Here We Are

The Infectious of Boys of Comedy™ dig into the history of pandemics.

Life on earth started billions of years ago.  Life parasitizing other life, evolved shortly after.  And the endless arms between viruses and hosts began.  This mix of battles and cooperation gave rise to much of the rich complexity and diversity of life in addition to some of its biggest threats.  Early sexual reproduction may even have become more successful than cloning in part to escape disease spread.  And now sex is one of the main ways diseases are spread!

And around and around we go…

Modern civilization has created unique opportunities for viruses and modern medicine has created unique defenses.  Once again, the arms race continues.  Meanwhile, while our biology and psychology haven’t changed much since hunter-gathers so we find our intuitions mismatched for our modern world.

From major events like smallpox, to modern scares like Ebola, to an obscure Australian horse disease, many of the common themes have happened again and again.  At a time when many are turning to the news to get daily updates on jargony talking points to argue over, The IBC™ think it’s worthwhile to look back through the last few hundred years of various epidemics to get some perspective.

Catch this episode on YouTube or your favorite app and you will come down with contagious laughter and be super spreading novel insights in no time.

The Festive Boys Of Comedy™ get all dressed up in top-of-the-line Christmas outfits to explore the history of the winter solstice.

This holiday season many celebrate some of our most cherished traditions, but where did they come from?  Some historians believe Yuletide was the prequel to Christmas and Santa was played by Odin.  Some of our traditions may even have been influenced by psychedelics.  One thing is clear, there is a rich history of partying very hard during the longest nights of the year.

Kick the Holiday season with the FBC™!  We hope you get some fun conversation topics for holiday parties and maybe even some last-minute gift ideas including some of our favorite board games.

Merry MUMmas to all and a Too Easy New Year!

The Constantly Adapting Boys of Comedy™ discuss the endless race of life.

In Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’, The Red Queen explains to Alice that in her world “it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”  This week we look through this lens to see why completion and exploitation create seemingly endless evolutionary arms races common to most life on earth.

When a predator gains an advantage over prey, the prey that will be the most successful are the ones that adapt a new advantage over those predators and vice versa. This push and pull drives conflict and cooperation between and within species, genders, groups, families, parasites, businesses, militaries, and more.  When it comes to existing, it’s difficult just to stay in the race and nearly impossible to get ahead for long.

The idea of being stuck on this treadmill can feel futile when looked over a long span of time, but it also guarantees that there will always be opportunities at any moment in time.  Change is inevitable, but how does The Red Queen Hypothesis playout in a modern world with many of the biggest changes that life on earth has ever faced?  The CABC™ once again attempt to outdo themselves to compete for your eyes and ears.  You the audience will ultimately decide if the MUMies species will thrive or go extinct.

Enter code MUM15 to get a discount on our store at https://mindunderpod.com/pages/store

The Looping Thought Boys of Comedy™ ruminate on why we dwell on the past.

Shane had an embarrassing little incident recently and wanted to share how dumb he feels about it while it’s still fresh.

What are the things that we continue to ruminate on and why?  What are the factors the brain is using when determining what past events are worth holding onto and reminding you of?  Are those embarrassing thoughts we kick ourselves for useful?  Even if they are useful, do they really need to be so painful or cringy?

Which ruminations help The LTBC™ survive, mate, or improve our social skills?  Which ones just unnecessarily loop in our heads and lower our self-esteem without adding value?

Watch on YouTube or listen on your favorite podcast app or you will needlessly regret it for the rest of your life.

Enter code MUM15 at checkout to get 15% off on our store at https://mindunderpod.com/

The Thankful Boys of Comedy™ devote an episode to appreciating gratitude.

In the first half, we talk generally about gratitude.  We touch on some science of gratitude and positive psychology.  We explore using gratitude journals and accomplishment lists to alter our conscious experience.  Perhaps most importantly, we take time to appreciate the insane odds that any of us even find ourselves existing let alone having the great privilege of butchering some poorly remembered science abstracts for a fun podcast between two great friends.

In the second half, we start a gratitude scale to find out how we compare to the average person’s gratitude.  It proved to be a great way to discover where we might like to improve. Better yet, each survey question made for wonderful conversation starters and is easy for listeners to follow along and find out for themselves.

Normally this is the part where we insert calls to action and ask for things.  Instead, this week The TBC™ would just like to give thanks to you for all the interest and support we’ve gotten from all our incredible listeners.  Even if this just happens to be the very first thing of ours you’ve found, we are grateful that you were interested enough to read this.

Thank you!

Link to survey: https://www.midss.org/sites/default/files/short_grat_short_r.doc

The Universal Boys of Comedy™ explore consciousness.

In this episode, Shane and Ramin debate the idea of universal consciousness.  Is consciousness a product of the brain, a fundamental aspect of the universe, both, or somewhere in-between?

Every month we let Patreon suggest the subject for one of our public episodes. This month Patron

Stuart Brazewell’s suggested we get down to the bottom of one of the biggest philosophical questions in human history.  Challenge accepted!

The UBC™ explore how some of these views have changed over time.  Evolution and modern science have provided some new ways for humans to think about the conscious experience, but many traditional mystical views are alive and well.  What came first, the universe or the consciousness?