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PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 11, Movies That Scare Us Silly
by Tracy V. Wilson | October 31, 2011
Halloween is Holly’s favorite holiday of the entire year, but she’s not so much into the scary movies. I, on the other hand, have a hard enough time really suspending disbelief that it’s rare when a movie really, truly frightens me. So, we decided to put our opposite-ends-of-the-spectrum heads together to come up with a list of movies (and some TV episodes, too) that really, truly scare us.
Conserve Brain Power, Download a Halloween Mix
by Robert Lamb | October 28, 2011
In Stuff to Blow Your Mind’s recent episode Decision Fatigue: Death by 1,000 Choices, I mentioned that one way to cut down on the steady attrition of your decision-making faculties is to trust in a good DJ or mix podcast.
This Halloween, I recommend exactly this to save yourself the anguish of formulating your own paranormal party playlist or macabre mixtape. Because really people, the pros have got you covered on this one — and you won’t have to endure “Monster Mash” in a single one of them.
Oh yeah, and they’re all totally free.
Victor Frankenstein’s tortured and brooding creation has become an avatar for scientific anxiety and horror. How far will we push and what are the existential ramifications? In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and I explore the neurological, magical, alchemical and mechanical roots of Frankenstein’s monster. You’ll learn all about golems, homunculi, automatons and the future of science-gone-wrong.
Last year, the Stuff Mom Never Told You Halloween episode discussed the ubiquitous and ridiculous “sexy” costumes, and we asked listeners to let us know what they donned for the Best Night of the Year. It’s getting down to the wire yet again to come up with a costume, so I culled a list of ideas from listeners and historical figures and female characters we’ve discussed on the podcast.
If Caroline and I hit up any Halloween happenings together, I might insist on us going as that mother-daughter duo mentioned below.
Gather round the cauldron with us as we ladle out hefty servings of magical thinking, medieval psychedelics, feminist history and the power of ritual. Just what was old-school witchery all about? This episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind has the answers. For instances, why do so many images (such as the featured 1400 woodcut) depict witches flying around on brooms? Could it be that free-thinking ladies of the 13th century liked to coat the shaft with empathogenic ointments and grind their naked bodies against it? Quite possibly, as we’ll discuss in detail.
Children crave candy like ravenous fiends. Whether double-fisting gummy worms or pouring an endless cascade of sugar into their breakfast cereal, their appetite for sweets seems insatiable. Hold a handful of Twizzlers out to a hungry child and you’ll probably pull back a bloody stump. How did the Pied Piper lure all those children away? Candy flute. Sugar, as we discuss in this podcast, is the fire in which our larval humans burn.
Blow Your Mind: The Creepy Cool World of Imaginary Friends
by Robert Lamb | October 18, 2011
Why do small children chat with invisible friends? No, they’re not conversing with ghosts or hosting tea parties for demonic spirits. As it turns out, those creepy cool encounters with unreal beings is just a part of how the human brain works. Think of it as a socialization simulator. And guess what? Even the average adult brain engages in something very similar: social surrogacy. How many of your close friends are fictional?
We are now knee-deep in the blood of another Halloween season, so it’s time to use HowStuffWorks.com the way it was intended: as an informational resource to enhance your appreciation of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Shining.” Produced on the slimmest of budgets back in the early ’70s, “Chainsaw” is one of the most terrifying and unsettling horror films of all time. This year, I challenge you to endure its 84 minutes of madness with the aid of some HowStuffWorks.com schooling.
It’s been a little more like Stuff From the Mad Science Lab in the weeks leading up to Halloween. Shovels in hand, Allison and I have trudged off into the moonlit cemeteries to unearth a number of grotesque, chilling and occasionally peer-reviewed horrors from YOUR science and culture. Then we dragged it all into the podcasting lab, flipped the switch and created three awesome Halloween episodes:
Science vs. Monsters!
This one’s a real slobber knocker, folks, because we pit actual science against fictional monsters in an all-out battle royale. We’ll discuss who would win in a fight between bigfoot and the wolfman — and tell you why Charles Darwin already decided the match. Plus much more!
Paint yourself blue to become a Navi tribesman/woman for Halloween
by Marshall Brain | October 27, 2010
The Navi tribesman/woman… This is one of those costume ideas that you could do well, or that you could do poorly. Here is how to do it well: Where do you get the blue color? You will be buying something like this: Blue Cream Makeup Or use clown makeup: Ben Nye Clown Makeup If you [...]
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