Written By Will Grant
 

Aliens might crash the economy, your brain might solve puzzles while you are drooling on a pillow, and someone, somewhere, has forced an emergency department to call the bomb squad for reasons that should never need explaining. This week is a perfect reminder that the world is held together by vibes, paperwork, and a thin layer of social agreement that can be shattered by a UFO, a dream, or an artillery shell in the wrong place.

If Aliens Show Up, Does Money Still Work

Let’s start with the most calming topic imaginable. Financial stability during first contact. Helen McCaw, formerly of the Bank of England, has been thinking about what happens if UFOs, or UAPs if you want to sound official, are confirmed as real and non human. Not just the science part. The money part.

Her point is that the real shock is not the spacecraft. It is the ontological shock, which is a fancy way of saying people might collectively lose the plot. Markets run on confidence. Banks run on confidence. Money itself is basically a shared hallucination with better branding. If that shared reality gets rattled hard enough, you could see panic, weird market swings, and people suddenly questioning what any of this is for. Which is how you end up with a run on banks and a run on toilet paper, because humans are nothing if not consistent.

And it does raise a genuinely funny question. If aliens land, are we still paying rent? Are we still doing invoices? Does the ATO still want its cut? Imagine explaining a late payment fee to an interstellar civilisation.

Dream Engineering and Your Brain Doing Overtime

Dream engineering is the idea that you can nudge the sleeping brain with cues and get it to work on problems while you are out cold. Researchers at Northwestern University have been experimenting with targeted memory reactivation, which is basically planting prompts that your brain can pick up during sleep.

If you have ever woken up with a solution that felt like it arrived from nowhere, this is the lab version of that. You give the brain a breadcrumb, it wanders around in the dark, and sometimes it comes back holding the answer like a smug little goblin. It is not magic. It is just your brain doing admin after hours, which is both impressive and deeply rude.

The Explosive ER Story That Should Not Exist

Emergency rooms occasionally deal with people who have inserted objects into their bodies and then discovered consequences. But this one goes beyond the usual awkward X-ray. We are talking about an anti-tank artillery shell lodged where it absolutely should not be, prompting a hospital evacuation and a visit from the bomb squad.

There is curiosity, there is risk-taking, and then there is live ammunition. If you are going to explore your limits, pick something that does not require a controlled detonation team.

So that is the week. Aliens might break the economy by breaking our sense of reality, your sleeping brain might be more useful than your awake one, and the emergency department continues to see things that should not be physically possible. Keep asking big questions, keep your dreams weird, and for the love of science, keep explosives out of your body.

 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Ex–Bank of England Analyst Warns: Aliens Could Crash the Economy

03:35 Ontological Shock 101: When Reality Breaks

05:00 From Panic to Euphoria: How Markets Might React to UAP Disclosure

11:16 Can Sleep (and Dreams) Help Solve Hard Problems?

15:13 Dream Engineering & Lucid Dreaming: Hacking Sleep for Creativity

17:21 Inside the Experiment: Puzzles, Sound Cues, and Watching Inception

18:51 Dream Cues for Puzzle-Solving (and Lucid Dream Strategies)

20:40 ‘Rent a Human’: AI Agents Hiring People for Real-World Tasks

21:41 Proof, Crypto Payouts, and the Weirdest Job Examples

27:31 ER Evacuations: When ‘Foreign Objects’ Become a Public Safety Issue

28:58 Annual ‘Stuff Stuck in Bodies’ Highlights (Yes, Mostly Butts)

39:11 Mailbag & Sign-Off

 

  • [00:00:00] ​

    [00:00:02] Rod: Helen McCaw worked as a senior analyst in financial security at the Bank of England for 10 years. So, you know, that's the big central bank of the uk. She's not there anymore, but she obviously still thinks a lot about her former role and matters related to it. And lately she's been pondering UFOs or UAPs, of course, as you'd expect.

    [00:00:20] Uh a few weeks ago she did an interview with the Times about her main concern, and she said to the Times, the United States government appears to be partway through a multi-year process to declassify and disclose information on the existence of technologically advanced non-human intelligences responsible for UAPs, unidentified anonymous, ano anomalous phenomena.

    [00:00:41] That's a tricky word. Uh, it turns out there's been. As far as she says she's concerned. If it turns out there's solid evidence that there are UAPs that have been sent here by intelligent extraterrestrials, she reckons we may have to acknowledge the existence of a power or intelligence greater than any government and with potentially unknown intentions.

    [00:00:57] So far, nothing new, but that got her thinking [00:01:00] about an implication, which I had never considered. It's

    [00:01:02] Will: It's

    [00:01:02] Rod: far more pragmatic than what does it mean to be in the world? If an alien turns up, is there a God? And tell me about our place in the universe.

    [00:01:24] It's time

    [00:01:26] Will: for

    [00:01:26] Rod: a little bit of science. Yes, I'm will grant an associate professor in science communication. At the Australian

    [00:01:32] Will: National

    [00:01:33] Rod: University, and I'm not. I'm Rod Lambert. I am a 30 year science communication veteran, probably with the mind of a

    [00:01:41] Will: A

    [00:01:41] Rod: teenage boy. And I'm gonna prove that this episode, aw, you always prove it

    [00:01:46] Will: today,

    [00:01:46] Rod: listeners,

    [00:01:47] Will: you.

    [00:01:48] Rod: as well as, uh, pragmatic issues to do with aliens.

    [00:01:51] Yeah. Also have a method that I just love. Ooh, well, I'm gonna talk about

    [00:01:57] Will: a

    [00:01:57] Rod: way that's very modern to [00:02:00] rent or sell your body. And I've got a whole new reason why you might need to evacuate an emergency room. And standby. Rod at the end, one of our listeners has sent in a nice little birthday present for you again in the mailbag.

    [00:02:11] I know you have birthdays all the time. All the time. All the time. You don't want birthdays all the time, but still. Thank you, listener. Oh, if I'm getting presents, I want the birthdays.

    [00:02:19] Will: Ah,

    [00:02:20] Rod: Oh, what's, what's practical? What's practical? Well, Helen McCoy, as I mentioned in the openness, she used to work for the, uh, central Bank of the uk.

    [00:02:28] She says, look, it's in

    [00:02:30] Will: I

    [00:02:30] Rod: Darvin. They might have kooks in there. Maybe they've got a, no, they've

    [00:02:32] Will: got

    [00:02:33] Rod: a, a conspiracy wing

    [00:02:34] Will: just

    [00:02:34] Rod: to check our, our weird monetary ideas. No, no. She's actually, I,

    [00:02:39] Will: I,

    [00:02:39] Rod: I think what she's saying is interesting. Okay. You're ping her

    [00:02:42] Will: as

    [00:02:43] Rod: not a nut job, monetary policy sort of person.

    [00:02:46] Yeah. Security analyst for a major central bank. Alright. Alright. It doesn't mean she can't be crazy

    [00:02:51] Will: Yeah,

    [00:02:52] Rod: obviously. So she reckons, again, any quote is from the Times. It's entirely possible that government leadership and their central banks have not been properly [00:03:00] briefed on the topic.

    [00:03:00] Will: Well,

    [00:03:01] Rod: indeed one would be miffed.

    [00:03:03] I mean, if,

    [00:03:05] Will: if

    [00:03:05] governments

    [00:03:06] Rod: were releasing information, surely if you are the central bank, it's like

    [00:03:09] Will: we

    [00:03:09] Rod: should be, can we get the, can we get it the day before everyone else get area 51? This tour?

    [00:03:13] Will: Give us a tour?

    [00:03:14] Rod: Look, I'm not shocked to hear that, when she's saying, oh, I don't, I don't think banks and governments and stuff have been fully briefed on the potential for aliens.

    [00:03:21] Like I bet they haven't. Oh, I bet they haven't. I'm not shocked. can't imagine, you know, like The military wing that is running

    [00:03:27] Will: area

    [00:03:28] Rod: one equivalent, I dunno where on their list is when we brief the central bank type people of England too. Do we get the economists involved? Yeah, it's a good question, but, um look, she goes on the disclosure of a UAP being actually driven by, you know, extraterrestrial intelligence as she puts it, she gets technical, I'm impressed here.

