Really? no, Really? with Jason Alexander & Peter Tilden

Many industries, including toy and game makers, are increasingly depending on crowdsourcing for fresh ideas and to help decide what products to make. Outsourcing creativity to the masses can offer valuable feedback… but that data can also be misinterpreted, misunderstood or provide just-plain-bogus ideas.

The annual toy business in the United States is a $100 billion-dollar industry. It’s by far the biggest toy market in the world, but apparently the “titans of toys” are out of ideas. So now, their attitude about creating new “stuff” has shifted to an attitude of – you know what - you do it!  Really, no really!

To breakdown the inner workings of today’s toy and game world, Jason and Peter turned to an old friend, David Fuhrer who has created and licensed more than 300 toys, games, and household products, generating retail sales of over $1 billion dollars. These include iconic products such as Nerf Vortex Football, Aqua Doodle, Twisty Petz, Guitar Hero Air Guitar, Bounce Around Tigger, Hershey’s S’mores Maker, and more. AND…he’s also the Guinness World Record holder for being the fastest backwards talker. Really, no Really.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

• 24 toy companies rejected one of the best-selling toys!
• How does an idea become a product, solve an everyday problem or innovate a classic?
• In 2024 is it possible to successfully pitch a Beanie Baby-like idea?
• The billion-dollar idea for a Tailor Swift product.
• The surprising new trends in toys and games.
• Why physical games and puzzles have made a comeback.
• How do crowd sourced ideas pay off for the idea creators?
• How David’s “backward talking” launched a career.
• We challenged David to translate classic Seinfeld lines…backwards.
• The deadliest toys ever put on the market!

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X: @funanuf123

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We now know that microplastics are literally everywhere! In our water, in our food, even in the organs of wild animals - found in the most remote places on Earth! But wait! Now scientists are discovering that there are even smaller fragments, called nanoplastic…so small… we consume them, potentially, with every breath we take. Really, no really!

These tiny particles and the chemicals that make plastics have been found in our brains, our lungs, kidneys, liver…even in men’s penises.  Obviously, Jason and Peter had questions; so, they turned to the man who tests the levels of microplastics in the foods we buy and eat, Dr. James Rogers. He is the Director of Food Safety Research and Testing at Consumer Reports. He is responsible for leading the food safety and sustainability operations of the organization, including food testing, data analysis, and risk and safety assessments. As acting head of Product Safety Testing, he also oversees the team that assesses safe operation and use of consumer products.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

• Don’t wash your chicken! (Unless you own a hazmat suit.)
• Blowing things up, dropping them, smashing them! What’s it really like in the Consumer Reports testing lab?
• Ingesting microplastics, what are the effects on the body?
• Why you should rethink microwaving your food in plastic containers.
• Hidden issues that complicate ending our dependence on plastics.
• What CR found when they tested 85 commonly purchased foods for plastic contamination.
• Cut these foods from your diet to reduce phthalate consumption.
• Why are brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, red die number 3, titanium dioxide – all legal if known to be detrimental to our health?
• What must consumers do to demand safer food?

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FOLLOW JAMES:

Consumer Reports website - www.consumerreports.org

LinkedIN – James E. Rogers, Ph.D.

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We’re in the golden age of finding and recovering trillion-dollar shipwrecks. These high-stakes, highly dangerous expeditions have been supercharged thanks to revolutionary deep ocean technologies. But… it’s not just the good guys searching through sunken Spanish galleons for gold doubloons; the rush to be first can sometimes get you killed. Really, no really!

Jason and Peter became aware of this phenomenon when they read about an elderly Florida couple arrested after appearing on PBS’ Antiques Roadshow. Appraisers were stunned to see gold ingots recovered “by a friend” from a shipwreck. Seeing the artifacts, French authorities claimed the couple were trafficking national treasures belonging to France.

