EP 401: Bug Detectives with Eleanor Spicer Rice!

·1 hr 21 min·5 clips

Eleanor describes how blow flies smell a corpse's chemicals from over a mile away, rushing in like cartoon hobos to a pie.

The episode opens with Paula Poundstone and Adam Felber in their typical comedic banter, debating whether bagpipes are an indoor instrument and joking about Scottish stereotypes. They introduce the episode's topic: forensic entomology, with guest expert Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice. Eleanor explains the history of forensic entomology, dating back to a 1200s Chinese murder case involving a sickle and flies. She details how blow flies and flesh flies detect dead bodies from over a mile away by smelling chemicals released during decomposition. The conversation covers how insect succession on a body helps determine time of death, using a North Carolina case where fly larvae proved a husband lied. Eleanor describes maggot balls that can be 36 degrees hotter than ambient temperature and explode from corpses. She also discusses how insects can store drugs from a body, aiding in overdose investigations, and how they're used in drug trafficking and biological warfare, like Japan using plague-infected fleas in WWII. The show includes segments like Tony Anita Hall talking about an electric callus sander, Bonnie Burns complaining about gross topics, and a mailbag segment with listener feedback. Paula promotes her comedy tour and Patreon, while the house band, Dan Radlauer, provides accordion music. The episode blends educational content with the hosts' absurd humor, recurring themes of body functions, and political commentary.

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