Fascinating Gadgets, Gizmos, and Gear Based Technologies

In celebration of our 100th episode, The Brain Trust looks forward and makes some bold predictions about the future, and the technology that will get us there.  We cover some of the big topics we have hinted at in other episodes, including the energy revolution, living in space, and even a guess at how humanity will end.  In this episode, we give some hard dates, some of which are right on our doo...

Imagine a future so bleak, where humanity is on the verge of collapse, and their only course of action is to send people back in time to change the future.  The first part of that is pretty easy to imagine, but what about that second part?  This is where Travelers is truly innovative.  Instead of sending people back, only their consciousness is sent back in time, into the brain of a person about t...

M.O.D.O.K. is an evil scientist who is running a tech company with aspirations to take over the world.  He also has a wife, two kids, and is going through a midlife crisis.  That is the basic story-line of this completely unique Marvel series. It does boast the strangest assortment of obscure villains, as well as some of the funniest tech we have covered.  Listen as we discuss a vacuum powered by...

Since the Cold War, the American public has been obsessed with espionage.  From James Bond, to Ethan Hunt, and now Natasha Romanoff, spies have become heroes to a lot of people.  While typically known for crazy gadgets, Black Widow takes a more forceful approach.  She relies on martial arts to get the job done, but the question in this movie is:  Who is pulling the strings and how?  Chemical mind...

Loki, the god of mischief is the misguided brother of Thor, the god of thunder.  Considering how much cooler thunder is than mischief, I can see where Loki believes he got the short end of the stick.  But what if there was an alternate universe where Loki was the god of thunder instead of Thor?  While not the exact plot, that is kind of the idea behind the new Loki series.  We see an alternate Lok...

A civilization ending virus, animal hybrid children, and a weird purple flower are all strangely connected in this comic book adaptation about a boy with deer antlers who is on a quest to find his mother who is a scientist that may hold the key to the entire story.  We try to connect the dots on this weird story, and along the way we make the obvious connections to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

What would you do if the robot apocalypse happened to coincide with your first day at college, and your family was humanity’s only hope?  That is the quandary that The Mitchell family finds themselves in.  The real question is:  Who is responsible for bringing about the robacalypse?  Was it a malicious computer programmer?  Was it a suddenly sentient AI?  It turns out, that it was a butt hur...

What do you think you would do if you went on a retreat with your partner, and while investigating the grounds by yourself, you came across another version of your partner stuck in a house?  Would you think you were hallucinating?  In another dimension?  The center of an elaborate prank?  Well this is exactly what happens to Sophie and Ethan in the movie “The One I Love”.  It is a weir...

Love, Death + Robots is an anthology series in the vein of Dark Mirror and The Twilight Zone, except animated. Every episode takes you on a sci-fi ride through new planets, advanced technologies, and cutting edge science.  Since that is exactly how I would describe our show, analyzing this one was the perfect choice!  This week we will take a look at our four favorite episodes from the series, inc...

2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the Resident Evil franchise which spans movies, television, and obviously video games.  Few properties have had this level of influence across all forms of media.  If you mention the Umbrella Corporation to most people, they will cringe and look over their shoulder, half expecting to see the Nemesis chasing them.  While a fictional entity, they do seem to paralle...

The mantle of Captain America is arguably the most important role in the Marvel universe.  Cap stands for the ideals of America, and his shield is a crucial symbol for the fight against injustice.  When it is vacated, the question becomes:  Who will wield the shield?  That is the important question in this series.  But what makes the capabilities of the shield so important?  How does it bounce aro...

What would happen if we were able to find your perfect match, someone you were guaranteed to fall in love with, simply by analyzing your DNA?  This is the premise of the Netflix series The One.  This technology raises a lot of fundamental questions:  What is love?  What is happiness?  Is that encoded into our DNA?  What happens if that person dies, will love elude us?  If dating isn’t an iss...

When people think of dream matches throughout history, a couple of thoughts immediately spring to mind: Muhammad Ali VS Mike Tyson, Hulk Hogan VS Ric Flair, the 72 Dolphins VS the 85 Bears.  This week we tackle the obvious omission from that list:  Godzilla VS King Kong.  Kong was introduced in 1933, but these two behemoths have been on a collision course ever since Godzilla entered the fray in 19...

