People are arguing about porn again. Magic mushrooms are being pitched as a health supplement. And a flu study managed to do the one thing flu is famous for not doing, which is spread. This week, we are bouncing between sex, psychedelics, and infectious disease, which sounds like a bad uni share house, but it is actually a pretty good episode.
Pornography, Gooning, and Sexual Health
The conversation around porn usually gets stuck on one question. How much is too much? But the research we looked at takes a sharper angle. It is not just frequency that matters; it is motivation. Are you watching for pleasure, curiosity, connection, boredom, stress relief, or to avoid dealing with your life. Because those reasons can shape how porn use affects your emotional health and your sex life.
It is a much more annoying answer than a simple rule, because it requires self-awareness. But it also makes sense. Two people can watch the same amount and have completely different outcomes, depending on whether it is a fun part of their sexuality or a coping mechanism that is quietly eating their relationships.
Mushrooms and the Unexpected Health Glow Up
Now for the part where your hippie cousin feels vindicated. Psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, is being studied for potential health benefits that go well beyond seeing the carpet breathe. One study suggests it may influence telomeres, which are linked to ageing. There is also research hinting at associations between psychedelic use and lower risk of things like heart disease and diabetes. Not a prescription, not a miracle, but enough to make scientists keep poking at it.
Then there is the sex angle, because of course there is. Some research suggests that people using mushrooms in the context of depression treatment reported increased arousal and satisfaction. That includes people dealing with the libido flattening effects of antidepressants. It is early, messy, and not a reason to start self-medicating, but it is a fascinating glimpse into how brain chemistry, mood, and desire are all tangled up together.
The Influenza Mystery That Should Not Be a Mystery
And finally, influenza. We all assume flu spreads easily through coughs, sneezes, and being near someone who looks like they have been hit by a truck. But a recent human study did something simple. It put healthy people in close contact with flu sufferers. And somehow, none of them caught it. Which is either a statistical fluke, a sign of partial immunity, a problem with the study design, or a hint that we still do not fully understand how flu transmission works in real-world conditions.
Either way, it is a reminder that even the most familiar viruses can still surprise us. Sometimes the biggest mystery is not what spreads, but what does not.
So that is the week. Porn is less about how often and more about why. Mushrooms might have benefits that go way beyond the trip. And flu is out here refusing to do its one job. If you have a weird science story we should chase next, send it in. We promise to make it only slightly uncomfortable.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction to Pornography Concerns
00:40 Science Steps In: Quality Over Quantity
03:52 Exploring the Concept of Gooning
06:55 Research on Pornography Usage
12:44 Human Anatomy Compared to Great Apes
19:39 Life Hacks and Psychedelic Drugs
19:46 Health Benefits of Psychedelics
21:26 Anti-Aging Properties of Psilocybin
23:36 Survival Skills and Psychedelics
27:27 Flu Transmission Study
33:57 Sexual Benefits of Magic Mushrooms
37:49 Listener Contributions
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[00:00:02] ROD: Pornography. We all know, and many people voice concerns about it at the moment. They voice concerns about the danger of porn addiction leading to impaired sexual function. Talk about unrealistic expectations that generates particularly among the youths of today. We hear a lot about some folks needing more and more and crazier stuff in South Park famously initiated the term Brazilian fart porn in that, uh, spirit.
[00:00:24] There's all signs. Also, obviously there's a disturbing disparity between the, uh, wrist girth of left and right-handed teenage men due to self pleasures. And of course we could potentially, and this is terrible, normalize, bad, dangerous, violent, bizarre sexual behaviors. So
[00:00:38] WILL: Pornography's
[00:00:39] ROD: a litany of problems.
[00:00:40] We hear about this all the time, but you don't have to worry 'cause science is stepping in. And what it's discovered is just like with pornography, science has discovered like with everything exactly like you've been warning me for years, will, it's more about quality than it is about quantity.
[00:00:53] [00:01:00] It is time. Mm-hmm. For a little bit of science,
[00:01:14] WILL: I'm
[00:01:14] ROD: will grant an associate professor in science communication at the Australian National University, and I am with apologies. Uh, rod Lambert's a uh, 30 year science communication veteran with a mind of a teenage boy. And this might be a bit of a teenage boy episode for you.
[00:01:30] It might 'cause as well as quality, not quantity. In the pornography world, we also have fighting dongs. If we get a life hack, I can finally get on board with, uh, we are gonna see,
[00:01:41] WILL: uh,
[00:01:42] ROD: if people want to get the flu, of course they do. I'm gonna tell you a quick story about sex on mushrooms. Beautiful. It is, it's beautiful. So freaking growing up.
[00:01:50] WILL: podcast.
[00:01:50] Hey,
[00:01:51] ROD: Hey, mushrooms are very grown up. I love mushrooms. Hallucinogens are not for children. No, that's true. That that is definitely true. Well, I dunno, actually, I've not met any [00:02:00] children that I'm aware who are on the hallucinogenics, and I don't think it's recommended.
[00:02:03] Like, I, I haven't looked into the, government guidelines
[00:02:05] WILL: on psilocybin for
[00:02:08] ROD: the,
[00:02:08] WILL: under
[00:02:09] ROD: hang on honey. I'm just checking if it's okay. I,
[00:02:11] WILL: I'm,
[00:02:12] ROD: I, I'm guessing, I'm guessing government says, no, don't do that.
[00:02:14] WILL: that.
[00:02:15] ROD: Can you imagine that?
[00:02:16] WILL: but who knows?
[00:02:17] ROD: Yeah, I know. You gotta look it up. You gotta, what you gotta do is, check with your experts. This has nothing to do with that though.
[00:02:22] So look. We know this about pornography. It's never been more easy to get abundant material. Are you sure? Like, yes. Like what if it was super easy? I mean, here's porn. I don't mean sex slaves in the, in the thousands of years ago. Yeah. I'm thinking like, you know, like the,
[00:02:36] the KAA Suture Temple in India or something like, you know, oh,
[00:02:38] WILL: know, you
[00:02:38] ROD: go there and you have, okay, let's talk, let's talk about that.
[00:02:41] Probably not the, the amount that is on
[00:02:43] WILL: uh,
[00:02:43] ROD: was it a temple?
[00:02:44] WILL: and the,
[00:02:44] ROD: The internet, was that real? The Kama Suture temple? It was just a temple where people, yeah, no, it's, you go there, calmed their sutures and all of the sutures are up chiseled into the wall. And are you obliged to go? Hang on, let's just see if that one actually works.
[00:02:56] I suspect in the original temple that, there was, the doing of it. A lot
[00:02:59] WILL: A lot
[00:02:59] ROD: of religious [00:03:00] nces. Yeah, no, it was certainly a
[00:03:02] WILL: a
[00:03:02] ROD: religious sex that they were doing. They were, yeah, finding.
[00:03:05] WILL: it's,
[00:03:05] ROD: all, it's all religious man nirvana. It's all religious
[00:03:08] So look, it's never been more easy, as we said, even probably compared to the Kama Sutra temple, and it's led to more and different kinds of research on porn, its effects on people, et cetera. Yeah, we know there's a lot of that, and it gets you all these fancy headlines, some more or less salubrious, et cetera.
[00:03:23] These podcasters love talking about research.
[00:03:25] WILL: on porn.
[00:03:26] ROD: They do. It's, it's like's
[00:03:27] WILL: it's
[00:03:28] ROD: they do, researchers are like, you know what, this will get on the podcast. It will. And it'll be so hard to get. And they're right. Only this one, we might be the only one that talks about it. And in, in your defense, I might be the only one on, oh, have you ever, you have, sure.
[00:03:41] You've talked about pornography, the sex on the podcast. I'm sure I have. Yeah. No, of course. Did your parents listen to this, don't they?
