The Mole Rat Prophecies

The Mole Rat Prophecies

Author: DamnInteresting.com April 24, 2013 Duration: 20:15
The naked mole rat, Heterocephalus glaber, is fleshy, furless, buck-toothed and brazenly ugly. Yet what these small East African rodents lack in terms of good looks, they make up with an impressive array of biological quirks. These misnamed mammals are neither moles nor rats, and in terms of their social behaviour are actually closer to bees, wasps, ants, and termites than to other backboned animals. They live in underground cooperative colonies of up to 300 individuals with a dominant breeding “queen” and celibate soldier and worker castes. Biologists have identified only one other vertebrate--the closely related Damaraland mole rat--that uses this rigid reproductive and social structure. Until the late 1970s scientists believed that this trait, known as eusociality, was confined to insects. Naked mole rats deploy several impressive feats of physiology, including an apparent imperviousness to pain, a casual disregard for low-oxygen environments, and resistance to cancer. Indeed, these unsightly creatures both baffle and buttress Darwin's Theory of Evolution in multiple remarkable and apparently self-contradictory ways.

The stories that shape our world are often hidden in plain sight, waiting for the right moment to reveal their strange and significant details. That's the territory explored by Damn Interesting, a narrative-driven podcast from the team at DamnInteresting.com. Each episode is a deep and immersive dive into a true story, told with the care and pacing of an audiobook. You'll find yourself pulled into meticulously researched accounts from the overlapping realms of science, medicine, history, and human behavior. One week might unravel a forgotten medical mystery, while the next could detail a pivotal, overlooked moment in technological history or a psychological phenomenon that explains more than we'd like to admit. This podcast is built on the conviction that reality, when examined closely, is far more compelling than fiction. The narration is clear and engaging, designed to make complex subjects accessible and to transform historical footnotes into gripping narratives. It’s for anyone with a restless curiosity about the how and why of things, offering those satisfying moments of connection where disparate facts suddenly click into place. Listening feels like uncovering a series of fascinating secrets, each story selected for its inherent ability to surprise and make you reconsider a piece of the world.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 73

Damn Interesting
Podcast Episodes
The Spy of Night and Fog [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:56
The Spy of Night and Fog by Damn Interesting
Radical Solutions [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:33
French mathematician Évariste Galois lived a full life. When he wasn't trying to overthrow the government, he was reinventing algebra.
Private Wojteks Right To Bear Arms [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:18
One of Poland’s most beloved and honored World War II veterans was not Polish at all: he was a 500-pound brown bear named Wojtek.
Dead Reckoning [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:12
The 18th century misadventures of HMS Wager and her reluctant crew
The Eponymous Mr. Ponzi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:07
The little known story of an age-old scam
A Debaculous Fiasco [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:19
The most expensive, bizarre, and obscure work ever created by Dr. Seuss.
Drawing The Shorter Straw [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:16
Working almost single-handedly, visionary Argentine filmmaker Quirino Cristiani created full-length animated films between 1917 and 1931. He has since been all but forgotten.
The Curse Of Konzo [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:11
In 1981, an international group of doctors identified the devastating disease behind a perplexing outbreak of paralysis in northern Mozambique.
A Jarring Revelation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 13:58
Amanda Theodosia Jones was a 19th-century poet, entrepreneur, and inventor who found inspiration in some unlikely places.