstract

https://theconversation.com/your-gluten-sensitivity-might-be-something-else-entirely-new-study-shows-267098

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/489067/snakebite-antivenom-deaths

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schistosomiasis

https://elifesciences.org/articles/54076

https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-neanderthal-minibrains-grown-dish

https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/05/14/to-gain-root-access-intruder-just-had-to-ask/5239853

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/world/americas/actually-democracy-dies-in-hr.html

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A 1960s mouse utopia that collapsed into a vanity-obsessed apocalypse, a global database of 150,000 enthusiastic stool photos, and a scientific quest to help humans regrow limbs like a salamander. This week, we bounce between rodent dystopias, AI-powered gut tracking, regenerating toes, and international idioms for absolute chaos.

We start in the late 1960s with Universe 25, an experiment that gave mice everything they wanted and accidentally proved that absolute perfection leads to a total social meltdown and a faction of self-obsessed, grooming-addicted rodents. Then, shifting gears with a violent jerk, we check in on a health app that has amassed a staggering database of 150,000 human poo images to train AI to analyse gut health.

From there, we look to the future, where scientists are trying to steal a trick from the salamander to see if mice and eventually humans can regrow missing limbs. And to end the episode, we take a quick detour into international linguistics to look at how different cultures describe things going completely wrong, from Swedish blue cupboards to vivid Brazilian panic.

 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

02:20 Why Universe 25 Happened

04:58 Building Mousetopia

08:43 Utopia Turns Violent

11:53 Behavioural Sink Theory

14:04 Misuse And Critiques

18:45 Poop App Citizen Science

24:58 Sharing Stool Online

25:44 Selling Poo Data

27:25 AI Data Hunger

28:23 Elvis Toilet Death

29:43 Constipation Studies

35:02 Mouse Toe Regrowth

41:17 Cactus And Sayings

 

SOURCES:

• https://www.404media.co/ai-poop-analysis-app-offered-to-sell-me-access-to-its-users-poops/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-72066-8
• https://bsky.app/profile/adamcsharp.bsky.social/post/3mlqozoour22z
• https://theconversation.com/constipation-increases-your-risk-of-a-heart-attack-new-study-finds-and-not-just-on-the-toilet-237209
• https://www.mamamia.com.au/elvis-constipation/
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-38068-y
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32873621/
• https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/21/the-mad-egghead-who-built-a-mouse-utopia-john-b-calhoun

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A poll has asked people if they could win in a fist fight against Donald Trump, a survey on female orgasms has wandered into yawning, crying, and hallucinations, and vulture nests are quietly operating as accidental museums of human history. This week, Will and Rod bounce between political fantasy, private biology, and birds that apparently have a better archive system than most institutions.

We start with the poll that turned politics into Fight Club, which is less about combat and more about confidence, identity, and how people relate to power. Then we get into the science of female orgasms, and why the data is far stranger than the usual “fireworks” story, with reports ranging from tears to yawns to hallucination like effects.

Finally, we head to the vultures, whose nests can preserve scraps and artefacts for decades, creating accidental time capsules for archaeologists. And to end on a rare positive note, we’ve got some good climate news: renewable energy is still surging in the US, despite all the noise.

 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Political Science Milestones

00:44 Poll Who Beats Trump

01:56 Meet the Hosts

02:50 Science Missed Female Biology

04:00 Mapping the Clitoris

05:49 Surveying Orgasm Effects

08:47 Peri Orgasmic Symptoms

14:08 Taboo and Medical Framing

15:20 Case Report Finger Cure

19:38 Altruism Games

21:38 Resenting Do Gooders

24:05 Tainted Altruism

27:07 Academic Award Hoax

30:49 Self Made Medals

34:11 Vulture Nest Time Capsules

40:07 Climate News Uplift

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.