Speaker 1: Oh hey, it's your cup of coffee that you forgot about.
Speaker 1: So it's lukewarm. But if you add more coffee to
Speaker 1: warm it up, you're gonna have dat Moore creamer. And
Speaker 1: then you're gonna have a full cup of coffee that's
Speaker 1: Jewish coffee. But you do it anyway. Alleyword back with
Speaker 1: a special episode of Ologies. I want to do this
Speaker 1: one for a year, and I put it off, and
Speaker 1: guess what bonus, I now have more material for it.
Speaker 1: Nice holiday shopping. It's tough, but you know what's fun
Speaker 1: to buy is books. Why get something plastic that's gonna
Speaker 1: end up in garbage down when you can get wisdom
Speaker 1: and a humor and history and potentially a better life
Speaker 1: in a book. So so many ologists are also authors,
Speaker 1: and they have just poured their souls and their brains
Speaker 1: into amazing books. And so consider this episode kind of
Speaker 1: like an audio catalog, just full of tidbits and previews
Speaker 1: and some special selections, so you can get the gist
Speaker 1: of their books and then get their books. And links
Speaker 1: are going to be up at Alleyward dot com slash ologies,
Speaker 1: slash bookworm, and and you can give maybe get one
Speaker 1: for yourself or a loved one or an officemate, or
Speaker 1: an in law or a stranger. But their books are
Speaker 1: so good, and I thought I would put together a
Speaker 1: compilation that's kind of like an audiobook mixtape. Does that
Speaker 1: make sense? Okay, let's do it. But before we bookworm
Speaker 1: a few thanks to all the folks on Patreon dot
Speaker 1: com slash ologies who support the show. Thank you to
Speaker 1: everyone wearing and buying Ologies merch from ologiesmarch dot com.
Speaker 1: Thank you to everyone who subscribes and rates, and of
Speaker 1: course who reviews the show. You know, I gingerly creep
Speaker 1: it and I pick a new one each week, such
Speaker 1: as this week's from Ben Rox, who says, after an
Speaker 1: old man in a national park told me that he
Speaker 1: tries to be boggled at least three times a day.
Speaker 1: I've been seeking how to get my fix of amazement, joy,
Speaker 1: and most of all, hope. This podcast has me thoroughly
Speaker 1: inspired and jazzed about life. I'm now looking into grad
Speaker 1: school options. The only problem is that Ologies has expanded
Speaker 1: my interests exponentially, so I need to decide what to
Speaker 1: go for. Thank you, Ben Rocks. A daily triple boggle.
Speaker 1: What a goal to have. Let's all adopt that goal.
Speaker 1: I'm into it. Okay. Books. So not only is this
Speaker 1: episode a trip down literary lane, but also if you
Speaker 1: haven't listened to some of these ologists, this is a
Speaker 1: great intro into the work. Go back and listen to
Speaker 1: their episodes. So, without any further yammering from old Dad word,
Speaker 1: let's get you some bookage in your ears and your brains.
Speaker 1: Settle in for a story hour with this special episode
Speaker 1: of book wormery of various author ologists. Okay, so this
Speaker 1: episode it's originally airing this is December. We're in December,
Speaker 1: and earlier this summer we had on architect and cabinologist
Speaker 1: Dale Mulfinger. Oh I love him. And now that it's
Speaker 1: cozy and snowy in the Northern Hemisphere, at least, let's
Speaker 1: hear an excerpt from the book Cabinology, a Handbook to
Speaker 1: your Private Hideaway, which is Taunton Press, published two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight. You're gonna feel hooga as hell, You're gonna
Speaker 1: get cozy as amfo. You ready, Okay? He writes, this
Speaker 1: book of all things cabin will help you mold your
Speaker 1: dreams into the reality of that glowing fireplace and that
Speaker 1: pre dawn aroma of freshly brewed coffee into the pitter
Speaker 1: patter of your loved one just rousing overhead in the loft.
Speaker 1: He writes, in the early nineteen sixties, I went with
Speaker 1: a college pal to his parents' cabin in northern Minnesota.
Speaker 1: I didn't note at the time, but that's when I
Speaker 1: became a cabinologist. I was a prairie farm boy who
Speaker 1: knew something about nature, weather, and the seasons. But when
Speaker 1: I visited that cabin on Lake Vermilion, my eyes were
Speaker 1: opened to some of nature's finer points. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean. The way the night sky out there is
Speaker 1: ridiculously bright with stars, the deep quiet of the woods
Speaker 1: before anybody else's up, the smell of wood smoke, the
Speaker 1: startling tug of a fish on a line. For me,
Speaker 1: that tripper a new world. All the images, feelings, experiences
Speaker 1: of cabin life sank in deep and never left me.
Speaker 1: I was hooked, and I wanted a cabin of my own.
Speaker 1: I'm an architect in Minnesota, he writes, where if you're
Speaker 1: nuts for cabins, there are worse jobs to have and
Speaker 1: less advantageous places to live. Years ago, not long out
Speaker 1: of school, I designed and built a cabin for my
Speaker 1: young family, just an hour from our Minneapolis home. It
Speaker 1: was simple and practical and not much more than a
Speaker 1: screened in sleeping porch in the woods without a house attached.
Speaker 1: But it let us get away from the traffic and
Speaker 1: television for a weekend or for a week and lives
Speaker 1: simply or simply live. It wasn't the tiny cabin, but
Speaker 1: nature weather the seasons at least spring, summer, and fall.
Speaker 1: When we used it, that drew us out there. Covered
Speaker 1: from the rain. We read to each other and played
Speaker 1: checkers under the rattling roof. When the sun came out,
Speaker 1: we hunted mushrooms and scanned the poplars for chickadees and
Speaker 1: wax wings. We went to bed early and got up early.
Speaker 1: It was a treat. About the same time, I designed
Speaker 1: my first cabin for a clock. It was larger, more complicated,
Speaker 1: and better equipped than mine. But it taught me that,
Speaker 1: unlike a lot of city houses, it's rare for any
Speaker 1: two cabins to be quite the same. Since then, I've
Speaker 1: designed more than fifty cabins, cottages, lodges, and camps. That's
Speaker 1: something else I learned. What you call a cabin depends
Speaker 1: on where in this country you live, and I, as
Speaker 1: I write this, have several more on the drawing board.
Speaker 1: Safe to say, I'm hooked on cabins as I was
Speaker 1: forty years ago, he writes. My objective is to get
Speaker 1: you from here your dream to there, an actual cabin.
Speaker 1: I'll share the lessons I've learned while designing, building and
Speaker 1: hanging out in cabins all over. When you're finished with
Speaker 1: this book, you can get started on the real thing.
Speaker 1: Or maybe the dream will have to remain a dream
Speaker 1: for a while until your kids finish college or you
Speaker 1: win the lottery. That's okay too, I'm ready when you are.
Speaker 1: So that is cabinology is the name of the book
Speaker 1: by cabinologist Dale Mulfinger. So now that you're all cozy,
Speaker 1: let's hear what doctor Chris Winter of the twenty eighteen
Speaker 1: two part sum Knowlogy episode on sleep has to say.
Speaker 1: Here's an excerpt from his book The Sleep Solution, Why
Speaker 1: Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix It, which
Speaker 1: was published by Berkeley in twenty seventeen. In it, he writes,
Speaker 1: according to researcher Raymond Rosen, most physicians have received less
Speaker 1: than two hours of training about the entire field of
Speaker 1: sleep in their four years of medical education. Minhei Toyota
Speaker 1: rescue and sleep specialist Ronald Sherman's research from two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven revealed sleep is dramatically underrepresented in medical school textbooks.
Speaker 1: Given that our psychiatry lecture about men who fantasize about
Speaker 1: their wives footwear lasted thirty minutes, you can see just
Speaker 1: how dramatically underrepresented the whole of sleep medicine was in
Speaker 1: our curriculum, again, less than two hours training in their
Speaker 1: entire four years. So despite what's often minimal education about
Speaker 1: sleep medicine, it's among the most common problems physicians are
Speaker 1: asked to address. To criticize a primary care doctor for
Speaker 1: failing to treat sleep difficulties effectively, as like being upset
Speaker 1: at a pathologist for a difficult labor and delivery. It's
Speaker 1: not her job. So what can you do? Get smart
Speaker 1: and quit getting your sleep information from Cosmo, from sleep
Speaker 1: books that make a simple subject complicated, and from your
Speaker 1: next door neighbor. It's time for you to stop complaining
Speaker 1: about your poor night's sleep and throw your misconceptions about
Speaker 1: sleep out the window. You can understand sleep and why
Speaker 1: yours ain't working, So gather up, you're over the counter
Speaker 1: sleep aids and toss him down. The drain school is
Speaker 1: about to begin. So if you want to get that
Speaker 1: book and fix your sleep, or get it as a
Speaker 1: gift for someone who struggles with snoozing, put The Sleep
Speaker 1: Solution by Chris Winters on your gift list. Now you
Speaker 1: can raise a glass to good sleep, even though booze
Speaker 1: doesn't help you sleep. You're gonna learn that in his book.