[00:03:48] WILL: they? Yeah.
[00:03:48] ROD: Yeah. Look, uh. Anyway,
[00:03:50] WILL: but
[00:03:50] ROD: I apologize. So here's a headline that caught my eye from futurism. I do like that. scientists say, go ahead, keep gooning
[00:03:57] WILL: Keep
[00:03:57] ROD: As long as it's for the right reasons.
[00:03:59] Keep [00:04:00] Gooning. They went straight to Gooning. Straight to Gooning. Oh, did the scientists say this or did the headline writer say
[00:04:04] WILL: say
[00:04:04] ROD: this? Well, the headline writer said this. The headline writers said What Journalist is, but I'm really hoping that Nature has, has an article on Gooning. Uh, this piece that I'm gonna refer to or was referred to in this study was, I think in one of the nature jour, no International Journalist Sexual Health.
[00:04:18] WILL: Right.
[00:04:19] ROD: We'll get to that. So this is the headline of the story about the study. and for those of you who dunno what Gooning is, I've just gotta, you know, set the scene straight. And I wanna thank, Urbano Turo on the Urban Dictionary, Urbano Turo.
[00:04:29] WILL: Turo.
[00:04:29] ROD: That's the handle. I don't know if that's the birth certificate name.
[00:04:31] WILL: name
[00:04:32] ROD: person,
[00:04:32] WILL: person.
[00:04:32] ROD: you dunno that it isn't,
[00:04:34] WILL: I'm hoping that's a glorious
[00:04:36] ROD: what do we call him, honey? I'm thinking something with a turban. Turo,
[00:04:41] WILL: Turo
[00:04:42] ROD: urban Turo,
[00:04:42] WILL: Turo.
[00:04:43] ROD: So it says this is the definition that works best for us for males. Goony, the act of becoming completely self-absorbed with your penis and masturbation such that your face and mannerisms take on the personality of a goon.
[00:04:56] In this instance that is tongue out, vacant expression, grunting, muttering, et [00:05:00] cetera.
[00:05:00] WILL: okay.
[00:05:01] ROD: in yourself. They're saying that's the origin. Like
[00:05:02] WILL: of, like,
[00:05:03] ROD: that. You look like A goon, like aug? Yeah. Yeah. Or, or no, not in so much a thug. They mean goon in the sense of just, uh, like, yeah, yeah. I get it. But I didn't know it came from goon, like in the fifties, A goon.
[00:05:13] Yeah. Hired goons. Yeah. Hired goons. These are my hired goons. Yeah.
[00:05:16] WILL: Okay.
[00:05:17] ROD: That, so yeah, potentially. So
[00:05:18] WILL: Oh, all right. Yeah.
[00:05:19] ROD: it goes on Urbano or it could be Miss or Mrs. Or Mr. Or Master, or they, Urbano goes on to say, men gooning often prefer hours of edging slash erection to actual release slash orgasm. Okay. So it's about getting close and staying there.
[00:05:33] Yeah. And it, finishes off. It's an artifact of modern times and plentiful porn.
[00:05:38] WILL: Look,
[00:05:39] ROD: I'm sure there were Victorian unas. They just didn't know the word yet. Fuck. Yeah. There were, they, they, you know, they and sting, like he got it from his sting. Yes. Sting. His practices
[00:05:48] WILL: Been
[00:05:48] ROD: been gooning for forever.
[00:05:50] Yeah. Way before the internet. And he was
[00:05:51] WILL: Gooning
[00:05:52] ROD: gooning, but with a buddy. But anyway, I don't know. I don't know. I think Gooning is a solo activity.
[00:05:57] WILL: Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:57] ROD: , As in technically. So is, the watching [00:06:00] or consumption as some people put it, a pornography? No, that's not solo.
[00:06:02] WILL: solo.
[00:06:02] ROD: but
[00:06:02] WILL: the point of
[00:06:03] ROD: the pornography I think is, is solo.
[00:06:04] You're alone. Yeah. You don't want any other bugger getting in the way in one
[00:06:07] WILL: you're in, one
[00:06:07] ROD: of
[00:06:07] the world championship. There is world championships. What? You haven't seen it? Believe it or not,
[00:06:12] WILL: of it.
[00:06:13] ROD: I've read,
[00:06:13] WILL: and, and,
[00:06:14] ROD: someone read an article to me and, and there's links and I'm like, I don't need to click that.
[00:06:17] But yeah, there are, I think they're held in San Francisco every so often, the world championships of masturbation. but did you click it whether you needed I was like, you know what, you know, I don't,
[00:06:25] WILL: don't,
[00:06:26] ROD: it had a little bit like excerpts of the widows and, and whatever, what.
[00:06:29] WILL: like,
[00:06:30] ROD: Oh, you please tell me. You mean giving a speech?
[00:06:32] You,
[00:06:33] WILL: I'd
[00:06:34] ROD: I'd like to thank my mother. Well, better than, and here was the final moment where he won. You're like, I dunno what I'm looking for. Yeah, yeah.
[00:06:41] WILL: Like,
[00:06:41] ROD: But anyway, so the interesting sentence there and related to this article is an artifact of modern times and plentiful porn. Yeah.
[00:06:47] WILL: Yes.
[00:06:48] ROD: So this is what's sort of being challenged in this study.
[00:06:50] The plentiful. Are they, are they saying porn is not plentiful on the internet? No, they're not. But what they are challenging in the equality versus quantity thing is. It's not straight numbers. So this paper, which [00:07:00] was, as I said earlier, in the International Journal of Sexual Health,
[00:07:02] some folks in Hungary, university of Pecks, Pesh, something like that.
[00:07:07] Uhhuh, they said, let's be smart. Let's be smart scientists. They went, okay. Look, there's a major gap in the literature about pornography because they talk about how frequently it's used by people not. Much about it and they act as if frequency alone tells you all you need to know about harmful use, misguided use, et cetera, use it.
[00:07:21] A shit load. You're fucked up.
[00:07:22] WILL: Yeah.
[00:07:22] ROD: Okay. Use it less, you're less likely to be fucked up. I'm summarizing. I'm,
[00:07:26] WILL: I'm I,
[00:07:27] ROD: let's assume it has some role to play. Not saying it doesn't, they're just saying it basically seems to be the only,
[00:07:32] WILL: mean,
[00:07:32] ROD: the only game in town, just to compare with your occasional dabbler.
[00:07:36] WILL: versus
[00:07:36] ROD: that guy in, you remember you have a teenage son. We'll call him in. No, I'm just thinking of seven. Do you remember? I do.
[00:07:40] WILL: Um,
[00:07:41] ROD: And there was the guy that every wall of his house was lined with, porn and he painted like a porn helmet sort of thing. But that's, that's not, I, feel like that's not a frequent tab, and I feel like that's indicative of problems.
[00:07:52] WILL: So.
[00:07:52] ROD: So Yeah.
[00:07:53] WILL: but
[00:07:53] ROD: But look, you're not supposed to judge people from afar. That's the gold, the Goldwater principle so they said they were interested in whether [00:08:00] these different. Motivations for using porn are linked to different patterns of sexual and emotional functioning.
[00:08:05] Sounds obvious to look for that, but their argument is that often that's not what happens. They just kind of go, you seem fucked up. You look at a lot of porn, you're fucked up. 'cause you look at a lot of porn and the pivotal phrase is a lot. So they're saying no. It seems to be more like the reasons for watching are what matters.
[00:08:19] WILL: Okay.
[00:08:19] ROD: Okay.
[00:08:19] WILL: I know. Okay.
[00:08:20] ROD: I know. Okay. I know. Is,
[00:08:21] WILL: is.