The old adage “finders’ keepers” seemingly doesn’t apply - EVEN after spending years researching where the ships might be, then spending millions on expeditions HOPEFULLY finding the ship... hopefully. It seems like a lot of trouble when the country that lost and forgot about the treasure - hundreds of years ago can suddenly demand it back!

To help us salvage what’s actually going on… we turned to the “Indiana Jones” of underwater archeology -- Marine Scientist and Oceanographer, David L. Mearns – who is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers Club – he’s located 29 major shipwrecks and holds five Guinness World Records - including the deepest shipwreck ever found.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

• How does one find a shipwreck that sank hundreds of years ago?
• Why are the deep ocean recovery missions so extraordinarily expensive?
• Guys with eye-patches? Treasure Hunters? Actual pirates! Who’s doing this work?
• Material value (gold) VS. archeological value (historical record)
• The law under the sea! The complicated legalese of sunken treasure.
• Can you sell Spanish doubloons on eBay? Tales of stolen booty!
• Black markets, personal bodyguards, razor-wire covered ships – the life of a shipwreck hunter!
• Riding on Paul Allen’s $200 million superyacht treasure hunting ship, Octopus.
• The tragedy of the Titan submersible – What really happened?
• David shares his ‘great white whale’ shipwreck he’d still like to find.
• The impact of shipwrecks is way more emotional than we previously thought.
• Google-HEIM: Why are ship's toilets called “the head”?

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FOLLOW DAVID MEARNS:

Website: Blue Water Recoveries

X: @davidlmearns

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Dungeons & Dragons, the legendary tabletop role-playing game featuring elves, dwarves, wizards, fighters, and legions of nerds is currently observing… its 50th anniversary! Really, no Really!

Over the five decades, the game has had its fair share of infamy with stories of “Satanic panic” and more recently, a resurgence after being featured on Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” But what is this game really about? And how can it be more popular than ever after 5 decades?

Jason and Peter, after much needling from the self -identified nerds on their production staff (and Jason’s son who is a proud Dungeon Master) bravely walked into the never-known realms of D&D with one of the game’s quintessential experts... Jon Peterson, who studies the history of games, especially tabletop role-playing games and wargames. His first book has just been re-released as “Playing at the World, 2E, Volume 1: The Invention of Dungeons & Dragons” which has been called "the first serious history of the development of Dungeons & Dragons" by the Village Voice.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• A painless and fun history of Role-Playing Games.
• D&D is an improvisational-collaborative- storytelling experience.
• What’s a Dungeon Master and does it involve black latex, mouth gags and whips?
• What’s the point of a game with no “winning”?
• Breaking down D&D to understand its appeal.
• Wait… watching other people livestream D&D is a multimillion-dollar thing?
• Why D&D has become popular in prisons, on death row and in solitary confinement?
• Is D&D a game or a lifestyle choice?
• D&D’s ongoing controversies.
• How should a novice approach starting to play D&D?
• How A.I. and other technology will affect the future of D&D.

FOLLOW JON:

X: @docetist

Facebook: PlayingAtTheWorld

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We’ve all seen videos of stage-hypnosis shows where seemingly random audience members are put to sleep, hypnotized and then… in no time, they’re clucking like chickens, dancing like ballerinas, or swatting away imaginary pests.  Jason and Peter had to find out if this was something staged or “real” hypnosis.

Today’s guest, Dr. David Spiegel had the answer and reveals whether hypnotism can make people do things against their will, increase their physical strength and he even hypnotizes both Jason and Peter. Really, no really!

Dr. Spiegel has more than 40 years of clinical and research experience studying differing psychological disciplines, including hypnosis. He has used hypnosis since 1967, achieving and publishing results in more than 404 scientific journal articles, and 170 book chapters.

He is also the founder of Reveri, a self-hypnosis app.

So, sit back, get comfortable, and be prepared for a very, hypnotic episode…Really, no Really!

