Curiosity Daily Podcast: How Hollywood Gets Seances Wrong

Learn about how bacteria in your gut can produce electricity. Then, performer and lecturer Thom Britton will tell us about the origins of seances and how Hollywood gets them wrong.

October 27, 2020

Episode Show Notes:

Some Bacteria in Your Gut Produce Electricity by Cameron Duke

More resources from performer Thom Britton:

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Ashley Hamer and Natalia Reagan (filling in for Cody Gough). You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Next Up

Get Ready for Puppy Bowl XXII on Animal Planet!

Puppy Bowl XXII premieres Sunday, February 8, 2026, at 2:00PM ET/11:00AM PT with more adoptable puppies from shelters and rescues than ever before.

Get Ready for Puppy Bowl XXI on Animal Planet!

Puppy Bowl XXI premieres Sunday, February 9 at 2P ET/11A PT with more adoptable puppies from shelters and rescues than ever before.

Get Ready for Puppy Bowl XX on Animal Planet!

Puppy Bowl XX premieres Sunday, February 11 at 2P ET/11A PT with more adoptable puppies from shelters and rescues than ever before.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Why is Tagging Baby Great White Sharks So Important?

Luke Tipple speaks with Dr. Riley Elliott, a marine biologist from New Zealand who recently tagged baby great white sharks, which are rarely seen in the wild. They talk about how climate change is affecting shark pupping grounds, why fishers are wrong to think there are “too many sharks,” and about Dr. Elliott’s Great White App, which allows users to track great white sharks in the ocean.

Shipwrecked & Surrounded by Sharks

This week, we do things a little differently, as Shark Week’s Luke Tipple invites Adventure Aaron into the podcast studio to talk about his incredible near-death experience on the open water. Adventure Aaron gets into what it takes to circumnavigate the world in an ocean rowboat, what it’s like to stare eye-to-eye with an oceanic white tip that probably wants you for lunch, and everything else that happened to him when his boat was capsized, and he was lost by himself at sea.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How To Have A Career in Shark Science

Shark Week’s Luke Tipple tackles the question “How can I work with sharks?” alongside two experts in the field – and their answers are not always the obvious ones. Luke is joined first by Kelly Link, Associate Curator of the Georgia Aquarium who talks about what it’s like to be an aquarist, how it differs from field work, and how to get yourself noticed. The second guest is Dr. Neil Hammerschlag who goes into detail on what it takes to become a prominent scientist, and what other paths you can take if a PhD isn’t for you. And at the end, researcher Sierra stops by to tell us about the world’s smallest shark.

Bobcat on the Hunt

Nature photographer Ian Shive gets a rare close-up of a bobcat hunting ground squirrels in California's Central Coast.

A Clutterful Mind, Heir To The Earth, Partnership Perils

Today, you’ll learn about why our ability to remember things seems to get worse with age—it’s not memory loss, which animals could become the new dominant species in the event of our extinction, and how an unsupportive romantic partner can actually affect the way you think and feel about yourself.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Seeing Stars, Seagull Staredown, Itsy Bitsy Microdrones

Today, you’ll learn about how cultures across the world often make constellations from the same groups of stars due to the nature of vision and perception, what to do when an animal tries to steal your food during a picnic on the beach, and drones smaller than a red blood cell that can be controlled using only the power of light.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: The Explorers Club: Josh Gates

Calli and Nate interview members of The Explorer’s Club, and today you’re going to hear from a man who largely represents what The Explorers Club is all about - Josh Gates.