Newsletter and Transcript of Rabbit Hole of Research Episode 85: The Mini: E.T. addendums, Science Holes and Media The Crew is Digging

Friendly alien mentions, Science Holes on extinction, coffee, superager neurogenesis, and whale calls that are faster than light or just Handwavium.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 85

Substack, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon

Episode 85 Transcript

In Episode 85: The Mini, Joe, Nick, and Georgia review the E.T. episode (1982 the greatest summer of sci-fi movies), and add a few more tidbits they forgot to mention during the recording (and it’s a Super-miss). Joe and Georgia talk about DragonCon and seeing alumni of the show out in the wild, and to Nick’s surprise, Season 4 is officially happening. LOL

In the Science Holes: Joe has four related topics on climate change and preserving the natural wonders before it’s too late. Georgia sorts her notes and settles on talking about SuperAger brains and neurogenesis (the crew gets sidetracked talking evolution). And Nick saves the craziest article for last, the idea that whale calls appear to outrun sound without breaking Einstein’s theory of special relativity. And this has Joe going down his own rabbit hole trying to explain temporal interference.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Listen now

Order the Touch of Noir 2027 Wall Calendar by Jim and Georgia—

12 months of all-original art by Jim and Georgia; pre-orders open now, with mailing expected in September

Words // Friends with Sara: Replay on YouTube

Jump to Joe’s Reading (But you should listen to all the amazing authors)

Check out what the RHR crew is creating:

Joe:

Share

Leave a comment

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!

Hang with the Crew:

Podcast Cross-Appearances:

Events & Conventions:

Joe:

Georgia:

Upcoming Episodes

*The Mini will now be every other episode!

  • Episode 86: Disability in HorrorGuest: Grace Daly (Bram Stoker nominee)
  • Episode 88: CraziesRecorded at Reed’s Local with Melissa and Luc
  • Episode 90: Witch PleaseGuest: Bill Halliar (@skeletongue)

Share

Leave a comment

What the Crew is Digging, Links, Resources, and Topics Mentioned in mini and/or full episode:

Links & Resources:

Science Holes:

Joe’s Science Holes — Preservation, Extinction & the Race to Save What We Have

  1. Moves to Preserve Cells and DNA of Imperiled SpeciesNew York Times
    The U.S. government is working with Colossal Biosciences to collect and store DNA samples from every animal and plant protected under the Endangered Species Act. The crew agrees that it sounds great to create a genetic library of endangered species, but this shouldn’t replace on-the-ground conservation. This shouldn’t be a green light to drill, mine, and destroy habitat because we now have the DNA in bio-vault.
  2. “The Library is Being Burned Before the Books Can Be Read”Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    New estimates suggest there could be as many as 20 million insect species on Earth, but only about 1 million have ever been described. With climate change and habitat destruction driving more than 40% of known insect species toward extinction, scientists fear species are disappearing faster than we can discover them.
  3. Kew Collection Goes DigitalNature
    The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has digitized more than 7 million specimens of plants and fungi in their collection, and made them freely available online. And, as Georgia pointed out, artists are going to love this too. The full digital collection is available on Kew’s website and searchable through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility
  4. How to Brew a Climate-Friendly CuppaNature
    Nearly all of the 10 million tonnes of coffee consumed annually comes from two species: Arabica (Coffea arabica) very temperature sensitive, and Robusta (Coffea canephora), water-hungry and drought sensitive. Researchers are exploring and studying the genetics of wild coffee species for climate resilience. To aid in this effort the Ethiopian government is preserving natural genetic diversity at the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute in Addis Ababa and at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research in Jimma. The article also discusses how chemistry is being explored; grind size, brewing temperature, and pressure to get desirable flavor profiles out of alternative species.
  5. SuperAgers’ Secret Ingredient May Be the Growth of New Brain CellsScience Alerts
    A new study out of the University of Illinois Chicago looked at brains of SuperAgers, people who have exceptional memory in old age, and they have roughly twice as many immature neurons as people of similar ages. The research suggests neurogenesis (growing new neurons) isn’t fixed at birth or adolescence, but environmental factors, lifestyle, and potentially therapeutic medicines could help boost it. 
  6. Whale Calls Can Appear to Outrun Sound Without Breaking Einstein’s Theory of Special RelativityDiscover Magazine
    Researchers simulated whale calls near the ocean surface and found something wild, the signal’s energy peak appeared to arrive at speeds exceeding the normal speed of sound in water but the waves themselves didn’t accelerate. The overlapping echo shifted the signal’s most intense point forward in time, and making it look faster without actually transmitting information faster than light. The headline was a little clickbaity. But this didn’t stop Joe from going down this rabbit hole: this is what he was reading at end of episode:
    1. Temporal Interference: Supersonic and Superluminal Energy and Speed of Information via Temporal Interference in a Dispersionless Environment
    2. Sound Breaks the Light Barrier — Physics World, 2007

Science Terms

  • Neurogenesis — the growth and development of new neurons (brain cells). Once thought to stop in early childhood, research now suggests it continues into adulthood
  • SuperAgers — individuals who retain exceptional memory and cognitive function well into old age, now being studied for higher rates of neurogenesis
  • Temporal Interference — the phenomenon where multiple wave paths (a direct wave and its echo) overlap and recombine, shifting the signal’s energy peak forward in time and creating the appearance of faster-than-sound or faster-than-light travel
  • Superluminal Apparent Motion — the illusion that something is moving faster than light, caused by geometry or wave interference rather than actual faster-than-light travel
  • De-extinction — the process of using genetic engineering to revive or approximate extinct species, typically by editing the DNA of a closely related living species
  • BioVault — Colossal Biosciences’ genetic storage facility in Dubai, intended to house cell and tissue samples from 10,000+ species
  • Citizen Science — scientific research conducted in whole or in part by non-professional scientists, often through community data collection projects
  • Evolution — changes in inherited genetic material across generations within a population, typically driven by environmental pressures that make certain traits more advantageous

Media Holes: What the Crew is Digging:

Joe:

  • Storm Front (Dresden Files, Book 1of 18) — Jim Butcher 2000-current

Nick:

  • 007: First Light — IO Interactive, 2025
  • Marvel’s Wolverine — PS5, 2026
  • The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
  • Mermaids (1990) 

Georgia:

  • The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts — Kim Fu, 2026
  • The Great Alone — Kristin Hannah, 2018

“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

00:00:00 joe: Hey, welcome back to the Rabbit Hole Research down here in the basement studio. You’ve got me, Joe.

[00:00:11] Nick: You got a neck

[00:00:12] joe: You got Nick.

[00:00:14] Georgia: Georgia

[00:00:15] joe: You got Nick. And Georgia. We’ve got Georgia down here for the

[00:00:18] Georgia: mini

[00:00:19] Nick: A mini

[00:00:22] joe: mini episode. We had

[00:00:25] Nick: are we gonna start calling them the Mighty Minis?

[00:00:27] joe: The Mighty Minis? I think just a mini. We

had

[00:00:31] Nick: feel like,

[00:00:33] joe: What’d you

say?

[00:00:33] Nick: keep adding onto it till like till it start getting a bit self along our

name

[00:00:38] joe: at some point it becomes the Maxi. I don’t know. It’s,

[00:00:40] Georgia: a-

[00:00:41] Nick: Oh, the Maxi Mini. The Maxi Mini sounds pretty good.

