Messy Minded Podcast

Messy Minded

Messy Minded is a podcast for curious people with slightly chaotic minds. Hosted by Jess — researcher, overthinker, and your cartoon-brained friend — each episode dives into a weird, true story that hijacked her attention for the week. From internet scams and historical fraudsters to Viking settlers, liars, secret societies, and secession attempts, Messy Minded blends real research with offbeat storytelling. To start, you’ll get episodes on: The Founders of Iceland Lying Internet Scams US Secessions Attempts Secret Societies and more recently: The Digital Afterlife Axolotl’s and UAP’s! Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 4 DAYS AGO

    Gaslit by Your Brain

    Cronin et al. (2014) – Visual ecology (UV vision in animals)What if you can’t fully trust your own brain? In this episode of Messy Minded, we explore how the brain builds reality through perception, memory, and emotion—and how that process can sometimes go wrong. From sensory perception and optical illusions to false memories, cognitive bias, and the neuroscience behind how we interpret the world, your mind is constantly filling in gaps with its best guess. We’ll look at how memory reconsolidation can change your past, why eyewitness testimony isn’t always reliable, and how psychological phenomena like the McGurk effect and Pareidolia reveal the limits of human perception. We’ll also dive into sensory deprivation, hallucinations, and moral psychology—exploring how even your emotions and sense of right and wrong can be influenced by physical sensations like disgust. Your brain is an incredible prediction machine… but it doesn’t show you reality—it constructs it. And sometimes? It gets it wrong. @MessyMindedPod Sources: Anil Seth – Being You: A New Science of Consciousness Cronin et al. (2014) – Visual ecology (UV vision in animals) Orfield Laboratories (Minneapolis) – Anechoic chamber research & demonstrations Eskine et al. (2013) – Ginger reducing disgust → more lenient judgments Many thanks for music by: SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for "Spark Groove", Nikita Kondrashev for "Cosy, Quirky, Comedy", “Quirky Sneaky”, “Quirky Sneaky Mystery”, “Quirky Sneaky Comedy” Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov, "spellcraft" by Geoff Harvey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    36 min
  2. 9 APR

    Operation Paul Bunyan

    Jess takes us back to 1976, when a routine maintenance job inside the Korean Demilitarized Zone spiraled into one of the most bizarre and dangerous standoffs of the Cold War. What started with a tree blocking a line of sight quickly escalated into violence, a tense military confrontation, and one of the most heavily armed “landscaping” operations in history. In this Messy Morsel, we head into the Joint Security Area of the DMZ—where North and South Korean forces stood face-to-face, tensions ran high, and even the smallest actions could carry enormous consequences. Because in a place like that… nothing is ever just about a tree. @MessyMinded If you want to ready more on the topics - check these out: United Nations Command historical summaries on the Korean DMZ incidentU.S. Army Center of Military History – Operation Paul Bunyan overviewNews World Encyclopedia – Korean DMZ & Joint Security Area historyBlaxland, John. The Joint Security Area at Panmunjom (Australian National University)Oberdorfer, Don. The Two Koreas: A Contemporary HistoryVarious historical accounts and declassified Cold War materials on the 1976 Korean Axe Murder Incident  Music by: SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for "Spark Groove", Nikita Kondrashev for "Cosy, Quirky, Comedy", "funny Comedy Kids", and The Mountain for "Quirky Sneaky Mystery", “Lucky go Lightly Quirky” by Geoff Harvey, and "Tension" by Alex Grohl Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    18 min
  3. 5 FEB

    Axolotl

    In this episode of Messy Minded, Jess explores the axolotl — the permanently aquatic salamander that refuses to grow up. Through biology, mythology, and modern science, we unpack how axolotls regrow limbs, spinal cords, and even parts of their brains, and why researchers studying regeneration and immune response are obsessed with them The episode weaves together Aztec mythology and the god Xolotl, neoteny, and the misunderstood “smile”. We also confront the collapse of wild axolotl populations in Lake Xochimilco, conservation efforts, and why one of the most studied animals on Earth is critically endangered in its natural habitat. Funny, dark, science-forward, and unexpectedly philosophical, this episode asks what it means to stay in a liminal state — and whether sometimes the smartest move isn’t to transform at all. @MessyMindedPod https://open.spotify.com/show/3htrTJx4ORepBRYxJ7ZGPv?si=0f78e1cd20114a98 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/messy-minded-podcast/id1819603605 A foundational overview of axolotl regeneration can be found in “Regeneration in the Axolotl: A Model for Mammalian Wound Healing” published in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. Other sources for this episode were a 2018 paper “The Axolotl Genome and the Evolution of Key Tissue Formation Regulators” in Nature, work by James Godwin and colleagues, particularly “Macrophages Are Required for Adult Salamander Limb Regeneration” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), The Journal of Experimental Biology and Integrative Zoology,and Biological Conservation. Myth largely from various internet searches and “Aztec Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of the Aztecs” by David Carrasco and “The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya” by Mary Miller and Karl Taube.  Music by: SoundPlusUS Label and Mr. Lex Oleksii Bezalov for "Spark Groove", Nikita Kondrashev for "Cosy, Quirky, Comedy", "Quirky sneaky memes background music" by Mykola Odnoroh, "Bass Stories" by Unknown Artist, "Latin Mexican Latino Music" by HitsLab and Levgen Poltavsky, "On TipToe" by Geoff Harvey, and Music by IKOLIKS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    32 min

About

Messy Minded is a podcast for curious people with slightly chaotic minds. Hosted by Jess — researcher, overthinker, and your cartoon-brained friend — each episode dives into a weird, true story that hijacked her attention for the week. From internet scams and historical fraudsters to Viking settlers, liars, secret societies, and secession attempts, Messy Minded blends real research with offbeat storytelling. To start, you’ll get episodes on: The Founders of Iceland Lying Internet Scams US Secessions Attempts Secret Societies and more recently: The Digital Afterlife Axolotl’s and UAP’s! Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.