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2 episodes with our obsession
2 episodes with our obsession
3 episodes with our obsession
3 episodes with our obsession
2 episodes with our obsession
3 episodes with our obsession
2 episodes with our obsession
2 episodes with our obsession
2 episodes with our obsession
Historically, how were narratives used around race, species, and the beliefs of Western civilization? What have been the contemporary implications for those earlier societal beliefs?Stefanos Geroulanos is the director of the Remarque Institute, a professor of history at New York University, and the author of several books. His latest book is called The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins. Greg and Stefanos discuss the complexities of defining human nature and the role of prehistory in understanding humanity's origins. Stefanos explores the ongoing debates about human progress, the impact of scientific discoveries like new fossils, and the culturally loaded interpretations of those findings. They also discuss how perspectives on indigenous populations and humanity's past are shaped by evolving scientific interpretations and narrative constructions, highlighting the intersection of science and politics in the research of human origins.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Show Links:Recommended Resources:TacitusCharles DarwinJean-Jacques RousseauThomas HobbesNapoleon ChagnonThe Dawn of EverythingJane GoodallMax MüllerMaurice OlenderRaymond DartNeanderthalThe Clan of the Cave BearGustav Victor Rudolf BornMemento moriOzymandiasAdam SmithGuest Profile:Stefanos-Geroulanos.comFaculty Profile at NYUHis Work:Amazon Author PageThe Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human OriginsTransparency in Postwar France: A Critical History of the PresentThe Scaffolding of Sovereignty: Global and Aesthetic Perspectives on the History of a ConceptAn Atheism That Is Not Humanist Emerges in French ThoughtThe Problem of the FetishThe Human Body in the Age of Catastrophe: Brittleness, Integration, Science, and the Great WarStaging the Third Reich: Essays in Cultural and Intellectual HistoryThe Routledge Handbook of the History and Sociology of IdeasPower and Time: Temporalities in Conflict and the Making of HistoryWritings on MedicineKnowledge of LifeSelected Writings: On Self-Organization, Philosophy, Bioethics, and JudaismEpisode Quotes:Understanding who we are as humans is key to recognizing our differences47:37: If we can begin to admit that we are people who are culturally fundamentally, economically fundamentally different—our lemons come from half a world away, the meat that we consume from another half a world away, and so on. If we come around to understanding that our family structures, our relationships, our religious questions are structured in a different form, that our world is technologically bound, and that ultimately, one way or another, we have biological connections, but even our microbiomes must be fundamentally different from what ancient microbiomes were, then we will not end up having this need to say, "Here's where it's all begun."Recognizing fundamental problems in our story opens paths beyond human origins research54:49: Recognizing that there have been fundamental problems with a story is one path to recognizing that some of the things we believe in, and some of the hopes we want set, are not necessarily bound by that story entirely, nor were they ever necessarily or entirely bound by that story. I don't think that moral arguments would have ever utterly depended on human origins research.How human origins research helped overcome traditional views02:53: Human origins became really key at several stages, and at each of those stages, something absolutely current or something truly urgent was in play. Some of these moments had to do with overcoming traditional religious answers. Others had to do with an overcoming of ideas of human nature, so that certain kinds of stability of human nature and so on. Let's not pretend that they simply disappeared, but they did become secondary. And so human origins research came to fill that void. And in some respects, that's a real advance. And in some respects, that's a problem.Two stories that helped convince people about evolution44:40: I kept thinking, in some way, whether these stories of prehistory helped convince people about evolution. And I really thought that there were two of them that did. One was the bit that we were saying before about the thin veneer—that people came to use the expression so much and to believe there is a continuity between our antiquity and now. Not simply between another, meaning an indigenous person somewhere, but that person was a reflection of who we were. And that helped create the broader belief in human continuity. But the other one was this sense about a renaissance, that people would have to somehow come to this astonishing realization that their body is made of hundreds of thousands, millions of years, which is a story that they couldn't think of without these ruins within.
July 14 2024-What Ottawa Promised at the NATO Summit & The History of Our Obsession with Cats Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has finally announced that Canada intends to meet Nato's 2% military spending target by 2032. The last minute announcement came after heavy criticism from allies at this week's NATO summit in Washington. Libby Znaimer reached Prof. Stephen Saidman at the NATO Summit Expert Forum in Washington DC. And, Their antics take up a huge amount of bandwidth on the Internet and we are vastly amused at seeing them dressed as humans and doing human-like things. I am speaking , of course, about cats. But it wasn't always this way. Cats were seen as common pests mainly useful for catching mice until the end of the 19th century. That's when author and historian Kathryn Hughes says the great cat mania set in. Libby reached her in London to talk about her book, "Catland".
What does it mean to be human? What do we know about the true history of humankind? In this episode, I spoke with historian and NYU professor Stefanos Geroulanos to discuss his new book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) to discover how claims about the earliest humans and humankind's true beginnings inform political and social practices to this day. How do the various stories we tell about human origins, including those about neanderthals, homo sapiens, killer apes, noble savages, and missing links shape the modern world? Have you followed a keto diet, become aware of your reptile brain, idealized a pre-modern state of existence or demonized others as behaving like Neanderthals? Geroulanos explains how accounts of prehistory arise in particular historical moments to solve contemporary problems, often linked to but as often quite apart from actual scientific knowledge. The Invention of Prehistory provides a crucial and timely examination of how the pursuit of understanding humanity's beginnings has been intertwined with agendas of war and domination. Further Listening on the Think About It podcast: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's “The Social Contract” with Melissa Schwartzberg Michel Foucault on Truth and Knowledge with Ann Stoler Sigmund Freud's “Civilization and its Discontents” with Peter Brooks The Alarmingly Relevant Hannah Arendt with Richard Bernstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What does it mean to be human? What do we know about the true history of humankind? In this episode, I spoke with historian and NYU professor Stefanos Geroulanos to discuss his new book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) to discover how claims about the earliest humans and humankind's true beginnings inform political and social practices to this day. How do the various stories we tell about human origins, including those about neanderthals, homo sapiens, killer apes, noble savages, and missing links shape the modern world? Have you followed a keto diet, become aware of your reptile brain, idealized a pre-modern state of existence or demonized others as behaving like Neanderthals? Geroulanos explains how accounts of prehistory arise in particular historical moments to solve contemporary problems, often linked to but as often quite apart from actual scientific knowledge. The Invention of Prehistory provides a crucial and timely examination of how the pursuit of understanding humanity's beginnings has been intertwined with agendas of war and domination. Further Listening on the Think About It podcast: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's “The Social Contract” with Melissa Schwartzberg Michel Foucault on Truth and Knowledge with Ann Stoler Sigmund Freud's “Civilization and its Discontents” with Peter Brooks The Alarmingly Relevant Hannah Arendt with Richard Bernstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
What does it mean to be human? What do we know about the true history of humankind? In this episode, I spoke with historian and NYU professor Stefanos Geroulanos to discuss his new book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) to discover how claims about the earliest humans and humankind's true beginnings inform political and social practices to this day. How do the various stories we tell about human origins, including those about neanderthals, homo sapiens, killer apes, noble savages, and missing links shape the modern world? Have you followed a keto diet, become aware of your reptile brain, idealized a pre-modern state of existence or demonized others as behaving like Neanderthals? Geroulanos explains how accounts of prehistory arise in particular historical moments to solve contemporary problems, often linked to but as often quite apart from actual scientific knowledge. The Invention of Prehistory provides a crucial and timely examination of how the pursuit of understanding humanity's beginnings has been intertwined with agendas of war and domination. Further Listening on the Think About It podcast: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's “The Social Contract” with Melissa Schwartzberg Michel Foucault on Truth and Knowledge with Ann Stoler Sigmund Freud's “Civilization and its Discontents” with Peter Brooks The Alarmingly Relevant Hannah Arendt with Richard Bernstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
What does it mean to be human? What do we know about the true history of humankind? In this episode, I spoke with historian and NYU professor Stefanos Geroulanos to discuss his new book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) to discover how claims about the earliest humans and humankind's true beginnings inform political and social practices to this day. How do the various stories we tell about human origins, including those about neanderthals, homo sapiens, killer apes, noble savages, and missing links shape the modern world? Have you followed a keto diet, become aware of your reptile brain, idealized a pre-modern state of existence or demonized others as behaving like Neanderthals? Geroulanos explains how accounts of prehistory arise in particular historical moments to solve contemporary problems, often linked to but as often quite apart from actual scientific knowledge. The Invention of Prehistory provides a crucial and timely examination of how the pursuit of understanding humanity's beginnings has been intertwined with agendas of war and domination. Further Listening on the Think About It podcast: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's “The Social Contract” with Melissa Schwartzberg Michel Foucault on Truth and Knowledge with Ann Stoler Sigmund Freud's “Civilization and its Discontents” with Peter Brooks The Alarmingly Relevant Hannah Arendt with Richard Bernstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history
What does it mean to be human? What do we know about the true history of humankind? In this episode, I spoke with historian and NYU professor Stefanos Geroulanos to discuss his new book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) to discover how claims about the earliest humans and humankind's true beginnings inform political and social practices to this day. How do the various stories we tell about human origins, including those about neanderthals, homo sapiens, killer apes, noble savages, and missing links shape the modern world? Have you followed a keto diet, become aware of your reptile brain, idealized a pre-modern state of existence or demonized others as behaving like Neanderthals? Geroulanos explains how accounts of prehistory arise in particular historical moments to solve contemporary problems, often linked to but as often quite apart from actual scientific knowledge. The Invention of Prehistory provides a crucial and timely examination of how the pursuit of understanding humanity's beginnings has been intertwined with agendas of war and domination. Further Listening on the Think About It podcast: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's “The Social Contract” with Melissa Schwartzberg Michel Foucault on Truth and Knowledge with Ann Stoler Sigmund Freud's “Civilization and its Discontents” with Peter Brooks The Alarmingly Relevant Hannah Arendt with Richard Bernstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What does it mean to be human? What do we know about the true history of humankind? In this episode, I spoke with historian and NYU professor Stefanos Geroulanos to discuss his new book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) to discover how claims about the earliest humans and humankind's true beginnings inform political and social practices to this day. How do the various stories we tell about human origins, including those about neanderthals, homo sapiens, killer apes, noble savages, and missing links shape the modern world? Have you followed a keto diet, become aware of your reptile brain, idealized a pre-modern state of existence or demonized others as behaving like Neanderthals? Geroulanos explains how accounts of prehistory arise in particular historical moments to solve contemporary problems, often linked to but as often quite apart from actual scientific knowledge. The Invention of Prehistory provides a crucial and timely examination of how the pursuit of understanding humanity's beginnings has been intertwined with agendas of war and domination. Further Listening on the Think About It podcast: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's “The Social Contract” with Melissa Schwartzberg Michel Foucault on Truth and Knowledge with Ann Stoler Sigmund Freud's “Civilization and its Discontents” with Peter Brooks The Alarmingly Relevant Hannah Arendt with Richard Bernstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies
What does it mean to be human? What do we know about the true history of humankind? In this episode, I spoke with historian and NYU professor Stefanos Geroulanos to discuss his new book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) to discover how claims about the earliest humans and humankind's true beginnings inform political and social practices to this day. How do the various stories we tell about human origins, including those about neanderthals, homo sapiens, killer apes, noble savages, and missing links shape the modern world? Have you followed a keto diet, become aware of your reptile brain, idealized a pre-modern state of existence or demonized others as behaving like Neanderthals? Geroulanos explains how accounts of prehistory arise in particular historical moments to solve contemporary problems, often linked to but as often quite apart from actual scientific knowledge. The Invention of Prehistory provides a crucial and timely examination of how the pursuit of understanding humanity's beginnings has been intertwined with agendas of war and domination. Further Listening on the Think About It podcast: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's “The Social Contract” with Melissa Schwartzberg Michel Foucault on Truth and Knowledge with Ann Stoler Sigmund Freud's “Civilization and its Discontents” with Peter Brooks The Alarmingly Relevant Hannah Arendt with Richard Bernstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this conversation at the Review of Democracy, Stefanos Geroulanos – author of The Invention of Prehistory. Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins – sketches the major ways the story of humanity's emergence has been conceived over the past two and a half centuries; shows how such conceptions can shed light on the history of the modern world; discusses what has made this generative intellectual tradition also one of the most ruinous; and reflects on what our fashionable prehistories may reveal about the kind of world we currently live in. Stefanos Geroulanos is the Director of the Remarque Institute and a Professor of History at New York University. The Invention of Prehistory. Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins is published by W.W. Norton. The conversation has been conducted by Ferenc Laczó. The audio recording has been edited by Lucie Hunter.