[00:00:45] joe: Yes. I don’t know.

[00:00:47] Georgia: and then can we have, a logo? Like, a mascot for the minis?

[00:00:52] joe: Sure.

[00:00:53] Georgia: I think because that remind me of some other cartoon or something, like a really strong [00:01:00] mouse.

[00:01:01] joe: Mighty Mouse. Yeah.

[00:01:02] Nick: Yeah, mighty

[00:01:03] joe: mighty

Mouse. So

[00:01:04] Georgia: that could be good for the mini.

[00:01:06] joe: I guess, or, but a real strong rabbit.

[00:01:08] Georgia: I guess Minnie Mouse. That’s too close to Minnie Mouse. Oh, never mind.

[00:01:13] joe: Yep. So last episode talked about E.T. We had Chris Guzman, the boxing glove artist on, so that was a really lively conversation.

[00:01:27] Nick: Oh, yeah. That was a really good one. I thought it was funny.

[00:01:30] joe: It was funny

[00:01:32] Nick: I think we all had a really good time with that this episode

[00:01:35] joe: The

[00:01:35] Georgia: the

[00:01:35] joe: listeners were somewhat split. Got some comments

about my hot take and my controversial views about the movie ET but some that, you know, were

[00:01:45] Nick: As long As people only went after you, I’m okay with this.

[00:01:49] joe: but we had… I did get a few email comments that they agreed with my take. So that’s

[00:01:56] Georgia: rather talk about the ones where they disagree with you.

[00:01:59] Nick: No. I’m [00:02:00] saying that, like, as long as they were only going after you for these takes,

then I’m okay. I’m pretty sure you and I share the same views about ET.

Send Joe the angry messages

[00:02:11] Georgia: No I can

[00:02:13] joe: it. I can take it.

[00:02:15] Georgia: So Maybe- Okay …you could give an example of somebody that disagreed with you

[00:02:21] joe: go listen to the episode. You’ll hear several people disagree with me, so, I was gonna say friendly aliens. We did talk, we touched on friendly aliens, and I felt listening to the episode, I felt a little embarrassed that we didn’t probably name the most famous of all the friendly aliens, and that’s Superman.

[00:02:41] Georgia: He’s pretty

friendly. He’s

[00:02:43] joe: pretty friendly.

And he’s pretty friendly, and he’s a alien, so he’s…

[00:02:45] Georgia: he’s kind of…

[00:02:46] joe: We didn’t have that one. And then you know, our good friend Jeff Goldblum, we didn’t mention Earth Girls Are Easy. They were a bunch of aliens. He got the rabbit hole of

[00:02:54] Nick: was Jeff

Goldblum.

[00:02:55] joe: that’s Jeff Goldblum. Yep, so

[00:02:57] Nick: I forgot about that

[00:02:58] joe: season one award [00:03:00] winner.

Rabbit hole of research

[00:03:02] Nick: Well, there was an unofficial award. No one voted on this

[00:03:09] Georgia: Oh.

[00:03:09] joe: And there was a vote. We had a discussion about it, and Jeff Goldblum came out on top. The other one was refugee aliens. We had talked about Alien Nation, but the other one at, that had a lot of political commentary was Brother From Another Planet, and that was one that I wanted to mention in there, throw that in as a really good movie with a, a friendly refugee alien.

That was kind of on the run, so- Wow.

[00:03:32] Georgia: we talked about V,

[00:03:34] joe: We talked about V. I mean, they’re talking about V, yeah, and but they weren’t friendly.

[00:03:39] Georgia: They’re

[00:03:40] joe: like, They Live.

[00:03:41] Georgia: Yeah.

[00:03:42] joe: Yeah. They were in disguise, a takeover. Like, they were like lizard things.

[00:03:47] Georgia: Some friendly and some weren’t?

[00:03:49] joe: I mean, I don’t know. They were here to take over Earth. I don’t know what they’re-

[00:03:54] Georgia: was that the s- same one where, the alien became a cop? And like [00:04:00] the alien was a cop, and he had a part-

[00:04:02] joe: was Alien Nation . Alien Nation Oh, that was

[00:04:04] Georgia: Alien Nation.

[00:04:05] joe: No, V had the lizard. I’m getting it confused. They had the lizard.

[00:04:07] Georgia: No, he had the lizard- I’m getting it confused … he had the lizard. But we did talk about V quite a bit on here- Yeah

[00:04:09] joe: Folks, we did talk about V quite a bit on the episode.

Yeah, so. But yeah,

[00:04:12] Georgia: so.

[00:04:13] joe: no, that was a alien invasion, so yeah.

[00:04:18] Nick: KITT

[00:04:19] joe: So that’s all I had from the touch on there.

[00:04:22] Nick: Yeah I think this was just a fun episode.

[00:04:25] joe: Yeah, so just wanna touch on a few things. We got some events coming up. I’ll be doing a art show, Ultrastructure: Science is Fun with Carol Estes at the Promise You Art House in Highland, Indiana, October 10th, 11 to 3 PM.

So folks can come out there.

And then Georgia has an event coming up, the inaugural Fourth Street Print Fest at the Chesterton Art Center, Saturday, October 3rd, from 1 to 4 PM. Put those in the show notes. I don’t know why I did that in that order, ’cause really the 3rd and

[00:04:58] Georgia: Comes first, [00:05:00] but yeah, that’s

okay

but those are my

[00:05:01] joe: here. I have that, so. And then there’s a couple, an event in November and one in December that I’ll be doing, and I’ll put those in, and we’ll… as we get closer, I’ll make sure to highlight those events. But yeah, come on out. We’ll be there. You guys can say hi and see the cool stuff we’re up to in person, which is always nice.

And if you were down in Atlanta, Georgia, a couple weeks ago, we were down in Dragon Con en-enjoying that, the big party of fellow nerds and comic fans and science fiction

[00:05:34] Nick: Yeah. And

didn’t you guys run into some past guests?

[00:05:38] Georgia: We did, yep. So Davis and-

Roland

[00:05:41] joe: yep. Yeah. Saw both of them.

[00:05:44] Georgia: oh, no,

I’m thinking- Kevin Compton

I’m thinking, and we also went to the Printers Row Lit Fest, and we saw Ben Tanzer.

[00:05:51] joe: we saw Ben Tanzer. We did. Yes, that’s

[00:05:52] Georgia: we saw

[00:05:53] joe: Yep

The finance,

[00:05:57] Georgia: Amran Amran yes. Yep, So,[00:06:00]

So that was pretty cool, too.

[00:06:02] joe: No, that was really cool.

[00:06:03] Nick: He hasn’t been getting around.

[00:06:05] Georgia: there’s just, like, Rabbit Hole Research guests everywhere. Rabbit Hole Research alum, like- Yeah,

[00:06:08] joe: the Rabbit Hole Research alum, it’s pretty nice to see folks out there in the wild

[00:06:13] Georgia: And then Joe, he’s working on some new guests that we connected with.

[00:06:18] joe: And Joe, he’s working on the, some new guests that we connected with. Trying to get… Yep, that’s right, Con. So that season four is starting to shape up, . Should be a good season. I’m look- I’m excited.

