Learn Me Something

Synopsis: This week on “Learn Me Something,” Aaron and Rich delve into scientific research behind the concept of “dark matter.” Humans can perceive empty space around them, but is that space truly empty?

Ordinary, observable matter (like stars and planets) makes up a measly 5% of the universe. The other 95% universe is made up of invisible dark energy (68%) and dark matter (27%). That means there’s 95% of the universe that we don’t know about yet.

Duration: 39:00:00

Present: Aaron Stewart, Rich Plumb

• Definition of “Vacuum”
• 20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Nothing
• ESA publication
• NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
• Quantum Foam, Virtual Particles and Other Curiosities
• Formal Results: Testing the GCP Hypothesis
• The Global Consciousness Project: Meaningful Correlations in Random Data
• Empty space has more energy than everything in the Universe, combined
• Empty Space Isn’t Empty, And Quantum Researchers Now Have Direct Evidence
• Direct sampling of electric-field vacuum fluctuations

• @LMSPodcast on Twitter
• Learn Me Something on Facebook
• @HologramRadio for updates on other interesting podcasts

• Get Learn Me Something on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn, or via RSS.

Download: Episode 19: Empty Space

Synopsis: This week on “Learn Me Something,” Aaron and Rich delve into scientific research behind the concept of “dark matter.” Humans can perceive empty space around them, but is that space truly empty?

Duration: 39:00:00

Present: Aaron Stewart, Rich Plumb

Download: Episode 19: Empty Space

Synopsis: This week on “Learn Me Something,” Aaron and Rich delve into the concept of happiness. What makes us happy, and why?

In philosophy, happiness translates the Greek concept of eudaimonia, and refers to the good life, or flourishing, rather than simply an emotion.

Duration: 1:05:00

Present: Aaron Stewart, Rich Plumb

• 54 Ways to Increase Your Happiness Set Point
• What is Happiness, Anyway?
• Happiness by the Numbers: 8 Stats That Could Change Your Life
• How to Reset Your Happiness Set Point
• Can Happiness be Genetic?
• The Truth About Employee Engagement
• World happiness report
• An algorithm for happiness

• @LMSPodcast on Twitter
• Learn Me Something on Facebook
• @HologramRadio for updates on other interesting podcasts

• Get Learn Me Something on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn, or via RSS.

Download: Episode 18: Happiness

Synopsis: This week on “Learn Me Something,” Aaron and Rich delve into the concept of happiness. What makes us happy, and why?

Duration: 1:05:00

Present: Aaron Stewart, Rich Plumb

Download: Episode 18: Happiness

Synopsis: This week on “Learn Me Something,” Aaron and Rich delve into collateral damage, how the term is used in the media, and how language plays a vital roll in how horrific events are reported–including the need for more transparency in government.

Duration: 1:07:00

Present: Aaron Stewart, Rich Plumb

• Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
• Civilian casualties from US drone strikes
• Collateral damage A brief history of U.S. mistakes at war
• Why Is the US Killing So Many Civilians in Syria and Iraq
• Let’s Resolve in the New Year to Stop Using That Expression About Breaking Eggs and Making Omelets
• How Many Dead Iraqis
• The way the Obama administration views civilian casualties from drones is exaggerating at best if not outright lies
• Ben Tre

• @LMSPodcast on Twitter
• Learn Me Something on Facebook
• @HologramRadio for updates on other interesting podcasts

• Get Learn Me Something on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn, or via RSS.

Download: Episode 17: Collateral Damage

Synopsis: This week on “Learn Me Something,” Aaron and Rich delve into collateral damage, how the term is used in the media, and how language plays a vital roll in how horrific events are reported–including the need for more transparency in government.

Duration: 1:07:00

Present: Aaron Stewart, Rich Plumb

Download: Episode 17: Collateral Damage

Synopsis: This week on “Learn Me Something,” Aaron and Rich delve into a pain. Pain is one of the few shared experiences, but not all of us feel it the same.

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive. — James Baldwin

While everyone knows that physical pain can cause emotional pain, emotional pain can also cause physical pain. This becomes particularly important to recognize in the setting of chronic, medically unexplained pain syndromes. — Howard Schubiner, MD

Duration: 49:13:00

Present: Aaron Stewart, Rich Plumb

• Misuse of Prescription Drugs
• The Surprisingly Humanlike Ways Animals Feel Pain
• Altered cognition-related brain activity and interactions with acute pain in migraine
• Can the Brain cause Pain? How the Brain Handles Emotions
• Emotional and Physical Pain Activate Similar Brain Regions
• The dark side of acetaminophen
• Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis
• Nociceptor
• Knob for Human Suffering

• @LMSPodcast on Twitter
• Learn Me Something on Facebook
• @HologramRadio for updates on other interesting podcasts

• Get Learn Me Something on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn, or via RSS.

Download: Episode 16: What Is Pain?

Synopsis: This week on “Learn Me Something,” Aaron and Rich delve into a pain. Pain is one of the few shared experiences, but not all of us feel it the same.

While everyone knows that physical pain can cause emotional pain, emotional pain can also cause physical pain. This becomes particularly important to recognize in the setting of chronic, medically unexplained pain syndromes. — Howard Schubiner, MD

Duration: 49:13:00

Present: Aaron Stewart, Rich Plumb

Download: Episode 16: What Is Pain?

Synopsis: This week on “Learn Me Something,” Aaron and Rich delve into a a heavily researched topic of drug addiction. How does the human brain handle addiction in different age groups? Are younger people more susceptible? These are truly multi-faceted questions of which we hope you’ll join us to diseminate and decipher, together.

Duration: 50:49:00

Present: Aaron Stewart, Rich Plumb

• Cold turkey meth
• Statistics on Drug Addiction
• Do You Know… Methadone
• The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction: The Basics
• Overdose Death Rates
• What Is an Opioid?
• Opioid Crisis
• Why is meth so addictive?
• What Makes Heroin So Addictive?
• FosB: A sustained molecular switch for addiction
• Why “Just Say No” Doesn’t Work
• Addiction: Wikipedia
• FosB (Wikipedia)
• Addiction: Explained on YouTube

• @LMSPodcast on Twitter
• Learn Me Something on Facebook
• @HologramRadio for updates on other interesting podcasts

• Get Learn Me Something on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn, or via RSS.

Download: Episode 15: Drug Addiction

Synopsis: This week on “Learn Me Something,” Aaron and Rich delve into a a heavily researched topic of drug addiction. How does the human brain handle addiction in different age groups? Are younger people more susceptible? These are truly multi-faceted questions of which we hope you’ll join us to diseminate and decipher, together.

Duration: 50:49:00

Present: Aaron Stewart, Rich Plumb

Download: Episode 15: Drug Addiction