Midnight Facts for Insomniacs

Ready for a trip down memory lane? No? Well, it's happening, and it's all Duncan's fault. The plague monkey strikes again. (Thanks a lot, omicron.) But luckily the first long-distance episode ended up being a rollicking good time. Listen along as the boys revisit everyone's favorite and most inappropriate moments from the first 100 episodes. Trigger warnings and NSFW tags apply. Enjoy!

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It’s the MFFI 100th episode extravaganza!! Announcements, podcast Q&As, plus a supersized topic: the History of Asylums. Support the show by becoming a Midnight Minion, Menace, or Maniac, and unlock exclusive bonus content over at PATREON

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In this episode:  

• The Moonstruck Etymology of "Lunatic"
• The 21st-Century Language Act of 2012
• Mental Healthcare Pre-Asylums
• Bedlam: The Bethlehem Royal Hospital
  
• The Mad Doctors Munro
• Alienists
• Hydrotherapy
• Rotational Therapy
• Blistering 
• Evacuation
•  Venesection 
• Scarification
• Mercuric Chloride
• James Norris and Edward Wakefield
• The Quakers
• William Tuke & Hannah Mills
• The York Retreat
•  Public Institutions 
• County Asylums Act
• The Lunacy Act of 1845
• Utica State Hospital
• Thomas Story Kirkbride
• The Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason
• Friends Hospital
• Dorothea Dix
• Nellie Bly, Redux
• Henry Cotton
• Julius Wagner-Jauregg
• Malaria Injections
• Insulin Coma Therapy
• Lobotomies, Redux
• Electroconvulsive Therapy, ECT
• Ugo Cerletti
• Straight Jackets
• The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
• Domestic Trouble
• Sterilization
• The Rise of Antidepressants and Antipsychotics

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Episode Transcript

Although many of you Insomniacs have probably been naughty this year, MFFI is releasing a full After Midnight episode to the regular feed just in time for the holidays. It's a Christmas miracle! From historical classics to modern classics to Die Hard 2, Shane and Duncan debate the best holiday movies of all time. What's in your top 5? Tell us in the MFFI Discord...

MFFI DISCORD

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In this episode:  

• 3 Rounds of Midnight Madness
• Thunderdome of Ideas (the Top 5 Five Holiday Movies), chosen from:
  • The Grinch
  • Love Actually
  • Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
  • Edward Scissorhands
  • Bad Santa
  • Scrooged
  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
  • Gremlins
  • It's a Wonderful Life
  • Just Friends
  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas
  • The Muppets
  • Miracle on 34th Street
  • Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
  • The Muppet Christmas Carol
  • Die Hard 1 and 2
  • Elf
  • The Prince of Egypt
  • Lethal Weapon
  • Frosty the Snowman
  • The Christmas Chronicles

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And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

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Who wrote the first ever science fiction novel? Why is Isaac Asimov hiding his middle initial? And which psychedelic author attempted to murder the most wives?

In the latest MFFI episode, Shane snd Duncan answer all of the burning sci-fi-history questions that you never cared enough to ask.

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In this episode:  

• The Epic of Gilgamesh?
• Johannes Kepler’s 1634 “Somnium” (The Dream)
• Mary Shelly and the Mad Scientist Trope
• Frankenstein 
• The Last Man
• Roger Dodsworth: the Reanimated Englishman"
• (Another) Last Man: “Le Dernier Homme” by Jean-Baptiste François Xavier Cousin De Grainville 
• “The Steam Man of the Prairies”
• Johnny Brainerd, Ethan Hopkins and Mickey McSquizzle
• Jules Verne and the
• Extraordinary Voyages
• HG Wells (Herbert George Wells)
• Samuel Butler’s “Erewhon”
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World
• The Futuristic Tales of Rudyard Kipling
• Edgar Allen Poe goes to the moon 
• Edgar Rice Burroughs: Mars (Barsoom)
• The Rise of the Pulps 
• Amazing Stories
• Astounding Science Fiction
• The Big Three:
• Robert A Heinlein, Arthur C Clark, and Isaac Yudovick Asimov
• Rendezvous with Rama 
• Stranger in a strange land
• Nightfall
• Ray Bradbury?
• Fritz Lang’s Metropolis 
• Art Deco, Googie, the Jetsons
• The Pulp Films: It Came from Outer Space et al 
• Science Fiction on Television: Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers
• The Impact of the Bomb: How Nuclear Weapons Shaped Sci Fi
• Kaiju, On the Beach
• Richard Matheson and I Am Legend 
• Planet of the Damn Dirty Apes
• Frank Herbert and Dune
• Phillip K Dick 
• Harlan Ellison
• Ursula K. Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness
• Soylent Green
• Logan’s Run 
• West World
• Michael Crichton 
• Orson Scott Card Saves the Day
• Avoiding Star Wars 
• Greg Bear’s Blood Music 
• Cyberpunk
• William Gibson’s Neuromancer 
• Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, Mirrorshades 
• Richard Calder’s Dead Things
• The Era of Schwarzenegger 
• Dan Simmons Hyperion 
• Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Series 
• The Matrix etc 
• YA: Divergent, Maze Runner, Ready Player One, Hunger Games 
• Modern Sci Fi 

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Episode Transcript

Some inventions are commercial failures (see episode 45), and some are failures of such moral and/or epic proportions that the repercussions reverberate throughout history. These are those failures. 

