Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 77 Rhett & Link “Head Injuries that Unlocked Geniuses” - Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: July 10, 2015

In this special Rhett & Link-only episode, Rhett & Link discuss some of the rare cases of “Acquired Savant Syndrome,” a diagnosis given to someone who sustains a terrible injury to their brain that miraculously unlocks a hidden genius, like the orthopedic surgeon who was struck in the head by lightning and was then able to masterfully play the piano, or the 20 year old Australian who was in a car accident that put him in a coma for one week only to wake up speaking fluent Mandarin. This fascinating conversation leads Rhett & Link to ask the question, does everyone have these hidden abilities buried in their brain, and if so, will we ever be able to unlock them? To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. Joining us today at the round table of dim lighting is Rhett and Link. Hey, here we are. Hey guys, here we are. Thanks for having us.

Yes. Thanks for having me. Yeah. And you. Me is glad to be here with you. Me is glad to be here with us. Me is glad to be here with us. We are glad to be here with them. That could pretty much go on all day, but it won't. It's just the two of us, Rhett and Link only Ear Biscuit.

Yeah, we're gonna be talking about something that's interesting to us and hopefully interesting to you today and this is what we've been doing on some of these Rhett and Link only Ear Biscuits lately. We have what we're kind of calling like an extended Good Mythical Morning conversation. The kind of thing that we would condense down into a list of about 10 minutes.

Now we're going to dig down, get into more detail and have an interesting conversation, follow some rabbit trails, learn some new stuff for about an hour. Yeah. So strap in. Somebody actually called us out. Put your lip balm on. Using the term rabbit trail.

And they said, it's not going on a rabbit trail, it's going down the rabbit hole. Well, it depends on what part of the country you're from. Yeah, I think in our part of the country, there's also rabbit trails. Have you been down a rabbit trail? You'll get lost real quick, son. Rabbit hole, a human can't even get in a rabbit hole.

You might stick your nose in it, you probably stick your hand in it, might get bit by a rabid rabbit. A little blonde girl can go down a rabbit hole. That's where that's from. Right. It's referring to that. It's a book later turned into a movie,

I'm familiar with it. And that's what we're talking about today, misused colloquialisms. No, we're not, we're talking about acquired savant syndrome, also known as accidentalisms. No, we're not, we're talking about acquired savant syndrome, also known as accidental genius. Now, this is fascinating because both you and I have been hit in the head pretty badly

a couple of times in our life, and it has resulted in some great stories, especially what happened with Link. You can go on the internet and look on our- Just search Link's broken pelvis story. Yeah, yeah, it's a whole thing. The only interesting thing that happened to you is you just began repeating evidently,

hold on, I'm just coming to, evidently I hurt my left hip. Yeah. That was fascinating, but it was nothing. I did not get smarter. Oh no. And that's what all of these are. Yes.

I mean, people get hit in the head and becoming geniuses. Now you said accidental genius, but I've also never met an intentional genius. You either are or you're not. No, I'm an intentional genius. I used to be real stupid. Well, you can say that again. Yeah, you're trying really hard to be a genius.

I'll give you that. But I mean, you- I'm a try hard genius. You either are a genius or you aren't, but there's a subset of genius-i that- Don't think that's a word. They got that way by getting hit in the noggin, and that's what we're talking about today. So, I mean, I feel like we might need

to put a warning on this. I think we are gonna get so excited. You think we're gonna be prescribing getting hit in the head? We are not prescribing hitting yourself in the head or doing anything to get hit in the head, but you might want to be because these stories, I'm so excited to talk about it

because they're so fascinating, they're so amazing. There's parts of this that I want for myself. I think we should dig into that. But all of this is real. If we were making any of this up, well, we'd be more genius than we are. I think the warning I'll put up front is, I would say 99.9 something percent of the time,

when people get in the head in a way that we're going to describe, these people get hit in the head. You left the word hit out. You said get in the head. Get hit in the head. Okay, yeah, okay. 99 point whatever percent of the time,

it doesn't end well. You don't get smarter. No, no. So I don't think this is something you can plan. So we're gonna get into that, but first we wanna take a moment to tell you about our sponsor, Squarespace. Squarespace is the easiest way to create a beautiful website, blog, or online store

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All right, let's get into this biscuit. Okay, first up is Ben McMahon from Melbourne, Australia. Early 2012, he's 20 years old, and he's a passenger in a very bad car accident. It puts him in a coma for a week. He almost dies. Okay. But after one week in a coma, he finally woke up,

and all he could speak was Mandarin. Well, is that- He's an Australian guy. Who didn't speak Mandarin. Okay, let me give you a little bit more information about this, because it is completely fascinating, but it's not. Did he speak Australian before? But it's not like there was a Mandarin lesson plan in the DVD player of the car that suddenly got like shoved

into his mouth and somehow his brain absorbed it. Yeah, well. Because that would have been really cool. That's not what I was thinking. Okay, Ben was thinking. Okay. Ben was an English speaker. He couldn't speak Mandarin before his accident, but he did have a point of reference.

In high school, only years prior, just a few years prior to the accident, he studied French and Mandarin, and he also traveled and spent some time in Beijing, but he could never speak Mandarin fluently until he woke up from his coma. So it's one of those things where he had learned quite a bit about it, but had never put it into practice

to actually be able to speak it. So it's kind of like I took three years of French class. As did I. I speak, I can say, and I rolled my R, which is not even appropriate for French. I have no idea how to speak French. I almost said speak France to give you just a point of reference.

Right. But I was in class for three years, supposedly exposed to things. And maybe there's a part of my brain that has it because this guy's brain had it. Right, so he wakes up. Wow, so it's like him getting hit in the head after the coma, it's like it unlocked that place

where all this information was. And here's how it happens. He wakes up from his coma after being in a coma for a week, almost dying, there's an Asian nurse. I don't know if that's a key to this process working, but there's an Asian nurse standing by his side. He's in Australia, but he sees an Asian nurse and he tells her in Australia, but he sees an Asian nurse and he tells her in Mandarin,

"'Excuse me, nurse, I feel really sore here.'" He points, I don't know where he pointed. I don't have a video of it. That's not pertinent. He then asked for a pen and paper and wrote in Chinese. Oh, wow. I love my mom, I love my dad, I will recover. Here's what Ben said about this.

