Fascinating Nouns

What happened to Gary after the bike ride?  Was it all champagne and congratulatory handshakes?  For a while yeah, but his body had been doing one thing all day for 40 days and it took a toll.  Listen as he recounts what happened in the weeks that followed his ride.

At 58, Gary Wietgrefe heard a story in a bar about a 70 year old who biked all the way from South Dakota to Alaska.  Always seeking a challenge, he kept this in his mind and finally accomplished this feat when he was 65!  We discuss his 2997 mile journey, including why he choose North Pole Alaska and not THE North Pole, how he avoided bear attacks but not wild dogs, and why biking 2997 miles and n...

Given that Stephen King’s career spans 6 decades and hundreds of stories, chances are you have read one in your lifetime.  You might even have a favorite.  His horror stories usually have a supernatural element to them, but that does not make them exempt from scientific scrutiny.  Author Meg Hafdahl is known as a fiction writer, but along with her co-author Kelly Florence, decided to look at...

We have discussed real life superheroes a lot lately, but in this bonus episode we discuss the original:  The Fox.  Dave Hoekstra was recruited by The Fox while he was in high school, and for a summer he fought the good fight against greedy corporations that were polluting the famous Fox River.  Listen as Dave tells his Tale of the Fox

This episode is very timely, as I just visited Slab City for my birthday.  Why is this important?  Because Slab City is the last true free place in America!  You can pull up an RV, and live life off grid along side several other like-minded individuals.  In this episode, Dave Hoekstra discusses his book “The Camper Book”, which chronicles his adventures traveling across the U.S. in his...

Are you in control of your actions?  If you want to do something, you just do it right.  Can you decide to do something you DON’T want to do, or is this technically impossible?  Does Free Will actually exist, or is it just a delusion to make sure humans have a sense of purpose?  Dr. Vyse and I discuss this in this bonus episode.

Delusions, are they healthy?  Is it normal to actively believe in a reality that is not accurate?  Does simply changing how you view the world alter your success?  These are just some of the questions I discuss with Dr. Stuart Vyse, author of “ The Uses of Delusion “.  It turns out that delusions are a normal part of everyday life.  Do you have a lucky charm?  That is in irrational bel...

When we are children, nothing is more important to us than our friends.  We are either spending all of our time with them, or trying to figure out how to make more.  As we get older, and spare time becomes more and more rare, we may find ourselves neglecting all but our most inner circle.  Lydia Denworth believes this may be a mistake.  In her book “Friendship”, she outlines the physic...

In this bonus episode we Tom and I attempt to fill in some of the gaps we left in our main podcast, including how Mack Brazel ended up on the radio in search of a $3000 reward, and how the entire town of Roswell watched as the Army drove a tarp-covered space craft right down main street because it was the most direct route to the base.

The Roswell Crash is either the biggest hoax of our time, or the most pivotal moment in human history.  Unfortunately we may never know the whole picture:  It is a puzzle with a million pieces that has been purposefully mixed with other puzzles to confuse anyone who tries to put it together.  While we may never get it all, Tom Carey has gotten as close as anyone can.  He has been on the front line...

The United States is a unique country in many ways, not the least of which is the freedom to practice any religion you want.  Because of this, several wholly original faiths have sprung up through the years.  Some have gone on to become large and dangerous (Scientology), and others are a little smaller and more goofy (The Pastafarians).  Today we are going to discuss one such religion: “The...

Every comic fan know that a superhero is NOTHING without an arch nemesis, and Real Life Superheroes are no exception.  If you thought RLSH was underground….keep digging.  There you will find the Real Life Supervillains.  Watch helplessly as they take over your city’s sarcastic output and focus it on your local hero, reducing him to an insult-ridden husk.  No one is safe.

If you are the average person, you have probably been a fan of superheroes since the Marvel movies hit the scene, which was in 2008.  If you happened to be into Batman, your fandom may go back to 1989.  I am guessing that if your fandom is based on the movies alone, it is probably a passing interest, relegated to the 2-3 times a year a new flick hits the theaters.  If you are a comic fan however,...

Hank Garrett started out his life as a poor kid on the streets of Harlem.  With death and poverty all around him, he was filled with anger and despair, doomed to a life behind bars.  That was until he had a meeting with Sammy David Jr. at the Apollo Theater which changed his life forever.  While still in High School, Hank started 6 careers, all of which he found success at:  Acting, Stand-up Comed...

Henry Gee sits with me for a few more minutes for a lively and upbeat conversation on how the human race will meet its fate.  Will it be over population?  Underpopulation?  Climate change?  Or will we finally succumb to extinction debt.

This week we tackle one of the hardest questions that man has ever tried to answer:  How life started on Earth.  Once that is answered, the rest of evolution falls right into place.  Dr. Henry Gee is an evolutionary Biologist, and has chronicled the entire 4.6 billion year timeline of the Earth in his latest book “A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth”.  In it he discusses the explos...

When he isn’t hounding the studios to use his paper-saving app, Steve is using his connections to make movies of his own.  The List is his first feature length movie, and we discuss the fifteen year journey he went on to get it produced.

Climate change is altering our entire world.  Global industrialization is coughing up billows of carbon dioxide, and tremendous deforestation has stolen the worlds most beautiful carbon cleaners.  A lot of those forests are being cut down to create paper for the endless scripts Hollywood produces on a daily basis.  One man is fighting against this unnerving trend, and quite possibly, could single-...

I have always been intrigued by famous social experiments, like the Standford Prison Experiment, and Milgram’s Obedience Experiments, so imagine my pleasure when I came across Gina Perry’s ‘The Lost Boys’ which outlines the Robber’s Cave Experiment. My guess is you haven’t heard of this one before, and that is a shame. The point of the trial was to examine group...

The English Language is one of the most difficult languages to learn, mostly because it has strange, and extraordinarily inconsistent spelling conventions.  Why?  That is the question author and language expert Arika Okrent answers in her book Highly Irregular.  In short, English is a Germanic language spoken by barbarians, altered by the French, influenced by Roman missionaries, solidified by the...

We are living in the Golden Era of fleeting fame.  A popular YouTuber/TikTok Star can hit the scene in January, have millions of followers/views by June, and then be a part of the ‘Where Are They Now?’ montage in December.  Contrary to what most people think, fame is never given, earned, achieved, or even permanent.  At best it is borrowed, given back when your time is up.  This week I...

During the holiday season, there is one thing that unites us all as a people no matter if you celebrate Christmas or not:  Christmas Songs.  In some years as early as October, Jingle Bells, Rudolph, Silent Night, Frosty the Snowman, along with others, bombard the airwaves and slowly bring us into the Holiday spirit.  But where did these songs come from, and how did they come to define a whole seas...

In 2016, the legend was that megastar Prince had a bank vault filled with thousands of unreleased recordings, and since he was the only one who knew the combination, it was possible that this vault would be sealed forever.  Luckily safecracker extraordinaire Dave McOmie called to the scene.  Listen as Dave recounts his toughest job to date.

Anyone who has seen Oceans 11, The Italian Job, or Bad Santa knows that if you are going to steal millions of dollars in cash and/or art, you need a master safecracker on your crew to break-in to the vault where said valuables are being held.  But how exactly does this work?  Luckily we have the world renowned (and non-criminal safecracker) Dave McOmie on the show to explain exactly what goes into...

Did you know that 41% of the population believes in ghosts? That is two in five.  Is there really something to this phenomenon, or is this something that is explainable with modern science?  That is one of the questions that Marc Hartzman tries to answer in his new book “Chasing Ghosts “.  We discuss quite a few historic cases, including The Bell Witch, which was a ghost story that end...