[00:08:21] ROD: is this for research or like yeah. This is research porn looking at porn for journal articles. Then it's all legit. Yeah. Yeah. You're fine. Even, and I looked at a thousand last week, and you're like, yeah, but for research, it's stats. It's just stats. What are the range of reasons?
[00:08:34] Well, they don't go into every one. They give you some, do they? Do they give more than.
[00:08:38] Well, it turns out, I mean, look, there are people who might look at the pornographies, not just to do the self touch. They might have other reasons.
[00:08:45] So, they did a study right? They got 890 adult Hungarians and as they put it, very specifically 600 individuals assigned female at birth and 290 assigned male at birth,
[00:08:56] WILL: Okay.
[00:08:56] ROD: which unusual, more biologically female than male anyway.
[00:08:59] Um, and [00:09:00] of course
[00:09:00] WILL: of course
[00:09:00] ROD: they use an anonymous online survey.
[00:09:01] WILL: survey.
[00:09:02] ROD: You hold your critique till the end ' cause there are critiques. So there's somewhat surprising finding frequent use when driven by positive emotions and motivations was linked to less sexual deactivation as in less emotional withdrawal from sexuality.
[00:09:14] Emotional. So you're going in with a positive feeling. I really want to have a wink. I'm, I'm feeling, I really wanna see this is gonna be good. Yep. It's gonna be fun. I'm doing it 'cause it's great going in. This is gonna be bad. I'm gonna hate this. I hate me and everyone in it.
[00:09:25] WILL: Okay. Okay.
[00:09:27] ROD: Okay. So if you like, if you watch 200 positive ones and entertain yourself.
[00:09:32] And the other one went in going, I hate it saying positive pictures. Or was it saying motivations for going in? Not, yeah, they're motivations. Yeah. I'm going in for this horrific murder porn, but I feel really happy about it and I'm gonna watch heaps of it. What? But my motivations are positive.
[00:09:46] WILL: Oh God.
[00:09:46] ROD: So, yeah, but they were saying positive motivations were linked to less being sort of emotionally withdrawn, et cetera, from sex and stuff.
[00:09:52] So they say positive motivations like enhancing sexual pleasure, exploring fantasies or deepening intimacy
[00:09:58] WILL: It
[00:09:58] ROD: could be associated with [00:10:00] frequent but non-problematic porn use. And it can be adaptive sexual regulation, not maladaptive, right? But only problematic use, not frequent use was associated with this kind of disengaged, avoid use.
[00:10:11] Is associated with problematic things. Yeah, yeah. Problem porn use is associated with using porn.
[00:10:17] WILL: and
[00:10:18] ROD: Porn for problematic reasons. Saying if you go into your porn with a problematic intention, like yeah, doing it a lot could exacerbate your problematic attention. What is the problematic intention?
[00:10:27] Like you're feeling people with negative emotions and motivations such as stress reduction, emotional escape, or avoidance of discomfort. That was strongly linked to, what is it like, okay, you're going, I wanna do my,
[00:10:38] my exam, my essay, I'm gonna whack off nine times. Yeah. Okay. That's,
[00:10:42] WILL: it's
[00:10:42] ROD: not gonna help.
[00:10:42] No, because you'll miss your exam unless you do it in the exam. And then you've got other things, again, not
[00:10:47] WILL: not
[00:10:47] ROD: good. Other issues. So, yeah, they're saying, look, it's the, the negative versus the positive. So basically people in that space doing it for stress reduction, emotional escape, blah, blah, blah.
[00:10:55] They were strongly linked to sexual system hyperactivation, so [00:11:00] overly. Focused, the bad, the bad
[00:11:01] WILL: Oh,
[00:11:02] ROD: emotional regulation difficulties and impaired relational functioning., Are we
[00:11:06] WILL: we
[00:11:06] ROD: correlating here? I mean, is this Yes, we are.
[00:11:08] WILL: Yeah.
[00:11:08] ROD: Yeah. We're correlating, online self reports.
[00:11:11] Okay. Okay.
[00:11:11] So, so the results, here we go. From a practical standpoint, quoting the authors, it is more useful to look at whether someone feels out of control or distressed by their porn use.
[00:11:20] Not how often they watch it.
[00:11:21] WILL: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:22] ROD: Yeah, I, that's what I said about my heroin use. It's like I don't feel out of control or distressed. Yeah. Whereas, so fuck off. I felt really
[00:11:28] WILL: distressed,
[00:11:29] ROD: so yeah. That's why you quit, right? My God.
[00:11:30] WILL: God.
[00:11:31] ROD: So, yeah, the bottom line as you so aptly found out or saw through porn use is only problematic when it's a problem.
[00:11:36] That's my summary. So the study has a couple of limitations. Everyone is shocked and reeling. They're all self-reports and as if people would bolster or shame or indeed reveal weird porn stuff when they're self-reporting. And, uh, anonymous, imagine. Also motivations aren't necessarily pure and distinct, so you could seek pleasure and wanna distract yourself from stress.
[00:11:55] I wanna be happy and not think about my exam. I'm sorry to these lovely Hungarian scientists, but [00:12:00] I don't, and, and they are lovely. I dunno if this has told us anything. Uh, what,
[00:12:03] WILL: know.
[00:12:04] ROD: what are you talking about? The only thing I'll say this is the thing that I will take away from this, which I think is important.
[00:12:08] It's the moral side. I'm sorry. The whole idea that frequency is not a synonym for problematic. And that's the thing. I don't like seeing quantity used as a proxy for quality. That's the only thing I, when I read that, I went at least there's that. If you have a happy intention
[00:12:19] WILL: when
[00:12:19] ROD: you spend,
[00:12:20] eight hours a day on porn, eight hours a day on porn, don't worry about it.
[00:12:24] It's fine. You're cool, it's fine. But if you go inside. For
[00:12:26] WILL: for
[00:12:27] ROD: one minute a month. That's, that's, no, that's not frequent though. Yeah. Okay.
[00:12:30] WILL: Okay. Okay.
[00:12:31] ROD: so the frequency argument, that's my only real takeaway. Other than that, I'm like, yes, bad use of things can lead to bad nurses and good use can lead to goodness.
[00:12:41] Thank you. Thank you. University of Pet. Alright, I'm gonna point you towards a mystery punch me or point me point you towards a mystery and give you some new information. About this mystery. And the mystery is, ooh,
[00:12:54] WILL: that,
[00:12:54] ROD: um, compared to the other great apes, the bonobos, the chimpanzees, the orangutans,
[00:12:59] WILL: [00:13:00] and
[00:13:00] ROD: the gorilla gorillas.
[00:13:02] WILL: um,
[00:13:02] ROD: Oh, I love that. Like ratti ratti, human penises. Are longer and thicker than expected. Duh. Yeah, there's a great, I is this where I go? Damn, straight. So there's new study in, plus biology, and I'll talk you about it in a sec. But then
[00:13:14] WILL: I just wanted
[00:13:14] ROD: pub, public, public arts,
[00:13:16] WILL: Yeah. It
[00:13:16] ROD: of science,
[00:13:17] WILL: but it's about
[00:13:17] ROD: biology.
[00:13:17] It's important. So, but they've got this great diagram where they've got a dick diagram. Yes, but it's not
[00:13:22] WILL: it's
[00:13:23] ROD: Dick bonobo. Dick manic. Yes. But, they've kind of been a little bit opaque with it. So I would stop doing is, you know the man symbol with the circle, with the arrow pointing out.
[00:13:32] They've done a version of that. Oh, that's the man. I always get confused. Which one's the woman, which one's the man. With those, I think just assume the one that looks more dickish than, than it, it.
[00:13:39] WILL: it,
[00:13:40] ROD: I'd never thought of that, that then it's easy. Okay. So anyway, so, so they've gone beyond,
[00:13:43] WILL: diagram.
[00:13:43] ROD: so, okay.