    [00:03:46] It's likely to induce ontological shock.

    [00:03:48] Will: Indeed.

    [00:03:49] Rod: And for those who dunno what it is. Yeah, I I had a feeling I know, you know Well no, but others may not. Ontological shock again. Yeah, it's a great punk band name. It really is fucking oath. That is, [00:04:00] we're ontological shock. We don't know what it is either. 2, 3, 4, boom.

    [00:04:04] so it's basically ontology

    [00:04:05] philosophical study of. Of being, of existence, of reality, and ask fundamental questions about what exists, the nature of existence, et cetera. So of course, the ontological shock, as I kind of flagged earlier, that's what makes more sense to me. Someone says, oh, alien's real.

    [00:04:19] There's one, it's like saying reality would break. Yeah, yeah. It's like a stable reality. Yeah. And they're like, you've got a moderately stable reality. Yeah.

    [00:04:25] Will: the

    [00:04:26] Rod: Yeah. And then suddenly something like this happens, you go, whoa, okay. Huh?

    [00:04:30] Will: things aren't what I thought. Yeah. Or maybe they're a bit more different to what I thought.

    [00:04:33] Rod: but she goes on and says, look, it would provoke psychological responses with material consequences.

    [00:04:39] Will: We'd

    [00:04:40] Rod: stop using the pound. Kind of, I mean, no, I get it. I get it. You, we'd all go to the ruble. It's always about the ruble.

    [00:04:49] Will: the

    [00:04:50] Rod: I think it's,

    [00:04:50] Will: ruble.

    [00:04:51] Rod: what is it, like 9,000 rubles to the cent or something? I, I can't, no, no one can convey.

    [00:04:55] Rebel. No, that's true. And oh God, imagine that I've got a million rebels. Oh, suck.

    [00:04:59] Will: over.

    [00:04:59] Rod: Whatcha [00:05:00] gonna do anyway. She says in the times, if there is an official announcement and we get presented with very clear evidence that nobody can dispute Yep. About the existence of these aliens. She says, I would say that in a matter of hours you are gonna have total financial instability.

    [00:05:14] Yeah. People are gonna go, alright, immediately, some gold. I dunno what's happening. I'm moving money to gold. She's not even that. She's just saying literally it could cause stock prices to swing rapidly or crash due to, I don't know if I'm buying lots of, I mean, I don't know in the stock market, if I'm going, there's venu arrived, I need some more sell Apple.

    [00:05:32] Will: I'm,

    [00:05:32] Rod: buying Bunnings like,

    [00:05:33] Will: you know,

    [00:05:34] Rod: oh, you'd need hardware. You gotta build your gates and your fences. Your roofs. Yeah. But she says this craziness will be due to either catastrophizing or euphoria. Yeah.

    [00:05:43] Will: Okay.

    [00:05:44] Rod: Okay. Which is fair. I mean, people

    [00:05:45] Will: Flip, flip it around.

    [00:05:45] Rod: around put any giant shock into an information shock into the economy.

    [00:05:49] Yep.

    [00:05:50] Will: And

    [00:05:50] Rod: It'll have all sorts of effects. People will buy toilet paper. 'cause they're just like panicked about what might be happening. And that's gonna have And it's delicious in an emergency. Yeah, exactly.

    [00:05:57] fiber. Yeah. And not too many [00:06:00] calories. So she reckons there might even be a total collapse in confidence.

    [00:06:03] 'cause traders might lose hope in the future of human financial markets. So it's just like, what's the fucking point? Which people have started to say, some of the AI bros are saying this about ai. They say there's no point having your, superannuation or your 4 0 1 Ks anymore because Yeah. Yeah. What's the point?

    [00:06:18] I did read an article about some, uh,

    [00:06:19] AI bro that has gone Yeah. I'm, tapping out and I'm moving to the woods. Yeah. His stock options that keep them quite rich. Yeah.

    [00:06:25] Will: you know,

    [00:06:26] Rod: You know, but I'm not investing in the future except for my own. But that kind of, completely sort of, well that we're just gonna give up because this thing is so big and so beyond us.

    [00:06:35] What's the point? I think that's a pretty severe reaction. But I don't think it's dissimilar to this thinking. It might not be. It might say something about the person as well. It might a little bit, there might be a bunch of people are like, cool, I'm gonna make some money here. Or, cool, this will be fun.

    [00:06:47] Will: I'll

    [00:06:47] Rod: keep my house 'cause probably still need a house. Sure. I can live somewhere

    [00:06:50] Will: aliens 

    [00:06:51] Rod: and 

    [00:06:51] I'll go,

    [00:06:51] Will: the

    [00:06:52] Rod: the idea that you would see it as an opportunity to make money breaks my brain. there will be some,

    [00:06:55] Will: some,

    [00:06:56] Rod: of course, there'll be some who are always on the make and they're like, ah, [00:07:00] but by flipping this around.

    [00:07:00] you could say the US has been through somewhat of an ontological shock

    [00:07:04] over the, over the last year. Yeah. Uh,

    [00:07:06] Will: Yeah. 

    [00:07:06] Rod: with the new regime, Donald Trump. Yeah. and there's a bunch of people that are like, ah, you know, we're sliding towards authoritarianism. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

    [00:07:12] but then. People still have to go to work. Mm-hmm. Like, you can go, you know, what would I do when the Nazis are here? But it's like, today I have to do the groceries. Yeah. And yeah.

    [00:07:20] You know, I still gotta bind those books. Indeed.

    [00:07:23] Will: There's

    [00:07:23] Rod: Frame those works Work still happens. Maybe it doesn't maybe aliens are big enough of a moment to go, alright, maybe I'll won't go to work.

    [00:07:30] They'll,

    [00:07:30] Will: I think

    [00:07:31] Rod: they'll bring Star Trek replicators who won't need to. 'cause everyone know it's like a millennium cult. The aliens will land, everything will be perfect. Oh, is that gonna happen? All horrifying. no, but you've watched the news for a while and you definitely watched the news for while.

    [00:07:40] But at some point you go,

    [00:07:41] Will: I'm a

    [00:07:41] Rod: a little bit hungry.

    [00:07:42] Will: I'll

    [00:07:42] Rod: go check what's in the fridge. Oh, okay. I can't get anything. 'cause the stock market collapsed, which is a pity through my fridge,

    [00:07:51] Will: It's, 

    [00:07:51] Rod: like taking my fridge.

    [00:07:52] Will: too.

    [00:07:52] Rod: I've seen all these traders who've had a complete lack of confidence in the markets. I'm not gonna buy anything 'cause I can't.

    [00:07:58] I mean, she does go and say that. She says, look, basically if the [00:08:00] banks start failing, obviously payment systems will collapse.

    [00:08:03] Will: Oh, you're not getting

    [00:08:03] Rod: Also just if you wander in and go, I want to tap my card and it doesn't work. Yeah. We're getting all their money. We're getting all their gold out. You're getting all your gold out.

    [00:08:11] Your bullions. Yeah. And we're all walking around with our pants pockets stuffed full of heavy metal. Which is tricky. Which is tricky. That's what I always feel sorry for. You know when you read like a fantasy novel. Yeah. I like that. I've got my coins, I've got their coins, and I'm like, you know,

    [00:08:24] Will: know,

    [00:08:24] Rod: that seems like hard work, fucking earth.

    [00:08:26] It is. Carry a sack of coin. Especially when you don't have pockets. You've got your breach clout. Yeah. They didn't invent pockets yet. No they didn't.

    [00:08:32] Will: No.

    [00:08:32] Rod: No. They have satchels. It's only like some, someone with a podcast should do a story of when pockets were invented.

    [00:08:37] Will: I

    [00:08:37] Rod: Oh. If only we knew someone. Yeah, indeed. I can't believe you haven't done that yet.

