The Seven Deadly Sins (Part 1)

we're exploring the Seven Deadly Sins. A theme of this show has been the differences between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, and what could be more human than our faults are pride, wrath, sloth, greed, lust, envy, and gluttony. But let the species who is without sin cast the first stone. The animal world is guilty of these transgressions in ways that you might not expect. I also want to discuss the science behind these so called human sins in texts that may not be holy but

are certainly pure view. Joining me today is Katie Stole, actor, co host of Even More News, producer of Some More News and overall great gal. Hi, this is what I can talk now. I'm happy to be here. You got all my things right, You got my name right. People might think we have the same name, but we don't. Yeah, there's a subtle pronunciation difference. So her name is kat Y, mine is ka t i E. So yours is like

a Katie Katie and minds Katie. Well, I just take some personality into it, and we put some extra inflection in there, and you really start to see a subtle difference come out between two different spellings. What's your short for Katherine? Minds Kathleen? See, wow, big difference. We're night and day. I'm thrilled that my parents didn't go with Kathy or like Karen. Well, Karen's not short for what would karen b short water? I think that's just itself.

I'm really sorry everyone named Karen or Karen, Karen, Karen Essica, Karen Essica. I'm sorry for all the Karen's. We're just dismissing your We're being really mean, Like your name is something you're born with, but with apology, I mean, can change it. But like I apologize in advance to every

care and out there. But Karen is a name I associate with like a coworker that doesn't have a sense of humor, sort of like it's the same as like a dinnis Well, it's a punchline name, right, And I'm really Sorcaren Dennis Dennis, Karen, Yeah, you came to casual Friday wearing non casual clothes. How dare you? She karend it, she carried it. Honestly, Kathy kind of has that same connotation. So thanks Mom and dadd Well Kathy, and I'm sorry to all the Kathy's out there. I do share a

name with you. It's not your fault. This is it's not really kind of unfair that you get that bad rap just because you're a character. Kathy, Kathy. I think you can blame on that cartoon and AC. Yeah, AC, the one where it's a middle aged woman going through life struggles and it's always like, oh, no, I gained a weight. No, I want to eat something. But I'm a woman and I'm not frizzy. I can't boys, I can't boys at all. Listen, Kathy, Kathy, Kathy, You're on

a very familiar basis with the comic stars. When we get each other, you see, I relate. So let's first talk about pride. This may be one of the biggest criticisms launched at millennial in youth culture right now, that we're all a bunch of self obsessed egoists. Generally speaking, I'm tired of people being criticized for their makeup and fashion choices. If you don't want to wear makeup, rock on,

but also wear sunscreen. I think adorning ourselves is, as we'll soon discuss, a very natural and perfectly healthy behavior. But there is a trend I'm genuinely concerned about. It's Instagram perfection. It's a subsection of Instagram devoted to carefully cultivated looks of being perfect, with flawless skin, cellulite free bodies, impossibly slender torsos are perfectly circular butts often achieved with

photoshop face tune or careful photographed angles. The insidious thing about instagrams, say, compared to advertisement, is that it's often carefully crafted to seem candid. Sometimes models or celebrities will post no makeup selfies though they're still apparently wearing eyelash extensions, photo filters, and foundation. I'm worried this will give young people unrealistic expectations that they're supposed to look naturally flawless.

So I looked into the research. There's a Flanders University study that examined the effects of viewing Instagram selfies on body image. The researchers found that when participants viewed the Instagram profiles of celebrities and fears, they experienced increased body dissatisfaction and a more negative mood. This only work when viewing selfies, there is no such effect, and doing travel images. Also, there wasn't a significant difference in effect when viewing celebrities

versus peers. This sounds pretty dystopian, and I'm sure there are people out there who blame the darn millennials for being too self obsessed, But I'm not so certain it's this generation who is to blame, or last generation, or even the generation before that. Actually, I think body images deeply entrenched in our evolutionary history. In fact, even animals far away on the evolutionary tree have been caught trying

to keep up their appearances. You know, we might think we have it tough with fashion, but if you will join me on an imagination journey, I'm ready for um. Imagine if like the fashion police were real, so if you didn't dress yourself well enough, like they would arrest you or even kill you. So like, like it just totally dystopia, dystopian, horriful, horful, horrible, horrorful. Um. And so like if you or socks with sandals, which I'll admit

is not a good look, not a good look, but comfortable. Sure, I've certainly there have certainly been times when I wanted to wears with sandals, right right, Well, the not the ones that like, not the thong sandals that go between the toes, because that's just your you're setting yourself up for failure, right, But like with your birkenstocks for socks, Yeah, I've warned my socks with my broken stalk. I mean,

