We revisit why you shouldn’t lick rocks, dangers of self-experimenting, dark proteins, de-aging cells, and sadly a 1,000-year-old Peru geoglyph destroyed
Substack, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon
Episode 73 Transcript
Joe, Nick, and Georgia are back in the Basement Studio — well, sort of. Georgia is remoting in from the American Library Association conference in Chicago, and Nick is in his office. Joe is holding down the Basement Studio solo. The band is together in spirit.
In Episode 73: The Mini: the RHR crew recaps Part 1 of the Spider-Man villains series: Lab Safety (EP 72) episode featuring Tera Lavoie, PhD, and the ongoing debate over whether Nick should be allowed anywhere near a rock alone.
Past guest Lorena checks in with some unfortunate news from Peru, and in Science Holes, Joe brings three stories. A NYTimes story about self experimentation, rewriting what we thought we knew about the human genome, and can we turn back the clock on aging cells.
The crew closes out with what they have been watching, reading, and playing, a few upcoming announcements, and Season 4 is officially happening (was there any doubt).
Stay curious. But don’t lick rocks or sand (come on Nick!)
Pre-Order: Touch of Noir 2027 Wall Calendar —
12 months of all-original art by Jim and Georgia; pre-orders open now, with mailing expected in September
Joe will be at Shore Leave 46
Lancaster, PA (July 10-12, 2026): Lancaster Wyndham Resort and Convention Center
Listen to Episode 72:
Spider-Man villains part 1: Lab Safet
Check out what the RHR crew is creating
Joe:
- Named by the Guild Literary Complex as one of the 35 Writers to Watch!
- Red Line: Chicago Horror Stories Anthology featuring a new story by Joe!
- Joe’s Sci-fi physiological thriller Novel: Will You Still Love Me If I Become Someone Else?
- Essay by Joe: From Beyond Press: Specific Knowledge: Jotham Austin, II, PhD on Transformations in Fiction
It’s science for Weirdos
Want to support the show? Tell your friends. Follow us on social media, Discord, share the podcast, and let us know what topics you are excited about. And to see all the content (studio images and artwork) subscribe to the Rabbit Hole of Research newsletter!
Stay curious, stay speculative, stay safe, and we’ll catch you in the next rabbit hole. Love Y’all!
Future Events to Hang with the Crew:
Podcast Cross-Appearances
- Watch Joe on Joe Compton’s YouTube channel 21Grams
- The RHR crew on Ben Tanzer’s This podcast will change your life: episode three hundred seventy-nine
Events & Conventions:
- Shore Leave 46 – Lancaster, PA (July 10-12, 2026)Lancaster Wyndham Resort and Convention Center
- Dragon Con – Atlanta, GA (September 3-7, 2026) – Joe attending as Professional
Upcoming Episodes
*The Mini will now be every other episode!
Three Part Spider-Man Series to get ready for the new MCU Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- Episode 74 – Spider-Man Villains Part 2: Scorpion and the Other ChimerasGuest: Erin C. AnthonyThe crew explores the science of chimeras, genetic splicing, and what it would actually take to create Spider-Man’s most dangerous foes.
- Episode 76 – Spider-Man Villains Part 3: What His Villains Reveal About HimGuest: Comic YouTuber, Alex Hanes (@Hanes4Heroes)The conclusion of the Spider-Man trilogy takes a step back to ask what the science of his villains tells us about Spider-Man himself.
- Episode 78 – Briar East Woods – Urban DeforestationGuest: Anne Sedlacek
- Episode 80: Magic: the Power and Cost of Magic SystemsGuest: B.L.Mostyn
What the Crew is Digging, Links, Resources, and Topics Mentioned in mini and/or full episode:
Links & Resources:
- Pre-Order: Touch of Noir 2027 Wall Calendar12 months of all-original art by Jim and Georgia; pre-orders open now, with mailing expected in September
- Peru Triple Spiral Geoglyph Destruction
Science Holes:
1. Against Expert Advice: People Using Synthetic Drugs to Self-Treat Addiction
NYTimes
A New York Times article about people self-experimenting with unapproved synthetic compounds in hopes of breaking addiction. The story follows a woman known as Becks, a former biology major and chemistry hobbyist addicted to opioids, who discovered SR-17018 through Reddit after users flagged a 2019 study showing the compound helped addicted mice reduce dependence. With no approved human trials, no safety data, and no medical oversight, Becks ordered it online and kept a detailed diary of her experience.
