Athena Aktipis

Microchimeric mombie: Amy Boddy

February 25th, 2020  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 1 min

babies, microchimerism, pregnancy

While you were in the womb, cells from your mom took up residence inside you. And cells from your baby body transferred to your mom as well, settling down in her tissues and organs. In this episode we talk with evolutionary biologist Amy Boddy about this phenomenon - called maternal-fetal microchimerism - and what it means for our understanding of who we are. If you've had a baby (or a few babies), cells from those babies may be inside your body and brain right now, proliferating and interacting with the rest of you. What are they doing and why? Listen and find out!

Placental hijacking: David Haig

February 14th, 2020  |  Season 2  |  57 mins 56 secs

placenta, pregnancy, sharks

Did you know that genes from your mom and genes from your dad battled it out inside you (and in your placenta) while you were in the womb? In this episode, Harvard evolutionary biologist, David Haig, explains where babies come from and how they hijack their parents to take care of them. From the intricate details of shark pregnancy to the parenting strategies of plants, David shares both curious sex facts and disturbing strategies of reproduction across the tree of life. And you'll learn more than you wanted to know about the most wonderful and creepy organ of all, the placenta.

Pill brain: Sarah Hill

February 14th, 2020  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 34 mins

birth control, health

Has the birth control pill zombified you? Sarah Hill, author of "This is your brain on birth control," shares her personal experience with the pill, her expert knowledge as a hormone researcher and her also perspective on the politics of the pill in this episode. Yes, the pill fucks with us, she says, from messing with our stress system to changing our mating and dating preferences - but that doesn't mean we should get rid of it. If you've struggled with finding birth control that doesn't mess with your brain, dated somebody who has, or you're simply interested in the biology and politics of hormonal contraception and women's health, you'll love this episode.

Love zombies: Diana Fleischman

February 14th, 2020  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 8 mins

behavior, dating, love

Has love turned you into a zombie? In this episode of Zombified, we talk to evolutionary psychologist and relationship expert Diana Fleischman about the many ways love zombifies us: from romantic relationships to parent-child interactions. She offers tips for how to train your boyfriend, how to resist getting behaviorally conditioned by those you love, and talks to us about when getting zombified in relationships might not really be such a bad thing.

Undead love: Season 2 live premier

February 14th, 2020  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 10 mins

love, technology

Join us for the live launch of season 2 of Zombified. Athena and Dave chat with are awesome guests Diana Fleischman and Katina Michael about love, technology, the pluses and minuses of monogamy, and how to train your boyfriend. Listen alone or with someone you think you love.

Loving exploitation: Mark Flinn

January 20th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  33 mins 30 secs

families, love, romance

In this episode, Anthropologist and hormone expert Mark Flinn give us his unique perspective on love: That love is essentially when you enjoy being exploited. He talks about how this 'loving exploitation' plays a role in our romantic relationships and our families. Is Mark's view of love cynical or undyingly romantic? You'll have to listen to find out!

Zombified by design: Neil Smith

December 19th, 2019  |  Season 1  |  39 mins 32 secs

art, behind the scenes, design

Go behind the scenes with Zombified illustrator Neil Smith. In this delicious Zombified Brain Snack mini-episode, Neil tells us about his process for creating our insanely creepy-amazing episode illustrations and we talk about how design in general can take over our brains. If you like design, zombies or just sweat Neil's morbid aesthetic, you'll love this one.

Dave's mindfulness

November 6th, 2019  |  Season 1  |  44 mins 14 secs

mindfulness, muffins, stress

In this tasty brain snack, we follow up on Mary Davis' suggestions in the Mindfulness Cure episode. Dave reports back about his attempts to de-zombify himself by implementing greater mindfulness in his life and work. Dave and Athena also discover they have very different attitudes about the social implications of distributing muffins in the office.

Rabid: Clive Wynne

October 21st, 2019  |  Season 1  |  11 mins 55 secs

dog, rabies, sex

Looking for a delicious brain snack to tied you over until the next season of Zombified? In this tasty rabies flavored tidbit, we hear from Clive Wynne about the rabies virus and what happens to humans when we get infected. Spoiler alert: it has to do with sex.

The Sound of the Apocalypse: Lee Miles

October 7th, 2019  |  Season 1  |  31 mins 54 secs

Hungry for a brain snack between Zombified seasons? In our first ever mini-episode, we take a deep dive into Zombified's theme song, Psychological, with artist Lee Miles.

Duct tape before guns: Emily Zarka

July 30th, 2019  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 6 mins

disasters, monsters, movies

Emily Zarka has her go bag in the trunk of her car, just in case. And you’d be lucky to have her on your Z-team. Not only is she prepped with her Zombie Apocalypse supplies, she’s also got a PhD. in Monsters. In this episode, Emily talks with us about all things zombie - from how we can use the ZA as a way to prepare for disasters, to how zombies can help us reflect on being human. She explains how in movies zombies are often a red herring for the real monsters, us humans. She also shares her Zombie Apocalypse tips, from writing your critical survival notes in pencil (so they don’t run if they get wet) to all the things you can (and should) do with duct tape.

Insatiable: Mark Mannucci

July 23rd, 2019  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 10 mins

brains in vats, curiosity, movies

Mark Mannucci is voraciously curious about the kind of creepy, deathly, science-gone-wrong stories that you can’t help but pay attention to. As a producer and director, he has been making movies and TV series about the morbid for decades, offering up his brains for projects about death, dying and darker side of science. In this episode we talk about brains in vats, living mortuaries, zombified narcissists, and the perils of insatiable curiosity.

Curiosity kills: Barbara Natterson-Horowitz

July 16th, 2019  |  Season 1  |  54 mins 8 secs

adolescence, fear, predators, risk

Why are we so into monsters, zombies, and scary things in general? In this episode, physician and evolutionary biologist Barb Natterson-Horowitz explains why we seek out the frightening and the morbid, and how our fascination with things that can kill us can actually help us survive. Barb also explains why teenagers are likely to save us in the Zombie Apocalypse.

The red zone: Keith Tidball

July 9th, 2019  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 17 mins

chaos, disaster, war

Keith Tidball has seen it all, from war to disaster to real-life zombies. In this episode he talks with us about how chaos can hijack us, how disasters affect human behavior, and how to keep your sh*t together when you’re in the red zone. Looking for psychological conditioning tips to increase your survival odds in the zombie apocalypse? Better listen to this one.

Microbial Zombification: Joe Alcock

July 2nd, 2019  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 9 mins

microbiome, mind control, parasites

Joe Alcock is all about microbes and evolution. He is also an Emergency Room Physician who sees what microbes do to people every day - and it ain’t pretty. How do we keep our microbes from zombifying us against our will? In this episode we talk about the microbiome and how it can affect our health, our behavior and even our moods. Joe talks about mind controlling parasites, how our microbes can turn against us sometimes, and what all this means for our understanding of what really goes on during death and dying.

Laugh like a Zombie: Tom Wisdom

June 25th, 2019  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 14 mins

funny, humor, laughter

In this episode, comedian (and psychology PhD) Tom Wisdom covers the ins and outs of humor: why it makes us laugh, when it doesn’t and what it means for our evolutionary fitness to be funny. We also take a few detours into the physiology of laughter, what makes it involuntary (or voluntary), what laughter sounds like and why.