that's that's perfectly fine to me. But you know, in this society, like if you did that, you would be just summarily execute I should in this in the fantasy society, not the current one, I would be ostracized perhaps, right right, but you know, like we're we're projecting maybe five or ten years in the future where this will be the reality. Okay, so I need to prepare for it, right right. And like if you mix silver and gold jewelry, you're sent to Gulag. And um, you know, actually I found out

why we don't mix silver and gold jewelers. So you're supposed to wear jewelry that matches your skin undertone, and apparently you have like a cool undertone or a warm undertone, and like silver goes well with cool undertones and as well with warm undertones. And if so, that's like if you wear both, like at least one of them is going to be wrong for your skin tone. And if you do that, like you're just gonna look hideous. Just you're gonna look whack. No one's gonna ever love you. Yeah,

it's just gonna you'll have failed as. They can't sl it out, you cancel each other out. All you see is awful. Yeah, Like if you wear a like gold earrings and like a silver neckclas, like when people look at you, they can't make out what you are. It's sort of like you're just this shifting image of their Like I'm not sure if you're pretty or like like a Cathulu bees. Yeah, like I can't. I can't get a vibe on your undertones, So I don't even know

who you are anymore. Right, Well, so I bring this up because in the handimal Kingdom, Uh, good fashion sense can actually save a life. Oh really yeah? So, uh, first I want to go under the sea. Okay, where I'm not going to say the lyrics to the song. I just really I was going to do a cute thing where I was going to say those lyrics to that song. It's not it wouldn't go well, but because of a certain powerful group that out there. You guys all know what we're talking about, right, you get it?

Let that be stuck in your head. Singing sea creatures. Just imagine generic off brands singing anyways. Decorator crabs adorn themselves with decadent jewelry found in their environment. Yeah, so little bits of help or seaweed and even beautiful living jewelry like an enemies, sponges and brio zones, which are these invertebrates that kind of like like eyelashy, flowery things, creepy pretty. I think they're creepy pretty. I I have a prejudice against things under the sea. They scare me.

I'm sorry, but I'm I'm sure it's beautiful. Do you have glassophobia or the thing where it's like the fear of the depths kind of? I mean, I've never had that diagnosed, but it makes me very nervous. It might be that my mom told me that I would drown if I went in the ocean when well, she's half correct. I'm afraid of swimming in the ocean, but I'm not like afraid of the animals I am specifically, Uh, get started getting in my head about the animals underneath the water.

But that's not what we're here to talk about. We here to talk about prides are so cute. These are fancy crowd. I'm just going to picture them in in the animated way, right, and a generically animated generically specific so uh, it's really they put on a really bold look. Like if you look at these decorator crabs, they're very fancy and their outfit kind of depends on their environment, so it's whatever is around them so that they can

create this natural camouflage. And in fact, you can put one of these crabs in a fish tank and if you put jewelry in the fish tank, they will put the jewel That's real cute. It's super cute. So we watched a video of the decorator crab putting on lace and we did pearl beads. Oh that was I mean, listen, absolutely incredible seeing them decorating themselves. But they are horrifying, and I kind of understand why they want to decorate it. They don't have a great like baseline to work with.

Try and they've got like a real kind of milky yellowish color, very fuzzy. Well, the reason they look so like sort of fuzzy is because they have these little barbs on their body that work like vel crows, so that they can stick things on it will actually stick. They're called sette. I mean, yeah, that sounds like some sort of French seeing a sette style. Um, yeah, it's very funny seeing these crabs with their jewelry dragging behind. They scrape along the bottom of the ocean floor. Were

king the runway, just the ocean. They are working it, Yeah, you can say that for sure. Yeah, whatever it is they're working. So this isn't just found underwater. Assassin bugs will wear their dead prey as trophies. They wear their the skins of their enemy like su oh god one more like a backpack, more like a back So this is actually to protect them from even scarier predators. So I have a picture here it makes one of these bugs is that big lumpy thing on its back that's

all dead ants, dead ants. A pile of dead aunt, big pile of dead ants. As a backpack and what was this guy called again? Assassin It's not even more specific, it's just a generic assassin bug. Right. I feel like it starts out strong with the assassin part of this name, where it's like, Okay, this is threatening, and then bug, Yeah, it gives me no clue is to look kind of bug. It'd be like, I mean a killer bug. I mean the bug is called the assassin bug. That is its name.