[00:13:44] They've got, they've got a circle for average body size. Right? Right. So we're going from your bonobos, which is, you know, smaller. Yep. Then up to the chimpanzees, they're us.
[00:13:51] WILL: us.
[00:13:51] ROD: Yep. And then orangutans about us, I think. And then gorillas, obviously this is dick size or proportional. This is body size. Right. Okay. So just to show, okay. You know, we are in the [00:14:00] middle of the, of the greathouse of your body size. We're not gorillas, but, but now then they've also put your, balls on there,
[00:14:05] WILL: big they are.
[00:14:06] ROD: obviously. Uh, Bonobo's got the big balls, compared to body size.
[00:14:09] Do they? Humans, uh, average and smaller, but then they put the penis as as like the arrow coming out the top.
[00:14:15] WILL: And,
[00:14:16] ROD: Um, if we look here compared to body size.
[00:14:19] WILL: Humans.
[00:14:20] ROD: I know, I know. Like, there you go. So be happy. Thank you. Be happy with that. I guess if you're ever, you know, if you're ever nude next to a gorilla and you think, I'm gonna die right now, at least my dick's bigger than yours,
[00:14:32] WILL: At least,
[00:14:33] ROD: and I'll take that to the grave.
[00:14:34] WILL: go.
[00:14:35] ROD: But it is a bit of a mystery. It's a mystery. Like, Why would we have done that? I'd affect my father and his father before him. Yeah. All the way back. Oh, you don't mean specifically way back. No, I, I think your
[00:14:44] WILL: dick
[00:14:44] ROD: exercise comes from.
[00:14:44] WILL: from the
[00:14:45] ROD: The side.
[00:14:45] WILL: Maybe
[00:14:47] ROD: Oh, they, they used to tell me that about hairlines as I watched mine turn into my father's and went
[00:14:51] WILL: bull. Yeah,
[00:14:51] ROD: No,
[00:14:52] WILL: me
[00:14:52] ROD: too, but, uh, bullshit,
[00:14:53] But so the authors of this study, yeah. Um 13 years ago, they published what they call the landmark study, which I think is fair enough? [00:15:00] They presented, women and, let's go with heterosexual. Women here. look at these cos a with, 343 videos of anatomically correct.
[00:15:08] 3D computer generated male figures. So these are like
[00:15:11] WILL: 343?
[00:15:12] ROD: Yeah. That's exhausting. I remember some of our students, participated in this study. Are you serious? It was part of viral study. I remember. I remember. That's so many. Three. Oh yeah. How many dicks do you need to So we're not just looking at the dicks.
[00:15:25] We're looking at, so the,
[00:15:26] WILL: the
[00:15:26] ROD: oh, body height. It's three things. Yeah. Basically that they're varying, shoulder size. shoulder width. Yep. height. Yep. And, penis size. They were just getting to a few broad characteristics that might be associated with male track.
[00:15:39] And so,
[00:15:40] WILL: know,
[00:15:40] ROD: oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Not okay. So it's basically just saying, which is gonna be more attractive to these women that are rating. And so they're looking, you know, the women big shoulder, small dick safe, but not like, scary look.
[00:15:51] WILL: Yeah.
[00:15:51] ROD: Okay, okay. You know, 'cause
[00:15:52] WILL: know,
[00:15:53] ROD: they're looking at the whole lot, the whole package as it were.
[00:15:56] And, uh, as you can guess , the 3D characters that [00:16:00] were more attractive. So we don't have face, we don't have. Anything else? We don't have apparent wealth. Generally, uh, women preferred taller men with broader shoulders and larger penis. So, you know,
[00:16:10] WILL: you know,
[00:16:10] ROD: it's out of
[00:16:11] WILL: How,
[00:16:11] ROD: how, so there were literally 300 something options and they took a mean 343.
[00:16:16] And so yeah, of the ones that were taller, they preferred those ones. So yeah, they preferred taller, wider, and longer. Yeah. So, okay,
[00:16:22] WILL: not, not
[00:16:23] ROD: unexpected, but the point there. Yeah, the point there is, sexual attraction that
[00:16:27] the penis size would then be one of the indicators Yeah.
[00:16:30] Of sexual attractiveness. Not a great surprise. And so that would indicate a reason to have a big dog. A reason, a reason that humans have grown a bigger dog. I know. That's why I did.
[00:16:38] Yeah. As a choice. That's a choice, absolutely. But they said, look, this is a gap because there could be other things that are going on here as well as sexual attractiveness.
[00:16:46] WILL: And
[00:16:46] ROD: so they've done a new study, oh, is it cock length in iq? Please tell me. It's cock length iq. No, they didn't.
[00:16:51] WILL: didn't. They didn't.
[00:16:51] ROD: They didn't. Can you imagine? Well, is it up or down? There's stereotypes about this. Are are, are they really? [00:17:00] Well, certainly the ancient Romans would be like
[00:17:01] WILL: obvi
[00:17:02] ROD: obvi if ancient Romans had
[00:17:03] al Maximus and,
[00:17:04] WILL: and iq.
[00:17:05] ROD: and iq.
[00:17:05] You are smart. Yeah. I don't think they quite had that, but they were very much like big dongs make
[00:17:10] WILL: You're a
[00:17:10] ROD: you should be.
[00:17:11] WILL: oh,
[00:17:11] ROD: dumb. Yeah. No dumb. Course they thought that,
[00:17:13] WILL: they, they
[00:17:14] ROD: were like, that's British.
[00:17:15] WILL: and, and
[00:17:15] ROD: are we now Italian men to this day? No. I want to smile. Look how smart I am. But they said, okay, let's throw men into this. They asked the men,
[00:17:25] consider,, would they be more attracted to women? So they're not attracted to themselves, but who, what would make them more attracted to them, to women? So we're rating the same sorts of things. You know, how high, how. How attractive would this dude be, more or less attractive to women?
[00:17:37] Yeah.
[00:17:37] WILL: but
[00:17:37] ROD: they also said, Which one's gonna be more dangerous in a fight?
[00:17:40] WILL: So
[00:17:41] ROD: So the, the dude with the gun.
[00:17:43] WILL: dude with the,
[00:17:44] ROD: So again, they've got a whole bunch of
[00:17:46] WILL: participants
[00:17:46] ROD: with the same 343. No way, it's dick length. 'cause the long dig is a liability when you're trying to get out of a scrape
[00:17:51] WILL: well, or
[00:17:51] ROD: well, or squeeze through a small gap.
[00:17:52] That's what you would think. Like if you are nude fighting, you are like,
[00:17:56] WILL: and
[00:17:56] ROD: particularly with the gorilla. Oh, a hell of a distraction though. If someone's got a giant [00:18:00] flopper, you're like, I can't fight you., So. again, for women. this is the older study and the new study, larger penis, greater height and V-shaped upper body, all increased man's attractiveness.
[00:18:08] Yep. but there's a diminishing effect beyond a certain point further increases in penis size or height. And I'm just imagining these 3D figures. Well, there's nine feet tall, the 40 inch stick, and you're like, no. Uh,
[00:18:18] They cap out. Yeah. So,
[00:18:19] WILL: surprisingly
[00:18:20] ROD: Women
[00:18:20] WILL: don't
[00:18:21] ROD: want yet a 40 foot tall
[00:18:22] WILL: guy with,
[00:18:23] ROD: guy with, with a javelin.
[00:18:25] So I'm not looking for a spear right now. But men, however, men. Oh, bigger the better. Fuck. We're idiots. So, so you know unsurprisingly, They said taller guys are gonna be more attractive, broader shoulders are gonna be more attractive, but also
[00:18:37] WILL: larger
[00:18:37] ROD: penises are gonna be an indicator of greater fighting ability.
[00:18:41] Yeah.
