Good morning sunshine! This week on the Stuff You Should Know podcast, Herr Clark and yours truly did a little science thing and then something for fun — brainwashing and Twinkies.

Brainwashing was a good one, chock full of brain facts and examples in history of people being brainwashed. We broke down the steps you take when brainwashing someone and I gotta say, it does kind of make sense how this could work. We also did a little role playing and Josh attempted to rid me of what he sees as my hipster persona. Little does he know that I’m far from a hipster — there’s an age limit on that kind of thing. We also talked a bit about cults and have already received an email correction that the folks at Jonestown actually drank Flavor-Aid and not Kool-Aid. Unfortunately for Kool-Aid, all that matters is how people remember it.

Yesterday’s show was just a bit of fun about Twinkies. We rarely do something so light and goofy and it was a good time for us, so thanks for indulging. There was a little bit of science thrown in, namely that Twinkies aren’t the egg, milk and butter treats they were when they first came on the scene in the 1930s. Now it’s mostly about chemical ingredients. We also learned that no, Twinkies do not have a shelf life that stretches into the decades, pure urban myth.

Thanks for tuning in, folks. Thanks also to Parallax Kodachrome for his addition to the blog this week — as he calls it, “Chuck n Josh, Estonian Hall n Oates.” Pure goodness.

So chime in, people. Have you ever had an experience with a cult? Any good Twinkie stories out there?

Read:
How Cults Work
How Brainwashing Works
How Twinkies Work