Anatomy of an Expression

Anatomy of an Expression

What does it take to make someone show genuine fear, disgust, joy, or surprise? In the 1920s, psychologist Carney Landis set out to answer that question with an experiment that would become infamous in the history of psychology. This week, we explore the bizarre and ethically questionable Carney Landis facial expression experiment, where participants were subjected to increasingly uncomfortable situations—all in the name of science. What he found instead raised far more questions than answers. And because questionable decisions made for great podcasting, we didn't stop at history. Inspired by Landis's research, we conducted a facial expression experiment of our own! No worries—we left the ethical violations in the 1920s. But the results were still revealing, hilarious, and occasionally hard to keep a straight face through. Join us as we examine one of psychology's strangest studies, test a few theories ourselves, and discover that when it comes to reading emotions, the truth isn't always written all over your face.

Popal Fiction

In 897 AD, the Catholic Church put a dead pope on trial. No, that's not the setup to a joke. This week, we dig up the bizarre story of the Cadaver Synod, when Pope Stephen VI ordered the corpse of his predecessor, Pope Formosus, exhumed, dressed in papal robes, and hauled into a courtroom to answer charges from beyond the grave. What followed was a spectacle of political revenge, ecclesiastical chaos, and one of history's most jaw-dropping examples of a grave abuse of power.

Spies of a Feather

Did the CIA really recruit birds for espionage… or is this another wild goose chase? In this episode, we flap headfirst into the bizarre world of Cold War avian intelligence programs, from missile-guiding pigeons and window-sill-delivering ravens to feathered surveillance dreams that sound way too weird to be real (but somehow were). We unpack the secret history of the CIA’s winged experiments, ask the important question—who exactly was approving these budgets?—and discover that sometimes the truth is stranger than bird fiction. So grab your binoculars and keep one eye on the power lines, because this story is for the birds… in the best possible way.

Feathers vs Firepower: The Great Emu War

What happens when a nation declares war… and loses to birds? In this episode, we dive beak-first into the bizarre and often overlooked story of the Great Emu War of 1932—when the Australian military took on an army of flightless foes and walked away utterly defeated. But was it really just a failed pest control mission… or something more? We explore the official narrative: farmers struggling, soldiers deployed, machine guns blazing—and emus that simply refused to go down. But conspiracy theorists have long questioned the details. How did thousands of birds outmaneuver trained troops? Were the emus evolving faster than anyone realized? Or—brace yourself—was this less of a war and more of a covert test gone wildly wrong? Grab some birdseed as we unravel the feathers to get to the truth. One thing’s for sure: this wasn’t just a military blunder… it was an emu-sing defeat.

Game Over: The Dark Side of Roblox Parents Need to Know

On the surface, it looks like a colorful universe of creativity—endless games, friendly avatars, and a digital playground where kids can build, explore, and connect. But behind the bright blocks of Roblox, a far more complicated world begins to emerge. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on one of the largest gaming platforms on the planet, where millions of children log in daily—and where the sheer scale of user-generated content makes moderation an almost impossible task. As fast as the platform grows, so do the concerns: unpredictable in-game interactions, user-created spaces that can slip past filters, and the unsettling reality that not every corner of this virtual world is as innocent as it appears. This isn’t a story about panic—it’s a story about scale, blind spots, and the uneasy space between innovation and responsibility. Because in Roblox, the line between playful and unpredictable isn’t always visible… until it’s already been crossed.