Critical Nonsense

Why is milk math so silly? 

This week, Jess, Joey, and Aaron talk about milk fat, music modes, the King's foot, scientific discoveries, wormholes, and polynomial equations. They don’t talk about Wyatt and Gary. 

references 

• Music modes 
• Pentatonic scale 
• How Physicists Created a Holographic Wormhole in a Quantum Computer 
• The Biggest Project in Modern Mathematics 

This week, our 200th episode! 

To celebrate, Jess, Joey, Aaron, and Alex dish out a bunch of big thanks—on behalf of themselves and some of the SYLVAIN team—and show their appreciation to all of you, dear listeners, for riding with us over the years. They talk about plastic, grandpa strips, popcorn, warm legs, perspective that sticks, and aging. They don’t talk about herding pandas. 

references 

• Magical 7-Spice Umami Popcorn with Carla Lalli Music 

How do you choose what moment in time represents somebody? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about death, recency bias, in memoriams, James Dean, one-hit wonders, and headstones. They don’t talk about Beenie Man. 

references 

• Corrections Department: 525,600 ... not 125,600. 
• Recompose 
• The Dots: Deconstructing Influence by Sylvain Labs 
• James Dean 
• "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba 
• "Closing Time" by Semisonic 
• "Heroes" by David Bowie 
• Mel Blanc's headstone 
• Reader's Digest:19 Funniest Tombstones That Really Exist 
• RBG In Memoriam stamp 
• Scientific American: Explorers of Quantum Entanglement Win 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics 

This week, Preponderance of Ponderances is back with Jess in the driver's seat. She talks with Joey and Aaron about Sax-a-booms, mushrooms, preserving the dead, aquamation, Fruit Loop hair, objectivity, and averages. They don’t talk about Harry Sultenfuss. 

references 

• Jack Black performing his legendary Sax-A-Boom with The Roots 
• NYT Cooking: Honey-Glazed Mushrooms With Udon 
• Boil your mushrooms 
• The French Chef episode on Boeuf Bourguignon 
• The New York Times: The Fading Art of Preserving the Dead 
• CBS News: Want to go green after death? Aquamation, composting offer eco-friendly burial options 
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande 
• Snatch 
• Jake Baldino 
• Toronto Star: When U.S. air force discovered the flaw of averages 
• Isaiah Mustafa is the man your man could smell like. 
• Albanese Candy 
• NPR: Are Gummy Bear Flavors Just Fooling Our Brains? 
• Behavioral scientist and professor Aradhna Krishna on the power of mental imagery 

What is a better way for us to deal with our stuff in this new world we're living in? 

This week, Joey, Aaron, and Jess talk about Takanakuy, intimacy, erruption of conflict, Love Island, hiding, and conflict languages. They don’t talk about cream corn or the International Adult Conspiracy. 

references 

• Because we love you, here's our theme song 
• Gushers 
• Hey smiling strange 
• Takanakuy 
• Love Island 
• Little Fury 

Will competitive reality TV go back to what it used to be? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about pandemic "normalcy," earnestness, parasocial relationships, referees, social media, and taxons. They don’t talk about Ernest Borgnine or his amazing eyebrows. 

references 

• Been around the world and we've been player-hated. 
• Parasocial Relationships: The Nature of Celebrity Fascinations 
• Richard Hatch (Survivor contestant) 
• Forged in Fire 
• The New York Times: The Fall of ‘Terrace House’ 
• The Mole: then and now 
• Philodendron 
• The Importance of Being Earnest 

Where should we draw boundaries around pranking "for the likes"?

This week, Joey and Jess talk about the latest updates on the "fights", meme culture, when something stops being funny, the consent paradox of pranking, entertaining each other, and the oversaturated market of bad jokes. They don't talk about if sugar belongs in stew.

references

• The Chocolate Bunny feud: Lindt v. Lidl
• Is this a prank? A cruel lesson to not take things from strangers.
• Radiolab: "Smile My Ass" the episode about candid camera
• Jackass
• That Jimmy Kimmel "prank" telling kids "I ate your Halloween candy"
• There's salt in my stew!
• Not a prank: back when a McDonalds customer sued them for their hot coffee
• Seth McFarlane's "You're the Cream in my Coffee"

What can we learn to love about fear? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about tiny clothes, reading horror, delight, Friends, subtle fear, and gourds. They don’t talk about Colonel Kurtz. 

references 

• You are home, Demi Adejuyigbe. 
• Stephen King's Night Shift 
• Esquire: All 75 Stephen King Books, Ranked 
• You're Next 
• What is Horror? 
• Bros 
• Legion 
• Utopia 
• Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot 
• The Last of Us 
• Everything Everywhere All At Once 

This week, another special episode! 

System of a Down Evangelist Joey and Queen of the Bagelry Jess, in (kind of) lightning round fashion, ponder a (kind of) preponderance of ... er ... "ponderances" about bagels, English adjective order, Trevor Noah, performance mode, pickleball, and chess cheating. They don’t talk about the possibility of ice cream being healthier than bagels. 

references 

• Disorder! 
• Green great dragons can't exist! 
• The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth 
• The girls are fighting 
• The New York Times: A Funny Name, a Serious Sport. Pickleball, Anyone? 
• @katologic on pickleball 
• Serena Williams loves pickleball 
• The New York Times: Cheating Allegation Looms Over Elite Chess 
• Magnus Carlsen' statement on chess cheating 

What is consciousness and are we alone in our consciousness on Earth? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about orca fashion, climate change, forest network interconnectivity, divergence, AI consciousness, and Trevor's beard. They don’t talk about blueberry bagels. 

references 

• Dinosaurs eating people 
• Pterosaurs 
• Trendy killer whales 
• Science: ‘Wood wide web'—the underground network of microbes that connects trees—mapped for first time 
• Reader's Digest: Why humpback whales protect other species from killer whales 
• Panpsychism