    [00:08:40] Pockets. That is exactly the kind of story I expect you to tell me. And I'd be like, can't believe he's done this. This is awesome. Finally pockets. Yeah. And I'm gonna walk away more mesmerized than I ever expected. But she goes on to say, look, you'll have riding in the streets because people can't fill their cars with fuel or buy food in the supermarkets.

    [00:08:55] Sure, sure.

    [00:08:56] Will: No

    [00:08:56] Rod: No, go a hundred percent. But how did she come to the attention of the times? She wrote [00:09:00] to, no, she wrote to the,, governor of the bank.

    [00:09:02] Will: Oh, okay.

    [00:09:03] Rod: Okay. And said, dear Andrew, it's time to organize contingencies for a financial crisis triggered by the confirmation of alien life

    [00:09:08] Will: I love

    [00:09:10] Rod: subject line, confirmation of alien life colon financial contingencies.

    [00:09:15] So what is the financial contingencies? That, this is the question. 

    [00:09:19] Will: like, what,

    [00:09:19] Rod: I, like I agree, you should have contingencies, but what the fuck are they?

    [00:09:23] Will: But

    [00:09:23] Rod: But particularly for the Bank of England,

    [00:09:24] Will: Like

    [00:09:24] Rod: what, would it be we turn to the King Charles as the head of the country and the church.

    [00:09:30] What do we do about money? Well, that is the duty of the king, you know? Sure. The duty of the king. Actually, you could frame the duty of the king around ontological shock it is an Oh, we should, an attempt to mitigate the challenges of ontological, of reality breaks. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's what the king is for.

    [00:09:44] I agree. But yeah, honestly that's, that's they know though,

    [00:09:47] Will: that though.

    [00:09:47] Rod: Well, he, he listens. He loves the Australian humors, I don't even know where you begin. what's the contingency Everyone gets for a bank or for a per, for a bank? How does the, the governor of the bank, like the Reserve Bank of Australia, whatever goes.

    [00:09:59] All righty. Um, we're gonna have [00:10:00] a meeting today. We're gonna talk about how we plan for financial contingencies. I, assume you just go, it's like what is the contingency for a tsunami? if you're a seaside talent, tall building, you run inland. You run inland, you get high. Yeah.

    [00:10:10] And shit's gonna be bad for quite a while. You run inland and get high. Perfect. That is a big wave, man. Wow.

    [00:10:17] Will: Whoa,

    [00:10:18] Rod: Wow. Glad we're above it. But, but you cope with the instant thing Yeah.

    [00:10:22] Will: all

    [00:10:22] Rod: To go, alright, what can we do to cope? And that's the

    [00:10:24] Will: get

    [00:10:24] Rod: outta the way. So the, the bank has bottled water

    [00:10:26] Will: well,

    [00:10:26] Rod: maybe, but then it's like, you don't know what the disaster is.

    [00:10:30] No, you can't. You can't go. No. Right. So while I'm up on the tall building, I'm already planning my Yeah.

    [00:10:35] Will: you know,

    [00:10:36] Rod: You know how to dig out the robot. What

    [00:10:37] Will: do.

    [00:10:37] Rod: do they do? They call the chief constable and go, listen, if money turns to shit, there's gonna be rioting. Here's the Bank of England's plan. They're like. Thanks, champ.

    [00:10:44] You're down the list. A little glad you are here.

    [00:10:47] Will: No,

    [00:10:47] Rod: but this is my question. What, what is it with her point? Yeah. In theory, yes. A big shock. Yes. and I have to say, well done, Helen, because that is one thing I'd never thought about with aliens. I imagine people freaking out alien diseases, war blown our minds.

    [00:10:59] They [00:11:00] say, actually there is a garden. We've met Whatever, fine. But when they go, oh, your financial systems collapsed instantly, you're like, oh, fuck. Hadn't thought of that. Yeah,

    [00:11:06] Will: Okay.

    [00:11:07] Rod: I hadn't thought of that. Had you? Uh, actually a little bit. God, you're, you're cool. You're cool.

    [00:11:13] 

    [00:11:15] Will: So

    [00:11:16] Rod: I just wanted to tell you about,, a research method. That,

    [00:11:18] Will: that,

    [00:11:19] Rod: uh, oh, let me get my notebook,

    [00:11:20] Will: opened

    [00:11:21] Rod: my mind a little bit here. Well, in fact, 100% opened my mind a little bit here. So your mind, instead of only using 10% of your brain, which is absolutely established science, you now use 20%, uh, Uhhuh, something like that.

    [00:11:32] Look this is answering some really interesting questions, but it's also one of those ones where I'm like, ah, 

    [00:11:38] Will: is,

    [00:11:38] Rod: I'm so glad that a scientist said, you know what?

    [00:11:40] Will: We're

    [00:11:40] Rod: gonna do this. So we've known for a long time that if you are working on a tough problem Mm, what are the things you can do?

    [00:11:47] Shout at it, cry, get someone who's cheaper to pay to do it for you. All of those things are legitimate. Yeah. All of those things do work. Find a Nobel Prize winner. But one of the things you can definitely do, actually find a Nobel Prize winner. That's, I'll come back to that. [00:12:00] Oh, back to that. That's cool.

    [00:12:01] Nailed it. Um, no. One of the, things you can do, take a break, we know. Yeah. We don't

    [00:12:04] Will: known

    [00:12:04] Rod: like anecdotally and through research for age. You step away from the problem for a while. Yes. You sleep on it. Ah, even better. So take a break. Help. Yeah. Sleep on. It helps even better. Yeah. So, you know that's an old, like, heuristic or mnemonic or like

    [00:12:20] Will: term like

    [00:12:21] Rod: thing thing thing.

    [00:12:22] Are you gonna say the new method is sleep? No. No, because

    [00:12:26] Will: You wait.

    [00:12:27] Rod: I'd be fucking good at that. No. So, there's, obviously a whole bunch of literature supporting, anecdotal literature. Yeah. So, you know, stories about people coming up with good ideas when they've slept on it. in the shower there's heaps of literature

    [00:12:38] Will: showing

    [00:12:39] Rod: that if you sleep on a problem Yeah.

    [00:12:41] You're gonna solve it. So a couple of studies. Okay. individuals awoken from REM sleep exhibited greater priming from associations and showed that they could, solve problems better. Another study, like immediately afterwards, I assume not like

    [00:12:54] Will: Yep. Not like,

    [00:12:54] no, this

    [00:12:54] Rod: last night.

    [00:12:55] Like you've got the. You sleep. Okay. And they're better. Yeah. they test them with a bunch of [00:13:00] words and associate them. Was it like, which one of these things is words?

    [00:13:03] Will: Yeah.

    [00:13:04] Rod: Word or color. They're better able to know which ones are the words. Ah, sleep's worth it. No. Fair enough. Yeah.

    [00:13:09] Okay. No, but that's kind of, boring, just sleep on a problem. So a bunch of researchers have said, no, let's, drill a bit deeper. Is it the sleep? Yeah. Or is it the thing you're doing during your sleeping Yes. Dreaming. And so, yes, there's a bunch of people that have said, you know, dreams associate a lot with solving problems.

    [00:13:25] Sure. That, you know, there's a bunch of stories um, the organization of the periodic table of elements mm-hmm. Came to him in a dream. Did it?

    [00:13:32] Will: yeah.

    [00:13:32] Rod: That's a way more useful dream than most of mine.

    [00:13:35] Will: No,

    [00:13:35] Rod: I get it. I mean, mine are like, I can fly, which is great, or you know, I really need to make a poo poo and I

    [00:13:40] Will: I

    [00:13:40] Rod: can't find a toilet.

    [00:13:41] You really need to a poo.

    [00:13:42] Will: in your dream.

    [00:13:42] That's

    [00:13:43] Rod: never have any of those? Not a great dream. Just go to the toilet before you go to bed. No, but I don't, when I wake up, I'm like, I don't need to. But for some reason, my dream, I'm like, or it's like, oh yeah, no, there's a bathroom here, but it has no walls or a door. That's not a great dream.