[00:06:24] Georgia: excited

[00:06:25] Nick: W- were we renewed for season four? When did I get this message?

[00:06:28] joe: We

[00:06:29] Nick: Oh, wow.

[00:06:30] joe: yeah.

[00:06:30] Georgia: got

renewed.

[00:06:31] joe: while ago. We got- Yeah.

[00:06:34] Georgia: we got our zero

[00:06:35] joe: We got, right, we got our budget approved. We’re locked and loaded. We’re going.

[00:06:42] Georgia: loaded. We’re

[00:06:43] joe: They can’t turn us… They can’t turn our mics off. They tried to take our power, but we’re here. We, we got… We now got solar power.

The basement studio is full steam ahead.

[00:06:53] Nick: It’s never going dark? Is that what we’re trying to never going dark. That’s right. So, [00:07:00] yeah. All right. Anything else? We can move on to our next segment, the Science Holes,

yeah.

[00:07:08] joe: something else?

[00:07:08] Georgia: you got something else?

[00:07:09] Nick: no I think we’re good to move on. Georgia, you got anything else?

[00:07:14] Georgia: No.

[00:07:15] joe: No. Okay. Then we’re off to the science holes. Going down the science holes.

science holes. Dun,

[00:07:25] Nick: that wasn’t my favorite. No.

[00:07:27] joe: That

[00:07:29] Georgia: Something

[00:07:30] joe: one’s my favorite now. Well, I mean, that’s all right. It’s okay

[00:07:30] Nick: I’m sorry, buddy.

[00:07:31] joe: So

[00:07:32] Nick: to normally bunch up and agree with you, but yeah, this one wasn’t nice.

[00:07:36] joe: so I have four, but they’re all quick hitters they’re all in the same kind of topic

[00:07:44] Georgia: So they’re all, like, in the same hole?

[00:07:46] joe: They’re all in the same hole. I mean, little branch holes or whatever. I don’t know. That’s weird. Yes, they’re

[00:07:51] Nick: Yeah, I don’t know where we’re going

[00:07:52] joe: I know, I don’t either. They’re all of similar nature of the research and science and so I…

But I thought they were all [00:08:00] interesting. And I’ll just go over it quickly as I think both of y’all have maybe something, so I’ll just go over it. We talked about Colossal Biosciences. You you remember that company? They’re a private company, and they are trying to revive extinct animals.

The

[00:08:14] Nick: Oh yeah, I do remember that one. We’ve brought that one up a few

times, haven’t we?

[00:08:18] joe: yep. So they so they were here working with the government to

collect dNA of plants and animals that are protected under the Endangered Species Act. So about 2,300 listings worldwide. And so they wanna collect their DNA so that if they happen to go extinct, then they would be-

[00:08:43] Georgia: It’s Like the seed able to bring it

back … it’s like the seed seed archive. archive or whatever like that. Something like that. I don’t really know.

[00:08:48] joe: This is cool, but, some people are raising the red flag a little bit and saying that this could erode support for real on the ground conservation efforts because if you go, “Well, we collected her [00:09:00] DNA and-” Oh, we have the DNA.

Yeah,

[00:09:00] Georgia: we can just whip up some more. “… we

[00:09:02] joe: We can drill and mine and

[00:09:04] Georgia: That won’t be, that won’t be hard. So

[00:09:06] joe: So destroy their habitat while you’re doing. So, yay, this is great, but then, , not so much. And so, and then this company, they’re not getting any government money.

They just get access to the genetic material for the next five years, and they can do whatever they want with it and mine it. So a little bit… It’s interesting, this kind of thing that they’re trying to do and, you know, there’s even some controversy. Do they really bring back the species? ’cause they’re using gene editing of a closely related modern species and then adding in genes from the extinct animal species.

So, you know, it’s a little-

[00:09:41] Georgia: I think it’s better- Yeah … let’s just kind of help

[00:09:46] joe: right. What

[00:09:47] Georgia: already here.

[00:09:48] joe: right. No, I think that’s it. So, yeah, and then that this company, they also made a partnership with the United Arab Emirate to build what they call is the BioVault in Dubai which will have about [00:10:00] 10,000 different specie cell and tissue samples.

So yeah, so that’s … They’re making moves in this area to collect DNA and things like that. So

[00:10:12] Nick: that’s, I think that’s pretty smart. That way

[00:10:13] joe: Yeah. I mean,

[00:10:14] Nick: it tries to preserve,

[00:10:16] joe: think

[00:10:17] Georgia: it’s smart to- Yeah … yeah. Like

[00:10:18] joe: I said, I think, but you gotta keep an eye on that we’re not doing that instead of trying to preserve what we have now, right? So I think do, do both potentially.

[00:10:29] Georgia: not destroy what we have

now.

[00:10:31] joe: Yep,

[00:10:31] Georgia: So- Do no harm, which I don’t think that’s- Oh,

[00:10:37] joe: was another paper and it had this a catchy line in it.

I liked it. The, “the library is being burned before the books can be read.” And this here was talking about doing these surveys how many different insect species are on Earth, and they’re saying there could be as many as 20 million species. But we’ve only probably identified about a [00:11:00] million of these species has been described, and so there’s a big gap.

But with climate change, kind of destruction of habitat something like 40% of known insect species are threatened with extinction. So they fear that the insect species are disappearing faster than we can discover them, and that kind of… That’s that, that line there. So you have this, this, one group, they’re trying to preserve DNA of the kind of things that we know about and destroying…

This is talking about things we have no clue about that exists out in these habitats that we’re now destroying. So really interesting

On those two notes. And then the The Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew or K-E-W, I think that’s Kew.

[00:11:45] Nick: That’s cute

[00:11:46] Georgia: Yeah.

[00:11:46] joe: I think that’s Kew. Yeah. That’s, that is cute.

No. But they released, they have more than seven million species, one of the world’s largest collections of plant and fungi, and they’ve digitized their collection. So you can [00:12:00] go and look up different species, what they have, what… You know, do they have tissue sample? Do they have images? Do they have DNA?

And so one of the ideas is that now they could… Researchers can use AI to help analyze this kind of digital archive and images and go through, and everything from handwritten notes that are there to old labels, trying to track kind of changes over time.

So really interesting trying to open up this resource so that more people and researchers can have access to it, and we can use modern tools to help analyze or try to uncover different things.

[00:12:37] Georgia: would that be open for other uses? Like I can see like maybe artists would wanna use some of these images for-

Yeah … you know what I mean?

[00:12:46] joe: No. You can go… I’ll put the links on to the, to the site. You can go on, you can do searches and different… See what they have. No, it’s neat that they did that, so. And that, that reminds me of

[00:12:57] Georgia: the whole bigger, and I don’t know if this [00:13:00] falls into this, ’cause I don’t think it does, but citizen, and that’s something we haven’t talked a lot about, which I think would be a good thing to talk about sometime, is more about citizen science. And there’s all

[00:13:13] Nick: can you go into what citizen science is there, Georgia?

[00:13:15] Georgia: Y- yeah. So there’s all these different projects that people that are not necessarily with a science background can help collect data. And and I know that there’s a group … Oh, shoot. think of the- I’m trying to remember the name of it. But I was looking at it because s- li- some libraries have partnered with this organization to try to help people, connect with these different projects.