Well he's got good priorities. He said, Loving those parents. I wasn't consciously thinking I was speaking Mandarin. He was just talking. It was just what came out and what was most natural to me. Wow. And then it takes him two or three days

to start speaking English again and now he speaks both languages fluently. But his go-to language on the other side of the coma was Mandarin. Yeah, exclusively. In a way that it had never been. It wasn't like his brain made a choice. It was that it opened up something

that had never been opened. Like a Mandarin valve. Do we all as humans have a Mandarin valve that just needs to be opened? I highly doubt that. I don't have a Mandarin valve. Is it a valve that French would come out if it were open for us after three years?

It's probably not a valve. It's probably a part of the brain. But there's so little we know about the brain that these anomalies are a window into that. Well, okay. And plumbing analogies, I'm certain go a long way in neuroscience. Instead of you conjecturing and saying

that there was potentially a valve that was unlocked, I'm gonna tell you what Dr. Pankaj Saul, a Queensland Brain Institute neuroscientist says about this. He said- Can you tell me in Mandarin? No, he said the brain has different circuits that assist in language, speaking, breathing, and thinking. And he claims that it's possible that the parts of Ben's brain that could recall English

got damaged during the crash while those parts that retain Mandarin got activated when he woke up from the coma. So we're not exactly sure what happened during the coma, but it's like he got, it's like his brain compensated and went for the other part, the other language. It rewired itself. And it wasn't temporary, because listen to this.

He, after this, he enrolled in a Mandarin class. I don't know why, I guess to dominate. But he entered an international Chinese language competition. He started Mandarin walking tours. And even hosted a Chinese TV show. He is now known as the best Mandarin speaking Westerner in China. And some Chinese people say he speaks

better Mandarin than them. Dude, totally capitalized. Because of this freaking car accident. On his head in the his head He became the most He became a celebrity He became a celebrity Just by being That white dude can speak some Mandarin

Man he better than us He's gotta be like a TV game show host Yeah exactly I mean if I'm gonna Like Turn a corner after something bad happens to me Like it doesn't get any better than being a TV host. Oh no, definitely.

Like a game show host. That is the peak. That is where you got to go. It's like any, it's like you have a superhuman ability. I'm not gonna fight crime. I'm not gonna like- Let me host a show. I'm not gonna fight like technical writing,

Mandarin crime. No, I'm gonna be a game show celebrity. Well, I didn't say game show. That's what you heard. Did I say game show? I thought I said Chinese TV show. Oh, I just, well. But I like to think that it was a game show.

I guess I assumed that it was, I don't know why. You're probably thinking like Japanese game show. I think you said game show in Mandarin in there and you didn't know what you were saying. Just subliminally, yeah, really, really quietly. When you spoke Mandarin, you don't know what you're saying. I think that's, yeah, really quietly. When you spoke Mandarin, you don't know what you're saying. I think that's what it was.

Well, here's a question for us. But I also noticed that the scientific explanation used electrical analogies because the brain is electrical impulses, but I'm still gonna lobby for plumbing analogies. So I'm just gonna keep going back to that, even though I know it's an electrical world in there. Maybe his trap was clogged.

His English trap was clogged. And the Mandarin pipe opened up. They went in there to let another, yeah, the valve. Yeah, we should start our own university. What's your question? Here's a question for us. It is, would you willingly be in a car accident that would be this traumatic?

But here's the thing, you know that you will recover fully, okay, but you will be in a coma for a week. I know this is a totally hypothetical, impossible situation, but let's just say I was a magic person and I was the kind of person who could say, you can be in a car wreck right now, you're almost gonna die. You mean a magician? Yeah, I'm gonna be, no, a magic person

is a totally different category. Magicians do fake stuff, but a magic person does real magic. Oh, wow. Okay, it's like a genie, but it's different, okay? Okay. So, you gotta go through this process, but when you come out, you can speak any other language fluently,

but the price you pay is the accident. Would you sign up for that? You have to go through the pain of recovery, but you will recover. I mean, there's a lot of emotional baggage that comes along with being in an accident that I can't quantify having not done it, but I know there's like, I mean, there's a lot of emotional baggage that comes along with being in an accident that I can't quantify having not done it, but I know there's like, I mean, that could stick.

I can't quantify that, but let's just say that emotionally and mentally, like there's no repercussions of the accident. Right. And no one else has heard, of course. Yeah, yeah. It's like Rosetta Stone, but it's just a wreck. Yeah, would that cost more than the DVDs or less?

I think it, yeah, because you got to have a stunt coordinator. Are you, I guess- A doctor. First I have to ask what the, I have to answer what the language would be. You pick the language. I know. It's like Rosetta Stone.

I have to pick that first. You go on the website and you pick the language and then a week later, they pick you up and have a wreck with you. I have to answer. Because I've already opened up this business. I just was hoping you would be on board. I think it would have to be Spanish.

And I think I would have to know the answer to that before I answered the larger question of if I'd go through it. Well, I don't know. I gotta think about game shows now. Like what type of, what land would I like to host a game show in? Is really what you're asking, right?

That's pertinent. So, I mean, I would love to host. Icelandic? No, that's not useful. There's not a lot of, I don't think there's a lot of, not enough viewers. I definitely would do Spanish and I'd host a Spanish freaking game show.

I would also just speak Spanish in LA, which comes in very handy. Right, that's why I first said Spanish, but now that I'm thinking game show, I'm thinking Japanese. They have the best freaking game shows ever. I don't know if they'll let you over there. And I am going to be that American dude

who speaks Japanese better than anybody and host all those Japanese game shows. That's me, man. Well, you better. Absolutely. This is now an easy answer. You've got to get started now, though, because when my program hits the internet,

everybody's gonna be doing it. Rhett's Rosetta Rack. Rosetta Rack, yeah. CD-ROM series. Yeah, so that's my idea. I'm so excited about being a Japanese game show host. Okay, well, it's $500,000. Well, I mean, that's like a weekly salary

for game show hosts over there, right? They're the highest paid people outside of Japanese government. Okay, you got something better than that? No, but I do have Tommy McHugh. Okay, he sounds interesting. Bar brawler turned art savant. Savant.

All right, so Tommy McHugh lived in Liverpool and spent most of his life causing trouble. This dude always getting into brawls at pubs. You know how Liverpoolians, like they just brawl in pubs, man. Hooligans. And he was arrested for drugs when he was like in his 20s. Picture this dude is like, he's tatted up, burly, scruffy,

Liverpoolian, man's man, in and out of prison. I mean, prison tattoo kind of a dude. Not the kind of guy you see drawing pictures or writing poetry, I'll tell you that. Okay, one day back in 2001, Tommy was sitting on the toilet. That's a good place to sit. He was not in jail at the time. Yeah, because that's a bad place to sit.