It's just like bug does seem really just right, but like like a a scorpion or right, right, it's a bug. It's a bug. It kind of makes me think of like, say you have an assassin but his name is Dennis or Karen like Astis or karenin Um. So they're found

in Africa and Malaysia and Um. One of the reasons that they do this so they specifically use ants, not any type of prey that they find, because they researchers think that this is that spiders, who are potential predators of assassin bugs, are pretty wary of attacking ants because ants will swarm them, and assassin bugs don't have this word because they're very specialized for preying on ants. In fact, some of the species of assassin bugs, So feather legged

assassin bugs, which sounds I know, really fancy. They have a scent that's attractive to ant, so like an ant will conder away from the group and then they can just kill that one ant and then put it on their backpacks. So they kill them specifically for protection. Well, no, they eat them too. They eat them. It's a it's like it's a two and one, like it's a nice snack.

And then it'd be like, you know, you go to in and outer burger king and then you just put all of your waded up back wrappers on your back to like to keep away the boys. Yeah, keep away, that is, I mean, I think that's a very effective way to keep away boys. Sure. I mean it's worked for me, so I do really the assassin bug in that regard. Yeah, it's your it's your fast food camouflage they can't even see you or other camouflage for women is just being older than forty yep. Okay, that's when

you disappear. That's when we Yeah. Yeah, so I should just start killing older ladies and wearing their skin on my back to keep the men away. I'm legally going to say no. Yeah, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna take your bad advice. Um So, not all fashioned is meant to mask your pearance. Uh, sometimes you want to be noticed. Um. So, bearded vultures will wear makeup to attract mates. Really. Yeah, so they rub their heads, necks, and butts in iron rich soil that gives them a

sun kissed, reddish hue. I can relate to that. Yeah, they get a nice tan. Yeah. Where do they live? So they're in Europe, Asia and Africa. Um, and they live in sort of mountain areas. Uh. And so the reason they want to look tan and beautiful is it's like a status symbol. So older, more dominant bearded vultures will have more vibrant colors. So if you're young and dull looking, you gotta fake it till you make it. I like that. I like that they're trying to look older. Yeah,

I like that that. I know, I know exactly. It's it's like being mature is not seen as like, oh you're not pretty parts. Like the older you get, the sexier you, which I think is true honestly for us. Yeah, I agree, because like the older you are, the more confident you are and the more you understand things. So it's like older people understand how to be a responsible

partner better, which is a big turn on. There's kind of a window, say, after a while it starts to turn but like, yeah, I agree, I'm I'm not happy here now than in my twenties. Feel like old people are constantly banging, you know, banging. Yeah they are. I mean, wasn't the secret rise of STDs like a big thing different like senior living communities, because I mean probably they feel like we're out of danger because they do. I've been good in my whole life. Let's let luc and

have some fun. My husband's been gone for a while now I might as well. I feel like that's really mean of nature to give you STDs when you're eighty, because it's like like but like, also do they care? I don't know what care. It's like at that point, it's one more thing that's uncomfortable. I don't know. But okay,

So these bearded vultures they want to look older. They rub their butts and ship and then they get a nice dirt tan, which I feel like tans are also like a status symbol for people because it's like I'm so rich, I have time to tan go to the tanning is the luxury. Yeah, and it will aid you premature. Absolutely. So we're just like vultures, bearded vultures. Um. So we can't end our section on Pride without first talking about flamingos.

These are the fancy walk and pink birds. Um. And they also like to use makeup, so a bit of pink blush during mating season. Uh. And so their feathers aren't always pink. Sometimes they fade to a more white hue after breeding. Uh. And one way to enhance that pink color is by brushing a special oil over their feathers that increases their vibrancy. So I know what you're thinking, Katie. Where where does this oil come from? Yes, it was

what I was thinking. Well, if you've been listening to the show, you might already be able to guess it comes from butt glands. It's always butt glands makeup. So there's a special gland near the flamingo's tail that they rub it on their beaks and then they just spread it on themselves like flamingo butt jam over some flamingo toast that it probably feels pretty good. Yeah. And it makes them, It makes them pinker, it makes their feather's more vibrants, so that their mates are like, wow, you're

beautiful and just listening with butt use yuck. No, that's great for them. I'm glad that that works out because they need to get the stuff out of their glands probably anyway. Repurpose, Yeah, I mean that's a really like I mean, we talk about like, you know, natural holistic um make up, you know, cruelty free. What could be less cruel than getting it directly from your button? You are right right, it's repurposing your own stuff, really budget friendly,

animal friendly makeup. Listen. I'm not going to take their makeup tips, but I respect them. I mean I would be interested to try it. I mean not with obviously, not with my own but that being but but yeah, I'd be chill about it. I wouldn't be like rude and mean about it, but just like, hey, can I