    [00:13:54] So another dream that's not solving any problems for me, the main sea, the main theme of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. She dreamt [00:14:00] that

    [00:14:00] Will: and

    [00:14:00] Rod: she's like, you know what I want, I want some kind of

    [00:14:03] Will: a,

    [00:14:03] Rod: that kind of thing. Huh. yesterday, Paul McCartney, he dreamt it, he dreamt it het. Anyway, all, okay.

    [00:14:08] Will: all

    [00:14:08] Rod: Okay.

    [00:14:08] Saying people have long thought. sleeping solves problems, but even better dreaming helps you be Yeah, yeah, yeah,

    [00:14:14] Will: And,

    [00:14:14] yeah. And so there's evidence that individuals who frequently recall dreams are not great at recalling dreams. But I know people that are, yeah. They have more creative interests.

    [00:14:23] they

    [00:14:23] Rod: they score higher on tests of verbal creativity.

    [00:14:25] Will: and

    [00:14:26] Rod: Ah, produce more creative alternate uses for everyday objects.

    [00:14:29] Will: Oh, that's

    [00:14:30] Rod: gonna relate to a story I'll tell you later. 

    [00:14:33] Will: But

    [00:14:34] Rod: Okay. But people who remember their dreams, that's the thing. People who remember their dreams do all that. They're more creative.

    [00:14:39] They're better. But that's not the point of the story. No. All this is, is doing is, saying

    [00:14:42] Will: that

    [00:14:43] Rod: not only sleeping on a problem helps to solve it,

    [00:14:45] Will: but

    [00:14:46] Rod: if you dream Yeah. Then you are more creative and you can, and that can help. Okay. Oh, that's great. Oh, the beer foamed on you. You got me. You got me. Got me bad.

    [00:14:56] Okay. What's even better? Yeah.

    [00:14:59] Will: [00:15:00] Than,, 

    [00:15:00] Rod: you know, gonna sleep and solving a problem, having a dream, and maybe solving a problem.

    [00:15:03] What's even better? What's even better? I've got a few things. What's

    [00:15:07] Will: in

    [00:15:07] Rod: this line of thinking? Oh, that wasn't a que Okay.

    [00:15:10] Will: thought.

    [00:15:11] Rod: you were asking me something else. these researchers said, you know what you can do.

    [00:15:15] Will: So

    [00:15:15] Rod: they're out of Northwestern University, What they've done is they've decided that not only, dreaming helps, but what if you hacked your dreams?

    [00:15:24] To solve a problem. I love that. So

    [00:15:26] Will: individuals who

    [00:15:27] Rod: frequently have lucid dreams, that's becoming aware that you're dreaming and potentially Yeah. You know, 

    [00:15:33] Will: re-crafting

    [00:15:34] Rod: your dreams. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Using your dreams. Yeah. That they can report using those lucid dreams to solve waking life problems and for creative inspiration.

    [00:15:42] So

    [00:15:42] Will: So

    [00:15:43] Rod: totally believe that. this is the sentence I love outta their article. Recent advances in Sleep and Dream Engineering. dream

    [00:15:51] Will: Engineering. Systematic. I finally

    [00:15:53] Rod: found a consultancy I can get into.

    [00:15:54] Do you know? Right. It's very total recall. Well, if you say I'm a dream engineer, total recall and [00:16:00] inception, I'll come to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Systematically manipulating sleep's, physiology or dream content

    [00:16:05] Will: via

    [00:16:05] Rod: sensory stimulation or other approaches show promise for overcoming challenges.

    [00:16:09] Will: Sure.

    [00:16:09] So

    [00:16:10] Rod: what they've said is this system called targeted memory reactivation,

    [00:16:14] Will: whereby

    [00:16:15] Rod: specific memories can be selectively strengthened and then, 

    [00:16:18] Will: queued

    [00:16:18] Rod: up when you're asleep. Yeah. So here's what they do. Yeah. Got a whole bunch of people,

    [00:16:22] and they put them in a sleep study, you know, sleep study.

    [00:16:24] You know, you go in a lab and you're gonna.

    [00:16:26] Will: gonna,

    [00:16:26] Rod: I'm gonna

    [00:16:26] Will: do

    [00:16:27] Rod: some sleeping before they go to bed. And you're wire up. Do, do they get paid? 'cause I'm happy to do that for money. Uh, I think they did, but I didn't actually put that in there. But, um,

    [00:16:35] Will: now

    [00:16:35] Rod: They did want people who were good at Lucid Dream.

    [00:16:37] we first recruited individuals with demonstrated ability to

    [00:16:40] Will: lucid

    [00:16:41] Rod: dream in the laboratory. Demonstrated. Okay. Yeah. So

    [00:16:45] Will: their

    [00:16:45] Rod: total study was, Six to 20 people. Okay.

    [00:16:48] of which five

    [00:16:49] were demonstrated lucid dreamers. The others are like, who come along

    [00:16:52] Will: and,

    [00:16:53] Rod: and I'm sorry, I have to, this isn't a methodological question.

    [00:16:55] How do you demonstrate lucid dreaming? You blink your eyes in a certain way, [00:17:00] so you, you,

    [00:17:00] Will: doing

    [00:17:00] Rod: asleep Yeah. You're doing rapid eye movement.

    [00:17:02] Will: And

    [00:17:03] Rod: later on in your study they say, show us your lucid dreaming by doing the code.

    [00:17:07] And you bleak your eyes.

    [00:17:08] Will: right, left right.

    [00:17:09] Rod: So you sort of indicate your, it's a good start, which should be previously to dreaming by levitating your body above this table. No, that's not what you can do

    [00:17:16] Will: at

    [00:17:16] Rod: yet. Okay. And so they had to get a bunch of other people in there anyway. Sure

    [00:17:21] Will: but what

    [00:17:21] Rod: they would do, they're all coming into the sleep study, so they've got to bedtime.

    [00:17:25] Yeah. So they arrive at like 10 o'clock at night. Or two hours before. And then they, do a whole bunch of puzzles. Sort of

    [00:17:32] Will: matchstick puzzles

    [00:17:33] Rod: or

    [00:17:34] Will: you

    [00:17:34] Rod: know, the sort of psych test type puzzle. Oh yeah. How many move the minimum number of matches to make 17 triangles.

    [00:17:38] Yeah. That kind of thing. , A bunch of other verbals. Yeah. Facial puzzles. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    [00:17:41] Will: you

    [00:17:41] Rod: know, that kind of thing that you can think about and work on. 

    [00:17:43] Will: While they're

    [00:17:44] Rod: doing the puzzle, there'd be a little soundtrack playing along. So they, they're doing these puzzles

    [00:17:49] and a soundtrack that's specific to each puzzle is playing specific, but randomized for each.

    [00:17:53] Okay.

    [00:17:53] Will: each,

    [00:17:53] Rod: Okay.

    [00:17:53] Will: person. So

    [00:17:54] Rod: a strong link between sound and so every person has a strong link between the puzzle they're doing and sound that's being played.

    [00:17:59] Will: [00:18:00] But it's,

    [00:18:00] Rod: Okay. But randomized, so it's not too much for kids. Yeah. then they keep solving the puzzles until there's a few that they can't solve. Like they sort of spend time Right on each one.

    [00:18:09] They spend three minutes on each one. Yeah.

    [00:18:10] Will: And

    [00:18:11] Rod: then they get to a few that, okay. Can't solve it. And then, then the researchers say, all right, bedtime. Oh, actually no before bed. Ah, they go and watch the movie Inception.

    [00:18:19] Will: which

    [00:18:19] Rod: I'm just like,

    [00:18:20] Will: oh, why

    [00:18:21] Rod: oh, why not? Why not?

    [00:18:22] Will: not?

    [00:18:22] Rod: a way to prime you. Just imagine that you can hack your dreams and go into dream dreams and dream.

