It's an odd thing, but modern scientific medicine depends on doctors occasionally - just occasionally - lying to your face. 

In this episode we explore the bizarre world of the placebo effect, and its crucial role in modern medicine... 

The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly supported by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University!

It's an odd thing, but modern scientific medicine depends on doctors occasionally - just occasionally - lying to your face. In this episode we explore the bizarre world of the placebo effect, and its crucial role in modern medicine... The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly supported by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University!

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.

Science stories for people who sit up the back of…

The Wholesome Show

It's an odd thing, but modern scientific medicine…

The Placebo Effect!

The teen years can be tough. Let’s be real, it was an awkward time for the best of us. During those tender years, we all did our best to navigate the tumultuous world between childhood and adulthood amidst raging hormones, love triangles and knife fights... the usual teenage stuff.



Ok, perhaps not every teenager gets in a knife fight, but this particular case has all the drama you would expect to find in a daytime soap opera.



The story involves a 15-year-old girl who was employed in a local bar (well that’s the first red flag right there). She was admitted to hospital after a knife fight outside the bar involving her former lover and a new boyfriend. Exactly who stabbed who was not quite clear, but all three participants in the small war were admitted with knife injuries.



Precisely 278 days later… The girl was admitted to hospital once again. This time with acute intermittent abdominal pain. Upon examination, the doctors found something very surprising indeed... A fully grown baby. 



But she couldn’t possibly be pregnant… she didn’t have a vagina!!






CHAPTERS:
00:00 Knife fight admits teenagers to hospital
01:50 Mysterious abdominal pain
02:14 Pregnancy without a vagina
03:35 Medical investigations: How did this happen?
05:55 Lessons from oral pregnancy





PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED:
So did you get a root? Tales, definitions and loopholes for defining sex



SOURCES:
Oral conception. Impregnation via the proximal gastrointestinal tract in a patient with an aplastic  distal vagina. Case report, by Douwe A A Verkuyl, in BJOG

The teen years can be tough. Let’s be real, it was an awkward time for the best of us. During those tender years, we all did our best to navigate the tumultuous world between childhood and adulthood amidst raging hormones, love triangles and knife fights... the usual teenage stuff.
 
Ok, perhaps not every teenager gets in a knife fight, but this particular case has all the drama you would expect to find in a daytime soap opera.
 
The story involves a 15-year-old girl who was employed in a local bar (well that’s the first red flag right there). She was admitted to hospital after a knife fight outside the bar involving her former lover and a new boyfriend. Exactly who stabbed who was not quite clear, but all three participants in the small war were admitted with knife injuries.
 
Precisely 278 days later… The girl was admitted to hospital once again. This time with acute intermittent abdominal pain. Upon examination, the doctors found something very surprising indeed... A fully grown baby. 
 
But she couldn’t possibly be pregnant… she didn’t have a vagina!!
 
CHAPTERS:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">00:00 Knife fight admits teenagers to hospital</li>
<li aria-level="1">01:50 Mysterious abdominal pain</li>
<li aria-level="1">02:14 Pregnancy without a vagina</li>
<li aria-level="1">03:35 Medical investigations: How did this happen?</li>
<li aria-level="1">05:55 Lessons from oral pregnancy</li>
</ul>
 
PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://youtu.be/gX-RO_yu7cM">So did you get a root? Tales, definitions and loopholes for defining sex</a></li>
</ul>
 
SOURCES:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Oral conception. Impregnation via the proximal gastrointestinal tract in a patient with an aplastic  distal vagina. Case report, by Douwe A A Verkuyl, in BJOG</li>
</ul>

Can you get pregnant from oral sex? Where There's a Willie, There's a Way

What’s the deal with redheads? It sounds like the beginning of a Seinfeld bit but in all fairness (pun intended), for a group of people who make up only 2% of the population, our flame-haired ginger guys and gals have attracted much attention throughout history. Some of that attention is due to the obvious: redheads are babes.



But the fascination with redheads over the centuries hasn’t all been positive. They’ve also received far more hostile attention like being labelled barbarians by the ancient Greeks and Romans. In Ancient Egypt, redheaded men were burnt as human sacrifices at the grave of Osiris (god of the deceased) and their ashes were scattered to the four winds in the name of a bountiful harvest; red hair symbolised the golden wealth of the corn after all, so… makes sense.



In medieval times, people with green eyes and red hair were considered either witches, werewolves or vampires. There were even alchemical recipes requiring the blood of a redhead to turn copper into gold. Just mix the blood up with the ashes of a basilisk, easy as pie. 



Scientific or not, redheads do seem to carry the reputation of having a somewhat spicy temperament and the people from Charles University in Prague wanted to know if this translated into the bedroom… The science says yes but not in the way you think!