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Stefanos Geroulanos about the history of prehistory. They talk about why studying history is important and why it is not final, the emphasis on the nature of man, why Rousseau and Hobbes' ideas still persist, human nature and equality, and the impact of Darwin. They also talk about the impact of Marx, Neanderthals, thin veneer, and the instincts, Freud's contribution, Nazi party, how we continue to understand history, and many more topics.Stefanos Geroulanos is Director of the Remarque Institute and a professor of history at New York University. He has his BA from Princeton and his PhD from Johns Hopkins. From 2015-2017, he was Director of the Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences at NYU. His research focuses on histories of the concepts that weave together understanding of the human, of time, and of the body. He has written many books, including the most recent book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins. Website: https://www.stefanos-geroulanos.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/german-studies
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/archaeology
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/french-studies
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins (Liveright, 2024) acclaimed historian Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Dr. Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West's imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Dr. Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies
Part 4 David Leo Rice New books in 2024 The Berlin Wall The Squimbop Condition Conclusion to the Dodge City series - A Room in Dodge City Volume 3 Highlights of 2023 Adam Levin Mount Chicago and Bubblegum and looking forward to the reissue of The Instructions The Morning Star - Karl Ove Knausgård Looking forward to The Wolves of Eternity The Shards - BEE The Passenger - Cormac McCarthy The Maniac - Benjamin Labatut Peace - Gene Wolf The General of the Dead Army - Ismail Kadare Patrick Modiano books Pet Cemetery - Stephen King 2024 The Obscene Bird of Night - Jose Donoso How I killed The Universal Man - Thomas Kendall Inland - Murnane Molly - Blake Butler Other Minds - Bennett Simms New Houellebecq Same Bed Different Dreams - Ed Park Youval Shimoni - The Salt Line / A Room Merve Emre K Patrick - Mrs S Liliana's Invincible Summer: A Sister's Search for Justice - Cristina Rivera Garza Catherine Lacey - Biography of X The Rigour of Angels - William Eggington Art Monsters - Lauren Elkin The Man Who Cried I am - John A Williams The Chapter - Nicke Dames 2024 Corey Fah Does Social Mobility - Isabel Waidner Sheila Heti - Alphabet Diaries Biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson Glad to the Brink of Fear- James Marcus The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins- Stefanos Geroulanos How the World Made the West - Josephine Crawley Quinn Alexis Wright - Praiseworthy Monkey Grip - Helen Garner Inland - Murnane Something Speaks to me - Michel Chaouli Odd Affinities - Elizabeth Abel Daniel Fraser 2023 Peter Levy - Poetry A.V. Marrachini - We The Parasites Maurice Blanchot - Kevin Hart Hotel Splendid - Marie Redonnet 2024 Celan Letters to Gisèle Obscene Bird of Night Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel - Yoko Tawada See also Antonio Tabucchi Requiem New Anne Carson book - Wrong Norma Crisis Actor - Declan Ryan Ada Best book of 2023 - Making Friends 3 - Kristen Gudsnuk Looking forward to in 2024 - Making Friends 4 Richard Milward Best of 2023 Fingers Crossed Miki Berenyi Ali Millar - The Last Days Luke Turner - Men at War Lolita - Reread Irving Welsh - Trainspotting Collected Alan Ginsberg 2024 Ava Anna Ada - Ali Millar New David Keenan Joel Gion - In the Jingle Jangle Jungle Richard Foster - Flower Factory Bram Presser Columba's Bones: Darkland Tales - David Greig Of Cattle and Men - Ana Paula Maia Gibbons - James Morrison Corey Fah Does Social Mobility - Isabel Waidner Sebastian Castillo - SALMON The Crane Husband - Kelly Barnhill Philippe Claudel - German Fantasia Vladimir Voinovich - The Fur Hat The Confessions of a False Soul - Ilarie Voronca The Strangers - Jon Bilbao Max Porter - Shy For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain - Victoria MacKenzie Study for Obedience - Sarah Bernstein The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride Biography of X - Catherine Lacey Justin Torres - Blackout Gone to the Wolves - John Wray The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers Guild - Enard My Work - Olga Ravn Marie NDiaye - Vengeance is Mine Jenny Croft - The Extinction of Irena Rey
I was once eating dinner alone at a bar in Petaluma, CA when a fellow solo diner started a conversation by saying, “I'm no conspiracy theorist but…” and what came out of his mouth would make Dan Brown raise an eyebrow. When I was offered the chance to speak with Colin Dickey, who recently wrote a book on the history of conspiracy theories, I jumped at the chance. Meet Colin Dickey Colin is a writer, speaker, and academic, who has made a career out of collecting unusual objects and hidden histories all over the country. He's the author of multiple books, including Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places and The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained. He Joined me on Uncorking a Story to talk about his latest book, Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy. Key Takeaways The historical roots and implications of conspiracy theories: Colin delves into the origins of conspiracy theories, exploring how they have been used to suppress social change and perpetuate anti-Semitism. The persistent influence of conspiracy theories and social media: Colin discusses how social media platforms and algorithms have contributed to the spread and popularity of conspiracy theories, emphasizing that they are not going away anytime soon. The emotional appeal and function of conspiracy theories: Colin explores the psychological aspects of conspiracy theories, highlighting their ability to provide reassurance and make sense of a chaotic world. Skepticism towards UFO coverage on TV channels: Colin expresses his skepticism towards the way UFO encounters are portrayed in television specials, encouraging listeners to critically analyze the information presented. Addressing conspiracy theories on an interpersonal level: Colin suggests that combating conspiracy theories requires understanding the underlying motivations and addressing them individually, rather than solely relying on media platforms to solve the issue. Buy Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy Amazon: https://amzn.to/44Zmq9A Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9780593299456 Connect With Colin Website: https://colindickey.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colindickey/ Connect with Mike Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSvS4fuG3L1JMZeOyHvfk_g Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/ If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. If you have not done so already, please rate and review Uncorking a Story on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. #Uncorkingastory #ColinDickey #ConspiracyTheoriesExplained #UFOCoverageSkepticism#AddressingConspiracyTheories #PsychologyOfConspiracyTheories #ConspiracyTheoriesOnSocialMedia #ConspiracyTheoryOrigins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mars. Mars has fully invaded pop culture, inspiring its own day of the week (Tuesday), an iconic Looney Tunes character, and many novels and movies, from Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles to The Martian. It's this cultural familiarity with the fourth planet that continues to inspire advancements in Mars exploration, from NASA's launch of the Mars rover Perseverance to Elon Musk's quest to launch a manned mission to Mars through SpaceX by 2024. Perhaps, one day, we'll be able to answer the questions our ancestors asked when they looked up at the night sky millennia ago. Or, we'll just listen to this conversation with Marc Hartzman! Author of The Big Book of Mars, Marc describes how Mars has been a source of fascination and speculation ever since the ancient Egyptians observed its blood-red hue and named it for their god of war and plague. But it wasn't until the 19th century when “canals” were observed on the surface of the Red Planet, suggesting the presence of water, that scientists, novelists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs became obsessed with the question of whether there's life on Mars. If there IS life on Mars, I bet they'll enjoy reading about themselves in Marc's book! More about Marc: ABCnews.com has called Marc Hartzman "one of America's leading connoisseurs of the bizarre" and George Noory from Coast to Coast AM said he's "as bizarre as Robert Ripley." Hartzman considers both high compliments since his passion for the unusual started with Ripley's Believe It Or Not and the annual Guinness World Records books during his youth. In addition to his books about UFOs, ghosts, Mars, Oliver Cromwell's embalmed head, weird things on eBay, sideshow performers, and unorthodox messages from God, Hartzman has written for Mental Floss, HuffPost, AOL Weird News, AllThatsInteresting.com, The Morbid Anatomy Online Journal, and Bizarre magazine. He's discussed oddities on CNN, MSNBC, Ripley's Radio, History Channel's The UnXplained, the Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum, and dozens of podcasts. More of his love for the unusual can be found on his site, WeirdHistorian.com. Outside of these projects, Hartzman earns a living as an award-winning advertising creative director. Marc is also a STORIES of Space Project Ambassador and story contributor! Want more cool stories about fun and weird stuff? Listen to Marc's Podcast, the Weird Historian! https://www.weirdhistorian.com/the-podcast/ Enjoy The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, A Deep-Space Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Mars-Deep-Space-Obsession/dp/1683692098 Pre-order Marc's New Book! We Are Not Alone: The Extraordinary History of UFOs and Aliens Invading Our Hopes, Fears, and Fantasies https://www.amazon.com/dp/1683693353/ref=cm_sw_r_as_gl_api_gl_i_0CXVB2JQNW37YBS5NP8N?linkCode=ml1&tag=godmademedoit-20
What I learned from Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals by John Gray. Join the Nat's Notes Newsletter to get my top highlights from the book. Books Mentioned in the Episode: The Fourth Turning: https://geni.us/fourth-turning-nat Meditations: https://geni.us/meditations-nat Works and Days: https://geni.us/works-days-nat The Drama of the Gifted Child: https://geni.us/drama-gifted-nat Atomic Habits: https://geni.us/atomic-habits-nat Power of Habit: https://geni.us/power-habit-nat Darwin's Dangerous Idea: https://geni.us/darwins-idea-nat Denial of Death: https://geni.us/denial-death-nat Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:34) Why This Book (03:00) Progress is a Myth (05:52) We're Not That Different from Animals (10:03) Science is a Form of Faith (13:48) The Self is an Illusion (20:02) Morality Moves in Cycles (23:15) Our Obsession with Control (26:51) We're Terrified We're Useless (29:13) We Use Productivity as Escapism (33:13) The Purpose of Life If you enjoyed this show, please let me know on Twitter (@nateliason) or Instagram (@nat_eliason)
Hey, friends! Happy Wednesday! In this episode, Amanda tells us all about Gallup, New Mexico's haunted El Rancho Hotel. Then Sannah dives into the mysteries of Mount Shasta. Do you have a personal #SHOOKstory you would like us to share on a future episode? Submit your spooky story here: https://www.shookpodcast.com/shareyourstory.html Alternatively, you can send an email to shookparanormalpod@gmail.com Let's be friends! All our main links: https://linktr.ee/shookpodcast Exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/shookpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shookpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5XKSY_rzrBDOeMhz7guhA TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shookpodcast Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Shookpodcast/ Every Season is Spooky Season… https://www.facebook.com/groups/1115739589042652 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shookparanormalpod This episode was made possible by Riverside Sources: Ghost Adventures, S24, E2 TripAdvisor - El Rancho Hotel Hauntedhouses.com - El Rancho Hotel Hotelengine.com - Stories from America's 15 Most Haunted Hotels Here's Why You Keep Seeing 7 Everywhere by Ysolt Usigan Ancient Aliens, S17, E4 There's Something About Mt. Shasta by Laura Kiniry for Atlas Obscura The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey
The Stuph File Program Featuring Dr. Chris Whaley; Marc Hartzman, from WeirdHistorian.com; & W.L. Hawkin, author of Lure: Jesse & Hawk Download Dr. Chris Whaley has had an interesting life. He started out as a pro wrestler, known as The Saint, became a pastor, and then a vigilante. His first book was called The Masked Saint, which was based on his true story and made into an award-winning movie. His second book, Harold's Heavenly Christmas will be a Movie of the Week. Marc Hartzman, from WeirdHistorian.com talks about Stories Of Space, which will be sending stories into the atmosphere on a rocket that's launching in August. Marc is also the author of The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, A Deep-Space Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet. W.L Hawkin is the author of the indigenous thriller, Lure: Jesse & Hawk. Now you can listen to selected items from The Stuph File Program on the audio service, Audea. A great way to keep up with many of the interviews from the show and take a trip down memory lane to when this show began back in 2009, with over 800 selections to choose from! This week's guest slate is presented by Christine Milks, a floral designer in Gananoque, Ontario who, for the last 15 years has written The Constant Gardener, a gardening column in Vista Magazine, a publication of the Kingston Seniors Centre.
Why are there so many stories about creature, places, and things we can't prove are real? Colin Dickey, cultural historian and author of "The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained," explains our fascination with the unexplainable.
Join us as we talk with writer and academic, Colin Dickey, and discuss hot takes of ghost hunting shows as reality TV, the banality of evil, and how haunted architecture reflects what society is most afraid of. Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of death, the Satanic Panic, ableism, gun violence, toxic masculinity, murder, Flat Earth and conspiracy theories, anti-semietism, sexual assault/abuse, infanticide, and assassination. Guest Colin Dickey is a writer, speaker, and academic, and has made a career out of collecting unusual objects and hidden histories all over the country. He's the author of multiple books, including Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, and The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained. A regular contributor to the New Republic and Lapham's Quarterly, he is also the co editor of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology. Check out his upcoming book, Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy. Housekeeping - Recommendation: This week, Julia recommends The Bright and Breaking Sea by Chloe Neill - Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests' books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books - Call to Action: Check out Join the Party, a collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast co-hosted in part by Julia and Amanda. Search for Join the Party in your podcast app, or go to jointhepartypod.com. Sponsors - BetterHelp is an online therapy service. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/spirits - Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo, available in your podcast app now or at jayacunzo.com/unthinkable-podcast Find Us Online If you like Spirits, help us grow by spreading the word! Follow us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. You can support us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/spiritspodcast) to unlock bonus Your Urban Legends episodes, director's commentaries, custom recipe cards, and so much more. We also have lists of our book recommendations and previous guests' books at http://spiritspodcast.com/books. Transcripts are available at http://spiritspodcast.com/episodes. To buy merch, hear us on other podcasts, contact us, find our mailing address, or download our press kit, head on over to http://spiritspodcast.com. About Us Spirits was created by Julia Schifini, Amanda McLoughlin and Eric Schneider. We are founding members of Multitude, an independent podcast collective and production studio. Our music is "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0.
The M-Score is warning that the chance of fraud is the highest in over 40 years; Did KPMG fail to issue a critical audit matter for Silicon Valley Bank?; The spreadsheet apocalypse, revisited; Former startup founder charged by prosecutors for defrauding JPMorgan Chase; EY split fails; watch out for AI voice cloning scams; and more!SponsorsOh My Fraud - https://ohmyfraud.com/Relay - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/relayClient Hub - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/clienthubChapters (00:00) - Preview: Incentives to allow fraudulent users (00:52) - Introduction and welcome to the show (03:51) - WSJ reports fraud indicator "M" score is up (08:52) - Should KPMG have issued a critical audit matter for SVB? (16:13) - EY no longer to split off auditing (18:36) - JPMorgan defrauded for $175 million by startup founder (23:10) - CPA in Bakersfield stole $355,000 from investors (24:20) - Block accused of allowing fake accounts to boost their user growth numbers (27:37) - Square is changing their refund policy to not refund processing fees (28:52) - A few new Intuit announcements (31:55) - Security risks with AI and voice cloning is happening in real life (35:42) - Microsoft Loop (40:23) - Nicholas asks for recs for CPAs who want to start their own small firm (46:54) - Michael's email about barriers to CPA (48:26) - Corey from Minnesota CPA Society shares message and website with resources (49:31) - Will AI attract or detract more people to the accounting profession? (57:54) - Blake co-wrote an article for CPA Practice Advisor (01:02:35) - Wrap up and where to reach us Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpeShow NotesIntuit QuickBooks Launches Rest-of-World App Store - CPA Practice Advisorhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/04/11/intuit-quickbooks-launches-rest-of-world-app-store/78582/ EY's leaders missed a brewing revolt at the firm's biggest operation. Soon, their deal was scuttledhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/ey-breakup-plan-doomed-by-miscalculations-and-powerful-opponents-61b7e02d ‘I've got your daughter': Scottsdale mom warns of close call with AI voice cloning scamhttps://www.azfamily.com/2023/04/10/ive-got-your-daughter-scottsdale-mom-warns-close-encounter-with-ai-voice-cloning-scam/ Bond losses such as those at Silicon Valley Bank could have been raised as “critical audit matters”—a measure designed to help investors decode risks and uncertainties buried in financial statementshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/auditors-didnt-flag-risks-building-up-in-banks-6506585c Former Start-Up Founder Charged by Prosecutors for Defrauding JPMorgan Chasehttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/business/charlie-javice-jpmorgan-fraud.html The Spreadsheet Apocalypse, Revisited [Chart]https://twitter.com/johnnosta/status/1641586085640695810?s=12 The M-Score is warning that the chance of fraud at major companies is the highest in over 40 years, writes Numbers columnist @JoshZumbrunhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/accounting-fraud-indicator-signals-coming-economic-trouble-506568a0 New Microsoft Loop app is built for co-creation | Microsoft 365 Bloghttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/03/22/new-microsoft-loop-app-is-built-for-modern-co-creation/ Shares of the payments company formerly known as Square fell more than 20% in early trading Thursday after a short seller questioned the company's user numbers and accused it of predatory tacticshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/short-seller-hindenburg-says-jack-dorseys-payments-company-inflates-user-numbers-f3216466 Startup CEO charged in $175 million fraud case https://abcnews.go.com/Business/startup-ceo-charged-175-million-fraud-case/story?id=98363900 Our Obsession with Hours Is Destroying the Accounting Professionhttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/04/12/our-obsession-with-hours-is-destroying-the-accounting-profession/78643/ Accounting firm EY calls off 'Project Everest' to break up firmhttps://www.bbc.com/news/65247525 Intuit QuickBooks Launches Rest-of-World App Storehttps://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2023/04/11/intuit-quickbooks-launches-rest-of-world-app-store/78582/ Intuit Mailchimp Launches Email Content Generatorhttps://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=158086 Mailchimp's new GPT-powered AI tool can write marketing emailshttps://www.fastcompany.com/90877547/mailchimp-gpt-powered-tool-can-write-marketing-emailsGet in TouchThanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and, if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes, or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast ClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/Future Firm Accelerate - https://futurefirmaccelerate.com/capUncat - https://www.uncat.com/Nett Tracker - https://www.nett-tracker.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let the listeners of The Cloud Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page
We discussed at length about Jane Austen's most famous novel, "Pride & Prejudice" (in 2 parts!). But in case you still had a taste for more Jane Austen content, we've included an expert interview with Ingrid Satelmajer, a professor at the University of Maryland, who has taught a class called titled, "Jane Austen: Her World, Our Obsession". She discusses Austen's enduring legacy, what makes Elizabeth such a compelling protagonist, and how her students have engaged with Austen in a more modern setting. These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at TheseBooksMadeMe@pgcmls.info. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.
