Episode 584: Inheriting the Atom Bomb

This Week on the Pod: Rain, Parades, Hive Minds, and… Ben's Brain for Rent? This week's episode opens with a very rainy round of real-life updates. Ben has been slammed with work and declares—formally, officially, irrevocably—that poetry is better than parades. (He is fully prepared to defend this position.) Meanwhile, Steven reports that the local parade and festival still happened despite the rain, because sometimes community spirit just refuses to check the weather. And Devon? He keeps forgetting that he's technically a Texan now, which raises several questions about residency, identity, and barbecue obligations. But the week wasn't all jokes—Ben also shared the sad news that Orion has passed. He was a very good boy, and the pod raises a collective toast. Ben's been spending time catching up on life, trying to relearn what "rest" even means, and also casually dropping the bomb that Affinity is now free. (Yes, really—go see for yourself at affinity.studio.) And while you're browsing, you can apparently rent Ben's actual mind at Penciledin.com, which sounds like a threat but is, in fact, a service. Steven also let us know that the Fallout Season 2 trailer is out, so it's time to emotionally prepare for more post-apocalyptic chaos.  Future or Now: Tylenol, Autism, and the Psychology of Hive Minds Devon kicks off this segment with actual real science: new research shows no clear link between acetaminophen (Tylenol) and autism, which is a big deal considering how long that concern has been floating around. (Links to ScienceDaily and the BMJ included in the show notes for the skeptics and science nerds.) Then we collectively decide: yes, we need to talk about Plur1bus. And we go deep. This is a full-spoiler discussion, so skip ahead if you're still watching. We cover everything—from the protagonist who's also the antagonist, to the messy moral math of a hive mind, to Devon's incredibly passionate speech about wanting to understand hive-mind psychology. Steven brings up that Internet-as-proto-hivemind theory, and Ben drops several very good points as per tradition. If you want episode breakdowns, the Wikipedia page has everything laid out neatly and also serves as a reminder that this show is way smarter than any of us expected when we hit "play." Book Club (Sort Of) We skipped Book Club this week because there was simply too much Plur1bus to process. Next week: We're reading City Grown From Seed by Diana Dima. Content warning: domestic violence / domestic abuse. You can read it for free on Strange Horizons.