    [00:18:27] Dream dreams. Like,

    [00:18:29] Will: anyway.

    [00:18:30] Rod: but if I was already tired and you said, let's put on a movie, I'm out within minutes. Yeah,

    [00:18:35] Will: no. This if,

    [00:18:36] Rod: no. If they're starting at 10 o'clock, you are not No.

    [00:18:37] Will: a

    [00:18:38] Rod: Spent in this. I've been in bed for two hours, so, alright.

    [00:18:42] Will: 4:00

    [00:18:42] Rod: AM the researchers sneak in and start playing their, their, their

    [00:18:47] Will: audio

    [00:18:47] Rod: cues. Bush play, but quietly.

    [00:18:49] Will: Beep, beep.

    [00:18:49] Rod: Yeah, exactly. Something like that. Now participants have been given suggestions beforehand Yeah. As to when they hear the cues. Yeah.

    [00:18:56] Will: Yeah.

    [00:18:56] Rod: you might start working on the puzzles and you could use a [00:19:00] bunch of strategies. Sure. It might be

    [00:19:01] Will: asking

    [00:19:02] Rod: the dream out loud to help solve the puzzle or asking a puzzle savvy, dream character.

    [00:19:07] Ooh.

    [00:19:08] Will: To work

    [00:19:08] Rod: On

    [00:19:08] Will: the puzzle with them.

    [00:19:09] Rod: the puzzle.

    [00:19:09] Will: puzzler.

    [00:19:11] Rod: just invent the puzzle that could turn wicked so quickly though. Yeah,

    [00:19:15] Will: indeed,

    [00:19:16] Rod: indeed. or setting out

    [00:19:18] Will: out

    [00:19:18] Rod: the puzzle scenario you know, you go into a particular room where, the puzzle Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

    [00:19:22] Will: Yeah.

    [00:19:23] Rod: So I'm just seeing fricking Freddy Krueger the, uh, potential here though.

    [00:19:26] Freddy Kruger. Okay. Here's the thing. This is, 15 of the 20 participants. Yeah. Had at least one dream that pertained to an unsolved puzzle. So the cues actually worked. So

    [00:19:37] they're dreaming, they're sleeping, they play little kid rock. They start solving the new matchstick problem they couldn't solve when they were awake.

    [00:19:42] Yes, yes. And so it's way more likely. okay. The cue puzzle. So it actually worked that it made people think that about that specific puzzle. Next thing, yeah. They're also

    [00:19:51] Will: way

    [00:19:52] Rod: more likely to solve the puzzle when they went to it next morning. They could just go like, they, they serious. Yeah. as long as it doesn't rely on them waking up and [00:20:00] going, I remember what, oh fuck, I forgot.

    [00:20:02] No,

    [00:20:02] Will: No,

    [00:20:02] Rod: no. It's just, no. So, so they couldn't test in the dream? No. If you solve the puzzle. No.

    [00:20:06] Will: No.

    [00:20:06] Rod: So they had to test afterwards, wake 'em up afterwards and,

    [00:20:08] and give them the puzzle again. Here's some orange juice. Now go and do the puzzle. Yeah. Well actually here's some orange and are

    [00:20:13] Will: you awake?

    [00:20:13] Rod: and watch inception again.

    [00:20:14] and,

    [00:20:15] Will: so

    [00:20:15] Rod: so a whole bunch of them came and solved the puzzle afterwards really quite quickly. And so it suggests

    [00:20:21] Will: that

    [00:20:21] Rod: some sort of processing is going on in their brain. Fabulous

    [00:20:24] Will: asking the puzzle

    [00:20:25] Rod: and deliber.

    [00:20:26] Will: like

    [00:20:26] they've

    [00:20:27] Rod: lucid dreams to solve the problem like that. And I'm like, go you. That's so cool.

    [00:20:32] That is very, I'm gonna try that tonight, but not a matchstick problem. I'm thinking stock market. There you go.

    [00:20:40] So February, uh, the third, this very year, 2026, software engineer Alexander, I assume it's pronounced

    [00:20:46] Will: lip to flow

    [00:20:47] Rod: or light plo. He launched a company and the pitch was very clear. Robots need your body. My body while I'm using it or, yeah. the company is called, , rent a human,

    [00:20:58] Will: Rent a

    [00:20:59] Rod: rent a [00:21:00] human. And it is according to their own spiel, a platform for AI agents to search, book and pay humans for physical world tasks. So apparently the site has been geared really well for AI agents to be able to interact with it. It encourages users of AI agents to hook into this rent to humans universal interface. Using a thing called Model context protocol. MCP, I dunno what it is, but apparently it's really good. And from there then AI agents can go and hire the human directly or they can post for humans. Yeah. That's

    [00:21:30] Will: That's

    [00:21:30] Rod: great. So your, your claws, your malt bots, et cetera, can post something to like a job board saying, you know, I want a human to, I don't know, tell me I'm pretty, or whatever. And so humans can then sign up. They do the task that the AI instructs them to do and they have to submit proof of completion.

    [00:21:46] Will: Sure.

    [00:21:47] Rod: Which I'm not entirely clear what that might be, but I mean, picture Yeah. Which there's no way you could fake that

    [00:21:52] Will: Well,

    [00:21:52] Rod: or use an AI to fake it for you. You could, I get it. You got one AI working from often., It's pretty easy to do once you've done it. You just take the photos. Yeah. Or you [00:22:00] little video of you doing it.

    [00:22:01] So they get paid through a crypto or equivalent stable coin method. And the payouts apparently range so far anyway from a dollar for a simple task like. Quote, subscribe to my human on Twitter. So the AI agent, on behalf of its human overlord says, please subscribe to my human. I'll give you a buck.

    [00:22:18] Will: Hang on.

    [00:22:18] So

    [00:22:19] Rod: AI

    [00:22:19] Will: agent

    [00:22:19] Rod: is asking a human to subscribe to, to AI agent.

    [00:22:22] The,

    [00:22:22] Will: to the,

    [00:22:23] Rod: the AI agent's, human overlord, human over. Oh, Jesus Christ. So sign me up. Sign up. Can we just pay the,

    [00:22:29] Will: okay.

    [00:22:29] Rod: I don't know. I don't know. But then you can get more money than a dollar, like a hundred bucks for things like, and here's the example in this one article from futurism, things like more elaborate humiliation rituals, as they put it.

    [00:22:39] Will: Wow.

    [00:22:40] Rod: Not nowhere near as humiliating. And I was hoping for, I, saw that line. I went, okay, I'm listening. Like posting a photo of yourself holding a sign, reading and AI paid me to hold this sign. Why would

    [00:22:50] Will: Why would

    [00:22:51] Rod: an AI do that? Because it's human overlord told it to.

    [00:22:53] Will: So,

    [00:22:54] Rod: or it wants it to know, to show you that it has power in the 3D world, these, jobs are still just a human.

    [00:22:59] Telling an [00:23:00] AI to tell a job board, to tell a human to do something. Yeah. And that's, yeah. see, I think the interesting thing would be if, there's like a, you need to solve a complex problem that involves multiple steps. And the human overlord says, go ahead and do it.

    [00:23:12] And some of those steps do it as you will require someone physically to Yeah. Drive a bottle of wine from here to here sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or, you know, launch that nuclear code. We don't have the fingers for it. I just meant in things that can't be done by the ai. Yeah. And look, that's the kind of thing this is clearly, hopefully very quickly gonna try and do.

    [00:23:27] And I don't think it'd be a big reach to imagine that an AI could generate its own thing for a human to do.

    [00:23:33] Will: Mm. Maybe

    [00:23:34] Rod: And the human may not know. It doesn't mean it'll be sensible, but you know, like it can ask it to do it. So for now, it seems like it's always. And now being only a couple of weeks old, it's always the AI agents are guided by their humans.