And it could be something as, something like what bird species do you see in your backyard? So it tries to m- make it very much into, like, a just in your neighborhood, what’s, [00:14:00] what are these different things? There’s lots of different projects, and I think that’s really cool.

[00:14:05] joe: It is.

[00:14:05] Nick: Yeah, that’s really cool. I didn’t know about this

[00:14:07] joe: about this. Yeah, no, that’s something. I was gonna say birders, I was gonna mention that they do it a lot.

But I know somebody, maybe we… A potential guest in season four, that

[00:14:16] Georgia: they can talk about these-

[00:14:18] joe: started out

as a, citizen scientist, and now got really passionate and trying to go back to school and get their degree

[00:14:25] Georgia: awesome. Yeah,

so- That would be a great- Yeah …

I think that would be a great episode- We’ll reach

[00:14:29] joe: I’ll reach out and tell them. Because

[00:14:30] Georgia: it really does show science is everywhere, and everyone can participate

[00:14:37] joe: that they’re, what they’re looking at and hopefully we’ll have them on, but they actually discovered a couple new species of I think they’re looking at rotifers, if memory serves me correct. They started looking, collecting samples of freshwater, of different , parks and things like that, just like what … Surveying what’s in the water with a microscope, just a light microscope- Oh, great that people have used probably in high school and in different classes,

[00:14:59] Georgia: [00:15:00] science classes, so. Yeah, no, that’s- And then that

[00:15:01] joe: that built on their

[00:15:02] Georgia: That’s so interesting.

Anyway,

[00:15:04] joe: But yeah, so really cool. And the last one probably for Nick, it was how to brew a climate friendly cup of Joe.

And so o- one of the things is that cli- climate change is starting to affect the growing patterns of different, the coffee plants. And so

About 10 million tons of coffee beans that are consumed around the world, kind of two I guess two different, Species Cafe Canephora Robusta and a more delicate tasting Cafe Abrica.

And so unfortunately the A-A-Abrica, am I saying that right? A-R-A-B-I-C-A, Arabica. Yep, there. So Arabica suffers or dies when temperature rise just a few degrees and Robusta requires massive amounts of water and its yield drops drastically in a drought. So you can see how climate change [00:16:00] could affect both of those.

So in the Ethiopian government, they have been trying to establish kind of genetic diversity ’cause there’s other species of coffee that aren’t, you know, for agriculturally important. So can you go to those species and look for genetic differences that would give advantages and then you can use genetic engineering

[00:16:20] Georgia: That would grow better in a drought

to breed for

[00:16:22] joe: Yes. Yep, yep. So that was kind of– And there’s about 134 known wild coffee species and a few are now starting to be grown for their coffee resilience, and so that was really cool. And this article then also went into how potentially you can use chemistry, so even though the the coffee plant, which then its growing conditions affects the taste and everything downstream, can you use chemistry then to alter the coffee plants and get a desirable product from other species?

And so kind of the grind size for espresso, brewing temperature, the pressure that’s used during the [00:17:00] brewing. It was a nice article about both aspects: A, trying to modify and save the species that we know and love, but then also how do you use these other species to get similar flavor profiles and things out of it?

Yeah, so really cool. So I’ll put those links in there, but just kind of-

[00:17:18] Nick: If you wouldn’t mind sending me that too, that way

I I want to read more

[00:17:22] Georgia: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:22] joe: Yep, yep. I’ll send you that

[00:17:24] Nick: that sounds right up my alley.

[00:17:25] joe: Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I thought you would get a kick out of it and correct my pronunciation, so that’s very nice. Yeah, it was cool. It’s much longer.

I mean, obviously I’m just giving a little teaser recap, but yeah, I’ll throw the links in there and the papers and keep that where talking about it. So yeah, that’s what I had. They were all, like I said, all related, this climate change, , habitat destruction or trying to save and preserve what we have,

[00:17:53] Nick: Oh, 100%. Like, it all goes into it, and, it will affect the flavor of the coffee no matter [00:18:00] what. Like, everything– It’s a very finicky, Plant.

[00:18:04] joe: Yeah. No, but that’s what… Yeah. Mm-hmm.

[00:18:07] Nick: e-e-every little bit of it goes into it.

[00:18:11] Georgia: It

[00:18:11] Nick: Like From one season to the next, you can order the same bean and it will be different. I wonder if it would be more consistent with being modified

[00:18:24] joe: Right, right, right

[00:18:26] Georgia: But then you get like, you’re like, ooh, the red flags of genetic modification. you know what I mean? Genetically modified food and things like that. Yeah, which I

[00:18:39] joe: I just saw that the European Union loosened some of its regulation on genetically modified foods and their use and creation, so that’s really interesting. And catching up with the science, I think, on that, so. Mm-hmm. That’s a different- Well, it

[00:18:55] Georgia: me think of I’ve always been fascinated with how [00:19:00] many different species of apples there are.

Mm. Mm-hmm

And I bet a lot of them have gone as- extinct, speaking of going extinct and wanting to save. If only we had all those seeds of all those different apples, I think quite a few have gone extinct,

[00:19:18] joe: quite a few have gone extinct, right, Joe?

They probably have, yeah. No, they have, I know in New York there’s a, a bunch of, I think it was New York, where they have orchards that they grow a lot of species that we don’t eat or consume at market, but they’re growing them to preserve it. So

[00:19:35] Georgia: that’s good. Yeah. Have them

[00:19:36] joe: and then go through and then you find different different species you can cross with common apples to get different flavor profiles and things like that.

So, yeah, there’s a lot of efforts to maintain that. We grow in our garden a lot of heirloom plants, and that’s the thing. You can save the plants by eating them, right? ‘Cause if you grow them you grow the fruit, you get the seed, you eat it, you eat the fruit.

It’s one of the few [00:20:00] conservation methods that you go, “We can eat it to save it,” right? ‘Cause that’s, if you grow it

[00:20:06] Georgia: it up, you save the seeds. Well, you can save the

[00:20:07] joe: You can save the seeds. So that’s what I mean, right. So you, if you grow it up- Yeah … You’re growing it to save it, to eat it. Yeah. So it’s kind of this

[00:20:12] Georgia: you can a- Right …

save the seeds and grow them.

[00:20:14] joe: the seeds- Right … and grow them. Right

[00:20:16] Georgia: In your

Yeah.

[00:20:17] joe: what I’m saying.

[00:20:17] Georgia: I’m just saying if you eat everything and you eat

[00:20:19] joe: don’t eat every- I mean, you don’t eat the seeds. You shouldn’t, I mean, it’s like- Well, you eat the seeds of the tomatoes You don’t have to. You can cut… You don’t have to eat the whole thing.

I mean, they grow a lot of tomatoes.

[00:20:30] Nick: Georgia, no forcing you to eat every bit of it

[00:20:33] joe: can, you could hold a few back, man.

[00:20:36] Georgia: just saying- I haven’t been really super conscious of doing the

[00:20:41] joe: I’m saying I haven’t been

[00:20:41] Georgia: saving part of

[00:20:42] joe: and that’s ’cause we usually

[00:20:43] Georgia: think that’s something that we need to do, but it’s like one of those things,

[00:20:47] joe: something that we need to do, but it’s like one of those things, like-

[00:20:48] Georgia: that falls through?