Today we find out nurses can be dumb, and then we board United Airlines Flight 811 to take a journey into your worst nightmare! Patreon https://www.patreon.com/user?u=18482113 PayPal Donation Link https://tinyurl.com/mrxe36ph MERCH STORE!!! https://tinyurl.com/y8zam4o2 Amazon Wish List https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/28CIOGSFRUXAD?ref_=wl_share Dead Rabbit Radio Wiki https://deadrabbitradio.pods.monster/doku.php?id=Welcome Help Promote Dead Rabbit! Dual Flyer https://i.imgur.com/OhuoI2v.jpg "As Above" Flyer https://i.imgur.com/yobMtUp.jpg “Alien Flyer” By TVP VT U https://imgur.com/gallery/aPN1Fnw Links: EP 175 - The Burly Beast Of Boggy Creek! (Kentucky Meat Shower episode) https://deadrabbitradio.libsyn.com/ep-175-the-burly-beast-of-boggy-creek EP 98 - Paranormal Pornstars (Flight 401 Haunted Airplane episode) https://deadrabbitradio.libsyn.com/ep-98-paranormal-pornstars EP 922 - The Unseen (Haunted Hello Kitty Doll episode) https://deadrabbitradio.libsyn.com/ep-922-the-unseen The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained https://tinyurl.com/apv9c66h Woman dies after accidentally injected with soup https://www.neogaf.com/threads/woman-dies-after-accidentally-injected-with-soup.495385/ Ilda Vitor Maciel, 88, Dies After Allegedly Being Injected With Soup https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ilda-vitor-maciel-dies-soup-injection_n_1967495 88-year-old woman dies after receiving soup in a vein at a hospital in RJ (With Video News Report) http://g1.globo.com/jornal-hoje/noticia/2012/10/mulher-de-88-anos-morre-apos-receber-sopa-na-veia-em-hospital-do-rj.html Woman Dies After Accidentally Injected With Soup https://www.khq.com/news/woman-dies-after-accidentally-injected-with-soup/article_bde4fc4b-89e4-57d3-9147-f043b037477a.html Shock as woman dies after chicken soup injection https://www.pd.co.ke/news/shock-as-woman-dies-after-chicken-soup-injection-26460/ The Institution https://www.scbm.org.br/sobre The haunted story of flight 811 https://archive.vn/TxALK United Airlines Flight 811 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_811 Death of an airliner https://airscapemag.com/2016/05/23/united-flight-811/ Temperature needed to freeze moving water https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/temperature-needed-to-freeze-moving-water.515414/ Pan Am Flight 103 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103 Horror of United flight 811: Suellyn Caudwell recalls moment nine people were sucked out of plane https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/horror-of-united-flight-811-suellyn-caudwell-recalls-moment-nine-people-were-sucked-out-of-plane/5WWB4K423RQECJAE23MF7Z7W7U/ 'It was so loud and dark': Recalling the horror of Flight 811 https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/103467220/it-was-so-loud-and-dark-recalling-the-horror-of-flight-811 'It was a miracle we survived': Passengers tell of horror on board a plane hit by severe turbulence that left cabin crew in neck braces with head wounds, 23 hospitalised and ceiling panels broken https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3627356/It-miracle-survived-Passengers-tell-horror-board-plane-hit-severe-turbulence-left-cabin-crew-neck-braces-head-wounds-23-hospitalised-ceiling-panels-broken.html Hurt during flight turbulence, she's paralyzed https://www.today.com/news/hurt-during-flight-turbulence-she-s-paralyzed-wbna30938294 Listen to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts! ------------------------------------------------ Logo Art By Ash Black Opening Song: "Atlantis Attacks" Closing Song: "Bella Royale" Music By Simple Rabbitron 3000 created by Eerbud Thanks to Chris K, Founder Of The Golden Rabbit Brigade Dead Rabbit Archivist Some Weirdo On Twitter AKA Jack YouTube Champ Stewart Meatball The Haunted Mic Arm provided by Chyme Chili The Golden Rabbit Army: Fabio N, Chyme Chili, Greg Gourley Wiki By Germ Pintrest https://www.pinterest.com/basque5150/jason-carpenter-hood-river/ http://www.DeadRabbit.com Email: DeadRabbitRadio@gmail.com Twitter: @DeadRabbitRadio Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DeadRabbitRadio TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@deadrabbitradio Jason Carpenter PO Box 1363 Hood River, OR 97031 Paranormal, Conspiracy, and True Crime news as it happens! Jason Carpenter breaks the stories they'll be talking about tomorrow, assuming the world doesn't end today. All episodes researched, recorded, edited, and produced by Jason Carpenter All Contents Of This Podcast Copyright Jason Carpenter 2018 – 2022
Colin Dickey is one of American Hysteria's biggest influences—our episodes called Talking to the Dead and Alien Abductions relied on his books Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places and The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained. His newest piece is called Land of Delusion and it explores two new bizarre conspiracy theories that center around secret societies and buried histories. We'll talk about the conspiratorial tales we keep telling and how we address this increasingly disturbing Land of Delusion. Try Scribd now to get Colin Dickey's Land of Delusion Find more of Colin's work here Join our Patreon! Produced by Miranda Zickler Sound design by Clear Commo Studios Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
THE BIOMEDICAL SECURITY STATE, Part One I am not a number. I am a free man. #6, The Prisoner In the 1960s TV show, The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan's character is an unnamed British intelligence agent who resigns from his job for reasons never explained, is gassed, and wakes up imprisoned in a deceptively lovely place called The Village. He is assigned the number Six to identify him. In the first episode, he meets with number Two, who tells him, “The information in your head is priceless. I don't know if you realize how valuable a property you are.” In that first meeting, number Six finds out that “they” have been monitoring him his whole life. Number Two tells him, ‘There's not much we don't know about you, but one likes to know everything.” This obsession with “knowing” has been going on for thousands of years. To be reduced to a number so that we can be more easily studied and categorized. To lose our individuality, while at the same time being told we are important because of the information we carry inside of us. What does that do to a person's sense of self? To continue reading, please go to Digital ID and Our Obsession with "Identity" (substack.com) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/kh-mezek/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kh-mezek/support
In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational--in fringe--is on the rise: from Atlantis to aliens, from Flat Earth to the Loch Ness monster, the list goes on. Enter Colin Dickey, Cultural Historian and Tour Guide of the Weird. With the same curiosity and insight that made Ghostland a hit with readers and critics, Colin looks at what all fringe beliefs have in common, explaining that today's Illuminati is yesterday's Flat Earth: the attempt to find meaning in a world stripped of wonder. On this week's PreserveCast things are about to get weird as we enter spooky season with The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained.
On this week's Tech Nation, what Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson all have in common: They all started spaceflight companies. Moira speaks with New Yorker writer NICHOLAS SCHMIDLE (“schmidd-uhl”) , the author of “Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut”. Then 40% of Americans report that they have gained weight since the COVID pandemic began. Excerpts from a past interview with DR SANDRA AAMODT (“ehh-mutt”), the former editor-in-chief of Nature Neuroscience. Her TED Talk “Why Dieting Doesn't Usually Work” has received over 4 Million views. She's the author of the 2014 book, “Why Diets Make Us Fat … The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss.”
Water is amazing. Drink it and it keeps you alive. But did you know that drinking water can also make you smarter? This episode begins by explaining why that is and you may find the answer quite surprising. https://becausewater.com/7-reasons-staying-hydrated-makes-smarter/ Anyone can count. It is one of the first things children learn to do. Yet figuring out how to count took a long time and involved a lot of differing theories about math and numbers. Marcus du Sautoy is professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford and author of the book How to Count to Infinity (https://amzn.to/3hCTgV6). He joins me to explain the fascinating history of counting, including why the invention of zero was so important and what infinity really is. People who use online dating usually have a photo as part of their profile. And that photo has a lot to do with how successful you will be in your search for love. Listen as I explain what makes a good profile photo – and what doesn't and why you may want to change yours. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/online-dating-profile-picture-research/ Many people apparently believe in aliens, UFO's, Big Foot and other conspiracy theories. Yet, the evidence for these things is usually pretty flimsy. Cultural historian Colin Dickey decided to explore why people cling to their beliefs despite the lack of proof or a logical explanation. Colin is author of the book The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained (https://amzn.to/32VmaLO). He joins me to share his unique insight into this phenomenon. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! We really like The Jordan Harbinger Show! Check out https://jordanharbinger.com/start OR search for it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen! Get $100 off of your first month with Talkspace! To match with a licensed therapist today, go to https://Talkspace.com & make sure to use the code SYSK to get $100 off of your first month! Go to https://Shopify.com/sysk for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify's entire suite of features! Redeem your rewards for cash in any amount, at any time, with Discover Card! Learn more at https://Discover.com/RedeemRewards https://www.geico.com Bundle your policies and save! It's Geico easy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
David and I discuss his new book Food Americana, creating Diners Dives, and Drive-Ins, his attempt to define American cuisine, choosing the foods and the food outlets to include in this book, the death of regionalism, the renaissance in artisanal bagel making, how COVID revolutionized certain aspects of the restaurant business, and much more. David's recommended reads are: Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue by Adrian Miller I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Last Year by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker Deconstructing the Rat Pack: Joey, The Mob, and the Summit by Richard A. Lertzman Bottled and Sold: The Story of Our Obsession with Bottled Water by Peter H. Gleick Support the podcast by becoming a Page Turner on Patreon. Other ways to support the podcast can be found here. Thanks to Maggie Garza of HTX Real Estate Group for sponsoring this episode. If you enjoyed this episode and want to listen to more episodes, try Julie Metz, Adam Stern, Ly Tran, Cate Doty, or Joe Berkowitz. Food Americana can be purchased at the Conversations from a Page Bookshop storefront. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week Alice and Kim talk about creepy, spooky, and scary nonfiction for the Halloween season. Follow For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton and Kim Ukura. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Follow Up Our holiday gift guide episode coming up November 23 — send us your requests at forreal@bookriot.com by November 15! It's Book Riot's birthday and there's special merch. Nonfiction in the News 2021 National Book Awards Finalists Announced [National Book Awards] Estate of Henrietta Lacks sues biotechnical company for nonconsensual use of her cells [CNN] New Nonfiction I'm Possible: A Story of Survival, a Tuba, and the Small Miracle of a Big Dream by Richard Antoine White Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present by Adrienne Keene Smile: The Story of a Face by Sarah Ruhl On Animals by Susan Orlean Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert Weekly Theme: Spooky Nonfiction The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror by David J. Skal White Magic: Essays by Elissa Washuta Yurei Attack!: The Japanese Ghost Survival Guide by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt Reading Now KIM: Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef ALICE: The Phantom Prince by Elizabeth Kendall CONCLUSION ALICE: You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink KIM: RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and follow us there so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Alex Zamalin Most of us are brought up to be polite. We are told, by parents and educators, to mind our manners, to wait our turn, to be civil. Director of the African American Studies Program and Assistant Professor, Political Science at Mercy College Alex Zamalin pushes back against the narrative that what our society needs now is more civil discourse. In his fascinating book, Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession with Civility, Zamalin argues that civility has been, and continues to be, a tool used against those advocating for justice, equity, and liberation. The opposite of civility is not violence, though we would be led to think it is. From Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, to Dr. King and the activists of today Zamalin talks about the ways in which civility has been weaponized against the African American community. This book had me sitting in my apartment cheering as I read about all the ways that Black people have refused to allow the narrative to become about civility rather than rights, rather than justice. This conversation left me energized. We can stand for justice or we can concern ourselves with civility. The fight for justice cannot co-exist with the ways in which civility is understood by those seeking to maintain the current power structure. Listen to this conversation and then think about the ways in which civility has been weaponized and how to get out from under that oppressive system. I think you're going to find yourself nodding in agreement as you listen and maybe even change the way you pursue social justice. Action Steps: 1) Refrain from tone policing 2) Educate yourself on the perspective of those who face racism on a daily basis. 3) Be unapologetic in your anti-racism work. Find the organizations in your community doing good work that you care about and collaborate with them. For a written transcript of this conversation click here. Resources mentioned in this episode: Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession with Civility by Alex Zamalin Credits: Harmonica music courtesy of a friend
An interview with author Colin Dickey about his book, The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
On this week's Tech Nation, what Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson all have in common: They all started spaceflight companies. Moira speaks with New Yorker writer NICHOLAS SCHMIDLE (“schmidd-uhl”) , the author of “Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut”. Then 40% of Americans report that they have gained weight since the COVID pandemic began. Excerpts from a past interview with DR SANDRA AAMODT (“ehh-mutt”), the former editor-in-chief of Nature Neuroscience. Her TED Talk “Why Dieting Doesn't Usually Work” has received over 4 Million views. She's the author of the 2014 book, “Why Diets Make Us Fat … The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss.”
On this week’s Tech Nation, what Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson all have in common: They all started spaceflight companies. Moira speaks with New Yorker writer NICHOLAS SCHMIDLE (“schmidd-uhl”) , the author of “Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut”. Then 40% of Americans report that they have gained weight since the COVID pandemic began. Excerpts from a past interview with DR SANDRA AAMODT (“ehh-mutt”), the former editor-in-chief of Nature Neuroscience. Her TED Talk “Why Dieting Doesn’t Usually Work” has received over 4 Million views. She’s the author of the 2014 book, “Why Diets Make Us Fat … The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss.”
The Arizona Republican election audit sham led by the QAnon owner of “Cyber Ninjas,” is quickly becoming the launching pad for a national, right-wing organizing strategy to delegitimize democracy and fan the flames of extremism. CNN reports that QAnon inspired right-wing radicals are taking to Telegram - a social messaging platform that is far more welcoming of extremists - to deepen their conspiracies and plan. Congressional sources told CNN that they are especially concerned about plans to support Trump's re-installation as president in August. This past weekend, former national security adviser Michael Flynn seemed to endorse a coup at the “For God & Country Patriot Roundup,” a QAnon conference in Dallas, TX. When Flynn was asked why can't a military coup like the one happening in Myanmar happen in the United States, Flynn replied: “No Reason. I mean, it should happen here. No reason.” You'll recall that it was also Flynn who called on Trump to invoke martial law to force new elections in key states. Meanwhile, the anti-democracy movement has been hard at work on their inside game as Republican lawmakers have continued to pass voting restrictions around the country. The Washington Post reports that this year has seen the introduction of 253 bills designed to restrict voting across 43 states, according to a new report from the Brennan Center. As of mid-May, 22 voting restrictions laws have been passed in 14 states. Media Matters for America released a list of all the QAnon supporters running for Congress in 2022. Miami is considering a proposal to build a 20 foot sea wall to save the city from the impacts of climate change. As reported in New York Times, “Six miles of it, in fact, mostly inland, running parallel to the coast through neighborhoods — except for a one-mile stretch right on Biscayne Bay, past the gleaming sky-rises of Brickell, the city's financial district.” The FBI is investigating Trump appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for illegal political fundraising for Trump. Trump's blog is shut down for good only a month after its launch. Daryl Metcalfe's annual Right to Bear Arms Rally is this Monday. The Arizona election audit sham attracted PA State Senator Doug Mastriano, State Senator Chris Dush, and State Representative Rob Kauffman to travel to the state like moths to the flame. Mastriano finally makes it to prime time. On Wednesday night, on Chris Hayes's All In, Mastriano features prominently in the opening segment about the rise of dangerous, anti-democracy movement. The report points to Mastriano's visit to Arizona as case in point in how it all works. State Senator Scott Perry ran into the woods to avoid taking questions from local media, according to Raw Story. Former State Rep. Ryan Costello is not OK. At least that's how things seemed last night on Twitter. Apparently, PA Spotlight is squatting in his head after they published info showing that Costello donates to a school board PAC that recruits QAnon conspiracy nuts to run for office. State Sen. Lindsey Williams is preparing to introduce a bill in the PA Senate requiring lawmakers to publicly post how they are spending millions of dollars in tax-payer funded expenses. The New Jersey GOP primary for this year's race for Governor has turned into a Trump bootlicker competition. Allegheny County DA Stephen Zappala found himself in a scandal this week. He sent an email to prosecutors telling them to stop accepting plea deals from a black lawyer who called his office “systemically racist.” Way to pull a racism, DA Zappala. On Wednesday, NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced that the space agency is planning two missions to Venus in the late 2020s. The two missions, DAVINCI+ and VERITAS will gather evidence about possible microbial live in Venus's atmosphere and more thoroughly map the planet's surface. It's been over three decades since NASA launched missions to Venus. A new documentary, Woman in Motion, tells the story of how Nichelle Nichols, famous for her ground-breaking role as Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek, pioneered the NASA recruiting program to higher people of color and the first women astronauts in the 1970s and 1980s. The documentary is streaming on Paramount+. Grist releases a list of new environmental films that you should add to your watch list. Books to read: How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism, Cory Doctorow. Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy, by Talia Lavin. Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession with Civility, by Alex Zamalin Will Sean be live-blogging his vacation?