You want to get that over with quickly. But he had this real bad headache. And now I will say I've had a few headaches. Yeah. And I've been so desperate to get rid of them that I've honestly, I've actually thought, I wonder if I just use the restroom, if that will help. Like I don't get migraines.

You're looking at me like I'm an idiot. Not connected. I don't. There's not a valve between the brain and the rectum. I've had headaches so bad that I'm willing to try almost anything to get rid of them. And that's one of the things I've tried. Okay. A bowel movement.

And I know that's off, that's a rabbit trip. Maybe a BM will help you feel better. My mom used to say that. So, and it doesn't really help. So I'm just gonna, that's my friendly piece of advice. But Tommy had a really bad headache. He's on the toilet. Turns out it was a brain hemorrhage.

That's bad. Dude's brain started to bleed, not from one, but from both sides due to rupturing aneurysms. And he was immediately rushed to surgery. I don't even know if they pulled his pants back up before they did it. I hope so. I hope, you know, don't, dude, you can't strain that hard.

I mean, I'm just saying. Oh, you think this is a hemorrhoid? I don't know, I'm just saying, if you're straining so hard that you have a double hemorrhage, you gotta be careful. It is unlikely to have aneurysms on both sides at the same time. He made it out of surgery alive, but when he got home, he started doing

some very bizarre things. For the first three months after his surgery, he spoke only in weird rhymes. Oh. He became like a Dr. Seuss book. Well, this is interesting. Like Wordsmith from that obscure Junkyard Cats cartoon that I used to watch as a kid.

There was a cat, one of the cats called Wordsmith and everything he said rhymed because he was the guy that did everything on time. I just tried to make a rhyme, I can't do it. Have you had an aneurysm? No. You're just demonstrating. So three months just talking in poetic rhyming.

That's pretty cool. Well, I gotta take issue with that because I think it would be pretty frustrating for me if I was his friend. Because I remember when you came out of your, when you had your concussion and you were saying, evidently I hurt my left hip over and over again. I was, as I tell him the story on the internet,

100% sure that you were joking. And I was like, how long is he gonna let this, cause we were ended like joking with people and pranking people in college. So I was like, how long is this gonna take? If you were in an accident and you came out only speaking in rhymes, I would be like, Link, you gotta end this joke.

This is not funny anymore. Like a few hours later, okay, that's enough. Few days later, okay, that's enough. Three months later, like, okay. I wouldn't be his friend anymore. Dude, your brain is different now. Now he was a construction worker. Never in his 50 years of getting drunk

and fighting people in pubs did he express any level of creativity, much less speak in rhyme. He had never rhymed anything. Well, he started writing down poetry, one of which I have here for our enjoyment. The empty chair fills me with despair. No one is sitting there. Oh, three rhymes in that.

The empty room fills me with gloom till black rose blood bloom. The empty bed, my love is dead, where loving words were once said. The empty bed my love is dead, where loving words were once said. The empty clothes do make me cry, costumes of a time gone by. My empty heart cannot restart, love has gone away. I am split in two, these words are true,

as I empty myself of you. I mean, that doesn't sound like some dude who's punching in the face in a, like a pub brawl. But if he did, that would be like an epic Tarantino character. What it's- You know, like speaking in rhyme and just like ripping your teeth out with your like, with like your bare knuckles.

It's fascinating that he would have almost a personality change. I gotta say- Personality change. I'm not terribly impressed by the poetry. I'm impressed by the, Let me give you more. The shift. He started seeing all kinds of images

and words in his mind. He decided to start sketching them out. Okay. One day his wife comes home to find him drawing alien faces, like with their mouths agape. Like grrr. Grudge situation. Yeah, well it's kinda like really surprised aliens

like turning the tables, like we're supposed to be surprised by aliens, I don't know, he had this like artistic explanation for everything, the dude became the opposite of somebody he would ever be, he was obsessed with writing, painting, anything artist he became. He used his own walls as canvases, covered his entire home in paintings. And he was a construction worker.

Different guy now. He started sending letters out to doctors asking them to take a look at him. And of course the letters were written as poems. In rhyme. Oh, how do you respond to that? Well, a team of researchers put him through every cognitive test imaginable,

including that yes, his artistic output was due to his brain's sudden decision to start bleeding, which caused some damage to his frontal lobe. The exact causes is unknown. Doctors have named it sudden artistic output. I mean, I think that's what doctors live for. It's like, well, I'm able to name this. It seems like they could have come up with a better name,

like, I don't know, like Tommy's artist. Tommy's really into art now syndrome. Well, that would just be Tommy, though. That's true. But, okay, just be Tommy though. That's true. But okay, I don't understand, what happened? Damage to the frontal lobe. I mean, they don't know. He had some pins put in to stop the bleeding

so they couldn't do an MRI. They, I don't know, it's just some doctor's guessing. So it's one of the- It's the brain, who knows? The weird thing is that something gets damaged, which causes another part of the brain to become emphasized. Expressed, a valve.

The artist's valve was closed. In an interesting way, because you can't, this isn't like blowing on a Nintendo cartridge, right? When you think about that, you're like, how does that work? This isn't like blowing on a Nintendo cartridge, right? When you think about that, you're like, how does that work? How does blowing on a Nintendo cartridge get Legend of Zelda to boot up in the right way? That makes total sense.

The dust that was on the part that was keeping it from booting up was- Okay, that does make more sense. But it's almost like creating something out of nothing. If you're not artistic before, something gets shut off. Is it just the shutting off of something that turns something else on? Because you can't make a part of the brain work better

by hitting it hard, right? Or- Shaking something loose. Shaking something right. Shaking something, no. Shaking something into place. What, no, I mean, we're no neuroscientists, but it just tells me that like,

there's all these building blocks there. Like everything's there. It's just a question of what's expressed. It's so interesting. Meaning that it was in his brain already. To be an artist. There was an artist in there. Right, but it had been subdued.

And there was a brawler in there. It had been subdued. Or just, both weren't expressed. Like, only one was expressed and then it was depressed and then another was expressed. I'm using like landscaping terms now. I'm thinking like sprinklers. We can only come up with analogies

because we don't understand it. Right, we don't understand it. Right, we don't understand it. I mean, when he explains it, he says, "'My mind is like a volcano exploding with bubbles, "'and each bubble contains a million other bubbles, "'and then another million bubbles "'of unstoppable creative ideas.'" He also went on to write the Animaniacs.