can I try something? Just a bit of warning it might react differently with your skin there, right, right, but just like just like you know, like when you're when you're like with your girlfriends, you're like, hey can I try that? Like or whatever? Yeah? Yeah, but with a flamingo and like it would probably try to like pick my face off, but you know, maybe not, maybe not. You're an adventurous gal. I like it for anyone who thinks the current generation is too self obsessed. Sorry, but

humanity has been prideful for a hell of a long time. Recently, archaeological evidence off the coast of South Africa was uncovered that found pigments thought to be used as makeup from a hundred and sixty four thou Zan years ago. Jewelry was also found that dates back some one hundred thousand

years ago beats men out of simple seashells. It's a big deal in the world of archaeology, not just because the necklaces were fetch but because it shows humans have been capable of tool use and symbolic thought far longer than originally speculated. We're going to take a quick break so I can rub some flamingo butt juices on my face to make myself beautiful. We'll be right back. So now we're going to talk about wrath. Is wrath scientifically

quantifiable in humans? Researchers basically set up a lab eBay. Participants in the study could bid on an item and the highest bidder would win the item. But there's a twist. If you wont you only paid the amount of the second highest bid, So this leaves a lot of room for spite because here's the thing. Participants get to see who the highest current bidd is, and if they don't want to match that price, they can, at no cost to themselves, increase the second highest bids, so the winner

has to pay more. So here's an example. You're bidding on a precious moment's figuring and near the end the researchers announced that the highest bid is two hundred dollars. So your current bid is only ten dollars, and you don't want to pay two hundred dollars, but you have a choice. You could resubmit your current bid of ten dollars, which would mean you have no impact on the auction and you don't lose any money, you don't win the prize,

but you cause no harm to anyone. But if you're feeling like a real turd, what you could do is bid a hundred and ninety nine dollars and nine cents, ensuring that the winner of the auction has to pay the maximum amount of money. Because you're a total asshole. The researchers found that there are indeed a lot of assholes. So three d and eight three out of seven hundred

sixty eight closing bids were quote potentially spiteful. They counted bids as spiteful they were more than a losing bidders initial bid and no greater than the current winning bid. Of these spiteful bids were maximally spiteful, meaning the bidder's bid one increment of money under the winning bids, so that example bidding and nine cents under the bid just so that the winner had to pay as much as possible.

So surely only humans could be so petty. Well hold onto your opposable funds there, because there's an animal that takes spite to a whole new disgusting level. So Katie, you want to go to you imagination station again to toot all aboard the brain express. So imagine that you're eyeing like a half eaten pizza that you're at like a pizzeria, and someone's like finishing up there paying the bill and they've just left this pizza out, been there, yeah,

and you're like, all right, box it up. But they don't, Katie, they don't box it up, just leave it. They just leave it there, and they're they're about to walk out, and you're looking at this pizza like, well, maybe i'll eat it. Then I'm hungry for pizza at the moment, right, right, I mean like also, just like you know, you're wasting food and it's a pizza, so it's like not something people's saliva, and it's untouched. There's no cooties on it,

so it's like perfectly good food. But the person who's leaving like sees you eyeing their pizza, they unzip their pants and then they pee on it, Okay, just to like market Yeah, just you from eating that pizza. Sounds like a real human, right, I mean I think you're catching on to the theme of this podcast. But I mean I can't imagine doing something so out of pure so petty, so right, I mean, just like peeing on something just to make sure that someone else else doesn't

can't enjoy it. So would you like like something to keep someone else from eating it? I mean probably as a kid, sure, I Mean that's something that kids do all the time. They're like, I liked it, it's mine, it's mine. I've claimed of it. Yeah, that's definitely a very childlike thing where they don't understand just because they don't have to keep it for themselves, they don't have to take it, they don't have to claim it's mine.

It's sort of like a food or toy hoarding in stick that you kind of have to be trained not to do. Uh, Like I do remember, like like, there was a cupcake day at school once and I was too full to eat a cupcake, ate too many of those goldfish um and I but I took a cupcake and I was like, I was like, well, to protect the cupcake, I gotta lick all the off you got, Well, you lick all the frosting off, and then you save that because the frosting. In my opinion, I know this

is controversial. The frosting is the bullshit part. The real part is that cakey goodness. It's not controversy. Listen, frosting is kind of bullshit. But I kind of think that together it goes well. Your cupcake is better for at least a little bit of frosting. But as a child, you don't get you don't understand the complexity of multiple flavors combining right on your palate. It's more I just

want this chunk of chocolate cake. It's more like about no one else having it, right, Because what happens is when you lick off the frosting off a cupcake. When it leaves is a slimy coat you don't want saliva, and it glistens in a way that's very unappealing to anyone but you. And then I saved it for you know, and then like, but I did learn when you lick off the frosting of a cupcake and you let that thing sit there for about half an hour, it's not great.

