The Gifted Kid Complex

The TGKC team put a series of (for the most part, not at all) anonymous messages together for Cher! Moderated by assistant writer/researcher Jenny S. (Oxford French and Philosophy), this is the most blatantly self indulgent instalment of the show to date. It's almost laughable how easy the vast majority of these messages were for Cher to identify. Still, she did get tripped up by the low effort ad...

Boo! It’s our first ever joint hosted episode, just in time for Halloween! This episode, Cher and Teia both wrote games for the debut of this truly co-hosted installation of TGKC. Leaning hard into the philosophy this season, Cher talks philosophical zombies, otherwise known as p-zombies (yes, really) and subjunctive possibility; Teia takes a turn with another academically spooky Connect the Dots....

Ahoy, ye landlubbers! This episode, Teia and Cher test out terrible pirate accents that would send them straight to Davy Jones’ locker, do some pirate mythbusting, and sail the seven seas in an exploration of pirate linguistics. Of course, we also pay our must needed homage to the iconic Zheng Yi Sao, and delve into the depths of East Asian thalassocratic piracy. Teia’s word of the day: Scuttlebut...

It’s the season finale of the first season of TGKC! If you think about it, milk is a terrifying concept. Really ruminate upon it. We’ve normalised it so much in our dairy aisles, but it's a mammalian bodily secretion. Milk and its derivatives are in our food everywhere, and it’s a staple in most cultures (haha dairy joke). Why have humans decided to take the milk from other animals? Why have we co...

This episode, Teia and Cher explore the frontiers of the sense-scape by looking at psychological studies on synaesthesia, ‘sixth’ senses on our earthly kingdom, but also powerful fatidical, clairvoyant women in global history and culture. Only coming up with this theme in the middle of the season, Teia realised that she would have had to tackle both sight and sound in this episode (she miscalculat...

Cher here. If you know me, you know I love IPA. The International Phonetic Alphabet, that is. In fairness, before I went sober, I did enjoy a pint at the pub or at the pool table. Still, India pale ale was never my thing, I was always more of a Lager enjoyer. Today, we explore the story of an accident involving an absolutely absurd quantity of beer in a rookery of London that occurred on the 17th...

You might have caught the scent of where Teia’s going with her episodes this season. A new game, and a flip of the format has Teia and Cher trying to understand diseases that even scientists today don’t fully understand, crafting sordid and slanderous tales, and plumbing the depths of their childhood memories. Why is it that our sense of smell makes us so existential? We’re going to sniff out the...

From mythology to cryptids, today we talk about the most unscientific theories about the real world. Yes, we all know by now that Cher is a science nerd - even despite what her philosophy degree would make you think. Most of the episodes she’s written have been science based in some way. Not only is this episode not about anything factually accurate, it’s about that which straight up does not exis...

This episode, Teia and Cher talk touch on a long-distance, online podcast. Why is it that touch feeds so deeply into a sense of ‘primalness’, or seen as something animalistic? We’d consult our respective pets if we could. We also talk through Cher’s extensive collection of high end fidget toys, and Teia’s deep desire for scented slime. Teia’s quote of the day: “ First of all, the face that should...

In a sick twist of The Gifted Kid Complex canon, Cher hosts a history based episode! That's right, it's a hard divergence from her usual interests, but she tackles Teia's territory in her own way. First, we’ll uncover one story codified in the Takenouchi documents, setting a very well known religious figure somewhere barely anyone would think to place him. To carry on from historical strange twist...

This episode, Teia and Cher illustrate (ha!) that art, in its creation, appreciation, but also destruction , tells us a lot about the ethical and psychological consequences of ‘expressing yourself’ in this day and age. They also chat sh*t about the kinds of art they like, because it’s their podcast, and they make the rules. Teia’s quote of the day: “Good artists exist simply in what they make, and...

Here's the full version of us discussing the fun facts (I promise they are fun) we covered in 'Blue eyes are a lie'! Capillaries: https://training.seer.cancer.gov/anatomy/cardiovascular/blood/classification.html Uvulas and their human uniqueness: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1408233/ Blue eyes and structural colour: https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/your-blue-eyes-arent-really-blue...

Anatomy is strange. Etymology can be even stranger. This episode, Cher implores Teia to attempt identifying parts of the body based solely on their namesake If you know anything about root words, they can appear absolutely out of pocket. What part of the body do you think is named ‘big hole’? We talk about teleological arguments, undoing vasectomies, and doughnut topology. To escape the highbrow n...

Cher wrote a game that contained an Aztec myth. Teia turned the tables and educated Cher about not only Aztecs, but additionally about Incas too, rubbing salt in the wound. Jokes aside, enjoy our first bonus content episode, taken from Episode 1, 'The beginning of an era'. Sources for this bonus episode: The Florentine Codex, Book 12, Chapter 1: https://enl.wired-humanities.org/fcbk12ch01 Compiled...

This episode, Teia and Cher try not to yuck your yum (or yum your yuck) by discussing how we taste food, whether or not we think we would like some weird foods eaten in history, and the gustatory experience in its full qualitative glory. We apologise for the budget ASMR conducted in this episode - we sincerely hope you don’t mind. Teia’s word of the day: Slumgullion /slʌmˈɡʌljən/ Noun: a meat stew...

It’s the first ever episode of The Gifted Kid Complex! In this episode hosted by Cher, we introduce and talk about the meta of the show, about beginnings and myths, then have a bit of a silly laugh at the end talking about an iconic figure of Early Modern Philosophy with whom UCL is scarily, and frankly, concerningly obsessed. Cher’s word of the day: Prolegomenon, /prəʊlɛˈɡɒmɪnən/ Noun: a prelimin...

Teia takes the reins in this episode of The Gifted Kid Complex , as she and Cher attempt to tackle what it feels like living in a body with (hopefully) some success. We contemplate some of the science behind transhumanism, and some of the fiction behind it too, and the scope of what it could do for us in the not so far future. Teia’s quote of the day: ‘Why should our bodies end at the skin, or inc...

I don’t know about you, but I am both fascinated and scared shitless by the ocean. Granted, I’m not one of those old timey seamen standing on the deck yelling that the sea calls to me and that I love her, but I still believe marine biology is truly a marvel. Deep sea gigantism and whale falls, anyone? Something that keeps me up at night though, is that we’ve only explored around 5% of the oceans s...

It's the first bonus (and first overall) episode of The Gifted Kid Complex! This episode is hosted by the creator of the show, Cher C. (UCL Philosophy BA) and presented with Teia C. (Oxford History BA), who hosts every other episode. In this bonus episode, Cher talks Teia through the meta and all the formats she's written for the show, as well as from where all of her ideas were stolen. Three full...

Surprise! It’s the trailer for The Gifted Kid Complex, the show where the panellists were gifted kids and refuse to move on. Today, we briefly introduce the hosts, the structure, and concept for the show; namely, to satirically take on intellectual elitism by having the most (tongue-in-cheek) inane, pedantic, and convoluted conversations every week. Each episode will be hosted by either the creato...