He actually became a much nicer person and he doesn't drink and bar fight. He wishes he'd always been that way. If you could have one part of your brain unlocked, assuming that everything that you know about everybody is in all of our brains and you could unlock one part. And I had to have a horrible constipation session in order to make it happen?

Yes, but what part of the brain would it be? Like, I think we kind of see ourselves as like kind of well-rounded individuals, but there's a limitation, you know, we're not as funny or we're too analytical or, you know, it's. Yeah, I've always said I'm good at a lot of things. Because this power will happen. I'm not great.

You'll be able to make an appointment in the future and unlock certain things. Right. But you're not gonna know what's gonna get locked up in order to create, allow that sprinkler to open. When you water the lawn in the front yard, the backyard's gonna dry up. Oh no, this is alller to open. When you water the lawn in the front yard, the backyard's gonna dry up. This is all leading to something, inevitably.

There will be a time in which you will be able to undergo surgery. They'll figure this out and you'll be able to engineer greatness. What are you gonna choose, is my question. Because what I was gonna say is, I've always thought, yeah, I'm not afraid to say I feel like I'm good at a lot of things.

I don't think I'm great at anything. You know, it's like I can hold my own with music enough to write something that's catchy. Right. But it is no musical genius, that's for sure. I feel like at this stage in my life, it would either be like the ability to write something really incredible, you know, like story-wise or something musical related.

I'd have to pick one of those. The interesting thing is, okay, what would you be willing to give up that you're as decent as music at now in order to like express the music sprinkler entirely. What in the backyard is gonna go dry when the musical front yard flourishes? Niceness.

Oh gosh. I wanna become a total jerk musician. That's really, can I dial that up? That is sad. No, I mean, can you sacrifice athletic ability? Sure, yes. I would sacrifice that, because I don't use that very often.

Okay. I use it a lot in my younger days, but I would become horrible at anything physical to be a good musician, to be a great musician. What about you? Oh, what about me? I like the, I've always said like the variety is the spice of life.

I'm decent enough at enough things that I just like to do a little thing and be good at it and then move on to something decent at it and enjoy it and move on. Like, I'm just trying to think what I could do if that's sit down at the piano and like do something amazing, how much, I can't, it's hard for me to quantify how much joy I would actually get from it.

Having never, cause I get joy from the little things and then moving on, you know? So it's just, it's almost like it's a different mentality. I don't think I would do it. It's taking something to a new level though. But it's giving something else up. Okay, well. It's giving a mediocrity of, I would, variety up.

Well, I've got a guy. So that's what I'm not willing to do. I got a guy who gave up nothing. Oh. In game musical genius. I got a guy who gave up nothing. Oh. And gained musical genius. His name is Tony Sikora in Albany, New York, 1994.

He's a 42 year old orthopedic surgeon. He goes to a payphone to call his mom. It is 1994, they still had payphones that people actually used. He hangs up, he steps one foot away from the payphone and he is struck by lightning. Again, not constipation, but pretty traumatic. Struck by lightning.

Yeah. He says he then sees his own body on the ground surrounded by bluish white light. So sort of an out of body experience here. Surrounded by bluish white light? Yeah. So Cora's heart- Did he become the payphone? So sort of an out of body experience here. Surrounded by bluish white light. Yeah. Sikora's heart. Did he become the payphone?

I don't believe so. What's the payphone got to do with it? That's just where he was. Oh, so it has nothing to do with it. Sikora's heart had apparently stopped, but he was resuscitated by a woman who happened to be a nurse that was waiting to use the payphone.

Again, 1994. Not only are people using the payphone, there's a line. There's a line. There's a line for the payphone. Can you imagine that? I can't even locate a payphone. I couldn't find a payphone if you paid me to find the payphone.

You could pay me in a payphone and I couldn't find a payphone. Me neither. But okay, for the next couple of weeks after the strike, Tony's feeling sluggish. First, a nurse is also a good person to be there when you're struck by lightning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it helps.

And it's nice to have a pay phone because you call 911. Yeah, it all works out. He's a few weeks after the strike, he's feeling sluggish. He's having trouble remembering things. Is he still watching himself from above or? No, that was temporary. That was temporary.

Is he still watching himself from above or? No, that was temporary. That was temporary. And just a little sidebar on the whole out-of-body experience thing, just for those of you interested in this, it has been, this phenomenon has been documented in lots of different people. And there's actually some really interesting explanations.

The common denominator, a payphone. That people experience seeing themselves when they have a near-death experience, not necessarily saying that you're actually leaving your body, but there's interesting neurological things that happened during that time that kind of helped to explain this whole out-of-body thing, but regardless of what's actually happening.

Anyway, but these symptoms of not being able to remember things and feeling kind of sluggish, they go away and then things get weird. Out of the blue, Tony, who's never been musical, gets a sudden urge to listen to piano music. Okay, he's just kind of a technical guy, a surgeon. Now, he had played piano for one year, just like forced to take piano lessons at age seven

by his parents. He did not like it though. But he had never done anything else with music, okay? But he doesn't just start wanting to listen to piano music. He finds that he is hearing piano music in his head. In his brain. And he's hearing it crystal clear in his new original music

that he just hears playing in his head. Really? And then he figures out. He's a composer. That he can just sit down having no idea how to play the piano and not knowing how to read or write music, but he can sit down and play what he hears in his head.

Well, he's, it's not that he doesn't have any idea. He's re-accessing and opening the valve from a seven-year-old, but then applying some other part of the brain to it to just speak the language of music using his fingers. It's unbelievable. And he goes on to become, I mean, what this guy does now is he writes music.

He's a musician. Here is- Is he like touring with Josh Groban or something? I mean, is this guy- Here he is playing an appropriately named Lightning Sonata. This is in Vienna. And you'll notice right before he plays this,

I'm just gonna play you some of the music, but right before he plays this, I'm just gonna play you some of the music, but right before he plays this, he says, I received this one from the other side, so I can't claim that I wrote it. So from his perspective, he has access to some musical dimension that he's now accessing, and then he's just writing it and playing it. So if somebody paid him, would he keep the money

or would he send it to the other side? I don't know. I don't know how you send money to the other side. I think he'd go back to the payphone. Right. Okay, I get it. Okay. He's good at the piano. I get it. Okay. He's good at the piano. I get it. You could have played anything on the piano.

