High school students launch blood samples into near space, a real life love story involves a faecal microbiota transplant (FMT), and scientists find cocaine in sharks off The Bahamas. Today we bounce between space medicine, the gut microbiome and mental health, and the uncomfortable reality of ocean pollution.

We break down what those student rocket experiments could mean for space exploration and future medical procedures, then dive into the emerging science of gut bacteria, antibiotics, and how the microbiome may influence conditions like bipolar disorder. It is fascinating, hopeful, and also a bit gross, which is basically the scientific sweet spot.

Then we hit the ocean for the headline nobody asked for: sharks on cocaine. It is not just a meme, it is a sign of how far human contaminants travel through marine ecosystems, and why environmental science keeps finding our mess in places we thought were pristine.

We also unpack why we yawn, including research on brain temperature regulation and whether yawning patterns act like a physiological fingerprint. 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

01:08 Chivalry Frog Meet Cute

03:37 Bipolar Confession Backstory

05:21 Gut Brain Link Evidence

06:50 DIY FMT Love Story

08:27 FMT Risks And Hype

11:10 Defensive Rewilding Idea

16:40 Cocaine Sharks Explained

17:52 Bahamas Study Findings

22:40 Pollution Everywhere

23:30 Why We Yawn

26:00 Contagious Yawns

27:22 Yawns in the MRI

28:37 Yawning Fingerprints

30:21 Brain Goo Hypothesis

32:06 Student Science Journal

38:12 Blood to Space

39:39 Four-Dimensional Minds

SOURCES:

• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-28/faecal-microbiota-transplant-credited-with-curing-bipolar/105541522
• https://futurism.com/science-energy/sharks-high-levels-of-cocaine
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969724049477
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749126001880
• https://emerginginvestigators.org/
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03071847.2026.2646067#d1e362
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569904826000340?via=ihub

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI chatbots (and lazy researchers) can be convinced a fake disease is real, Gen Z is side-eyeing the whole “helpful assistant” thing, and apparently, the best way to jailbreak AI is to ask it nicely in the form of cyberpunk short fiction. This week, we bounce between medical misinformation, bureaucratic chaos, nuclear fallout hiding in baby teeth, and the U.S. Space Force anthem doing whatever it is doing, which is a lot to process in one sitting, but here we are.

We start with a medical warning that is both funny and genuinely unsettling. A researcher basically invented a fake illness, “Bixonomania”, then seeded enough convincing-looking nonsense online that AI chatbots started repeating it like it was in a textbook.

After that, we head into one of the most ridiculous corners of AI safety. Researchers have found that you can sometimes trick chatbots into revealing restricted information by wrapping your request in a poem, or a short story, or a cyberpunk scenario. This has a name, adversarial hermeneutics, which sounds like a philosophy seminar, but is really just “jailbreaking with vibes”.

Among other little bits of science, to finish, we step back to the 1950s, when researchers collected thousands of baby teeth to track radioactive strontium from nuclear fallout. It is one of those stories that feels spooky even when you know it helped. Tiny teeth, big consequences. The data showed contamination rising, and it played a role in pushing back against atmospheric nuclear testing.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Science Chat Kickoff
00:51 Fake Disease Goes Viral
02:04 How It Fooled Chatbots
03:55 LLMs Repeat It Everywhere
04:55 From Preprints to Journals
07:02 Medical Chatbot Accuracy Reality
09:43 Gen Z Turns on AI
13:29 Workplace AI Sabotage
15:06 Adversarial Hermeneutics Hacks
17:43 Adversarial Hermeneutics Hacks
18:49 AI Flooding Regulations
22:28 Gemini Speed vs Safety
23:46 Humans as Test Cases
24:45 Baby Teeth Fallout Study
28:54 Strontium 90 and Test Ban
29:40 Space Force Theme Song
32:00 Wrap Up and Plug

SOURCES:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01100-y?_bhlid=a10e41ad7eb12d68ab8fd4f81a75625fc74323ac
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/please-dont-trust-your-chatbot-for
https://ahb.icaro-lab.com/index.html
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/ai-is-10-to-20-times-more-likely-to-help-you-build-a-bomb-if-you-hide-your-request-in-cyberpunk-fiction-new-research-paper-says/
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/trump-regulations-ai
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-artificial-intelligence-google-gemini-transportation-regulations
https://www.gallup.com/analytics/651674/gen-z-research.aspx
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/zoomers-ai-sabotage
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/gen-z-attitude-ai

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Deepfake scammers are now running full Zoom meetings, birds are lining their nests with cigarette butts like it’s a homewares trend, and Europe’s climate could be one ocean current wobble away from doing something dramatic. This week, Will and Rod bounce between AI crime, urban wildlife hacks, climate tipping points, and a fruit fly brain getting uploaded like it’s just another file transfer.

