Episode Transcript
Why, hello, my baby bats!
Oh my goodness, it’s been so long, I don’t even know where to begin… It’s been more than a year, in fact, and there have been a lot of changes in that time. For me, for the world, lots of change…
I’ve been busy doing what I can on behalf of ethical deathcare. Part of that is about making death a topic we all feel comfortable discussing. Dying, as a taboo conversation, only fuels fear and allows for a lack of transparency that can lead to corruption. Anyway…
It might not seem like a big deal… I mean, how can conversations about death really change things for us living life? Well, from my unique position, I can say without pause or hesitation, conversations with loved ones about dying can have a huge impact on the living. A lasting impact. And knowing a little more about what comes after will only serve you well. And, when I say what comes after, I’m only talking about, you know, like your body and maybe your stuff. Who speaks for you if you can’t speak for yourself. Families fight about the answers to those questions. Like, a lot. A weird amount.
Good news is, with each up-and-coming generation, people seem to be less adverse to talking about the big question marks that loom beyond our own horizons. True story. Millennials are more apt to talk about their own plans for end-of-life and Gen Z are ready in the wings with an even more death-positive approach. Bring on the future!
Change is everywhere and there will be some changes for the podcast as well. First of all, we’re excited to start offering regular installments of The Mortician’s Daughter once again… which brings me to our next change… we have new folks working with us down at our headquarters and they might pop on for an episode here and there. I love to share information, but I also love to hide in dark corners. As a writer, I feel entitled to lurk. I live in shadows, I dance in storms. Right?
Thankfully, there are some bright and shiny people in my life and they share my mission of normalizing conversations about death and dying.
So, before we dig into the fun stuff, I just want to let everyone know that we can be found on most social media platforms at Morticiansdaughterpod or, on the cesspool known as Twitter, at MorticiansPod. Please go like/follow/whatever. I’m learning to put things on TikTok. No hate mail. Good vibes only. I think I want to send myself some hate mail now just for uttering the phrase, “good vibes only.”
Okay, so onto new business.
This coming year I have a whole list of topics to discuss from continuation of consciousness to near-death experiences, to more weird ways you might die.
And, with that last bit in mind, let us embark on a new year…
Now, this might not be the thing you’re excited to learn about today, but here we go anyway…
Okay… so… I don’t know about you, but I worry about my cell phone. Probably way more than I should, but if I could shuffle off every anxiety with a simple does-this-serve-me wave of my wrist, I’d be writing a much different podcast.
Anyway, I’m sure most of us have heard about radiation flying out of our smart devices, heading straight for our brain. The type of radiation more likely to cause cancer than bestow super human abilities. Alas.
Hopefully, this will just bolster your New Year’s resolution to put down your phone more often and not send you running for the woods in a handcrafted tinfoil helmet.
Seems like the research is a bit divided on this point so I can’t offer any real, solid clarification. Both The American Cancer Society and The National Cancer Institute can agree that studies are not yet considered conclusive. My guess is that we’ll have to wait a few more years, or decades, before we can really start to gauge the effects of prolonged cell phone use. Maybe, by that time, I can be included in a study because I have issues when it comes to my smartphone. As in, I am almost always on it.
Joel Moshkowitz, a researcher at the School of Public Health and director of the Center for Family and Community Health at UC Berkeley, claims the risk is real. In a meta-analysis conducted by researchers at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Korea’s National Cancer Center, and Seoul National University, researchers linked heavier cell phone use to an increased risk of tumors, brain tumors, in particular.
Let’s take a closer look at that study. In this analysis, regular cell phone use was considered “more than 1,000 hours—or about 17 minutes a day for a decade” and the study shows that people who fit this category have a “slightly elevated overall tumor risk over those who had used cell phones for less than 5 years.”
Okay, slightly elevated risk sounds manageable, but 17 minutes a day for ten years?? I want to know what five years with ten times that use looks like. Where’s that study?
I can tell you that the U.S. government claims that “the evidence to date suggests that cell phone use does not cause brain or other kinds of cancer in humans.”
But then California came out with this warning in 2017: “Some scientists and public health officials believe RF energy may affect human health.” Alright, less good. They also released a guide through the California Department of Public Health about how to reduce your exposure to radiation from cell phones.
I guess, time (and further studies) will tell. What I do know about cell phone risk, is that it’s very real, but maybe not in the way one might expect.
Yes, I’m talking about the dangerous game of selfies. Selfies can lead to death a heck of a lot faster than low-level radiation. In fact, selfie-related injuries and deaths are so prevalent they even have their own Wikipedia page.
The first selfie accident that resulted in death comes to us from 2011. According to Wikipedia, "Three teenagers (two sisters, both 15, and a friend, aged 13) were killed by a Union Pacific train while posing for a selfie that was found on their phone near Salt Lake City. Shortly before, they posted this message to Facebook, "Standing right by a train ahaha this is awesome!!!!"
The second death from selfies was also train-related. "A 21-year-old man was electrocuted after climbing on top of a train to take a selfie with friends" by touching a wire that the group of friends didn't realize was live.
Every selfie death feels extra tragic in that the participants are often younger people just at the start of their lives and each one is avoidable. The one good thing I can say is that it seems like people are finally getting the idea that you might actually be risking your actual life for that post.
The real number of selfie deaths will probably not ever be fully understood because so many of these deaths happen in automobiles. Back in 2014, which is known as the Year of the Selfie, “33,000 people were injured while driving and using a cell-phone in some fashion” - that’s just not cool.