Oh yeah, okay. You can play the piano good, all right? Yeah, okay. Here's the thing I love about this story. Now I know what to tell my kids when they don't wanna do their piano practice. You know, Lily and Lincoln are both doing it because as a kid, now I wish as a kid

that I would have learned to play piano. Oh yeah. Like I do, that's why, that's what came to mind earlier because that's something I wanted to give my kids and the piano can translate. It's a great way to get into music. Yeah. It translates. Yeah.

And you know, I was over Lincoln's shoulder trying to get him to practice the other night and getting really frustrated because I'm so impatient and such a horrible teacher. Well, I wasn't teaching him. I was just trying to get him to do what the teacher was telling him as his homework. And now I have a story.

He'll be like, Lincoln, you're gonna thank me one day when you get struck by lightning at a pay phone when you're calling your mama, and all this is going to come back to you, and you're going to be even better at it than you are now. It's like a savings bond of a concerto. You put in a little 10 year old version of the piano now in your brain.

And then it'll grow up. 10, 12 years from now when you get struck by lightning, it will have matured. Yeah. Without you doing anything, in your sleep. And not just that, we have to arrange that. You know, this is why, this is really supports my long held theory that there's music and lightning bolts.

And that's what it was. And all you gotta do is find that high spot during a thunderstorm. You know, everybody wants to get down in the ditch, everybody wants to be inside. Get under the tallest tree. I mean, go there. You know, if you wanna become a master pianist.

Right. I hope. For the record. I hope that no one will actually do that. I hope that people know that. You think people know I'm being master pianist. Right. I hope. For the record. I hope that no one will actually do that. I hope that people know that. You think people know I'm being sarcastic? If they do, I hope they don't write a letter or tell anyone that's why and then they die. So they can't tell anyone that you did it because of us.

Don't get struck by lightning. You probably won't become a master pianist. I mean, to me it's, if there was no point of reference for the piano, that would just be, or Mandarin, like it would be mind blowing, but I just wouldn't believe it. It's still incredibly cool.

It's almost on a brain mechanical level, this is more fascinating because you know just enough to know that this isn't magic. It's not magic. That it's in there. Right. And it incubates, but when it manifests itself, it's to a savant level.

Well, and this guy's been studied, Tony's been studied by Columbia University neurologist, Oliver Sacks, whose conclusion is, "'I cannot provide an exact medical explanation for Sikora's condition. Yeah, I mean, isn't that just fascinating that there's just so much that we don't know. There's so much that we don't know, but I definitely feel like these cases,

in which again, we were talking to Kevin, who helped research for this episode, who said that there's only about 25 cases of this thing happening in the world. So we're just experiencing the very beginning of this thing, but there's absolutely no doubt that 100, 200 years from now, whether it's through nanotechnology or just some injection, that you'll be able to rewire your brain

to access some new level of potential. That whole Lucy movie and that whole like, what's the one when Bradley Cooper, Limitless, that whole, all that's totally legit, man. Maybe not exactly like it happened, but it's gonna happen. And you know what, remind me, I wanna come back to this at the end, but just the thought about our brains and how we view technology outside of our brains, I wanna come back to this at the end, but just the thought about our brains

and how we view technology outside of our brains. We'll come back to that. Okay. Right now we gotta take a quick break from these brain stories and tell you about something else that requires a lot of brain power. Building a website. Rhett, name a profession.

Mime. Mime needs websites, man. Really? Mimes needs websites. Do you know of mimes websites? Yeah, I think mimes, no, I don't personally frequent mime websites, but I'm just trying to make the point

that everybody needs a website. Everybody could use one. And an occupation that doesn't speak and just uses, do what mimes do, they certainly need a website. They need any help they can get to communicate. They can put some video on there of how, you know, this is me coming out of the box,

this is me stuck in the box, this is me going down the stairs, this is me going up the stairs. Right, portfolio website, point made, everyone needs a website. Squarespace provides simple, powerful, and beautiful websites that look professionally designed regardless of your skill level, no coding required.

And not only does Squarespace provide you with an intuitive and easy way to use tools to create your website, but your site will be secure and stable. Squarespace is easy and simple. They give you 24 seven online support and a beautiful website for only $8 a month. You can even get a free domain

if you buy Squarespace for the year. So begin a trial with no credit card required and start building your website today, y'all. When you decide to sign up, make sure to use offer code BISCUITS to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support of the show. Offer code BISCUITS, 10% off Squarespace.

And thanks to Squarespace for their support of Ear Biscuits, Squarespace, build it beautiful. Also wanna thank our other sponsor, Audible.com. Totally serious here, Audible.com has revolutionized the way that I consume books because I'm the kind of person- Well, yeah, you used to do it with your eyes, now you do it with your ears. No, because here'm the kind of person. Well, yeah, you used to do it with your eyes, now you do it with your ears. No, because here's the deal.

I am the kind of person who loves the idea of reading books, but never gets around to actually reading them nearly as much as I like the idea of it. But now that I've started listening to books, I'm actually, I'm gonna say that I'm reading the books. I am consuming the books. I'm learning the things that are in the books. And I do a lot of this while I'm gonna say that I'm reading the books. I am consuming the books. I'm learning the things that are in the books. And I do a lot of this while I'm driving

and it's much better than that thing I see people doing. You know the people who are like reading a novel and they're holding it up in front of their freaking steering wheel? I've actually- Have you seen this? Yeah, yes. People are still doing that and they could just be listening to the book.

It's crazy. I've gone through more books in the past two months since I've been using Audible than I have in the previous, you know, two years, easily. It's almost like getting hit in the head. Yeah, that's a great analogy. And then waking up and having you listen to a book. Over 180,000 titles so you'll find something

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Also, as a special for Ear Biscuits listeners, Audible.com is offering a free audio book of your choice and a free 30-day trial membership. Go to audible.com slash Rhett and Link today to start your free trial. Again, show your support for Ear Biscuits and get a free audio book and 30 day trial at audible.com, audible.com slash Rhett and Link.

That is A-N-D spelled out, not the ampersand. That won't work. All right, back into this biscuit. Jason Padgett is the name of a guy that we went to high school with. I'm about to say that sounds like somebody we went to high school with. But as it turns out, there's another Jason Padgett

in Tacoma, Washington that we did not go to high school with. Yes, big guy, real big. No, like muscular. Oh, I was thinking Jason Batson. No, Jason Batson was a different guy. Different guy. Different name. Jason Padgett, we barely knew him. Barely.

