BONUS: Great white shark sightings, understanding our brains, year of the Fire Horse and the Old Farmer's Almanac

·22 min·2 clips

A great white shark appears in the Gulf of Mexico, challenging what scientists thought was possible just a few years ago.

The episode begins by introducing a Weird News Roundup from the Something Offbeat podcast, featuring dispatches from Odyssey newsrooms. The first segment discusses a great white shark sighting in the Shandalore Islands off Louisiana, with Sean Powers from the University of South Alabama explaining how sightings have become more common due to tracking networks and shark recovery. He details shark behavior, including their solitary nature and migration patterns. Next, the episode explores brain research on hesitation, with Eric Itry from Carnegie Mellon University linking it to neurons in the basal ganglia and disorders like OCD. He discusses how uncertainty drives hesitation and suggests habits can reduce it. The third segment focuses on the Lunar New Year and the Year of the Fire Horse, explaining its 60-year cycle and traits associated with horse and fire signs. A discussion from the Dana and Parks Show debates zodiac accuracy, with hosts sharing personal anecdotes and skepticism. Finally, the episode visits the Old Farmer's Almanac headquarters in New Hampshire, where editor Carol Kinnear describes her role and the publication's history, including stories about a Russian spy and Abraham Lincoln using the almanac in court. The episode concludes with credits to contributing radio shows.

As heard by us

A brisk Weird News Roundup linking a shark sighting, hesitation, the Fire Horse year, and an Almanac courtroom story.

This Weird News Roundup starts with a great white shark sighting, as Sean Powers of the Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences at the University of South Alabama joins Tommy Tucker to put the moment in context.

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Why you'd press play

You can drift from a surprise great white shark sighting to Abraham Lincoln's Almanac courtroom clue in one curious, subject-hopping sitting.

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