Most people would think apex predators like lions or tigers would be the most successful killers. What about an alligator or crocodile? They’re millions of years of evolution and that has to have given them an upper hand right? Or what about sharks? Fierce, fast, and top of the food chain It seems like their sole purpose is just to swim the waters alone and hunt.

Big cats hunt twice a day and some even hunt in groups. Those hunts take up a ton of energy and they always have to share their meals. Another thing to consider is a lot of these bigger animals are taking down larger prey. So it makes sense as to why their kill rates are much lower. 

And as amazing as all these creatures are, surprisingly there’s one creature much more successful and even much smaller. Don’t get me wrong these animals are successful hunters and their kill rates are still impressive which ranges from 15%-50%. But the one with a 95% kill rate is extremely impressive and with an insane appetite this creature is a far superior hunter.

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Question: Do we eat spiders in our sleep?

With over one in four people admitting to a fear of spiders, it’s actually spiders that are much more afraid of us humans. Spiders get such a bad wrap these days. We’ve all heard that we swallow 8 spiders a year in our sleep. Is this actually true or just a myth? Should we worry about these scary fury legged arachnids crawling into our mouths while we’re in dreamland? Listen to the podcast for the answer.

Question: Do we really only use 10% of our brain?

Welcome to the human brain. Weighing in at around 3 lbs, it’s powerful, big, and can solve some of the most complex problems. The brain controls everything. It is the command center for our nervous system. It receives signals throughout the body's organs. It re-distributes information to our muscles. It’s the director of our body's internal functions, integrating sensory impulses and information to form perceptions, thoughts, and memories. Your brain has the ability to think, learn, create and feel emotions. It controls every blink, breath, movement, and heartbeat. Scientist James D. Watson once called the brain “the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.” The brain is a powerful tool, but do we really only use 10% of it?

This podcast was written and produced by The Wild 1 Media

DON'T FORGET - Check out our other podcast The Dark Side Diaries @ https://darksidediaries.sounder.fm

Question: Did  a foreign bomb ever hit the American mainland during WW2?

World War II, the global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries were involved, including all the great powers, which formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The Allies also deemed the United Nations consisted of the United States, Great Britain, China, the Soviet Union, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Canada, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, and Yugoslavia.

The three main partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan. These three countries recognized the German domination over most of continental Europe; Italian domination over the Mediterranean Sea; and Japanese domination over East Asia and the Pacific. Other nations such as Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria fought alongside the Axis alliance as well.

World War II is considered to have begun on September 1st, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Following with subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom on September 3rd, 1939. With war and battle zones raging far away from American soil it was only a matter of time before the United States would have no choice but to join. The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service would initiate that. With an attack with a military strike on the U.S. fleets naval base at Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. Up until this point the United States remained as a neutral country with the war.

While WW2 was a war of many nations the battles took place mainly in Europe, East Asia, and islands in the Pacific Ocean. American’s would only watch from a distance but would still help on the home front with rationing of supplies, volunteering towards war time efforts, and supporting the purchase of U.S. Government Defense Savings Bonds or "War Bonds." With those efforts and war feeling far away from the mainland many people would think no bombs ever hit any of the 48 contiguous United States. But unfortunately that’s not the case.

This podcast was written and produced by The Wild 1 Media

DON'T FORGET - Check out our other podcast The Dark Side Diaries @ https://darksidediaries.sounder.fm

The VHS tape, short for Video Home System, was first released in Japan in 1976. You could scratch it, drop it, and it played wherever you left off. It let you fast-forward through anything, re-wind for an instant replay, and you could record up to six hours on it. Annoying menus? Not on a VHS. And none of those boring loading screens. Best of all, with a pair of scissors and a piece of scotch tape you could get rid of any ads or trailers. So with the death of VHS what was the last film released on tape? And what was the first film to be streamed?

This podcast production is brought to you by The Wild 1 Media -www.thewild1media.com

Check out our other true crimes podcast @ https://darksidediaries.sounder.fm/

In the vastness of space we are a unique little green and blue marble, traveling around a hot star, within a solar system, within a galaxy, within a universe. We have such a unique journey. Our planet is located in a Goldilocks zone which is a zone around a star having temperatures and other conditions that can support life on planets. We are extremely lucky. While there are many other planets that exist in other Goldilocks zones of other far off distant solar systems and galaxies, we are still the only known place that has life.

So how fast is the Earth traveling?

It’s that time of year. Leaves falling, a crisp feeling in the air, and the season of absolute spooks and terror. With Halloween approaching we wanted to do this episode a little different. We wanted to share a few true real-life scary and spooky  stories that may keep you up all night. So sit back, relax and let’s get our scare on.

