We Have Concerns show

We Have Concerns

Summary: Jeff Cannata and Anthony Carboni talk about the personal philosophical concerns they find lurking inside everyday things. It's fun?

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  • Artist: Jeff Cannata/Anthony Carboni
  • Copyright: 2014 Cannata/Carboni

Podcasts:

 Motivational Freaker | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:20:23

Basketball players that were grimly reminded of their own inevitable demise before playing took more shots and scored more points in a study published in an upcoming issue of Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. The researchers behind the experiments hypothesize that the pep-talk tactic fits with the established “terror management theory,” which proposes that humans are motivated to seek self-esteem, meaning, and symbolic immortality in order to manage their fear of death. This, of course, is right up Anthony's alley, and he and Jeff discuss how to use this effect practically.

 We Didn't Fart the Fire | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:20:44

A woman in her 30s was undergoing an operation that involved applying a laser to her cervix, when she passed gas that caught fire causing serious injuries to her body. Jeff and Anthony discuss the idea that all of the technology in the word can be subverted by a simple fart.

 Yawn of the Dread | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:20:03

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

 Cult of Personal IT | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:19:07

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

 Of Mice and Skin | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:21:16

Scientists in Japan have transformed mouse skin cells into eggs in a dish, and used those eggs to birth fertile pups. The report marks the first creation of eggs entirely outside a mouse. If the process could be made to work for humans, researchers could produce artificial eggs without needing to implant immature cells into ovaries to complete their development. Jeff and Anthony discuss the possibilities of something from nothing, when that something is a living thing.

 The Shortest Distance Between Two Pints | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:18:26

A two-year project by an international team of mathematicians has mapped shortest possible journey to visit 25,000 pubs across the UK, and set a new record for the longest "traveling salesman problem" ever solved. Jeff and Anthony discuss pub crawls, math, and 2 years spent on this kind of thing.

 Make the Snake | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:21:23

A team of researchers led by Axel Visel at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has replaced part of a mouse's DNA—a small sequence known as ZRS— with the equivalent sequence from a snake. That tiny change was enough to “serpentize” the mouse, to stop it from developing any limbs. Jeff and Anthony discuss the ramifications of these gene modifiers, and what it could mean for our future.

 Coffee Bean and Key Leaks | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:21:20

One of the busiest Starbucks in the country is the one located inside the CIA, with a captive caffeine-craving audience of thousands of analysts and agents working on gathering intelligence and launching covert operations around the world. The baristas go through rigorous interviews and background checks and need to be escorted by agency “minders” to leave their work area. There are no frequent-customer award cards, because officials fear the data stored on the cards could be mined by marketers and fall into the wrong hands, outing secret agents. Anthony and Jeff discuss normal jobs jammed inside extraordinary locations.

 Jurassic Bark | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:21:47

Though we have spent hundreds of years imagining dinosaurs as reptilian roarers, our understanding of what dinos may have actually looked and sounded like has evolved. A new study published in Nature reveals that dinosaurs may have been far less aggressive, vocally speaking, eschewing gigantic roars for a much more subtle coo or a duck’s quack. Jeff and Anthony discuss all of the misinformation about dinosaurs, and how quacking would change their cultural appeal.

 Bonobo Knows | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:22:51

An international study found that chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans seem to have the ability to see the world from someone else's point of view, even when they know that point of view is dead wrong — a trait that once was considered uniquely human It's called theory of mind, or the ability to know that others have different beliefs and perspectives. Jeff and Anthony talk about animal intelligence, and the concept of "false thoughts".

 Home Is Where the Start Is | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:22:00

After he was killed by a blow to the face about 9,000 years ago, the 23-year-old hunter was laid to rest in a limestone cave in what is now southwestern England. Now, say scientists astonishingly bridging 90 centuries and 300 generations, they have found a direct descendant of the Stone Age man. He lives half a mile from the burial site and teaches history. Anthony and Jeff marvel at this story of time and space, and contemplate the merits of staying close to where your family has always been.

 Flight Change | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:20:30

Travellers are used to lost luggage, booking errors and on-board delays - but now an American airline is being sued for mixing up two children and sending them to the wrong cities. Jeff and Anthony discuss this astonishing error, and try to compare their own travel woes.

 This I Swear | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:22:36

Every swear word in the English language has been ranked in order of offensiveness. The UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, interviewed more than 200 people across the UK on how offensive they find a vast array of rude and offensive words and insults. Jeff and Anthony take a journey through the list to discuss why some words are worse than others.

 Sounds Fishy | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:22:54

Cornish fish moving north with climate change may struggle to understand Scouse counterparts, study says, making it harder for them to mate. Experts believe the fish, which make sounds with their swim bladders to attract mates, may have regional accents – and if males cannot “chat up” females who speak a different dialect it could threaten their ability to breed. Jeff and Anthony discuss the idea of animal dialects, and what it might mean for nature.

 Trend in the Clowns | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:21:11

There’s been a wave of creepy clown sightings across the United States. Going back to late August, there have been dozens of reports of threatening clowns, largely centered around schools and colleges. Anthony and Jeff weigh in on this phenomenon. Is it cause for worry, or just a media circus?

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