(rooster crows) (lion roars) (Rhett hums) – Welcome to Good Mythical More! We got some dumb questions from our crew that Mike’s gonna answer. Actually, I don’t know if they’re all dumb. – Okay, but first we’re starting with a science question. – Oh, really? – A zoological question, okay. An animal, we’re given an animal, and then we must identify what the collective noun for that group is. So like a murder of crows. Parrots, what do you call a group of parrots? – Group of parrots, group of parrots. Squaw, squawkies? – Squawking squad. A squad! – Waddle and speak English surprisingly group. – I would just call them a flock, I’ve never heard of a special parrot name. – Flocka, a flock of parrots! – Yeah, why is it not just a flock? – I think it’s a flock with a P, a plock. – No, it’s a pandemonium. Oh come on. – I’ve heard ’em, that makes sense. – Yeah, there’s a batch of parrots, I mean, a pandemonium of parrots, they got loose years ago in Pasadena and they fly around and make all kinds of racket. – Pandemonium, it is. – Yeah, pandemonium of parrots in Pasadena, pal! – Wow, I’m speaking like Yoda. Okay, we put out a box knowing that you were gonna come hang out with us. The no dumb questions box. – Fantastic. – And yeah, it is fantastic, thank you for saying that, Mike. (laughter) – We’re gonna unlock this box. And the questions inside submitted by Mythical Crew members, – No pressure. – Are going to be answered by you. This is what you do on your podcast. – It is, yeah. – All right. All right, this is from Ryan Moody, he’s a Mythical Kitchen producer, works closely with Mythical Chef Josh and makes all that stuff happen. We all know there’s no cure to the common cold, but why? Why is it so hard? What is so hard about beating this thing? Is it just not a priority, like there’s just more serious illnesses and all the people that work on this stuff have bigger fish to fry? Or is there a cure but the over-the-counter industry is keeping it from us in order to protect their profits? – Conspiracy! – Why there’s no vaccine is because so many different viruses that mutate every year are the cause of what we call the common cold. – This one’s from Caleb, our graphic designer. A lot of our merch is designed by Caleb. – He’s all right-brained all the time. – Whenever I bite into an avocado for breakfast, the only thing worse than biting into the skin is biting into the pit. I’d really like to take it out, but I also like saving half of my avocado for dinner. Is there a way to keep my avo fresh without that cumbersome pit? – Gosh! Well, first of all, things like avocados and bananas and apples that change colors when you cut them open, it’s not because they’re not fresh anymore, it’s because they’re oxidizing. And when you leave the pit in, all you’re doing is making less surface area exposed to oxygen. – Oh really? – So what’s under the pit just oxidizes much more slowly. – I thought there was some magic emanating from the pit (Mike laughs) that made it not go nasty. – I think it just, it just keeps the air off longer. – It’s not a magic pit, I know about a magic pit. I can take you there, (Mike laughs) but that’s a different thing. (Link screams) So you just have to, so basically, once you cut it, it’s been oxidized. – Well, you could wrap it in cling wrap and it would do the same thing. – Well no, because it’s already been exposed. – It’s like opening a bottle of wine. – The oxygen gets into the fruit flesh immediately but then takes time for the oxidation process to occur. – Can you say fruit flesh again? – Fruit flesh. – Who’s this from? – This is from Jonathan, our content manager. – Jonathan uploads all of our videos and then tells us when no one cares. (laughter) – He sends us an email and he’s like, “The reason people thought this one sucked was…” (laughter) – Why do we yawn? And why are yawns contagious? A few weeks ago at a family gathering, everyone was watching my 1-year-old niece do cute baby stuff like existing as a baby, and she yawned and then all of a sudden, literally everyone in the room yawned. It was like 15 people all yawning in response to a tiny baby yawn, which seems so bizarre! Also, I’ve definitely yawned in response to my dog yawning, which was weird. (sighs) – Believe it or not, the definitive answer as to why we yawn is unknown to science. But– – What about like, movie fiction? (laughter) – There’s two schools of thought. One is that