[00:18:42] WILL: I.
[00:18:43] ROD: Really. So it's just more man,
[00:18:47] WILL: I,
[00:18:47] ROD: more dick equals more man equals more fight. If you're seeing some nude pictures and you go, which one of these can fight? And, and that's got the big dog, I feel like I wouldn't go to the dong. I'd be like, how big are they? Do they look really wiry? Do they look fat?
[00:18:59] WILL: Yeah,[00:19:00]
[00:19:01] ROD: I will cer certainly go on height, broad shoulders, uh,
[00:19:04] WILL: be a fighting
[00:19:04] ROD: o over over your dingdong.
[00:19:05] WILL: But
[00:19:06] ROD: there you go. Now you know. Now you know if you're nude in the locker room.
[00:19:09] WILL: Dongs
[00:19:10] ROD: are not just a sexual attractiveness or, a sign of sexual, hierarchy,
[00:19:14] WILL: but
[00:19:14] ROD: there's a fight in hierarchy to too. That's why the, was it the picks or the Celts would fight with the ding-dongs out?
[00:19:20] WILL: Oh,
[00:19:20] ROD: and, and the Greeks and a bit that No.
[00:19:22] That was wrestling. No, the Greeks loved a bit of fighting with the ding dongs out. Yeah. No, I think the Greeks loved a lot of things with a dingdong out. They were pioneers.
[00:19:31] WILL: They were, they were.
[00:19:33] ROD: So there
[00:19:33] WILL: go,
[00:19:34] ROD: you go, democracies and ding-dongs out. You learn something every day.
[00:19:38] WILL: Uh,
[00:19:39] ROD: here's a life hack. You know, I don't like life hacks, right.
[00:19:41] I, they make me mad. But look, I mean, there are some that I can actually get on board with because they suit me and this might be one of them. So there's research that talks about psychedelic drugs, and there's been around for a long time that talks about positive health outcomes. So I study in 2021, people who use hallucinogenic drugs like Cyclo Cyber and LSD and mescaline had lower risks of [00:20:00] developing heart disease and diabetes. Really? Really? Yeah. 2021. I did not have time to pull apart all these studies, but I. I smell there might be a follow up one day on some of this stuff.
[00:20:10] there was another one, studies suggesting that people have periodically used psychedelics recreationally were less likely to be overweight or obese.
[00:20:18] WILL: Oh, okay.
[00:20:19] ROD: Oh, okay. Tripping balls don't want to eat.
[00:20:20] I don't know. Recent, very promising ones said when they, they look at the ways these drugs can help dementia and dementia symptoms, and also things like PTSD.
[00:20:27] So lots of potential positives. You hear about lots of
[00:20:30] sort of mid-level business types in the US who go and take the ayahuascas and so on and they come back feeling better about the world. Yep. So there's a lot of that sort of stuff going on and yeah, it's all a hundred percent definitely guaranteed without a doubt.
[00:20:40] It's smart to trip balls. You get all these benefits, no question.
[00:20:42] WILL: I
[00:20:43] ROD: You heard it here first.
[00:20:44] WILL: I don't think it
[00:20:45] ROD: grownups, people with medical conditions. All of you should be taking trips regularly.
[00:20:49] WILL: that's
[00:20:49] ROD: The results of this in large quantities. So here's a better one. This is probably my favorite one. It was done by people Baylor College of Medicine and Emory University, two of my favorite universities and [00:21:00] colleges.
[00:21:00] And it was done in Nature Partnering Journal Aging. So that's cool. I dunno if a partnering journey, a journal means you're a lesser quality. Participant. But anyway, in nature, it's in nature. Nature's great nature. So the main researcher, she's an associate professor of cardiovascular research, Louis.
[00:21:16] She says, look, the overwhelming majority of what we know about cyclo, Sabin is how it impacts the brain. Most of the research is on sure, drugs and brain. We're not looking at drugs and kneecap.
[00:21:25] WILL: like
[00:21:25] ROD: yeah. Like, yeah, like this has help you regenerate your ACL but she said, look, our fighting suggests Cyclo side has potent effects on the entire body, including anti-aging properties.
[00:21:36] That's why I'm excited.
[00:21:37] WILL: Okay.
[00:21:37] Anti-aging. So they did a study and they had what they called medium-sized doses of Cyclo Sabin. Poc. That's what I meant.
[00:21:44] It's
[00:21:45] ROD: it is psilocybin Cyclos. That's the enemies in Battlefield Earth. A transformer? No. Oh, is it? Oh yeah. Okay. Oh, they're cyclos. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:21:52] Psilocybin. Anyway, the drug. They tested it on Altice. Come for your pronunciation here.
[00:21:58] WILL: This guy,
[00:21:58] ROD: This guy. This guy. [00:22:00] Pronunciation.
[00:22:00] So they tested it on al mice and then on human cells, some of them feed all lung cells and some adult skin cells. So that's what they tested these mild doses of Magic
[00:22:08] WILL: mushrooms. Magic mushrooms.
[00:22:10] ROD: And what they found was in effect on telomeres.
[00:22:12] What
[00:22:12] WILL: Oh,
[00:22:12] ROD: your telomeres, telomeres and your telomeres are, you know, it's considered a hallmark of aging. So, you know, for people who dunno, they sit at the end. If you've got a girthy telomere, you've, you've got a long time to do. Yeah. You want, and you want long ones. You want long ones too. Because when, when cells divide at the end of the chromosome, you've got your telomeres.
[00:22:27] It's like the little end on the, they often talk about being like the tip on the end of your shoe lace. Yep. And as those get frayed and stuffed or tangled, every time the cell divides, the cell divides, it trims a little bit. It trims a little bit off. Yeah. They get a bit shorter and shorter and eventually they get so short they can't divide and they car it.
[00:22:42] Yeah.
[00:22:43] WILL: Yep.
[00:22:43] ROD: So that's, we'd rather not apparently, but this study seems to show that telomeres shortened more slowly after being given psilocybin than they would have without the tel. Like the, the telomeres do not back off as fast. Okay. So you're literally talking about increasing the lifespan of the cell. How,
[00:22:58] WILL: How,
[00:22:59] ROD: how much [00:23:00] tripping balls, how much do we need to do this?
[00:23:03] Uh, moderate doses, medium level. Like you have to stay on terms the, the whole time. Hope so. Well, it's better though. Like they're not quite saying, okay, here's how much you need to take to live longer. Sure. 'cause, you know, they're scientists. So the big whistles, the research also they showed on the, the mice that are treated with it, they showed improvements in overall fur quality.
[00:23:24] Obviously I just, you know, that's why hippies are always hairier.
[00:23:30] WILL: PhD
[00:23:31] ROD: student has to do the fur quality assessment. Look, sir. Yeah, the hair's gone. It's looking so luscious. You are one lush, older mouse, also showed increased survival skills.
[00:23:39] WILL: Uh, the getting
[00:23:40] ROD: out of the lab, I think is
[00:23:41] WILL: increased
[00:23:42] ROD: survival skills for mouth, no.
[00:23:43] Literally, however, measured the tripping mice increased survival skills.
[00:23:47] WILL: What sort of skills?
[00:23:50] ROD: Survival. Man. Man. Because I feel like, I feel like
[00:23:54] WILL: like
[00:23:54] ROD: you know the, alone, like, it's like Survivor, but it's, it's more real like the TV show. So Survivor, you're all [00:24:00] on island and you play games. Is that where you're naked and you also try to hit on the Cool Chick? 'cause you're a dweeb
[00:24:04] WILL: I, uh,
[00:24:04] ROD: No.
[00:24:05] In a house? No, that's, that's Dating Naked or no. Or
[00:24:08] WILL: Or
[00:24:09] ROD: geeks on the charge.