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Stage hypnosis… is it real? (You might be surprised!)
• The therapeutic aspect of making a football coach dance like a ballerina.
• What happens inside the hypnotized brain
• Can hypnosis retrieve long lost memories… induce false memories?
• Therapeutic problems hypnosis can help.
• Is self-hypnosis a thing?
• How hypnosis can help alleviate self-destructive thinking.
• Jason and Peter get hypnotized by Dr. Spiegel – Really, no Really?
• Jason reveals his never before discussed personal encounters with hypnosis.

FOLLOW DR. SPIEGEL:

Website: reveri.com

Instagram: @Reveri

X: @reveri_health

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We’ve all heard of The Nobel Peace prize and the Nobel Literature prize, Science, and Medicine prizes. Well, this episode has absolutely nothing to do with any of that!

But! If you come up with an idea that is an unusual or trivial or a bizarre achievement in scientific research, well then…we have an award for you. It’s called the Ig Nobel Prize, and anyone can win it, if their idea makes you laugh…and then… makes you think! Really, no really!

The Prize was created by today’s guest, Marc Abrahams who has awarded it annually since 1991. And the awards are handed out annually by genuine Nobel laureates, as they honor and celebrate the unusual, the creative and the imaginative… while also spurring people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology.

So be prepared to learn about woodpeckers and concussions, an unusual childbirth device and the importance of fish farts. That’s right… fish farts!

IN THIS EPISODE:

• The unbelievable way Marc first became editor of a scientific magazine.
• Amusing inventors & scientists doing obscure, yet noble things should be honored. Right?
• The scientists who defied a Prime Minister and proved the impending submarine invasion was not happening.
• Meet the guy who studied whether gonorrhea could be transmitted by sex dolls.
• Colonoscopy researchers won the Ig Nobel twice and performed a live on-stage demonstration you won’t believe.
• The Blonsky centrifugal birthing device will defy your understanding of natural childbirth.
• Why don’t woodpeckers get concussions and how that applies to football.
• Your foot size to genitalia size ratio is… real?
• Jason has some “genius ideas” he thinks should win an Ig Nobel.
• The small but notable list of inventors who were killed by their inventions.
• GOOGLEHEIM: Have any nobility won the Nobel Prize? Yep!

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FOLLOW MARC:

Website – Improbable.com

Ig Nobel Prize 2024

Mastodon - @MarcAbrams

Facebook - Marc Abrahams

Podcast – Improbable Research

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Does your dog truly love you or are they faking it? A recent Newsweek cover story posed that very question and revealed that scientific research provides an answer! Really, no Really!

But can science really prove how your dog feels about you? Or for that matter, can it prove TRUE love, between animals or people? Fascinated by the scientific inquiry, Jason and Peter turned to Dr. Gregory Berns…the Distinguished Professor of Neuroeconomics at Emory University, and the scientist who conducted the actual “Love Research”, even going so far as using MRIs to discover what’s really going on in a dog’s brain!

Pet parents…prepare yourself for the truth!

IN THIS EPISODE:

• So…do our dogs actually love us?
• How the dog, hunting Osama bin Laden led to the first canine MRI.
• Utilizing MRIs to determine dog’s true emotions.
• Food and praise light up a dog’s brain reward center but is that love?
• Dog racism? Alligator companionship? Cow love? Re-examining animal psychology.
• Jason’s movie, Hachi: A Dog's Tale - a story of true dog love or just love for snacks?
• Does our increasing understanding of animal capabilities impact how we treat them?
• Eating or not eating the animals that have the capacity to love us.
• What’s too cute to eat and our definitive take on cannibalism.

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FOLLOW DR. BERNS:

Website - GregoryBerns.com

X - @gberns

Newly released book: “Cowpuppy: An Unexpected Friendship and a Scientist’s Journey into the Secret World of Cows”

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We’ve all seen them…white streaks emanating from behind commercial airliners. Is it water vapor or is there something more nefarious being released at 30,000ft? Tennessee legislators were so alarmed by these white plumes, they just passed legislation banning so-called “chemtrails” and any other form of geoengineering. Really, no Really!

