🎙️ Episode 3: Prions – The Cows Are Mad

They say madness spreads like wildfire… but what if it spreads like dinner?

In this chilling third installment of Mutant Hollow, we’re diving headfirst into the strange, stomach-churning, and scientifically horrifying world of prions—rogue, misshapen proteins that turn brains into sponge-like death traps. These microscopic nightmares are behind some of history’s most terrifying outbreaks, from Mad Cow Disease in the UK to the human form known as variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease. They can jump between species, hide in your body for decades before striking, and survive almost anything we throw at them. Fire? Nope. Radiation? Nope. Bleach? Ha—don’t make them laugh. (If they could.)

We’ll peel back the sinister layers of the mad cow scandal:

• How cattle were fed the ground-up remains of their own kind in a twisted agricultural shortcut that invited an epidemic.
• Why the “brain ban” stopped short—protecting cows, but not necessarily pigs or chickens.
• The experiments that proved prions could live in more than just brain tissue, raising the question… could your steak be hiding a deadly passenger?
• And how 2013 UK researchers found thousands of silent carriers who may never know what’s lurking inside them.

From sheep scrapie to chimps in lab experiments, we trace the bizarre journey of prions across the animal kingdom, connecting the dots between feeding practices, hidden infections, and species-hopping horror. Along the way, you’ll hear about contaminated growth hormone treatments, cases where spleens alone could transmit disease, and the unsettling fact that some infected animals are slaughtered long before symptoms appear—meaning no one knows they were sick in the first place.

As always, Stacy, our resident creature doctor, brings the science—and the dread—while Amber delivers the spooky folklore parallels, government conspiracy whispers, and speculative “What if?” scenarios. Could prions be the perfect slow-burn zombie apocalypse starter? You’ll have to listen to find out… but here’s a hint: the cows aren’t the only ones mad.

🔬 Highlights This Episode

• The real-life origins of “mad cow”
• Cross-species prion infections (sheep ➡️ cows ➡️ humans… and maybe more)
• Why you cannot cook, freeze, or bleach these things away
• The ticking time bomb of decades-long incubation
• The hidden cases the public never hears about

🎧 Content Warning: This episode contains unsettling discussions of disease, animal death, cannibalistic feeding practices, and cultural rituals.

💀 Join us in the Hollow for the perfect blend of true science, creeping dread, and the morbidly fascinating possibilities that keep you up at night. And remember: the cows are mad… and they’re not alone.