That's what I mean. Like you've ruined it for yourself as well. Yeah, because there's something it's funny because like when you swallow your own spit happens all the time. It's in your mouth. I just did it. It's in your dang mouth. I'm doing it all the time. Happens all the time on this podcast. But if you spit in a cup and then you try to drink it, suggestion, Katie,

how dare you know? I know? But it's like it's like once it's outside your body, once it's on that cupcake, you're like, I got a spit cupcake That's how I learned to not be a wolverine was by my gross spit, Cupcake. That, yeah, that's the thing you had outgrow. I spied myself with my own spittle. It's a lesson that you learn that you taught yourself that spite spit came back to bite in the butt. But those Yeah, so wolverines are the douchy fratbros of nature. They're a large, aggressive member of

the weasel family. Actually, I did not know that. They're carnivores about the size of a medium dog, and they're on the top of their food chains, so they're not typically subject to predators and they're extremely aggressive and ferocious. Uh. Some of their other names are the skunk bear. Uh. Yeah, so they like to excrete musk. From here we go less, there's those anial glands. Again. Their scientific name is golo golo, which is glutton glutton and Latin gala. Yeah. That's cute. Yeah,

like like they're like, no, this is so gluttonous. It's gluttonous. Yeah, it's double gluttonous, double mint wolverine, double mint wolverine. Yeah, wolverine. Yea, in my mind, it's a fake animal, but it's no it's not. It's so it's not just a man with metal fingers metal sorry, between finger blades. It's an actual animal. It's an actual animal, not half man half wolf. Yeah, it's in Romanian. Their name means gluttonous badger. So as

I'm guessing they eat a lot. Yeah, so after they've eaten as much of a carcass as they can possibly gorge upon, they like to pee all over the remnants. Yeah, and it's not actually urine, but like anal gland juices got a lot of it. Yeah, we got a lot of butt juices in the sth it's probably because of their diet. Yeah, it's it's a butt juice heavy episode. He can they eat it after they've juiced it or no? No one nobody can. It seems stupid and it's not.

And like researchers where like are you marking your territory and no, no, it's independent of marking territory. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with being I just don't want anybody else this because like the wolverines really come back to pick over the leftovers, so it's full. Yeah,

it's just to prevent their competition from eating it. Because these this like weird, but p will spoil the and they don't even really have competition, so it's just like, well they have they have like competition with other wolverines, with other wolverines and like other other predators that will be looking for the same prey animals. So even though they are they not hattened personally, they do have hatred in their hearts for other people, other animals. Sorry, they're

not people. They're not they're not people, but they kind of act like some people, and you know, people like yeah, yeah. At the school I went to, there was like the statue that everyone would, like tourists would always clamber around because it was like, oh, this school statue of this famous dude, and uh there's this tradition where you would pee on the statue. Um just just kind of like as a little a little screw you to all the innocent kids that were closing with the statue. Have you

ever pete on that statue? I'm a good girl. Also, I feel like it'd be easier for a guy. It would be easier for a guy unless you it's a summer day and you've got a skirt one you get one of those piss funnels you know you could, you could, yeah, I don't know why you would. But the sheep, he's yeah, the sheep. Yeah. Where it's like it's one of those funnel plastic funnels that like they're like when you're going hiking,

you know. But here's the thing. You know what I'm not going to carry around, you know, I think it's getting covered in peat and then carry it home. You know what else is just as easy finding a bush and squad Yeah yeah, I mean, like you work your core a little bit, but it's not that hard, no bonus points. You can grab onto a tree and just like, you know, secure yourself that. I would rather do that

than like carry around a gross pisne. This is probably saying too much, but I genuinely like paying in the middle of nowhere. I think that's I don't think that's tim I think everyone should. In Iceland last year and there's just a lot of stretches with nothing but the most beautiful landscape and Iceland, I pete all over you. It was wonderful, you claimed Iceland. Now no one can go there. Well, it's yours, it's your continent. You all owe me something, right every time you visit. No one

else can visit Iceland anymore. You've ruined it for everyone, or I've made it better. I don't know. I mean, yeah, I guess that's maybe wolverines think they're like seasoning the food. Maybe like they're so arrogant that they're like this, they're gonna like some of my pe on this food. To be fair, I didn't pay on anything anone was about to eat. But right right, you know, I hear you. Well, if you peeed all over Iceland, though, isn't there food