2. Revealed: The Mysterious ‘Dark’ Proteins That Might Play a Big Role in Biology
Nature
Scientists have long assumed that large stretches of the human genome are essentially junk, non-coding regions that don’t appear to do anything meaningful. A new effort is challenging that assumption, officially naming thousands of previously ignored short proteins encoded by these regions “peptideins” and adding them to major gene and protein databases for the first time.
3. Trial to ‘De-Age’ Cells Treats First Person
Nature
The first human participant has been treated in a gene therapy trial aimed at coaxing aged cells to behave like younger ones. The company Life Biosciences in Boston is targeting a form of glaucoma, activating three reprogramming genes in retinal cells using a virus delivery system — with a built-in safety switch that turns the genes off if the patient stops taking a specific antibiotic. The bigger question of whether de-aged cells can truly enhance longevity remains wide open, and the crew is already eyeing it as a future episode topic.
Science Terms
- SR-17018 — An unapproved synthetic opioid receptor compound being self-administered by people attempting to treat addiction, sourced from Chinese labs and sold online with no regulatory oversight or human safety data.
- Peptideins — The name for thousands of short proteins encoded by previously ignored regions of the human genome.
- Junk DNA — An informal term for regions of the genome that don’t appear to code for known proteins.
- Retinal Ganglion Cells — The neurons that make up the optic nerve, targeted in the de-aging trial as a potential treatment for glaucoma. Unlike most neurons, they are not normally capable of regeneration.
- DNA structure — DNA is shaped like a twisted ladder (a double helix), made of two strands of nucleotides that wind around each other and pair up to hold the genetic code
- Nucleotides (A, T, G, C) — the four chemical “letters” of DNA: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C). A always pairs with T, and G always pairs with C, forming the rungs of the DNA ladder. The order of these letters provides the instructions for building proteins
- DNA sequencing — the process of reading the order of A, T, G, and C letters in a piece of DNA, allowing scientists to compare genetic codes, identify mutations, and trace ancestry
What the Crew is Digging:
TV
- Widow’s Bay (Apple TV+)— Joe and Georgia finished the series, and Nick has two more episodes.
- Spider-Man Noir (Amazon)— The crew finished the series.
- Afterparty (Apple TV+) — Nick just started the second season.
Books
- Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
- The Pools by E. Lockhart (advance copy)
Video Games
Resident Evil: Requiem — Nick finished it. No spoilers, so reach out to Nick if you have questions.
“Stay curious, stay safe… Love Y’all!”
Join Rabbit Hole of Research on Discord: https://discord.gg/2nnmKgguFV
Subscribe and Share our Substack newsletter to get email updates, never miss an episode, and spread the word!! Don’t forget to give us 5 stars or a like!
Transcript
joe: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome back to The Rabbit Hole of Research down here in the basement studio I am feeling quite lonely here in a basement studio. It’s just me, Joe, down here
Nick: Oh, well, hey Joe, it’s you got Nick,
joe: got Nick
Nick: I’m all alone in my office too, if that makes you feel any better.
georgia: Hi. I’m here too.
Nick: Who’s that?
georgia: Do you know who I am?
joe: You know, we got Georgia.
Nick: Doesn’t introduce herself.
joe: introduced I know. Yeah. It’s like she’s off
at the ALA
conference
georgia: I need no introduction. No, I’m kidding.
joe: Yeah. All right, Tera
Nick: in, thank you.
joe: I know. That was like Tera, right? She did the same thing. Like, “Oh, you guys know who I am.”