CHAPTERS:
00:00 Why do redheads fascinate us?
03:42 Barbarians and human sacrificing
05:40 Alchemical recipe with the blood of a redhead
07:30 19th century study: Most criminals were redheads
09:31 Ayurvedic medicine and genetics
13:42 Opiate response, Vitamin D and adrenaline 
17:48 Redheads smell like ambergris
19:12 Pain studies: Stabbing and electric currents
21:50 Sexism in redhead stereotypes
24:21 Study on Redheads and Sexuality 
27:08 What’s next on The Wholesome Show



PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED:
What The Hell Happened To The Left-Handers?



SOURCES:
Myths about red hair are rooted in fear of difference | Aeon Ideas
The Truth About Redheads
Ginger hair: 13 fascinating facts about redheads
World Redhead Day: 16 fun facts about red hair - Indianapolis
Redheaded women are more sexually active than other women, but it is probably due to their suitors
Science Confirms Redheads Are Equipped With Some Weird Genetic Superpowers - GQ Australia
Red hair - Wikipedia

What’s the deal with redheads? It sounds like the beginning of a Seinfeld bit but in all fairness (pun intended), for a group of people who make up only 2% of the population, our flame-haired ginger guys and gals have attracted much attention throughout history. Some of that attention is due to the obvious: redheads are babes.
 
But the fascination with redheads over the centuries hasn’t all been positive. They’ve also received far more hostile attention like being labelled barbarians by the ancient Greeks and Romans. In Ancient Egypt, redheaded men were burnt as human sacrifices at the grave of Osiris (god of the deceased) and their ashes were scattered to the four winds in the name of a bountiful harvest; red hair symbolised the golden wealth of the corn after all, so… makes sense.
 
In medieval times, people with green eyes and red hair were considered either witches, werewolves or vampires. There were even alchemical recipes requiring the blood of a redhead to turn copper into gold. Just mix the blood up with the ashes of a basilisk, easy as pie. 
 
Scientific or not, redheads do seem to carry the reputation of having a somewhat spicy temperament and the people from Charles University in Prague wanted to know if this translated into the bedroom… The science says yes but not in the way you think!
 
CHAPTERS:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">00:00 Why do redheads fascinate us?</li>
<li aria-level="1">03:42 Barbarians and human sacrificing</li>
<li aria-level="1">05:40 Alchemical recipe with the blood of a redhead</li>
<li aria-level="1">07:30 19th century study: Most criminals were redheads</li>
<li aria-level="1">09:31 Ayurvedic medicine and genetics</li>
<li aria-level="1">13:42 Opiate response, Vitamin D and adrenaline </li>
<li aria-level="1">17:48 Redheads smell like ambergris</li>
<li aria-level="1">19:12 Pain studies: Stabbing and electric currents</li>
<li aria-level="1">21:50 Sexism in redhead stereotypes</li>
<li aria-level="1">24:21 Study on Redheads and Sexuality </li>
<li aria-level="1">27:08 What’s next on The Wholesome Show</li>
</ul>
 
PREVIOUS EPISODES MENTIONED:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://youtu.be/Rfbr1YjRQ_I">What The Hell Happened To The Left-Handers?</a></li>
</ul>
 
SOURCES:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://aeon.co/ideas/myths-about-red-hair-are-rooted-in-fear-of-difference">Myths about red hair are rooted in fear of difference | Aeon Ideas</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.thelist.com/129859/the-truth-about-redheads/">The Truth About Redheads</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/beauty-hair/hair/a32357/redhead-facts/">Ginger hair: 13 fascinating facts about redheads</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.wthr.com/article/news/nation-world/world-redhead-day-red-hair-fun-facts/507-3233cc76-92a6-452a-810a-2860eabe2424">World Redhead Day: 16 fun facts about red hair - Indianapolis</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1000753/full">Redheaded women are more sexually active than other women, but it is probably due to their suitors</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.gq.com.au/grooming/hair/science-confirms-redheads-are-equipped-with-some-weird-genetic-superpowers/news-story/cbc60110544260d0b5eb06f7f0e79845">Science Confirms Redheads Are Equipped With Some Weird Genetic Superpowers - GQ Australia</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair#Culture">Red hair - Wikipedia</a></li>
</ul>

Why are redheads so fascinating? Detangling the science!

When you think about the Cold War, you immediately think about whale songs right? Okay, maybe not everyone makes that connection, but in a delightfully random way, the political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s had a lot to do with the discovery of the beautiful whale song, and ultimately, the collapse of the commercial whaling industry altogether. 