[00:24:10] WILL: nude
[00:24:11] ROD: island, something like that. But no alone, non molestation. Reality show alone is a TV show that is, the closest to, what is a survivor, this like? So they get dropped off in the wilderness, right?
[00:24:20] They're all, a couple of kilometers from each other and they haven't. Here's some mattress and a loin cloth. You're in the Antarctic. We'll see, in a month take, you can take a limited amount of stuff. Like you can take an ax or a knife and a fishing rod, a chef, a foolish dog, kitchen and house. No,
[00:24:30] WILL: no.
[00:24:31] ROD: no.
[00:24:31] There's limited amount. And then it's like, okay, you gotta see how long.
[00:24:33] WILL: how long
[00:24:33] ROD: You can survive for. Okay. I feel like, an added version where we put half of them on
[00:24:38] WILL: of them on
[00:24:38] ROD: shrimps.
[00:24:39] WILL: and I just,
[00:24:41] ROD: Now I'd watch it. Oh my God.
[00:24:43] WILL: God.
[00:24:43] ROD: if they're mice, they're gonna get lush hair and they're gonna do better.
[00:24:45] WILL: better.
[00:24:47] ROD: sounds like tripping to me.
[00:24:48] You get better at survival maybe 'cause you see more, possibilities.
[00:24:51] WILL: Oh, okay.
[00:24:51] ROD: Oh, okay. You see through space and time. Yeah. Yeah. And you don't get cold 'cause you're furrier if you're a mouse. but of course this research has gone to say, look, look, there's still a lot more to understand. We shouldn't [00:25:00] generalize from a single study.
[00:25:01] Maybe it's a correlational thing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the author does say, look, psilocybin may represent a disruptive agent that promotes healthy aging. The next step they wanna explore therapeutic effects across multiple. Age related diseases. They wanna do that as a next step. I'm prepared to selflessly volunteer.
[00:25:17] WILL: Go
[00:25:17] ROD: on. Because I want the survival skills. Go on. Yeah. I don't care about getting high 'cause that's, I need losers. Do drugs get high in, in like an army disposal shop
[00:25:25] WILL: or
[00:25:25] ROD: or something? Fuck. I love a good army disposal shop though. All opportunities for survival. I feel like I get high when I walk into one of those.
[00:25:31] I'm like, oh look, we could do with that and I could never use this, but I wonder, and this is possible, so good. I go into my post-apocalyptic dream scenarios immediately. Like, oh, I'll get one of these and five of those and then I'd get a gun. Even though I'm against guns. It'd be fantastic. Plus tripping, plus living longer gives me time to enact all these theories.
[00:25:45] Thank you. Science. So sometimes we cover studies here on a little bit of science,
[00:25:51] WILL: uh,
[00:25:51] ROD: for the results, yes. But sometimes we cover them
[00:25:54] WILL: for
[00:25:55] ROD: the fashions. The method. Yeah. The,
[00:25:58] WILL: the,
[00:25:58] ROD: the, the things [00:26:00] that, uh, that
[00:26:00] WILL: that
[00:26:00] ROD: our friends in the sciences might
[00:26:02] WILL: do
[00:26:03] ROD: to inquire into the world now.
[00:26:06] WILL: This,
[00:26:07] ROD: You are all right. He's asking legitimate questions and it tells some interesting ish answers, but I just like the method are, are you gonna contest the way in which these questions were
[00:26:14] WILL: at
[00:26:15] ROD: asked?
[00:26:15] No, I'm not contesting anything here. I'm just Well, so
[00:26:18] WILL: I
[00:26:18] ROD: know you've recently come off about of man flu.
[00:26:21] WILL: I
[00:26:21] ROD: haven't, I did not like it. What level of did not like? Was it like it wasn't the fluke? well. I doubt it 'cause it was quick. Like it was a week, but it was a shit week.
[00:26:29] Super tired, super snotty headaches aching in places that I thought, oh my God, this injury's gotten worse. And then I realized it hadn't gotten worse. It was just impaired by the system around it. I wasn't a happy boy
[00:26:39] WILL: And I,
[00:26:40] ROD: and I had no motivation to be sick. I wasn't missing work or anything, so I had no motivation to be sick.
[00:26:44] Yeah. I wasn't trying to avoid anything. Like, like normal men get man flu. I'm, I'm not even doing anything here. Yeah. I know. This is shooting me off. I actually wanna do stuff that is the worst kind of sickness. So yeah, it wasn't great. I'm just going to, I disen enjoyed I I appreciate your man flu and say, okay, I thank you with you, but I came off the [00:27:00] real thing last year.
[00:27:01] You did, uh, the influenza, you kept us from recording for like seven months or something like that. Yeah, but I keep saying influenza because, you know when people go, ah, you know, yeah. It's like, no, this stuff you can
[00:27:09] WILL: you can
[00:27:10] ROD: actually, yeah. You don't understand why it kills people. It's a brutal disease.
[00:27:13] Like,
[00:27:13] WILL: Like
[00:27:13] ROD: oh, you, you cough like a 9-year-old man with emphysema for like two months. That was even af like
[00:27:18] WILL: was,
[00:27:18] ROD: the whole disease was gone. It scars your lungs so much that
[00:27:20] WILL: you,
[00:27:21] ROD: you, it's basically like road warrior inside your
[00:27:23] lungs.
[00:27:24] WILL: and
[00:27:24] ROD: is, that's desirable. It makes your lungs more efficient, but it's a horrible thing.
[00:27:27] So anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, these researchers said, well, there's more we need to know about influenza and in particular, they're not wrong.
[00:27:33] WILL: how
[00:27:34] ROD: it transmits between people. Like we've always known it goes from people to people. Yes. And we've always, well, we've. Not
[00:27:41] WILL: always,
[00:27:41] ROD: but we've long had a pretty good assumption that it comes out of the coughs and the sneezes.
[00:27:46] The goo goo, the body Goo GOs. Yeah. And, and, and lands on other people. But yes, there's actually been very many studies that have looked at, okay, how does it actually
[00:27:53] WILL: spread
[00:27:54] ROD: this? Hmm. Sorry. I know you're gonna tell me this, but what? It blows my mind. I mean, I remember we covered a story [00:28:00] during, not long after COVID, where the amount of effort that had to go into proving to people that things could, that goo could become small enough to particulate Yes.
[00:28:08] And flow through the air. And it took some kind of physicist said, I'm gonna look at biology. Yeah, yeah. Totally it breaks my brain how, primitive our science of this stuff is. But a lot of it we can go, we're assumption based. It was, it was a big.
[00:28:19] WILL: legitimate
[00:28:20] ROD: debate, you know, how much, how much,
[00:28:21] WILL: you
[00:28:21] ROD: know, early COVID, there's, is it handwashing?
[00:28:24] How much can we stop with good air conditioning? Yeah.
[00:28:26] WILL: good,
[00:28:27] ROD: Good filtering. So there's,
[00:28:28] WILL: or
[00:28:28] ROD: Yeah. So there's a lot of actual questions there. Sure. But the other way around for the flu, there's a bit of me that says. we know
[00:28:34] coffin and sneezing all over someone. Yeah. Is probably,
[00:28:36] WILL: gonna
[00:28:37] ROD: away from the gross shit that's coming outta people's heads.
[00:28:39] Yeah. But anyway
[00:28:40] WILL: re
[00:28:40] ROD: but researchers at the University of Maryland said, well, we actually need to try and understand,
[00:28:45] WILL: you
[00:28:45] ROD: know, what components of how much a person is shedding virus, you know, that's sneezing on people, all the temperature and the humidity of the room, how close people are. Sure.
[00:28:52] WILL: of the room. Sure.
[00:28:52] ROD: So they've got some volunteers.
[00:28:54] To lick Petri dishes? No, not that.
