We Have Concerns

Ikea is urging teenagers to stop creeping into its stores and having illegal sleepovers. About 10 "non-sponsored sleepovers" have been logged across the world by the Swedish furniture giant this year. The craze appears to have been started by two Belgian YouTubers who chronicled their adventure online. Jeff and Anthony discuss hiding out in stores and more generally... where to sleep. GE...

Hundreds of people online have shared memories of a cheesy Nineties movie called “Shazaam”, in which the standup comic Sinbad played a genie. There is no evidence that such a film was ever made. What does this tell us about the quirks of collective memory? Jeff and Anthony discuss the concept of "viral memories" and the potential that this can all be explained by multiple timelines. GET...

A man called Zhao Lianshan distributed fake university admission offers to students admission to the Shandong Institute of Light Industry, through a new pilot program for students who had not scored as well on entrance exams. They could enroll as full-time students for four years, and pay about RMB 8,000 per year in tuition. Sixty-eight students agreed to enroll, and it was not until June 3, 2012,...

Researchers in Toronto have used a technology called “neural karaoke” to teach a computer to write a song after looking at a photo, and the little carol it penned after viewing a festive Christmas tree is absolutely horrifying. Jeff and Anthony take a listen and give their thoughts. Happy holidays everyone! GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get a...

In a study published in the latest edition of the journal Nature Communications, researchers confirmed that Germany's Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion energy device is on track and working as planned. This "star in a jar" technology could essentially provide Earth with limitless clean energy, forever. Jeff and Anthony have a few questions about this breakthrough, and might be worried about...

An amusement park in Japan has been forced to close its skating rink after a torrent of online criticism over its centerpiece: thousands of fish frozen into the ice. Space World in the city of Kitakyushu, south-west Japan, bowed to pressure to close the facility after an online campaign denouncing the piscine graveyard as “cruel”, “immoral” and “weird”. Jeff and Anthony weigh in on the controversy...

Why are humans so prone to running late? New findings published in Hippocampus suggest greater familiarity with an area leads us to overestimate its physical distance, but also has the opposite effect on our judgments of travel times through that space – that is, we underestimate how long it will take us to travel through highly familiar routes. Anthony and Jeff discuss this quirk of the human min...

According to a new study, layers of the upper atmospheres of cold brown dwarf planets sit at temperatures and pressures resembling those on Earth, and could host microbes that surf on thermal updrafts. These represent a whole new area of potential life in the galaxy. Jeff and Anthony discuss finding life on a planet with no actual surface, and what that might mean. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOU...

When a loved one died in parts of England, Scotland, or Wales in the 18th and 19th centuries, the family would grieve, place bread on the chest of the deceased, and call for a man to sit in front of the body. The family of the deceased watched on as this man, the local professional sin eater, absorbed the sins of the departed’s soul. Jeff and Anthony discuss the job of sin-eater, and whether they...

A trio of fishermen in Oman made the catch of a lifetime when they came upon something far more valuable than their normal haul: 176 poundsof sperm-whale vomit. The substance – actually an intestinal secretion called ambergris – could fetch close to US $3 million. Why is whale vomit so valuable? Jeff and Anthony explain. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehave...

Yellowstone National Park contains a narrow corridor less than two miles wide where evildoers could do literally anything, including commit murder, and the law couldn't touch them. Jeff and Anthony discuss the Yellowstone Murder Zone, and how to best use its strange rules to their advantage. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We...

After months of speculation and leaked documents, NASA's long-awaited EM Drive paper has finally been peer-reviewed and published. And it shows that the 'impossible' propulsion system really does appear to work. Jeff gloats as Anthony considers what this might mean for our prospects of dying in space. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all you...

A man in Cologne, Germany was recently tried and convicted to ten months in prison for modifying a bottle recycling machine and swindling tens of thousands of euros from the national recycling system. Jeff and Anthony discuss schemes and the human propensity to do way more work than necessary, just to feel like they are cheating the system. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http:...

Some 82% of middle-schoolers couldn’t distinguish between an ad labeled “sponsored content” and a real news story on a website, according to a Stanford University study of 7,804 students from middle school through college. The study, set for release Tuesday, is the biggest so far on how teens evaluate information they find online. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon....

Ancient viruses and bacteria that have been cryogenically frozen for millennia are waking up, due to global warming. Siberia's permafrost and Greenland's glaciers are melting and thawing, releasing spores that haven't been seen on Earth in millions of years. Can there be a silver lining to this horrifying turn of events? And will Anthony and Jeff discover it, or just melt into their own puddle of...

US military scientists have used electrical brain stimulators to enhance mental skills of staff, in research that aims to boost the performance of air crews, drone operators and others in the armed forces’ most demanding roles. The successful tests of the devices pave the way for servicemen and women to be wired up at critical times of duty, so that electrical pulses can be beamed into their brain...

Police in southern China are punishing drivers who dazzle other road users with full-beam headlights by making them stare into the lights for a minute. Does the punishment fit the crime? Is it effective? Jeff and Anthony discuss. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/s...

According to a report from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, researchers have converted human feces to oil using a process called hydrothermal liquefaction. Hydrothermal liquefaction “mimics the geological conditions the Earth uses to create crude oil, using high pressure and temperature to achieve in minutes something that takes Mother Nature millions of years.” Anthony and Jeff discuss the...

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London who study bees suggest that insects have something like emotional states, and that a sweet treat can change the way bumble bees make decisions, producing something akin — although perhaps distantly related — to optimism. Anthony and Jeff digest this info, and try to make sense of an emotional honeybee. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT...

Some info about this episode: It was recorded right after the US Election We didn't intend it to be an entire episode, it just sort of happened. We had concerns, y'know? You don't have to listen to this one. There's a new episode coming day after tomorrow. Feel free to skip this one. We love you. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your swe...

How do you handle nuclear waste that will be radioactive for millions of years, keeping it from harming people and the environment? It isn’t easy, but a researcher has discovered ways to immobilize such waste – the offshoot of decades of nuclear weapons production – in glass and ceramics. Jeff and Anthony discuss the idea of glass harnessing nuclear waste, and what that might mean for the world. G...

Basketball players that were grimly reminded of their own inevitable demise before playing took more shots and scored more points in a study published in an upcoming issue of Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. The researchers behind the experiments hypothesize that the pep-talk tactic fits with the established “terror management theory,” which proposes that humans are motivated to seek self...

A woman in her 30s was undergoing an operation that involved applying a laser to her cervix, when she passed gas that caught fire causing serious injuries to her body. Jeff and Anthony discuss the idea that all of the technology in the word can be subverted by a simple fart. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns me...

Contagious yawning has been linked to empathy levels in several studies. However, new research in the journal Personality and Individual Differences finds that people with psychopathic traits—especially a lack of empathy—are not as susceptible to catching a case of the yawns. Jeff and Anthony discuss whether not "catching" a yawn makes you a psychopath, and specifically what that means f...

The mass suicide of members of the UFO cult Heaven’s Gate is one of the most bizarre and enduringly fascinating events of the 90s. But nearly 20 years after the strange deaths, part of the cult’s legacy lives on via its perfectly preserved retro website, loyally maintained by two surviving members. Anthony and Jeff discuss the cult, the 90s, and the commitment of these two who were left behind. GE...