Nick: And they didn’t tell you
joe: but yeah, Georgia, you’re at the ALA. You wanna talk a little bit about that, what you’re doing there?
georgia: Yeah the American Library Association at conference here [00:01:00] in Chicago. So not too far away, but because I have a nice friend that let me stay at, and they live within, like, a 10-minute walk of the conference center, so that’s been nice.
joe: Mm-hmm. Cool
georgia: so I’m missing the basement studio
joe: Missing the basement studio but we’re here.
georgia: Oh, I was gonna say, it’s been really cool. Like, it’s just been this amazing experience. And I was, just before we started recording, like I said, it’s kinda cool that one of our guests was one of the authors at the ALA conference, so. Grace one of our, one of our soon to come guests
joe: right.
Yep. Part of our… Will be part of our horror series in I think it’s before October. So be in there.
We got a few fun episodes, so yeah. Yeah. No, Grace was a good guest, so [00:02:00] excellent. All right, so yeah, last week we talked about lab safety and our kickoff to the Spider-Man villain series, so part one.
It was a fun episode. We learned all about how to be safe in a laboratory and not to lick rocks, so.
georgia: or how not to be safe
Nick: No, it’s how to lick rocks.
joe: Yes. Licking rocks You don’t.
Nick: tell them to
joe: a golem. You don’t lick the rocks. But yeah, it was a
georgia: gotta be a little risky, you know, sometimes
joe: It was a fun episode. We will be two more one on chimeras and one about Spider-Man himself and how the villains have influenced him. So yeah, it should be neat. But yeah. Any thoughts on that episode?
Nick: I can’t wait. I loved it. It was a lot of fun, and Tera’s always a fun guest to come back to. Yeah. What about you, Georgia?
georgia: No I really, I enjoyed it. But I do [00:03:00] have to be honest, I’ve been at this conference and stuff, I haven’t been checking on any of the comments or anything.
joe: Yep
Nick: Can’t believe you.
georgia: I know.
Nick: Alex says yay me for licking rocks.
georgia: He encouraging you to lick rocks?
Nick: Yeah. ‘Cause rocks are cool looking. And if you lick the sand, it’s like licking, like, hundreds of rocks at the same time.
joe: Oh, boy. Let’s not, like… No,
let’s
georgia: That sounds horrible.
joe: That sounds boring. Yeah. Yeah, it does. That sounds like a
georgia: You were at
joe: a fun time
georgia: you were at the beach today.
Did you lick the sand there? I
Nick: was. Always. It just gets in your mouth sometimes- Well- … and you’re just like,
georgia: Yeah.
joe: All right. All right. That’s enough licking stuff. Don’t do
it.
Nick: Stop licking.
joe: Did get something from a past guest. It wasn’t the lab safety, it was from the Nazca Lines Lorena. She sent me an article about the Peru [00:04:00] geoglyphs and how there was a total destruction of the triple spiral pre-Hispanic geoglyph.
The figure is more than a thousand years old linked to water worship, and it was located within a protected archaeological zone in the north of the country. But unfortunately, it was destroyed, so
kind of sad.
georgia: horrible
Nick: Man,
that’s awful
georgia: I mean, here it’s been there for that many years, and then, I mean…
Nick: Humans come by and they’re like, “Oh, you know what?
joe: Yep
Nick: W- let’s just get rid of this.”
georgia: Ugh. Yeah, it’s heartbreaking
joe: and was protected, right? But it was just a bunch of illegal occupants that had built makeshift structures in the zone, and then, “Oh, we accidentally didn’t know,” but now it’s like, “Oh, we can put some pipelines in,” right?