Back in the 1950s, the United States had gone gangbusters with submarines. Travelling under the Arctic Ocean, they were set on going the longest, the deepest, the hardest. But they were worried about other countries doing it too… particularly the Soviets.  



They knew they couldn’t stop them, but they at least wanted to know where the Red subs were. That’s when Frank Watlington was tasked by the US Navy to develop hydrophones (microphones they could stick in the ocean) to listen for submarine sounds. 



So Watlington set off to Bermuda and got to work. One day he dropped his hydrophone 1,500 feet into the ocean and heard strange, eerie sounds coming from the deep. For the Navy, these sounds were just annoying distractions from detecting submarine activity but for Watlington, well, they were captivating. Ditching his original task of detecting Soviet submarines, Watlington became obsessed with the ethereal sounds he had recorded and he played them to anyone who would listen...





CHAPTERS:
00:00 Everyone knows the whale song
02:08 A dog’s breakfast: 20th century whaling
03:32 The Cold War and the end of whaling
05:21 Frank Watlington and hydrophones
07:22 Roger Payne: From science to viral sensation
10:35 Patterns and rhythm in the whale song 
12:19 Humpback Whale record goes viral
14:58 Rock stars, Greenpeace and whaling ban
16:49 What next on The Wholesome Show



SOURCES:
Francis W. Watlington; Recorded Whale Songs, NY Times  
'It always hits me hard': how a haunting album helped save the whales, The Guardian  
It Took A Musician's Ear To Decode The Complex Song In Whale Calls, NPR  
Listening to Whales by Douglas Allchin in The American Biology Teacher  
Number of whales killed, World, Our World In Data  
Oral conception. Impregnation via the proximal gastrointestinal tract in a patient with an aplastic  distal vagina. Case report, by Douwe A A Verkuyl, in BJOG 
Whale song: A grandfather's legacy, CBS News  

When you think about the Cold War, you immediately think about whale songs right? Okay, maybe not everyone makes that connection, but in a delightfully random way, the political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s had a lot to do with the discovery of the beautiful whale song, and ultimately, the collapse of the commercial whaling industry altogether. 
 
Back in the 1950s, the United States had gone gangbusters with submarines. Travelling under the Arctic Ocean, they were set on going the longest, the deepest, the hardest. But they were worried about other countries doing it too… particularly the Soviets.  
 
They knew they couldn’t stop them, but they at least wanted to know where the Red subs were. That’s when Frank Watlington was tasked by the US Navy to develop hydrophones (microphones they could stick in the ocean) to listen for submarine sounds. 
 
So Watlington set off to Bermuda and got to work. One day he dropped his hydrophone 1,500 feet into the ocean and heard strange, eerie sounds coming from the deep. For the Navy, these sounds were just annoying distractions from detecting submarine activity but for Watlington, well, they were captivating. Ditching his original task of detecting Soviet submarines, Watlington became obsessed with the ethereal sounds he had recorded and he played them to anyone who would listen...
 
CHAPTERS:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">00:00 Everyone knows the whale song</li>
<li aria-level="1">02:08 A dog’s breakfast: 20th century whaling</li>
<li aria-level="1">03:32 The Cold War and the end of whaling</li>
<li aria-level="1">05:21 Frank Watlington and hydrophones</li>
<li aria-level="1">07:22 Roger Payne: From science to viral sensation</li>
<li aria-level="1">10:35 Patterns and rhythm in the whale song </li>
<li aria-level="1">12:19 Humpback Whale record goes viral</li>
<li aria-level="1">14:58 Rock stars, Greenpeace and whaling ban</li>
<li aria-level="1">16:49 What next on The Wholesome Show</li>
</ul>
 
SOURCES:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/24/obituaries/francis-w-watlington-recorded-whale-songs.html">Francis W. Watlington; Recorded Whale Songs</a>, NY Times  </li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/06/the-songs-that-saved-the-whales">'It always hits me hard': how a haunting album helped save the whales,</a> The Guardian  </li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2015/08/06/427851306/it-took-a-musicians-ear-to-decode-the-complex-song-in-whale-calls">It Took A Musician's Ear To Decode The Complex Song In Whale Calls</a>, NPR  </li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/abt.2015.77.3.13">Listening to Whales</a> by Douglas Allchin in The American Biology Teacher  </li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/whale-catch">Number of whales killed, World,</a> Our World In Data  </li>
<li aria-level="1">Oral conception. Impregnation via the proximal gastrointestinal tract in a patient with an aplastic  distal vagina. Case report, by Douwe A A Verkuyl, in BJOG </li>
<li><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whale-song-a-grandfathers-legacy/">Whale song: A grandfather's legacy,</a> CBS News  </li>
</ul>

The Placebo Effect!

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