Six Degrees of Rumination

Reno, Nina, and producer Michael discuss everything from orca rights to the funniest joke in the world. Science continues to fight its way back into mainstream culture with a children's story book about evolution already gaining $25K in backing money on kickstarter.com, with Neil deGrasse Tyson hosting Cosmos and boldly defending scientific thinking in a CNN interview, and NASA is awarding cash pr...

Reno finds a living Barbie who can teach us Breatharianism, producer Michael finds a new program that allows people to read a novel in 90 minutes, and Nina tries to explain disordered hyper-uniformity...but then chaos ensues. http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/02/human-barbie-valeria-lukyanova-going-to-live-on-air-and-light-only-4373394/ http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/02/27/283071610/u-s-lets-141-t...

This episode is dedicated to Harold Ramis. Reno and Nina try to convince producer Michael that technology is ALWAYS amazing--whether you're eating peanuts at 30,000 feet or waving an infrared light to fight enemies on a screen.  Studies on fruit fly neurons show that dendrites in the brain can regrow, thus combating effects from a stroke or brain injuries.  Are we slowly advancing toward becoming...

Reno and Nina see if producer Mike is smarter than 1 in 4 Americans, Reno speculates what the universe was like before the Big Bang, and Nina checks her freezer for anti-biotic-riddled chicken while Reno compares the cost of salad and fast food.  Not surprisingly, pesticides are linked to neuro-developmental learning disabilities in children.  A new "ultra-precise" method to filter water is discov...

How many puns can Reno and Nina make about eggs?  Well, they egg each other on constantly, so a lot.  But if you want to learn about chimerism, you must make it through all of them!  If you suspect you're pooping wrong, you're probably right.  If this embarrasses you, chances are you feel that embarrassment in your face, like much of the world.   Also discussed is how most cells could gain the abi...

In the spirit of calculating infinity, we have dubbed our twelfth episode, "Episode -1/12."  The innovations keep coming as we near the end of the first month of 2014, and each is more inspiring than the next!  Reno and Nina make plans to land on the sun--they will leave, of course, at night.  When they return, maybe they'll take producer Mike out to sushi and see if their rolls are indeed radioac...

Oh, to be human!  We have the unique ability to analyze our thoughts, research the world around us, and use all we learn to do things like: Compress our own ashes into heirloom jewelrySequence tens of thousands of genomes for $1,000Create recognition algorithms that learn without usBuild robots that learn through improvising--and look like Pixar characters! Model biobots after our own sperm And, a...

Hey everyone- The audio is a little wonky on this episode.  My apologies! -Producer Mike Welcome to 2014.  We're surrounded by sound waves that can levitate objects, self-driving cars, pens that can draw conductive circuits, and renewable energy that's only getting more efficient.  Anti-psychotic pharmaceuticals are also developing at an insane rate--want perfect pitch?  Just make sure you suffer...

It's a good thing our universe is just a hologram and nothing matters, because otherwise we'd have to try to understand what that means!   However, if you still find yourself up all night thinking about this concept, take comfort: there are plenty of things to distract you, like using your brain waves to control your blender, acting out video games in your house, making replacement organs with a 3...

Reno's lifestyle choice to be a (semi) vegetarian is further supported by plant based diets that change human intestinal bacteria, a European space probe gets ready to ring in the New Year on a comet, and Mike and Nina realize with improved fiber optics, people on the Internet can show how dumb they are....a lot faster. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/12/10/250007042/chowing-down-on-meat-and...

Because all podcasts, at one time or another, have their random moments.  Sometimes, those moments comprise a whole episode!  Reno and Nina talk about how blind people see, how your smart phone might know you better than you know yourself, how seemingly cute animals are hiding their true natures, and how a newly developing drug may reverse the negative trajectory that leads to Alzheimer's.  These...

Nina and Reno talk about the brain's perception of time, and how long it takes (or seems to take) to impale one's leg on cymbals.  After deducing the coldest object in the universe is not Reno's heart, conversation is momentarily buried in puns--until producer Michael has a breakthrough in understanding space, Nina admits she doesn't know the order of the planets, and Reno interrogates both of the...

Why is immortality reserved just for jellyfish?  Can bio-bots perform rescue missions in the Bermuda triangle?  Has anyone else noticed that Keanu Reeves eerily takes on the flavor of ANY movie? When Mercury retrograde is afoot, these are the questions that come up!  Maybe that same mercurial interference is also responsible for the gaps in Nina's memory, and caused Reno to impale his leg muscle o...

Nina can't stop laughing long enough to introduce the podcast--possibly because of the multiple Greek alphabet jokes made prior to recording.  Luckily, producer Michael is there to jump in, but immediately finds himself under interrogation by Reno and Nina.  Aliases quickly result all around, and the remaining episode is run by Johnny, Kathy, and Gerald/Gerry.  These aliases protect us as we discu...

Producer Michael talks about his and Nina's new EOS, which, while not quite a jet pack, does boast the Optimus Prime feature.  Reno learns Chinese because of his innate percussive abilities, and Nina experiences cognitive dissonance against her will. Hey everyone!  It's Episode 3!!  The sound is not as hot as the past two episode since I was trying something new with microphone placement and with...

Nina's attempt at formal introductions is deterred.  Producer Michael temporarily assumes the role of director as well, and Reno blames Eminem for Detroit's decline...which appears even more devastating when compared to the cleanliness of Burning Man porta potties.  Mike's mind gets "red" and Reno and Nina drown in puns faster than Tim drowned in space. http://www.kurzweilai.net/terminator-polymer...

Reno, Nina, and producer Michael ruminate on everything from how the brain intuits numbers to the implications of glowing green rabbits.  Producer Michael is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, Nina bores everyone by explaining a tesseract, and Reno's synesthesia almost makes him go color blind. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/09/06/219246974/scientists-put-a-sixth-sense-for-numbers-on-brain-...