Mark and Toddcast

This week we recorded live from behind the Unipiper merch booth at the Vancouver Mall during the first annual CouveCon! Enjoy the retro sounds of a bustling mall in this "nature is healing" episode of the Mark and Toddcast.

A wise man once said, "We were so occupied with the fact that we could, that we didn't stop to ask if we should." So 30 years later, here we are formulating plans to bring back extinct species like the Woolly Mammoth and carrier pigeon. Find out all about the real-life science behind bringing species back to life. In the news segment: the Willamette Falls area gets a new name, COVID antibodies, thermostat lockouts, Portland's Museum of Cartoon Arts, no In-N-Out for Beaverton, and South Dakota's new Corn-bassador.  Enjoy!

While James Strang, "The Mad King of Lake Michigan," has nothing to do with the ousted bratwurst queen, both get highlighted in this week's episode. That, and the evolution of club/dance music. So really, we're just all over the place.

Most likely you've at least heard (or seen a meme of) Alex Jones at some point over the past two decades, and more recently during his trial for defamation about his Sandy Hook conspiracy theories. But who is he, really? Where did he come from? And is a dangerous true believer, a con artist, a ringmaster, a manipulator, or just a soulless, narcissistic troll? We speak with Joni DeRouchie about the man behind the meme.

We finally put the "Mark" back in the Mark & Toddcast as Mark rejoins the show after his hiatus. This week we catch up on Todd's family vacation to Colorado, science, culture, and Portland news, and then give an little overview of how the VHS and Beta formats work.

This week we dive into one of the most useful personality type tools out there: the Enneagram, which has been used throughout human history. Special guest Chelsea Heath joins the show to give an overview of what the Enneagram is (and isn't), how it works, and what it can mean for people who are striving to know themselves and their traumas better.

Nothing is more predictable about society than the fact that old people panic about how everything they don't understand is a sign of the end times. Aristotle complained about how rude the youth were to the elders. Authority figures freaked out about Teddy Bears and cars. Parents rended their garments about the Satanic grip radio and comic books had on kids. All you have to do is substitute the nouns, but the panic remains the same. This week guest host Nate Heath joins the show to talk about how the more things change, the more they stay the same. You can find Nate Heath weekly on his podcast NotNerd.

This week special guest host Dave Baehler of the NotNerd Podcast joins the show to take us on a trip from the theoretically smallest things in the universe, to the incomprehensibly largest things, and everything in between, from yottameter to zettameter. Meter? I barely knew her!

"Go Ask Alice" was a publishing and cultural phenomenon, with ramifications felt from the household level to the actual White House, and whose very real fallout included both the War on Drugs and the "Satanic Panic" of the 70s and 80s. But as Emerson discovered, perhaps not all was as real as it seemed with the mysterious, "Anonymous" book that still today is a best-seller and a cultural touch point. Find out the wild story, which is the basis for Emerson's new book "Unmask Alice," available in July.

This week we take a look at an international renowned chef and cookbook author James Beard, whose impact was so large that even Julia Child was a fan. We take a look at his start in Oregon, and his rise to be one of the most influential chefs in history. All that, and a special appearance by Zymo! "What is Zymo?" you may ask? Find out this week.