We start in Hong Kong, where scammers used AI deepfakes to impersonate colleagues on a video call and convinced a CFO to transfer a huge amount of money. We then headed outside, where birds have started collecting cigarette butts for their nests.

From there, we get serious with the ocean currents that help keep Europe mild, and why scientists are worried about what happens if that system collapses. And because the future refuses to wait its turn, we also look at a fruit fly brain mapped neuron by neuron and uploaded into a virtual simulation, plus a quick detour into hats as status symbols and tools of punishment.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 AI Zoom Scam

01:31 Show Intro and Lineup

03:02 Pipe Smoking Animal Tales

06:28 Birds Using Cigarette Butts

08:32 Nicotine as Parasite Control

11:20 School Smoking and Odd Uses

15:29 AMOC Climate Tipping Point

19:33 Uploading Brains Fruit Fly Model

23:50 Connectome Driven Fly

24:47 Virtual Embodiment Claims

25:20 Scaling Up To Mouse

26:48 Hybrid Bio Machine Futures

28:13 Hat History Detour

30:27 Hats As Social Signals

SOURCES:

• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/15/critical-atlantic-current-significantly-more-likely-to-collapse-than-thought
• https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/04/asia/deepfake-cfo-scam-hong-kong-intl-hnk?_bhlid=3bc010593bc73c17aa86ed0b6e79b5ae720c787f
• https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/BE4E11BFE7F8CCF5A5A7081869710925/S0018246X26101460a.pdf/the-cultural-social-and-ideological-role-of-the-hat-in-early-modern-england.pdf
• https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/ay/d5ay01801c
• https://futurism.com/science-energy/birds-cigarettes-nest
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347226000011
• https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jav.01324
• https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024BiInv..26.1705P/abstract
• https://futurism.com/science-energy/research-fly-brain-matrix
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07763-9
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39533006/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cloning is getting more useful and more unsettling, tropical trees may be better at cooperation than we are, and smart underwear is now tracking human flatulence in extraordinary detail. This week, Will and Rod move from organ-growing biotech to forest teamwork, fart analytics, and a deeply worrying case of AI gone wrong.

They look at the push to grow organs using non-conscious biological structures, and why that could transform medicine while also sounding like the start of a sci-fi horror film. Then they head into the forest, where new research suggests tropical trees are better at helping their neighbours than trees in colder climates, raising some mildly awkward questions about whether plants are beating us at community building.

And because science never knows when to stop, the episode also dives into the world of smart underwear, digestive health, and what actually counts as a normal amount of flatulence. Along the way, there is also a sobering look at a Tennessee grandmother wrongly jailed after faulty facial recognition, which is a useful reminder that technology can be both brilliant and deeply stupid.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Cloning Nightmares Recap

01:45 Monkey Organ Sacks Idea

04:34 Human Organ Replacement Debate

07:45 How It Could Work

08:57 Surrogates And Storage Problems

12:39 Trees That Get Along

15:45 Why Tropical Trees Are Friendlier

17:25 Not All Prodigies Win

19:47 Late Bloomers And Training Myths

24:10 German Forest Bathing Tease

24:52 Forest Sounds Boost Mood

25:35 Massage Stories Detour

27:58 Local vs Tropical Forests

30:14 Fart Science Gets Serious

34:37 Smart Underwear Study

36:55 Farting Baselines Explained

39:19 Farter Types Atlas

43:00 AI Facial Recognition Fail

46:53 Why AI Enhancement Lies

49:13 Wrap Up and Callouts

SOURCES:

https://futurism.com/health-medicine/startup-pitching-cloned-human-bodies

https://www.wired.com/story/a-billionaire-backed-startup-wants-to-grow-organ-sacks-to-replace-animal-testing/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935844-200-the-human-flatus-atlas-plans-to-measure-the-explosivity-of-farts/

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1115965

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590137025001268?via%3Dihub

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2509261-high-achieving-adults-rarely-began-as-child-prodigies/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-023-01840-1

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-grandmother-jail-mistake

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123556

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123008

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123312

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A parrot in New Zealand makes conservation work wildly uncomfortable, scientists cloned mice until the whole thing started breaking down, and someone has now successfully trucked anti matter across Europe. This week, we bounce between endangered parrots, biological copy and paste and the least relaxing delivery job on Earth, which is a fairly strong effort even by science standards.