Our Obsession with Possessions In today's episode, we explore our culture's obsession with material possessions and the impact it has on us when we dig below the surface. I talk about why I have a hard time letting go of certain items and provide practical tips on how to change our relationship with material possessions. Learn more about Meghan here: https://moneyisntscary.com/
The Stuph File Program Featuring Francis Bradley, CEO & President of The Canadian Electricity Association; comedian John Poveromo; & Stuart Nulman with Book Banter Download Francis Bradley, is the CEO & President of the Canadian Electricity Association. It's an organization that this year is celebrating its 130th anniversary. Francis is also the host of the electricity-centric podcast called The Flux Capacitor. John Poveromo is a standup comic. He talks about his new film called Duppet. It deals with depression in the form of a puppet. John is also the host of the podcast, Dystopia Tonight. Stuart Nulman with another edition of Book Banter. This week’s reviewed titles are: A Canadian Werewolf in New York by Mark Leslie (Stark Publishing, $19.99)Stowe Away: A Canadian Werewolf Novella by Mark Leslie (Stark Publishing, $14.99)Fear and Longing in Los Angeles by Mark Leslie (Stark Publishing, $19.99) You can also read Stuart’s reviews in The Montreal Times. (Patreon Stuph File Program fans, there is a Patreon Reward Extra where Stuart and I vent about the books we hated, plus there is bonus track featuring a dramatic reading of one of the worst books, written by the worst actress ever). This week’s guest slate is presented by Marc Hartzman from WeirdHistorian.com. He's also the author of The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, A Deep-Space Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet.
(Note: This interview first aired last summer.) Our guest is Colin Dickey, a writer perhaps best known for his popular nonfiction book from years ago, "Ghostland." Dickey is a regular contributor to The LA Review of Books and Lapham's Quarterly; he also co-edited "The Morbid Anatomy Anthology." An active cultural historian and associate professor of creative writing at National University, he joins us to discuss his latest book. That is book is "The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained." Per The New Republic: "Dickey's new book about the rise of conspiracy theories and paranoid thought in American culture could not come at a better time.... Brilliant."
Sam and Emma host University of Detroit Mercy professor Alex Zamalin to discuss his latest book Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession with Civility on the need for disruptive organized pressure to combat racism and its thread through American history. And in the Fun Half: Brandon Sutton joins us to see Mitch McConnell threaten the Democrats who want to change the filibuster rule, Dave Rubin concedes he'll stay in California because he doesn't want to be a second class citizen, the existential wandering of the conservative movement during Biden's first 100 days, Matt Walsh's cancel culture take, Steven Crowder's stale racism, investing in schools to get kids back in the classroom, fallacy of the pure meritocracy, plus your calls and IMs! Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com Get all your MR merch at our store https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ (Merch issues and concerns can be addressed here: majorityreportstore@mirrorimage.com) The AM Quickie is now on YouTube Subscribe to the AM Quickie at https://fans.fm/amquickie Make the AMQ part of your Alexa Flash Briefing too! You can now watch the livestream on Twitch Support Austin DSA and their Homes Not Handcuff efforts to stop Prop B in Austin. Support the Mass Nurses Association and the nurses striking at St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester. Check out Joshua Kahn Russell's friend, activist and organizer Casey Harrell who is raising money to treat his ALS diagnosis. Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Subscribe to AM Quickie writer Corey Pein’s podcast News from Nowhere, at https://www.patreon.com/newsfromnowhere Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel! Check out The Nomiki Show live at 3 pm ET on YouTube at patreon.com/thenomikishow Check out Matt’s podcast, Literary Hangover, at Patreon.com/LiteraryHangover, or on iTunes. Check out Jamie’s podcast, The Antifada, at patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!) Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech @BF1nn
Join Ghost Magnet Bridget Marquardt with her special guest, writer Colin Dickey (Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained). Colin’s is on the trail of America’s ghosts and believers in the unexplained which has taken him into old houses, spooky hotels, abandoned prisons, empty hospitals, big foot’s backwoods and desert UFO hot spots. From The Cecil Hotel to the Winchester Mystery House. Get a new take on your favorite haunts. Plus Lisa Morton with an all new "Ghost Report." #CecilHotel #Ghostland #WinchesterMysteryHouse
From December 23rd to January 1st, we will be showcasing our most notable conversations of the year. Today's show: Humans have always searched for greater meaning in the universe … and sometimes that translates into a serious, lifelong pursuit of Bigfoot. Colin Dickey joins host Krys Boyd to talk about why irrational ideas hold so much sway over us. His new book is “The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained.”
In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational–in the fringe–is on the rise. There's a new book out called “The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained.” The author, Colin Dickey, will join me for the hour on Monday's Access Utah. We'll talk about everything from the great Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876 to UFOs to QAnon and Pizzagate.
In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational–in the fringe–is on the rise. There’s a new book out called “The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained.” The author, Colin Dickey, will join me for the hour on Monday’s Access Utah. We’ll talk about everything from the great Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876 to UFOs to QAnon and Pizzagate.
Episode 168 - Colin Dickey, PhD. Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Colin Dickey, PhD. Colin Dickey is a writer, speaker, and academic, and has made a career out of collecting unusual objects and hidden histories all over the country. He's a regular contributor to the LA Review of Books and Lapham's Quarterly, and is the co-editor of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology. He is also a member of the Order of the Good Death, a collective of artists, writers, and death industry professionals interested in improving the Western world's relationship with mortality. With a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Southern California, he is an associate professor of creative writing at National University. The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained - Purchase here: https://sites.prh.com/colindickey Photo: © John Michael Kilbane Note: Guests create their own bio description for each episode. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is hosted and produced by Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund. Please visit our website for more information: thecuriosityhourpodcast.com/ The Curiosity Hour Podcast is listener supported! To donate, click here: thecuriosityhourpodcast.com/donate/ Please visit this page for information where you can listen to our podcast: thecuriosityhourpodcast.com/listen/ Disclaimers: The Curiosity Hour Podcast may contain content not suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion advised. The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are solely those of the guest(s). These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Curiosity Hour Podcast. This podcast may contain explicit language. The Public Service Announcement near the beginning of the episode solely represents the views of Tommy and Dan and not our guests or our listeners.
Humans have always searched for greater meaning in the universe … and sometimes that translates into a serious, lifelong pursuit of Bigfoot. Colin Dickey joins host Krys Boyd to talk about why irrational ideas hold so much sway over us. His new book is “The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained.”
Cultural Historian Colin Dickey explores the phenomenon that drives our curiosities. Bigfoot, UFO, odd local legends all inspire the answer-seekers among us to explore the fringe. Colin's new book - The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters and Our Obsession with the Unexplained - offers the tales of many of these curiosities. Books - www.amazon.com/shop/jvjtaps Host - JV Johnson - www.facebook.com/jvjparanormal Patreon - www.patreon.com/johaw --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/brparanormal/support
In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational – in fringe – is on the rise: from Atlantis to aliens, from Flat Earth to the Loch Ness monster, the list goes on. Enter Colin Dickey, Cultural Historian and Tour Guide of the Weird. With the same curiosity and insight that made Ghostland a hit with readers and critics, Colin looks at what all fringe beliefs have in common, explaining that today's Illuminati is yesterday's Flat Earth: the attempt to find meaning in a world stripped of wonder. On this week’s PreserveCast things are about to get weird as we enter The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained.
#0577: The Stuph File Program Featuring Nick Santora, executive producer & writer of The Fugitive on Quibi; Bizarro creator, Dan Piraro, author of Peyote Cowboy; and Marc Hartzman from WeirdHistorian.com Download Nick Santora is the executive producer of the short from Quibi series reboot of The Fugitive, starring Keifer Sutherland. He’s also the author of a couple of favourite books of mine. Slip & Fall and the excellent page turner Fifteen Digits. Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro comic strip, has written a graphic novel called Peyote Cowboy, that you can read online for free. Marc Hartzman, author of The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, A Deep-Space Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet is back on the show. He has the website, WeirdHistorian.com, and each month he’ll be here to feature an odd historical fact for the month. This week’s opening slate is presented by Wendy Barrett-Stuart who is a cat rescuer. She runs Cats Manger Rescue.
Colin Dickey stops by to talk about his new book, The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters and Our Obsession with The Unexplained, peek into several categories of these stories, as well as a larger look at human tendencies to believe in the unusual and irrational. Source
A recent poll found that a quarter of Americans think COVID-19 might have been planned. Twenty-one percent think Big Foot is real. President Trump tweets conspiracy theories daily. Have we all lost our minds? Guest Colin Dickey helps us understand where conspiracy theories come from and why people often believe them. He is the author of the new book: The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained.
Urban legends, UFOs, and conspiracy theories are all facets of our culture’s fascination with the unusual and inexplicable. And belief in fringe ideas has been rising in recent years. Cultural historian Colin Dickey joins us to discuss his new book, The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained.
Colin Dickey, author of the new book, “The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained” jumps on the John Howell show to discuss why people's belief in legends such as Bigfoot and Atlantis is on the rise. What conspiracies or mythical phenomenon do you believe are real?
Just in Time for NASA's 2020 Mars Perseverance Launch! This summer, 3 nations are launching missions to Mars, leading Scientific American to dub it the "Summer of Mars," noting that these "missions are a clear sign that the Red Planet has not lost its appeal just yet". NASA has moved it's launch window for Mars Perseverance to July 30-August 15th and The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, a Deep Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet author Marc Hartzman is available as an alternative to science experts and can offer historical and pop culture insights, like: . Why Mars has been an obsession for people from ancient Sumeria and Egypt to the present day. . Who the key players were and their hypotheses n- from the strange to the changemaking . How Mars has inspired pop culture and why it's been a point of fascination for readers and viewers. . With the launch of Mars Perseverance, why continued exploration of Mars is important. The "race to Mars" is our modern-day space race, with NASA and private entities striving to be the first to put humans on the fourth planet from the sun. Yet our preoccupation with Mars and life on it dates back thousands of years, beginning with the ancient Egyptians. Affectionately named "The Red Planet," Mars has drawn countless scientists, novelists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs to hypothesize and imagine the impossible: life beyond Earth. A lifelong collector of unusual stories, historian Marc Hartzman boldly brings the Red Planet to life in The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, A Deep-Space Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet (Quirk Books; On sale: July 7, 2020; $24.99; Trade Paperback Original). Known as a "leading connoisseur of the bizarre," Hartzman skillfully delves earthlings' relationship with Mars, including its impact on pop culture, space exploration, and hopes for the future, and features interviews with NASA scientists. This wildly entertaining history is fully illustrated with archival images ranging from real-life newspaper clippings to early conceptual drawings of Martians to pop-cultural ephemera like the iconic Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian. Guiding readers through shifting trends and schools of thought,
You already know it is important to drink water to stay healthy. And it also appears that drinking water can make you smarter, too. How? This episode begins by explaining how and you may find the answer quite surprising. http://www.eatingwell.com/blogs/health_blog/does_drinking_water_make_you_smarter_plus_6_benefits_of_staying_hydrated We all learned to count when we were young. Yet, it took a long time and a lot of differing theories about numbers and counting to get us to the simple ability of count things and people the way we do. Marcus du Sautoy is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and author of the book How to Count to Infinity (https://amzn.to/3hCTgV6). He joins me to explain the extraordinary history of counting including why the invention of zero was so important and what infinity really is. People who use online dating usually have a photo as part of their profile. And a lot of people need to replace the picture they have if they want to get people to respond. Listen as I explain what makes a good profile photo – and what doesn’t. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/online-dating-profile-picture-research/ Why do so many people believe in aliens, UFO’s, Big Foot and conspiracy theories? While the evidence for these things is usually sparse, the number of people who truly believe in them is significant. Cultural historian Colin Dickey decided to explore why. Why do people believe in things that don’t really have a logical explanation or objective proof? Colin is author of the book The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained (https://amzn.to/32VmaLO) and he joins me to share his unique insight into this phenomenon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hold on, chicken littles, the sky isn't falling. It's just some pieces of meat. Wait--what? In 1876, pieces of beef fell from the Kentucky sky leaving some to wonder why and some to say "let me put this in my mouth." Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about meat storms and other strange weather phenomena. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: “Can It Rain Frogs, Fish, and Other Objects?” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/can-it-rain-frogs-fish-and-other-objects/. Cereno, Benito. “The Strangest Things That Ever Fell from the Sky.” Grunge.com, Grunge, 20 Apr. 2020, www.grunge.com/73743/strangest-things-ever-fell-sky/. Crew, Bec. “The Great Kentucky Meat Shower Mystery Unwound by Projectile Vulture Vomit.” Scientific American Blog Network, Scientific American, 1 Dec. 2014, blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/the-great-kentucky-meat-shower-mystery-unwound-by-projectile-vulture-vomit/#:~:text=On 3 March 1876, large,making soap when it happened. Dapcevich, Madison. “Poop Is Raining From Canada's Skies And Nobody Knows Why.” IFLScience, IFLScience, 4 July 2020, www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/poop-is-raining-from-canadas-skies-and-nobody-knows-why/. Dias, Elizabeth. “The Apocalypse as an 'Unveiling': What Religion Teaches Us About the End Times.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-apocalypse-religion.html. Dickey, Colin. The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained. Viking, 2020. “Flesh Descending in a Shower An Astounding Phenomenon in Kentucky—Fresh Meat Like Mutton or Venison Falling from a Clear Sky.” The New York Times, 10 Mar. 1876, pp. 1–1, www.nytimes.com/1876/03/10/archives/flesh-descending-in-a-shower-an-astounding-phenomenon-in.html. Furst, Elaine. “10 Weird Things That Have Fallen From the Sky.” Listverse, 19 June 2014, listverse.com/2013/03/03/10-weird-things-that-have-fallen-from-the-sky/. Hasler, Joe. “Weird Stories of Objects Falling From the Sky-Explained.” Popular Mechanics, Popular Mechanics, 14 Nov. 2017, www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a4525/4331114/#:~:text=1, 1969, when a seemingly,no explanation was ever given. “It's Raining Poop! What to Do If a Plane Drops Human Waste on Your House.” KFOR.com Oklahoma City, KFOR.com Oklahoma City, 5 Jan. 2017, kfor.com/news/its-raining-poop-what-to-do-if-a-plane-drops-human-waste-on-your-house/. Jones, Meghan. “10 Of the Strangest Things That Have Fallen from the Sky.” Reader's Digest, Reader's Digest, 29 Apr. 2020, www.rd.com/list/weird-things-fallen-from-sky/. Kastenbine, L. D. The Kentucky Meat Shower The Louisville Medical News:a weekly journal of medicine and surgery. v. 1-20. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015074156194&view=1up&seq=263 “Mass Bird Deaths in Arkansas Explained.” American Veterinary Medical Association, 1 Apr. 2011, www.avma.org/javma-news/2011-04-01/mass-bird-deaths-arkansas-explained. McManus, Melanie Radzicki. “10 Times It Has Rained Something Other Than Water.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 27 Jan. 2020, science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/10-times-it-rained-something-other-than-water2.htm. Mersereau, Dennis. “5 Weird But Real Weather Events.” Mental Floss, 5 July 2017, www.mentalfloss.com/article/502477/5-weird-real-weather-events. Pearson, Jordan. Poop Is Raining From the Sky in Canada, and the Government Says It's Not Planes, 29 June 2018, www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjbm3w/poo-raining-from-the-sky-in-canada-government-says-not-planes. “Punta Gorda Golfball Rain.” Report from the Florida Zone, 21 May 2014, floridazone.blogspot.com/2014/05/punta-gorda-golfball-rain.html. Rogers, Kayleigh. The Mystery of the Kentucky 'Meat Shower', Vice, 3 July 2018, www.vice.com/en_us/article/kzkmgw/the-mystery-of-the-kentucky-meat-shower. “The Science of the 10 Plagues.” LiveScience, 11 Apr. 2017, www.livescience.com/58638-science-of-the-10-plagues.html. Specktor, Brandon. “The Weirdest Things That Fell From The Sky.” LiveScience, 20 Mar. 2018, www.livescience.com/62066-weirdest-things-that-fell-from-the-sky.html. Tabor, James. “Apocalypticism Explained | Apocalypse! FRONTLINE.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/explanation/brevelation.html. Weilenman, Donna Beth. “Front Page.” Benicia Herald, 23 Aug. 2015, beniciaheraldonline.com/meat-shower-mystery-endures/.