Speaker 1: But okay, how about mixology. The mixology episodologist Matthew bien
Speaker 1: Canalo talked about his own kind of origin story as
Speaker 1: a cocktail wizard, and this excerpt is from his book
Speaker 1: Eat Your Drink Culinary Cocktails that was put out in
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen by d Street Books. He's also about to
Speaker 1: release a new book called Oma Cocktail, and I will
Speaker 1: link that and the episode notes as well. But this
Speaker 1: is from his first book, Eat Your Drink. He writes,
Speaker 1: I grew up with an alcoholic mother, and alcohol became
Speaker 1: a very negative and painful experience for me. I associated
Speaker 1: it with the ultimate path of destruction and being behind
Speaker 1: a bar was the last place I thought I'd find myself.
Speaker 1: So a year and a half into mixing cocktails and
Speaker 1: witnessing the effect I was having on the guests, I
Speaker 1: understood that I was slowly one drink at a time,
Speaker 1: rescripting my relationship with alcohol, making it something that was
Speaker 1: beautiful and fresh and needing to be savored. And through
Speaker 1: this repetition, I intentionally was able to heal my wounds,
Speaker 1: freeing myself to dive even deeper into my craft. My
Speaker 1: favorite thing to hear from customers is not that this
Speaker 1: is the best drink they have ever had, but that
Speaker 1: they have never had anything like it before. And I
Speaker 1: hope this book can shatter this myth of mixology a
Speaker 1: little bit. A lot of my work can look intimidating
Speaker 1: for the home bartender to do, but my drinks actually
Speaker 1: follow a simple formula. The true art and passion come
Speaker 1: from the individual's choice of ingredients. It is a passion
Speaker 1: that's reignited every time I stroll the farmer's market or
Speaker 1: encounter a guest for the first time. Very lucky to
Speaker 1: be around the greatest markets in the world, which consistently
Speaker 1: surprised me with each season and allow me to stretch
Speaker 1: my imagination in ways I didn't even think were possible.
Speaker 1: I hope this book inspires you as much as writing
Speaker 1: it has inspired me. And again that is mixologist Matthew
Speaker 1: bian Canello from Eat Your Drink Culinary Cocktails and his
Speaker 1: new one out is Oma Cocktail. So Matthew's book makes
Speaker 1: you thirsty and also hungry. Maybe you can drink some
Speaker 1: rum out of a pumpkin, or just some water. You
Speaker 1: gotta keep hydrated. What else can you do with a pumpkin? Well,
Speaker 1: let's ask cu Cure Patology guest and Copeland. Oh and Copeland. Oh,
Speaker 1: I love her so much. She loves freakin' pumpkins to
Speaker 1: her core. And after her episode Cucurebatology aired this past October,
Speaker 1: her self published book Pumpkin Pumpkin Folklore, History, Planting Hints,
Speaker 1: and Good Eating shot up to the top ten of
Speaker 1: the cooking books on Amazon. It made me so happy.
Speaker 1: So if you're making a pumpkin pie or a stew,
Speaker 1: or you just want to hug a pumpkin with your
Speaker 1: whole heart, get all up in her book Pumpkin Pumpkin.
Speaker 1: I'm going to read you an excerpt from the introduction, Oh,
Speaker 1: she's the cutest person alive. It reads, Driving along a
Speaker 1: back road in Virginia, one bright October Day many years ago,
Speaker 1: with a good friend, I suddenly said, pumpkins. We're coming
Speaker 1: to pumpkins. My friend seemed confused, because I really wasn't
Speaker 1: familiar with that part of Virginia at all. I had
Speaker 1: never been there before. But as we rounded a curve
Speaker 1: there was a great field of large, golden pumpkins. I
Speaker 1: guess I've always had a special affinity for pumpkins. Pumpkin
Speaker 1: season has always been more than a time to dawn masks,
Speaker 1: carved jack o' lanterns, and put out treats for tricksters.
Speaker 1: It is a season that, in my mind, lasts long
Speaker 1: beyond the last pumpkin pie of Thanksgiving. The season of
Speaker 1: the pumpkin is something of a paradox. At a time
Speaker 1: when many growing things are resting and bear, the pumpkin
Speaker 1: is at its peak of abundance under the autumn sun.
Speaker 1: Each year, the selecting of the pumpkin has been one
Speaker 1: of my special adventures. I never know until I see
Speaker 1: the just write pumpkin what its characteristics will be. A
Speaker 1: good pumpkin, I have determined over the years, must always
Speaker 1: have at least one slight flaw in its otherwise perfect complexion.
Speaker 1: This much I know each year, although what the flaw
Speaker 1: will be remains a mystery until I see it. Also,
Speaker 1: a pumpkin is a berry, so listen to Cucurebatology episode
Speaker 1: for more on that. It'll blow your gourd. Hey, have
Speaker 1: you ever grown a pumpkin or had one, maybe on
Speaker 1: your cabin porch, and you wondered what was gnawing on
Speaker 1: it while you were sleeping in after a nightcap? Well,
Speaker 1: if you live in southern California or you know of
Speaker 1: someone who does, get this next book. It's called Wild
Speaker 1: La Explore the Amazing Nature in and Around Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: It's put out by Timber Press, just put out this year,
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, and it's co written by Entomology episode guest
Speaker 1: Leela m. Higgins. Also Greg Polly, Jason Goldman, and Charles
Speaker 1: Hood all contributed. They all work with my beloved favorite
Speaker 1: museum that I've host, Museum in La County. And this book,
Speaker 1: Wild La needs to be on every shelf in every
Speaker 1: La home. It details all the flora and fauna in
Speaker 1: a city most people do not know is recognized as
Speaker 1: a biodiversity hotspot, one of the few in the world.
Speaker 1: It's also just a gorgeous book. It's so handy, so
Speaker 1: many beautiful pictures. It's great when you want to know
Speaker 1: what that flower or lizard or bug is. City wildlife,
Speaker 1: you guys, it exists. Here's an excerpt from that book,
Speaker 1: written in part by Lenla Higgins, entomologist. Los Angeles is
Speaker 1: full of nature. When Miguel Ordinana was little, he loved
Speaker 1: going to the University of Southern California football games with
Speaker 1: his mom, Adelia. He cheered for the Trojans and dream
Speaker 1: about becoming a football star. That dream changed eventually into
Speaker 1: becoming a wildlife biologist, but he still likes watching games.
Speaker 1: In the twenty fifteen season opener, he sat with his
Speaker 1: mom and two little brothers, the whole family rooting for
Speaker 1: the Trojans to beat the Arkansas State Red Wolves. For
Speaker 1: more on red Wolves see the Lupinology episode side note.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: During the game, Miguel's thirteen year old brother Aaron, spotted
Speaker 1: a creature flitting above their heads in the night sky.
Speaker 1: Miguel bat. He yelled, shifting his attention from the field
Speaker 1: to the sky. Miguel looked up and spot at the
Speaker 1: bat then another and another. They were swooping and arcing
Speaker 1: in front of the stadium's massive lights. Hunting bats love
Speaker 1: to eat moths, and because these testy bugs are attracted
Speaker 1: to light, all a hungry bat needs to do is
Speaker 1: hang out near a bright spotlight and wait for dinner.
Speaker 1: Miguel was prepared for moments like this. He pulled a
Speaker 1: bat detector from his pocket, plugged it into his iPhone,
Speaker 1: and waited to see if it could pick up bat
Speaker 1: sounds over the screaming fans. Miguel's bat detector contains a
Speaker 1: miniature microphone tuned to the frequency's bats used to echo locate,
Speaker 1: and because each type of bat makes different calls, scientists
Speaker 1: can use recordings of the calls to figure out which
Speaker 1: species made them. Back in his office at the Natural
Speaker 1: History Museum, Miguel used special software to analyze the one
Speaker 1: hundred and five bat sounds he recorded during the game.