We start in New Zealand, where Sirocco, a critically endangered kakapo with famously misdirected romantic instincts, helped inspire one of conservation’s strangest inventions. Scientists designed a special helmet in the hope of collecting semen for breeding efforts, after Sirocco kept directing his attention toward human heads instead of other birds. Then we head to Japan, where researchers spent twenty years cloning mice across 58 generations before the whole line began to collapse, with mutations building up and the clones dying early. After that, we hit the road in Europe, where a trucker successfully transported a tiny cloud of anti matter, proving that one of the rarest and most volatile substances in the universe can now apparently survive a delivery run.

Finally, we end up in Scotland, where a robotic dog with an electronic nose is being used to sniff out ethanol leaks in whisky warehouses. It sounds ridiculous, because it is, but it is also a clever way to protect barrels and cut waste in one of the world’s oldest industries. 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

02:17 Kakapo Basics

03:59 Lek Breeding Explained

05:24 Sirocco Imprints on Humans

07:30 The Helmet Experiment

12:06 Infinite Cloning Idea

14:17 58 Generations Later

15:40 Why Clones Degrade

17:16 80s Cloning Logic

18:11 Antimatter Trucking Breakthrough

19:23 What Antimatter Really Is

20:35 Making and Measuring Antiprotons

23:11 Fridge Trap on the Road

26:16 Whisky Aging and Angels Share

28:30 Warehouse Leak Detection Problem

31:20 Robot Dog Barrel Sniffer

33:10 Spider Robots and Drones Next

34:52 Wrap Up and Listener Feedback

SOURCES:

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/sirocco-kakapo-ejaculation-helmet 

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/kakapo-parrot 

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/what-heck-lek-quirkiest-mating-party-earth 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlk9u8MIv7o 

https://futurism.com/science-energy/scientists-cloned-recloned-mouse 

https://www.wired.com/story/meet-scotlands-whisky-sniffing-robot-dog/ 

https://home.cern/news/press-release/experiments/base-experiment-cern-succeeds-transporting-antimatter 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69765-7 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Breaking Bad looks a little more plausible than you would hope, the chainsaw has a deeply unsettling medical origin story, and people are now asking whether AI can guide them through a psychedelic trip. This week, we bounce between crime, childbirth, and chatbot consciousness, which is not a sentence anyone should have to write, but here we are.

We start with the so-called Breaking Bad effect, looking at research from Denmark suggesting that a life-changing diagnosis like cancer can increase the likelihood of criminal behaviour. When people feel like time is running out, the usual rules can start to look a lot less solid, which makes Walter White feel slightly less fictional than anyone would like.

Then we head into the darkest corner of medical history, where the chainsaw turns out to have been invented for childbirth. Long before it became a tool for cutting timber or starring in horror films, it was used in procedures designed to make difficult deliveries possible. It is grim, fascinating, and a very effective way to make modern medicine look fantastic.

Finally, we look at the strange idea of AI as a psychedelic trip sitter. While a chatbot might be able to offer calm prompts and simulated reassurance, it still has one major limitation. It has never had a body, never been high, and never experienced consciousness the way humans do. Like, subscribe, and tell us which weird science story we should chase next.