Just in Time for NASA's 2020 Mars Perseverance Launch! This summer, 3 nations are launching missions to Mars, leading Scientific American to dub it the "Summer of Mars," noting that these "missions are a clear sign that the Red Planet has not lost its appeal just yet". NASA has moved it's launch window for Mars Perseverance to July 30-August 15th and The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, a Deep Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet author Marc Hartzman is available as an alternative to science experts and can offer historical and pop culture insights, like: . Why Mars has been an obsession for people from ancient Sumeria and Egypt to the present day. . Who the key players were and their hypotheses n- from the strange to the changemaking . How Mars has inspired pop culture and why it's been a point of fascination for readers and viewers. . With the launch of Mars Perseverance, why continued exploration of Mars is important. The "race to Mars" is our modern-day space race, with NASA and private entities striving to be the first to put humans on the fourth planet from the sun. Yet our preoccupation with Mars and life on it dates back thousands of years, beginning with the ancient Egyptians. Affectionately named "The Red Planet," Mars has drawn countless scientists, novelists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs to hypothesize and imagine the impossible: life beyond Earth. A lifelong collector of unusual stories, historian Marc Hartzman boldly brings the Red Planet to life in The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, A Deep-Space Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet (Quirk Books; On sale: July 7, 2020; $24.99; Trade Paperback Original). Known as a "leading connoisseur of the bizarre," Hartzman skillfully delves earthlings' relationship with Mars, including its impact on pop culture, space exploration, and hopes for the future, and features interviews with NASA scientists. This wildly entertaining history is fully illustrated with archival images ranging from real-life newspaper clippings to early conceptual drawings of Martians to pop-cultural ephemera like the iconic Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian. Guiding readers through shifting trends and schools of thought,
In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational–in the fringe–is on the rise. There's a new book out called “The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained.” The author, Colin Dickey, will join me for the hour on Monday's Access Utah. We'll talk about everything from the great Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876 to UFOs to QAnon and Pizzagate.
Bigfoot busted in England. Florida kangaroo arrested. Gulf Breeze ups its golf game. UK UFO crash? Should ghost hunting shows be controlled by the government? NEOWISE sighting opportunities. BOTW, The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained, by Colin Dickey.
This week, Liberty and Tirzah discuss Hamnet, 10 Things I Hate About Pinky, He Started It, and more great books. This episode was sponsored by Book Riot Insiders, the digital hangout spot for the Book Riot community; Saga Press, the publisher of award-winning speculative fiction from authors like Stephen Graham Jones, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ken Liu, and Rebecca Roanhorse; and Ritual. Pick up an All the Books! 200th episode commemorative item here. Subscribe to All the Books! using RSS, iTunes, or Spotify and never miss a beat book. Sign up for the weekly New Books! newsletter for even more new book news. BOOKS DISCUSSED ON THE SHOW: Hamnet: A novel by Maggie O’Farrell The Pull of the Stars: A Novel by Emma Donoghue He Started It by Samantha Downing The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine The Mysterious Messenger by Gilbert Ford The Perfect Father: The True Story of Chris Watts, His All-American Family, and a Shocking Murder by John Glatt The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey 10 Things I Hate about Pinky by Sandhya Menon WHAT WE’RE READING: The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan Sing Backwards and Weep by Mark Lanegan MORE BOOKS OUT THIS WEEK: Splinters of Scarlet by Emily Bain Murphy Quantum Shadows by L. E. Modesitt Jr. On Nostalgia by David Berry MEG: Generations by Steve Alten Alpha Omega by Nicholas Bowling Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth by Stuart Ritchie It’s Your Funeral by Emily Riesbeck, Ellen Kramer He Came in With It: A Portrait of Motherhood and Madness by Miriam Feldman Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina by Chris Frantz Pew: A Novel by Catherine Lacey The Big Book of Modern Fantasy edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man’s World by Jennifer Palmieri Trouble the Saints: A Novel by Alaya Dawn Johnson The Vanishing Sky by L. Annette Binder The Nemesis Manifesto (Evan Ryder) by Eric Van Lustbader More Than Maybe: A Novel by Erin Hahn I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad by Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg I Come with Knives: Malus Domestica by S. A. Hunt How Lulu Lost Her Mind by Rachel Gibson Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels by Rachel Cohen The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas The Indomitable Florence Finch: The Untold Story of a War Widow Turned Resistance Fighter and Savior of American POWs by Robert J. Mrazek The Unadoptables by Hana Tooke I You We Them: Walking into the World of the Desk Killer by Dan Gretton How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do – and What It Says About You by Katherine D. Kinzler Decoding Your Cat: The Ultimate Experts Explain Common Cat Behaviors and Reveal How to Prevent or Change Unwanted Ones by American College of Veterinary Behaviorists Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric by Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann The Emotional Load: And Other Invisible Stuff by Emma and Una Dimitrijevic Grove: A Field Novel by Esther Kinsky, Caroline Schmidt (translator) Skin Deep (Siobhan O’Brien Book 1) by Sung J. Woo Act (A Click Graphic Novel) by Kayla Miller The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code by Michael E. 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In this gripping 2 part episode of All Fired Up, I explore the shadowy world of "Bright Line Eating", a super extreme diet cult which cherry picks neuroscience to convince people that they are 'food addicts', and then sells one of the world's most restrictive (and expensive) diet regimes to keep people hooked on the dream of achieving 'goal weight'. Bright Line Eating is the lucrative brainchild of neuroscientist Susan Peirce Thompson, a charismatic saleswoman who holds nothing back when it comes to the hard sell. Join me as I ask the question, who IS Susan Peirce Thompson - a food addict who has finally found the answer to her addictions, or someone who is still desperately stuck in her eating disorder? We also speak with neuroscientist Dr Sandra Aamodt, who literally attended the SAME UNIVERSITY as Susan Peirce Thompson, and has also experienced eating and body issues, but found peace through mindful and intuitive eating and body acceptance rather than continuing to white knuckle the revolving door of weight cycling. Dr Aamodt has very different ideas regarding this whole idea of food 'addiction'. Spoiler alert: Food addiction models = Binge Eating Disorder rebranded! DO NOT MISS this story, it's a ripper! But CW - these 2 episodes have a lot of talk about weight, details of diet rules, and eating disorders, so take care if you think you might be triggered. Shownotes Hello listeners! Remember me? I’m back! What a year we’ve had. I am back from a break where I was taking care of life for a while. Now I’m back and angrier than ever. Today’s episode is a two-parter, and we’ll be keeping the energy and the rants going on a regular basis again. Remember the Crappy Awards earlier this year? One of the nominations has been gnawing away at me. This is from Dr Martina Zangger, who sent us a rant about Bright Line Eating, a program by Susan Peirce Thompson. Bright Line Eating is a severely restrictive diet, and a very expensive program. Martina shares with us that she experienced Orthorexia and was at risk of Anorexia while engaging with the program - she was obsessed with every bite of food that passed her lips, and says she became a ‘not very nice person’ while so hangry and feeling superior to other people. That feeling of being superior and special was encouraged within the program. After two years, Martina was able to move away from the program and regain the weight she lost, and that process was so disheartening. However, two years after leaving that program, Martina is so much more at peace with her body. She’s able to find enjoyment in food, and in sharing food with friends and family. Bright Line Eating is making Susan Peirce Thompson rich and is such an unethical program from a practitioner who should know better. I’m still simmering with rage over this Crappy nomination. The impact of programs like this is devastating on people’s lives. Martina lost two years of her life and experienced an eating disorder, and her story of recovery needs to be heard. How are programs like this still happening, and being sold at such enormous profit? After I heard Martina’s story, I’ve been neck-deep in Susan Peirce Thompson and Bright Line Eating. It’s more than a diet, it’s more like a cult. There’s a variety of techniques being used in it to sell problematic ideas and encourage eating disordered behaviour in an apparent attempt to free yourself from ‘disordered behaviour’ - a mindfuck of the next level. So, I’ve been reading and researching and I’m ready to dive into a two part series - this episode is about Bright Line Eating and Susan Peirce Thompson. We’re going to talk about her story, her book, and more broadly talk about the topic of neuroscience as it applies to body weight, and also dive into food addiction models. In the next episode, we’ll talk more with Martina and her experience with the program, and we’ll round out the deep dive with a closer look at the incredible amount of money Bright Line Eating has made. I really need to preface this episode with a trigger warning, a content warning, about numbers and weight. If that’s particularly triggering for you, maybe these two episodes are ones to avoid. Usually we avoid numbers, and in this instance we’re using them as examples of the harm that diet culture can cause, and as examples of inaccuracies. We’ll be talking with neuroscientist Dr Sandra Aamodt about addiction and regulating body weight. So, the book. I’ve read the whole thing. ‘Bright Line Eating: the Science of Living Happy, Thin and Free” by Susan Peirce Thompson, 2017. To begin with, Susan is a really good storyteller and has a compelling personal story of how she came to this way of living. And that’s the thing with so many of these diet gurus, isn’t it? They’re quite compelling, charismatic, often good writers. Susan is from California and her parents were reformed hippies. She grew up in a house which sounded super ‘healthy’. Her mother was thin and always dieting, and Susan recounts how she was doing diets with her mum when she was 10 years old - “neither of us had weight to lose, it was just about being maximally healthy”. Susan paints herself as a kid who was always interested in food, even addicted, compelled to compulsively eat food. What I get from reading this was that this child grew up in a house with little food choice around, no processed food, quite restrictive. We know from lots of research in this area that kids who grow up in households with little food variety and where ‘bad’ food is banned, those kids are quite likely to grow up as binge-eating adults. And kids who diet early have a higher risk of developing eating disorders. There’s also a genetic component with eating disorders, which makes me wonder about Susan’s mother and her own eating issues. One thing that stuck out was the vivid descriptions of what restricting her food felt like as a child - powerful, a feeling of being in control. For most of us on a diet, we feel pretty crappy. For some of us, perhaps those with quite a restrictive relationship with food, that experience of restriction is quite elating. They describe that feeling of being in power, being in control, and get hooked on that feeling of not eating. There’s a disturbing description of Susan ‘going off sugar’ at age 12, of feeling empowered. She also related how, even with these feelings of being empowered, she would sneak food and hide food - which she reads as evidence of her ‘addiction’, but I read as being evidence of the severity of her restriction. By the time Susan was 15, she described herself as ‘overweight’, and feeling ‘enormous’ compared to her thin mum. Again, she unquestioningly accepts that there was something wrong with her body at 15. My non-diet lens tells me that our bodies are changing when we’re 15. It’s perfectly normal to gain weight as you grow, maybe it was just growth? She continued dieting and stumbled into drugs, from ages 14-20, including acid, ecstasy, meth, crack. Quite serious. She talks about the impact on her weight - when you’re on drugs like that, you do reduce your weight. It’s a harrowing story, to be hooked on such terrible drugs for your adolescence. Susan found herself at rock bottom and in a 12 Step program at age 20, and found recovery from drug and alcohol addiction through the 12 Step model. That’s an amazing story! It is not easy to turn your life around like that, and she did it. But in the book, that victory didn’t bring her peace, because her weight increased and she felt terrible about it. She was also still thinking of herself as a food addict, and began attending 12 Step programs for overeating. Episode 30 of All Fired Up is about Overeaters Anonymous - check it out. It looks like Susan did stuff like that for years and years and years without reducing her weight. It’s clear in the book that Susan is not perceiving herself as someone who has issues with her relationship with food, but as someone with weight to lose who is addicted to food. At times she received diagnoses of Binge Eating Disorder and Bulimia, but she did not receive any eating disorder treatment. In 2003, she joined a more extreme unnamed 12 Step, which I believe may be ‘FA’ or ‘Food Addicts Anonymous’. Like all the other 12 Step programs, they are free support groups to help people who perceive themselves as food addicts - and FA has very strict rules. No sugar, no flour. Three meals a day, absolutely no other food. You have to ‘commit’ your meal plan each night to a buddy, mentor, sponsor in the program for the next day. You weigh out each meal according to a strict meal plan. It’s intense, it’s extreme. There’s a lot of mentorship and buddyship to ‘support’ each other - but I would say it’s more like policing each other, to make sure they don’t eat. Susan was happy about finally losing weight in this strict program. But she grew to be distressed with the amount of time the program was taking up - about 20 hours a week of planning, talking to mentors and more. She mentions that her husband considered leaving her, and she was annoyed with the lack of science around the food rules in the program. By this point, Susan had gone to university and studied cognitive science and was now a neuroscientist. She decided she was going to write a book and start an online program, combining her knowledge of the brain with the strict program. What she calls ‘bright lines’, I call ‘very strict rules’ or ‘diet prison’. The ‘online boot camps’ she began offering took off very quickly, and eventually she hired a team and published her book. The diet in the book is basically the same as the FA diet - but FA is free, and Bright Line Eating is for-profit. Her husband is now the CFO. The bootcamps are very expensive, as are all the add-ons in the program. Every level of support requires payment, and Susan justified charging this much money for the program by saying that it’s not just the FA program, it’s a community and it’s combined with neuroscience, and that her team is going ‘cutting edge research in the field’. So, not only has she monetised a popular 12 Step program, but she’s using ‘neuroscience’ and the cache of her PhD to help her ideas gain cred. Susan talks a lot about the brain, and seems to understand that body weight is tightly controlled by our brain (particularly the hypothalamus) and understands that only a small percentage of dieters keep weight off long term. She understands that the hypothalamus is like a thermostat that controls body weight, and it’s out of our conscious control. So, she pays lip service to that, and then spends the rest of the book talking about how her neuroscience tips will fix that - as if it’s broken. What’s being missed here? The science that shows us changes in body weight are countered by these established processes in our brain. She never mentions this - the ‘defended weight range’ - which is pretty fundamental science about how our brains defend body weight. In her whole book, she never mentions it. In a minute we’ll talk more with Dr Aamodt about that. Susan does talk a lot about leptin regulating our body weight. Leptin is a hormone stored in fat cells, and as fat cells get larger they secrete leptin which tells our brain that we’re comfortable, we’re at the right weight, we don’t need to seek out more food. Susan claims that people in larger bodies have too much leptin that isn’t getting to our brains to tell us to stop eating - she says that larger bodied people are ‘leptin resistant’ and our brains think we’re starving and tell us to eat more. She claims that the cause of leptin resistance is insulin resistance, which is caused directly by processed food. Very sweeping generalisations - in essence she is saying that larger people are insatiably eating because leptin is being blocked by our brainstem, which causes us to mindlessly eat processed food all day. So basically, we are all ‘leptin resistant’ humans, mindless processed food eating machines. I’ve got some issues! Not all large people are insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is impacted by an enormous range of factors - genetic, environmental and social. It’s incredibly simplistic to say it’s just due to processed food. For Susan, anyone who is larger is by definition sick or deficient. She continually refers to the ‘right size body’, which is your ‘thin’ body. A complete disregard for body diversity, and lack of data to back up her claims about leptin. She’s also left out the impact of weight loss dieting on leptin. When we try and diet and lose weight, our leptin levels drop. This drop