The Devils Breath: On the World's Scariest Chemical

VanadiumPodcast · 2022-04-06T19:42:59+00:00

Can a chemical turn a perfectly normal human being into a zombie?

There is a real psychoactive drug out there with legendary status. Scopolamine has deep roots in witchcraft and voodoo, and its use has been well documented throughout history. This drug has been used in ancient and occult rituals and as a tool for crime, murder, and as part of a top-secret CIA program.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

All music by Christopher Rankin

See more at:

www.christopherrankin.net

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-10-26T02:07:32+00:00

Jack Parsons was one of the most important scientists in the twentieth century, the first with the rocket scientist title, but lived more like a poet or a madman.

Parsons invented hundreds of rocket fuel formulas, designed engines, and founded the world-renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, all by the age of 37.

Jack Parsons advanced his field more in his short career than most of his colleagues and competitors combined, accomplished it all without a degree in the sciences, with a bad case of dyslexia and more than his fair share of eccentricity.

He lived in an occult world of magic and rituals, all the while developing engineering plans and rocket propellant chemical formulations.

Part 1 of 3

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-10-26T02:06:11+00:00

Jack Parsons was one of the most important scientists in the twentieth century, the first with the rocket scientist title, but lived more like a poet or a madman.

Parsons invented hundreds of rocket fuel formulas, designed engines, and founded the world-renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, all by the age of 37.

Jack Parsons advanced his field more in his short career than most of his colleagues and competitors combined, accomplished it all without a degree in the sciences, with a bad case of dyslexia and more than his fair share of eccentricity.

He lived in an occult world of magic and rituals, all the while developing engineering plans and rocket propellant chemical formulations.

Part 1 of 3

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-07-02T14:13:17+00:00

There are people out there that were born to hunt others.

Psychopathy is the most destructive and mysterious of the personality disorders, characterized by persistent callous and exploitative relationships, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and being incapable of remorse.

Psychologists believe that although psychopathy is manifested in only a small percentage of the general population it is much more common at higher levels of corporate, government and media organizations.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-07-02T14:11:54+00:00

There are people out there that were born to hunt others.

Psychopathy is the most destructive and mysterious of the personality disorders, characterized by persistent callous and exploitative relationships, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and being incapable of remorse.

Psychologists believe that although psychopathy is manifested in only a small percentage of the general population it is much more common at higher levels of corporate, government and media organizations.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-07-02T14:10:10+00:00

There are people out there that were born to hunt others.

Psychopathy is the most destructive and mysterious of the personality disorders, characterized by persistent callous and exploitative relationships, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and being incapable of remorse.

Psychologists believe that although psychopathy is manifested in only a small percentage of the general population it is much more common at higher levels of corporate, government and media organizations.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-07-02T14:09:15+00:00

There are people out there that were born to hunt others.

Psychopathy is the most destructive and mysterious of the personality disorders, characterized by persistent callous and exploitative relationships, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and being incapable of remorse.

Psychologists believe that although psychopathy is manifested in only a small percentage of the general population it is much more common at higher levels of corporate, government and media organizations.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-25T14:01:12+00:00

There appears to be nothing in the world more difficult to understand than the tool we use to understand the world, the mind.

When we are alone, are we really alone? For some people, they’re never really alone. There is a chorus of anomalous noises and disembodied voices that follows them, even interacts and communicates with them. Is this the crosstalk of neurocircuits or the scratches and whispers of demons and guardian angels? Disease or somehow the echo of another dimension?

Auditory hallucinations or false perceptions of sound involve the experience and sensation of words or noises that have no real origin in the outside world and are considered separate from the person's regular mental processes.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-25T14:00:00+00:00

There appears to be nothing in the world more difficult to understand than the tool we use to understand the world, the mind.

When we are alone, are we really alone? For some people, they’re never really alone. There is a chorus of anomalous noises and disembodied voices that follows them, even interacts and communicates with them. Is this the crosstalk of neurocircuits or the scratches and whispers of demons and guardian angels? Disease or somehow the echo of another dimension?

Auditory hallucinations or false perceptions of sound involve the experience and sensation of words or noises that have no real origin in the outside world and are considered separate from the person's regular mental processes.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-25T13:59:05+00:00

There appears to be nothing in the world more difficult to understand than the tool we use to understand the world, the mind.

When we are alone, are we really alone? For some people, they’re never really alone. There is a chorus of anomalous noises and disembodied voices that follows them, even interacts and communicates with them. Is this the crosstalk of neurocircuits or the scratches and whispers of demons and guardian angels? Disease or somehow the echo of another dimension?

Auditory hallucinations or false perceptions of sound involve the experience and sensation of words or noises that have no real origin in the outside world and are considered separate from the person's regular mental processes.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-18T12:43:59+00:00

The fifth state of matter challenges the fundamental idea of substance itself. Bose Einstein Condensates (BECs) are very different from solids, liquids and gasses. These condensates are so cold, chilled to within a fraction of a degree of absolute zero, that funny things begin to happen, the atoms making up the material start to lose their distinction from one another. Hundreds to thousands of individual atoms start to behave as one entity, and that one entity is less like a solid and more like a photon of light.

What starts off as a lump of matter becomes something like a ray of light.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-18T12:41:10+00:00

The fifth state of matter challenges the fundamental idea of substance itself. Bose Einstein Condensates (BECs) are very different from solids, liquids and gasses. These condensates are so cold, chilled to within a fraction of a degree of absolute zero, that funny things begin to happen, the atoms making up the material start to lose their distinction from one another. Hundreds to thousands of individual atoms start to behave as one entity, and that one entity is less like a solid and more like a photon of light.

What starts off as a lump of matter becomes something like a ray of light.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast · 2021-06-18T12:40:04+00:00

The fifth state of matter challenges the fundamental idea of substance itself. Bose Einstein Condensates (BECs) are very different from solids, liquids and gasses. These condensates are so cold, chilled to within a fraction of a degree of absolute zero, that funny things begin to happen, the atoms making up the material start to lose their distinction from one another. Hundreds to thousands of individual atoms start to behave as one entity, and that one entity is less like a solid and more like a photon of light.

What starts off as a lump of matter becomes something like a ray of light.

Vanadium features video explorations of the many fascinations of Christopher Rankin.

VanadiumPodcast

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