But I hadn't thought of his name until I'm about to tell you about this guy who's not him. Yeah, so we shouldn't even be talking about the other one. It's just a different guy. Yeah. But you know how when, I'm sorry guys, when the name comes up, man, I haven't heard that name in a long time.

Let me see if I can figure out who it is. He's a big guy. I don't, you get hung up. Yeah, right. My haven't heard that name in a long time. Let me see if I can figure out who it is. He's a big guy. I don't, you get hung up. Yeah, right. My brain won't let me let go of this. But now we're gonna shut down the old Jason Padgett part of the brain and open up the new Jason Padgett part of the brain.

Yes, we're gonna express the new one. It's a savant. All right, this dude's a furniture salesman in Tacoma, Washington. In 2002, two men savagely attack him outside of a karaoke bar before robbing him. Who's gonna- That's rough. Boy. It's cold.

Someone's been at a karaoke bar all night. Somebody's singing Islands in the Stream in the background and you're getting your head kicked in. Head walloped. That's horrible. Dude, they hit him over the head from behind and left him with a severe concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder.

I mean. It's bad. I mean, and he had been doing karaoke all night. Like, that's bad to worse. Well, no, sometimes you come off a good karaoke run. I mean, sometimes, I've really nailed it a few times. Right, the incident also turned Jason Padgett, the one that we didn't go to high school with,

into a mathematical genius who now sees the world through fractals. What? Yes, this guy's like the poster child for turning lemons into lemonade. Yeah, I used to just be a guy who sold furniture, sang karaoke, and got the crap beat out of me behind the karaoke bar,

and now I'm a mathematical genius who sees the world as fractals. I mean, I know what a fractal looks like but it makes no sense to me. How do you see the world in fractals? Well, I'll tell you how he explains it. First of all, he said, back in school, he always hated math but the injury unlocked the part of his brain that makes everything in his world

appear to have a mathematical structure. It's like he has a superpower, he sees in math. That's nuts. It's like a filter over his eyes, he said, I see shapes and angles everywhere in real life, from the geometry of a rainbow to fractals in water spiraling down a drain. It's just really beautiful. Well, I hope it's beautiful.

I want this guy to sell me furniture. Sounds like it would drive me crazy. No, I mean, he's in awe of it. This is a fractal couch. I know you can't tell. But it's amazing. But it's just fractals, man. This sectional sofa is just full of fractals.

He just went back to his job and he's just like staring at furniture. Yeah. As if it's the most beautiful thing. You know, I've never been on acid, don't plan on it, but it seems like that's what this guy would look like, staring at a couch like it's amazing. Well, hopefully he can control

a little bit better than that. Barrett Bruggard, a philosophy professor at the University of Miami, scanned Padgett's brain. So you got a philosophy guy scanning his brain. It showed significant activity in the left hemisphere which where mathematical skills are known to reside. So that makes sense. His brain lit up mostly in the left parietal cortex, I think I'm saying that right.

The area behind the crown of the head that is known to integrate information from different senses. So, I mean, we have a little bit more information about this guy that, okay, there's this information integration center and mathematical skills center, and it's lighting up, you know, that's what you would expect

to like this super electric degree that he can, he's tapped into this dormant area again where this resides in everyone. Like if I could find this place in your brain and stimulate it correctly, correctly, correctly. Hey man, stimulate this correctly. I can't speak while doing it. But.

You're speaking in fractals now. You would see couches. You turn correctly into correctly. I like an amazing geometry teacher. He started sketching the stuff that he was seeing. He would sketch like circles made of overlapping triangles and he began to understand the concept of pi in like a mind-blowing way.

He didn't have any formal understanding to interpret the drawings that he himself was making. He was just making- He could just do it. Making the drawings out of instinct. A physicist happened to walk by him in a mall. Dude was, Jason was just sitting in a mall sketching things that he was seeing. Furniture.

A physicist walks by. Here's a chair, here's a love seat. And is like, oh, that's, he strikes up a conversation and says, dude, you need to get mathematical training because the stuff you're drawing is amazing. And when you look at it, it's like, it's like looking at like line drawings

that you could see in a kaleidoscope. Like perfectly geometric drafting table level precision drawing. Or like something you see in a 3D program. Yeah, but this guy's just drawing them out of instinct. And now he's a sophomore in school, I can't speak anymore. Yeah, I noticed.

It's like my brain is so overwhelmed with this knowledge that maybe my language center is shutting down and I'm making room for something else that has nothing to do with this podcast. I am so anxious as to what it might be. He's an aspiring number theorist and he's like being trained to do it. And he loves it because it's now resonating

with the new brain that he's got. But this concept of, the word that this doctor used was that there was a dormant part of his brain. Yeah, it was in there. That we potentially have. It just makes me wonder why, why is that there? And what do you mean by dormant?

Is this a part of the brain that was used at some point in the history of our ancestors? You know, way, way back, like a part, you know how your brain has different layers that you have in common with other life forms. And it's like you access different parts depending on certain emotions or certain things you're doing.

What is this part of his brain that he now has access to that we probably have in our brain, but we don't have access to it? What does that mean? Well, Rhett, I'll tell you exactly what it means. No, I mean, of course I don't know. I mean, that's the fascinating thing is that even the people who know

are still guessing and making analogies and it's like space exploration. Well, did you see that movie, Lucy, with Scarlett Johansson? No. So not a great movie, I'll just say right up front, not a great movie. I saw the one where she was just the voice.

Her, which was a great movie. But in Lucy, which also had Morgan Freeman in it, she is the subject of some, I can't remember exactly how it happens, whether it's like something she takes or something the way she's operated on, I can't remember, but she basically gains access to her entire, the entire usage of her brain.

And it's based on the whole 10% of the brain, you know, we don't use but 10% of our brain or at a time or whatever that old thing was. The idea of being able to access every part of your brain, she becomes just this amazing being who can do all this stuff that seems supernatural and beyond just being really smart and just she's doing all kinds of weird stuff. But that idea, this kind of gives credence to that.

Well, it's a question of is it a hidden secret that's been placed within the brain to be unlocked or is it the byproduct of biological processes that just happens to be advantageous or we're on the precipice of unlocking it if we just hit our noggins right? Well, is there some analogy in like machines or computers that we use in like, okay, you've got an oven or a microwave or a blender

and you drop the blender and all of a sudden there's like a new setting on the blender, that doesn't happen. You know, you drop a blender and like all of a sudden you can't chop anymore. It breaks. It isn't like you can, now you can like dice things that you couldn't do before. Well, I mean. It's just not how things, because. Well, it's not a living being. It isn't. I can, now you can like dice things that you couldn't do before.

