Recently the Supreme Court of Canada clarified what constitutes bestiality, and apparently it must involve penetration. But this raises a host of new questions, including the issue of the peanut butter loophole. Are you for or against it? On this week's Nature Walk, we resume our Who's That Bird non-bird edition contest with round 3. Feel free to play along, by trying to guess what the nonbird looks like, what it is trying to communicate, and what a group of the nonbird is called. Fair warning t...
Feb 01, 2017•16 min
T-Bone brings up a recent episode on Vice featuring FMT: fecal matter transplants. Yup, it's that kind of episode. But before you flee in terror, this is a legitimate topic, honest. Turns out that for a subset of people, FMT is a real life-changer. And some animals (horses, rabbits, and assassin bugs) have their own version of FMT, but it usually involves eating instead of enemas. Is your neighbor giving you top-quality material? Whatever your situation, we hope you celebrate your microbiome the...
Dec 13, 2016•14 min
Have you had enough of the Mongolians? I bet you haven't, and we're here to help. We start this week's episode with some technical insight into sound production for Bollywood films. It turns out that Bollywood is doing some things regarding audio recording inefficiently, and losing ambience and texture in sounds as it does it. (We briefly get sidetracked by ewoks and cricket, but soon return to the core topic thanks to an audio intervention that we're too lazy and cheap to overdub.) Anyway, in a...
Nov 02, 2016•14 min
We begin this week by discussing the many sporting achievements of famous Mongolians. By many, we mean really 3, which is not to insult Mongolia but rather to reflect our quickly performed poor research on a Wikipedia page, which, incidentally, actually only named 2/3 of the athletes we discuss. Then most of the episode is devoted to another edition of Foody Goody, in which we continue our ongoing (and of indeterminate length) contest, "What am I eating and drinking and toasting?" This week John...
Sep 16, 2016•16 min
After an unexpected but somehow still predictable delay, welcome to Season 11! Wow. We start with Foody Goody, but trust me, you won't want to be eating yourself while you listen. At least not at the start. Yuck. Anyway, feel free to skip ahead to 02:40, and you'll hear us conduct round 3 of "What am I eating and what am I drinking and toasting to?" This time, T-Bone will do the eating and drinking and toasting. Play along! See if you can understand why gum is like a popsicle, because one of the...
Jun 16, 2016•14 min
While adjusting T-Bone's audio, we accidentally start to consider the many ways in which humans like donuts. You may be surprised to hear some of them! Inevitably, that discussion leads us to flatworms, of course. If you're not aware of hypodermic insemination, or haven't thought about how it might affect a lonely worm, you are in for a real treat. And, in a strange departure from most of our content, some of the material we bring up is actually pretty close to true. You can probably figure it o...
Apr 01, 2016•9 min
After another transparent attempt at generating internet traffic, Warren explains his admiration for the Coors shotgun can, which persists in spite of his dislike for the beer itself. Find out how Warren does physiotherapy on himself to get ready for hockey, and the danger with three syllable words. You never know what's gonna happen! At least sometimes. Anyway, without much by way of transitional material, we somehow move on to the weirdness of Penn and Jillette's names. Are you mononymous? If ...
Feb 09, 2016•11 min
In this special Tedmas edition of Foody Goody, this year we establish the "burger" as "traditional holiday food". But how do we define a burger? If you think this is straightforward, you haven't thought about it enough. Does it need toppings? What are acceptable patty constituents? What shape should the patty take? Hot? Cold? Cooking method? So many problems! Never fear, though, T-bone comes up with an elegant solution for you after we whip up so many questions � consider it a Tedmas gift, from ...
Dec 18, 2015•13 min
Welcome to another edition of Inventions and Shit! John starts the segment with a suggestion for a new food product based on a geometry pun, and that somehow leads us to the pedagogical consequences of improper mathematical terms by fast food franchises. Obviously. The we resume our contest �Who's that bird?� contest (non-bird edition) with round two. As always, we encourage you to play along. See if you can discern what the non-bird looks like, is doing, and what you should call its group. If y...
Nov 24, 2015•17 min
We present for your consideration a new social problem: Warren was reaching for a food item from the top shelf at the grocery store, and some guy on a mobility scooter offered to help him reach. How do you think Warren handled this? Yup, you're right. It was awkward for a number of reasons that have to do with both the situation and Warren's reaction to it. This leads us naturally into a Name Five Things segment: what are other similar situations where someone disadvantaged offers to help you an...
