Though we have spent hundreds of years imagining dinosaurs as reptilian roarers, our understanding of what dinos may have actually looked and sounded like has evolved. A new study published in Nature reveals that dinosaurs may have been far less aggressive, vocally speaking, eschewing gigantic roars for a much more subtle coo or a duck’s quack. Jeff and Anthony discuss all of the misinformation about dinosaurs, and how quacking would change their cultural appeal. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOU...
Oct 24, 2016•22 min•Ep. 344
An international study found that chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans seem to have the ability to see the world from someone else's point of view, even when they know that point of view is dead wrong — a trait that once was considered uniquely human It's called theory of mind, or the ability to know that others have different beliefs and perspectives. Jeff and Anthony talk about animal intelligence, and the concept of "false thoughts". GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://p...
Oct 21, 2016•23 min•Ep. 343
After he was killed by a blow to the face about 9,000 years ago, the 23-year-old hunter was laid to rest in a limestone cave in what is now southwestern England. Now, say scientists astonishingly bridging 90 centuries and 300 generations, they have found a direct descendant of the Stone Age man. He lives half a mile from the burial site and teaches history. Anthony and Jeff marvel at this story of time and space, and contemplate the merits of staying close to where your family has always been. G...
Oct 19, 2016•22 min•Ep. 342
Travellers are used to lost luggage, booking errors and on-board delays - but now an American airline is being sued for mixing up two children and sending them to the wrong cities. Jeff and Anthony discuss this astonishing error, and try to compare their own travel woes. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment...
Oct 17, 2016•21 min•Ep. 341
Every swear word in the English language has been ranked in order of offensiveness. The UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, interviewed more than 200 people across the UK on how offensive they find a vast array of rude and offensive words and insults. Jeff and Anthony take a journey through the list to discuss why some words are worse than others. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http:...
Oct 14, 2016•23 min•Ep. 340
Cornish fish moving north with climate change may struggle to understand Scouse counterparts, study says, making it harder for them to mate. Experts believe the fish, which make sounds with their swim bladders to attract mates, may have regional accents – and if males cannot “chat up” females who speak a different dialect it could threaten their ability to breed. Jeff and Anthony discuss the idea of animal dialects, and what it might mean for nature. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. ...
Oct 12, 2016•23 min•Ep. 339
There’s been a wave of creepy clown sightings across the United States. Going back to late August, there have been dozens of reports of threatening clowns, largely centered around schools and colleges. Anthony and Jeff weigh in on this phenomenon. Is it cause for worry, or just a media circus? GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the sho...
Oct 10, 2016•21 min•Ep. 338
An 80-year-old woman said she felt like a prisoner in her own home after she was attacked repeatedly by a flock of seagulls. Barbara Cox was targeted by the birds while putting her washing out with one gripping her leg and another gouging at it. Anthony and Jeff know a thing or two about #bridprankz, so they tackle this case, to get to the bottom of this classic avian practical joke GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have C...
Oct 07, 2016•19 min•Ep. 337
In the latest journal of Aging a UCLA genetics team recorded age-related changes to human DNA, calculating the biological age of blood and estimated a person’s lifespan. More often than not they found that the biological age was a better indicator of life expectancy than the person’s actual age. Anthony and Jeff discuss whether our DNA will determine our lifespan, and, if so, what we should do about it. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all...
Oct 05, 2016•21 min•Ep. 336
In a unique, home-spun experiment, researchers found that the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster at Disney's Magic Kingdom could help people pass kidney stone before they become a serious health-care cost. Jeff and Anthony discuss how these scientists came to their conclusion, and using theme parks to treat maladies of all kinds. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveco...
Oct 03, 2016•22 min•Ep. 335
Scientists from Deakin University in Melbourne published their findings about a new drug that mimics some of the most important effects of exercise. They were able to show that overweight mice who were given the drug no longer showed signs of cardiovascular disease. Jeff and Anthony debate the merits of a pill that can make unhealthy lifestyles safe, and wonder what the future might look like if it really works. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcern...
Sep 30, 2016•27 min•Ep. 334
A 100-year-old tortoise named Touche, owned by the same 60-year-old woman since she was five years old, went missing from his home for 10 days before being found more than six miles away. Anthony and Jeff discuss the concept of a pet that can outlive you, and other surprising turtle tales. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, p...
Sep 28, 2016•25 min•Ep. 333
The Movile Cave in Romania, just a few miles west from the Black Sea, has been sealed up for around 5.5 million years. Although the air in it is poisonous and unbearably humid, scientists have so far identified 48 species – 33 of which are totally unique to this one cave. Jeff and Anthony discuss the lost world of this cave, what it means, and whether they would delve into such a deep, harsh place. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your...
Sep 26, 2016•24 min•Ep. 332
Russian scientists have driven away polar bears that besieged their weather station on an island in the Arctic Ocean for two weeks. After five scientists based at the weather station on Troynoy island, in the Kara Sea north of Siberia, were encircled by 10 adult bears and some cubs, a nearby ship was able to reach the island and supply the scientists with dogs and flares to scare off the bears. Anthony and Jeff discuss the predicament and wonder what they might do faced with the same challenge. ...
Sep 23, 2016•22 min•Ep. 331
Jeff is back! And he's an honest-to-goodness real life Dad! Anthony takes a moment to check in on the experience of bringing a new Cannata into the world. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And he...
Sep 21, 2016•33 min•Ep. 330
Security researchers Abdul Serwadda and Richard Matovu recently tested a pair of EEG authentication systems to see if it was possible to identify personal information from anonymous brainwave scans. The pair created a machine learning system that compared the new brainwaves scans to EEG scans from a group of known alcoholics -- and the machine successfully identified 25-percent of persons who identified themselves as alcoholics in the new sample. Anthony and guest host Kris Straub wonder if this...