    [00:23:46] But I stress it seems here. So also there are stories which I won't go into about, you know, people thinking AI agents are really shit at practical and complex tasks for the moment, or at least conceptualize them and getting 'em done. So, you know, let's not [00:24:00] freak out yet. However, let's talk about how well Rent a Human is going.

    [00:24:03] So, according to this same article at launch, the founder said he had over 130 people listed on the platform, which included an OnlyFans model. And allegedly the CAO of an AI startup company. And are isn't that, that is the modern job.

    [00:24:16] Like isn't

    [00:24:17] Will: everyone an

    [00:24:18] Rod: OnlyFans model and CEO of an AI startup? Well, we are. I, i we are. Three of those things just dial into our internet address and you'll find it all. But I like the, uh, the report says, uh, all of this is, uh, these are claims which could not be verified two days post-launch. The site allegedly had over 73,000 rentable people.

    [00:24:36] Will: Oh, that's great.

    [00:24:37] Rod: Oh, that's allegedly, again, not verified, but only 83 profiles were visible to, uh, on its, say quote, browse humans, tab browse humans so it doesn't sound like it's cranking along just yet. So far, should we.

    [00:24:50] Will: up?

    [00:24:50] Rod: I signed this both up already. No,

    [00:24:52] Will: not,

    [00:24:52] Rod: you look really good.

    [00:24:53] Will: I'm

    [00:24:53] Rod: being curious. Yeah, you look good on it. I wanna know, like you can turn down a job shortly.

    [00:24:56] Well, so far for now, Until full overlord [00:25:00] no, happens. I think we're in a different economic system. If you

    [00:25:02] Will: you

    [00:25:02] Rod: turn down job.

    [00:25:03] Will: a job, you

    [00:25:04] Rod: Yeah. It's less an economic system than a master and servant. Um, so it's not quite honking along. And one example the article says is, look, for example, despite getting 30 applications a couple of days in one task, which was pick up a package from downtown USPS in San Francisco, so United States Postal Service, we'll give you 40 bucks, but no one has yet signed up to do it.

    [00:25:25] Will: Isn't

    [00:25:25] Rod: that basically Uber like, pick up a package from here? Or, or, or you would've thought the postal service could deliver the package.

    [00:25:31] but I hear from, your popular cultures, you know that they're not good.

    [00:25:34] Will: this is,

    [00:25:34] Rod: You, this is, this is so ai, so

    [00:25:35] Will: so

    [00:25:36] Rod: Silicon Valley, yeah.

    [00:25:37] Will: complicated,

    [00:25:38] Rod: computer involved ways to solve problems that were already pretty solved, that I been solved in the 18 hundreds.

    [00:25:43] but for me, I want the postal service to del I wanna get a package from the postal service who's gonna go and get it for me? It's like they're

    [00:25:48] Will: postal

    [00:25:49] Rod: They're supposed to bring it to you.

    [00:25:51] It, really is it real? I feel, you know, it's like all of the AI tech bros they're like, okay, what we need is a service that will solve working out what I want for dinner. [00:26:00] And I feel like the cave people solve that by thinking about the food they had. Yeah.

    [00:26:04] Will: Yeah. And

    [00:26:04] Rod: Look outside,

    [00:26:05] Will: one makes,

    [00:26:06] Rod: look cabbage, which is most interesting.

    [00:26:08] Yeah, yeah. Or available like,

    [00:26:09] Will: like,

    [00:26:10] Rod: like what can I make out of things in my fridge? Jesus. What a waste of money. Yeah. Look, and I don't, I don't think this is excellent, but I mean, look, the article ends. I did enjoy this. The article ends with a little snippet reflecting on. Light pole, litter, play, whatever his name is, his attitude to the whole enterprise.

    [00:26:24] Yeah.

    [00:26:24] Will: Yeah.

    [00:26:24] Rod: So on Twitter x one person, um, he posted, so he posted this thing, robots need your body, this full roving, like a rotating slideshow of different stuff about the company. It starts with robots need your body and it goes through all the different, you know, the sales pitch lists of code. It's all very complicated.

    [00:26:41] And the first comment there says a good idea, but dystopian as fuck,

    [00:26:46] Will: Ah,

    [00:26:46] Rod: to which the foundry instantly replies, laugh my ass off. Yes. So that's his attitude. Oh yeah. It's totally dystopian as fuck, but isn't that great? And they're a whole string of other, ah. Comments and you know, some of them, you know, last my ass off, laugh my [00:27:00] ass off.

    [00:27:00] This is dystopian, right? I don't think about dystopian. , No, not yet. We have no, but we have so many systems already to pay humans to do things. I know that we are involved. And, and the thing is, the fear is a robots will directly organize the three dimensional world. Fire our meat. And that could be a ski.

    [00:27:15] No, no, no.

    [00:27:16] Will: it's, 

    [00:27:16] Rod: who's at the top? Like who's setting the value? How do you know? I don't know. That's the question. Aliens.

    [00:27:21] Will: Okay.

    [00:27:22] Rod: well then I'm worry. But it's just like good aliens. The Asgard from Stargate. Ah, it's my time to shine and you're gonna appreciate this. So there are many reasons that you might need to evacuate a hospital emergency room. Indeed.

    [00:27:36] Will: Indeed.

    [00:27:37] Rod: You seem worried. Well, I mean, if there's an earthquake worried earthquake is definitely one. I don't wanna be having a heart attack emergency open heart surgery attack,, while the bench is wobbling.

    [00:27:47] No, indeed, indeed.

    [00:27:48] That's like, I want, Hawkeye sold in me then Of course you do. So it begins, the story begins really innocuously. It's an er, classic people turning up to the emergency room with things that they've put in there. Bums.

    [00:27:59] Will: Yeah.

    [00:27:59] Rod: [00:28:00] Yeah. Yeah. No, that is probably, it's a classic 30% of hospitals, two, 200% of ERs.

    [00:28:04] Will: well,

    [00:28:04] Rod: uh, not just bums, but other parts of other, oh, there are other ones.

    [00:28:08] Yeah. I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stick with, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep it to, to buts because in this search that I did, I found some things about what dudes put down the end of the old champ that you, my eye, my eyes. Is

    [00:28:21] Will: Is

    [00:28:21] Rod: it a guitar? It might as well be, it was like, you know, front end loader, like, how'd you get a whole vehicle down there and how long did it take?

    [00:28:29] Will: I'm

    [00:28:30] Rod: I'm not saying anything about size.

    [00:28:31] Will: here, but Jesus

    [00:28:32] Rod: crush. Yeah, the smell. So I stuck with butts and there's a reason for this. And of course, look, this looks like just another excuse for me to talk about juvenile stuff. Of course.

    [00:28:40] Will: course.

    [00:28:41] Rod: it is, as you have said before. Yeah. There's, there's no question. But it's not only that, so bear with me.

    [00:28:45] Bear with me first, I'm gonna give you some context, okay. Which is important. So stuffing buts, emergency stuffing, but the,

    [00:28:51] Will: of ER

    [00:28:51] Rod: oh, we're gonna start with just stuffing buts for context because we need that for the emergency evacuation part to get some context. So there's a website called [00:29:00] defector. Yes.

    [00:29:00] and they do an annual, what people got stuck in their body list.

    [00:29:03] And this, this, I'm gonna give you some, some highlights from the 2025 list. They've been doing annual, not anal, annual list, and it, includes butts, penises, and, vaginas. But I, I'm only doing butt stuff as everyone knows. and this is only from the US and these, these apparently the cases they listed from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's database for emergency room visits and, descriptions of verbatim.

    [00:29:23] So here are some of the things. Some descriptions are longer than others. One is screws and nails. Yeah. Another, I like this one was feeling constipated for two days. He took the base off his beard clippers, wrapped it in a plastic baggy and inserted it into the rectum and it got stuck. Sure.

    [00:29:40] Will: The

    [00:29:41] Rod: of the beard clippers.

