Better Than Human

The Addams Family are almost the perfect family. How so, you ask? There are lots of reasons, like Morticia being a feminist icon, or Wednesday being every goth girl's life goals, or Morticia and Gomez being the perfect couple. #relationshipgoals

But first, where did the fictional characters of the Addams Family come from? You might be surprised to find out they started as a cartoon in The New Yorker and were created by American cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938. He created the  Addamses, a wealthy aristocratic clan who delight in the macabre, as a satirical version of the ideal 20th-century American family. 

Since the Addams Family creation, there have been multiple TV shows, cartoons and movies about the family. Starting with the classic The Addams Family television show from 1964, to the superb movies,  Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993). (Who doesn’t love these movies???)

Now The Addams Family are considered one of the most iconic families in American history. The Addamses have gotten their popularity for good reason. They are the opposite of the boring, dysfunctional sitcom family, which pits family members against each other for laughs. 

Listen now to why Better Than Human thinks the Addams Family are the almost perfect family.

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcast

on Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcast

https://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcast

or Email us at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

A Mermaid is a mythical aquatic creature with the upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish.  Legends of these creatures have been reported since the beginning of humanity. 

There is no evidence that mermaids live anywhere on earth. However, there are a lot of scientific reasons why they physically cannot exist. Seriously, fish and human’s last common ancestor was over 170 million years ago. If you’re going to say mermaids are mammals, they’d have to breathe air, which means going to the surface often. (So lots of chances for humans to spot them).  AND even then, a human/water mammal would not have had time to evolve. Whales returned to the ocean 50 million years ago, and humans evolved 300,000 years ago…. So there is just not enough time for evolution to take place.

But, there is a lot of interesting folklore surrounding these creatures. (A lot more interesting than the bigfoot ‘folklore’) 

Tails of merfolks go back to ancient times: from the 2500BC Mesopotamia to the first know tale of an Assyrian queen who turned into a mermaid in 1000BC to current culture.  So, to say mermaids have been in the human psyche forever, would not be in error. 

Listen now to learn why mermaids cannot happen in real life, but are interesting anyways. 

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcast

on Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcast

https://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcast

or Email us at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, (another word we’ve stolen from Native Americans), is a large bipedal ape-like creature, covered in hair. Bigfoot has become an icon of cryptozoology. You know what cryptozoology is? Fake science. There is no evidence that Bigfoot exists. Even animals that have gone extinct millions of years ago leave evidence of their existence.

Giants (Larger than human beings) appear in the folklore of cultures worldwide and evoke terror and remind humans of our weakness and mortality. This may be the reason why there are so may 'bigfoot' tales in Native American lore. 

Thousands of people have claimed to have seen a Bigfoot, but even with all of these claims there is still no concrete evidence of any ape-like creatures living in North America. However, we do have a lot of proof of Bigfoot Hoaxes, like a man saying he had discovered the body of a dead Bigfoot in a forest in northern Georgia, and getting paid 50,000 dollars to produce it…

So what are people claiming to have seen Bigfoot actually seeing? There are a lot of possible logical answers that are not mythical.

Listen now to learn why Jennifer and Amber do not believe in Bigfoot. 

Note: when Jennifer says no Native Americans had a writing system, she means Native Americans of North America. The Maya, Aztecs, Mixtecs, and Zapotecs of Mesoamerica had writing systems.

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcast

on Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcast

https://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcast

or Email us at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

It’s finally October, the best month of the year, and time for Better Than Human's spooky Halloween Episodes. We start the month off with a BOO and an episode on the Villisca Axe Murder House, recorded live in the Villisca House itself. Poor, poor Amber knew nothing about what happened in the house before recording. 

Not only did Amber and Jennifer record an episode in the house on the murders that happened there, we spent the night in the house. 

The Villisca axe murders occurred between June 9, 1912, and June 10, 1912, in the town of Villisca, Iowa. All six members of the Moore family and the two Stillinger sisters were found murdered in the house. All eight victims, (including six children), were bludgeoned with an axe. The reason for the murders and the murder(s) were never found.

We start the episode discussing if visiting places where people were murdered is in bad taste. You can make an argument for both sides.

Then Jennifer tells Amber the history of the house, and the murders that took place in the house that we are recording in.  We discuss suspects in this unsolved case, if the house itself is haunted, and if so, who is haunting the house.

Want to learn about the Villisca house and our creepy night? Listen now!