Well, I mean. It's just not how things, cause. Well, it's not a living being. It isn't. I will point that out. Well, and it doesn't have a brain. It doesn't have a brain that has a lot of plasticity and the ability to just, you know, brains are, we don't understand and they're malleable.

There's just so much potential in them. We're not blenders, Link. That's the them. We're not blenders, Link. That's the conclusion. We're not blenders. But maybe if we put our brains into a blender, maybe that's what we need to do. Well, you first. Okay, on with the amazing things

that have happened to people. Orlando Sorrell, in 1979, he's 10 years old. He's playing a baseball game with his friends. He runs to first base, the baseball is thrown in his direction, strikes him on the left side of the head. I knew that was gonna happen. He falls to the ground,

stays there for a while unconscious, then he gets up and starts playing baseball again. He walked it off. Okay. But since that injury, Orlando can tell you the day of the week and the weather on every date after this accident. Okay, you understand what I'm saying?

So he's a weatherman? So if you say, Orlando, June 19th, 1998, almost immediately, he doesn't even look like he's thinking, he just looks like you asked me a question and now I'm giving you an answer. He'll say, Friday, sunny. It was a Friday, I don't know what the weather was. Can I point out that how would anyone check this,

the accuracy of this? Well, it has been checked. I actually saw this guy in a Discovery Channel. Maul? Did you go and talk to him? No, he was not at a booth. I saw him on a Discovery Channel documentary. He's also been on Dateline NBC where they visited him

and they demonstrated this. He can also remember some details about the things that he did that day. Like, oh, I ordered a pizza with pepperoni and sausage on that day. But he says that he's not remembering it. He's, when you give him a date, it's like he's reading it. He says he can see the details right in front of him,

just like he's accessing information from a screen. Wow. Now this is- He's not thinking. This is fascinating, but it's also sad. Because so what? You know, it's like, what, how can, I'm trying to help the guy out, I'm like, well, how can this enrich his life?

It gets you on television. Gets you on, it gets you to be a subject matter on Ear Biscuits. I know, but. I mean, that's not bad. I mean, I'm not complaining about that. He's like a very specific, he's just a database. I mean, he's a weather database.

But you know, I mean, sometimes I think about. But those exist, and they're called weather databases. Yeah, but I don't, when you have Orlando as a friend, you never go to weather.com. But he can't tell you the next, he can't tell you tomorrow's weather, so I guess you still do. I know, since when have you gone to anywhere

to ask for when the weather was? What was the weather? In the past. I don't know, Farmer's Almanac, man. He's an anti-weather man. He's a negative weather man. I think it's like the Farmer's Almanac, man. He's an anti-weather man. He's a negative weather man. I think it's like the Farmer's Almanac. He can predict the next year pretty accurately, but I could always just go to weather man.

It's based on historical data. So Daylight NBC invites Orlando to Columbia University in New York to perform a functional MRI test on his brain. They wanna see what lights up. During the procedure, they videotaped Orlando undergoing the MRI and then used it to compare his brain functions to that of normal people.

So they ask him questions about dates in the past, same thing, like June 19th, 1998. And the control group, when you ask them about the weather of a day in the past, their response is, so what, I don't know, why? You know, who cares? And he is told to only think about the answers, but not say them out loud.

And here's what they find. It's really fascinating. In addition to using the part of the brain that normal people would use for computation, Orlando was also using the limbic area of the brain, which is associated with emotion. Okay. But Dr. Hirsch, who was the doctor who was doing this,

concluded based on the scans that Orlando is not using the memory part of his brain when calculating the weekdays. He's using emotions? Basically, I think the answer is, we don't know what he's doing, but he's using his brain in a way that normal people don't. He's not doing something better,

because me and you, if you ask us a date, we'd have to like get out, it would take me an hour to do a bunch of math and to like write it all out to like, just go back to like, you know, three months ago to figure out what day of the week something was. He's not doing that.

He's doing it differently. Alternate process entirely. Yeah, he's not moving through computations faster. He's doing, he's accessing the information immediately using a combination of the computation part of his brain and the emotional part of his brain, they basically don't really understand what's going on. Here's what I want-

They're just able to observe that it's different. Here's what I wanna know, how they discovered this. You know, it's probably not just he can tell you the day of the week and what the weather was. It's probably more generic than that or more general. There's other things he can remember. Like you said, he can remember. It's not just, oh, he, he's,

there's some special unlocked valve in like the weather day data bank of his brain. Yeah, it's probably more broad than that. And he can remember other things, but that's just how it's being packaged for Dateline and for us. Well, it's that's just how it's being packaged for Dateline and for us. Well, it's like he's- That's the first thing I think.

Well, it's like he's constantly playing a recorder that he can immediately access the information, but the main thing it records is the day and the weather. Yeah, it's like his brain is doing something totally different. It's like his brain became a different tool than what a typical brain would be. So, but the fascinating thing is,

is obviously this is an, it's an amazing thing, but I too agree with you that it's a relatively useless thing. It's amazing that it happened. But let's just say the principle is, you know, getting hit in the side of the head with a baseball in the perfect way when you're 10 years old can unlock something fascinating.

If you could unlock some powerful memory technique, what would it be? Like, you know, what if it was every song I've ever listened to, I don't know all the lyrics. Now that would be awesome. I mean, talk about karaoke. I mean, all of a sudden you, that's pretty useful. There's sports people who know all that kind of data.

I don't know, I don't know what I would know. Trying to come up with something ultra useful, not something just ultra cool. I think I would want the ability to read a book and be able to access all the facts from the book. You're a lot better at retaining information than I am. So I feel like if only one of us can get this, it's gotta be me.

Like I'm really hurting for this. Like I need this one. So that's a good one. I'm taking that one. But you know, another useful memory skill, you know how when something happens to you and then, and this happens to everybody, and then you want to sit down and tell the story

and you can't quite get everything right, being able to remember exactly how something happened to you, like almost for the sake of like telling a funny story at a party. Or the witness stand, if you want to use it for justice. That would also be. That would be helpful.

Just being able to remember detailed events with great accuracy. I'd get hit in the head with a golf ball for that. It's difficult when you can't apply it to other people's situations. Like I'd much rather be, if it only applies to things you've experienced, you can't help with so many people.

