The Well

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Our species cannot comprehend the time and distances inherent in interstellar communication. But noone understands this conundrum better than astrobiologist Douglas Vakoch. A year and a half after our first interview we catch up with his METI project to find out what it is like to dedicate one’s life to the longest term project in the history of human endeavor.

Episode Links:

METI

Georgina Torbet

Sonar Calling – The organization that collaborated with METI to send music to a distant solar system.

His Master’s Voice by Stanislav Lem

Carl Sagan’s hysterical but brilliant description of Flatland.

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Our species has always wondered if we are alone in the universe, Douglas Vakoch is an astro biologist beginning a multi-generational endeavor to finally answer this question.

Episode links:

METI

Georgina Torbet

Doritos  commercial link

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Branan tries to get to the bottom of the Synesthesia phenomenon with help from painter Melissa McCracken and neurologist Dr. Robert Algar. Their conclusion? Maybe we all have synesthesia!

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Melissa McCracken is a painter living in a parallel dimension to ours: her synesthesia fills her world with colors and other atypical sensory experiences. She tries to explain what this world is like and in doing so reminds us all of the importance of communication, tolerance and patience. Please take a moment to review her work here: www.melissasmccracken.com

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Rock legend Alice Cooper shares a surprising and touching story about one of the most interesting connections ever to come out of Hollywood: his friendship with Groucho Marx; and about how their respective work wasn’t all that different.

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Most people know Alice Cooper as the original Shock Rocker and a foundational pillar in the house of Metal. But few know that his journey into sobriety involved replacing one addiction with a new and more healthy one: golf. At 71 years of age, having played more courses than almost anyone alive, Cooper still plays 6 days a week and once even considered going pro. Join Anson as he picks the decapitated brain of Alice Cooper.

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THE WELL becomes the morning zoo as Doug Jones tells us a little more about his acting career without a mask and Branan tells a story about his first and last gig as a monster maker in Morocco! Plus, competitive sheep herding with David Lee Roth for some reason. Aaaaaahayaaaeah!!!

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Actor Doug Jones talks about how it feels to be the muse for our culture’s most influential monster maker, Guillermo del Toro.

Music in this week’s episode:

The Cemetery by Sinqlogue provided via a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license.

Worky Worky by Andy G. Cohen provided via a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution license.

Tennessee Hayride by Jason Shaw provided via a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license.

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Doug Jones envisioned an acting career playing the wacky neighbor in sitcoms, but his career had other plans. In this episode Doug shares war stories from his life as a creature performer, including an incident where he accidently maimed fellow actor Randy Quaid. 

Music for this episode:

Workdaze by Nctmm provided via a Creative Commons 4.0license.

Piscoid by Andy G. Cohen provided via a Creative Commons license.

Jenny’s Theme by Jason Shaw provided via a Creative Commons 3.0 license.

Snappy by Jason Shaw provided via a Creative Commons 3.0 license. h

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Anson and Branan share their own near-death stories.