Well, we

[00:20:49] joe: That falls through the, we also, it’s, we support Seed Savers that act- actively grow and have- They

[00:20:54] Georgia: have- They really do save-

[00:20:55] joe: do save the seeds and then we buy them from them. But we could save our own [00:21:00] heirloom seeds, and that’s, but that’s a different discussion, heirloom versus hybrid and all that, so.

Yeah. And I think both

[00:21:06] Georgia: Sorry. We’re going down a lot

[00:21:08] joe: we went down different holes now, but that’s, that’ll be another fun plant genetic-

[00:21:13] Georgia: …Engineering … expanding this whole Yeah, so yeah. yes

Okay. Well, Nick, did you wanna go or do you want me to go, or?

[00:21:21] Nick: You can go, Georgia

[00:21:23] Georgia: All right. Well, I’m not very organized on the Science Holes. My main way of organizing my thoughts is just to text myself things that I see, and I just text it to myself, and then I put in the next line, “Science Holes.”

Then I just scroll through my texts, and then I find my Science Holes. It’s not very, but I did see, and a lot of the stuff I see, like,

like a lot of people, is just kind of scrolling through social media and then something catches my eye. I’m like, “Oh, that’s interesting.” [00:22:00] Then I try to look it up. So this was something that I saw about

a new study where they were actually looking at human brains.

A lot of times in the past it’s been, like rodent brains and other animal brains, and this, this study actually studied human brains, and it was this here in the Chicago area, in North Northwestern. The title of this article, which is in Science Alert, it’s called SuperAgers: SuperAgers’

Secret Ingredient May Be the Growth of New Brain Cells.

And I guess there’s always been this kind of question of, do we get new brain cells? And from this study and other things, it says, “Not only do our brains appear to generate new neurons into adulthood, but those of SuperAgers contain far more [00:23:00] brain cells in development than those of healthy peers, new research has found.”

So that it was a study of 38 adult human brains and these are called SuperAgers, which I’d love to become one of those. People who retain exceptional memory as they age have roughly twice as many immature neurons as their peers who age more typically. So meaning they’re making new brains, brain cells.

[00:23:33] Nick: Interesting

[00:23:35] Georgia: And that people with Alzheimer’s disease show a marked reduction in neurogenesis compared to a normal baseline. So, they said … And I’m sorry, I’ve already gotta correct myself. This was the University of Illinois in Chicago, not Northwestern. Sorry about that. “This is a big step forward in understanding how the [00:24:00] human brain processes cognition, forms memory, and ages.”

That’s what one of the neuroscientists said. And it’s important in determining why some brains age more healthy and it can hopefully lead to therapeutic medicines and other ways to prevent Alzheimer’s. And so I think yeah, I think it was really interesting.

[00:24:27] joe: Mm-hmm. Yeah. That sounds really cool.

[00:24:29] Nick: really

[00:24:30] joe: Yeah, I know for a long time the idea was the brain you’re born with, that, that’s, essentially

[00:24:36] Georgia: that’s

[00:24:36] joe: it. You don’t really grow any new brain cells- Right

or it’s not very plastic. And then I think that was challenged more recently,

[00:24:43] Georgia: Right. And that’s exactly, Yeah,

[00:24:46] joe: And then I think it went back and forth and I think there was other studies that said, no, it stops at adolescence . But I think now the research is showing that there is still active growth and are there ways to stimulate that growth, and can you develop [00:25:00] drugs and pharmaceuticals to help, , bolster that or encourage it.

[00:25:04] Georgia: Right. Like it says, “

Further research,” the team says, “could help identify f- therapeutic ways of boosting neurogen- genesis and resilience as well as potential environmental and lifestyle factors that may affect the brain’s aging.” So it’s exciting that it’s saying that it’s not fixed and doomed to decline.

Mm-hmm. You know, that you could be

[00:25:30] joe: growing

[00:25:30] Georgia: brain cells.

[00:25:31] joe: That’s right. right. I like the idea of that. So

Yeah.

[00:25:37] Nick: You know, that makes you wonder if it’s part of like the next step of evolution for us.

[00:25:42] joe: Well, not evolution

[00:25:43] Nick: Why not? Mutants do it

[00:25:46] Georgia: we’re already

[00:25:47] joe: doing it. It’s not like we’re evolving. I guess it was one of these things that were just misunderstood, right?

[00:25:54] Georgia: that was just misunderstood, right? But I think what I, and this is… But is it something that [00:26:00] could turn into something more like evolution in the sense if we understood how to make it happen more, and then we would evolve to make brains

[00:26:10] joe: No I mean, evolution

[00:26:11] Georgia: what I’m saying? …

[00:26:12] joe: Humans

is, are genetic changes that then persists, right? So you have

[00:26:17] Georgia: Like a mutation,

[00:26:18] joe: You have a mutation which causes genetic change that then becomes stable in a population, and generally its phenotype is expressed under pressure. And so, under pressure, it causes this new genetic mutation to be advantageous, and then a more advantageous trait then persists in the population, and then you get kind of a evolution event in that, in kind of simple terms.

I mean, that’s the- Right … simple way to explain it. So this case here is kind of like not understanding the function of the cells in the brain. And so these papers are now explaining what the function is, not necessarily that we’ve gained function. It’s just, it’s never been really understood [00:27:00] properly how brain cells grow and mature through our lives.

But- Right?

[00:27:06] Georgia: I think that a lot of it is saying that it only… It seems to only be hap- not only be happening, but it seems like these superagers

[00:27:15] joe: SuperAgers

[00:27:16] Georgia: are the people that they’re finding this in, not everyone.

[00:27:21] Nick: way I see it is.

[00:27:22] joe: I mean, we’re not, we’re, we have genetic differences, right? So that’s just kind of, we’re not… So in there, I think that’s always the thing that, that we have.

Some pe- I mean, some people are tall, some people are short, and so those are just genetic differences in the population. And so it’s just understanding why is someone tall and why is someone short? And then can you go in and go, “These are the genes that control height.” And so can you now put those genes or can you turn on those genes in a person who’s short?

And I think that’s the same thing, you know, that’s kind of the thing that, that this is happening. So, these people here that, that get old and are healthy [00:28:00] mentally, what’s different about their brains and their cell neurogenesis

[00:28:04] Georgia: neurogenesis

[00:28:05] joe: versus someone who gets disease challenged Alzheimer’s or something like that.

And you’re saying, “Oh, they’re missing these, the genes,” or, “This gene is turned off,” or, “It’s a different structure than these people.” Same thing with breast cancer. You know, there, there are people are more susceptible to breast cancer because they have certain mut- mutations in certain genes.

And so that’s something we’ve learned. And then can you go and correct that in people or identify it early enough that you can now you can remove the breast so that they don’t develop tumors and things like that, that could harm them. So you have these… So that’s kind of, this is where we’re at here.

Right. So it’s not necessarily- It is … an evolutionary event. It is- It’s

[00:28:43] Georgia: is- … kind of figuring out- … understanding it better. Right. But I think a lot of the hope is, how can we make that- Even more prevalent and having more people have healthy- Right …

brains and

[00:28:56] joe: …and then you get into, so let’s say that, I mean, this is where you get into [00:29:00] the, the, the sci-fi arena a little bit.

