110 - Alcohol: A Totally Scientific Experiment

Here we are, season finale! This has been crazy. 
First, let's talk about the episode. This episode was in the works since the show's conception. It was to be a fun episode where we get hammered and knock down every booze myth we come across, but, well, it was much more sobering than expected. If you watch the video, you can likely see my mood change from surprised to worried after I see myself blow a lower BAC than without charcoal in my mouth. It floored me, but then all the sense started falling into place. Think Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, except dumb and less schizo.

My line of work involves removing impurities via activated carbon, including gases. My only hiccup in confirmation that there were no direct studies I could cite involving specifically exhaled breath and ethanol. But if carbon can adsorb gaseous or aerosol alcohols, breath isn't a stretch.

Now, we said this in the episode already, but trying to pull a fast one with activated charcoal is still a bad idea. Judging by muly repeat test, you could only get away with having a 0.09 or 0.08 BAC before the charcoal is negated. Not to mention, as you may have seen, the charcoal leaves you looking like you just gave the smog monster the night of it's life. Cops will suspect something and take you in anyway. Plus, it tastes fucking terrible. Trust me.

That being said, we're totally doing more video for future episodes. It was fun as hell. This season has been fun as hell. When I first thought about putting my less than radio-worthy voice on air, I never dreamed I would have such great partners to share the experience with. Greg and Josh are powerhouses, and this wouldn't work nearly as well without them. And the reception! Oh man, the reception! It's surreal that now hundreds of people have heard me talk about pissing my pants. What a life! Thank you to everyone that has tuned in. We have plenty more in store for you. I'd love to tell you immediately, but I'd be slapped by two people in particular. For now, keep a look out for some supplemental episodes, or check our our extremely friendly podcast family at darkmyths.org. So much greatness there.

All of you are amazing, see you soon.

-Ryan

109 - Remedies: How Carrots Won the War

Greetings, listenerland!

This episode really gets to the heart and soul of the podcast. Almost every episode that we have done is rooted in some sort of remedies or old wives’ tale. When it came time to hash out what we were going to cover it was really exciting to see the podcast, in a sense, come full circle.

That was until we started to research these topics on hand. Apparently people took these rumors, myths, and misconceptions for face value and just ran with it. Thanks a lot science.

We assumed that things like lemon juice dying hair, ginger being used for motion sickness, and tomato juice neutralizing skunk smell would be easy to cover with no problem. We could not have been more wrong.

Finding the origins of these remedies also proved as a daunting task. They have been passed along orally from various sources that we almost needed carbon dating to find any mention of them as we scoured high and low. This was also coupled with the science itself was frustrating so it kind of became a moot point. We found some mentions sporadically but nothing concrete enough to present their evolution.

The one topic I was very glad that we covered was the chicken pox for oatmeal. That was the lone subject that I could vouch for personally. It was a home remedy I used when I was a kid when I caught the chicken pox virus. I can confirm that it did work and the younger me could not be happier.

Even though the research was heavier and more involved than previous episodes, we really enjoyed dismantling these remedies and approaching them as subjectively as possible. It’s hard not to be skeptic approaching these from a science oriented perspective, but we were pleasantly surprised with the end result. We hoped you learned something from this episode because we most certainly did. If nothing else, we hope to be educational and informative. Thanks a lot for listening.

-Jos   

107 - Drugs: "Butt Hash"

Drugs is one of those things that people have very strong convictions about, and they rightfully should. You don’t have to look hard to find someone who wants to talk about the legalization of marijuana or how drugs are a tragic downfall of society. It’s such an encompassing word that has many different avenues to travel down that it’s almost like arguing about religion

With that in mind, we tried to strictly narrow down our field of study to hallucinogens. Outside of jenkem, which was a wild ride of stupidity, all of what we talked about were Schedule I controlled substances. We will be revisiting drugs in the next two seasons; specifically diving into uppers and downers. 

From an ethical standpoint, we really wanted to emphasize that we were basing everything we covered on scientific facts without imposing our personal opinions. I don’t feel that was relevant to the podcast and didn’t serve any benefit for any party involved.

Now for me personally, this episode was fascinating. Coming into this episode, I knew a fair amount about drugs and some specifications about their LD50. But getting the physical numbers on things like overdosing on MDMA or weed really put into perspective how specific chemicals react with our bodies and how much our bodies can take of different hallucinogens. I really enjoyed Ryan talking about the amount of THC that has been added over the years to marijuana. I was floored to learn how potent it is today compared to what people experienced when it became a mainstream drug. Once I started researching more about ecstasy, it completely shattered my previous notions about what it does to our brains and serotonin levels. Overall, it was a great learning experience.