Chemtrails have been linked to conspiracies about secretive government forces who are using them to release chemicals that could cause sterilization, reduction of life expectancy, mind and weather control and a whole host of other sinister outcomes. But are any of these conspiracies real?

When Jason and Peter, saw that 6 or more states are taking up similar anti-chemtrail legislation, they turned to Dr. Joshua Horton, Senior Program Fellow for Geoengineering at the Harvard Kennedy School for answers.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• If chemtrails aren’t real, why are they being banned?
• Geoengineering and manipulating our weather explained.
• The Chemtrail myths exposed!
• What are contrails and what causes them?
• Could geoengineering eventually reverse climate change?
• Shady companies that make geoengineering claims.
• The debate over geoengineering experiments explained.

FOLLOW JOSH:

X – @joshuahorton533

LinkedIn – Joshua Horton

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There is an entire world - just below our feet - that defies our conventional understanding of intelligence. It’s a superhighway of fungal interconnectedness, trillions of miles of fungal networks that enable trees to recognize their families, communicate with each other and even share resources. And those fungi, which may be hundreds of millions of years old, may just be the key to saving our planet from pollution and global warming!

In this episode, Jason and Peter are joined by Louie Schwartzberg, director of the beautiful 2019 documentary film, “Fantastic Fungi” to explore the amazing world of fungi and mushrooms, and to discuss their awe-inspiring power to heal, protect, and transform our world. And what's most shocking… mushrooms are more closely related to humans than they are to plants…Really, no Really!

IN THIS EPISODE:

• How trees communicate and help their kin.
• Our symbiotic relationship with fungus explained.
• The importance of no-till farming and curtailing the use of fossil fuel made fertilizers.
• The mycelium network could reduce climate change.
• How mushrooms clean oil spills!
• Using psylocibin to treat terminally ill cancer patients to lessen their fear of death.
• Mankind’s rapid evolution is attributed to psylocibin in mushrooms!
• James Cameron’s Avatar is effectively about Pandora’s mycelia network.
• The transcendent power of time-lapse photography.
• Mushrooms have beneficial antibodies & potentially cancer-fighting properties.
• Google-heim: The largest fungus is WAY bigger than you think & the most expensive mushroom in the world!

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FOLLOW LOUIE:

Website - louiechannel.tv

Instagram - @LouieSchwartzberg

YouTube - @fantasticfungiofficial

X - @LouieFilms

TikTok - @louieschwartzberg

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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD is a medical condition with symptoms that include difficulty focusing and staying on task, impulsivity and self-control issues. Worldwide over 336 million people live with ADHD including our own Peter Tilden – and they view it as a daily burden that makes simple tasks challenging and often anxiety-ridden. But one family, wildly famous throughout the social media stratosphere view their struggle with ADHD as something positive. Really, no Really!

Today’s guests! Kim and Penn Holderness are best-selling authors and their most recent book is , “ADHD is Awesome: A Guide To (Mostly) Thriving With ADHD!  

Known for their award-winning videos, they have garnered over 2 billion views and over 8 million followers across their social media platforms. They’re also award-winning podcasters and were the winners on Season 33 of The Amazing Race.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Signs you or someone you love may have ADHD.
• ADHD/ADD – What’s the difference?
• The relationship between ADHD, intelligence & creativity.
• Medicating ADHD – Making the right decision!
• What it’s like living with someone who has ADHD?
• Keeping all the challenging stuff in mind…. how is ADHD awesome?
• You’ve been diagnosed with ADHD – Now what?
• What it takes to be a social media sensation?
• How Kim & Penn won The Amazing Race and should Jason do it?
• Google-HEIM: Gender differences & ADHD.

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FOLLOW THE HOLDERNESS FAMILY:

Website - theholdernessfamily.com

Facebook – The Holderness Family

YouTube – The Holderness Family

Instagram – The Holderness Family

TikTok – The Holderness Family

X – @KimDHolderness

Pinterest – Holdernessfam

Podcast – The Holderness Family Podcast

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