Speaker 1: Half came from just one species, the Mexican freetailed bat.
Speaker 1: Los Angeles County is home to at least twenty different
Speaker 1: bat species. Most prefer more undisturbed areas like Griffith Park
Speaker 1: or the Santa Monica Mountains, but the Mexican freetailed bat
Speaker 1: is really good at adapting to the big city. It
Speaker 1: can make a home for itself by roosting inside man
Speaker 1: made structures instead of caves. Before twenty thirteen, nobody realized
Speaker 1: that freetailed bats spent time near Exposition Park, But thanks
Speaker 1: to Michel and his brother, we now have a better
Speaker 1: understanding of how these animals interact with our city. The
Speaker 1: bats at the football game are a good reminder that
Speaker 1: wildlife can be found anywhere. There's no line where nature
Speaker 1: stops and city begins. Nature can be found under your
Speaker 1: sofa where an alligator lizard has snuck in and cornered
Speaker 1: a cricket, or in the potted plant on your balcony
Speaker 1: where Lady bug Larva showed down on aphids, or in
Speaker 1: the park down the street where a Cooper's Hawk turns
Speaker 1: a pigeon into breakfast. Gaze down on the landscape from
Speaker 1: above and you'll notice Los Angeles is more than just
Speaker 1: paved roads and manicured lawns. It's a patchwork of tame
Speaker 1: and why old spaces, rugged mountains give way to carefully
Speaker 1: groomed beaches, and surging rivers are enclosed by tons of concrete.
Speaker 1: Oak trees hundreds of years old rest beside newly laid
Speaker 1: soccer fields. As you'll see, it's not just bats who
Speaker 1: find a way to thrive in this patchwork landscape. Of course,
Speaker 1: we're going to hear more from chiropterologist Merlin Tuttle, but
Speaker 1: that was an excerpt from Wild La. Now what about snakes?
Speaker 1: Do you hate them? Do you know somebody who hates them?
Speaker 1: Do you love and respect them? As doctor David Stein
Speaker 1: does enough to write an entire book about them so charmingly,
Speaker 1: gruff dryly hilarious. You know doctor David Stein from Twitter
Speaker 1: as alongside wild and from the Herpetology episode, and perhaps
Speaker 1: from his brand new book Secrets of Snakes The Science
Speaker 1: Behind the Myths I'm a Snag, which was put out
Speaker 1: by Texas A and M University Press. The first edition just
Speaker 1: came out in late September, so it's brand new. And
Speaker 1: I emailed him asking for his favorite excerpt, and he
Speaker 1: wrote back he recommended that I read you the dedication,
Speaker 1: which goes, there are tons of danger noodles, nope ropes
Speaker 1: and long boys throughout our streams, our forests, and our backyards.
Speaker 1: They silently live alongside us every day, but could not
Speaker 1: care less about what we think. This book is dedicated
Speaker 1: to all the people wanting to learn more about them anyway.
Speaker 1: In these pages, I've tried to answer the most common
Speaker 1: questions about snakes, not just by explaining the relevant biology,
Speaker 1: but by plucking the latest science out of obscure journals
Speaker 1: and putting it right here. In some cases, I try
Speaker 1: to explain how the scientific method has been used to
Speaker 1: learn more about snakes, and what research we still need
Speaker 1: to do before we can produce an answer to a
Speaker 1: question in a satisfying way. Sometimes I don't know the
Speaker 1: answer when it comes to snake myths. I have tried
Speaker 1: to avoid saying that anything is impossible, but I have
Speaker 1: no problem saying something is inconsistent with what we know
Speaker 1: about the world. Finally, I provide some helpful tips for
Speaker 1: those of us who are not necessarily enthusiastic about snakes
Speaker 1: around our homes and are looking for environmentally friendly ways
Speaker 1: of keeping them away. I view this book as the
Speaker 1: culmination of my science communication efforts, which span more than
Speaker 1: a decade and have reached hundreds of thousands of people.
Speaker 1: It's not a comprehensive tome about snake biology, nor is
Speaker 1: it a field guide. Rather, each chapter represents a topic
Speaker 1: that I've learned is important after hearing from you. By
Speaker 1: the time you finish this book, I hope I have
Speaker 1: helped you learn more about these slithering creatures around us,
Speaker 1: and I hope you have gotten a refresher on how
Speaker 1: scientists answer questions. And most importantly, I hope I have
Speaker 1: provided you with ammunition that you can use next time
Speaker 1: you get into a debate about whether the snake that
Speaker 1: just fell into your canoe was a cotton mouth. Ooh,
Speaker 1: gotten mouth and again. Doctor David Stein's book is Secrets
Speaker 1: of Snakes, The Science Beyond the Myths. Now, what if
Speaker 1: you prefer fewer scales, more fuzzed. Perhaps bats are your speed.
Speaker 1: You're like that bad story from before loved it. Maybe
Speaker 1: you know someone who is fascinated at dusk watching these
Speaker 1: airborne mammals just vacuum up mosquitoes with their squish face noses. Well,
Speaker 1: you're going to want to get all up in Doctor
Speaker 1: Merlin Tuttle's books, including The Secret Lives of Bats My
Speaker 1: Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals, which was put
Speaker 1: out in twenty eighteen by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt now Merlin.
Speaker 1: Doctor Merlin Tuttle was the recent guest in the two
Speaker 1: part Chiropterology episode on bats, and it's safe to say,
Speaker 1: if you listened, you're obsessed with him. I get it,
Speaker 1: so am I. We're all obsessed with Merlin. I'm going
Speaker 1: to read you part of chapter one, titled Teenage Discoveries.
Speaker 1: I've always been fascinated by nature, So when at age seventeen,
Speaker 1: I discovered thousands of gray bats now referred to as
Speaker 1: gray miotis, doing things that, according to the books of
Speaker 1: the day, they weren't supposed to do, I was immediately intrigued.
Speaker 1: It all began in April nineteen fifty nine when a
Speaker 1: high school acquaintance told me about a bat cave near
Speaker 1: my home west of Knoxville, Tennessee. Boloney Cave was named
Speaker 1: for its baloney shaped formations, and it was said to
Speaker 1: sometimes shelter thousands of bats. Next weekend, I easily persuaded
Speaker 1: my father, who was always open for a new adventure,
Speaker 1: to help me find it. We headed out on a
Speaker 1: beautiful spring afternoon. The sun was bright, the air was
Speaker 1: scented with honeysuckle blossoms. As we followed a barely visible
Speaker 1: trail along the fence then into the shade of stately
Speaker 1: old oak and hickory trees. A half mile later, we
Speaker 1: found ourselves staring into a gaping pit about twelve feet
Speaker 1: in diameter at the top sloping down like an ant
Speaker 1: lion funnel. Limestone walls adorned in moss and ferns dripped
Speaker 1: from recent showers. This clearly was the cave my friend
Speaker 1: had described. Wondering if the bats could still be there,
Speaker 1: we carefully climbed down into the cooler entrance, jumping the
Speaker 1: last few feet to the floor before venturing into the
Speaker 1: dark interior. We retrieved our new miners caps and carbide
Speaker 1: lamps from our knapsacks and added fuel. Each lamp included
Speaker 1: an upper and a lower chamber. We added quarter inch
Speaker 1: chunks of carbide into the lower ones and poured water
Speaker 1: into the upper ones. When water co tax carbide, it
Speaker 1: produces a settlene gas, and when the gas exits through
Speaker 1: a tiny nozzle in the middle of a shiny metal reflector,
Speaker 1: it can be lit with a spark from an embedded flint.
Speaker 1: This provided each of us with a half inch flame
Speaker 1: for light. We could alter the brightness by adjusting a
Speaker 1: lever which controlled the rate at which water dripped onto
Speaker 1: the carbide. Even at their brightest, these lamps were dim
Speaker 1: compared to today's led lights, but they were the best
Speaker 1: we had. After allowing our eyes to adjust to the
Speaker 1: yellowish glow of our lamps, we began to look around,
Speaker 1: first noticing a room the size of a small bedroom
Speaker 1: on our left. It was strewn with old moonshine still paraphernalia,
Speaker 1: broken mason jars, and parts of wooden barrels. The ceiling
Speaker 1: was smoke blackened from the distilling process. Far more concerned
Speaker 1: about finding bats, we would later regret having assumed that
Speaker 1: moonshine stills in Bologny Cave were limited to the far
Speaker 1: distant past. This was our first venture into a cave.