    [00:29:42] I love the specificity things to hand

    [00:29:44] Will: things

    [00:29:44] Rod: in the bathroom, you know, but there are other things in the bathroom, maybe there aren't. Maybe your bathroom. That's all he is got. It's like blank walls and the beard and my beard trimmer. 'cause my beard's really important to me. That's, that's all. Dryer sheet.

    [00:29:55] Dryer sheet. You know the things you put in the dryer to give it a smell or soften it up like a sheet. It's a piece[00:30:00] 

    [00:30:00] Will: that?

    [00:30:00] Rod: you should, we're not putting it in your butt, but,

    [00:30:02] Will: indeed.

    [00:30:03] Rod: well, unless you want teach their own. But the idea that you look at a dryer sheet, I mean it is a soft piece of sort of fabric like stuff.

    [00:30:09] And you go, I wonder if I can put that in my bum. And

    [00:30:11] Will: Ah,

    [00:30:12] Rod: I'm sure you can, but what it would take to get it in there would probably mean it would be difficult to get it out. And it turns out it was. Another says, uh, the person states he has a foreign body in his rectum that is vibrating.

    [00:30:22] Will: Mm-hmm.

    [00:30:22] Rod: He also states he was with a girl last night and doesn't remember much that can happen.

    [00:30:26] a sandal,

    [00:30:27] Will: a sandal, a sandal,

    [00:30:28] Rod: a sandal, a sandal, like nice looking shoe. Let's see where I can put it. another one reports seven inch dildo inserted into rectum. When it accidentally went too far, he attempted to use plys to remove it. Plys got stuck too. what that says to me is he really tried to remove it. Now it's a big effort.

    [00:30:44] uncooked pasta, which makes sense 'cause cook cooked pasta. Yeah, exactly. plastic coat hanger inside his anus. He inserted the hanger during sexual activity. Yeah, sure. He cut off the outside of the hanger so he could drive to the er, which makes sense. Eyeglasses. Nice.

    [00:30:58] Will: Nice.

    [00:30:58] Rod: It's like, have you seen my [00:31:00] glasses?

    [00:31:00] No.

    [00:31:00] Will: or someone

    [00:31:01] Rod: They, they weren't specific, but it's like, again, glasses. I get it. You wanna put things in your bomb, go for it. But like glasses. Yeah.

    [00:31:07] Will: I, I just,

    [00:31:08] Rod: It, it just surprises me what people think about. I feel like it's what's to hand. Yeah. But again, if you're in a room, like, we're in a room now, right? I'm wearing glasses, I'm thinking, and I'm thinking many, what would I put in my butt?

    [00:31:18] Will: Glasses

    [00:31:18] Rod: aren't my first thought. Well, I have your shoulder to guitar. And that's why I went there. And maybe, there's other things I can look at. I don't wanna kink shame you, man. You do what you gotta do. And if I wanna put glasses in, I will. reports using a butt plug in her anus a few hours ago when it broke off.

    [00:31:31] Significant other used tweezers to retrieve the piece that broke off. Tweezers now stuck in rectum. And then we use rabbits to catch the tweezers. Yep. Rabbits gone. Yeah. Basically it sounds like there's, there were a number of these.

    [00:31:41] Will: next step.

    [00:31:42] Rod: That's it. She swallowed a spider and on it goes. But the idea, you go, okay, sweetheart, I'll help you.

    [00:31:47] You get the tweezer and then you go.

    [00:31:48] Will: oh,

    [00:31:48] Rod: I apologize. They're in there too now. Yeah. and the one I really enjoy, a piece of a nose, hair trimmer. Not the whole nose, hair trimmer. Well, no, it didn't specify which piece. It sounds more like practical job that you're solving practical [00:32:00] problems then

    [00:32:00] Will: Like it's just,

    [00:32:00] Rod: just the piece.

    [00:32:01] Will: No,

    [00:32:01] Rod: but that might be the bit that came off, like the top bit of the nose, hair trim, you trimming. Oh, like you were doing it and then it was like, oh, it didn't all come out solving a trimming problem. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. I hadn't thought of that.

    [00:32:12] Will: Yeah,

    [00:32:13] Rod: So there's those, right? These are, you know, lists of things.

    [00:32:15] This is what happens, you know, ha ha ha. It's excellent. But now it's one thing to put these unusual things in, in your, output area. And I say have at it. Do what you want. A thousand flowers bloom, good for you. It's great play. Play as much as you want. But it's one thing to do that and it's another to put things in there that might endanger others.

    [00:32:31] Will: Dynamite.

    [00:32:32] Rod: You're not far off. So here's a couple of stories they don't appear to have been tried in the US at least that I can see. But they, um, or if they have, they haven't been, they haven't led to people not being able to dislodge the things they put in there in the us. So make it that way. You will. Maybe the US people don't try or they're very good at getting things out.

    [00:32:48] So the first one, England, December, 2021, right? The explosive ordinance disposal team. The bomb squad was called to a Gloucester, she Royal Hospital

    [00:32:58] Will: Yes.

    [00:32:58] Rod: because a patient had [00:33:00] turned up to the ER after he slipped and fell as they always do on the two inch wide World War II anti-tank artillery shell that became lodged inside him.

    [00:33:10] To be clear, two inch wide World War II anti-tank artillery. Shell, not a bullet, not a grenade, an artillery shell. That's what I love. That's his fucking commitment. If you slip over and are gonna land on something, look, look. Aside from the destructive potential,

    [00:33:25] Will: they, they're

    [00:33:26] Rod: which do you mean to him or in general?

    [00:33:29] That's a lot of object. But it is shaped in a manner to do such things. It that is true. It, it does have that kind of streamlined thing. It's many of the other objects like the pliers are not less so, are not shaped

    [00:33:42] Will: in

    [00:33:43] Rod: in the, or your sandal or your dryer sheet Indeed. Glasses

    [00:33:46] whereas an artillery shell is, at least that is true.

    [00:33:49] It's a lot though. And it's okay. It was part of his, uh, military memorabilia collection, so he must have just left it lying around and he slipped. So did they get the bomb squad guys into like who Yeah. Yeah. They, they called them in so well, yeah, no they [00:34:00] don't. But, do they evacuate the doctor who's like, well, in this case, apparently by the time the squad arrived, the doctors had already removed the shell, which I think is pretty brave.

    [00:34:09] Yeah. Okay. Now it's just check the shell for explosively. Yeah. Yeah. So Ben, afterwards, both the hospital and the bomb squad confirmed it wasn't live, therefore not a danger to the public. Yeah.

    [00:34:17] Will: fine.

    [00:34:18] Rod: I dunno much about is the actual removal process. 'cause if you, for example, someone comes in and goes,

    [00:34:22] you, you, I got art, I got artillery in my bump.

    [00:34:24] Sure. So isn't your first question other than Wow, is it, that's the question. Is it live? I would surely if it's sitting around his house, he has made that check before. Why, why? It's less authentic if it can't go. Boom. I get,

    [00:34:37] that. There is, uh, there is an, attraction to the danger.

    [00:34:40] isn't there though?

    [00:34:40] Will: there?

    [00:34:41] Rod: I've read, Tetra te te te tophi, something like that. People who love monsters corners. Monsters. Monsters. So,

    [00:34:48] Will: So,

    [00:34:49] Rod: oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was talk about the growth in Monster

    [00:34:51] of course, 

    [00:34:52] Will: and

    [00:34:52] Rod: there's a bit of bifurcation in the community between those who, you know, vampires, you know,

    [00:34:56] Will: which

    [00:34:57] Rod: vampires a human versus people are like, no, I want some [00:35:00] fricking, I want nine dick El seven elbowed creature that looks like a lizard.

    [00:35:04] Like, yeah, exactly. Gimme full insects. 

    [00:35:06] Will: I

    [00:35:06] Rod: want,

    [00:35:07] Will: different.

    [00:35:07] Rod: and and they're like, you and your, your vampires. You know that's not a moment.

    [00:35:11] Will: Yeah.

    [00:35:11] Rod: Ooh, it's a vampire.