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In this episode:  

• Land Mines
• Smell-O-Vision
• Sony XCP
• Zepellins 
• Shutter Shades

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Episode Transcript

~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND SLEEP IS OVERRATED ~

In the wake of Shane's recent nuptials, Duncan takes the reins to explore the unsettling history and traditions of weddings. What was the original, sinister purpose of the "Best Man"? How are evil spirits related to Bridesmaid's dresses? And in what way is a honeymoon similar to fleeing a crime scene? Listen to find out...

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In this episode:  

• Marriage/Ownership
• Best Men/Kidnappers
• Bridesmaids/Decoys
• Wedding Party/Accomplices
• Garters/Zombies
• White Weddings
• Cake Smushing
• Wedding Traditions Around the World

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~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND SLEEP IS OVERRATED ~

Who was the first explorer to reach the North Pole? How about the South? It turns out that at least one of those answers is complicated, and although the controversy may never be laid to rest, plenty of would-be arctic conquerors were themselves laid to rest during the golden age of polar exploration. Join MFFI for the fascinating, brutal, bloody, pony-packed tale of the race for polar glory. 

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In this episode:  

• The "Top" of the World
• Map Makers, Eurocentrism, and the West Wing
• Polar Facts
• 90 Degrees Latitude
• The Polar Day, the Tilt of the Earth, and Polar Seasons
• Alert, Canada
• Nautical Twilight
• Thomas Nast and Santa Claus
• Russia Claims the Pole
• The Northwest Passage
• Prices of Spices
• Robert McClure and the HMS Investigator 
• The Magnetic North Pole VS the True North Pole
• The Lost Franklin Expedition of 1845
• The Arsenic-Poisoning of Charles Francis Hall
• The Crushing of George W Delong
• The Crashing of Salomon August Andree
• The Race Between Robert Peary and Frederick A Cook
• The Contributions of Matthew Henson
• Polar Bear Liver
• The Race for the South Pole 
• Roald Amundsum
• Fridtjof Nansen and the Fram
• The Night of the Ponies
• Amundson Takes the Pole
• Amundson Takes Another Pole
• The Death of Amundson

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~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND SLEEP IS OVERRATED ~

Why do we wear costumes on Halloween? When did pumpkins and candy get involved? And how the heck do you pronounce "Samhain"?

Listen to find out...

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In this episode:  

• Celtic Festivals, Gaelic Origins
• Samhain and Beltane
• Fairies (The Aos Si)
• Bonfires, Livestock, Leaps
• Liminal Celebrations
• The Romans and Feralia
• Pomona
• Apple Bobbing? 
• Feast of All Martyrs
• Pope Boniface IV
• Pope Gregory III
• All Saints Day (All Hallows Day)
• Feast of All Souls
• All Hallows Day/Evening
• Allhallowe'en
• Souling and Allhallowtide
• Soul Cakes
• Souling Plays
• Guising
• Mischief Night
• Jack O'Lanterns 
• Stingy Jack
• Turnip Lanterns
• Trick or Treating
• Candy Corn
• Pet Costumes
• Calorie Counts

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And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

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Episode Transcript

~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND SLEEP IS OVERRATED ~

After a series of deep-dive episodes chock full of useful information, the boys are back to form with an entirely off-the-rails and nonsensical romp through the history of some of the world's most famous, celebrated lost treasures. Pointless, silly fun. Enjoy!

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In this episode:  

• The Scepter of Dagobert
• The Three Brothers
• Faberge Eggs

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Join the Midnight Masses!

Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas. 

And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

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Episode Transcript

~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND SLEEP IS OVERRATED ~

Are personality tests accurate? How were they developed, how reliable is the science behind them, and which are most respected? Most importantly: which developers of personality tests were sexy MFers and which of them wrote erotic fiction about old men? Follow along to discover the strange history behind personality tests. 

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In this episode:  

• WW1 and Shell Shock (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
• The Robert Sessions Woodworth Personal Data Sheet (WPDS)
• Carl Jung's Psychological Types
• Katherine Cook Briggs
• Isabel Briggs Meyers
• The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• The 8 Functions
• The 16 Types
• The Forer (Barnum) Effect
• CPP (Formerly Consulting Psychologists Press)
• ENTJ, The CEO Type
• Objective vs Projective Tests
• Hermann Rorschach, Sexy Badass
• Psychodiagnostik
• Pareidolia
• The Rorschach Test
• Ink Blot Interpretation (Klecksography)
• Gobolinks
• The Five Factor Model (FFM, or the Big 5)
• Enneagram
• Type A and Type B 
• The DISC Model

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Join the Midnight Masses!

Become an Insomniac by dropping a review, adding us on social media, and contacting us with episode ideas. 

And we now have Midnight Merch! Show your Insomniac pride and pick up a tee shirt or coffee mug to spread the word! 

Midnight Merch

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Episode Transcript

~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND SLEEP IS OVERRATED ~