in Iceland? Yeah? I mean there is. I mean you're taking me very literally all over, I mean, yes, all over right, Like no, so I see it's more like geo cash in your It's like every two miles, right, Okay, that's a reasonable amount. I think of urine to deposit on ice too much. No, it's all right, that's how. That's totally healthy. And I mean, honestly, Iceland sounds like it's made mostly out of water. I can't gonna notice. Yeah, yeah, I don't notice the difference is probably anyway. I bet

people have p before me people. Yeah, I mean, geologists may disagree with me, but I bet the world's like nine dinosaur p at this point. It's gotta be. I'll take you at that dinosaur p and poops. Yeah, gotta be gotta be. That's that is. I'm going to pin my brand on that statement. I die on that hill. Please don't die. So a human wolverine, unfortunately not. Hugh Jackman tried a similar tactic when he was romantically rejected by a woman. The worst fate that could befall any

living creature, apparently, so a Minnesota man. This time, it's not Florida man. Okay, well that's something. Allegedly, he peed in the water bottle of his coworker after she had turned down his advances, and she said she only wanted to remain friends. How absolutely dare she? He may have peed in her water bottle up to fifteen times. That's absurd, That is ridiculous. Even wait, sold different days, Yeah, different days, or he didn't have very much pee and has a

prostate problem, keep going back. Yeah, I don't know. I think it was different days. But also like either he had really good aim or like a really small around, like like how do you just consistently in a water bottle? You get your water bottle pet in fifteen times? And she did like he was caught because she was like this water tastes sort of like rejected man baby pea. Yeah,

um like greg. So he was arrested and he denied doing it until the police were like, you know, we can test for DNA, and when you pee in a bottle, that's a lot of DNA. And then after that he was like, oh, yeah, maybe I did it once or twice or fifteen times. Wow wow. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of ways to respond to being rejected. There's one good way, which is like, oh, I'm sorry to hear that, but I respect your opinion, right, Or there's

this way. So we're going to take a quick break during which I am definitely not going to pee in someone's water bottle. What do you mean that's an oddly specific thing for me to say. Anyways, we'll be right back, Okay, art in my water, So onto our next sin sloth. I know you think our candidate here is well going to be the sloth, but honestly, I think they have

an undeserved reputation. Part of the reason they remain motionless is their diet is made up of leaves that are extremely difficult to digest, so their metabolism is very slow. In fact, their metabolism is so slow they only poop once a week, which is a treacherous journey down to the bottom of the tree. If they were truly lazy, why wouldn't they just poop from up on their tree branch? University of Wisconsin ecologist Jonathan Paully says, it's like if you had to go run a five k on an

interstate before you could go to the bathroom. Traveling down to the base of the tree to poop is a brave risk, But why do they do it? First, you need to know that sloths host a ton of little floora and fauna in their fur, algae and moths among them. These aren't just freeloaders. The green algae, especially, which provides extra nutrients to the sloth it's absorbed through the skin, and moths provide nutrition for the algae to grow, both in waste matter from the moths diet and the decaying

of dead moths. The moths that hit your ride on the sloths also lay their eggs in sloth poop. The larva eats the poop, and when the slavs descend to make more poopoos, the newly hatched moth larva can hit your ride on the sloth, but uber back up the tree. So moths lay their eggs in sloth poopies. Sloths descend to the base of the tree to make more poopies. The sloth larva and the sloth poopoos crawl onto the sloth. Nutrients from the moths be the green algae growing on

the fur of the sloth. The sloth absorbs the nutrients from the green algae. The healthy sloth lives to make more poopies, more moths, more algae, and that's the circle of life. But we're talking about sinners here, not beautiful coexistence. To do that, we're going to take a look at one of the most horrifying parasites in the natural world. So Katie, yes, time to imagine again. Here we go. Imagine that one of your body parts got taken over

by a parasite. Okay, So, like I trying to think of, like what would be the worst body part because like if it was a hand, like in Doctor's Strange Love, like it would always be flopped around thing, I wouldn't love that it's very visible. But I do have another hand, that's true. So there's that you could like tie down that hand and then use your non parasite hands. I mean what yeah, yeah, but if you had both parasites in both hands, that'd be that'd be a problem because

then it'll be like grabbing things and poking people. And so the parasite makes my hand do whatever it wants. Yeah, whatever the parasite wants. Um And like if it was your feet and your legs, that bad, real bad, becau isn't it like walk you over to do weird parasites? And if yeah, the parasites leading me off to do parasites stuff, I don't have anything to do with that.