4 stories -

The Unusual Deaths of the Jamison Family

The Sodder Family Fire

The Death of Elisa Lam

This podcast production is brought to you by The Wild 1 Media - www.thewild1media.com

Saturday mornings - You'd get up early, pour yourself the biggest bowl of your favorite sugary cereal, and turn your TV on to some of your favorite animated adventures until noon. But what happened? None of the big networks have Saturday morning cartoons anymore. Where did they go? And why? From the 1960’s through the early 90’s Saturday morning cartoons, a colloquial term many would use to describe what was just a normal part of our weekend routine. 

Saturday Morning Cartoon, Saturday Morning Cartoons, 1980's cartoons, 80's cartoons, 80's nostalgia, cartoons, morning cartoons, favorite cartoons. 

We have all heard a “Picture is worth 1,000 words''. Sometimes multiple ideas can be conveyed by a single still image. Photography has been around since the 1820’s. When compared to our history of human existence that is not very long. But for 200 years we have enjoyed still pictures that have now evolved into some of the most advanced technology. We have instant film, high megapixel lenses, speedy fast shutter speed, interchangeable lenses, and small enough to fit into a pants pocket which is just a few of the modern day luxuries with photography.

When we see photography from the earlier days during the 1800’s we always notice how nobody is smiling. Seeing old black and white photos of our long lost relatives or historic figures. There've been a few theories as to why we don’t see happier humans during those times. Some believe poor dental hygiene or bad teeth was the cause of lack of smiles. Another theory is that due to the length of exposure time people would be in comfortable poses so they could stay still long enough to get the picture. But most experts actually believe the real reason people weren’t smiling was photography took guidance from pre-existing customs in paintings. Many associated smiles in paintings with madness, lewdness and loudness.

When we smile for real it’s capturing a moment. We are able to capture these moments more easily now. Moments of happiness, greif, beauty and despair. There’s usually context behind a smile. Capturing a parent and a child playing, a bride walk down an isle, a firefighter tired from fighting a fire. Back in the beginning of taking a photograph those moments may have not been as easy to capture. In the 1850’s and 60’s photography became more popular and cameras were becoming more advanced that the exposure times took only a few seconds. Which would make capturing those moments a bit easier.

According to experts at the National Library of Wales, the first smile ever photographed was in 1853. The photograph is called “Willy” and It features a young man with close-cropped hair, wearing a nice collared shirt and jacket. He is looking at something off to his right that is amusing him, and the photograph captured just a little smile from him.

Capturing moments, that’s what photography comes down to. Moments of joy, happiness, sadness, and beauty. We can capture far off distance planets and the vast spaces of the universe all the way to the smallest of particles found on our own planet. Andy Warhol said it perfectly,  "The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do”.

Cats, the tiny felines of our house bound worlds. The “only on my terms” miniture murder mittens that we love and adore. They hunt pests for us, they show us love, fear and cleverness. They are some of the laziest animals (sleeping up to 70% of their life while cleaning themselves 15% of the day) and yet they are adorable, okay maybe only to some of us.

Cats don’t use their meows to talk to other cats. They actually use their voices to communicate with us. They can also jump up to 8 feet high. No wonder they have 9 lives. They also only sweat through their paws, ew gross. Cats have 3 eyelids, their noises are as unique as a human's fingerprint, and they have 5x better hearing than humans do. Cats share 95% of their DNA with tigers. Which to some of us, is actually pretty scary. Alright we know you get it, cats are pretty cool animals.

So how long have cats been domesticated? In usual feline form, cats waited before jumping into our domesticated home lives. According to recent studies, cats lived alongside us humans before being domesticated. Ancestors of today's cats spread from southeast Asia to Europe around 4400 B.C. They believed cats started spending time around farming communities in the fertile crescent 8000 years ago. They believe at that point cats became a type of pest control for the humans which became a great partnership.

Mice and rat populations were attracted to the crops which in turn attracted the cats as rodents being their natural prey. Scientists and historians believe this is the first encounters humans and cats had with each other. And they believe humans allowed cats to domesticate themselves.

Cats are pretty unique. They tolerate us as humans and even other types of domesticated pets we bring in our homes like dogs. And cats differ from dogs on how they were domesticated. Specifically because dogs were domesticated to perform specific tasks because of traits they possess unlike cats. And although some may not agree, with over 74 million cats domesticated living in U.S. homes cats are pretty popular house pet. Now if they only looked at us like our dogs do.