“On Repeat” segment of Radiolab – Jacob Nicholson

Reading Summary:

During the Radiolab podcast a narrator, Jesse Thorn, talks about this comedy skit where Kristen Schaal dances like a horse and Kurt Braunohler sings like a crazy person. They go on for a very long time and the crowd initially finds it funny then doesn’t then finds it funny again. The idea was to break the expectation that breaks the original expectation and overall keep doing the same thing over and over again. They then cut to a different podcast where they talk about this lady Mary Sue who is stuck in a mind loop. She didn’t know where or when she was, and this brought immediate panic to her mental health. However, it was determined she wasn’t having a stroke and in fact everyone struggles daily with these two questions. When and where am I? Mary Sue eventually got more and more of her memory back.

Personal Example:

            Hearing about this loop and loss of memory reminded me of this video I watched about Eddie Hall.  Eddie Hall is a strongman record holder He holds the record for the heaviest deadlift ever at 500Kg. When he completed this feat of strength, he had severe health issues after. He immediately started bleeding form the face and passed out. For the next few days he said he would constantly be repeating himself and forgetting things. For an example he said he had the same conversation with his wife multiple times. He kept asking her who that guy was, who was at their house. It was Eddie’s brother. As time went on he recovered and now is completely fine and lifting heavy again. 

Reading Connection: 

            Eddie hall had a more severe medical condition then Mary Sue, but their symptoms were similar. They both experienced loops in the mind and memory loss. The podcast said that the reason the brain keeps asking where, who, and why? Is because it is in survival mode. These questions are asked because they are typical to safety and something, we as humans ask ourselves multiple times a day. Mary Sue did recover faster since her condition wasn’t caused by lifting over half a ton. The reason Eddie Hall experienced this condition was because his body was in a life or death mode. He knew he had to command around 70% of muscle fibers to lift this much weight which would only be caused if his body was in that extraordinary mode.