Writer/producer/performer on over a dozen comedies and talk shows, Andy Cowan, hosts a comedy/therapy podcast, "The Neurotic Vaccine." In the first half, he spoke about how he mines his various neuroses into humor and productive pursuits, and shared his analysis of the current state of comedy. On his podcast, where he seeks to become "immune to neurosis," his co-host is his therapist "Dr. K," and guests like "Non-Neurotic Nell," share benign interpretations of instances that Cowan has described as neurotic or irritating, such as when someone yawns when he is talking to them. According to Nell, maybe that person just didn't get enough sleep. Cowan replied to her, "They didn't yawn when they were babbling non-stop at me. Why are they suddenly yawning when I'm doing the talking? Their sleep deficit just happens to kick-in the second I get the floor?"
One of the recurring themes on his podcast has to do with isolation and loneliness. "The surgeon general should post a warning on my social calendar," he quipped. He described neuroticism as "the minutiae of life that kind of bugs you," and this always struck him as funny and relatable to everyone, which he explored when he was a writer on "Seinfeld." Cowan praised the humor of Johnny Carson and commented that today's late-night TV hosts tend to focus too much on the news of the day for laughs. Regarding laughter, he noted that there are two types of it-- a kind of "polite punctuation" to acknowledge someone's attempt at humor and more of a belly laugh when someone is genuinely amused.
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Charlotte King, a pioneer of biological earthquake forecasting, has been predicting earthquakes, volcanoes, and solar flares since 1979. In the latter half, she discussed the bodily symptoms she experiences in association with quakes and volcanoes and the many scientific studies that have been performed on her to quantify and track her abilities. Her symptoms might include a pain in her shoulder blade that gets worse over time and turns into a burning spasm that increases for a day, and "when it stops, a quake hits," she said. The tests conducted on her revealed that she can hear extremely low frequencies in the two to seven Hertz range and below, and pick up minute changes in the Earth's electromagnetic field.
She went on to describe some of the sounds she hears as like "overlapping foghorns," and that she constantly hears "thirteen separate signatures." Specific sounds represent different locations, she explained, such as a single tone followed by a dual tone is associated with Canada, Alaska, and the Aleutians in Japan. King suspects that there are thousands of other earthquake sensitives out there, with the numbers increasing. When she senses a specific upcoming event she puts them on record with various organizations such as the Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska. In her recent monitoring, she has sensed possible earthquake activity in California, especially the Imperial Valley and Borrego Springs. Internationally, she believes there will be activity in countries on the African tectonic plate which includes Portugal. To receive notifications of Charlotte's latest posts, sign up at her website.
News segment guests: Charles R. Smith, Sandra Champlain
EMERGING ARTISTS:
The first Sunday of every month, George Noory presents emerging artists for some of our bumper music selections. Tonight, we heard from Patrick Ransom, Jon Alexi, Charles Andrew Bates, Israel Saenz, Tommy Scherer, Mark Island, and Phil Westfall. For more info on how to submit your own original music, visit this page.