So it’s kind of you know, since it’s gone now, oh, since it’s gone
georgia: that seems suspicious. Mm-hmm
joe: but yep. Yeah. So they’re investigating that and, was it all a big ruse? [00:05:00] But yeah, unfortunate. Very sad. So but it was
Nick: I hate when corporations do stuff like that. It’s just so shady
joe: Always nice to Hear from previous guests on episodes, but then it’s like, oh
georgia: And you don’t wanna hear something like that. No
Nick: we only want good things.
joe: That’s right. We’ll take the other things,
georgia: good news.
joe: Stay aware and stay curious, right? This type of thing came up and now I knew about the Nazca Lines and knew about the geoglyphs, so I was…
You know, when you see something like this, it makes you think about it, whereas before I might have just overlooked this article or, you know, if someone sent it, be like, “Yeah, okay.”
georgia: Yeah, right
joe: cool. Anything else? You guys wanna go on to the Science Holes?
Nick: I I messed up. I di- I didn’t read anything this week. It’s been a
joe: Oh boy.
Nick: I was very very much in planning stages with things.
joe: I know Georgia’s been at the [00:06:00] conference, so I do have three things maybe we could talk about. And two might be… Well, one’s probably related to the episode. It was people using new and unpredictable synthetic drugs to experiment on themselves in hopes of becoming free of addiction.
So this, there was a story in The New York Times about a woman who’s been struggling with addiction and, heard about this drug called SR-17018, and it was on Reddit. People were talking about it. It was synthesized in China and then sold online without any, a- approvals or shown to be safe for potential side effects or dosages.
So you just kinda get these compounds.
georgia: wrong?
joe: Yeah, right. That’s , the thing about it. But you have people on Reddit who are saying, “Oh, there was a 2019 study and it suggested it could [00:07:00] free drug addicted mice of their dependence on the drug. And so you have this woman she just goes by the name Becks in the article, kind of a chemistry hobbyist, a former biology major, in
georgia: Oh my God.
joe: And so she was writing a lot of stuff in her journal and talking about statistics, like 80,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States in 2024, more than Americans died in the Vietnam War. So she was just really concerned that she was gonna,, wind up dying from her addiction And she was addicted to opioids. So she had a accident, and so that kind of, triggered her addiction. But you know, she struggled with that even in high school, college but this really was the thing. So she kept this diary, and she got the drug just say, call it SR, instead of SR17018, but I’ll refer to it [00:08:00] as SR as they did in the article.
And so she took it, a dose, measured it out, and then she felt really good. Day one, day two, she didn’t have any… The typical withdrawal symptoms, and so she just kinda thought this was working. And then,, she kinda kept recording. And then like day nine-ish, day eight or nine, she kinda started having anxiety and high blood pressure.
So she decided to skip a dose because she didn’t have medical insurance and didn’t wanna go to the hospital being uninsured. And so– And then, day 10, she completely relapsed and
then
georgia: many days?
joe: It was about 10 days.
georgia: Okay
joe: And then after that, she kind of just was spiraling and, she would take SR the drug, and that would ease the withdrawal symptoms.
And then she would just go on these benders, not only to opiate, but heroin, cocaine, and she kinda did this, for several months until she finally went to [00:09:00] rehab. And then through rehab, she finished the whole process.
And then about a year later now she’s relatively sober. She found a partner, fell in love moved to Europe, I think. And so she says that a lot of this, her lifestyle changed, so she only does, drugs maybe five times over this last bit of time. So that’s why I said relatively sober.
But she changed her environment, changed her diet, and like she said, had a lot of luck that she’s still there. And then in the article, the interviewer asked if she thinks SR helped, and she said, yeah, she thinks it did help her go through the rehab process. So really fascinating and,
Nick: I mean, that’s also really good to see someone make it out of there and
joe: yep
yep
Nick: successful
joe: But the, it, I don’t know if taking this SR was the right thing, right? ‘Cause it really didn’t help
her. She really…
georgia: I really don’t think you should
ever take something that you’re, [00:10:00] like, I don’t really get how you think taking a drug is gonna help. I mean, I know that there are drugs that help you…
joe: With withdrawal symptoms, yep. Mm-hmm
georgia: Yeah, and giving up other drugs. But just the thought of taking this totally unknown drug
joe: Well, there,
georgia: try to stop addiction
joe: a paper in 2019 on mice that it said it helped them with their withdrawal symptoms. So that’s the only study you have that
georgia: not enough
joe: Right. Right. Right. It has potential, right? And this is the thing we talked about in the episode, that a lot of the villains, they go from, it kinda works to let’s do it.