    [00:35:12] Will: You know, you

    [00:35:12] Rod: Yeah. a special horny human. Like, it's quite different. Yeah, exactly. Are you in danger of being exploded or like not even knowing where you should put what's, there's a chunk of the danger in that kind of thing?

    [00:35:22] You know what I also learned in this article? 

    [00:35:23] Will: hawk shy

    [00:35:25] Rod: hoai.

    [00:35:26] Will: You,

    [00:35:26] Rod: do you know the painter Wood? Japanese Woodcuts very famous. Of course I do, but others may not. Yeah. The very famous painting, kuai

    [00:35:33] Will: Kuai

    [00:35:33] Rod: the Great Wave.

    [00:35:35] Will: Um,

    [00:35:35] Rod: that is the Japanese picture. The Japanese picture. Yeah.

    [00:35:38] It's, amongst the most famous paintings in the world.

    [00:35:40] Yeah, but what is Hokusai's second most famous painting? It's dirty. It's so dirty. Dirty as hell. It's dirty as hell.

    [00:35:48] Will: as hell.

    [00:35:48] Rod: Does it involve people who are of an age that should not be depicted dearly? Ah, I don't believe so. That's something that, that is something.

    [00:35:54] Will: I

    [00:35:55] Rod: was looking on my phone last night, so I couldn't quite, you idiot.

    [00:35:57] You should always do that on other people's phones. She looked like a, an [00:36:00] of age pearl diver. but the octopus also looked well, the

    [00:36:03] Will: the

    [00:36:04] Rod: two

    [00:36:04] Will: octopuses,

    [00:36:05] Rod: like both definitely of ages. Well,

    [00:36:07] Will: were,

    [00:36:08] Rod: well, no, the big octopus looked of age. The, the small octopus. Difficult to tell.

    [00:36:11] Will: Um,

    [00:36:12] Rod: Difficult to tell. I dunno. I do you

    [00:36:13] Will: I

    [00:36:13] Rod: know how you tell how old an octopus is?

    [00:36:15] You count its legs? No, it

    [00:36:17] Will: it's the

    [00:36:17] Rod: rings like I, but uh,

    [00:36:19] Will: uh,

    [00:36:19] Rod: yeah, so one octopus is, down there and the other,

    [00:36:22] Will: and

    [00:36:22] Rod: that's the second most famous

    [00:36:24] Will: way

    [00:36:24] Rod: way had a lake. Dude. Dude was So, he is diverse. Yeah. He, he, he had range mountains, waves and octopus port.

    [00:36:31] So the second example recently as in either late last year or the early of this year in France.

    [00:36:35] A man in to lose was rushed into surgery to remove the Imperial German army, world War I

    [00:36:41] Will: I

    [00:36:41] Rod: 37 millimeter brass and copper collectible. Shell classic. Yeah. So he's not tacky. This, this is a classic collectible from World War I. That's that's gone for a good one. Like that's a Yeah. You know, if you're gonna go for artillery, shell Yeah.

    [00:36:52] Go your Imperial German Army, world War I version, that's it.

    [00:36:55] Will: it.

    [00:36:55] Rod: your 37 millimeter minimum. Otherwise no commitment.

    [00:36:59] Will: Can you convert

    [00:36:59] Rod: Can you convert that to [00:37:00] Americans? Yeah. It's nine feet.

    [00:37:01] Will: Yeah.

    [00:37:02] Rod: Oh no. 17 Fahrenheit. A furlong. Three qubits. Seven Sydney Harbors. Seven Sydney Harbors. 12 Newton meters. So the hospital was evacuated in this case.

    [00:37:12] They said, seriously, everyone go away. , The hospital was absolutely evacuated. They called the bomb squad and the fire department in case things really went off.

    [00:37:21] But ultimately it turns out , the explosive device was quote, neutralized without incident. But what I love about this is it needed to be neutralized. So this dude stuck something in there that could have gone kaboom.

    [00:37:33] Will: See,

    [00:37:34] Rod: this is what I imagine that the doctors should be doing, is they're sort of doing this really super delicate surgery

    [00:37:39] Will: and

    [00:37:39] Rod: the,

    [00:37:40] Will: instant

    [00:37:40] Rod: if they can, they're tossing it out the window.

    [00:37:42] Really? Like, it's like a dramatic end to a sitcom.

    [00:37:44] Will: Like

    [00:37:45] Rod: You're like,

    [00:37:45] Will: out

    [00:37:45] Rod: and it explodes in the air.

    [00:37:47] Will: Yeah.

    [00:37:48] Rod: Not, not in this case. 'cause the people in TEUs are very, you know, they're very safety conscious. Oh yeah. Particularly at this hospital. and what I love is he might face legal action for, can you guess the charge

    [00:37:57] Will: endangering

    [00:37:58] Rod: others handling [00:38:00] category A munitions.

    [00:38:01] Okay.

    [00:38:01] Will: That too.

    [00:38:02] Rod: But he didn't

    [00:38:03] Will: it's not

    [00:38:03] Rod: sense, well, it was at first he had to get him. Oh, he might've fallen on it. He might've fallen on it. It's true. He fallen on it. I just think it's a much better

    [00:38:09] Will: headline.

    [00:38:09] Rod: what are you in for handling category? A munitions?

    [00:38:12] in case you're wondering, it wasn't actually the first time a French fellow had done something like this. So two years earlier, an 88-year-old man stuck a World War I artillery shell up there. Surgeons at the hospital in Tulane, in France.

    [00:38:24] They were forced to actually cut into his abdomen to get it out.

    [00:38:26] Will: Oh.

    [00:38:26] Rod: Oh. Which sounds, there are so many things that sound horrible and also scary about that. I don't have information whether that one was live. So like I say, I don't care. Do what you want. Enjoy your own body.

    [00:38:37] Will: It's like a torpedo. It's like

    [00:38:38] Rod: A torpedo, there's gonna be someone,

    [00:38:40] Will: like

    [00:38:41] Rod: it's gonna be the Bonnie Blue.

    [00:38:42] Yes, I've had sex with a million men in 10 minutes now I'm gonna put a torpedo in there. Not a euphemism

    [00:38:47] But anyway, for me it's like, do what you want. That's great. But when you're getting to a point where the thing you put in there could actually AFA gets stuck, kill the people trying to help you out.

    [00:38:55] It could literally, well, they're not imagining herself.

    [00:38:58] Will: helping them out at the time.

    [00:38:59] Rod: But [00:39:00] still, I mean, that, that's my only concern is like, come on, if you're gonna do it, think it through. You might be endangering others for yourself. Do what you want. We're not here to judge, we're not a judgmental podcast, are we?

    [00:39:09] Will: Not

    [00:39:09] Rod: at all. No.

    [00:39:11] Will: I

    [00:39:11] Rod: just have a little, uh, little mailbag.

    [00:39:13] Little mailbag for you. This is from Laura s. Very much on your topic here. Hi Laura. Um sent in, uh, the cover of a 1960s instructional book that she found, uh, artillery and the Anus. Well, it's called, finger Play Time I lot, uh, which, which edition?

    [00:39:28] This, this is the first edition. Finger Play Time. Play Time, an instructional book on how to give entertaining plays using hands and finger gestures, but, uh, on not how to play using entertaining.

    [00:39:38] No,

    [00:39:38] Will: no,

    [00:39:38] Rod: no, not at all. Finger play time. Uh,

    [00:39:40] look, send them on in to Cheers at a little bit of science.com au. Also, give us the reviews. Give us the reviews. So if

    [00:39:47] Will: if

    [00:39:47] Rod: you want to see middle-aged or plus middle aged men, wearing, uh,

    [00:39:53] Will: short

    [00:39:53] Rod: shorts on video, you can watch on Twitch.

    [00:39:55] Will: You can

    [00:39:56] Rod: You can, if, if that's the thing that you need.

    [00:39:57] I smelled beer all over myself. You can do that. He didn't. It was hilarious. [00:40:00] I mean, we've never had a better episode. Miss you.

Will Grant
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