Speaker 1: My father led the way and we stepped carefully around
Speaker 1: slick spots on an uneven floor. Our hands often supported
Speaker 1: us against the moist limestone walls. After going by several
Speaker 1: side passages, my father exclaimed, Wow, look at this. We
Speaker 1: were just entering a room the size of a two
Speaker 1: car garage, which are dim lights barely covered. Along one side,
Speaker 1: bologne shaped formations ran down a wall into a pit.
Speaker 1: Because the bottom was beyond the reach of our lights,
Speaker 1: it seemed endlessly deep. I sure hope that bats don't
Speaker 1: live beyond that, I commented, pointing into the chasm. You
Speaker 1: will have to pick up The Secret Lives of Bats
Speaker 1: to hear what happens next. But Merlin also recommended a
Speaker 1: short graph from the introduction, which reads in the following pages,
Speaker 1: I will share highlights from a lifetime and thrilling adventure
Speaker 1: and scientific discovery covering every continent where bats live. From
Speaker 1: moonshiner standoffs to close encounters with tigers, cobras and poachers,
Speaker 1: and bats as cute as any panda and as strange
Speaker 1: as any dinosaur, tiny bumblebee bats to giant flying foxes.
Speaker 1: Follow along, and I hope that through my adventures, you
Speaker 1: too will become passionate about bats. So that is The
Speaker 1: Secret Lives of Bats by Merlin Tuttle from the Chiropterology
Speaker 1: episode He is a Treasure. So okay, let's say that
Speaker 1: you love mammals, but specifically the ones that live indoors
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Sinologist and animal trainer Brandon McMillan has dedicated his whole
Speaker 1: life to rescuing doggos, and his book is called Lucky
Speaker 1: Dog Lessons Train Your Dog in Seven Days It was
Speaker 1: put out in twenty eighteen by Harper One, and in
Speaker 1: it he talks about his history with dogs. But first
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break to hear about some sponsors
Speaker 1: of the show who make it possible to donate to
Speaker 1: a charity each week. And this week's recipient is chosen
Speaker 1: by me, and it's eight six LA dot org and
Speaker 1: eight two six LA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to
Speaker 1: supporting students with their creative and expository writing skills and
Speaker 1: to help teachers inspire their students to write. So eight
Speaker 1: two six LA provides after school tutoring, evening and weekend workshops.
Speaker 1: They have in school tutoring help for English language learners,
Speaker 1: and assistants with student publications. So that donation was made
Speaker 1: possible by some sponsors, which you may hear about now.
Speaker 3: Mom, why did they call it Scottish cheese? Scotta cheese?
Speaker 2: Honey?
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure.
Speaker 2: Did dogs in other countries speak different languages?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 1: Well, when we get there, well, we've got to fix
Speaker 1: the car first, but there's someone coming to help us.
Speaker 3: Is it the man from Geneva?
Speaker 1: Not Geneva, he's from Aviva. Oh, there's a van now.
Speaker 3: For car insurance with breakdown rescue, it takes a Viva
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Speaker 1: Okay, back to the book Lucky Dog Lessons, Train Your
Speaker 1: Dog in Seven Days by Brandon McMillan. In it, he writes,
Speaker 1: let me back up a little bit to how dogs
Speaker 1: in particular became such an important part of my life.
Speaker 1: When I was twenty two, I had a life changing experience.
Speaker 1: I read the statistics on shelter dogs in America and
Speaker 1: learned that every year in the United States alone, over
Speaker 1: a million dogs are euthanized because they can't find homes.
Speaker 1: That's one million. That's a lot of dogs. And they're
Speaker 1: not dying in some far off place we've never heard of.
Speaker 1: It's happening right here in our own cities and suburbs.
Speaker 1: I couldn't stand the thought of it, and ever since
Speaker 1: I caught on to that statistic, I've dedicated more and
Speaker 1: more of my life to rescuing unwanted dogs who stood
Speaker 1: no chance of finding homes, and to proving they're just
Speaker 1: as trainable, if not more so, than breeder bought dogs.
Speaker 1: Back then, he writes, I was working for a Hollywood
Speaker 1: company that trained animals for film and television. We were
Speaker 1: a successful old school company, and my boss had always
Speaker 1: worked mainly with breeder bought dogs with known bloodlines. He
Speaker 1: believed that knowing everything about the dogs from birth made
Speaker 1: them better dogs to train. But my view was a
Speaker 1: little different. At the time, I lived in apartment where
Speaker 1: I could see the yard of a local animal shelter.
Speaker 1: Every day, after working with my company's stable of pure
Speaker 1: bred dogs, I'd go home and look out my window
Speaker 1: and see some of the same breeds German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Chihuahuas,
Speaker 1: pit poles, and others all at this shelter. And at
Speaker 1: first I was annoyed by the never ending barking, But
Speaker 1: after reading the stats on shelter dog deaths, I came
Speaker 1: to the sickening realization that those dogs were living on
Speaker 1: borrowed time many were destined to end up among the million.
Speaker 1: The knowledge aid at me and inspired me to take action.
Speaker 1: My plan was simple, even if it was a little ambitious.
Speaker 1: I'd rescue dogs who stood no chance of finding a
Speaker 1: home and turn them into movie stars. I went to
Speaker 1: my boss and I asked if I could rescue one
Speaker 1: dog to train for the business. After a debate, which
Speaker 1: turned into an argument, he agreed on one condition. My
Speaker 1: job was on the line if I failed. The next day,
Speaker 1: I went to a shelter in LA that had one
Speaker 1: of the highest mortality rates in the Southwest. This was
Speaker 1: the Shawshank of Shelters, a cold and outdated facility that
Speaker 1: had seen its funding stripped away by city budget cuts.
Speaker 1: It was bursting at the seams with dogs and animals
Speaker 1: there had a greater chance of getting euthanized than of
Speaker 1: finding homes. As I made my way down the row
Speaker 1: of kennels, I spotted a young Rottweiler named Raven. She
Speaker 1: seems sweet, I had a good attention span, and was
Speaker 1: more interested in me than all the distractions around her.
Speaker 1: I adopted her out of the shelter that day and
Speaker 1: I took her home. Raven had a few issues to
Speaker 1: work out. But after a couple of months of intensive training,
Speaker 1: she went on her first job, a music video for Outcast.
Speaker 1: Raven knocked it out of the park. The director told
Speaker 1: me my dog performed better than the humans did that day,
Speaker 1: I'll dare you. After that, Raven went on to become
Speaker 1: the most booked dog in the company. I didn't just
Speaker 1: get to keep my job. I got a green light
Speaker 1: to grow the company's pack with more shelter dogs like Raven.
Speaker 1: My new rescues also went on to become obedient scholars,
Speaker 1: proving that shelter dogs aren't damaged goods, they are hidden
Speaker 1: treasures with an ocean of untapped intelligence and loyalty. And
Speaker 1: then on everything changed for me. I advocated for rescue
Speaker 1: dogs for every job, and I also started helping people
Speaker 1: find shelter dogs who would be good matches for their families,
Speaker 1: then training the dogs specifically to meet the needs of
Speaker 1: their new homes. So for more on saving shelter dogs
Speaker 1: and training them. That was from Brandon McMillan, sinologist dog
Speaker 1: trainer's book Lucky Dog Lessons Train Your Dog in seven Days.
Speaker 1: As I record this, I have a snoozing little shelter
Speaker 1: dog right next to be. Huh, Grimmy, she's just snoozing away.
Speaker 1: My pop Grammy is seven and she was from a
Speaker 1: high kill shelter. She's just the sweetest thing. Even though
Speaker 1: she threw up in my hands the other day. That's okay.
Speaker 1: It happens to the best of us. Okay, maybe you're
Speaker 1: not a dog person, that's okay. Cat people, I see you,
Speaker 1: I love you. Philinologist doctor Michael Delgado was on early
Speaker 1: I think January twenty nineteen this year. She was sharing
Speaker 1: her wisdom about kitties, and she's an expert in cats.
Speaker 1: She co wrote the book Total Cat Mojo, The Ultimate
Speaker 1: Guide to Life with Your Cat, that was put out
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen by Tarture Pedigree and co written with
Speaker 1: famed cat dad Jackson Galaxy. If there is a cat
Speaker 1: lover in your life, this book and that Filinology episode
Speaker 1: are just like required reading listening. Oh you will never
Speaker 1: look at a cat the same. And in Total Cat Mojo,
Speaker 1: she writes, while the case could be made that dogs
Speaker 1: find comfort and security in the guardian companion training, dynamic
Speaker 1: cats do not, not, by a country mile. Think about it.