[00:29:03] Georgia: Like, if you have enough money, you can

[00:29:05] joe: Exactly. Yes. I want this. You

[00:29:06] Georgia: genes on ’cause I want that.” Right, yes. Yeah.

[00:29:09] joe: get into the GATTACA thing where, “I wanna be tall ’cause I want those genes, and I wanna have a SuperAger brain.” Okay, that’s gonna be, you know- Right … $50 million and, you know,

[00:29:19] Georgia: But I do think- … I do think this is really talking about this on very simple terms. But the one thing they talk about brain and and keeping your brain healthy is always trying to do new things, novel things, and making those connections that you haven’t made before.

Mm-hmm. And I think this goes right into this, saying, well, you can be making new brain cells new connections

and even when you’re older. Right. Do you know what I’m saying? So it does have a very practical thing. Like, think about, oh, I’m not just, oh, I’m getting old, and that’s it. No. Right. You know, it’s something that can, [00:30:00] yeah.

Oh,

[00:30:01] joe: it was the same

[00:30:01] Nick: what I think you can even do m-many of them, things that are like taking a different route home or y- just doing little things.

[00:30:11] Georgia: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:12] Nick: Doing a puzzle, that helps your brain

[00:30:13] Georgia: Listening to

[00:30:14] joe: Rabbit Hole of Research I’m sure helps.

[00:30:18] Georgia: I

[00:30:18] Nick: Unless it’s me talking a lot, then that’s, that lowers your brain count

[00:30:22] Georgia: But

[00:30:23] joe: No, yeah, no, I think, right, we learn more. And I was gonna say, I know for a while they, like, didn’t think your tendons would repair or grow actively. So if you had an Achilles tear, that was it, They didn’t think it would regrow. And then that, that research changed sports medicine, things like that.

It was like well we can, it will regrow and this is how we can

[00:30:41] Georgia: help And I’m sure it was like those, those, milli- million, billion-dollar athletes- Yeah … “Oh, we gotta figure out how

to make this work,”

[00:30:50] joe: talking to someone there, ’cause they’re gonna get their knee replacement and it, that’s kind of that technology.

And I said, “Yeah, you could thank sports medicine,” like that, all that [00:31:00] money that goes in, you know, repairing the athlete’s ligaments, their knees their heels, their ankles, their cal- whatever. All the lower body kind of structure that you go in now and it’s, “Oh, this is pretty routine,” pop.

And that’s because that’s that effect that,

[00:31:15] Georgia: you know-

Like, we gotta get ’em back out there on the field playing

Interesting.

Yeah. So that’s something sport,

[00:31:21] joe: sports has, contributed I guess.

[00:31:24] Georgia: Right. Anyway, okay. That was all I had.

[00:31:27] joe: that’s all I had. Yeah. No, that’s cool. And you got the, the evolutionary, the thing, Nick? Did I explain that well enough or-

[00:31:33] Nick: Yeah

[00:31:33] joe: Okay. Yeah. Cool. All right.

[00:31:36] Nick: I think so

[00:31:37] joe: Yeah, if people have questions,

[00:31:38] Georgia: I do think it’s, it is confusing.

[00:31:40] joe: I think we sh- we probably will do an episode. I don’t know, with season four.

And we haven’t made the full

[00:31:45] Georgia: I think evolution would be an awesome topic.

[00:31:49] joe: topic.

[00:31:49] Georgia: Because also, I think it’s also a matter of language. Like we talked about

before when we talked about what does it mean to look at something small.

Yeah. [00:32:00] I mean, like, ’cause I feel like we use the word evolve a lot. Like, I’m gonna evolve my thinking about this, or… And but yet we’re not taking this really pure, what does evolution mean,

[00:32:14] joe: yep. Yeah, it’s that, like I said, it’s that kind of population changing over generations through shifts in their, inherited genetic material.

I think that would sum it up. That’s what’s happening with evolution, and usually under pressure s- by something that forces that trait. ‘Cause that’s your… Well, we’re gonna go down this- Yeah … this rabbit hole like, no, but yeah. That’s fine. Yeah,

[00:32:35] Georgia: do- Because I just thought of more interesting things about is it

[00:32:40] joe: advantagious, advantageous

[00:32:41] Georgia: advantag- advantageous for a population, for their aging community to keep going, or is it more advantageous to get rid of those old people,

and you know what I’m saying? So

[00:32:54] joe: if they’ve already reproduced, then it’s too late. So you would have to… Right? [00:33:00] Because if you already passed your genes on, then it doesn’t matter.

You can- Then there’s no genetics … you can

[00:33:03] Georgia: Right. Then it

[00:33:04] joe: old or, right. You can be old or whatever age because you’ve already contributed your inherited material. Then it’s, then it’s- Yes. Now

[00:33:11] Georgia: so let’s not

[00:33:11] joe: You’re right, right. It’s like now… So you get right to GATTACA real fast, a Brave New World. It’s how do we get rid of, how do we make these changes?

But other questions open up, but yeah let’s put a pin in it. Folks, write in if you got some other questions or we’re setting up topics, so, I think it’ll be a fun one to talk about, evolution, and then gene editing. I think those two go hand-in-hand, so maybe we’ll have to do a couple, find a couple folks to come in and chat about that.

So coolio.

[00:33:38] Nick: be a really funny conversation

[00:33:39] Georgia: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:33:41] joe: mm-hmm. So

[00:33:42] Georgia: Nick, do you have any science holes? Or hole?

[00:33:46] Nick: I did. I did have one. My science hole is it’s pretty short, but, Apparently, whale calls can outrun sound without breaking Einstein’s theory of special relativity. So yeah, they were [00:34:00] going on about, whales’ calls are a little bit more than they appear. There was a simulation that researchers set the normal sound of speed of sound in water at approximately four thousand nine hundred feet, one thousand five hundred meters per second. And it after interference reshaped the two test signals. But what it said there, peaks arrived at times corresponding to apparent speeds of about five thousand five hundred and sixty feet or one thousand six hundred and ninety-four point five meters. And but the waves themselves did not accelerate.

Their overlapping shifted the signal’s most intense point, producing a supersonic calculation. So it’s, it seemed like it might be faster [00:35:00] than Light itself. And that, that is something wild to think that, oh, I know we’ve brought up the speed of light quite a few times, but I’m wondering if this would end up Getting information from, like, space to be faster,

you know?

[00:35:19] joe: so I want to say that it really didn’t, like I said in this article it really didn’t, it didn’t break that, right? So it’s not … Information isn’t traveling faster than the speed of light, which is the important part there, and kind of the idea here

[00:35:36] Georgia: is the sound is? So

[00:35:37] joe: is- So it’s, it’s-

[00:35:39] Georgia: is information

[00:35:40] joe: It’s not just information

right. Well, it doesn’t, not necessarily, right? So you have it,

[00:35:44] Nick: what I’m saying is I think it opens a potential for, you know, different technologies

[00:35:50] joe: Yeah. I think ’cause the information is what’s important there, and so the idea, the way I read it, and I’m, [00:36:00] I am not a physicist by any means, so I wanna say that kind of is at the peak. So the wave, if you… changes its shape. , sound is a wave, and if that, that p- changes, it can appear to move faster.

