What is our fascination with dinosaurs? Is it their frequent media depictions?  A surreal feeling of disbelief that they could have existed? A kind of thrill imagining such dangerous animals can’t hurt us? Being from a different Earth, could they even survive in our modern climate? Were dinosaurs warm blooded and covered in feathers, or cold blooded and naked like reptiles? Were pterosaurs dinosaurs or birds? Why are there so many fossils in Asia, and how has that continent contributed to our cultural understanding of dinosaurs?

Dinos mentioned in this episode:  Psittacosaur, Repenomamus.

Sounds effects used in this episode are courtesy of WWW. Freesound.org

We all know that we need oxygen and that we breathe it in, but why? We know that gills do the same thing as lungs but underwater, and our inability to breathe there has cost countless lives and fuelled many nightmares. Perhaps you know a grandparent or someone with cystic fibrosis who uses a portable cylinder of oxygen. We have all seen the overwhelmed hospitals trying to get oxygen into the damaged lungs of Covid sufferers. What is this amazing invisible gas that we spend our whole lives greedily sucking up?

Music used in this episode:

On hold by Kjartan Abel Bio and contact info: https://kjartan-abel.com

Have you ever asked yourself that timeless question, “Why is the sky blue?”  It’s actually a fairly straightforward answer-- incoming light is refracted by the water in the atmosphere. However, in this episode we will also take a look at how animals see the world around us, including us as fellow animal creatures. What does a flower look like to a bee? What do we look like to our cats?

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Music used in this episode:

On hold by Kjartan Abel Bio and contact info: https://kjartan-abel.com

Other tracks courtesy of www.freesound.org

What do the terms Equinox and Solstice mean? Why are there two of each in a year? How did the old civilisations feel about the drastic difference in daylight-- depending on their latitude of course-- between long summer days and just as long winter nights? How do plants and other animals react to these seasonal changes?

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Music courtesy of www.Freesound.org

What were some of the English medieval and colonial stories that may have shaped our ideas around the archetype of The Witch? Was she a child-eating monster or a shaman? Was everyone in England an alcoholic during the Bubonic Plague? Why are taxes on alcohol so complicated? What does Mexico have to do with alewives? Is the Invisible Man a real monster?

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Music used in this episode:

On hold by Kjartan Abel Bio and contact info: https://kjartan-abel.com

Are you interested in Ancient Egyptian mythology? How can learning about it help us understand our place in the universe? Did you know that the hieroglyph for Stability/ Balance resembles a column? If humans are from Africa and Egypt is in Africa, are we all Egyptian? Was there a goddess of cannabis? How did the Egyptians explain the phases of the Moon?

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Music sound courtesy of www.freesound.org

Have you ever wondered why so many people enjoy energy drinks? Is coffee from Columbia? What makes those anti-sleep aids so effective? Is the caffeine in green tea and black coffee the same?  What makes Coca Cola so addictive? This and more in today’s episode.

*Furan-2-ylmethanethiol is the full name of the Molecule mentioned in this episode.  Try and pronounce that!

Music used in this episode:

On hold by Kjartan Abel