Speaker 1: Did you ever wonder why we call people who work
Speaker 1: with dogs trainers and people who do similar work with
Speaker 1: cats behaviorists. With dogs, training stabilizes their world and, when
Speaker 1: done well, provides the cement of our relationship. But with cats,
Speaker 1: we want to maximize our level of influence on their behavior,
Speaker 1: but then be willing to bring a spirit of compromise
Speaker 1: when it comes to the end result. On a relational level.
Speaker 1: While the dog is grounded by the sit the end
Speaker 1: result for the cat is a completed action and anticipation
Speaker 1: of a reward that, however, is far from a hollow victory.
Speaker 1: We got our cat to look at us, follow our lead,
Speaker 1: and focus on completing a task that we asked of them.
Speaker 1: That's a win because it's a relationship builder, even though
Speaker 1: it doesn't complete the relationship like it might with a dog.
Speaker 1: You could even argue that compared to cats, many dogs
Speaker 1: need training for their well being. It's not only in
Speaker 1: their DNA from our long term relationship with them, but
Speaker 1: training also gives dogs coping skills in light of the
Speaker 1: expectations we place on them in the many environments and
Speaker 1: situations that we put them in. Compromise is about us
Speaker 1: meeting cats in the middle, at the communicative and relational fence.
Speaker 1: The training process I've been talking about maximizes our ability
Speaker 1: to get the cat to willingly come to that fence,
Speaker 1: something that doesn't come naturally to them. Don't expect to
Speaker 1: change them in the way that training would change a dog.
Speaker 1: Maximize and compromise is the mantra that reminds us of
Speaker 1: what a cat win looks like, which is to say
Speaker 1: that both parties will have an equal say in the outcome.
Speaker 1: It's a cat thing. So again that was from Total
Speaker 1: Cat Mojo, co written by Feelinologists doctor Michael Delgado. So
Speaker 1: much cat information. You're going to want to get that
Speaker 1: book now if your best friend is not tiny and
Speaker 1: very harry and is a human person and you're trying
Speaker 1: to establish healthier habits together. Matrimoniologist at the UCLA Marriage Lab,
Speaker 1: doctor Ben Carney co wrote a book called Love Me Slender,
Speaker 1: How smart couples team up to lose weight, exercise more,
Speaker 1: and stay healthy together. And that's co written by doctor
Speaker 1: Thomas Bradberry and published by Touchstone Press. And in it
Speaker 1: they write, many of us fantasize about how much better
Speaker 1: our health would be if we had a coach, a
Speaker 1: personal trainer, a consultant messuse, and a health conscious chef.
Speaker 1: But isn't it possible that each and every day you're
Speaker 1: waking up next to the person who is all of
Speaker 1: these things all at once. Millions of us have a
Speaker 1: loved one right by our sides who can encourage us
Speaker 1: to make great choices about the foods we consume and
Speaker 1: the exercise we get. Our boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, and partners
Speaker 1: have the potential to make the pursuit of health far
Speaker 1: easier than it would be without their support. Eating right
Speaker 1: takes extra energy and time, but our partner can share
Speaker 1: and ease the burden of shopping, preparing, cooking, and cleaning.
Speaker 1: The healthy eating sometimes requires, in short, what looks like
Speaker 1: an impossible task for us as individuals may be far
Speaker 1: more accessible when we team up with our closest partner.
Speaker 1: So perhaps in the new year, you and your sweetie
Speaker 1: are planning to get jacked, just ripped, or stick to
Speaker 1: a KTO or a vegan or a low fod maps diet,
Speaker 1: and you just need some teamwork prep. Maybe you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm already checked, or I have no interest in being slender.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you'd like to know more about criminal justice with
Speaker 1: the Victimology episodes Amazing Doctor Kelly Renisson, who co authored
Speaker 1: the book Introduction to Criminal Justice Systems, Diversity and Change
Speaker 1: alongside Mary J. Dog I'm going to read you an
Speaker 1: excerpt from the introduction of this book, which is the
Speaker 1: textbook about criminal justice. She writes, crime and the criminal
Speaker 1: justice system commonly are sensationalized in the books we read,
Speaker 1: the television shows we watch, and the gruesome headline news
Speaker 1: stories we see daily. The real stories in the criminal
Speaker 1: justice system can be complex. In each case touches individuals
Speaker 1: in far reaching ways. The goal of this book is
Speaker 1: to demonstrate how the system works in reality and to
Speaker 1: familiarize you with the complicated path from first contact with
Speaker 1: the criminal justice system, whether as witnesses, victims, or offenders,
Speaker 1: to exiting the system. For those who do exit, to
Speaker 1: demonstrate how this happened, we introduce four real people and
Speaker 1: describe their actual experiences with the criminal justice system throughout
Speaker 1: the book. None of them wanted to be involved with
Speaker 1: the system, but for years and even decades, their lives
Speaker 1: have been intertwined and entangled with law enforcement, courts, and corrections.
Speaker 1: For some, if not each one of our four case studies,
Speaker 1: involvement with the system will continue until their deaths. There
Speaker 1: are true stories related to their cases and experience are
Speaker 1: used to enhance and inform the contextual material presented in
Speaker 1: each chapter. So that is an excerpt from the introduction
Speaker 1: of Criminal Justice Systems, Diversity and Change and doctor Cally
Speaker 1: Renaisson is also editor of the book Women Leading Change
Speaker 1: in Academia, Breaking the Glass, Ceiling, Cliff and Slipper that
Speaker 1: was edited alongside Amy Bonomi. So those are two of
Speaker 1: her books. And if you're interested more in criminal justice
Speaker 1: and victimology, doctor Kelly Renaisson from the Victimology episode is amazing.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 1: Her work is just really really incredible and I cherished
Speaker 1: meeting her. She was wonderful. So that was doctor Kelly Renaisson.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about death, do you want to or rather
Speaker 1: living and aging on planet Earth? Do you remember biogerontologist
Speaker 1: doctor Caleb Finch. He was the guy who studies aging
Speaker 1: and I thought he hated me until the last five
Speaker 1: seconds of the interview and then he was so nice.
Speaker 1: He was like, that was great anyway. But he's written
Speaker 1: so many books. One of them is the Biology of
Speaker 1: Human longev Inflammation, Nutrition and Aging and the Evolution of
Speaker 1: life Spans. That was put out in twenty ten by
Speaker 1: Academic Press, and in it he writes, aging is a
Speaker 1: great scientific mystery. For four decades, I have been fascinated
Speaker 1: by the possibility of a general theory addressing genomic mechanisms
Speaker 1: in the continuum of development and aging in health and disease.
Speaker 1: I was fortunate to learn some pathology as a graduate
Speaker 1: student at the Rockefeller by two masters of in the
Speaker 1: gross necropsy, Robert Leeder and John Nelson, who taught me
Speaker 1: firsthand to use tweezers and scalpel to see clues to
Speaker 1: pathology from the texture and color of tissues and fluids.
Speaker 1: Peyton Rouse made a chilling comment after my thesis lecture
Speaker 1: to the effect of Finch, I don't see why you're
Speaker 1: wasting your time on the subject like aging. Everyone knows
Speaker 1: aging is only about vascular disease and cancer. He may
Speaker 1: yet to be proved right. He goes on to say
Speaker 1: that in his book, I will try to indicate the
Speaker 1: level of certainty and evidence being considered and not try
Speaker 1: to explain too much. Again, that was from biogerontologist doctor
Speaker 1: Caleb Finch's book The Biology of Human Longevity. Now let's
Speaker 1: keep on the topic of the brain and how it
Speaker 1: makes us view our own bods. Doctor Sari Shepherd from
Speaker 1: the Sports Psychology episode is working on a new book
Speaker 1: that she says should be done in August if all
Speaker 1: goes according to perfect timing, but she'll let us know
Speaker 1: when it hits the stands in real time. That new
Speaker 1: book of hers is called The Sports Psychology Skills Primer.
