Your Doctor Has Questions

Where does vanilla come from? What is it? Are there varieties? Is it very good? Vibrant? Versatile? Velvety?

It's the world's most popular flavouring, but what is it, really? We run through some botany, the history of vanilla cultivation and production, the differences between the real thing and the synthetic alternatives, and other sundry details.

It's more interesting than you might think!

Show Notes:

Wiki: Vanilla

Wiki: Vanilla extract

Wiki:Vanilla planifolia

Wiki: Vanilla (genus)

Wiki: Vanilla production in French Polynesia

Wiki: Orchid

Wiki: Vanillin

Wiki: Edmond Albius

Wiki: Réunion

Wiki: Madagascar

Who's proud? Why are they prejudiced? What's a hand flex? Name a tall Englishman!

To celebrate our TWENTIETH episode, Kacy walks us through the entire plot (three volumes!) of Jane Brontë's classic novel, Wuthering Airs. Wait, no. Emma Austen's historic romance, The Tenant of Sensibilities. That's not it. Jane Austen's Regency era novel of manners, Pride and Prejudice!

Plot twists, betrayal, subterfuge, machinations, mild affection! You'll want to be on the edge of your seat, but instead, grab a cup of tea, curl up, get cozy, and settle in for a complete retelling Pride and Prejudice.

Sources:

NYT: He Was a Top Lawn Care Influencer on YouTube. Then Everything Went Haywire

NYT: Bond Sell-Off Threatens to Squeeze Borrowers Around the World

We take a deep dive into incarceration in the US, starting with the question "What's the difference between jail and prison?"

Because Chris can't help himself, we also explore the unspeakable injustice of our justice system, and our government's routine victimization of incarcerated people.

This episode includes discussion of violence and sexual violence.

Sources:

America's Jails: The Search for Human Dignity in an Age of Mass Incarceration, Derek Jeffreys

The New Criminal Justice Thinking, Edited by Sharon Dolovich and Alexandra Natapoff

DOJ Inspector General's Report on California prisons

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Department of Justice overview of criminal procedure

Cornell Legal Information Institute: Criminal Procedure

An episode all about . . . LINES! I promise, it's more exciting than it sounds.

We draw a through-line (get it?) from the Mason Dixon Line to Caesar to nuclear testing to swimwear to waxing to post-punk feminist music to phone phreaking to Rick James. Bam.

Show Notes:

Phone Trips: http://www.wideweb.com/phonetrips/

Wiki: Mason Dixon Line

Wiki: Penn–Calvert boundary dispute

Wiki: Twelve-Mile Circle

Wiki: Delaware Wedge

Wiki: Cresap's War

Wiki: Bikini waxing

Wiki: Bikini

Wiki: Bikini Atoll

Wiki: History of the bikini

Wiki: Bikini Kill

Wiki: Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone

Wiki: Military Demarcation Line

Wiki: Transatlantic telegraph cable

Wiki: Phreaking

Wiki: 2600 Hertz

Wiki: Blue box

NYT: Off-the-Cuff Obama Line Put U.S. in Bind on Syria

National Geographic: Word in the News: Red Line

He's bad. It's New Orleans.

YDHQ delves into the Werner Herzog oddity Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, a neo-noir crime drama (black comedy?) starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, and Xzibit, along with Val Kilmer, Michael Shannon, and national treasure Jennifer Coolidge.

We have questions, starting with "Why the shit is the title so long?"

Show Notes:

NYTimes: Thousands of Mice Swarm Parts of Western Australia in a ‘Mouse Plague’

What's up with all these spies? Did they really love me? Have we no sense of decency?

The history of Russian espionage in the west, and especially "Illegals"--spies who operated without diplomatic cover. We get into Kim Philby and the Cambridge Five, Klaus Fuchs, the Rosenbergs, Hanssen and Ames, and the more recent clown shows.

Sources:

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, Ben Macintyre

Bridge of Spies: A True Story of the Cold War, Giles Whittel

The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, Christopher Andrew, Vasili Mitrokhin

Wiki - Robert Hanssen

Wiki - Aldrich Ames

Wiki - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Wiki - Klaus Fuchs

Wiki - Illegals Program

What is a high pressure injection injury, and is it bad? (Spoiler: Yes. It's very bad).

Following our quinquepisodinal* tradition, Kacy explains high pressure injection injuries. You might have heard them called "grease gun injuries." In short, it's when a high pressure fluid squirts with such force that it cuts into your body and shoots that fluid into you. It's nowhere near as sexy as it sounds.

*I'm making this a word now.

Sources:

M.C. Cejin, A. Koyfman, B. Long, High risk and low incidence diseases: high-pressure injection injury, Am J Emerg Med, 88 (2025), pp. 120-125

NYTimes: 3 Hikers Dead After Volcano Erupts in Indonesia

Finally! The Fed!

Top 3 friend of the pod Jamisen joins us to explain what the Fed is, what it does, and why we should care.

What is a central bank? What's fractional reserve banking? What's the interest rate that everyone cares about? Should we audit the Fed? And, like, what is money anyway?

We answer some of these questions on this show.

Sources:

Ben Bernanke, 21st Century Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19

Alan Blinder, A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961–2021

YDHQ takes on the 2016 glitzy, arthouse oddity, The Neon Demon and somehow lives to tell about it.

The Neon Demon is the tenth movie by Danish weirdo, Nicolas Winding Refn, who's probably most known for his 2011 film, Drive, starring a young and taciturn Ryan Gosling. Demon stars Elle Fanning and features some truly awkward performances by Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reaves, Jenna Malone, and a couple of hungry Australians.

Who was Ned Kelly? Was he a sheep? Why did he wear a helmet? Could he read?

"Yes!" Is the answer to at least one of these questions.

We dive deep-ishly into the history of perhaps Australia's most iconic figure: Ned Kelly. Bushranger. Bareknuckle Boxer. Hero? Who can say.

Sources:

Where is the Green Sheep?

Wiki: Ned Kelly

Wiki: Armour of the Kelly Gang

Wiki: Redmond Barry

Wiki: Convicts in Australia

An article comparing Ned Kelly to Jesus