[00:28:56] WILL: Well
[00:28:57] ROD: the human version, [00:29:00] they brought together groups of participants in a hotel room mixing people with active influenza. So people who actively have, did, are you gonna tell me this or did they actually actively infect them? No. They got people that had it from birth?
[00:29:12] Yeah, not from birth. They, got it. I think. You just go around the office at the university and go, you seem, you seem shitty sick. Let's test you.
[00:29:18] WILL: you.
[00:29:18] ROD: Okay. They,
[00:29:18] WILL: They,
[00:29:19] ROD: they were referred, to as donors, and they got some unaffected volunteers and I'm like,
[00:29:23] WILL: ah,
[00:29:24] ROD: to as the suckers, I don't want to volunteer for that.
[00:29:27] Referred to as recipients. sure, I hope they got $9,000 each. And their goal was to see whether flu would spread under conditions designed to favor transmission. Now wow, this could get
[00:29:37] WILL: what they did
[00:29:38] ROD: really quickly. Shove them in a hotel room. Uh,
[00:29:41] they had a couple of different versions of the experiment.
[00:29:43] WILL: Um.
[00:29:43] ROD: all I'm seeing right now is clockwork orange strapped through a chair with the eyes held open and the nostrils fled. They're doing while people go.
[00:29:49] WILL: like,
[00:29:50] ROD: they're sitting in the hotel room playing board games,
[00:29:52] you know, watching TV together. ,
[00:29:53] Spending. Just hanging out. Hanging out in the same room.
[00:29:56] Yeah. And the ways that, you know, diseases spread, hanging out in the same room [00:30:00] windows closed. I see. So one version. There's, one donor with eight recipients and another, there's four donors with three recipients. I'm, I'm a bit scared. Let's, we're gonna put you in a room with four people with the flu.
[00:30:10] Um,
[00:30:11] WILL: I
[00:30:11] ROD: I love this. And you gotta sit in the middle. Donors were aged 20 to 22.
[00:30:16] WILL: This
[00:30:17] ROD: Yeah, they, they covered the full range. This is the full range of university students who wouldn't mind 50 bucks to get the flight and then give it to someone else. I dunno if it was 50 bucks.
[00:30:25] WILL: So
[00:30:25] ROD: I don't mind playing board games.
[00:30:27] I feel like shit. Anyway. 20 to 22. Yeah. Were they first year psych students as well? That's the only thing missing. Uh, the room was kept at temperatures and humidity levels, thought to favor influenza transmission
[00:30:38] WILL: from
[00:30:39] ROD: like 22 to 25. But that's, that's sort of Okay. Reasonable normal room temperatures.
[00:30:42] What's the humidity? Did they tell you? 20 to 45%. They didn't get up to sauna raining sort of situation. Okay, now they did a whole bunch of controlling the situation, you know, when you're going in, making sure that the
[00:30:52] donors and the recipients aren't seeing each other outside.
[00:30:54] The rooms and stuff like that.
[00:30:54] No, you can't cheat on the experiment. I closed off the major uncontrolled airway pathways. Shut the windows. Yes, yes. [00:31:00] Shut the doors. Yeah. And, , a leak in the fan coil units. So, so seal off the fans, the researchers,
[00:31:05] WILL: are
[00:31:06] ROD: and weirdly, everyone's suffocated before we got the results. So they, they're sealing them in the room., How relaxing two to seven days spending hours together.
[00:31:13] So God, I want to, I'm sure they don't tell you this, but the, the protocol around it, like people screaming and banging on the doors, let me out.
[00:31:18] And you're like, no, you signed up for this.
[00:31:19] WILL: it's
[00:31:19] ROD: Zimbardo's in the background going, woo,
[00:31:22] WILL: I
[00:31:22] ROD: imagine Stanford prison. Yeah, exactly. But they've got the flu. Like you, you agreed. They,
[00:31:27] WILL: I,
[00:31:27] ROD: they don't seem to be in there the whole time. It's spending, spending hours together. so, so they could have been subjected to an outside anyway, Karen.
[00:31:34] WILL: to that. Anyway, Karen,
[00:31:34] ROD: they played card games at close range, took part in dance and yoga classes, and passed around a shared object.
[00:31:40] So
[00:31:40] WILL: Such as
[00:31:41] ROD: markers, microphones, or tablet, computer. But it did sound like this. Not like an icy Yeah. Or an ice cream.
[00:31:47] So researchers a, are monitoring the transmission the exhaled air, so they know that there's influenza going in the air. And they're checking the
[00:31:53] WILL: the
[00:31:54] ROD: Okay. So it's circulating. Yeah. And they're testing the shared objects and the broom air for, for, and,
[00:31:57] WILL: and, uh.
[00:31:58] ROD: the participants got [00:32:00] some symptoms.
[00:32:01] Yeah. Coughing, sneezing, headaches. Yes. But, uh,
[00:32:04] WILL: none
[00:32:05] ROD: of them actually tested positive for the flu. Mm. So none got flu,
[00:32:09] WILL: flu,
[00:32:09] ROD: none. Like, so they, they're squeezing people into this room, licking each other's tongues, forcing to live together in a sealed room. And this is the thing that got me. I'm like, none. Wow. None this.
[00:32:20] But, but this is
[00:32:21] WILL: this is
[00:32:21] ROD: heartening.
[00:32:21] You know, my wife and I recently had the flu and our kids didn't get a drop of it. And I sort of blame that on, youth
[00:32:26] WILL: teenagers dis
[00:32:27] ROD: well, youth yes. But also teenagers disappearing into their rooms and not smart. Yeah, yeah.
[00:32:31] WILL: just
[00:32:32] ROD: Protecting themselves.
[00:32:33] WILL: But,
[00:32:33] ROD: it's actually not a guarantee. If you are sitting , in a room with someone with the flu and they're hing and cuffing and blinding, none, um, nothing. Now they reckon it could have been, or maybe they weren't actually sneezing as much as they should. They put, sort of kicked some more coughs outta them.
[00:32:47] Maybe the recipients had some partial immunity or before, you know
[00:32:49] WILL: so.
[00:32:50] ROD: Sure.
[00:32:50] WILL: So there, there was
[00:32:51] ROD: So they didn't do full blood workups and all kind. Right. They've been vaccinated in the past few years. Some had been vaccinated that year. Sure. I think some had had it before, so
[00:32:59] WILL: it,
[00:32:59] ROD: there [00:33:00] wasn't a gap.
[00:33:00] WILL: but that's
[00:33:01] ROD: That's it.
[00:33:01] It's like,
[00:33:02] WILL: you know,
[00:33:03] ROD: you can be safe in this, but I'm not advocating. Yeah. If your colleague has the flu
[00:33:07] WILL: that,
[00:33:08] ROD: lock yourself in a room with her, you should lock, you know, sit there next to him and pass the doobie., no, you should have done that already. That's how you got the flu. But, things might be all right.
[00:33:15] So there you go. And also, oh, we need more, we need more on this though. We, they, they've gotta get deeper on this one. Would you volunteer for that? No.
[00:33:23] WILL: caveat.
[00:33:23] ROD: Oh, no, no, no, no. That's not true. If I already had it, sure. Fuck. Who cares? Oh, you could be the the donor. Absolutely. I love donating.
[00:33:29] WILL: I'll
[00:33:29] ROD: I donate shit all the time.
[00:33:30] You
[00:33:30] WILL: cough
[00:33:31] ROD: cough on other people. For a study, I'm a giver. Imagine that. Would you sit in this room? No. No. Don't put your hand up.
[00:33:36] WILL: I.
[00:33:38] ROD: Where do you want me to put my tissues? Oh, in the middle of the table's. Fine. Throw them at people. Yeah, em, get the tissue. Hide them in their shoes. Touch their faces a lot.