stimulates a huge increase in our appetite and interest in food. So, although she’s concentrating on this idea that larger people are leptin resistant, people may instead have lower leptin levels due to dieting and that’s what is telling our brains that we’re starving. So, leptin drops and interest in food is very well documented in neuroscience - because it’s a very primitive and important danger signal to the brain. Let’s not forget Susan’s target audience of middle-aged women, who likely have dieted many times before and may have lower leptin levels due to this. She knows this. She even mentions the Biggest Loser study which notes how damaged people’s metabolisms were from strict dieting. She says that during the ‘weight loss’ phase of her bootcamp, your metabolism will slow down something like 80-90%, but in the next breath says that there’s no evidence that this will continue to happen - “we’ve never seen evidence of this in Bright Line Eating, there is no reason for alarm”. This really annoyed me. She has no evidence of it because she’s done no research on it. Simply because you don’t look for harm doesn’t mean there’s no harm. Another claim from the book is that you can choose your goal weight based on the lowest weight you’ve ever been, and she pretty much guarantees you can reach it. This flies in the face of weight science and our understanding of all the factors outside of our control. There’s no evidence to say that Bright Line Eating is any different from any other weight loss program. Talking about cravings - Susan describes them as a “brain-based bingeing mechanism”, located in the nucleus accumbens which has become ‘overstimulated’ by the plentiful food in our current environment. She uses her own experience as a drug addict to paint this vivid picture, describing her need for higher doses of drugs to get the same high. That is tolerance - it’s well documented in addiction literature, especially for opiate receptors. Sarah says food behaves in the same way - flour and sugar in particular are acting in the same way as heroin in our brain. She doesn't have very much data to support this idea that flour and sugar behave like a drug. She mentions rat studies to back up some of her sugar claims, but even she admits there’s nothing in the research to show flour is addictive. Food addiction was excluded from the category “substance related and addictive disorders” in the DSM-V, due to lack of evidence. We’ll hear more from neuroscientist Dr Aamodt on this. One of the ways Susan is trying to convince us that sugar and flour are toxic poisons is pretty weird. She asks us to google images of flour, sugar and heroin and look at how similar they are. For the record - things that look like drugs are not necessarily drugs. In her view, processing things is what makes them drugs. In Susan’s view, the way sugar is processed makes it a more toxic drug. What about the way we process mint tea? Dried chillies? I think that this Bright Line plan will keep people in a state of deprivation and restriction, which increases those feelings of addiction. The longer we’re deprived, the stronger our desire will become for the forbidden thing. We know that if people are full when they’re doing an experiment where they’re exposed to food stimuli, their reward centres are less activated. When you think about it, you’re never going to be full on Bright Line Eating and you’re going to feel like an addict. And if you then go to a bootcamp or on one of the forums, it’s going to feel more real. Another bugbear - she repeatedly scares people by referring to food in this book as ‘drugs’, ‘toxins’, ‘poisons’. But then later she says it’s fine for children to eat them, because they’re ‘young enough to burn off the calories’. What? This is a woman who is desperately attached to thinness as a measure of self-worth. If she really believes sugar and flour were toxic poisons, why is she recommending them to children? The rules she’s lifted from FA are full on, and she’s using neuroscience-talk to give them a sense of validation. “It takes some willpower to set up and then little to none when it becomes automatic”. Susan has science-washed extreme deprivation and disguised it as normal. Susan likens the automatic level of food behaviours to brushing your teeth - but our bodies and brains aren’t hard-wired to desire tooth-brushing as a survival mechanism, and feel under threat when we haven’t brushed out teeth in a while. Susan knows this. She wouldn’t have to set up such extensive support systems if permanent restriction truly was automatic. Introducing Dr Aamodt, who wrote the book “Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss”. She also has a much-watched Ted Talk about why she stopped dieting and switched to mindful eating, which has been watched by 4.5 million people. Before she was an author, Dr Aamodt was Editor-In--Chief of Nature Neuroscience, a leading scientific journal in the field of brain research. Dr Aamodt was pulled into neuroscience due to personal experience - as a teenager she remembers her mother commenting that she was “eating like a fat person”. She was not at a higher weight at the time, and looks back at photos of that time and thinks “what was mum doing?”. Dr Aamodt began making complicated food rules for herself, like not being allowed to open the refrigerator herself. It was almost like that comment unlocked disordered eating for her. Sandra then spent about 30 years cycling through diets, and while she never met the definition for an eating disorder she veered very close. Sandra vividly remembers how difficult it was to force herself to move away from dieting. In her early 30’s, Sandra was exposed to some feminist writings about dieting which seemed to unlock some things she’d kind of known for years but hadn’t been paying attention to, such as weight being neurologically controlled. She hadn’t connected the dots that her own body would behave that way. We’re biological animals with physiological regulation, but we’re also social animals living in culture where we’re expected to look and eat a certain way. It’s as if one day someone said to Sandra, “you don’t have to do that”. A blog Sandra credits with some of these early moments of unlearning is ‘Shapely Prose’. The biggest advantage of not dieting for Sandra turned out to be psychological, not physical - the amount of mental space that weight and eating were taking up in her brain turned out to be unbelievable when it stopped. She describes it as like having ringing in your ears for your entire life, then one day someone turns the ringing off. In Susan’s experience, you can’t just tell people ‘don’t diet’ - you have to tell them what to do instead. The message of ‘don’t control your weight’ is too uncomfortable. Sandra came across mindful eating, which gave some structure to make that transition away from dieting. Sandra initially didn’t know when she was hungry - how could she, after all those years of strictly regulating herself? There’s a lot of psychological research showing that people who diet frequently are not good at picking up interoception signals from their bodies - such as feeling your heart beating. But even after many years of ignoring your body, you can reconnect and hear those signals again. Sandra is much better at it than she used to be. Unlearning takes time! All those neuroplastic changes can be reversed, if you take the time and energy to do it. For Sandra, moving from dieting to not dieting was a huge upgrade. What is the ‘set point’? Scientists call it the ‘defended range’ which Sandra says is a better term. It’s a small range of weight where your body is comfortable. When you’re within your defended range, weight works the way that random people on the internet think that it works all the time. You can make your lifestyle changes and nudge it a little up or down. It’s the range where your body and your brain are not fighting you. The body is comfortable. Once you get outside that range, in either direction, this is where the brain says ‘this is not right, we’re not regulating properly, we need to fix this’. And this is where calories in, calories out becomes unreliable and the way you process food starts to change in dramatic ways. Metabolism changes to try and get you back into that defended range. It’s normal to be more hungry when you’re not getting enough food! It does seem as though the responses are asymmetrical - that the body’s compensatory mechanisms become more intense over time if you’re under your defended range, but will become less intense over time if you’re above your defended range. So, your brain is much more relaxed with being at a higher weight than being under your defended range. From an evolutionary perspective, starving is really serious and you should never take it lightly. How do we know our defended range? It’s genetic to begin with - there are strong genetic influences on it. A number of life experiences can affect it, for instance people who didn’t get enough sleep as children generally have a higher defended range as adults. Also, children who had a lot of stress and/or trauma in their lives have a higher defended range as adults. If your childhood environment is scary, unpredictable, like something bad will happen at any time - there’s a strong evolutionary argument that it would be okay for your body to store extra energy for future dangerous times. The body makes sense! Your body does its best to survive. There’s a genetic link as well in who is susceptible to constantly being invited to ignore their bodies, and whose bodies have such strong hunger and fullness signals that they seem to be completely immune to those kinds of external messaging. And then dieting itself - attempting to get under your ‘defended range’. The brain desires that we stay within that defended range and functions 24/7 without a break - and we try to combat this with willpower, which we cannot do 24/7. We can do a lot of these things for a while, but at some point it gets to be like holding your breath. The food addiction model - the idea that if we remove certain foods from our diet we can permanently change our set point, our weight, and our brains will relax and finally do what diet culture says they should do. What does Sandra think about that? Sandra thinks the food addiction model is basically a rebranding of Binge Eating Disorder. The restriction itself is what produces the sense of being ‘out of control’. The easiest way to see that is in experiments on rodents, who aren’t bombarded with media messages telling them their bodies are unacceptable. Inducing Binge Eating Disorder in rats is actually done quite reliably - rats are starved to about 70-80% of their starting weight, then given high sugar foods. The rats will eat past fullness - they will ‘stuff’ themselves. If you make this a cycle and repeat several times, you can get rats to the point where they will binge on regular boring rat chow. They don’t even require the food to taste good to overeat it. That sounds familiar, right? We are those rats. We often miss the deprivation with Binge Eating Disorder and focus only on the eating. There are also changes in the brain’s reward system that are associated with that behaviour, but that doesn’t immediately jump out at Sandra as being that the solution is to restrict what we eat. If the restriction causes the disorder, it probably isn’t also the cure. If the rats weren’t starved, would they have this response to high sugar food? No. Rats who aren’t starved and are presented with novel foods will eat until full and then stop. These rats are not trying to diet, they’re not struggling with mixed cultural messages - they’re just having a straightforward biological response to a stimulus that suggests that maybe you should put away some reserves for the future because every so often, somebody comes and takes your food away. It’s quite a simple, elegant, neurobiological response to famine. So, the food addiction model is rebranded deprivation models, or Binge Eating Disorder models. Nobody has come up with evidence that is convincing Sandra that it’s any more than that. The scales that measure food addiction have a lot of overlap with the scales that measure Binge Eating Disorder. A definition of addiction that Sandra likes is ‘when we continue to want things that we do not like” being drawn to repeat behaviours that you don’t actually enjoy. And some people would describe Binge Eating Disorder in that way, but Sandra doesn’t think that implies that the treatment is doing more of what created it in the first place (restriction). Huge thanks to Dr Sandra Aamodt for sharing her experience and bringing us some logic and more of a whole picture, not just a narrow view. In some ways, Dr Aamodt and Susan Peirce Thompson are quite similar. They both grew up in diet culture, both developed eating issues as a result of trying to control their body weight, and they’re both neuroscientists. However, one has chosen to monetize this in the Bright Line Eating program, and one has chosen to help people find real freedom. The idea of ‘freedom’ in Bright Line Eating is very, very different from the idea of freedom that Dr Aamodt and I (Louise) have. Ours is about laying down our weapons and learning to reconnect. Next episode we’ll talk with Dr Martina Zangger about her experience with Bright Line Eating, and look at the economic reality of how enormous this machine is. And more dodgy research claims! It’ll be a zinger. Resources Here's Dr Aamodt's wonderful Ted Talk And her awesome book You can get in touch with Dr Sandra Aamodt at sandra.aamodt@gmail.com and on twitter at @sandra_aamodt
In this gripping 2 part episode of All Fired Up, I explore the shadowy world of "Bright Line Eating", a super extreme diet cult which cherry picks neuroscience to convince people that they are 'food addicts', and then sells one of the world's most restrictive (and expensive) diet regimes to keep people hooked on the dream of achieving 'goal weight'. Bright Line Eating is the lucrative brainchild of neuroscientist Susan Peirce Thompson, a charismatic saleswoman who holds nothing back when it comes to the hard sell. Join me as I ask the question, who IS Susan Peirce Thompson - a food addict who has finally found the answer to her addictions, or someone who is still desperately stuck in her eating disorder? We also speak with neuroscientist Dr Sandra Aamodt, who literally attended the SAME UNIVERSITY as Susan Peirce Thompson, and has also experienced eating and body issues, but found peace through mindful and intuitive eating and body acceptance rather than continuing to white knuckle the revolving door of weight cycling. Dr Aamodt has very different ideas regarding this whole idea of food 'addiction'. Spoiler alert: Food addiction models = Binge Eating Disorder rebranded! DO NOT MISS this story, it's a ripper! But CW - these 2 episodes have a lot of talk about weight, details of diet rules, and eating disorders, so take care if you think you might be triggered. Shownotes Hello listeners! Remember me? I’m back! What a year we’ve had. I am back from a break where I was taking care of life for a while. Now I’m back and angrier than ever. Today’s episode is a two-parter, and we’ll be keeping the energy and the rants going on a regular basis again. Remember the Crappy Awards earlier this year? One of the nominations has been gnawing away at me. This is from Dr Martina Zangger, who sent us a rant about Bright Line Eating, a program by Susan Peirce Thompson. Bright Line Eating is a severely restrictive diet, and a very expensive program. Martina shares with us that she experienced Orthorexia and was at risk of Anorexia while engaging with the program - she was obsessed with every bite of food that passed her lips, and says she became a ‘not very nice person’ while so hangry and feeling superior to other people. That feeling of being superior and special was encouraged within the program. After two years, Martina was able to move away from the program and regain the weight she lost, and that process was so disheartening. However, two years after leaving that program, Martina is so much more at peace with her body. She’s able to find enjoyment in food, and in sharing food with friends and family. Bright Line Eating is making Susan Peirce Thompson rich and is such an unethical program from a practitioner who should know better. I’m still simmering with rage over this Crappy nomination. The impact of programs like this is devastating on people’s lives. Martina lost two years of her life and experienced an eating disorder, and her story of recovery needs to be heard. How are programs like this still happening, and being sold at such enormous profit? After I heard Martina’s story, I’ve been neck-deep in Susan Peirce Thompson and Bright Line Eating. It’s more than a diet, it’s more like a cult. There’s a variety of techniques being used in it to sell problematic ideas and encourage eating disordered behaviour in an apparent attempt to free yourself from ‘disordered behaviour’ - a mindfuck of the next level. So, I’ve been reading and researching and I’m ready to dive into a two part series - this episode is about Bright Line Eating and Susan Peirce Thompson. We’re going to talk about her story, her book, and more broadly talk about the topic of neuroscience as it applies to body weight, and also dive into food addiction models. In the next episode, we’ll talk more with Martina and her experience with the program, and we’ll round out the deep dive with a closer look at the incredible amount of money Bright Line Eating has made. I really need to preface this episode with a trigger warning, a content warning, about numbers and weight. If that’s particularly triggering for you, maybe these two episodes are ones to avoid. Usually we avoid numbers, and in this instance we’re using them as examples of the harm that diet culture can cause, and as examples of inaccuracies. We’ll be talking with neuroscientist Dr Sandra Aamodt about addiction and regulating body weight. So, the book. I’ve read the whole thing. ‘Bright Line Eating: the Science of Living Happy, Thin and Free” by Susan Peirce Thompson, 2017. To begin with, Susan is a really good storyteller and has a compelling personal story of how she came to this way of living. And that’s the thing with so many of these diet gurus, isn’t it? They’re quite compelling, charismatic, often good writers. Susan is from California and her parents were reformed hippies. She grew up in a house which sounded super ‘healthy’. Her mother was thin and always dieting, and Susan recounts how she was doing diets with her mum when she was 10 years old - “neither of us had weight to lose, it was just about being maximally healthy”. Susan paints herself as a kid who was always interested in food, even addicted, compelled to