When it came to licking toads, I wasn’t surprised to learn that people have constructed “user guides” on how to properly extract psychoactive substances. On top of that, it was no surprise that people created the abomination that is jenkem as a means to get high. I guess when you’re in a pinch to get your fix, anything is possible even if it involves your own urine and feces fermenting in an open space. 

All in all, covering this topic was fun and informative. It was a fine line for us to walk with giving out information on what can be a taboo subject at times. We hope you enjoyed the episode and look forward to jumping back into more myths about drugs in the near future. 

-Josh

101 - Disney: Death and Turkey Legs

When brainstorming ideas for the Rumor Flies podcast, Ryan and I tossed around a lot of ideas for a jumping off point. After a couple of cold ones and some Rocket League relaxation, it was an almost euphoric reaction when the subject of Disney came up. Both of us immediately knew this was where we wanted to breach the world of podcasting and hopefully lay the foundation of this podcast.

As a little aside about me, the Walt Disney Company is something that has always been part of my life. I grew up visiting the theme parks in Orlando multiple times a year for as long as can remember walking. My parents gobbled up every possible VHS they could get their hands on before they were locked up in the vault for my brother, sister, and family to enjoy. Hell, my mother worked for the Disney Store, and eventually Disney World, throughout my adolescence. To say that Disney was a major influence on my perspective of the world would be a gross understatement. 

For the sake of transparency, I’ll come clean and admit that I didn’t have to engross myself in research like most other subjects that we eventually covered. That’s not to say I didn’t do my due diligence, but most of the subject matter we chose wasn’t foreign to me. I’ve always been fascinated with Disney and how it has been a major impact on the world around me. I’ve spent countless nights reading message boards of rumors of the parks or watching Youtube videos of attractions of yesteryear. Some people are fascinated with WWII or the American Revolution, but it was always about Walt Disney for me. 

The most terrifying aspect of the podcast wasn’t sitting in front of the microphone for the first time, it was knowing how much hostility I would endure if I royally screwed this up. I know my friends and family were going to hang on my every word and be my harshest critiques. Looking back on it, I would like to believe that I did them proud.At the end of the day, I think that we picked a great first episode.

People have strong convictions about the company but that doesn’t necessarily mean all sunshine and rainbows. As I sit here racking my brain, I’ve never met an individual that has ever been apathetic about that Disney. It has left a mark on society that other companies can only dream of emulating. Ryan, Greg, and I managed to be engaging and informative about different avenues of the parks that people may not have been privy to before listening to the podcast. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves for our first episode and I hope that we delivered. We hope you enjoyed our first episode. Have a magical day.

-Josh

104 - Sports: Trippin' Pitchin' is Driving me Madden

Finding myths and tall tales in sports is not a very daunting task if you follow them closely. Most people know Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan; two great athletes who revolutionized their sport and have so many different stories about them. As a lifelong sports fan and someone who grew memorizing stats and collecting football cards, I was elated Ryan and Greg were game to record an episode revolving around sports.

The hardest part about this episode is deciding which avenue I wanted to steer us towards that would be fascinating but also add some flair for everyone to enjoy. I wanted a healthy mix of renowned sports myths, but bring to the table some lesser known stories that haven’t had a lot of light shed on them. That’s why I was drawn to the legend of Wade Boggs pounding beers and he military officer who was poisoned from a golf tee. Doc Ellis was an easy choice as well, in addition to Gaylord Perry. I felt like we had a nice cocktail of different lores that people would find interesting.

The one subject I was most apprehensive about bringing up was Rudy Ruettiger. There isn’t so much a myth about him as how big of an inspiration and legend he was to many people of that era. After the movie in 1993, his fame blew up and people found him an inspiration that gave him his big break into a successful career as a motivational speaker. My personal goal here was to get to the facts about Rudy and see what he actually did on the field as opposed to how he was portrayed on the big screen. You can see in the show notes the actual footage of him playing and how, like most things in the world, it was exaggerated and embellished for the sake of narrative.

This podcast is about finding facts and using those facts to contradict well known beliefs. While I may have my own personal feelings on each individual subject we covered, I think we did a damn good job presenting those realities for people to make their own judgments. Did Doc Ellis really throw a no-hitter on LSD? Did Boggs actually consume 107 beers? In the end, we couldn’t undeniably prove that they did but what we did do is show you how these stories become embodied into society as a “matter of fact” and present the case that sometimes the truth isn’t quite as fun as the narrative. But in the end, everyone loves a good story, right?

This is my longwinded way of saying that I hope you guys took as much out of this as we did. I learned a great deal more than I had originally anticipated, as Greg and Ryan would absolutely agree they enjoyed this despite their preconceived notions. I would invite all of you who may find the subject dull or mundane, give it a listen. You me be surprised how much you enjoy it. Much like a curse derived form the cover of a video game, stranger things have happened.

-Josh