Brain Junk

Here we all thought the drive-thru window was something new and innovative. And it was…in Pompeii in 79AD. Back in the day the Romans and Greeks and probably other large civilizations had walk up restaurants that catered to busy citizens. We dive into the cool history of thermapolia and early fast food.

(FYI thermapolia is plural and thermapolium is singular. Gotta love that Latin)

Warning: Content of a slightly more adult kind. We use a few swear words, talk about illuminated manuscript penis trees, and yes, we may have talked about undescended testicles.

Friends, no lie, 2020 was A YEAR. We went from working in person to recording remotely. It was a huge learning curve changing how we work, but there was one shining star in the whole experience so far–I had so much footage to mine for content.

Enjoy a longer listen of the the two of us being our weird and wacky selves. Getting to laugh with Amy makes Brain Junk one of my most favorite things to do. TK

P.S. Again, apologies for the occasional grainy recording–it took us a while to sort out our long distance recording bugs.

Traffic lights, a hair relaxant, gas masks, the zig-zag stitch on sewing machines…all of these important inventions have one thing in common, Garrett A. Morgan. Give this episode about a prominent Black innovator and inventor a listen!

Who knew a tiny animal could contain such a multitude of cool facts? For our 150th episode we dive into the life of the shrew. It’s a phenomenal creature with a 1500 heart beat per minute metabolism who is always up for a fight to the death. BUT WAIT…there’s so much more!

Show Notes:

Shrew Train! Thank you Richard Attenborough (we love you) Skip to 2:33 for the mama shrew and babies train.

Shrews in action: Attacking a snake (1 minute mark) and epic shrew battle (2 minutes in)

Originating in India, the western version of the red bandana began in 1800s England with the use of snuff. Over the years the pattern has changed slightly, but that red bandana has become ubiquitous.

We catch you up with an update on fluorescing animals and then jump right into new research on Longfin Damsel fish that use Mysid shrimp to farm algae.

Check out more about this mutualistic relationship here: https://theconversation.com/we-found-algae-farming-fish-that-domesticate-tiny-shrimp-to-help-run-their-farms-151615

In WWI and WWII women were super sneaky and ingenious using their yarn and knitting needles to covertly transport coded messages. That’s right, today we’re talking about steganography.

There are over 70 examples of knights fighting snails in illuminated manuscripts from the 1300s. But why? First meme? A silly inside joke? A weird allegory? Listen to the episode and check out our link in the show notes. Or better yet, just Google Snail Knights!

Show Notes:

More Snail Knights from the British Library

When music comes on, can you clap along or do you struggle to find the beat? If you have a hard time keeping up with the rhythm, there’s a reason and it’s happening in your auditory cortex.

Show Notes: 

PopSci: Why Some People are Bad at Dancing

Science Alert: Are You Beat Deaf?

Primary auditory cortex and Auditory association areas.jpg

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons via the Creative Commons License.