compulsively eat food. What I get from reading this was that this child grew up in a house with little food choice around, no processed food, quite restrictive. We know from lots of research in this area that kids who grow up in households with little food variety and where ‘bad’ food is banned, those kids are quite likely to grow up as binge-eating adults. And kids who diet early have a higher risk of developing eating disorders. There’s also a genetic component with eating disorders, which makes me wonder about Susan’s mother and her own eating issues. One thing that stuck out was the vivid descriptions of what restricting her food felt like as a child - powerful, a feeling of being in control. For most of us on a diet, we feel pretty crappy. For some of us, perhaps those with quite a restrictive relationship with food, that experience of restriction is quite elating. They describe that feeling of being in power, being in control, and get hooked on that feeling of not eating. There’s a disturbing description of Susan ‘going off sugar’ at age 12, of feeling empowered. She also related how, even with these feelings of being empowered, she would sneak food and hide food - which she reads as evidence of her ‘addiction’, but I read as being evidence of the severity of her restriction. By the time Susan was 15, she described herself as ‘overweight’, and feeling ‘enormous’ compared to her thin mum. Again, she unquestioningly accepts that there was something wrong with her body at 15. My non-diet lens tells me that our bodies are changing when we’re 15. It’s perfectly normal to gain weight as you grow, maybe it was just growth? She continued dieting and stumbled into drugs, from ages 14-20, including acid, ecstasy, meth, crack. Quite serious. She talks about the impact on her weight - when you’re on drugs like that, you do reduce your weight. It’s a harrowing story, to be hooked on such terrible drugs for your adolescence. Susan found herself at rock bottom and in a 12 Step program at age 20, and found recovery from drug and alcohol addiction through the 12 Step model. That’s an amazing story! It is not easy to turn your life around like that, and she did it. But in the book, that victory didn’t bring her peace, because her weight increased and she felt terrible about it. She was also still thinking of herself as a food addict, and began attending 12 Step programs for overeating. Episode 30 of All Fired Up is about Overeaters Anonymous - check it out. It looks like Susan did stuff like that for years and years and years without reducing her weight. It’s clear in the book that Susan is not perceiving herself as someone who has issues with her relationship with food, but as someone with weight to lose who is addicted to food. At times she received diagnoses of Binge Eating Disorder and Bulimia, but she did not receive any eating disorder treatment. In 2003, she joined a more extreme unnamed 12 Step, which I believe may be ‘FA’ or ‘Food Addicts Anonymous’. Like all the other 12 Step programs, they are free support groups to help people who perceive themselves as food addicts - and FA has very strict rules. No sugar, no flour. Three meals a day, absolutely no other food. You have to ‘commit’ your meal plan each night to a buddy, mentor, sponsor in the program for the next day. You weigh out each meal according to a strict meal plan. It’s intense, it’s extreme. There’s a lot of mentorship and buddyship to ‘support’ each other - but I would say it’s more like policing each other, to make sure they don’t eat. Susan was happy about finally losing weight in this strict program. But she grew to be distressed with the amount of time the program was taking up - about 20 hours a week of planning, talking to mentors and more. She mentions that her husband considered leaving her, and she was annoyed with the lack of science around the food rules in the program. By this point, Susan had gone to university and studied cognitive science and was now a neuroscientist. She decided she was going to write a book and start an online program, combining her knowledge of the brain with the strict program. What she calls ‘bright lines’, I call ‘very strict rules’ or ‘diet prison’. The ‘online boot camps’ she began offering took off very quickly, and eventually she hired a team and published her book. The diet in the book is basically the same as the FA diet - but FA is free, and Bright Line Eating is for-profit. Her husband is now the CFO. The bootcamps are very expensive, as are all the add-ons in the program. Every level of support requires payment, and Susan justified charging this much money for the program by saying that it’s not just the FA program, it’s a community and it’s combined with neuroscience, and that her team is going ‘cutting edge research in the field’. So, not only has she monetised a popular 12 Step program, but she’s using ‘neuroscience’ and the cache of her PhD to help her ideas gain cred. Susan talks a lot about the brain, and seems to understand that body weight is tightly controlled by our brain (particularly the hypothalamus) and understands that only a small percentage of dieters keep weight off long term. She understands that the hypothalamus is like a thermostat that controls body weight, and it’s out of our conscious control. So, she pays lip service to that, and then spends the rest of the book talking about how her neuroscience tips will fix that - as if it’s broken. What’s being missed here? The science that shows us changes in body weight are countered by these established processes in our brain. She never mentions this - the ‘defended weight range’ - which is pretty fundamental science about how our brains defend body weight. In her whole book, she never mentions it. In a minute we’ll talk more with Dr Aamodt about that. Susan does talk a lot about leptin regulating our body weight. Leptin is a hormone stored in fat cells, and as fat cells get larger they secrete leptin which tells our brain that we’re comfortable, we’re at the right weight, we don’t need to seek out more food. Susan claims that people in larger bodies have too much leptin that isn’t getting to our brains to tell us to stop eating - she says that larger bodied people are ‘leptin resistant’ and our brains think we’re starving and tell us to eat more. She claims that the cause of leptin resistance is insulin resistance, which is caused directly by processed food. Very sweeping generalisations - in essence she is saying that larger people are insatiably eating because leptin is being blocked by our brainstem, which causes us to mindlessly eat processed food all day. So basically, we are all ‘leptin resistant’ humans, mindless processed food eating machines. I’ve got some issues! Not all large people are insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is impacted by an enormous range of factors - genetic, environmental and social. It’s incredibly simplistic to say it’s just due to processed food. For Susan, anyone who is larger is by definition sick or deficient. She continually refers to the ‘right size body’, which is your ‘thin’ body. A complete disregard for body diversity, and lack of data to back up her claims about leptin. She’s also left out the impact of weight loss dieting on leptin. When we try and diet and lose weight, our leptin levels drop. This drop stimulates a huge increase in our appetite and interest in food. So, although she’s concentrating on this idea that larger people are leptin resistant, people may instead have lower leptin levels due to dieting and that’s what is telling our brains that we’re starving. So, leptin drops and interest in food is very well documented in neuroscience - because it’s a very primitive and important danger signal to the brain. Let’s not forget Susan’s target audience of middle-aged women, who likely have dieted many times before and may have lower leptin levels due to this. She knows this. She even mentions the Biggest Loser study which notes how damaged people’s metabolisms were from strict dieting. She says that during the ‘weight loss’ phase of her bootcamp, your metabolism will slow down something like 80-90%, but in the next breath says that there’s no evidence that this will continue to happen - “we’ve never seen evidence of this in Bright Line Eating, there is no reason for alarm”. This really annoyed me. She has no evidence of it because she’s done no research on it. Simply because you don’t look for harm doesn’t mean there’s no harm. Another claim from the book is that you can choose your goal weight based on the lowest weight you’ve ever been, and she pretty much guarantees you can reach it. This flies in the face of weight science and our understanding of all the factors outside of our control. There’s no evidence to say that Bright Line Eating is any different from any other weight loss program. Talking about cravings - Susan describes them as a “brain-based bingeing mechanism”, located in the nucleus accumbens which has become ‘overstimulated’ by the plentiful food in our current environment. She uses her own experience as a drug addict to paint this vivid picture, describing her need for higher doses of drugs to get the same high. That is tolerance - it’s well documented in addiction literature, especially for opiate receptors. Sarah says food behaves in the same way - flour and sugar in particular are acting in the same way as heroin in our brain. She doesn't have very much data to support this idea that flour and sugar behave like a drug. She mentions rat studies to back up some of her sugar claims, but even she admits there’s nothing in the research to show flour is addictive. Food addiction was excluded from the category “substance related and addictive disorders” in the DSM-V, due to lack of evidence. We’ll hear more from neuroscientist Dr Aamodt on this. One of the ways Susan is trying to convince us that sugar and flour are toxic poisons is pretty weird. She asks us to google images of flour, sugar and heroin and look at how similar they are. For the record - things that look like drugs are not necessarily drugs. In her view, processing things is what makes them drugs. In Susan’s view, the way sugar is processed makes it a more toxic drug. What about the way we process mint tea? Dried chillies? I think that this Bright Line plan will keep people in a state of deprivation and restriction, which increases those feelings of addiction. The longer we’re deprived, the stronger our desire will become for the forbidden thing. We know that if people are full when they’re doing an experiment where they’re exposed to food stimuli, their reward centres are less activated. When you think about it, you’re never going to be full on Bright Line Eating and you’re going to feel like an addict. And if you then go to a bootcamp or on one of the forums, it’s going to feel more real. Another bugbear - she repeatedly scares people by referring to food in this book as ‘drugs’, ‘toxins’, ‘poisons’. But then later she says it’s fine for children to eat them, because they’re ‘young enough to burn off the calories’. What? This is a woman who is desperately attached to thinness as a measure of self-worth. If she really believes sugar and flour were toxic poisons, why is she recommending them to children? The rules she’s lifted from FA are full on, and she’s using neuroscience-talk to give them a sense of validation. “It takes some willpower to set up and then little to none when it becomes automatic”. Susan has science-washed extreme deprivation and disguised it as normal. Susan likens the automatic level of food behaviours to brushing your teeth - but our bodies and brains aren’t hard-wired to desire tooth-brushing as a survival mechanism, and feel under threat when we haven’t brushed out teeth in a while. Susan knows this. She wouldn’t have to set up such extensive support systems if permanent restriction truly was automatic. Introducing Dr Aamodt, who wrote the book “Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss”. She also has a much-watched Ted Talk about why she stopped dieting and switched to mindful eating, which has been watched by 4.5 million people. Before she was an author, Dr Aamodt was Editor-In--Chief of Nature Neuroscience, a leading scientific journal in the field of brain research. Dr Aamodt was pulled into neuroscience due to personal experience - as a teenager she remembers her mother commenting that she was “eating like a fat person”. She was not at a higher weight at the time, and looks back at photos of that time and thinks “what was mum doing?”. Dr Aamodt began making complicated food rules for herself, like not being allowed to open the refrigerator herself. It was almost like that comment unlocked disordered eating for her. Sandra then spent about 30 years cycling through diets, and while she never met the definition for an eating disorder she veered very close. Sandra vividly remembers how difficult it was to force herself to move away from dieting. In her early 30’s, Sandra was exposed to some feminist writings about dieting which seemed to unlock some things she’d kind of known for years but hadn’t been paying attention to, such as weight being neurologically controlled. She hadn’t connected the dots that her own body would behave that way. We’re biological animals with physiological regulation, but we’re also social animals living in culture where we’re expected to look and eat a certain way. It’s as if one day someone said to Sandra, “you don’t have to do that”. A blog Sandra credits with some of these early moments of unlearning is ‘Shapely Prose’. The biggest advantage of not dieting for Sandra turned out to be psychological, not physical - the amount of mental space that weight and eating were taking up in her brain turned out to be unbelievable when it stopped. She describes it as like having ringing in your ears for your entire life, then one day someone turns the ringing off. In Susan’s experience, you can’t just tell people ‘don’t diet’ - you have to tell them what to do instead. The message of ‘don’t control your weight’ is too uncomfortable. Sandra came across mindful eating, which gave some structure to make that transition away from dieting. Sandra initially didn’t know when she was hungry - how could she, after all those years of strictly regulating herself? There’s a lot of psychological research showing that people who diet frequently are not good at picking up interoception signals from their bodies - such as feeling your heart beating. But even after many years of ignoring your body, you can reconnect and hear those signals again. Sandra is much better at it than she used to be. Unlearning takes time! All those neuroplastic changes can be reversed, if you take the time and energy to do it. For Sandra, moving from dieting to not dieting was a huge upgrade. What is the ‘set point’? Scientists call it the ‘defended range’ which Sandra says is a better term. It’s a small range of weight where your body is comfortable. When you’re within your defended range, weight works the way that random people on the internet think that it works all the time. You can make your lifestyle changes and nudge it a little up or down. It’s the range where your body and your brain are not fighting you. The body is comfortable. Once you get outside that range, in either direction, this is where the brain says ‘this is not right, we’re not regulating properly, we need to fix this’. And this is where calories in, calories out becomes unreliable and the way you process food starts to change in dramatic ways. Metabolism changes to try and get you back into that defended range. It’s normal to be more hungry when you’re not getting enough food! It does seem as though the responses are asymmetrical - that the body’s compensatory mechanisms become more intense over time if you’re under your defended range, but will become less intense over time if you’re above your defended range. So, your brain is much more relaxed with being at a higher weight than being under your defended range. From an evolutionary perspective, starving is really serious and you should never take it lightly. How do we know our defended range? It’s genetic to begin with - there are strong genetic influences on it. A number of life experiences can affect it, for instance people who didn’t get enough sleep as children generally have a higher defended range as adults. Also, children who had a lot of stress and/or trauma in their lives have a higher defended range as adults. If your childhood environment is scary, unpredictable, like something bad will happen at any time - there’s a strong evolutionary argument that it would be okay for your body to store extra energy for future dangerous times. The body makes sense! Your body does its best to survive. There’s a genetic link as well in who is susceptible to constantly being invited to ignore their bodies, and whose bodies have such strong hunger and fullness signals that they seem to be completely immune to those kinds of external messaging. And then dieting itself - attempting to get under your ‘defended range’. The brain desires that we stay within that defended range and functions 24/7 without a break - and we try to combat this with willpower, which we cannot do 24/7. We can do a lot of these things for a while, but at some point it gets to be like holding your breath. The food addiction model - the idea that if we remove certain foods from our diet we can permanently change our set point, our weight, and our brains will relax and finally do what diet culture says they should do. What does Sandra think about that? Sandra thinks the food addiction model is basically a rebranding of Binge Eating Disorder. The restriction itself is what produces the sense of being ‘out of control’. The easiest way to see that is in experiments on rodents, who aren’t bombarded with media messages telling them their bodies are unacceptable. Inducing Binge Eating Disorder in rats is actually done quite reliably - rats are starved to about 70-80% of their starting weight, then given high sugar foods. The rats will eat past fullness - they will ‘stuff’ themselves. If you make this a cycle and repeat several times, you can get rats to the point where they will binge on regular boring rat chow. They don’t even require the food to taste good to overeat it. That sounds familiar, right? We are those rats. We often miss the deprivation with Binge Eating Disorder and focus only on the eating. There are also changes in the brain’s reward system that are associated with that behaviour, but that doesn’t immediately jump out at Sandra as being that the solution is to restrict what we eat. If the restriction causes the disorder, it probably isn’t also the cure. If the rats weren’t starved, would they have this response to high sugar food? No. Rats who aren’t starved and are presented with novel foods will eat until full and then stop. These rats are not trying to diet, they’re not struggling with mixed cultural messages - they’re just having a straightforward biological response to a stimulus that suggests that maybe you should put away some reserves for the future because every so often, somebody comes and takes your food away. It’s quite a simple, elegant, neurobiological response to famine. So, the food addiction model is rebranded deprivation models, or Binge Eating Disorder models. Nobody has come up with evidence that is convincing Sandra that it’s any more than that. The scales that measure food addiction have a lot of overlap with the scales that measure Binge Eating Disorder. A definition of addiction that Sandra likes is ‘when we continue to want things that we do not like” being drawn to repeat behaviours that you don’t actually enjoy. And some people would describe Binge Eating Disorder in that way, but Sandra doesn’t think that implies that the treatment is doing more of what created it in the first place (restriction). Huge thanks to Dr Sandra Aamodt for sharing her experience and bringing us some logic and more of a whole picture, not just a narrow view. In some ways, Dr Aamodt and Susan Peirce Thompson are quite similar. They both grew up in diet culture, both developed eating issues as a result of trying to control their body weight, and they’re both neuroscientists. However, one has chosen to monetize this in the Bright Line Eating program, and one has chosen to help people find real freedom. The idea of ‘freedom’ in Bright Line Eating is very, very different from the idea of freedom that Dr Aamodt and I (Louise) have. Ours is about laying down our weapons and learning to reconnect. Next episode we’ll talk with Dr Martina Zangger about her experience with Bright Line Eating, and look at the economic reality of how enormous this machine is. And more dodgy research claims! It’ll be a zinger. Resources Here's Dr Aamodt's wonderful Ted Talk And her awesome book You can get in touch with Dr Sandra Aamodt at sandra.aamodt@gmail.com and on twitter at @sandra_aamodt