Like, there’s no testing or they don’t wait for that. They kinda are desperate. I mean, she’s desperate and, you know, it’s “I’m gonna die if I don’t do something.” And then you read, oh, here’s some examples. People are trying it. It seems to work. They have success stories.
I think you never think that probably you only see success stories because maybe the non-su- r-
yeah, [00:11:00] the non-successful stories, they might have died or not, journaled it. So that’s the problem. Without a peer review study, you don’t really know what the failures were and things like that, so.
But it is, it’s a growing problem that they’re now seeing, that you’re having these science to street pipeline for novel drugs
georgia: Reddit should not be your source of in- info on that.
joe: And he’s like like these these Chiney lab- Chinese labs are scouring science papers for these new discoveries and then pushing them out and building the hype.
Nick: Very cool
joe: Well, the other thing we had touched on, I think in the last mini. Losing track of which mini we talked about
Nick: a lot of minis. I don’t–
joe: they’re starting to build up. Yeah, but it’s nice that they’re building ’cause this shows…
But we were talking about sequencing and finding differences. I think, Georgia, we touched a little bit on forensics, like how do they tell between two people? And I said, “Oh, there’s this, there’s a lot of DNA that we have that don’t really code for [00:12:00] working proteins.” So proteins that we need all the time , and so those areas, can have mutations, and they mutate faster so that, that .01% difference between us humans, something like three million base pairs, it’s usually in those areas.
And so that’s what they sequence and look in these unique areas. And they usually call that “junk DNA” because it doesn’t play a role potentially. And so there was this paper just came out where they’re starting to classify these, junk, quote-unquote, genes, junk genes. And so there are about 20,000 genes that have been considered essential but these thousands of unclassified and ignored, junk DNA and dark proteins with unknown but potentially important roles in cells are being reclassified and studied .
Like, we don’t know what they do. We kind of consider them junk because they don’t seem to do anything in major [00:13:00] processes. And so in a lot of these genes that encode have been excluded from databases. So these tend to be very short in amino acid length. They lack evolutionary relatives in other organisms, which is probably why they’ve been omitted.
And so now they’re making an effort to include these thousands of molecules encoded by the human genome, and they gave it the name pep- peptidenins. And start including them in the major gene and protein databases as something that might have a role in biology.
So it’s interesting that you have these things, and we were just talking about these kind of areas in, that people don’t study or look at because,
georgia: I mean, and then that feels like pretty presumptuous to, I don’t know, is that the right word? To say, “Oh, these are junk.” Like, just ’cause you don’t really know what they do, you’re just assuming that they don’t do anything?
Nick: And that everyone else follows them with that [00:14:00] logic
joe: Yeah, and some of the junk DNA too is non-coding, so I don’t wanna say all the junk DNA is… Gonna be in these peptides. But they’re kinda picking out the stuff that potentially could code for a protein and going, “Oh, hey, this thing might be important.
Maybe someone should look at that.” But yeah that’s how it starts. You rethink about these things. But that’s… Science isn’t, you know, isn’t complete, this study also shows that, where we have a good idea of how we think things work, but we’re still learning how these systems, including us, our cells, work and , go together and make us who we are and what we are.
So I think that’s fascinating ‘ cause I think a lot of people think science is done. Like, you go to school, you learn a textbook pop, and then okay, that’s it. But, you know-
Nick: Wait, there’s more after that?
joe: There’s more after that, a lot more.
Nick: What? I’m shooketh
joe: So yeah, it’s [00:15:00] really cool. It’s kinda cool seeing studies like that and thinking about the implications, so… Yeah, and then the last one I had, which was pretty interesting, and we touched on we, in that episode but there was a trial to de-age cells. And so the first person is a company called Life Biosciences in Boston.