That if you have a change at the peak, so the signal’s peak kind of the echo of it, if you measured its distance, that the peak of the sound arrives faster, but the, the combined shape is it.

So it’s not the physical object traveling the, the sound

[00:36:34] Georgia: You totally lost me there.

[00:36:35] joe: You know.

[00:36:36] Georgia: You know, I … yeah, and

[00:36:37] joe: I was trying to find…

[00:36:38] Georgia: a,

[00:36:39] joe: I, looked up- Okay … like maybe an example to help explain this, ’cause it was one of those things that, you know… And the one thing I found was think of a laser dot sweeping across a distant wall.

The dot can move faster than, than light or appear to, but it’s not actually traveling along it. It doesn’t carry a message faster than light. So it’s when you’re sweeping it [00:37:00] around, it looks like it’s faster, but it’s not, right? It’s it’s a, almost a, a mirage. Information isn’t moving faster than

[00:37:09] Georgia: you’re saying it’s more of an illusion.

[00:37:11] joe: It’s kind of, yes. It’s how you’re measuring it. And they call it temporal interference. Trying to figure out the physics a little bit on, a little bit on the fly,

[00:37:19] Georgia: Yeah,

[00:37:20] joe: you have this.

So,

[00:37:21] Nick: Interesting. Yeah, I wasn’t sure. I took it as a,

[00:37:24] joe: Yeah.

[00:37:25] Nick: slightly different way.

[00:37:28] Georgia: Yeah. You know what? It, and this has nothing to do with science. Yeah. But it, but did you ever see

[00:37:37] joe: that

[00:37:37] Georgia: Death & Robots? The ser- that series, and it’s like animated. It’s an, like, an anthology series where each episode is by a different animator, and it’s a totally, like, standalone series, and they have two or three seasons.

[00:38:00] It’s really good. But one of my very favorite one is the, that one where the whales-

[00:38:06] joe: Mm-hmm … are

[00:38:07] Georgia: diving into the… Do you remember which one I’m talking about, Joe? Oh, gosh, it’s so beautiful. These whales, and they’re running across. Anyway, I can’t really do it justice, but maybe we’ll put that in the notes.

Yeah. And when you were talking about this sound of these whales, that’s what came to my mind. Yeah.

[00:38:27] joe: I looked up going through, just finding some different reference things. I’ll put something else in there. I’ll put some of this in the show notes. But it said this phenomenon, this temporal interference, occurs when multiple wave paths, such as a direct sound wave and its reflected echo bouncing off a nearby surface.

And that was in that, that article you had sent Nick. That, that was kind of this echo effect. They overlap and recombine. When a sound source and receiver are positioned very close to a boundary, like a whale calling near the ocean surface, the [00:39:00] resulting temporal interference shifts the energy peak forward in time.

Because the peak of the recombined wave packet is shifted earlier than the direct wave alone, the signal’s maximum strength physically moves at a seemingly impossible superliminal speed. So it’s kind of more… It- I think it’s a perception and perspective kind of thing that they’re seeing and they’re noting this that you have this kind of observation that they had, and it was trying to figure out how this, this worked in that context.

And so it was

[00:39:32] Georgia: I

[00:39:33] joe: I feel like the, maybe the title’s article was a little clickbaity. But when you dig into it and start… I’m kind of looking up some of the terms and things, that it’s not really traveling faster than light, ’cause that would then break Einstein’s theory of relativity,

[00:39:48] Georgia: So- I don’t know if- Yeah

[00:39:51] joe: so it’s kind of like you’re bouncing off information, and they recombine just perfectly to have , the wave packet is shifted forward by this interference, so, [00:40:00] but you’re not transmitting actual information or data faster than the speed of light. Like, you’re not breaking that boundary.

It’s just kind of the appearance that

it’s

gone faster or it’s there. So, so you really couldn’t use this for, like, space communication or anything like that. It just almost like a trick that you’re using. You’re manipulating physics to make it work. But, you know, there’s no free lunches in America or math, so

[00:40:26] Georgia: I see one image, but it’s not really, it’s not really my favorite image from that episode

[00:40:36] joe: Oh, you’re sending something else

[00:40:38] Georgia: Oh, just- Oh

with

[00:40:40] joe: Oh. Oh yeah, the Love, Death, and Rockets with the… I know what you’re

[00:40:43] Georgia: rockets,

Robots … robots. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:40:45] joe: Yeah.

[00:40:45] Georgia: It’s so, that

[00:40:47] joe: were racing the- Yeah … right, across, which was genetic engineering. They were genetically engineered

[00:40:53] Georgia: was almost a GATTACA

That animation is just-

[00:40:57] joe: That animation- Yep … is just- we’ll put that in there

[00:40:58] Georgia: there

just, yeah, [00:41:00] breathtaking.

[00:41:01] joe: just, yeah, breathtaking Frost, the, what was it called? Frost whale scene

[00:41:03] Georgia: wheel scene? Mm-hmm I’m sorry, that was a total tangent, but

[00:41:10] joe: No, you got- you started on whales

[00:41:12] Georgia: But that, yeah, I had to

[00:41:15] joe: All right. Yeah, we may have to revisit this

[00:41:18] Nick: Well, what kind of media have you guys been consuming lately? I know you guys have been busy, so I don’t know how much you were able to get to

[00:41:25] Georgia: I’ve been reading a lot, which is always good. Which I think that’s pretty much all I ever do is … I mean, I guess we watch a lot of shows, but unfortunately I don’t do any video games.

[00:41:39] Nick: Unfortunately, you gotta get online

[00:41:41] Georgia: I know, I’m just … But I, so I read the book called The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts, and I just, I finished it in two or three days. It was really good, kind of a fever dream,

[00:41:55] joe: ah,

[00:41:56] Georgia: type book, and just really [00:42:00] well-written. And it was somebody that I had saw at the Lit Fest, and they read a little excerpt of their book, and it was like, “Oh, I really need to read that.”

And then I read it. And like So that was good. And I read the book The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, and that was set in Alaska. And starts out, it’s set in Alaska in, like, the ’70s, and this family goes the-

[00:42:30] Nick: That sounds like a good time, Craig

[00:42:31] Georgia: Yeah, and this family goes to this r- really remote part in Alaska, and just kind of their experience there.

And it was I mean, I read it, it wasn’t during our power outage, but I think that really

[00:42:47] joe: made

even

[00:42:49] Georgia: of an impact reading it, you know, thinking about what that would be like.

[00:42:56] Nick: Oh yeah, I can see that

[00:42:57] Georgia: So I think that’s

[00:42:58] Nick: What about you, Joe? main [00:43:00] things. Yeah. Oh, no. Joe?

[00:43:04] joe: Yeah, I’m assuming. Sorry, I’m still reading about temporal interference. I’m going down a new rabbit hole there. No, that’s interesting. It’s just kind of a thought experience. , kind of the whole, this recombination thing.

Yeah I read… I mean, we were at Dragon Con and then the Lit Fest, so I was down there with the Chicago Writers Association, and I actually had a reading just this past Saturday- down at the Printers Row Wine. So thank them

[00:43:28] Georgia: With Maud, which was a guest,

[00:43:30] joe: also a guest on an episode about mermaids.

