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On this very special Halloween episode, we tell the creepy-crawly of environmental stories, including a new process for composting human remains and a supernatural motivation to follow the “Leave No Trace” principle. Plus, we make time for human skin books, barbecued grasshoppers, Indiana undertakers, and a few personal ghost stories.
*An important disclaimer: in the intro and our first story, we talk openly about death and the end-of-life process, so if you’re not into that, you can skip to Elise’s story at 33:45.
Before we get into the main stories, Olivia describes an amazing makeup tutorial for the Corpse Bride’s Emily (that we misidentified as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas — oops), if you’re looking for some Halloween costume inspiration.
Elise brings up one of her favorite podcasts Ologies and their episode on Anthropodermic Biocodicology, aka the study of Human Skin Books aka the kind of leather you probably didn’t want to know about. They have loads of other Fall and Halloween themed episodes if you need more spooky science content in your life.
Olivia describes the time she ate a barbecued grasshopper – would you ever eat a bug?
Story #1: Human Composting (Olivia)
Sources:
Science Alert, December 10 2019, The World’s First Human Composting Facility Will Turn You Into Soil
Recompose, Recompose.life
Undertaking: The Podcast, Episode #185, Human Composting with Micah Truman, Founder of Return Home
Chattanooga Times Free Press, August 22 2020, Human Composting: America’s newest end-of-life option
How Stuff Works, May 10 2019, Mushroom Burial Suit Creates Life After Death
Coeio (co – e – oh) formerly Infinity Burial Project, Coeio FAQ
Let’s talk about human composting | Katrina Spade | TEDxOrcasIsland
Treehugger, How to Turn a Human Body Into Compost
Technology review, October 21 2020, Recompose Startup Turning Human Bodies Into Compost
Green Burial Council, Educational Tools
Story #2: The Curse of the Petrified Forest (Elise)
Fines, signs, and curses – some parks will do anything to keep you from taking their natural materials. Elise runs through the history of Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, and why if you take a rock, you might be coming home with a bit more than you bargained for.
Sources:
Criminal, Episode 23 – Triassic Park
The New Yorker, January 23 2015, Rocks, Paper, Sinners
The Ice Plant, Bad Luck, Hot Rocks edited by Ryan Thompson and Phil Orr
National Park Services, Leave No Trace
The Dump
Olivia loved the documentary The Mole Agent, about an elderly man who becomes a spy at a nursing home. It’s funny, super sweet, and not quite like anything you’ve seen before. You can rent it for $12 via Miami Film Festival, and it’ll be available on PBS in early 2021.
Elise has been watching Halloween classics like The Exorcist and Poltergeist. We tell our own spooky ghost stories (Olivia says the wrong movie title, classic, but we can’t remember what the real movie is so… ironically, it was probably The Forgotten).
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Thanks for listening! Hope you all have a happy Halloween and take care of yourselves. And of course, VOTE!
World Is Burning 