They are- got approval to treat their first participant. And the goal… The idea,, de-aging cells . Maybe we need to think maybe a episode might come out of this. But you wanna take a cell, and coax it back to make it seem like a younger cell?
And so can you-
Nick: respond as one as well,
joe: or
Nick: would it just look like
joe: that’s the idea. That’s, these are all the things that can you turn on certain genes to make the old cell behave as though it was young again? And the idea, if you can make it think it’s young [00:16:00] again, is then you can rejuvenate cells. In this case, they’re testing treatment for a certain form of glaucoma.
You know, glaucoma is an eye disease that can cause blindness. And so if they can rejuvenate the optic nerve, then cells, then that could actually help grow and form, healthier cells, regenerate the neurons because these neurons aren’t normally capable of regeneration.
So that’s the idea. Can we trick it and then nudge it think that the restorative features of the young cells and then, but not too far back. Like, you don’t wanna, you don’t wanna push it back to where it doesn’t know what kind of cell it should be, right? ‘Cause that’s the beginning of our cells, they were you know they didn’t know what they were, and then they, they get signals.
And okay, I’m an eye cell. I’m a nerve cell, optic nerve cell. So you you’re playing in that sweet spot where you want it younger so that it’s healthy and rejuvenating and regenerating, but not too far back. So- Yeah,
Nick: Yeah, you want like a 15 to 20 year gap.
joe: [00:17:00] Sure. And so it’s… Oh, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah.
georgia: No, I was just gonna say, yeah, I’d like a lot of my cells to
do that
joe: Yeah. That was something. So one, we touched on this in another mini is that they’re using a virus that they, it, that’s been used in gene therapy. I forget which study we talked about where they used a virus system to put in these three reprogramming genes into the retinal cells and that would then kind of function.
And what they’ve added a safety feature that the system, the genes are only switched on when the participant takes an antibiotic. And so if the antibiotic is stopped, then the genes all switch off. And so it’s this little control that they have built in. And to your point, Georgia, that was something that came up in this article was that, , when you’re modifying cells, are they truly younger and can they be reprogrammed to enhance longevity is also a larger question.
So these are, [00:18:00] and I think, Nick, you were touching on that also, that they don’t know. And then this is just focused on the eye, so also, you don’t wanna get too ahead, right? Because if, things like this, if it doesn’t work, then that could freak people out and then research dries up or money because it goes, “Well, that was a, you know, it didn’t work out.”
And if it works really well, then people are gonna get really crazy and go, “Oh, can we do this for the whole body and, this tissue?” So I think there’s some measured optimism, and I think they’re trying to expand it to, like, 12 people to really getting it. So
Nick: to do, go on.
joe: Yeah, so
Nick: I f- can already think of a few movies that are
joe: Mm-hmm.
Nick: this vein
joe: Yep. Aging in general is really fascinating, and I know we’ve talked about telomere length and other episodes it’s come up, so yeah. So as season four, I think we’ve been teasing it. We’re starting to think about it and,
Nick: We’re thinking about recording it.
joe: Yes, we’re thinking about a season four now. There’ll be… Oh, pretty sure there’ll be a season four, so . We’re-[00:19:00]
Nick: I think we were already greenlit, right?
joe: That’s right.
Yeah, we got it. We’re there. So, yeah, so that, those are my three science holes. I think they were really cool, and they were relevant to the the episode, which sometimes doesn’t always happen, but yeah. Yep, yep. So cool
georgia: Yeah.
joe: All right
Nick: of media have you guys been consuming lately?
georgia: Oh, that’s a good question.
I mean, I have a plethora of to-be-read books now. Yeah. And I’m super excited because one of my all-time favorite books is We Were Liars. I know I’ve brought it up before. And We Were Liars came out, about 10 years ago, and I read it then, and then there’s the Prime TV series, and I loved it so much.