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcast

on Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcast

https://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcast

or Email us at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

Neanderthals went extinct around 40,000 years ago so there are a lot of maybes when it comes to what we know about them. Did they know how to start fires? Did they use medicine? Did they have a language similar to humans? Did they know how to preserve food? Did they create art and music? Did they make clothing? Did they sail? The answers to all those questions are big fat maybes, which archaeologist are still trying to figure out. 

But First
Guess what everyone? It’s almost spooky month, October, the best month of the year, so get excited! This October we have a spectacular line-up. First, the Villisca Axe Murder House, recorded IN the Murder House. Second, Bigfoot, not recorded with an actual Sasquatch. Third, we have Mermaids (Merpeople) recorded in costume, but not underwater. Last we have the Addams Family, I personally have reached out to Christina Ricci, and she will not be guest starring. This is Halloween Month, the best Month!

The Good The Bad The News
The Bad
China is no longer teaching English in schools, why?
Firefighters race to save the world’s largest tree as wildfires rage because humans are causing fires hotter than nature can handle.
The Good
Fans rescue a falling cat at stadium. 
Pfizer says that COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for children ages of 5 and 11.

Neanderthals lived in small isolated groups, with individuals rarely living past 40 years. This resulted in a stagnation of technology growth, as well as a good amount of inbreeding. Add in their dangerous hunting technique, and it’s surprising that Neanderthals did as well as they did and that they did well enough to survive and mate with modern humans before going extinct.

Listen now to learn about Neanderthals out brothers from another species.

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcast

on Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcast

https://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcast

or Email us at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

Neanderthals are an extinct species of archaic humans who lived to about 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals left Africa, while modern humans stayed behind. They interbred with an unidentified human species and then were ‘replaced’ by modern humans. Neanderthals most likely went extinct due to interbreeding with homo sapiens, climatic change, disease, or a combination of all these factors.

It’s almost spooky month, get excited everyone! This October we have a banger line up. We have the Villisca Axe Murder House, recorded in the actual Murder House. We have Bigfoot, not recorded with an actual Bigfoot. We have Mermaids (Merpeople) recorded in costume. We have the Addams Family, I personally have reached out to Christina Ricci, and she will not be guest starring. And if you’re lucky, another bonus Halloween Episode. This is Halloween Month, the best Month!

The Good The Bad The News, Carbon factory built to suck carbon from the sky (the good), and racism is alive and well in Ohio (the bad).

Upon the discovery of Neanderthals, they were depicted as slouching, ape-like, and not closely related to modern humans. This was due to the Piltdown Man and racism. Neanderthals true evolutionary history was not understood until as late as the 1960s. 

Yes, Neanderthals were physically built differently than modern humans, and yes, we interbreed. The gene for red hair might have even come from Neanderthals gene. 

Listen now to Neanderthals, Part 1, our relatives of a different species. 

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcast

on Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcast

https://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcast

or Email us at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

What most people know about black holes, they’ve learned from sci-fi. In this genre, black holes (spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape) can often do some nifty things, like time travel. In real life, however, black holes are a whole lot more interesting. A compact mass of deformed spacetime with zero volume and infinite density? Sign us up to learn more.

In the Good the Bad the News
The Bad
The next solar storm could knock out the internet for months. Which will be a problem for most of us. 
Fuck Texas, the new abortion ban is not about protecting fetuses. Abortion bans are a way to control women, specifically lower income women. Because, rich so-called “pro-life” individuals will always have access to safe abortions. 

The Good
A Beekeeper in France has invented a trap that can stop Murder Hornets. Want to learn more about Murder Hornets? Listen to our 2020 episode on them https://www.buzzsprout.com/603916/3727583
Amber’s good news is that when our sun turns into a supernova in 5.5 billion years, it will not turn into a blackhole, cause it’s too small. Yay?

Although Black Holes have an enormous effect on any  object crossing it’s path, it has no locally detectable features. In theory, you could be standing right next to one and not realize it. If you did observe it, you’d notice that clocks near it would seem to move slower, because time is literally going slower in a Black Hole. This might be a good way to travel forward in time, however, once you enter it, you can never leave it. No one will hear you scream either, because information cannot escape a black hole….

Listen now to learn about Black Holes, more interesting than a science fiction movie.