Speaker 1: But she's also an expert in disordered eating and athletes
Speaker 1: and has published a book one Hundred Questions and Answers
Speaker 1: about Anarexia Nervosa, and she shared a few passages that
Speaker 1: might be of help. She says, each of the following
Speaker 1: is a misconception or myth surrounding nutrition, body weight, and
Speaker 1: sports performance myth. If someone's coach says that an athlete
Speaker 1: has to lose more weight, it must be the right
Speaker 1: thing to do. Reality, coaches can be a great source
Speaker 1: of support and motivation. However, decisions that affect medical health
Speaker 1: should be made by or at least in consultation with
Speaker 1: a physician. Well meaning coaches may put undue pressure on
Speaker 1: an athlete by making comments about weight, and may indeed
Speaker 1: be misinformed about the relationship between body weight and sports performance.
Speaker 1: Myth Daily training is necessary to maintain athletic performance. Reality,
Speaker 1: actually muscles need days without exercise in order to refuel
Speaker 1: and recover. Taking a day or two off from training
Speaker 1: does not decrease performance and may in fact have performance benefits.
Speaker 1: So that was from doctor Shepherd's book one hundred Questions
Speaker 1: and Answers about Annarexi and Rivosa, and that was put
Speaker 1: out in two thousand and nine by Jones and Bartlett,
Speaker 1: and her new book, The Sports Psychology Skills Primer will
Speaker 1: be out probably twenty twenty one. She'll let us know now.
Speaker 1: On the topic of body image, the amazing psychologist doctor
Speaker 1: Renee Engelen from the Colology or Beauty Standards episode has
Speaker 1: a book called Beauty Sick. How the cultural obsession with
Speaker 1: appearance hurts girls and women. This was put out by
Speaker 1: Harper in twenty eighteen and her book is on Amazon.
Speaker 1: It's also available at indie bookshops, so track it down
Speaker 1: locally if you can. Here is an excerpt from Beauty Sick.
Speaker 1: Beauty sickness is what happens when women's emotional energy gets
Speaker 1: so bound up with what they see in the mix,
Speaker 1: and it becomes harder for them to see other aspects
Speaker 1: of their lives. It starts surprisingly early, as soon as
Speaker 1: young girls are taught that their primary form of currency
Speaker 1: in this world involves being pleasing to the eyes of others.
Speaker 1: Although we hear the most about beauty sickness and young women,
Speaker 1: it's a malaise that affects women of all ages. You
Speaker 1: can't simply grow out of it. You must break free
Speaker 1: with deliberate intent and perseverance. Beauty sickness is fed by
Speaker 1: a culture that focuses on women's appearance over anything else
Speaker 1: they might say, or do, or be. It's reinforced by
Speaker 1: the images we see and the words we use to
Speaker 1: describe ourselves and other women. Those who shame women for
Speaker 1: their appearance feed beauty sickness. Those who praise girls and
Speaker 1: women only for how they look do the same. We
Speaker 1: should not be surprised at how many women struggle with
Speaker 1: beauty sickness. We have created a culture that tells women
Speaker 1: the most important thing they can be is beautiful. Then
Speaker 1: we pummel them with a standard of beauty they will
Speaker 1: never meet After that, when they worry about beauty, we
Speaker 1: call them superficial, or even worse, we dismiss their concerns altogether,
Speaker 1: saying everyone is beautiful in their own way, and admonishing
Speaker 1: them to accept themselves the way they are. If you
Speaker 1: can imagine a world where girls and women are less
Speaker 1: objectified and do less self objectification, you'll see a world
Speaker 1: where everything has changed. We would do different things. We
Speaker 1: would feel more ourselves and less defined by how much
Speaker 1: others enjoy looking at us. Our money and time would
Speaker 1: be spent differently. Our bodies would be healthier. Depression and
Speaker 1: anxiety might be less common or less severe. It's time
Speaker 1: to focus on looking outward rather than being looked at.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to see out there in the world.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of work to be done. And if
Speaker 1: that passage moved you, I highly encourage you to listen
Speaker 1: to the two part Coolology episode from the summer of
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen Ooh Boy, Real life Changer. In the second part,
Speaker 1: I read letters from all genders, all backgrounds, and in
Speaker 1: it we really learned that the stories we hear about
Speaker 1: ourselves and that we tell ourselves can be so painful
Speaker 1: and really need retelling. And speaking of Neardi, did you
Speaker 1: hear the Mythology episode with doctor John Booker So He
Speaker 1: is a real life mythologist who helps movie studios make
Speaker 1: their stories more compelling, and who studies myths of antiquity
Speaker 1: and helps encourage people to tell their own stories. And
Speaker 1: he's written several books. One of them is Storytelling for
Speaker 1: Virtual Reality. This is put out in twenty seventeen by
Speaker 1: rutel Edge Press, and in it he makes us see
Speaker 1: how innovative storytelling retains these really ancient roots, and he
Speaker 1: says returning to the philosophies of the ancients can help
Speaker 1: us further explore how the self orients and changes in
Speaker 1: immersive space. In the late first century, Pludark authored of
Speaker 1: volume titled Life of Theseus, and while recording the Greek legend,
Speaker 1: he asked whether a ship that had been restored by
Speaker 1: replacing every piece of wood on it remained the same ship.
Speaker 1: The question has become known as Theseus's paradox, and it's
Speaker 1: applicable in immersive virtual spaces. Is a human being that
Speaker 1: has been completely replaced by digital and virtual parts ill
Speaker 1: human being? The question becomes more interesting when we consider
Speaker 1: the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, who gave the question further
Speaker 1: nuance a few centuries later by asking if the original
Speaker 1: planks of the ship were gathered up after being replaced
Speaker 1: and used to build a second ship. Which ship would
Speaker 1: be the original? The honest answer to these questions as
Speaker 1: they apply to virtual immersive space is that we don't know.
Speaker 1: There simply hasn't been enough time to research and study
Speaker 1: how these emerging technologies will change our perceptions of who
Speaker 1: we are and how we behave. So that is from
Speaker 1: storytelling for virtual reality. And as long as we're cruising
Speaker 1: through some ancient corridors, let's stop into Egypt with doctor Karacooney. She's,
Speaker 1: of course from the Egyptology episode and her latest book
Speaker 1: is When Women Ruled the World Six Queens of Egypt.
Speaker 1: This was put out by National Geographic in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Who boy, howdy, it is choc a block with facts
Speaker 1: and stories. I'm going to get right into it. The
Speaker 1: first two pages read why women Don't Rule the World.
Speaker 1: In the fifth century BC, thousands of years after her lifetime,
Speaker 1: the Greek historian Herodotus wrote about a certain Nichochris, a
Speaker 1: queen whose husband brother had been murdered by conspirators. The
Speaker 1: young beautiful woman claimed her revenge by inviting all the
Speaker 1: collaborators to a grand banquet and a fancy and newly
Speaker 1: commissioned underground hall. When the men were all happily eating
Speaker 1: and drinking, Nitocris ordered the floodgates opened through a secret channel,
Speaker 1: drowning them all in nile waters. The rebels thus dispatched.
Speaker 1: Her final act was to throw herself into a fiery pit,
Speaker 1: so that no man could exact his retribution on her.
Speaker 1: Kara writes, One wonders whether the fiery pit could have
Speaker 1: been any better than whatever torture they may have meted out.
Speaker 1: Doctor Cooney writes, Nitocris's story has everything, political intrigue, incest,
Speaker 1: fabulous Egyptian booby traps, and most important of all, a
Speaker 1: beautiful young queen avenging her husband's murder with cleverness and bravery.
Speaker 1: Offering herself before they could take presumably sexual revenge on
Speaker 1: her makes her even more appealing. There's only one problem.
Speaker 1: There's no evidence from that time of Nitocris, no burial location,
Speaker 1: no statuary, no texts, no monuments, nothing to prove that
Speaker 1: she was more than a historian's fantasy. But her narrative
Speaker 1: fits some extraordinarily familiar patterns for well documented female rulers
Speaker 1: of ancient Egypt. She was the last ruler of her
Speaker 1: family dynasty. She acquired power by marrying her own brother.