I just love it. So I got to meet E. Lockhart at ALA, and I got [00:20:00] an advance copy of her new book- Okay, yeah … that’s in the same kind of universe. So, I was t- A- actually, I was trying to start reading it last night, but I was so tired. I did fall asleep ’cause I was just so tired. But I’m excited about getting to read that.
It’s called The Pools. And, yeah.
Nick: Very cool
joe: Very cool. And we finished watching Widow’s Bay, so that was really I don’t
georgia: so good
joe: I don’t
think we-
Nick: How many episodes are there for that?
joe: Eight, I think
Nick: Eight?
georgia: I think
Nick: so Okay. Then I as well finished it.
joe: Yeah. Yeah, it’s like
georgia: you didn’t realize it was the finale of the-
Nick: Well, it felt like it could keep going.
georgia: Yeah. And- Well, I, really hope they, I, well, I can’t remember. Did I read that they for
joe: I think season two is g- is green-lit, so I think that’s happening
Nick: Oh, wait. There’s 10 episodes,
joe: Oh, was there 10? Okay, sorry. We watched all of them. I don- I thought there was eight[00:21:00]
Nick: Oh, then I lied. I have two episodes left.
georgia: Yeah.
joe: See, that’s why it felt like it. It felt like there was a
solid conclusion, but it felt like they
could keep going on with the story. Mm-hmm.
georgia: Right, you could really feel like it could keep going, but it also gets pretty you know.
Nick: Like I, I figured it was gonna be
georgia: like-
Nick: There’s a climax … that’s where season two would be picked up, you know? Like it felt like- Yeah
all right, this is your your end. Oh.
georgia: Yeah.
Nick: Sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off there, Joe.
joe: Sorry, didn’t mean to cut you off. No, you’re fine. The other thing we finished watching was Spider Noir, so that was, Oh my gosh, it’s so good
georgia: Oh my gosh, it’s so good. I can’t even tell you how good I think it is.
Nick: I have not finished it.
joe: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was good. I
georgia: Are you enjoying it?
Nick: Yes and no. Like, it’s good. It’s not my favorite. It’s… I w- I would grade it as good.
georgia: Is that because-
Nick: Not
georgia: great … like, I think maybe because I almost don’t even think [00:22:00] of it as Spider-Man.
Does that make sense?
Nick: Yeah.
joe: Yeah
georgia: I think- Like, like of its own thing, I think it’s really good, and I love Nicolas Cage’s performance, and I really love the filming of it, the… And I I like the story, but I have to remind myself that it’s Spider-Man.
joe: Yeah.
Nick: And I keep wanting more of Spider-Man, and-
georgia: Yeah
Nick: it’s just, like, I don’t know. It… Oh, I’m gonna finish it. I just haven’t
joe: And I didn’t read that comic line, so it
was… I think one of the jarring things is that if you know the Spider-Man story, and some of them, and there’s a couple different universes, but they all have similar parallels.
But the Noir storyline was just… It’s so different than the traditional Sp- how Spider-Man became Spider-Man, and then some of the villains, how they became, who they are. So yeah, it was really… That was fascinating, so I think that’s where you get that, is this really a [00:23:00] Spider-Man or just kind of another superhero
movie?” …
Nick: it sort of feels like a knockoff
joe: right. Exactly, yes.
georgia: I guess the
joe: That’s a good way to put it in it, it looks great, and
Yeah. It’s a good story too. I mean, yeah, it’s, if you called it anything else, you would be like, “Oh, that’s a great superhero story,” and, but it’s like Spider-Man, right? It’s like you know?
georgia: Yeah. I don’t know. That’s interesting.
I didn’t read the comics s- at all either, so it’s like, do you feel like the comics of the Spider-Noir gave you more Spider-Man?
Nick: Yes.
georgia: Okay.
Nick: Yes, I
georgia: do. Okay.
Nick: And Georgia, I think you would enjoy those ones. I don’t know why.
georgia: Yeah. I feel like- I have to check those out
Nick: I guarantee at your local library they’ll have ’em.
joe: Yeah, right.