So she had her her novel and a b- book of poetry out, so yeah. But no I finished reading Storm Front by Jim Butcher. It was in the kind of urban fantasy. So the character, Dresden, he’s a wizard and he’s a PI, so it was very noir feel. So urban fantasy are kind of wizards,

[00:43:56] Georgia: And how did you come to start reading that?

[00:43:59] joe: And how did you get to the reading there?

‘Cause I was at [00:44:00] Dragon Con. Mm-hmm. I think it just… It’s been on my list and then

[00:44:03] Georgia: Did you meet the author

or-

[00:44:05] joe: meet Jim. No, he was there, but I didn’t meet

[00:44:07] Georgia: okay. But that’s what made you-

[00:44:08] joe: think about it.

[00:44:09] Georgia: ’cause you said that there’s many books in his

[00:44:12] joe: you said that there’s many books in his series.

I think it’s like 17 or so in the series, yeah. So he’s been writing it for a little bit. And yeah, it was really good, so I enjoyed it. I started– I was– I listened to it on audio, and then I listened, started listening to the second one, which it was, like, dra-dramatized, so it was, like, acted. I don’t know if I…

That might be a little

[00:44:29] Nick: Oh, those are, I always loved those. Those are so

cool

[00:44:31] joe: kind of interesting ’cause, it’s like they picked up a, you know, I’m drinking my pint, and you’re like, “Okay, I don’t need the Foley noises here.” It’s kind of…

Yeah. It’s interesting, but really good, really well-written. I can see the character.

He’s kind of a, a fun person, like you might wanna hang out with or maybe you don’t. But yeah, That

[00:44:50] Georgia: That sounds like something that would be easily adapted for, like, like a

[00:44:56] joe: TV show

[00:44:57] Georgia: or

something. I’m sure that

[00:44:57] joe: sure. I’m sure Jim Butcher would be very[00:45:00]

[00:45:00] Georgia: I haven’t even read it yet, and I’m looking forward

to that adaptation.

No

[00:45:05] joe: I think it’s really cool. No, they’re really– They’re well-written. Like I said, it has a very noir feel and, , a detective, like he’s there and he’s a PI, like kind of, you know, always looking for the next job and, you know, So yeah, it was really cool.

So I did enjoy that.

[00:45:20] Nick: Pretty cool. I think I wanna check that one out

[00:45:22] joe: Yeah. Yeah, I’ll put it, I’ll put it in the show notes as always. So,

[00:45:27] Georgia: And

[00:45:27] joe: than that,

[00:45:28] Nick: As always.

[00:45:29] joe: TV shows. Nothing, yeah. Just kinda been running around. But how about yourself? What are you up to? What are you listening to, reading?

[00:45:39] Nick: Well I beat the 007 First Light game. Really enjoyed that. It honestly felt like I was just watching the, a 007 movie. And yeah, I enjoyed that. It was,

It was good to see a new one of those. And I [00:46:00] am almost done with the new Wolverine game, and honestly, I think it’s been getting a lot more hate for

[00:46:08] joe: Mm-hmm

[00:46:09] Georgia: It’s getting a reasons lot. more for selling, just having poor practices? Yeah,

[00:46:14] joe: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:14] Nick: but I think it’s a fun game. I I don’t think it’s getting the praise it deserves, but, you know, it’s to each their own, you know? Yeah, exactly. And then I’ve been watching some older movies lately. Just watched Witches of Eastwood and,

[00:46:33] joe: Eastwick or Eastwood?

[00:46:34] Nick: Eastwick. Yep, yeah, Eastwick. Got it

right.

[00:46:36] joe: you s- okay

[00:46:38] Nick: And Mermaids.

[00:46:40] Georgia: Mm-hmm. Or a mermaid? Yeah. I’m trying

[00:46:42] Nick: Both with Cher.

[00:46:44] Georgia: I’m trying to think of

[00:46:45] Nick: do did that

[00:46:46] Georgia: I can’t I can’t

[00:46:49] Nick: Yeah, I’ve never

[00:46:50] Georgia: the m-

[00:46:50] Nick: it before

[00:46:50] Georgia: I can’t think of a movie The Mermaid with Cher.

[00:46:55] joe: I don’t know. Maybe.

[00:46:56] Georgia: mermaid movie I can, like, bring up in [00:47:00] my head is, like, Splash.

[00:47:01] joe: Fish Called Wanda.

[00:47:02] Georgia: Yeah.

[00:47:03] joe: I- And then there, I think there was a mermaid.

[00:47:06] Nick: to do with mermaids.

[00:47:08] joe: Yeah.

[00:47:09] Georgia: Okay. It’s called Mermaid and it has nothing to do with mermaids.

[00:47:13] joe: mermaids.

Oh that’s con- that’s

[00:47:14] Georgia: I

don’t remember that title of that movie, huh

[00:47:18] Nick: But yeah, that’s about what I’ve been up to

[00:47:23] joe: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:25] Georgia: Very cool.

Yeah I think Joe’s still reading about your science

[00:47:30] joe: book. I know. I’m read-

[00:47:32] Nick: All right. Well,

[00:47:32] Georgia: sweet. You’ve

[00:47:33] Nick: we’re gonna have to

get

[00:47:35] Georgia: you’ve got him on the-

[00:47:36] joe: back. Yeah, I know, like,

[00:47:37] Nick: What’s up?

[00:47:39] joe: Oh, there’s a, there’s like a some papers,

[00:47:41] Georgia: yeah. No, I’m kidding. There’s a, there’s like a some papers,

[00:47:41] Nick: I gotta do it, guys. Sorry

[00:47:43] joe: Wow

[00:47:44] Georgia: Joe, we gotta go.

[00:47:46] joe: Oh yeah, we, we do. Yeah. I’ll get this in there, yeah.

It was a … There’s an article in the Physics World from 2007, Sound Breaks the Light Barrier.

So that’s

[00:47:56] Georgia: kinda- Okay. Well, stay tuned. Right?

[00:47:58] joe: I know. It’s kind of like

[00:47:59] Nick: Yeah, we’re gonna [00:48:00] have to

I didn’t know I was gonna do this

[00:48:03] joe: I know. It’s exciting, man.

[00:48:07] Georgia: Okay.

[00:48:07] joe: Yeah, well, you got me, Joe, reading about sound breaking the light barrier.

[00:48:11] Nick: You got Nick dumping Joe.

[00:48:13] Georgia: got it. You got it, Dumpling Joe. Yeah. Georgia just saying goodbye.

[00:48:19] Nick: And we went down some mini holes

[00:48:23] joe: Stay safe. Stay curious Bye-bye. I love y’all.

Author: Jotham

Jotham Austin, II lives in Chicagoland with his wife and two sons. He has his PhD in Botany, and can be found taking electron micrographs of cells at The University of Chicago. His Rom-Com novella, “Tomorrow May Be Too Late” will be published as part of the romance anthology, “Askew Ever After,” January 2021. His debut novel, a sci-fi psychological thriller, ‘Will You Still Love Me, If I Become Someone Else?” will be released February 2021. Jotham recently started a newsletter that explores the science in science fiction (signup at jothamaustin.com). Preorder books and Follow Jotham on social media at https://linktr.ee/Jothamaustin

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *