My guess is that most people listening to this episode will NOT find themselves lost in a fantasy dungeon (unless it is while playing a game of D&D of course). However should you, it may become necessary to start catching and eating monsters. Luckily the Brain Trust has just finished watching the anime “Delicious in Dungeon” so we have you covered.…

As promised, Noah and I discuss the “Three Goddesses” story, one of them being the Baba Yaga, who is the prototype for our modern conception of the witch. She has a big nose, long chin, a house on chicken lags, and for some reason there is a focus on her saggy breasts. On, and she doesn’t ride around a broom, but it is involved.…

It is Halloween again, and what is more iconic at this time of year than vampires, werewolves, and witches? I thought it was about time we dedicate a whole episode to them, so Noah Charney is back on the show to discuss their origins. It turns out that these creatures first appear in Slavic myths around the 4th century and the werewolf & the vampir…

Humans are visual creatures, but we still rely heavily on our auditory senses to navigate the world. We are also loud by nature, which is why New York City is constantly at 90 decibels. My point is this: If our survival is dependent on staying silent, I think we are doomed. Most of us at least. Which is why the monsters in A Quiet Place are so terr…

Today we decide to take a trip BACK to the planet of Dune, which is a place like none other. In our first episode we talked about the lack of water and how important saving every drop is. Well this time we take a deep dive into that waterless pool to give you as many H2O saving tips that we can. First of all we have to discuss where all the water w…

With a few more minutes I talk to Jeff about Gigolos, Showgirls, and the man behind The Waffle King.על ידי Daniel J. Glenn

Los Angeles should be known as “Celebrity City”, since this is where so many live. If you are an everyday person, and you happen to also live in Los Angeles, there is a small chance that you could run into one of these larger-than-life personalities and get sucked into their orbit. You see, once you reach a certain level of fame you require a LOT o…

Tornadoes are one of the most truly devastating forces in nature. They can appear out of nowhere, destroy entire towns, and then disappear without a trace. They are categorized not by their power, but by the amount of damage they cause. So how do these killer vortexes form? And why are they almost exclusively a North American phenomenon? Why do peo…

At the end of the last episode things looked pretty bleak. Highly advanced aliens are on their way and they are stifling our scientific breakthroughs. But humans are resilient. The aliens call us bugs, but nothing is more hardy than the cockroach. But what can we do? Well we specialize in out of the box thinking. How about shooting a probe towards …

Project Blue Book was supposed to be the U.S. Government’s official investigation into UFO’s. The science advisor was a man named J. Allen Hynek. He was the one responsible for the infamous “Swamp Gas” Explanation. Well Blue Book was really a disinformation campaign, and Hynek went from professional debunker to believer. He scientifically analyzed …

The TV show “3 Body Problem” introduces a major conundrum for humanity: Aliens are on their way, and there is nothing we can do about it. Are they friendly? Are they hostile? Who knows (Who am I kidding, we all know they will eventually turn on us)? There is an upside though: It will take them 400 years to get here, so we have some time. But how di…

“When Hell Freezes Over” is a common saying, but what does it even mean? Sure religious doctrine would have you believe that Hell is a place of fire and brimstone, full of lakes of lava, overcooked burritos, nuclear meltdowns, and other really hot stuff. But we also talk about the chill of the grave, and the cold touch of death. So which is it? Gho…

Let’s be serious: The Gong Show was a national phenomenon! Unfortunately like a lot of things in the 70’s, once a movie was made, the fad was over. This is true of The Gong Show Movie which was really a therapy session for creator and host Chuck Barris. So was his book “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” which became a movie as well. It is safe to sa…

If you didn’t grow up in the 70’s, you have no concept of just how popular “The Gong Show” was. This was a daytime show that destroyed the ratings, and was unlike anything on television. It was basically a reverse talent show where the draw was a parade of terrible acts. They had some ringers sprinkled in, but the wild stunts are what is remembered…

We have been taught that Superman is the icon for truth, justice, and the American way. He is the ultimate superhero, and always does what it right. He is also an alien with more strength and power than anything we can imagine. There are no counters to him. Well except Kryptonite which is unbelievably rare. Besides that, there is nothing we can do …

Sir Ian Livingstone is a real knight, known as the “Knight of the Nerds”. Never has a moniker been more apt. Ian and his partner Steve Jackson were early fanatics of various complex strategy games. They turned this love into a paradigm changing company called “Games Workshop”. Thanks to an exclusive deal with Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax, …

How many people reading this have attempted to learn a new language? I know that I have stopped and restarted Spanish lessons twice in the past 3 years. The grammar rules are what kills it. How about a completely unique language, that is almost indistinguishable from English, but uses the exact same rules and even some of the same words? You are in…

One of the lucky breaks Eastman & Laird received was that Nintendo and Konami were looking for a new kind of game and the turtles came around at the perfect time. Not only was the NES game successful, but the sequel changed the way arcade games operated for a five year period. Listen as we discuss the meteoric rise of both the turtles and video gam…

1984 was a big year. Ghostbusters and Terminator were released, the events of George Orwell’s novel take place, and in a Massachusetts suburb, two comic artists accidentally created one of the biggest pop culture events in human history: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What started as a joke between friends has spawned numerous TV shows, […]…

You may not think so, but the formula created by The Bad News Bears is still in use today! A rag tag group of kids, lead by an incompetent and troubled adult somehow manage to overcome their differences and beat the better funded team at whatever sport they are competing in. It is a tale […]על ידי Daniel J. Glenn

Nothing says spring like the smell of freshly cut grass on a baseball diamond, and in my opinion, nothing says America quite like the baseball movie. Sure the sport gets credit as the national past time, but Hollywood is uniquely American. This week film critic Noah Gittell discusses the history of baseball movies, which starts […]…

Since the 50’s, no woman has captured the attention of little girls everywhere quite like Barbie. Sure she is only 11 inches tall and made of plastic, but influence is global. This week I talk with M. G. Lord, one of the foremost experts on his iconic fashion doll. When it comes to her history, […]על ידי Daniel J. Glenn

In America, one organization has seemingly been in control of every industry we have at some point and time in our history. That group is known collectively as The Mob. From prostitution, to running unions, to funding government officials, some form of organized crime has been in control since the Mayflower. We are going to […]…

The U.S. government has a pretty straight-laced reputation, but did you know that in the 60’s and 70’s, the CIA and Army Intelligence funded research into psychic phenomena? They sure did, and it was approved because the belief was that the Soviets were also doing it. Then the Soviets started doing it because they heard […]…

Before we finish, Russell lets me ask one final question about how Psychic Phenomenon works.על ידי Daniel J. Glenn

The U.S. government has a pretty straight-laced reputation, but did you know that in the 60’s and 70’s, the CIA and Army Intelligence funded research into psychic phenomena? They sure did, and it was approved because the belief was that the Soviets were also doing it. Then the Soviets started doing it because they heard […]…

We’ve discussed how to build your own underground bunker, but what if you let a company like Vault-Tek do that for you? In the world of Fallout, Vault-Tek is not the most trustworthy company. They blew up the entire world to eliminate their competition! While I do respect their hustle, it does leave the world in an irradiated mess. So in three hund…

We’ve discussed how to build your own underground bunker, but what if you let a company like Vault-Tek do that for you? In the world of Fallout, Vault-Tek is not the most trustworthy company. They blew up the entire world to eliminate their competition! While I do respect their hustle, it does leave the world in an irradiated mess. So in three hund…

Lemuria. If you are familiar with this place, you probably know it as a lost continent (akin to Atlantis), that was inhabited by higher beings who not live in the hollow Earth under Mt. Shasta in California. You may also believe that extraterrestrials seeded this continent with crystals before it sank to the bottom of […]…

There are very few characters that truly stand the test of time. Superman and Batman are almost 90, but there are peaks and valleys to their popularity. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been consistently in the spotlight since the mid-80’s, which is a feat in my opinion. As everyone knows, despite being 40 years […]…

History is littered with tragic events, things that change the course of your life. Some events have the magnitude to change the social order of the world itself. What if you could go back and right these wrongs? Who among us wouldn’t go back and stop 9/11, or prevent the holocaust? Well this week, we […]…