On its surface, the world of cartoon physics is extraordinarily complex.  Gravity seems to have an on/off switch, animals can move at impossible speeds, and some items seem to have a mind of their own.  Now try taking those laws and overlaying them on the live action world, the one governed by Newtonian physics.  That is exactly what happens in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  Listen as we break down the...

Everybody, at some point or another, has had an interest in dinosaurs.  They are gigantic,  fascinating creatures, that are unlike anything alive today.  I makes sense that as we learn more about DNA and how it works, it will become inevitable that someone will try to bring back a T-Rex.  This week we discuss how this would be possible, either through rare bits of animal infused amber, or by manip...

From the first time you lay eyes on the Mogwai Gizmo, it is hard to imagine that something that adorable has the potential to unleash a horde of evil gremlins simply by disregarding a few rules.  I mean, how do you exist as an animal if you can’t get wet?  Everything has to drink water at some point.  In this episode, we will discuss those sacred rules, and how to avoid making any mistakes. ...

Indiana Jones is the man credited with making archeology cool.  A professor by day and a bullwhip toting, fedora wearing, idol snatching adventurer by night, he has more in common with a superhero than an academic.  He also gets himself in a lot of danger, and this movie is no exception.  Listen as we explain deadly blow darts, giant rolling balls, and a religious artifact that has a lot in common...

If you are looking for a movie with adventure, treasure maps, pirate ships, crazy gadgets, and an organ made out of human bones, then The Goonies is exactly what you are looking for!  We kick off “Spielberg Spring” with this classic about a group of kids who go looking for a fabled treasure stash in order to save their homes from being sold to a real estate developer.  There is plenty...

Phineas & Ferb are two kids who, along with their brilliant friends, are able to build some incredible technology.  They are only rivaled by Dr. Doofenschmirtz and his “inators”.  While discussing their latest movie “Candace Against The Universe”, we get into some really fascinating science, including a mind-controlling plant, a gigantic juggling robot, fungus-filled al...

In our WonderCon WandaVision panel, we covered a lot of the science behind the hit marvel show, including a brief history of television shows, the power of magic runes, and the ability to rewrite reality.  That was MOST of what went on inside the Westview Anomoly, but we thought it deserved a little more.  This is our little WandaVision Addendum, or Wandendum, where we look at overlapping spacetim...

Scooby Doo and his crew are part of a company called Mystery, Inc., and they go around solving capers, crimes, and other oddities of high strangeness.  Typically the villain is a real estate developer who is masquerading as some sort of supernatural being.  Given the skeptical nature of Fred and Wilma, how are the Scooby Gang fooled by masks each and every week?  How do you construct a revolving b...

The Flintstones have been dubbed “The Modern Stone Age Family”, and it is absolutely true.  Despite the fact that they appear to be living in a prehistoric civilization, they have all the conveniences of the modern world, albeit slightly altered to match their resources.  Specialized animals make up the bulk of the work force, including ones that cut grass, quickly chisel pictures, and...

The Jetsons was a show about living in the space age, and all the atomic-powered technology you can fit into one futuristic apartment. George Jetson had everything: robot dogs fueled by nuclear energy, a sentient robot maid named Rosie, and a 3D food printer that was operated with punch cards. He even had a three hour workday! Listen as we discuss these advancements, and how they work together wit...

This is our first episode taking a close look at the physics of the cartoon world of Hanna-Barbera.  Tom & Jerry have had a tumultuous relationship for as long as they have known each other and their uneasy truces quickly dissolve into all out combat.  The physics of that combat is what is really intriguing.  The prick from a pin will send Tom rocketing skyward in pain, completely defying the...

In the latest Wonder Woman movie, a new and reality bending item is introduced:  The Dreamstone.  All someone has to do is touch it, and it will grant one wish.  This is a powerful promise, one that even Wonder Woman falls victim to.  In this episode, we take a look at the way reality is immediately and radically altered, and how that affects the world at large.  We will also take a look at some o...