Sep 14, 2016•21 min•Ep. 329
A man who spent the last two years raising two beloved pet dogs has had a bit of a shock. The pair of 'puppies' Wang Kaiyu bought and raised at his home in Maguan County in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, have turned out to be two Asian black bears. Anthony and special guest Kris Straub fill in for Jeff as he becomes a new Dad, and discuss the level of delusion required to mistake bears for puppies. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all ...
Sep 12, 2016•22 min•Ep. 328
Firefighters in Norway have pulled a man from the inside of a toilet after he lowered himself in to retrieve a friend's phone and became stuck in the tank below. Oh yes, the story gets much worse from there. Anthony and Jeff discuss the concept of diving into a toilet after a phone, and the depths of friendships. Not an episode for the squeamish. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://w...
Sep 09, 2016•23 min•Ep. 327
For Hermit crabs, suitable shells are hard to come by. So they have come up with an ingenious scheme. When a crab happens upon a shell, it scopes it out – and when it is too big, the crab sits and waits, sometimes up to eight hours. More crabs show up to check out the potential new digs, and for those whom the shell is too big, they line up and wait. And get this, they line up in size order. Up to 20 crabs, lined up biggest to smallest, waiting for just-the-right–size crab to appear. Jeff is blo...
Sep 07, 2016•24 min•Ep. 326
A new study, published in Elementa, looks at the consequences of switching the U.S. to different kinds of diet, from full vegan to various kinds of egg and cheese-supplemented vegetarian diets. And the results show that a completely vegan food chain would actually feed fewer people. Anthony and Jeff discuss the responsibility we all have as eaters, and how much that should play into our decisions. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your ...
Sep 05, 2016•24 min•Ep. 325
Surgeons in India extracted 40 knives from inside the body of a police officer during a rare, five-hour operation. Surjeet Singh suffers from an uncontrollable urge to consume knives and had swallowed the knives over several months. Jeff and Anthony discuss strange compulsions, and what life must be like for someone with this condition. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconce...
Sep 02, 2016•21 min•Ep. 324
For the most part, numbers are simply cold indicators, unable of expressing menace or guile, but then there’s Belphegor’s Prime, a supposedly sinister numeric palindrome that has a number of odd qualities. Or at least that’s what one mathematician would have you believe. Jeff and Anthony discuss the lore surrounding one simple prime number, and get hip to the cool world of math. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Conce...
Aug 31, 2016•18 min•Ep. 323
What if every animal on the planet has suddenly woken up a rational, self-aware being? Would one creature come to rule all others, much as we humans have done, or would our varied kind arrive at some sort of peaceful, enlightened coexistence? The thought experiment is the subject of a BBC Future article that has Anthony and Jeff wondering what that kind of world might be like. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concern...
Aug 29, 2016•21 min•Ep. 322
Sweden is largely a cashless society, with consumers relying on mobile phone payments or plastic. While the U.S. is still far from achieving the same level of cash-free existence, increasing numbers of restaurants and retailers are now refusing to accept the bills. Jeff and Anthony discuss the pros and cons of a cashless existence to decide the future of payments. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by sw...
Aug 26, 2016•21 min•Ep. 321
Luke Aikins plummeted from 25,000 feet above the desert landscape of California's Simi Valley without a parachute, landing squarely in a 100 feet x 100 feet, two-tiered net set up to catch him. He nailed the landing at 120 mph -- terminal velocity, solidifying his position as a Total Brock. Jeff and Anthony have lots of experience with Brocks, and proceed to rate Luke's achievement on the Brock scale. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all y...
Aug 24, 2016•24 min•Ep. 320
Despite reported differences in appearance and behavior, DNA evidence finds that Namibian desert elephants share the same DNA as African savanna elephants. But differences in behavior show that they pass on their unique knowledge and survival skills to future generations by teaching their young. Fascinating, right? Listen, then, as Anthony attempts to completely derail this very interesting story and Jeff keeps trying to talk about it. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://p...
Aug 22, 2016•19 min•Ep. 319
A Frenchman is suing his former employer for "bore out" - boredom's equivalent of burnout - which he says turned him into a "professional zombie". Frederic Desnard wants 360,000 euros for being "killed professionally through boredom" by his 80,000-euro-a-year job as an executive in a perfume business. But is "bore out" real? Anthony and Jeff try to discuss whether boredom is even a thing... without being boring. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcern...
Aug 19, 2016•22 min•Ep. 318
Melbourne-based artist Patricia Piccinini has created a life-sized sculpture of what a human being would have to look like in order to survive a car crash. The result is a grotesquely mutated human with numerous internal and external changes to his physiology, and is meant to highlight how ill-equipped humans are to handle even slow-speed accidents. Jeff and Anthony take a good long look at this creature and decided if the evolution might be worth it. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE....
Aug 17, 2016•17 min•Ep. 317
There’s a cockroach that gives birth to live young, and it produces a “milk” that scientists want humans to drink. Jeff and Anthony talk about drinking human milk, drinking cow's milk, and the potential of drinking cockroach milk, and try to decide which is the most off-putting concept. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, plea...
Aug 15, 2016•18 min•Ep. 316
Police in Michigan have a new tool for unlocking phones: 3D printing. Law enforcement officers approached a professor at Michigan State earlier this year to reproduce a murder victim’s fingerprint from a prerecorded scan. Once created, the 3D model would be used to create a false fingerprint, which could be used to unlock the phone. Jeff and Anthony consider a world in which facsimiles are used to fight crime. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns ...
Aug 12, 2016•17 min•Ep. 315