when we yawn we cool our brains since we yawn more often in cool environments. The second is that yawns are a social signaling system that indicates when we’re fatigued, overwhelmed, or anxious, which is why they’re contagious. And that school of thought has a little bit of backup in that people who score higher on empathy tests are more likely to catch a yawn. So the fact that you caught a yawn from your dog probably means you two have a pretty special connection. – I caught a yawn just from reading about yawns. I’m so empathetic. – Don’t make that connection too special. (Mike laughs) Now, can both be true? – Unless you go to the magic pit. – I think both can certainly play a factor. And because I’ve noticed that if I feel hot or nervous, I yawn. But also some studies have shown that as a form of meditation, yawning four times in a row is as beneficial as 25 minutes of transcendental meditation. – Yawning four times in a row and you can, like making yourself yawn? – Making yourself yawn, yeah. And I’ve done it. If I’m nervous, it really makes you feel good. – Dang, y’all. Better than TM! (laughs) – If you do it well, you’ll actually get a little bit of tears in your eyes. – Making me cry just thinking about it. – Hot Dog on a Stick former employee Matt Carney who also happens to be a co-executive producer on this show. But we like to refer to him as former employee of Hot Dog on a Stick. – That was his peak. – Yeah, that’s fair. – Here’s his question. There he is right there. He’s got the smurf hat on. (chuckles) – That’s an interesting way to put it. – Oh look, and look at his question! “Because I used to work at Hot Dog on a Stick,” (laughter) he’s like, he’s resigned to it. I am that guy here. Yeah, Carney, actually I didn’t mention your name, I mentioned something and it sounded like I said Carney at home and Lando piped up and he was like, “Oh, that guy who works for Hot Dog on a Stick?” (Rhett laughs) And I was like I didn’t say Matt Carney. I said something else, I can’t remember. – In our homes, everyone who works at the fair is related to you. – Nice. (laughter) – Because I used to work at Hot Dog on a Stick, I have a question about dogs. – Yeah, that makes sense. – Nice word association. – Is it true that dogs experience time differently than humans? I’ve heard that whether you leave your dog home alone for three hours or three weeks, it all feels the same to them. Is that true? – I’ve heard that, too. You’re a dog lover. – I absolutely love dogs. I think they’re like people without cynicism in many ways. So that’s why we enjoy them so much. – Yes, yes! – So we don’t have a lot of research on specifically dogs’ perceptions of time, but we do know that human brains are very odd structurally compared to other animals. And that means we experience a bigger separation between our cognition and in our instincts and impulses. And also our brains, even among other cognitively oriented animals, seem to be uniquely focused on recalling the past and imagining the future. So what we imagine with dogs is that they basically don’t have any awareness of a moment other than now. They can have memories triggered from the past and experience them. But they don’t wistfully think about yesterday or plan for tomorrow. And because they’re social animals, the moment they’re left alone, they experience crippling separation anxiety, and whether you’re gone for three minutes or three weeks, it’s true. They’re distressed the whole time. – No, no, no! – Oh, everybody is freaking out! – [Man offscreen] Thanks Science Mike! (laughter) – Because it’s like an eternity? – Because all they know is in the moment. – They’re always in a moment. – I’m a pack animal that’s alone, which means as soon as you’re home, total relief and adulation. – But Jade seems to love her crate. – Sure, of course she does. – Yeah, but that’s when you’re looking at her in the crate. – Huh? – When you’re gone, a crate trained animal experiences less separation anxiety because it goes into their denning instinct. Yeah, so that’s a good strategy. – Oh good. (exhales) – The denning instinct? All right. (Mike chuckles) What about the Denny’s instinct? – That’s my instinct. (laughter) – Oh, this is a long one. – All right, this is from Emily. – Emily’s in the room. – Emily says you don’t have to do all these because she has four questions. Why is there dew in the morning? – Let’s go rapid fire. – You know what? Don’t even have to just why is there dew in the morning? – Temperature and humidity determine dew point. And if you get at or below the dew point water molecules get sad and slow down. – Dang, dogs are sad. (Mike laughs) You’re making rain sad. – I just mean they move more slowly. – Water’s sad. – Yeah, a little airborne formation there. – Okay, why can’t we find a cure for baldness? Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world and he’s still bald. – Yeah, balding’s medically complex and has several factors behind it, one being which follicles are sensitive to testosterone and other ways they metabolize and break down testosterone. So most of the cures for baldness we have today were found on accident in treating other disorders. But there are promising research happening in Japan using stem cells. – Ah, stem cells, okay. How do pain killers like Aleve and Tylenol work? – Prostaglandin, it’s a chemical that helps suppress the release of, excuse me, the painkillers help us not use prostaglandin in our bodies which signals to our nerves that we’re in pain. So it’s less that painkillers target where you’re in pain as much as inhibit your ability to feel pain at all. – You’re still hurting, you just don’t even know it. Okay, and then there are species of bugs and sea creatures with the ability to illuminate and glow. How is it possible that they glow? I don’t know, Emily. Why don’t you ask Mike? – Emily, do you even sleep at night or are you just thinking of these questions? (laughter) Like what do you do in your bed? (exaggerated gasp) – These are big lifts, too. This last one is Luciferin is a family of chemicals that when combined with oxygen creates light. – Luciferin? Like Satan? – Yes, like Lucifer in, yes. – Yeah, wow. – So they’re possessed. That’s what you’re saying. – They’re possessed by a light-emitting molecule. – By the way, this is what happens when Mike goes to a party. People just start asking questions and then by the end of it, everyone’s just gathered around just being like, ugh, what’s gonna happen to us? (laughter) Are we gonna be okay? – Can we do both of these quickly? – All right, I’m gonna save that one. All right, Bethany wants to know is there a scientific explanation for deja vu. I had deja vu the other day, and I got curious about it. I tend to have deja vu a lot. When I was a teeny child, I was a little weirdo, and I’d say to my mom “it feels like I’ve been here before,” or “this doesn’t feel like it’s supposed to,” and creep her out. And I think those were prompted by deja vu moments. – Yeah, so this is pretty wild in neuroscience. We believe that deja vu is caused by you becoming aware of your memories as they’re encoded into your brain, creating a feedback loop. – What? How could that answer be shorter than her question? (Mike laughs) – You’ve become aware of it? Damon’s got a little special one that he’s put in here. – Uh-oh. – This just in from Kevin, who works closely with former Hot Dog on a Stick employee Matt Carney, his co-EP. What other things should we leave things in? We’re running out of ideas here. (laughter) – That’s good. – I think a vacuum chamber would be a lot of fun. – Ooh! – Or since we like to see how things break down with acids and bases, one of the missing ingredients might be enzymes. – Oh, enzymes. We left stuff in enzymes for, How long do we need to do that? – It’s gonna vary based on the material and the type of enzyme. – In a variable amount of time (laughter) – That was a very good question. But this one takes the cake. Jake, our line producer asks, “Why do I have nipples?” (laughter) Why does Jake have nipples? – Why, because Jake is a human being, he’s a mammal, and evolution only takes away things that are harmful for survival and leaves things that are benign like men’s nipples. – You calling my nipples benign? (laughter) – I mean they didn’t interfere with your ability to reproduce. – Yeah, I think they enhanced it. (laughter) – And there we have it. – Why do Jake’s nipples get hard and pointy when he gets cold? (laughter) – Erectile tissue. – Erectile tissue? That’s a good band name. (laughter) – Hey, thanks for hanging out with us. This is like what we do at his house all the time. (laughter) – It’s a lot of fun. – Get the book! [Narrator] In honor of our all-time favorite musician, grab a listen to more Merle tee and do what the shirt says! Available now at mythical.com.