Oct 16, 2015•14 min
We had some technical difficulties this week, which required Luc to type most of his contributions (but the laughing seems to work, most of the time). See if you can tell the difference, huh? In the episode, we start a new contest: Who's That Bird? (Non Bird Edition). Warren awards three points per round: one point for describing the non-bird's appearance, another point for identifying what the non-bird is trying to convey by making the sound, and a third point for naming the collective noun tha...
Sep 02, 2015•13 min
We start out this episode with great difficulty refining the title, but we get there eventually... sort of. Then we ponder what would happen if everybody lost the ability or capability to hiccup. This leads to an interesting discussion about drinking water upside, thumps, and horse magazines. And we also get side-tracked by famous Italian cartoon star, Mr. Hiccup - although he should probably be called Mr. Singhiozzo. Email us at [email protected] if you think the hiccup extinction has...
Jul 22, 2015•14 min
In this episode's Nature Walk (with a dramatic echo), Warren describes a recent study of cockroaches (cool!) in which the studied shelter choice in cockroaches. (Ame et al., 2006, PNAS) Thanks for the science, folks! In their study, the authors released 50 cockroaches into a cage containing three enclosures that could contain 40 cockroaches each. The cockroaches split evenly to occupy two of the three shelters (25 in each shelter). When the shelters were enlarged to accommodate more than fifty, ...
Jun 26, 2015•12 min
Are you ready for a pineapple show? Well, if not, don't worry. This whole show is designed to get you ready for the pineapple show, I guess. Somehow we start the hype by talking about our guest DJ, Jacco Macacco. If you haven't yet heard about Jacco, you're in for a (somewhat horrifying) treat! The late 1790s were apparently full of spectacles that far surpass anything in modern sport, provided you're not averse to unnecessarily inhumane fuckery. Poor Jacco, and poor Puss! If you're not totally ...
May 07, 2015•16 min
In this week's edition of Name 5 Things, we try to name five phobias that are probably too specific to be an actual concern. For example, the fear of peeing your pants in a colour other than yellow while being covered from head to toe in processed cheese. Turns out the processed cheese bit is essential to making this particular phobia too specific no matter what kind of pants you are wearing. Anyway, we discover that one way to make a phobia more specific is to add a locational qualifier. But if...
Apr 01, 2015•13 min
This show is an extended episode of Urban Legend: did you know that in the middle ages, it was fashionable to serve a gelatin dessert made from the party host's nail clippings, which would impart a flavour of the host to the guests? Well, it's apparently upsettingly true, even if the details of preparing this kind of specialty have been lost to time. We spend a lot of time considering how long a guy would have to collect his trimmings to host a party, and this musing leads to an unfortunately ho...
Mar 03, 2015•11 min
We kick off the new year with an Urban Legend: did you know that before every game, famous Canadian basketballer Steve Nash watches the final game in the movie Teen Wolf for inspiration? He also has a fondness for fat basketball players (attribution: see the movie), and would like to change his team name. And he likes passing. Without much by way of transitional material, at some stage, Warren suggests an email innovation for the postal service, which is either genius or ridiculous. You pick! If...
Jan 16, 2015•14 min
Merry Tedmas, everyone! After a long hiatus, in honour of the season we return to the Superhero's Phone Booth for a special festive Tedmas session. The superhero is� Candy Cane Boy! He runs around poking people with his magical candy cane, and anyone he pokes who has been naughty instantly disintegrates into a snowy white powder (not sugar, just burned human). Candy Cane Boy then snorts the disintegrated naughty person, for some reason. I will quote Warren, who explains, "He's a dark hero." And ...
Dec 17, 2014•14 min
This episode we finally take another nature walk! The topic this week: unicorns. OK, so maybe it's not as natural as usual, but there's a lot of undiscovered country concerning unicorns, so it's a rich vein to mine. Much of our discussion focuses on the proper dimensions of things: how many cubits per horn, how big a unicorn sleeping kennel should be, how long a wingspan you need to fly or glide over someone holding a piss trampoline, etc. If you want to contest any of our conclusions about unic...
Nov 26, 2014•14 min
By the time you get through the intro, you'll be suspecting something awful is coming your way. Aaaaannndd, you're right. We start by talking about deep fried things, but then the discussion takes a sharp turn to the nasty. Sorry, but we need to get this out of our system (ahem) every once and a while. For those of you who don't like discussions of bodily functions, you're probably not a regular listener, right? Anyways, after explaining the rules to a twisted legendary Australian game, Warren r...