Nick: In a nice collection book.
joe: Yeah,
georgia: I will have to check that out. Yes.
joe: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm[00:24:00]
georgia: Maybe, or even on Hoopla
joe: Oh, and Hoopla definitely probably has it. Yeah, they have a lot of that stuff. Yeah. Speaking of books, I did read, Wrong Place Wrong Time. It was a really good thriller. A little bit of time displacement, it had this kind of l- a sci-fi-ish element to it, but it was really well done.
It was a good book, so. Gillian McAllister is the author, so yep. But
georgia: Yeah, I, and then kind of to that point was I did read a little bit of that book, and I just wasn’t in the right head space to read it because it does… He, she deals with, it’s a mother dealing with her teenage son, and I think it was just, like, in that way, just a little too hard for me to, read it.
And it, which is kind of like a play on words. It was the wrong time to
joe: wrong time, yep. [00:25:00]
Nick: Oh.
joe: So. Cool. How about you, Nick? What have you been up to watching, listening, playing?
Nick: I have recently beaten the la- latest Resident Evil game,
And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the ending Wasn’t trusting itself enough to do what it wanted to do, and so I think they held back on that.
joe: Yeah
Nick: But overall, I thought it was a great game.
joe: Oh.
Nick: But yeah. W- I just don’t wanna spoil the game
joe: right, right, ‘
right, right
Nick: I don’t know, someo- someone out there might be
joe: Might be playing it in the middle of it. Write Nick? Offline if you want more Okay. Apple
Nick: on Apple TV.
joe: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm
Nick: We even we enjoyed that one. It was a good murder mystery. Kind of always feels like the game Clue. But yeah, [00:26:00] they they I haven’t started season two yet, but season one is yeah, that, that was good. We’re, I think we’re gonna start season two soon ’cause, it’s already available.
Might as well. But yeah, that I really haven’t been doing much. Been trying to do some new work on things. So i- if I can get it to work out the way I want it to, I’ll bring more information about it.
joe: Nice.
georgia: Intriguing.
joe: I know, right? A little teaser. Yeah. Cool.
georgia: All right.
joe: a few things. One, I will be at Shore Leave 46Con in Lancaster, PA, July 10th to the 12th. So come out if you are in that area and say hi. I’m giving a talk on what electron microscopy and cell biology can teach us about zombies.
So something to to come and hear
Nick: you see what I sent you about [00:27:00] zombies on Instagram?
You might need to watch that before going there.
Just for you.
joe: Okay. I’ll check it out and see what you sent me. So yeah, that’s going on, and then don’t forget, if you haven’t already, Georgia and Jim Siergey they have a noir calendar coming out. Pre-orders are up. We’ll get the link. It’s in the newsletter. But yeah, you can find that.
It’s gonna be really nice. Speaking of
noir
Nick: those pre-orders? Can-
georgia: Oh, they’re only $15. Oh,
Nick: wow. $15.
georgia: It’s g- yeah, like, it’s a wall calendar to put on your wall. It’s, like, full of art and- You can see all
Nick: the hottest artists.
georgia: Well, just the two of us artwork, but.
Nick: Okay, maybe I was wrong. You get just two of ’em.
joe: Cool. All right. Well, thought I’d just mention some of the [00:28:00] stuff we’re up to. And Nick’s got a secret project. Maybe he’ll be announcing that, so
Nick: Yeah, hopefully soon.
joe: Coolio.
Nick: cool
joe: All right, well, I think that’s a wrapper
georgia: All right
Nick: You got Joe.
joe: You do have, you, the, no one’s here, so I just feel like I’m floating in the ether. Yes, you have me, Joe.
Nick: You got Nick
georgia: And Georgia And
Georgia
joe: georgia
Nick: we went down some holes
joe: Some mini holes. . Stay safe. Don’t lick rocks. Stay
Nick: some rocks
georgia: Or sand
joe: Stay curious. Love y’all