[00:33:45] Affectionately or aggressively. We don't care. I do not want to be a recipient in a, in a donor study on the flu. No, no. But I will donate. There you go. Listen, I'll donate. I got one little type I can't end. A story that had a lot of mushrooms in it, or an [00:34:00] episode without a little mention of sex on mushrooms. So this is from early 24, so a year and a bit ago, published in Nature Scientific Reports, so this is a hundred percent real, a hundred percent guaranteed. Before we get to.
[00:34:10] WILL: to
[00:34:11] ROD: the answer of
[00:34:12] WILL: what
[00:34:12] ROD: shrimps this is magic mushrooms.
[00:34:14] Yeah. This is your, your
[00:34:15] WILL: magic. Mushrooms.
[00:34:15] ROD: psilocybins again. Um, what was the research question that made them say, we need to know?
[00:34:19] WILL: Do
[00:34:20] ROD: people on magic mushrooms have
[00:34:21] WILL: better or
[00:34:22] ROD: or worse sex? I, I mean, you be, you be getting high. How's the root and feel? But is this like, is there a legitimate one where it's like people with sexual dysfunction,
[00:34:30] WILL: like it
[00:34:30] ROD: like it wasn't about sexual dysfunction, but
[00:34:32] at the Imperial College of London Center for Psychedelic Research and that I didn't know even they were curious to see if there are improvements or changes in, in sexual conditions for people who are already taking them for other reasons. They're like, let's look at the sex stuff. Because as a rule, it's only been anecdotal.
[00:34:46] People just sort of say, you know, get trippy and rootings fun unless you're freaking out. And then it's not
[00:34:51] WILL: So
[00:34:51] ROD: So, it's all anecdotal. Get high, get laid, yay. And they went, well, let's be, let's be University College London about this. So they went, all right, we've got a bunch of people who've been taking the mushrooms for [00:35:00] different reasons.
[00:35:00] It could be for depression, it could be for recreational reasons, it could be ceremonial, other kinds of mental health, which is fine. So they got 261 people and they, they said, all right here's a self-report sexual experience questionnaire. And they filled that in once before they took. The mushrooms, and then twice after they'd taken the drugs, it could have just been one-offs.
[00:35:18] So four weeks after they'd taken the trip and six months after, once before, four weeks after, six weeks after, and they said, look, nearly half of the participants who took it, particularly for depression, clinical depression, they said they got increased arousal interest in sex. Which is really unusual 'cause many of 'em were on antidepressants that pull away libido.
[00:35:35] Yeah. And ability to get orgasms. So that's actually quite Oh, that's good. Standout like, yeah, you're feeling depressed and terrible and you're on anti-depression meds. Take some shrooms. You might be more into it.
[00:35:44] WILL: were the,
[00:35:45] ROD: Mushrooms helping with the dere. I mean,
[00:35:46] is this solving the depression and then as the depression is solved,
[00:35:49] WILL: they're,
[00:35:50] ROD: they, it, it can do.
[00:35:50] Yeah. There are,
[00:35:51] WILL: health.
[00:35:51] ROD: study didn't cover it, but there are studies that suggest they're help. It's helpful for depression as well, and you get a bonus effect. Yeah. I've, I've certainly heard, ketamine, [00:36:00] psilocybin both being used as, treatments for, you know, the untreatable depression or, or yeah.
[00:36:05] The,
[00:36:05] WILL: lock,
[00:36:05] ROD: the worst version. Yeah. And all crippling anxieties and, yeah.
[00:36:08] WILL: resistant.
[00:36:09] Yeah.
[00:36:09] ROD: Yep. Yep. So why not find out if you get hard and climax a lot, or get soft and climax a lot? Whatever your proclivities are. Great, I'd said I wouldn't make it too rude. Didn't I say too rude? so they said on average most of the participants, not just the depression ones,
[00:36:23] they, they got multiple facets of increased functioning and arousal.
[00:36:26] So they felt more aroused, more enjoyment, more satisfaction, more attraction.
[00:36:29] WILL: which
[00:36:29] ROD: is interesting and a sense of sexual connection with partners and not just sexual, just connection with partners, which is lovely. And they summarize the most significant improvements were sexual pleasure, improvement, satisfaction with their own appearance, which I think is interesting.
[00:36:43] satisfaction and communication with their partner improved and just they perceived they had a better sexual and spiritual experience when having the Rudy Kills. And also this lasted for up to six months. So you take one trip or equivalent of a treatment and for up to six months you could still be getting this
[00:36:56] WILL: Wow.
[00:36:57] Increase. Wow.
[00:36:58] ROD: Which is nice.
[00:36:59] It's nice if people get [00:37:00] that. Are they, They're not seeing those trip a while there. No. Different mushrooms. Different mushrooms. I don't think they take them to hallucinogenic stage. They might, some treatments might require it. I'm not up on all of it, but you gotta stress, this doesn't talk about sexual function.
[00:37:13] They didn't talk about actual ability to perform. It was perception of sexual performance. So
[00:37:17] WILL: it feels
[00:37:18] ROD: good. It at least feels better even if it's not. Actively. Well, that's lovely. Exactly, exactly. So we dunno for sure, but at the very least, it makes you feel better about sex. And I've gotta say that's, that's basically what drugs do anyway, doesn't it?
[00:37:29] Like you get high and then you have sex, and sex is better.
[00:37:32] WILL: That's
[00:37:32] ROD: great. Thank you. Is that the takeaway? You finally, you've, you've, you've, I've fixed it. You
[00:37:36] WILL: answered the thing
[00:37:37] ROD: drugs and sex tend to go nicely together. Oh my God. But don't feel bad. You can do drugs without having sex, I think is the takeaway. It's okay to just do drugs and probably
[00:37:45] WILL: the
[00:37:45] ROD: other one as well too.
[00:37:47] Just do sex. You can do that
[00:37:48] WILL: that
[00:37:48] ROD: without drugs. Before we go, I should say, because this is a hell of a coincidence. shout out to a listener, Simran. it was real coincidence I was doing all these stories on mushrooms and there were many, many more and she sent us a piece talking about research [00:38:00] being done at the George Institute in Sydney, Australia on cluster headaches.
[00:38:04] And I assume psilocybin, I didn't get a chance 'cause of the last minute nature of throwing this together to talk about it, but I might come back and talk to it. So please keep setting stuff similar and this is awesome. And anyone else have you got stuff? Send it to us.
[00:38:16] WILL: at
[00:38:17] ROD: At an email address. Why don't you know our email address?
[00:38:20] I do. It's at Jesus. At Jesus. Cheers. Cheers. At Jesus. No. Cheers at a little bit of science. A little bit of science com
[00:38:31] WILL: slash
[00:38:31] ROD: Jesus au au. Do we need aau? Cheers at little bit of science.com. Au
[00:38:37] WILL: au
[00:38:38] ROD: don't send it to a different country's version of this show,
[00:38:40] WILL: Which
[00:38:40] ROD: which doesn't exist yet. A little bit of science is a podcast that you have just listened to.
[00:38:43] It is, um, you can give us a rating. Uh, seven, uh, Spotify, other one. Uh, send us money. Yeah.
[00:38:49] WILL: I
[00:38:50] ROD: Donations are good. Gifts of all kinds. We don't actually have facility for that. We should
[00:38:54] WILL: do
[00:38:54] ROD: email us money, then
[00:38:55] WILL: Bitcoin. I don't
[00:38:57] ROD: I don't want your Bitcoin. Uh, well, I'll take it. I'll [00:39:00] invest it for us.
[00:39:01] WILL: Yeah.
[00:39:01] ROD: Yeah. We'll become a hundred.
[00:39:02] Hes, I can turn a billion into a hundred overnight.
[00:39:05]