I mean, that's kind of like what nematodes do to crickets. So, like nematodes that infect crickets make them go crazy, and the crickets jump in pools the water, so the nematodes can go have gross sex in the water and make more nematodes. Wow, yeah, it's super nasty. So how do they do that? Though? They in fact the crickets and then they uh, it's like it messes with the cricket's brain. Sounds like some Hogwarts magic ship. But like if a

parasite infected your eyes. That would suck because then it would just look at whatever could look at gross butts all day and you'd have no choice. So that's what Okay, Yeah, I don't want any of this. I don't know what would be the worst part, right, but I think for me, the grossest body part would be the tongue. Oh yeah, now that you put that in my head. I mean I was going to some other places, but tongue is yeah, yeah, because it's like so intimate. It's like in your mouth,

in your well. I got bad news for fish. I know. I'm so glad I'm not a fish. So there's anice a pod called Simotha exigua, or what is more commonly known as the tongue eating mouse. It has a pretty self explanatory name. It's found in many parts of the ocean, even off the coast of California, and it likes to latch onto a fish's tongue and start systematically sucking the blood and using like these creepy little claws in front that just like scrapes tongue and then just scoops that

blood right into the little paths mouth. Yeah, and sweet kill fish and eat fish is there a chance of that parasite getting into us. Well, it's not going to attack you because it's very specialized. Yeah, you're not a fish. It's very highly specialized. In fact, it only attacks certain species of fish. But like, yeah, fishermen have cotfish and

they found the little house in the fish's mouth. Yeah, so the fish is atrophies due to blood loss because the the little tongue eating louse has been working away at it in the tongue minds. But it's not done with this poor fish. Now it attaches itself to the tongue stumps, muscles and becomes the fishes nude tongue. Oh no, it doesn't. It does. Indeed, it's the only known parasite to replace an entire body part. They've got small little body part, small little tongue. Yeah, I guess so. But

like it's still very impressive. I'm not trying to belittle them. I mean it sounds a little bit like you are. I just was being realistic because I was pretty it was I was imagining my tongue and that's not realistic. That's not the right size. Some of these fish can be. You know, you hold in your hands, it could be like a little bit bigger, not a human size tongue.

It's like a pinky finger. You think that maybe it becomes the tongue so it can steal food out of the fish's mouth, but no, actually it's eaten the fish's tongues. So the fish would normally just die because it's like, I don't have a target, I can't eat any more. I have a poor fish. But like, if the tongue eating louse wants to reproduce, it needs to keep that

fish alive a little longer. So by becoming the tongue, it helps the fish continue to eat because it's going to use the fish as a motel six gross mating area. This is so evil, Yes, it's very evil. So male tongue eating louse will attach themselves to the gills of the fish, and when the female is mature, they'll swim up inside the fish and mate with her in the fish's mouth. You yeah, ill, yeah, they're all in on it. But it's just the men that do the scraping. No,

it's just the females that do the scrape. Females attached to the tongue, they're the ones that that sacked the blood. Uh and she'll give birth to a brood of live male tongue eating louses and they'll swim off to and a new host. Uh. And then she abandons ship or fish and it's just left tongue less and to die after all this horrible sex has happened inside of its body. It's a real violation, and that's right of that fish's life,

spite of its space. Yeah, but I bet you're wondering, like, how does this species continue if it only gives birth to males. Yes, I was thinking that it is a good question that I just said that you asked. So they're actually hermaphroditic, And so when males attached to the gills of a victim fish, if they sense that there's no female, they're one of them is going to become a female and swim up that fish and attach itself to the tongue so the beautiful cycle can begin a

new that's wild. Yeah. See, I'm standing by my earlier thing about fearful of the stuff below the water. Yeah, but I mean it's only going to happen if you're a fish, and actually just a specific kind of know what's happening. The ones that replace the whole tongue attacks. They're called rose snappers. They're off the coast of Mexico, and those are the only ones that replaced the whole tongue.