But if you know a lot of things, you could help out other people. Let me tell you about this guy that I'm really interested in because I would much rather have what this guy has. Okay. Alonzo Clemens from Boulder, Colorado, was always good with his hands. At the age of two, he could sculpt and mold Play-Doh

for hours at a time, but when he was three years old, he fell down and sustained a serious head injury, okay? Changed his life forever. He was, for years, he was unable to speak, tie his shoes, even dress himself. Doctor said he had an IQ of 40. Whoa. To this day, Alonzo, I mean,

he's made tremendous strides in terms of his quality of life, but he still can't read because that part of his brain, it just won't allow him to, the way the damage that he suffered. However, if you put a piece of clay in his hands, you will be amazed what this guy can do with it. There is a genius part of his brain

that's been unlocked to sculpt things. He can look at any animal, a horse, a dolphin, a bull, a giraffe, name it, just a few moments, and then using only his hands and clay, he can create an insanely detailed three dimensional replica out of clay or wax, like perfect. This is not like a work of art, like, oh, that looks cool. An approximation of a horse.

This is a perfect proportional rendering, anatomically correct, externally. Whoa, anatomically correct. He. Whoa, anatomically correct. He doesn't get the organs inside right. It's just like, from the look, it's like perfectly super realistic sculpture of anything. The images in his mind are the only thing he uses for reference.

Like he'll look at a horse once, if you like, I saw footage of him like outside of a horse stable and he's like sculpting a horse, but he's not looking at the horse. He looked at the horse for a second. He got it. I got it, horse, done. It's like a 3D printer.

This guy is a 3D printer. He is a human 3D printer, that's exactly right. You don't need one, you need this guy. The images in her mind are so- Only clay though. In his mind are so accurate, he can sculpt in the dark without even looking at what his hands are doing.

For years- It's just all by feel? That's what they say, man. For years, his work was only based on photographs. So his sculptures didn't have as much dimension because he only saw the pictures, but then he started going to zoos and horse stables, like people would take him to animals,

and then it was like spitting out like a 3D image. You're exactly right. This guy would be like the ultimate zoo companion. You know, I'll be honest with you, I'm not big on the zoo. It's always a disappointment. The animals are always hiding. You need a sculpture zoo companion?

I need a lot so. I'd be like, listen, man, I know that the lions are gonna be back there sleeping behind the rock. But so when we get there, can you just like sculpt one? It's not even that he is able to do it, he's compelled to do it. He can't help but do it. He can't help but do it. It's like so strong of an urge.

And some of the neurological explanations I've read have said things, they've described it as this, we all have said things, they've described it as this, we all have this ability, but that for most people it's overwritten by complex speech abilities that have been erased for Alonzo. And it kind of exposed something. So it, you know, I don't know why they say this,

but they describe it as something that's been exposed or opened up, not something that's been created by trauma. Again, you're saying that we could do this if we could only access that part of the brain. Yeah. Savants like Alonzo can store information in their memories just like regular people do, but unlike most of us, they can retrieve incredible amounts

of information from a very small range, like spatial data, he can retrieve it. Just like the piano guy can retrieve details or the weather guy can retrieve those specific details. Does he sell this stuff? Does he have a website? Yeah, he has a website. AlonzoClemons, C-L-E-M-O-N-S.com.

Like he's selling like a hippo mama and a hippo baby for $1,200. Oh wow. This is all like bronze stuff. This is not cheap. But it's super inspiring. I got, you know, the videos online, if you just search his name,

they're very inspirational. So yeah, I mean, you know, the videos online, if you just search his name, they're very inspirational. So yeah, I mean, he's, he demonstrates his sculpting at schools to help inspire children. And he's also had a hobby as a power lifter and was in the Special Olympics for doing power lifting. Dude's amazing. Dang.

Here's the thing in general. I mean, the brain is so fascinating. This kind of has given us a window into, if you want to call it the untapped potential, okay. You know, the mystery that is our brain is so fascinating, so amazing, so enthralling. We look at technology and we're like, oh, I gotta have that next thing.

That's amazing that now we've created that thing. But this has given me an appreciation for this device that is nestled under everybody's skull. Like we all have this device that's so mysterious and so amazing and untapped and unfathomable to a lot of degree, inexplicable, that we're just carrying it around on the top of this. So what are you gonna do?

Heap of jaunting human, walker thing. Well, inside the walker thing in order to get to the- But it's right up here, we all have it. And all we gotta do is push real hard while we're using the bathroom, get struck by lightning, don't wear a helmet while playing baseball, don't wear your seatbelt while driving a car.

What other things can we learn? Or just fall over in an aggressive manner. Just fall, just fall. If it were only that easy. Right. Well, I- I mean, I really think about, I mean, growing up the huge televisions we had in the 80s,

and if it didn't work, what would you do? Hit it. You'd go up to the side of it and you'd hit it. Yeah, and it worked. Like even in Mad Men, in the last season, I don't know if you remember that, but there's that moment where, I can't remember which character it was,

goes up and hits the side of the television. And that's one of the things I love about Mad Men is that it triggers these memories. You can't do that to a television anymore because it's too thin. You don't want to hit the screen. You need a box. They need to bring the box back

so you can just really hit it. That's because it wasn't, I mean, I'm not going to even say why, because I don't know, but it had something to do with the tube. But you know, I'm not going to say, well, I'm going to try really hard to unlock this potential, but it's just knowing that I have this thing up there

that it's like carrying around like the depths of the ocean or the depths of space in between my ears. Plumb the depths between your ears. That's the motto. Of what? I'm using your plumbing analogy. Of us. That's our motto?

I'm bringing it full circle. Of us, that's our motto. I'm bringing it full circle. Plumb the depths between your ears. I don't know if that means put more stuff in there or I definitely don't think it means don't wear a helmet, but I don't know, or just sit around and wait for the nanotechnology pill that'll make all this easy. I hope you've been fascinated. I hope you've been inspired to appreciate

and begin to plumb the depths between your ears today on this Ear Biscuit. Please do that. Let us know what you think. Tweet at us. Use your brain. At Rhett and Link, hashtag Ear Biscuits. To access the emotional and computational

and memory parts of your brain. And access that part of the brain, turn it into language. It could be Mandarin, it could be English. You can make a sculpture of what you think that we look like right now while we're doing this. Take an Instagram photo. Whatever, do it. Plumb the depths between your ears.

We'll speak at you next week.