00:00 Breaking Bad Setup

01:10 Science Show Preview

02:03 Danish Cancer Crime Study

04:36 Why Crime Increases

06:23 Shorter Survival More Crime

07:44 Chainsaw Origins Quiz

09:16 Childbirth Before Modern Medicine

14:09 First Medical Chainsaws

16:00 From Obstetrics to Amputations

18:21 Portable Chainsaws Arrive

20:05 Time Travel Tradeoffs

20:40 Contact Lens Horror Story

24:31 AI Trip Sitters

27:44 Can AI Get High

28:57 LLMs Simulating Psychedelics

33:06 Brain Cells Play Doom

38:07 Mailbag Strandbeests Gelatin

41:10 Wrap Up And Ratings

SOURCES:

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-40630852

https://www-bmj-com.virtual.anu.edu.au/content/358/bmj.j2783

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1633599/full?ref=404media.co

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-breaking-bad-effect-from-cancer-is-real-study-finds\

https://www.iflscience.com/can-artificial-intelligence-get-high-and-why-are-scientists-even-trying-82560

https://futurism.com/ai-therapy-psychedelic-trip-sitter

https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8682370/v1

https://erowid.org/experiences/exp_info3.shtml

https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/why-were-chainsaws-invented.htm

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brain-eating amoebas, climate change, economists, and Leonardo da Vinci’s robot lion all collide in this week’s episode. We dig into how warming freshwater is helping dangerous amoebas spread into new places, why these rare but terrifying organisms are linked to water going up the nose, and what that means for swimmers, public health, and the very specific fear of warm lakes. It is science, climate, and nightmare fuel all in one neat package.

We also unpack a strange finding from economics research. The more economists agree with each other, the more their views can drift away from the general public. It is a fascinating look at expert consensus, groupthink, public opinion, and why economic theory can sometimes feel completely detached from real life. If you have ever wondered why economists sound like they are living on a different planet, this one may help.

Then we head back to the Renaissance for one of the greatest flexes in science and engineering history. Leonardo da Vinci reportedly built a mechanical robot lion that could walk and reveal flowers from its chest, blending robotics, invention, art, and spectacle centuries before modern technology caught up. If you love weird science, history, innovation, robots, and bizarre true stories, this episode is for you.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

01:10 Brain-Eating Amoeba Basics

02:43 How It Infects You

03:57 Warming Spreads the Risk

04:39 Economists vs Everyone

10:10 Assumptions and Governance

11:03 Medici Exile Storytime

12:23 Bologna Power Play

13:07 Medici Politics Banter

14:32 Da Vinci Gift Idea

16:46 Robot Knight Blueprint

18:48 Building the Lion

19:44 Courtroom Lion Reveal

23:22 Modern Art Machines

24:43 Ratings and Farewell

SOURCES:

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/pdf/doi/10.1257/aer.103.3.636

https://www.sciencealert.com/brain-eating-amoebas-may-pose-a-growing-global-threat-scientists-warn

https://www.history.com/articles/da-vinci-robotic-lion

https://www.history.com/articles/7-early-robots-and-automatons

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Conspiracy theorists hate uncertainty, a mushroom hot pot in China can apparently summon tiny imaginary people, a bunch of seeds have been sitting underground since the 1800s waiting for their moment and scientists are trying to quantify why words like boobs are funny. This week is a mixed bag of psychology, botany and childish humour, which is basically the entire scientific enterprise when you strip away the grant applications.

We start with conspiracy thinking and why it is often less about facts and more about feelings. Research suggests people who lean hard into conspiracies can struggle with ambiguity and prefer simple explanations in a complicated world. Certainty feels good, chaos feels awful and conspiracy stories offer villains, motives and a neat ending. Even when the story is wrong.

Then we head to Yunnan, China, where prized mushrooms can cause hallucinations if they are eaten too early, including reports of seeing tiny people. Researchers still have not nailed down the exact chemical responsible, and it may be a mix of biology, preparation and expectation. The takeaway is simple. If the locals tell you to cook the mushrooms properly, listen.

We look at one of the longest running experiments in science, where seeds buried in glass bottles in the 1800s are still being dug up and tested to see what can germinate. We also dip into the science of funny words and why certain sounds and associations make some words reliably hilarious. So, stay curious, cook your hot pot properly, and if you start seeing tiny people, maybe stop eating the mushrooms.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

