The 'Senses' series continues with tactile perception, aka touch. In part one we discuss tactile disorders, sensory illusions and haptics. Part 1 of 2.

Music: "Feelin' No Pain" by Red Nichols

Images

Dr. Nina Quiskamp joins Toren, Joe, and Kevin as our Five(ish) Senses series continues with "Smell"! We'll talk about how plants can detect scents, smell in the animal kingdom, how our noses work,  various smelling dysfunctions and how one influenced Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, the smell of starvation and the stink of outer-space! Also, awful smells, landmine-sniffing rats, cancer-sniffing dogs and pop culture!

Music: "Robot Stink" by The Invasives

Images

Joe, Toren, and Kevin continue the Five(ish) Senses series this week with Hearing. We'll cover how our bodies take in and process sound waves, the various causes of hearing loss, Hyperacusis, hearing in the animal kingdom, the Greater Wax Moth, Krakatoa, and noise pollution. Then it's on to the history of hearing aids, news, and pop culture!

Music: "Sounds of Tindalos" by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

Images

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeTriGTENoc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yps7pgq1TAk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzo45hWXRWU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9c3GPEtGZg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nN1PekyYZ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0AMKG31wME

Our Five(ish) Senses series continues with the second part of "Taste". Kevin, Joe, and Toren look at taste in the animal kingdom, the dangers of bitter orange, miracle fruit, vomit fruit, Scientist/Taster Carl Wilhelm Sheele , what happened to French wine, breast milk ice cream and pop culture!

Note: The mentioned bonus content will appear mid-week!

Music: "There Ain't No Sweet Man (That's Worth the Salt of My Tears)" by Bix Beiderbecke & Bing Crosby

Images

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX2Sc1BSMhM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO8V72pDw1o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6i5p8RbTCg

In the first of our multi-part series on the senses, Kevin, Toren, and Joe look at umami, Scoville Heat Units and the world's hottest peppers, Burning Mouth Syndrome, supertasters, plus the effect of vision on taste and the weirdness that is phenylthiocarbamide!

Music: "If I Knew You Were Comin' Id've Baked A Cake" by Eileen Barton

Images

Toren, Joe, and Kevin are back with a look at the "collective delusions of threats", or mass hysteria, including the June Bug Epidemic, Tanganyika laughter epidemic, The West Bank fainting epidemic, The Dancing Plague, the Mad Gasser of Mattoon, plus news and a brief pop culture!

Music: "Blackout" by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

Images

Nuclear Accidents continues with Three Mile Island, the Kyshtym Disaster, the Fernald Feed contamination, the SL-1 meltdown, the Soviet sub K-431 refueling disaster, the Zaragoza radiotherapy accident, Chernobyl and Fukushima, plus news and pop culture. Part 2 of 2 with special guespert Bob Apthorpe

Music: "Crawl Out Through the Fallout" by Sheldon Allman

Links

Echo Class II Submarine

Images

Bob Apthorpe, nuclear engineer, defense waste cleanup & severe accident analyst, joins us to talk about nuclear meltdowns and other accidents involving radioactivity. We discuss scavenged radioactive materials recycled for building, the NRX Incident, the Windscale Disaster, as well as the crashed Soviet nuclear-powered satellite Kosmos 954 and Operation: Morning Light

Music: "Radioactive Mama" by Sheldon Allman

Images

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ4vtUzG6sQ

TRIGGER WARNING:  Some of the images and videos below are GRAPHIC, and of course the episode deals with suicide entirely.

Dr. Rob joins Kevin, Toren, and Joe to talk about the act of taking your own life: suicide. We'll discuss the Werther effect, suicide statistics, methods and their consequences, Cato the Minor's intestinal fortitude, seppuku, Budd Dwyer's on-air suicide, Dr. Kevorkian's "Thanatron", the "Deliverance Machine", plus news and pop culture.

Music: "Gloomy Sunday" by Billie Holiday

Links

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Reddit's r/suicidewatch

Kaiju-a-gogo

Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory

Images

 

This one (incomplete gun suicide) is pretty gory so we're hiding the thumbnail. You've been warned.

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gO7uemm6Yo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVm88MX2Gw4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2OPV6iuk2o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Q8oM_AnK8

Jonathan Martin and the guys discuss diver's squeeze, the death of David Shaw, the "Diver's Cemetery," the Byford Dolphin diving bell accident, plus news and pop culture. Part 2 of 2.

Music: "Stop and Breathe" by The Invasives. Buy their new album "Robot Stink" on iTunes or  http://invasives.bandcamp.com/

Images

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRC5R1jRO58

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF4iFJ-G74o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V21qpZ2Y9IA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF4iFJ-G74o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhcF-Coc1J0