But there are there are other like tongue eating louses. Yeah, some of them attack clownfish and yeah, they're they're all gross looking. Great, Yeah, good to know. Yeah, I'm afraid of getting a fish and finding that like in the in the fish like you've ordered fish to eat. Yeah, because I mean, I guess because I know about it, and knowledge is power. All at least know what it is. It's ignorance is bliss. But can you imagine not knowing and you're just this fish's tongue has eyes like you know,

an alien? Like you ever eat a fish with the head and would you eat that? Okay, Katie, I mean if you can't look a dead fish in the eye and eat its cheekbone, muscles, then you know you're right. I'm never gonna eat a fish again. It's funny because she's a vegetarian. I do sometimes eat fish. You're a piscitarian. I've recently tried it. Then it's hard for me. I still think about and about the grossness of the meat. I understand that. I actually have a couple of my

friends for vegetarians. It's the same thing where it's like they would be okay with maybe eating some meat sometimes, but they can't actually deal with the texture of it well. And I understand that because I can't deal with shrimp texture really well because like to me, it tastes like a mean, gross marine bug, and I am, well, that's

what it is. Yeah. And actually, so like these these tongue eating louses, they're they're isopods, and that's related to um pillbugs, you know, or I don't know, really pulling. Some people call them um I call them both. Yeah. Yeah, those little ones like you poke them and they roll up in a ball. It's pretty cute. They're like little insect head. So that's what these parasites look like. Similar but a lot grosser. There. Youre white, they're bigger, but

they roll up like that. They have that they don't roll up, but they do have that sort of like bendy. I can picture them being tongue yeah, yeah, yeah, you can yuck. Yuck. Thank you. Try not to imagine that you're not going to be able to do it. I'm sorry, it's okay, I need an excuse to not eat fish. Is sloth truly a deadly sin? In humans? Well, there was such a thing as a sleeping sickness, not the kind transmitted by the seats fly, but something that is

neurological and a medical puzzle. In the early nine hundreds, a disease known as encephalitis lethargica affected millions around the world, many of whom died as a result, and sephalitis means inflammation of the brain, and lethargica describes the main symptom of the disease, stream lethargy. Oliver Sacks described the disease hauntingly, quote, they would be conscious and aware, yet not fully awake.

They would sit motionless and speechless all day in their chair, totally lacking energy, impetus, initiative mode of appetite, effect, or desire. They registered what went on around them without active attention and with profound indifference. They neither conveyed nor felt the feeling of life. They were as insubstantial as ghosts and

as passive as zombies. According to the National Institute of Health, symptoms of the disease included high fever, headache, double vision, delayed physical and mental response, lethargy, abnormal eye movements, upper body weakness, muscular pains, tremors, neck rigidity, psychosis, and coma. You'll notice I'm using the past tense, so I'm sure you're hoping we cured the disease. Well, not exactly. The epidemic ended and has not recurred, but not because it

was cured. In fact, we don't know the cause, why the epidemic ended, and what the hell is going on or if it will happen again. There have been isolated cases since the epidemics, so the disease is not gone from the face of the earth. The most we know about it is from pathological studies of these rare cases that show inflammation of the midbrain and basil ganglia. Otherwise, it's still mostly a mystery that have left researchers and

doctors scratching there, hopefully not inflamed heads. I know what you're thinking, Katie. You can't count for ship. Those were only three deadly sins, how dare you? Well, don't you worry. We'll be back with more deadly sins when we return with season two of Creature Feature Hi. I got you with the cliffhanger you'll just have to wait and anticipation to find out what the other deadly sins are. Wait no, don't google them spoilers anyways, that's right. This is the

final episode of season one, but don't worry. We'll be back really soon with season two. Just to give you a little sneak peek, one of the Sinners will discuss our birds who cheat on their partners in a way that is arrested. Development levels are messed up, and it's such a scientific enigma that researcher have said, quote it's a little bit of a black box what's actually happening inside the female unfortunately, So join us soon for season two of Creature Feature. So, Katie, thank you so much

for joining me. Thanks for having me. So you got anything to plug? Uh? Yeah, I mean you can check me out on Even More News, my podcast that I co host with Cody Johnston who's been on the show before. Um, and check out our YouTube show Some More News. I'm on the Twitter, you know, find me there. That's probably it's really all I have to plug. Yeah, Katie Stole is the name Katie, That's right. Don't you dare say Katie? I e because because the whole name, but it's a

different name. Yeah, it's that's gonna be me. Did you ever think that you had a unique name? Probably when I was a baby, and then after that it's like downhill from there. Up until high school, I hadn't met another Katie really, and now school can hit. I knew another Katie in high school and she'd punched me in the stomach. Well, you should test on on I know at least he should, so join us soon for a season two. You can follow us on Twitter at Creature Feet Pod. It's fat as in a great feat, not

beat as in stinky feet. You can follow us on Facebook and also check out our website Creature feature pod dot com. And you can find me on Twitter at Katie Golden. And also I would highly recommend you follow at pro bird Rites, which you know is totally me pretending to be a bird and not a bird pretending to be a human. Also, I'd like to thank the Space Cossics for letting us use their excellent song Excelumina.