00:48 Conspiracy Believer Traits

03:13 New Study On Coverups

05:14 Ambiguity And Unfairness

06:42 Skepticism Vs Conspiracy

07:59 Mushroom Hot Pot Warning

10:19 Tiny People Hallucinations

14:01 Hunting The Active Compound

17:35 Seed Bottle Time Capsule

21:24 Custodians And Map

21:56 Bottles Remaining Timeline

23:12 Succession And Secrecy

24:51 2021 Dawn Dig

26:30 Why The Experiment Matters

29:10 Long Term Projects

30:48 Science Of Funny Words

36:31 Modeling Humor Categories

40:21 Phonemes And Incongruity

43:22 Destroying Humour And Wrap

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656622000423

https://futurism.com/health-medicine/conspiracy-theories-psychology 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/science/beal-seeds-experiment.html 

https://magazine.wfu.edu/2022/10/05/unearthing-time-in-a-bottle/ 

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-worlds-longest-running-lab-experiment-is-almost-100-years-old?utm_source=news.sciencealert.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=superagers-have-two-key-advantages&_bhlid=8fd449a2c8ea1d56a84867da881e4444546af69c 

https://www.mentalfloss.com/science/15-longest-running-scientific-studies-history https://people.howstuffworks.com/why-poop-and-wiggle-are-funny-words-according-to-science.htm?utm_source=HowStuffWorks+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=themed-words-3-6-25

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Venting might be making you angrier, Neanderthals apparently had a type, and unborn babies are already forming strong opinions about kale. This week we bounce from modern psychology to ancient DNA to fetal facial expressions, with a quick detour into pokie machines and how they might be made a little less addictive.

We start with a meta analysis suggesting venting is not the healthy release we have been sold. Instead of calming you down, it can keep your body fired up and make the anger stick around longer. The less satisfying fix is also the more effective one, doing things that lower arousal like breathing, yoga, and anything that stops you replaying the same rant on loop.

Then we head back to prehistory, where research suggests Neanderthal DNA patterns point to pairings that may have involved Neanderthal men and human women more often than the reverse. The details are complicated, but the headline is simple. Neanderthals are not just history, they are part of us, and the human story has always been messier than we like to admit.

Finally, we look at a study that might explain why some people hate vegetables with the passion of a thousand suns. Fetuses exposed to carrot flavours appeared to react more positively than those exposed to kale, hinting that taste preferences may start before birth. We wrap up with a surprisingly practical idea for pokie machines, adding sounds for losses as well as wins to make the experience less psychologically sneaky.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Venting Myth 

02:40 Science Debunks Catharsis

04:06 Meta Analysis Breakdown

05:40 Calm Down Not Amp Up

06:59 Jogging And Anger

09:25 Why We Love Anger

10:53 Play Metal And Fun

11:48 Neanderthal DNA Mystery

13:07 Who Mated With Whom

14:17 Neanderthal Dating Bias

15:16 Hybrid Myths and Mechanics

16:28 Picky Eaters Rant

18:54 Fetuses Taste Flavours

20:08 Carrot Smiles vs Kale Grimaces

23:30 Pokies Need Losing Sounds

27:47 Petition and Sign-Off

SOURCES:

• Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans was strongly sex biased
• Why I risked prison to add a 'Losing Sound' to poker machines
• Flavour Sensing in Utero and Emerging Discriminative Behaviours in the Human Fetus

• https://www.sciencealert.com/venting-doesnt-reduce-anger-but-something-else-does-review-finds

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, AI is casually reaching for the nuclear button, a Norwegian scientist has accidentally recreated something that looks a lot like Havana Syndrome, and a brain lesion has turned a marathon runner into an intense foodie. It is a neat little trio of stories that sits right on the edge of science fiction, except the uncomfortable part is that it is all real.

We start with simulated war games where major AI models were put in charge of military decision making. The result is grimly simple. In these scenarios, the systems chose to deploy tactical nuclear weapons most of the time, showing none of the cultural taboo or restraints humans have built around nuclear escalation.

Then we head to Norway, where a scientist tested a pulse energy device on himself to see if it could plausibly cause Havana Syndrome-style symptoms. It did. Which is both a scientific result and a personal mistake, and it raises the obvious question of what happens when this kind of technology moves from theory to wider interest.