Speaker 1: She acted in fierce protection of her husband, her brother,
Speaker 1: her patriarchy. She resorted to deceit and trickery to gain
Speaker 1: power over her enemies, and she was misunderstood by her
Speaker 1: own people, who would erase her image from monuments around Egypt. Indeed,
Speaker 1: there is enough to Nitocris's legend to suspect that what
Speaker 1: might seem like nothing more than a salicious story is
Speaker 1: actually composed of kernels of truth embedded in a romanticized
Speaker 1: cultural memory that has come down to us in fragmented
Speaker 1: and dramatized form in one place on our planet, thousands
Speaker 1: of years ago, against all the odds of the male
Speaker 1: dominated system in which they lived, women ruled repeatedly with formal,
Speaker 1: unadulterated power. Like Nitachris, Most of these women ruled as
Speaker 1: Egyptian god king incarnate, not as the mere power behind
Speaker 1: a man on the throne. Ancient Egypt is an anomaly
Speaker 1: as the one land that consistently called upon the rule
Speaker 1: of women to keep its regime in working order, safe
Speaker 1: from discord, and on the surest possible footing, particularly when
Speaker 1: a crisis was underway. If I mispronounced all of those names,
Speaker 1: please forgive me. And that was from When Women Rule
Speaker 1: the World Six Queens of Egypt by doctor Karacuni. As
Speaker 1: long as we're talking about crises, let's have an existential one.
Speaker 1: So recent guest, doctor Adam Becker told us all about
Speaker 1: quantum ontology and had us looking at our own hands
Speaker 1: and faces, asking what is real? And his book What
Speaker 1: Is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics,
Speaker 1: which was put out by Basic Books in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: paints a picture, a Renaissance portrait really, of the quantum
Speaker 1: physics world and multiple universes, and Schrodinger's and Einstein's infinements
Speaker 1: and theories in crackpots and more so. The first two
Speaker 1: pages of it read, the objects in our everyday lives
Speaker 1: have an annoying inability to appear in two places at once.
Speaker 1: Leave your keys in your jacket and they won't also
Speaker 1: be on the hook by the front door. This isn't surprising.
Speaker 1: These objects have no uncharted abilities or virtues. They're profoundly ordinary.
Speaker 1: Yet these mundane things are composed of a galaxy of
Speaker 1: the unfamiliar. Your house keys are a temporary alliance of
Speaker 1: a trillion trillion atoms, each forged in a dying star
Speaker 1: eons ago, each falling to Earth in its earliest days.
Speaker 1: They have bathed in the light of a violent young son.
Speaker 1: They have witnessed the entire history of life on our planet.
Speaker 1: Atoms are epic. Like most epic heroes, atoms have some
Speaker 1: problems that ordinary humans don't. We are creatures of habit,
Speaker 1: monotonously persisting in just one location at a time, but
Speaker 1: a are prone to whimsy. A single atom wandering down
Speaker 1: a path in a laboratory encounters a fork where it
Speaker 1: can go left right. Rather than choosing one way forward,
Speaker 1: as you or I would have to do, the atom
Speaker 1: suffers a crisis of indecision over where to be and
Speaker 1: where not to be. Ultimately, our nanometer hamlet chooses both.
Speaker 1: The atom doesn't split. It doesn't take one path and
Speaker 1: then the other. It travels down both paths, simultaneously, thumbing
Speaker 1: its nose at the laws of logic. So the rules
Speaker 1: that apply to you and me and Danish princes don't
Speaker 1: apply to atoms. They live in a different world, governed
Speaker 1: by different physics, the sub microscopic world of the quantum.
Speaker 1: Quantum physics the physics of atoms and other ultratiny objects
Speaker 1: like molecules and sub atomic particles is the most successful
Speaker 1: theory in all of science. It predicts a stunning variety
Speaker 1: of phenomena to an extraordinary degree of accuracy, and its
Speaker 1: impact goes well beyond the world of a very small
Speaker 1: and into our everyday lives. The discovery of quantum physics
Speaker 1: in the early twentieth century led directly to the silicon
Speaker 1: transistors buried in your phone and in the LEDs in
Speaker 1: its screen, the nuclear hearts of the most distant space probes,
Speaker 1: and the lasers in the supermarket checkout scanner. Quantum physics
Speaker 1: explains why the sun shines and how your eyes could
Speaker 1: see it. It explains the entire discipline of chemistry, periodic
Speaker 1: table and all. It even explains how things stay solid,
Speaker 1: like the chair you're sitting on or your own bones
Speaker 1: and skin. All of this comes down to very tiny
Speaker 1: objects behaving in very odd ways. But there's something troubling here.
Speaker 1: Quantum physics doesn't seem to apply to humans or anything
Speaker 1: at human scale. Our world is a world of people
Speaker 1: and keys and other ordinary things that can travel down
Speaker 1: only one path at a time. Yet all the mundane
Speaker 1: things in the world around us are made of atoms,
Speaker 1: including me, you, and Danish princes. All those atoms certainly
Speaker 1: are governed by quantum physics. So how can the physics
Speaker 1: of atoms differ so wildly from the physics of our
Speaker 1: world made of atoms? Why is quantum physics only the
Speaker 1: physics of the ultra tiny? The problem isn't that quantum
Speaker 1: physics is weird. The world is a wild and wooly
Speaker 1: place with plenty of room for weirdness. But we definitely
Speaker 1: don't see all the strange effects of quantum physics in
Speaker 1: our daily lives. Why not? Maybe quantum physics really is
Speaker 1: only the physics of tiny things, and it doesn't apply
Speaker 1: to large objects. Perhaps there's a boundary somewhere, a border
Speaker 1: beyond which quantum physics doesn't work. In that case, where
Speaker 1: is the boundary and how does it work? And if
Speaker 1: there is no such boundary, the quantum physics really applies
Speaker 1: to us just as much as it applies to atoms
Speaker 1: and subatomic particles, Then why does quantum physics so flagrantly
Speaker 1: contradict our experience of the world. Why aren't our keys
Speaker 1: ever in two places at once? So to have an
Speaker 1: existential crisis and get your mind blown by the physics
Speaker 1: of the ultra tiny Read What Is Real The Unfinished
Speaker 1: Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics by doctor Adam Becker,
Speaker 1: who of course was the guest in the Quantum Ontology episode.
Speaker 1: Very recently. Now, speaking of astrophysics, I know you all
Speaker 1: love doctor Katie Mack. She just announced that her book,
Speaker 1: The End of Everything Astrophysically Speaking, is due out next summer.
Speaker 1: I asked if she had anything she could share, and
Speaker 1: she said, I don't actually know what the rules are
Speaker 1: about releasing bits of the text, but here's a sentence
Speaker 1: about it. It's a book for anyone who's ever looked
Speaker 1: at the big, majestic universe out there and wondered what
Speaker 1: happens next. A breezy tour through a few possible cosmic
Speaker 1: apocalypses that might befall our universe, what they would look
Speaker 1: like if we were there to see them happen, and
Speaker 1: how cosmologists are working to figure it all out. So
Speaker 1: that is doctor Katie Mack of the Cosmology episodes, upcoming book.
Speaker 1: You can pre order it now. It's called The End
Speaker 1: of Everything Astrophysically Speaking. Also, while you're at it. Go
Speaker 1: listen to the song No Plan by Hozier, who is
Speaker 1: a fan of Doctor Mac. The lyrics and that song
Speaker 1: read There's no Plan, There's no hand on the rain.
Speaker 1: As Mac explained, there will be darkness again. Huh yes,
Speaker 1: he means that Mac. Doctor Katie Mack, I have listened
Speaker 1: to the song approximately seventeen thousand times. I played over
Speaker 1: and over again. It's so good. As Mack explained, there
Speaker 1: will be darkness again. I hope it plays over global
Speaker 1: loudspeakers when the apocalypse comes. But when will that be?
Speaker 1: You ask? Let's ask Philterrurus, not the butterfly lepidopterology guest,
Speaker 1: but the expert in existential risk i e. Eschatology ie
Speaker 1: the End of the World. Here is a bit from
Speaker 1: chapter one of his book, Our last book, selection of
Speaker 1: this episode, Morality, Foresight and Human Flourishing and Introduction to
Speaker 1: Existential Risks. This was put out in twenty seventeen by
Speaker 1: Pitchstone Publishing, and in it he writes, one can make
Speaker 1: a very strong case that humanity has never lived in
Speaker 1: more peaceful times. According to the Harvard polymath Stephen Pinker,
Speaker 1: violence has been declining since humanity struggled as hunter gatherers
Speaker 1: in the Paleolithic, roughly twelve thousand years ago. This trend
Speaker 1: has continued through the twentieth and into the twenty fourth century.