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcast

on Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcast

https://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcast

or Email us at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

Hummingbirds are the world’s smallest bird species, with a heart rate of 500 beats-per-minute on average and a breathing rate of 250/minute. Hummingbirds are nearly always on the edge of starvation, so they need to eat their body weight in nectar each day. Which might explain why some female white-necked Jacobin hummingbirds have evolved to look like male hummingbirds. Because, guess what? Male hummingbirds can be jerks. 

In The Good The Bad The New

The Bad:
The EU has removed US travelers from Covid safe list. This is because of all the idiots out there that will take horse medication but not the actual vaccine.

The Good:
Thank you to the San Francisco Airport (SFO) for protecting the San Francisco garter snakes and red-legged frogs. We at Better Than Human are friends of Snakes and Frogs.

Hummingbirds are tiny acrobats with the fastest wingbeat of all birds, (70 strokes per second or more than 4,000 per minute). Unlike other birds, they can hover, fly backwards, and even fly upside down! Hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of all animals. They had an amazing amount of energy and live a relatively long time for their size. 

Hummingbirds are native only to the Americas and thrive from Alaska to the tip of South America and are specialized to the flowers they eat from.

Listen now to learn about these tiny marvels of the bird world. 

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcast

on Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcast

https://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcast

or Email us at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is  a snake-like, migratory fish. Eels spend most of their adult lives as freshwater fish, but are born and die in the ocean. How they’re born and how they die scientists are still trying to figure out. And we better figure it out quickly because European eel are a critically endangered species. So no jellied eels for you. 

But first:
Jennifer tells the story of her boomer encounter in the doctor's office. And by boomer, we mean, OK boomers, the group of boomers who don’t care how their behaviors affect other people.

In the Good, the Bad, the News

The bad, Cuomo is a dick and he abandoned his dog. And Amber reads some comedic crime blotters.

The good, 4oceans Solar-Powered Beach Robot filters plastic 30x faster than humans. Then, Patagonia (the outdoor clothing company) dumps a ski resort which held a far-right fundraiser. Fuck Marjorie Greene. 

So little is known about European eels that up to 1777, we didn’t realize eels were fish and thought that they spontaneously generated in the "guts of wet soil".  Sigmund Freud couldn’t find the eel’s male sex organs and gave up on biology entirely in frustration. European eels may use magnetic fields to navigate thousands of miles through the Atlantic Ocean, but who knows why they travel thousands of miles to spawn. Lots of people like to eat European eels, so poaching and smuggling is a big threat to the species. We also have not figured out how to raise them in captivity. 

Listen now to learn about the European eel, an animal we like to eat, but know very little about.

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcast

on Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcast

https://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcast

or Email us at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

You've got two empty halves of coconut and you're bangin' 'em together.

Do coconuts migrate? Yes, they do, but not by sparrows. It was actually humans who spread coconuts across the globe. Besides making great horse sounds when banged together, coconuts are extremely useful to humans. Coconuts are not just a new health fad, humans have been using coconuts since 3000 BCE, and not just for food and water.

In The Good, The Bad, The News

The Bad: There is an organization in PA that wants you to think rising CO2 is good for you and the planet. Nope. July 2021 was the hottest month ever in recorded history. Global climate change is caused by humans, and we need to stop it. 

The Good: We can reverse global climate change, but we need to do it NOW. Then Jen talks about a preserved female cave lion cub named Sparta.

Before we get into coconuts, have you ever heard of the Order of the Sun, the sun worshiping coconut cult from the early 1900s? Well, a nudist German named August Engelhardt was convinced you could live off just coconut. Guess what, you can’t. 

Coconut trees can grow up to 100 ft  ( 30 m) tall, and produce on average of 30 coconuts a year. They are naturally restricted to coastal areas in sandy, saline soils, and need direct sunlight and a lot of water to grow. 

The coconut plant was distributed by early Austronesian voyagers, who carried them as a source of food and water, and  traded them throughout different cultures globally.

Listen now to learn about the lovely coconut tree, the tree of life. 

For more information on us, visit our website at betterthanhumanpodcast.com

Follow us on Twitter @betterthanhuma1

on Facebook @betterthanhumanpodcast

on Instagram @betterthanhumanpodcast

https://www.tiktok.com/@betterthanhumanpodcast

or Email us at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you, and we look forward to you joining our cult of weirdness!

#betterthanhuman #cultofweirdnes

You've got two empty halves of coconut and you're bangin' 'em together.