All things entertainment! Join Carolina and Rachael as they talk about their current favorite books, tv shows, movies and more during quarantine. Follow us on Instagram @ourprimepodactOur Prime Topics DiscussedBook review on The Couple Next DoorWhat we think about Too Hot To HandleWho's running a marathon?Our Obsession with TikTokTBT song of the week
Ara D with Tiny Buddha on gaining freedom from our obsession with possessions. Episode 767: Gaining Freedom from Our Obsession with Possessions by Ara D with Tiny Buddha on Meditation & Reflection Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha and Recreate Your Life Story, an online course that helps you let go of the past and live a life you love. Her latest book: Tiny Buddha's Gratitude Journal, which includes 15 coloring pages, is now available for purchase. For daily wisdom, follow Tiny Buddha on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. The original post is located here: https://tinybuddha.com/blog/gaining-freedom-from-our-obsession-with-possessions/ Please Rate & Review the Show! Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com & in The O.L.D. Podcasts Facebook Group! and Join the Ol' Family to get your Free Gifts Start your journey towards a healthier, happier life by subscribing to Headspace. Sign up now at headspace.com/OFD to get a free month trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ara D with Tiny Buddha on gaining freedom from our obsession with possessions. Episode 767: Gaining Freedom from Our Obsession with Possessions by Ara D with Tiny Buddha on Meditation & Reflection Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha and Recreate Your Life Story, an online course that helps you let go of the past and live a life you love. Her latest book: Tiny Buddha's Gratitude Journal, which includes 15 coloring pages, is now available for purchase. For daily wisdom, follow Tiny Buddha on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. The original post is located here: https://tinybuddha.com/blog/gaining-freedom-from-our-obsession-with-possessions/ Please Rate & Review the Show! Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com & in The O.L.D. Podcasts Facebook Group! and Join the Ol' Family to get your Free Gifts Start your journey towards a healthier, happier life by subscribing to Headspace. Sign up now at headspace.com/OFD to get a free month trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ara D with Tiny Buddha on gaining freedom from our obsession with possessions. Episode 767: Gaining Freedom from Our Obsession with Possessions by Ara D with Tiny Buddha on Meditation & Reflection Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha and Recreate Your Life Story, an online course that helps you let go of the past and live a life you love. Her latest book: Tiny Buddha's Gratitude Journal, which includes 15 coloring pages, is now available for purchase. For daily wisdom, follow Tiny Buddha on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. The original post is located here: https://tinybuddha.com/blog/gaining-freedom-from-our-obsession-with-possessions/ Please Rate & Review the Show! Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com & in The O.L.D. Podcasts Facebook Group! and Join the Ol' Family to get your Free Gifts Start your journey towards a healthier, happier life by subscribing to Headspace. Sign up now at headspace.com/OFD to get a free month trial. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/optimal-finance-daily/support
Tweet The Partynerdz Podcast are having our Annual HORRORCAST where we carve into: . . Comparing Classic Horrors to the Newer Horror Films The Haunting on Hill House Last Minute Cosplay ideas with @babsbutcher Our Obsession with Murders including ID Channel and Netflix series The post PartyNerdz – Episode 107 appeared first on Wildfire Radio.
This week I'm speaking at the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo here in Washington DC, together with neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt. Our session is called The Neurobiology of Dieting: Evidence for Improving Mental Health with a Self-Care Approach. So it's the perfect time to revisit Sandra's popular appearance on the podcast. Sandra's TED Talk "Why dieting usually doesn't work" has been viewed over 4 million times. She really didn't want to do a TED Talk, but she was so driven to put a science-based, anti-diet book out into the world that she marched her introverted self onto the TED stage, stood on the big red dot, said what we needed to hear, and eventually landed her book 'Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss'. Tune in and listen to Sandra and I discuss why dieting and the brain are NOT friends and why dieting will never support a human's healthy brain function. Sandra explains how and why body weight is regulated by the brain (thank goodness!) and that may mean (gasp) that fat people will be fat no matter what they do! And people who diet are likely to end up regaining the weight they lost (and then some). We get into genetic factors that impact our weight and have a laugh at the idea of canceling our'memberships' to the BS-measurement, otherwise known as the BMI. You'll hear us talk about stress, the pros and cons of cortisol, the value of sleep, and why mindful eating is such an essential part of self-care. By the time you're done listening to this show, you will either feel super pumped about your commitment to never diet again -- OR you'll realize that dieting is a losing game, you'll probably get angry, (I did!) and then you'll get to work at creating your better life with Body Kindness. Links mentioned Sandra's TED Talk Why Diets Don't Work - Sandra's presentation from Aspen Ideas Festival A selection of Sandra's articles: You can't 'willpower' your way to lasting weight loss. The human brain attack on weight loss Why you can't lose weight on a diet About Sandra Sandra is the author of Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss (2016). She also coauthored two popular neuroscience books with Sam Wang. Welcome to Your Brain (2008) was named Young Adult Science Book of the Year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been translated into twenty languages. Welcome to Your Child's Brain (2011) was published in twelve languages. She received a degree in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Rochester. After four years of research at Yale University, she joined Nature Neuroscience, a leading scientific journal in the field of brain research, at its founding in 1998 and was editor in chief from 2003-2008. She lives in Northern California. Follow Sandra Website | Twitter | Sandra's book --- Get started with Body Kindness If you’re ready for more Body Kindness, the book is a great place to start. Read reviews on Amazon and pick up your copy today! Want signed copies or bulk orders? Click here. Get started today with my free body kindness coaching, straight to your inbox. Sign up right here. --- Support the show Thank you to our generous supporters! We are working toward our goal to fund the full season. Can you donate? Please visit our Go Fund Me page. --- You can subscribe to Body Kindness on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and iHeartRadio. Enjoy the show? Please rate it on iTunes! - http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1073275062 --- Enjoy the show? Please subscribe and rate it. Have a show idea or guest recommendation (even yourself!) E-mail podcast@bodykindnessbook.com to get in touch. Join us on the Body Kindness Podcast Facebook group where you can continue the episode conversations with the hosts, guests, and fellow listeners. See you there! Nothing in this podcast is meant to provide medical diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Individuals should consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical advice and answers to personal health questions.
The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss Guest: Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D. Are you one of the 108 million people who went on a diet last year, but are ... The post Sandra Aamodt: Why Diets Make Us Fat appeared first on Danielle Lin Show.
The seventh episode of the podcast will dive into options for treating patients that do not center on weight change. Significant and permanent weight change is nearly impossible for the majority of the population, so we need to use weight independent, evidence based treatment for people of all sizes. In this episode: Defining weight neutral/weight independent and weight inclusive Health at Every Size ® Intuitive Eating vs Restrictive Eating Well Now How to move away from using weight as a determinant of health Thinking beyond the individual - how society can change to support health I would like to thank Julie Duffy Dillon for helping me come up with the title for this episode. Music by Galynne Davis Cover Art by Stacy Bias Quote: “Part of our job should not be just doing no harm, but also trying to remove the harm that’s being done outside of our offices.” -DeAun Nelson, ND Resources: 1. Bacon, L. and Aphramor, L.Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift. Nutrition Journal201110:9 https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-10 2. Mensinger, JL et al. Appetite. 2016 Oct 1;105:364-74 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27289009 3. https://lindabacon.org/_resources/resources-health-care-providers/ 4. Aphramor, L. Validity of claims made in weight management research: a narrative review of dietetic articles. Nutr J. 2010; 9: 30. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2916886/ 5. http://lucyaphramor.com/dietitian/ 6. Aamodt, S. (2016) Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss. New York, NY: Penguin. 7. Bacon L, Aphramor L. Body respect: what conventional health books get wrong, leave out, and just plain fail to understand about weight. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books; 2014. 8. Bacon, L. Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books; 2008.
Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt's TED Talk "Why dieting usually doesn't work" has been viewed over 4 million times. She really didn't want to do a TED Talk, but she was so driven to put a science-based, anti-diet book out into the world that she marched her introverted self onto the TED stage, stood on the big red dot, said what we needed to hear, and eventually landed her book 'Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss'. Tune in and listen to Sandra and I discuss why dieting and the brain are NOT friends and why dieting will never support a human's healthy brain function. Sandra explains how and why body weight is regulated by the brain (thank goodness!) and that may mean (gasp) that fat people will be fat no matter what they do! And people who diet are likely to end up regaining the weight they lost (and then some). We get into genetic factors that impact our weight and have a laugh at the idea of canceling our'memberships' to the BS-measurement, otherwise known as the BMI. You'll hear us talk about stress, the pros and cons of cortisol, the value of sleep, and why mindful eating is such an essential part of self-care. By the time you're done listening to this show, you will either feel super pumped about your commitment to never diet again -- OR you'll realize that dieting is a losing game, you'll probably get angry, (I did!) and then you'll get to work at creating your better life with Body Kindness. Links mentioned Sandra's TED Talk Why Diets Don't Work - Sandra's presentation from Aspen Ideas Festival A selection of Sandra's articles: You can't 'willpower' your way to lasting weight loss. The human brain attack on weight loss Why you can't lose weight on a diet About Sandra Sandra is the author of Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss (2016). She also coauthored two popular neuroscience books with Sam Wang. Welcome to Your Brain (2008) was named Young Adult Science Book of the Year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been translated into twenty languages. Welcome to Your Child's Brain (2011) was published in twelve languages. She received a degree in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Rochester. After four years of research at Yale University, she joined Nature Neuroscience, a leading scientific journal in the field of brain research, at its founding in 1998 and was editor in chief from 2003-2008. She lives in Northern California. Follow Sandra Website | Twitter | Sandra's book --- You can subscribe to Body Kindness on iTunes and Stitcher. Enjoy the show? Please rate it on iTunes! - http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1073275062 Are you ready for Body Kindness? Get started today with my free e-course and on-demand digital training. Learn more - http://bit.ly/2k23nbT The New York Times Book Review calls Body Kindness 'simple and true'. Publisher's Weekly says it's 'a rousing guide to better health.' http://bit.ly/2k228t9 Watch my videos about why we need Body Kindness on YouTube. https://youtu.be/W7rATQpv5y8?list=PLQPvfnaYpPCUT9MOwHByVwN1f-bL2rn1V --- Enjoy the show? Please subscribe and rate it. Have a show idea or guest recommendation (even yourself!) E-mail podcast@bodykindnessbook.com to get in touch. Join us on the Body Kindness Podcast Facebook group where you can continue the episode conversations with the hosts, guests, and fellow listeners. See you there! Nothing in this podcast is meant to provide medical diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Individuals should consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical advice and answers to personal health questions.
When was the last time you left your smartphone at home... on purpose? We sent Dr. Hallowell out on an adventure without his to see how he'd manage, and of course, we were there every step of the way! After Ned's adventure, keep listening for a roundtable discussion that uncovers how your age might play a role in how you use your phone. Check out The Light Phone Take a listen to Season 1, Episode 7: Our Obsession with Our Devices featuring Joe Hollier, creator of The Light Phone.
Download Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt Explains Why Diets Make Us Fat Every year, millions of Americans turn to diets to lose weight, but an increasing number of studies are showing that dieters are more likely to gain more weight over the next two to 15 years than those who don’t diet. Many people hear phrases like “diets don’t work” and “diets make you fat,” but rarely believe these concepts are true – until they experience it themselves. On today’s episode, I’m talking with neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt. Sandra serves on the board of The Center for Mindful Eating and is the author of the recently published book – Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss. She joins me today to share her journey through dieting, starvation, and explains what happens in the brain when we diet. “Low fitness, smoking, high blood pressure, low income, and loneliness are better predictors of early death than obesity when considered individually.” – Sandra Aamodt This Week on the Every Body Podcast: Our culture’s “amazing brainwashing job” regarding dieting and weight loss What long-term diet studies reveal The physiological effects of losing weight How human evolution and food availability has impacted our body’s natural weight regulation process Genetic disposition and environmental factors influencing our body’s natural weight regulation process Sandra’s personal journey with dieting, when she chose to stop dieting, and her results Shifting your mindset around exercise Study conclusions on health and weight connections Defining what a “healthy diet” really means Society’s impact on dieting and the money-making aspect of it New, exciting research studies becoming known in the industry Encouraging children to eat healthy without dieting Sandra’s experience as a Ted Talk speaker and its success Marketing shifts around the words “health” and “diet” Sandra’s Advice to Dieters: Do not pay attention to short-run studies. Eat plenty of vegetables. Avoid processed foods. Find ways to seek pleasure in moving your body. Rate & Share Thank you for joining me this week on the Every Body podcast. If you enjoyed this week’s episode, head over to iTunes, subscribe to the show and leave a review to help us spread the word to Every Body! Don’t forget to visit our website, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and join our mailing list so you never miss an episode!
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