The Wholesome Show

Ever since people have tried to make our world just a tiny bit healthier - you know, to not be coated in open sewage - idiot libertarians have screamed that it's their freedom to be covered in shit. In this episode, Will hosts Rod and special guest Professor Penny Hawe in a special quiz on the history of the nanny state critique! The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, joined today by Professor Penny Hawe! Proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

You can be, on the outside, a normal - even successful - person, but still hold a core of quackery on the inside. Alfred Lawson was one such person. A successful journalist, aircraft manufacturer and pilot - and the first person to commute by plane - Lawson also had some intensely weird Ideas about how the world works. Rod tells Will his story! The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

Henry Cotton had some interesting ideas about the causes of psychiatric disorders. The problem wasn't the ideas, it was the dogged pursuit of following them through.. The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, joined today by Dr Madeleine Hinwood! Proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

Nobody likes being afraid - but even so, fear is a pretty useful emotion. It protects us from tigers and bad parties and what not. But what if you don't experience it? Rod tells Will the story of S. M., the woman who feels no fear! The Wholesome Show is made by Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

For thousands of years smallpox was the worst virus in the world. It killed more people than any other disease - perhaps as many as half a billion in the 20th Century alone. But then, following a concerted global effort of vaccination, we wiped it out - the only disease threatening humans to have been fully eradicated. Will tells Rod how this happened! The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

In the 18th Century the people of Europe had heard of Asia - but they didn't know much about it. And so to fill the information vacuum, some enterprising folk... filled the gap with bullshit. The champion of this was George Psalmanazar... Rod tells Will his story! The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

While we're living through a pandemic, we're also in the midst of a tsunami of misinformation, a plague of snake oil, a veritable shit-storm of bad communication! And we wanted to document it. So today, Will tells Rod - and special guest Darren Saunders - all about some of the awful people spreading awful lies in this Covid-19 world! The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

We're all told as kids to chew our food properly - but people don't usually go as far as The Great Masticator, Horace Fletcher. As Fletcher held it, food should be chewed until liquefied before swallowing. "Nature will castigate those who don't masticate." Rod tells Will all about him! The Wholesome Show is made by Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, and proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

In 1918-1919, the Spanish Flu killed perhaps as many as 100 million people. More than anything else ever. But for decades, we barely spoke about it - in fact it was called the forgotten pandemic. Will tells Rod all about it! The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

The internet, you may be shocked to learn, is full of lies - half truths, fraud, fakery! Some of the lying may in fact be diagnosable... Rod tells Will about Munchausen's syndrome, Munchausen's by proxy, and Munchausen's by Internet! This is our first social distancing podcast, bear with us while we polish our tech :) The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

Pandemics suck. You know that. You also know that panic buying sucks, particularly when everyone is buying your delicious brand of muesli. But what causes it? Will tells Rod a little about the history and science of panic buying! The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science - take care everybody!

The Nobel Prizes are really pretty famous. But what about the guy who set them up? Rod tells Will the story of Alfred Nobel! The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

In 1996 the US Air Force released an 'ideas paper' exploring how "US aerospace forces can ‘own the weather’ by capitalising on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to war-fighting applications." In short, they were looking at making weather a weapon against their enemies! Will tells Rod about the history behind this idea... The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

In 1966 a group of US Army scientists wanted to find out just how vulnerable the New York Subway system was to a biological attack. The good news? They found it was... pretty vulnerable. The bad news? The way they found this out was... pretty dodgy. Will tells Rod and Hans all about it! The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, joined today by Dr Hans Thulstrup, and proudly presented by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!

Kant holds that the fundamental principle of our moral duties is a categorical imperative. For people who listen to Heavy Metal, that means categorising music with the most awesome array of sub-categories you can imagine! Rod tells Will (and Hans!) all about the science of Heavy Metal! The Wholesome Show is Rod Lamberts and Will Grant, joined today by Hans Thulstrup! Proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!