Your podcast bookshelf

What's on your shelf? Plus prestige podcasts, hope for the lab rats, and podcasts and links to make you think.

Welcome to Hurt Your Brain #207, the place to get podcasts and links that will make you think, sent every so often.

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My dream is to go to a website and input my favorite podcasts that automatically displays them beautifully on a bookshelf or as a curated group of framed pictures decorating a wall.

I would love to be digitally nosy on what you all would have on your podcast bookshelf. Not even what your favorite stuff is, but what you would choose to display knowing that others would be looking at it and judging it.

In other news, I made the questionable decision to join another social media platform because why the hell not. What am I going to do, have healthy phone habits? If you are on Bluesky, follow me right here.

Alright, on to the good stuff.

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PODCAST RECOMMENDATIONS

Unexplainable: Pinky and the (lab-grown) Brain

• The Big Idea: We are reaching the limit on how helpful lab mice (or any animal) can be for research meant to help humans.

• Lab grown brain clumps and various other lab grown entities could be the future of medical research. These combined with modern computer modeling can eventually once and for all allow lab rats to live out their lives chasing and keeping that cheese.

• Overall a seriously interesting episode on how early stage medical research works.

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Fall of Civilizations: 1. Roman Britain - The Work of Giants Crumbled

• The Big Idea: Did you know Great Britain was part of the Roman Empire and that there is an interesting history involving hundreds of years of occupation and rebellion? I didn’t!

• I discovered this show in the Reddit thread linked to below and it didn’t disappoint. This appears to be a very well loved history show and this first episode is fantastic.

• Maybe I chose this episode because subconsciously I felt ashamed I wasn’t thinking of the Roman Empire enough when that meme was going around.

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Search Engine: Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?

• The Big Idea: Finally, a Search Engine question I legitimately ask all the time.

• Too bad the episode gives a fairly unsatisfying answer to the actual question. Just read this 11 year old article instead to get a full answer.

• BUT, the real reason I’m recommending this is you get some history and discussion of modern airports which is very much worth checking out.

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Today Explained: A live-forever diet

• The Big Idea: That “Blue Zone” diet all the rage a while back that mimics parts of the world where people tended to live longer? Mostly bunk it turns out.

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PODCAST LINKS

What podcasts are considered 'prestige' examples of the format? A great Reddit thread with some recommendations I had never heard of. Like Fall of Civilizations that I ended up writing about above.

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A Brief Gallery of (Podcast) Art. Something I wrote four years ago that I revisited after thinking about the podcast bookshelf and podcast art in general.

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OTHER LINKS TO MAKE YOU THINK

Ronny Chieng interviews Neil DeGrasse Tyson on The Daily Show. A great showcase for both of these favorites of mine. Funny and interesting.

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You’re Probably Wrong About Rainbows. What a gift that this kind of stuff is free on the internet. Worth the twenty something minutes.

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FOR FUN

Music makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE

The perfect movie screen

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That’s it for this week. Thank you as always for reading and responding!

Please like or comment (or reply) if you want to share any comments. See you next time.

P.S. As a parent, yes grades are good and all that, but nothing makes me prouder than when the kids show glimpses of good taste. My nine year old daughter has been blasting through episodes of The Simpsons (with or without me) and it makes me so proud. I am a little shocked at how well it holds up in the first 11 seasons so far. Amazing writing.