Finally, we look at Gorman Syndrome, a neurological twist where a brain lesion appears to flip someone from long distance running to an intense obsession with fine food. It is funny, strange, and a sharp reminder that personality can be less fixed than we like to believe. 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Fire Alarm AI Fail

00:46 LLMs in War Games

06:34 Nukes and No Surrender

09:36 Pentagon Wants Anthropic

10:33 Testing AI Weirdness

12:50 Dead Cow Prompt Update

15:07 Car Wash Question Trap

18:10 Lost in the Middle Fix

22:01 Maps and Recursive Islands

23:32 Chasing Longest Line of Sight

26:53 All the Views Map

27:49 What Limits Sightlines

29:23 Havana Syndrome Emerges

31:58 Theories and Investigations

35:14 Norwegian Microwave Experiment

42:20 Official Stance and Confusion

44:04 Extreme Foodie Case Study

47:39 Gourmand Syndrome Explained

51:21 Brain Lesions and Cravings

SOURCES:

• AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations
• AI Arms and Influence: Frontier Models Exhibit Sophisticated Reasoning in Simulated Nuclear Crises
• The Longest Line Of Sight
• https://pub.towardsai.net/the-car-wash-question-that-breaks-every-ai-and-the-2-word-fix-nobody-talks-about-21db5c78fc29
• https://www.vice.com/en/article/brain-damaged-gourmand-syndrome-foodies-cant-register-your-disgust/
• https://www.iflscience.com/gourmand-syndrome-when-brain-injuries-spark-an-obsessive-craving-for-fine-food-and-gastronomy-82546
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/gourmand-syndrome-26067295/
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/02/14/havana-syndrome-cia-norway-experiment/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome
• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pentagon-reportedly-testing-radio-wave-device-linked-to-havana-syndrome/
• https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/13/politics/havana-syndrome-device-pentagon-hsi

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we have hippos with hidden bits, hearts that take a mechanical detour, and a medical case study that will make you sit down and reconsider every life choice that led you to having a body. It is science at its best and worst, fascinating, useful, and deeply inconvenient.

We start at the zoo, where hippo castration is a real population control tool, partly to manage breeding and partly to reduce aggression. The catch is hippo anatomy is not built for human convenience, with internal testes that turn the whole procedure into a high stakes game of hide and seek inside a very large, very grumpy animal.

Then we move from hippos to hearts, looking at cardiac surgeries that use a heart lung bypass machine. Some patients report a temporary cognitive dip afterward, often called pump brain, and nobody is fully sure why it happens. It might be the machine, the stress of surgery, or subtle changes in blood flow and inflammation, but the mystery is still very much alive.

Finally, we end with a story that makes every listener cross their legs in sympathy. A man developed a rectal urethral fistula after previous surgery, likely linked to a catheter complication during a coma, and his internal plumbing rerouted itself in the most unhelpful way possible. The takeaway is simple. Bodies are fragile, embarrassment is useless, and if something feels wrong, get it checked.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Hippo Castration Study

05:50 Why Zoos Castrate Hippos

08:11 Internal Anatomy Surprise

13:04 Surgery Method and Timing

15:14 Recovery and Blood Sweat

17:12 Aftereffects and Social Dynamics

18:11 Science Communication Pivot

18:46 Alcohol Messaging Study Setup

21:27 Violence as Communication

21:57 Alcohol Messages That Work

23:25 Counting Drinks Cancer Risk

25:08 Comfortable With Surgery

25:49 Heart Bypass Miracle Machine

29:12 Pumphead Cognitive Decline

33:43 Why the Pump Makes You Dumber

35:46 Fistula Case From Catheter

42:34 Spinosaurus Tank Top Sendoff

SOURCES:

Rosetta scientist Dr Matt Taylor apologises for ‘offensive’ shirt

Astonishing Spinosaur Unearthed in The Sahara Is Unlike Any Seen Before

There's One Simple Method to Lower Alcohol Intake, And It Works

 A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of combinations of ‘why to reduce’ and ‘how to reduce’ alcohol harm-reduction communications

Westbury, C., & Hollis, G. (2019). Wriggly, squiffy, lummox, and boobs: What makes some words funny? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(1), 97–123.

https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000467 https://people.howstuffworks.com/why-poop-and-wiggle-are-funny-words-according-to-science.htm?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000169182600171X

https://futurism.com/health-medicine/exercise-cardio-stress-research

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0093691X13004275

https://www.discovermagazine.com/why-its-nearly-impossible-to-castrate-a-hippo-4775

https://futurism.com/neoscope/doctors-rectourethral-fistula

https://www.cureus.com/articles/68327-a-curious-case-of-rectal-ejaculation#!/

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