Episode 608: Grade 3 Spondylolisthesis

Another week, another episode where we somehow go from broccoli discourse to self-driving cars to limb regeneration technology and then cap it all off with rogue timestreams on a college campus. Just a normal day for The Science Faction Podcast. Real Life Ben opens the show with an important culinary clarification: broccoli is the green one. Not the other green one. Also maybe "broccolini" exists? Science remains divided. Meanwhile, Ben's household has become a temporary kitten sanctuary. Tiny baby cats are everywhere, and while Ben is trying his best, he freely admits his wife appears to be significantly more qualified in the art of keeping tiny creatures alive. On top of that, his son has started developing an actual social life, which Ben correctly identifies as a direct threat to traditional family hanging-out time. The family also continues debating the orbital mechanics of For All Mankind, with Ben's 12-year-old officially unconvinced by the show's space logistics. Devon reports back from a Dallas anniversary trip with his wife celebrating ten years of marriage. The trip included visits to the Perot Natural History Museum, multiple Waymo sightings, an improv show with front-row seats, and a self-driving Uber ride that still included a human technician nervously supervising the robot future. Steven survived a busy week while his wife was out of town and also got some bonus hangout time with Devon during the visit. Naturally, this somehow led to new miniatures for Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone entering the house. The crew also stumbles into Texas voter registration statistics, discovering that as of August 2025 there were reportedly more registered Democrats than Republicans in Texas, which sparks discussion about perception versus raw registration numbers. According to reporting from Independent Voter News, Democrats accounted for approximately 46.52% of registered voters compared to 37.75% registered Republicans. Future or Now (~10 min ea) Devon brings in one of the wildest science stories of the week: researchers may have identified a key genetic pathway involved in limb regeneration. Scientists studying axolotls, zebrafish, and mice uncovered a family of "SP genes" connected to regeneration. By disabling these genes, proper bone regrowth stopped entirely. Researchers then used zebrafish-inspired gene therapy techniques to partially restore regeneration in mice. The long-term dream? Moving beyond prosthetics and eventually regrowing living tissue and limbs in humans. Tiny salamanders may once again be carrying the future of medicine on their weird smiling backs. Read more from ScienceDaily. Ben follows that up with a double nostalgia feature. First up is The Thirteenth Floor, the underrated 1999 sci-fi film that had the misfortune of arriving alongside The Matrix. Decades later, removed from direct comparisons, Ben argues the movie absolutely holds up and deserves a second look. Then comes a glowing recommendation for Mixtape, a coming-of-age game centered around three teenage friends spending one final night together before life changes forever. Ben describes it as emotionally sincere, genuinely hilarious, visually stunning, and powered by an incredible soundtrack. The animation style apparently evokes Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse energy, while the tone lands somewhere between Dazed and Confused, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and High Fidelity. Ben strongly recommends it even for non-gamers, suggesting that simply watching a playthrough could still deliver a great experience. Check it out at Mixtape Official Site. Steven unfortunately runs out of time this week, proving once again that reality remains the greatest enemy of podcast scheduling. Book Club  Next Week's Story Next week the crew will be reading: Narcissus Meets the Ghost of AI in a Dark Alley Behind a Fusion Restaurant by Lesley Hart Gunn "I suppose you want my wallet. No? My body then." This Week's Story This week's discussion focused on: Update on Rules for the Spatiotemporal Use of Campus Spaces by Andrea Kriz The story presents a university campus slowly unraveling under the pressure of a rogue timestream, delivered through increasingly absurd administrative announcements and policy updates. "Dear Members of the Community, As we begin yet another fall semester in the throes of the rogue timestream unleashed on our campus…" The crew spends a lot of time trying to piece together exactly what catastrophic event caused the university to devolve into bureaucratic temporal chaos. Everyone agreed the story was fantastic, weird in exactly the right ways, and surprisingly effective at balancing humor with unsettling implications. Read it here: Lightspeed Magazine – Update on Rules for the Spatiotemporal Use of Campus Spaces Thanks for listening to the show! If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, share it around, and check out the Patreon for bonus episodes, Discord access, behind-the-scenes content, and more sci-fi chaos.