This week we have hippos with hidden bits, hearts that take a mechanical detour, and a medical case study that will make you sit down and reconsider every life choice that led you to having a body. It is science at its best and worst, fascinating, useful, and deeply inconvenient.

We start at the zoo, where hippo castration is a real population control tool, partly to manage breeding and partly to reduce aggression. The catch is hippo anatomy is not built for human convenience, with internal testes that turn the whole procedure into a high stakes game of hide and seek inside a very large, very grumpy animal.

Then we move from hippos to hearts, looking at cardiac surgeries that use a heart lung bypass machine. Some patients report a temporary cognitive dip afterward, often called pump brain, and nobody is fully sure why it happens. It might be the machine, the stress of surgery, or subtle changes in blood flow and inflammation, but the mystery is still very much alive.

Finally, we end with a story that makes every listener cross their legs in sympathy. A man developed a rectal urethral fistula after previous surgery, likely linked to a catheter complication during a coma, and his internal plumbing rerouted itself in the most unhelpful way possible. The takeaway is simple. Bodies are fragile, embarrassment is useless, and if something feels wrong, get it checked.






CHAPTERS:

00:00 Hippo Castration Study

05:50 Why Zoos Castrate Hippos

08:11 Internal Anatomy Surprise

13:04 Surgery Method and Timing

15:14 Recovery and Blood Sweat

17:12 Aftereffects and Social Dynamics

18:11 Science Communication Pivot

18:46 Alcohol Messaging Study Setup

21:27 Violence as Communication

21:57 Alcohol Messages That Work

23:25 Counting Drinks Cancer Risk

25:08 Comfortable With Surgery

25:49 Heart Bypass Miracle Machine

29:12 Pumphead Cognitive Decline

33:43 Why the Pump Makes You Dumber

35:46 Fistula Case From Catheter

42:34 Spinosaurus Tank Top Sendoff





SOURCES:

 Rosetta scientist Dr Matt Taylor apologises for ‘offensive’ shirt

 Astonishing Spinosaur Unearthed in The Sahara Is Unlike Any Seen Before

 There's One Simple Method to Lower Alcohol Intake, And It Works

 A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of combinations of ‘why to reduce’ and ‘how to reduce’ alcohol harm-reduction communications

Westbury, C., & Hollis, G. (2019). Wriggly, squiffy, lummox, and boobs: What makes some words funny? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(1), 97–123.

https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000467 https://people.howstuffworks.com/why-poop-and-wiggle-are-funny-words-according-to-science.htm?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000169182600171X

https://futurism.com/health-medicine/exercise-cardio-stress-research

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0093691X13004275

https://www.discovermagazine.com/why-its-nearly-impossible-to-castrate-a-hippo-4775

https://futurism.com/neoscope/doctors-rectourethral-fistula

https://www.cureus.com/articles/68327-a-curious-case-of-rectal-ejaculation#!/

This week we have hippos with hidden bits, hearts that take a mechanical detour, and a medical case study that will make you sit down and reconsider every life choice that led you to having a body. It is science at its best and worst, fascinating, useful, and deeply inconvenient.
We start at the zoo, where hippo castration is a real population control tool, partly to manage breeding and partly to reduce aggression. The catch is hippo anatomy is not built for human convenience, with internal testes that turn the whole procedure into a high stakes game of hide and seek inside a very large, very grumpy animal.
Then we move from hippos to hearts, looking at cardiac surgeries that use a heart lung bypass machine. Some patients report a temporary cognitive dip afterward, often called pump brain, and nobody is fully sure why it happens. It might be the machine, the stress of surgery, or subtle changes in blood flow and inflammation, but the mystery is still very much alive.
Finally, we end with a story that makes every listener cross their legs in sympathy. A man developed a rectal urethral fistula after previous surgery, likely linked to a catheter complication during a coma, and his internal plumbing rerouted itself in the most unhelpful way possible. The takeaway is simple. Bodies are fragile, embarrassment is useless, and if something feels wrong, get it checked.
 
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Hippo Castration Study
05:50 Why Zoos Castrate Hippos
08:11 Internal Anatomy Surprise
13:04 Surgery Method and Timing
15:14 Recovery and Blood Sweat
17:12 Aftereffects and Social Dynamics
18:11 Science Communication Pivot
18:46 Alcohol Messaging Study Setup
21:27 Violence as Communication
21:57 Alcohol Messages That Work
23:25 Counting Drinks Cancer Risk
25:08 Comfortable With Surgery
25:49 Heart Bypass Miracle Machine
29:12 Pumphead Cognitive Decline
33:43 Why the Pump Makes You Dumber
35:46 Fistula Case From Catheter
42:34 Spinosaurus Tank Top Sendoff
 
SOURCES:
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/14/rosetta-comet-dr-matt-taylor-apology-sexist-shirt"> Rosetta scientist Dr Matt Taylor apologises for &lsquo;offensive&rsquo; shirt</a>
<a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/astonishing-spinosaur-unearthed-in-the-sahara-is-unlike-any-seen-before"> Astonishing Spinosaur Unearthed in The Sahara Is Unlike Any Seen Before</a>
<a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/theres-one-simple-method-to-lower-alcohol-intake-and-it-works"> There's One Simple Method to Lower Alcohol Intake, And It Works</a>
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460321001891">&nbsp;A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of combinations of &lsquo;why to reduce&rsquo; and &lsquo;how </a><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460321001891">to reduce&rsquo; alcohol harm-reduction communications</a>
Westbury, C., &amp; Hollis, G. (2019). Wriggly, squiffy, lummox, and boobs: What makes some words funny? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(1), 97&ndash;123.
https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000467 <a href="https://people.howstuffworks.com/why-poop-and-wiggle-are-funny-words-according-to-science.htm">https://people.howstuffworks.com/why-poop-and-wiggle-are-funny-words-according-to-science.htm</a>?
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000169182600171X">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000169182600171X</a>
<a href="https://futurism.com/health-medicine/exercise-cardio-stress-research">https://futurism.com/health-medicine/exercise-cardio-stress-research</a>
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0093691X13004275">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0093691X13004275</a>
<a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/why-its-nearly-impossible-to-castrate-a-hippo-4775">https://www.discovermagazine.com/why-its-nearly-impossible-to-castrate-a-hippo-4775</a>
<a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/doctors-rectourethral-fistula">https://futurism.com/neoscope/doctors-rectourethral-fistula</a>
<a href="https://www.cureus.com/articles/68327-a-curious-case-of-rectal-ejaculation#!/">https://www.cureus.com/articles/68327-a-curious-case-of-rectal-ejaculation#!/</a>

From tales of historical idiocracy and scientific genius to weird and wacky cultural phenomena, Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant are here to take you on a wild conversational journey, deep diving into the crevices of science, history and culture that you never knew existed. 

From tales of historical idiocracy and scientific genius to weird and wacky cultural phenomena, Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant are here to take you on a wild conversational journey, deep diving into the crevices of science, history and culture that you never knew existed.

Bizarre science history from academics with beers