Speaker 1: Despite the two World Wars Korean War, Aetnam War, Second
Speaker 1: Congo War also known as the African World War, and
Speaker 1: rise of global terrorism. We find ourselves in the midst
Speaker 1: of what historians call the Long Piece, a period that
Speaker 1: began at the end of World War Two and during
Speaker 1: which no two superpowers have gone to war, and what
Speaker 1: Pinker tentatively dubs the New Piece, which refers to organized
Speaker 1: conflicts of all kinds, civil wars, genocides, repression by autocratic governments,
Speaker 1: and terrorist attacks having declined throughout the world since the
Speaker 1: Cold War concluded in nineteen eighty nine. Now, if you
Speaker 1: choose when you would like to live in human history
Speaker 1: since our debut in East Africa some two hundred thousand
Speaker 1: years ago, the most reasonable answer would be today, at
Speaker 1: the dawn of the twenty first century, no question, But
Speaker 1: there is a countervailing trend that tempers the good news
Speaker 1: presented by Pinker's historical analyzes. We might also live in
Speaker 1: the most dangerous period of human history. Ever. The fact
Speaker 1: is that our species is haunted by a growing swarm
Speaker 1: of risk that could either trip us into the eternal
Speaker 1: grave of extinction or irreversibly catapult us back into the
Speaker 1: Stone Age. Just consider that humanity has stood in the
Speaker 1: flickering shadows of a nuclear holocaust since nineteen forty five,
Speaker 1: when the United States dropped two nuclear bombs on the
Speaker 1: Japanese archipelaga. In the years since this epic defining event,
Speaker 1: scientists have confirmed the climate change and global biodiversity loss
Speaker 1: are urgent threats with existential implications, while risk experts have
Speaker 1: become increasingly worried about the possibility of malicious individuals creating
Speaker 1: designer pathogens that could initiate a worldwide pandemic. Looking further
Speaker 1: along that threat horizon, there appears to be a number
Speaker 1: of unprecedented dangers associated with molecular nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Thus,
Speaker 1: one only needs simple arithmetic to see that the total
Speaker 1: number of existential risk scenarios has increased significantly since the
Speaker 1: Atomic Age began, and it looks as if this trend
Speaker 1: will continue at least into the coming decades, if not.
Speaker 1: Further considerations of these phenomena have led some scholars to
Speaker 1: offer unsettlingly high estimates that a global disaster will occur
Speaker 1: in the foreseeable future. An informal two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: survey of experts at a conference hosted by the Future
Speaker 1: of Humanity Institute gave a nineteen percent chance of extinction
Speaker 1: before twenty one hundred and The cosmologist Martin Reise writes
Speaker 1: in a two thousand and three book that civilization has
Speaker 1: a fifty to fifty chance of surviving the present century.
Speaker 1: To put this in perspective, consider that the average American
Speaker 1: has a one and nine thousand, seven hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: seven lifetime chance of dying in an air and space
Speaker 1: transport accident. It follows that, according to the FHI survey,
Speaker 1: the average American is at least fifteen hundred times more
Speaker 1: likely to perish in a human extinction catastrophe than a
Speaker 1: plane crash. That, of course, is an excerpt from eschatologist
Speaker 1: apocalypse expert Phil tores So that's a good news. If
Speaker 1: you're traveling for the holidays. Don't fret about the flight.
Speaker 1: Your relatives' political views might be more likely to do
Speaker 1: us all. In that being said, there's never been a
Speaker 1: better time to think, Hey, I'm going to ask some
Speaker 1: smart people some stupid questions because we're all going to
Speaker 1: die one day. Might as well cut some banks while
Speaker 1: I'm at it and text my crush. Nothing is permanent.
Speaker 1: Your atoms may become a key chain one day, you
Speaker 1: don't know, So just make the most of the configuration
Speaker 1: that you're in now. And that being said, holidays and
Speaker 1: winter and darkness and nippy days, they're a wonderful time.
Speaker 1: Just brew a cup of anything, spike it if you
Speaker 1: need to, curl up in some kind of worn out
Speaker 1: wingback chair with a throw blanky, and dive into the
Speaker 1: brain of an ologist through the pages of a book.
Speaker 1: So links to all of these books are up at
Speaker 1: alleywar dot com, slash ologies, slash bookworm. You can order
Speaker 1: most of them online, sure, but consider calling around maybe
Speaker 1: to a few bookstores see if they have them on hand.
Speaker 1: But no matter how you get them or gift them
Speaker 1: or read them, I hope they open up your world
Speaker 1: a little more and make you take advantage of the
Speaker 1: present moment you're in the person that you are. This
Speaker 1: show would be nothing without theologists. We're so lucky that
Speaker 1: they take the time to communicate their work and their
Speaker 1: passions so thank you to each and every ologist who's
Speaker 1: ever been on. And if you yourself are thinking you'd
Speaker 1: like to write a book, let this episode be some
Speaker 1: sort of cosmic sign that you should start it. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's a collection of short stories. Maybe it's the memoir
Speaker 1: of a very surprising life history, nonfiction about your work.
Speaker 1: Maybe you want to write a mystery or a romance novel.
Speaker 1: All of these ologists are authors and writers and published,
Speaker 1: so let them inspire you. Just write. Let Adam Becker's
Speaker 1: advice to you resonate. He said in the Quantum Montology episode,
Speaker 1: I decided, Okay, the only way that I'm going to
Speaker 1: get through this is if I plan it and then
Speaker 1: just only pay attention to whatever is in front of me.
Speaker 1: Because I can't write ninety thousand words, but I can
Speaker 1: write six hundred words a day, and if I do
Speaker 1: that for a while, eventually I'll have ninety thousand words.
Speaker 1: So the world is a beautiful, scary, wonder filled place,
Speaker 1: And if you have a story to tell, I hope
Speaker 1: you tell it. Okay, So thanks, thank you to sisters
Speaker 1: Bonnie Dutch and Shannon feltas of the podcast. You are
Speaker 1: that for handling merch at ologiesmerch dot com, and thank
Speaker 1: you to Emily White and all the transcribers helping make
Speaker 1: transcribed episodes available. You can check Alleyward dot com slash
Speaker 1: Ologies dash extras for those There's also bleeped episodes up there.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Hannah Lippo and Aaron Talbert for adminting the
Speaker 1: Ologies podcast Facebook group full of lovely curious folks. There's also,
Speaker 1: by the way, an offshoot the Ologites book Club, and
Speaker 1: they're on Facebook and Instagram. I'm going to link them
Speaker 1: at alleyward dot com slash Ology slash Bookworm. A bunch
Speaker 1: of listeners have formed a book club. You're free to
Speaker 1: join that. I'm at Aliword with one L on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram. I'm also on the kids science shows Brainchild
Speaker 1: on Netflix, on Innovation Nation on CBS every week, and
Speaker 1: i have my very own science show. It's on the CW.
Speaker 1: It's called Did I Mention Invention? Safe to Watch with
Speaker 1: your Kids. Ologies is on Instagram and Twitter at Ologies
Speaker 1: and also thank you to the love at LEAs Stephen
Speaker 1: Ray Morris, who helps cut these episodes together. He's getting
Speaker 1: this up on a quick turnaround because I was battling
Speaker 1: a migrade yesterday, So thank you SRM. The theme music
Speaker 1: was written and performed by Nick Thorburn of the band Islands.
Speaker 1: If you stick around to the end of the episode,
Speaker 1: you know I tell you a secret, and this week's
Speaker 1: secret something that maybe like one hundred people and the
Speaker 1: last month have reached out to ask me. So if
Speaker 1: it's been driving you crazy, yes, yes, that is my
Speaker 1: voice on a grocery store commercial. Apparently they were trying
Speaker 1: to cast like a friendly voice for it for a
Speaker 1: while and then one of the ad execs is an
Speaker 1: ologite and so they were like, ask dad Ward if
Speaker 1: she'll do it. So it's been a fun little side gig.
Speaker 1: And I was listening to my friend Rose Evelis podcast
Speaker 1: flash Forward and suddenly I heard my voice and it
Speaker 1: freaked me the fuck out because I was like, what huh?
Speaker 1: And I realized that it was my grocery store ad
Speaker 1: running on her podcast What Is Life? So if you're like,
Speaker 1: is that you talking about fresh groceries?
Speaker 3: It is? That's me.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I hope you buy a book Rominologist. I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this reading hour. Theologists are wonderful. Enjoy some books.
Speaker 1: Curl up, okay, bye bye.
Speaker 2: Pacadermantology, mombiology or doo zoology, lithology, new technology, meteorology and pertology, nthology, seriology, elidology.
Speaker 3: I like big books, informative or SAPAR