I remember my first cell-phone-caused car accident. I watched as a kid in a Benz didn’t stop, didn’t even break. Cell phone use is such a problem for drivers that Werner Herzog - WERNER HERZOG - was hired to make a PSA about its dangers.
And, I gotta tell you, that was the most soul-crushing PSA I’ve ever seen. This wasn’t an 80s afterschool special. This had everyone in tears with a message burned onto their soul forever. It was devastating. Don’t drive and text. Srsly.
Okay, this is too depressing for the return of the show so Imma just pivot here. Besides, it seems serendipitous to end our chat about the dangers of cell phones and delve further into one of my favorite topics: 1982’s Fitzcarraldo, a film from Werner Herzog, since we’re already talking about Werner Herzog.
According to the director, “Fitzcarraldo’s story is the victory of the weightlessness of dreams over the heaviness of reality.”
Okay, so Fitzcarraldo tells the story of a rich rubber baron who decides to build an opera house in the Amazon Jungle. To achieve this goal, Fizcarraldo has to bring a steamboat up a mountain.
And, to make the film he envisioned, Herzog had to move a steamboat up a mountain. And that mountain was 2300 miles upstream on the Amazon and in thick rainforest. The director hired people from the Aguaruna, a local indigenous group, several of whom died during production, which led to some very warranted accusations of exploitation.
I mean, art is art, but water’s water.
Anyway, if the brooding nihilism of Herzog and his artistic vision wasn’t enough, Klaus Kinski was cast as lead after the original actor, Jason Robards, had to leave the production because he came down with amoebic dysentery. Kinski was notoriously problematic. Right up there with Herzog himself. As the story goes, Kinski’s behavior was so unhinged, one of the tribal chiefs offered to have the actor killed. Werner Herzog declined the offer because he needed to finish filming.
A story of another tussle between Herzog and Kinski ended with the latter getting into a boat to row away and quit the film forever, until the former pulled a gun out and told the actor he would shoot him first and then shoot himself if he didn’t turn around and finish the picture.
In documentaries to follow, Herzog has described Kinski as [clears throat] “one of the greatest film actors of the century, but he was also a monster and a great pestilence.” More on Kinski in a moment.
So, there were raids on the film crew's camp. During one raid, one man was hit in the throat with an arrow and his wife took an arrow to the stomach. This led to "eight hours of emergency surgery on a kitchen table." Both of them survived… which I guess is a good thing? I want their input honestly. Until then, I just will carry hope that their years were happy and bountiful.
I didn’t even know this arrow story when I first embarked on this conversation. I found this out from Nick Thorpe’s breakdown of the whole drama. The ethical dilemma of Fitzcarraldo is an ever-unfolding nightmare for those invested, emotionally, financially, ethically… anyway… moving along.
There were not one, but two small plane crashes. One man was bitten by a venomous snake so he cut off his leg with a chainsaw. A CHAINSAW.
You have to be kidding me here! Two plane crashes and a chainsaw?! For a movie?
And it doesn’t stop there! My recommendation is to watch a documentary called Burden of Dreams that was released the same year as Fitzcarraldo and it’s about the making of the movie. I don’t want to be kicked out of the club but I enjoy Burden of Dreams more than Fitzcarraldo. Fitzcarraldo, winner of a Golden Globe and a BAFT and. Herzog took Best Director at Cannes and the film won the Palme d'Or award.
Worth it? How could it possibly be worth it, people? Think it through. People died.
In a moment of reasonable forethought, Herzog said back at the time, “I feel even if I get that boat over the mountain, and somehow I finish that film, anyone can congratulate me, but nobody will convince me to be happy about that, not until the end of my days.”
If you’re interested in the ethical implications of art, I definitely suggest looking further into Werner Herzog, Fitzcarraldo, and/or Burden of Dreams.
Okay, one last thing… just because everything comes in threes. We’ve gone from cell phone radiation to Wernver Herzog and Fitzcarraldo to this one last thing as we barrel into a brand new year.
You know what I hate about most movies? The fighting. Now, I love a good fight scene and, sure, you might expect some action adventure violence and unrealistic endurance levels, but generally speaking, a punch is a dangerous thing. It’s not something to just casually toss around some rom-com. Nope, nope, nope.
I protest. If you think it’s hot when some lumbering brute pops another one in the face, I’ve got another thing to tell you, that is aggravated assault at best, but you could be also dealing with battery, attempted murder, manslaughter…
Unless you have the strength of an eight-year-old on a playground, don’t punch people. And, if you’re making a movie that includes some brash dude giving or receiving a punch to the face, show me what happens next. Is there a concussion? Brain trauma? A lifetime of headaches or memory loss?
Ugh, I hate it. I know there are a lot of dumb tropes in rom coms. That’s largely the reason I don’t watch them beyond the holiday season, but this one I feel the need to pull back the curtain on.
Apparently, head injuries from that one angry punch are so much of an issue in Australia that the government released information to the public to discourage any barroom brawlers. Queensland is particularly problematic, in case you were wondering.
As the Australian government suggests, think of your brain as a jelly on a plate. You shake that thing around and it’ll start sloshing in your brain. It can tear. You can tear someone’s brain by punching them. Hemorrhages, loss of life! It’s not romantic. It’s stupid.
And just like that we’re out of time. I barely touched the surface of topics I want to discuss. That’s okay. We do have time, my friends. Just not, you know, all the time…
Join us next month for another little morbid meditation.
Until then, stay safe and snug during these long winter nights, my little bugs.