Oct 28, 2014•14 min
As promised, and perhaps much sooner than expected (since we don't encourage expectations of any sort), we present for you, round 3 of What am I eating? We're increasing some constraints, and relaxing others: now one of us needs to eat a food and a drink, plus toast someone, but it no longer has to be something we would all eat. Are you satisfied, Josh? You shouldn't be, because this is just the beginning, and although we make some progress towards resolving the final scores, only a psychic coul...
Sep 18, 2014•17 min
We start this week with the increasingly irregular mailsack segment, where loyal listener Josh sends in a complimentary email, but prods us to complete at long last our "What am I eating?" contest. The incredibly loyal and patient listeners among you will know that we began the contest with two editions quite some time ago, but never really got around to the requisite additional editions we need to determine the winner. Sadly, on the way to addressing Josh's email we get a bit distracted, and ca...
Aug 05, 2014•16 min
This week Warren presents us with a real quandary in Foody Goody: what is the difference between soup and tea? If you think this is easy, hold on! It's a lot more complicated than you think, and most of the criteria we first propose are clearly violated by one or more exceptions that disprove the rule. Consider the following questions: "If you made a soup only out of leaves, would that be tea?"; "If you eat the tea leaves, does that make it soup?"; "Does it matter what part of the meal the tea/s...
Jun 13, 2014•14 min
To begin, Warren asks us to name 5 pairs of words, that if they were anagrams, would work well in a dyslexia joke. Turns out this is a pretty tough assignment when one has limited inspiration. See if you can better our contributions (I'll bet you can), and email us with your suggestions: [email protected]. Then, in Polish the Bishop, Warren asks us to come up with a word for the near-universal urinal stand-off that occurs when two guys are trying to pee at the urinals in a public toile...
May 15, 2014•14 min
We kick off a brand new season with a new edition from our "staggeringly popular" segment, "How about that?" Warren describes the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the trial of a 17th century "habitual troublemaker" (great job if you can get it) George Spencer, who was convicted of bestiality (sort of � listen for the details) on the basis of dubious testimony from a stillborn piglet and himself, and possible also on the basis of his appearance. Did I mention this is not an Urban Legen...
Mar 20, 2014•13 min
Warren starts by clicking on a testicular cancer mascot this week, and this makes us wonder whether Senhor Testiculo has a prominent mole, or whether it's just an ear, or his balls (do balls have balls?), or his arms. Or maybe just a gaping wound where he was severed from the rest of the body? As promised, here's a link so you can judge for yourself: http://www.limitedappeal.net/extras/photos.html Then, in Urban Legend, Warren explains the origin of the word butterfly: in middle Dutch-land and G...
Feb 07, 2014•10 min
Happy Tedmas everyone! It's that time of year when we try to include and alienate everyone in our special annual Tedmas show. Hard to believe it's Tedmas time already, but there it is. One minute you're soaking up the sun, the next you have to put up your shed. Unless you live in the southern hemisphere, in which case, you're possibly still in the sun, or unless you have no shed in your basement, in which case, you can just sit under your house stilts. Warren points out how we have until now bee...
Dec 17, 2013•11 min
WWHHHAAAAAANNNNNNNNNHHHHH! Yup, that's the sweet sound of Scotland. While the ringing in your ears dies down a bit, here's a twisty-twist on Urban Legend: Warren will present an urban legend, and then claim his own story is bullshit, and then we need somehow to contradict him: many years ago in Scotland, a common pub game involved grabbing or punching the stomach or genitals in an attempt to encourage audible burping or farting. Plausible, isn't it? Then, in Dictionary Plus, Warren suggests a ne...
Dec 02, 2013•13 min
How much Limited Appeal is there, if you wanted a podcast marathon? We never actually tell you, but it's a lot. We're talking morning, noon, night, bullshit, bullshit bullshit, bullshit, bullshit bullshit bullshit. Somehow this prompts Warren to audibly crank up his podcast machine to check. On another topic entirely, have you been paintballing? If you've never heard of this, it's not nearly as degenerate as it sounds: just a bunch of folks pretending to shoot each other while pretending that th...
Oct 28, 2013•10 min
Did you know that you can't slip someone a valium? Well, you could, but it wouldn't be effective. This is important if you're trying to secretly get someone to relax. Note this is not exactly the placebo, because there's an element of subject awareness to the effectiveness, apparently. It's pretty fucking confusing, and perhaps (what do you know?) bullshit. How about that? Maybe part of the standard placebo trialing should involve subterfuge. We think Hrobjartsseon and Gotzsche have a lot to ans...
Sep 20, 2013•12 min
