We Have Concerns

A crow recently passed a remarkably complicated, eight stage intelligence test, which required it to perform a number of actions in a specific order to unlock a morsel of food. Jeff and Anthony are impressed by the problem-solving capabilities of the crow, and wonder what that means for the general cognitive ability of the animal kingdom. Also, are we gonna have to fight birds now? We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acarboni Today’s story was submitted by Corey Davis: http://fb-192.dailymegabyte

An Australian designer by the name of Maximilian Kiener has created an interactive representation of the way we perceive our lifespan. The younger you are, the longer time feels, and the older you get, the quicker a year seems to fly by. In fact, this effect is so skewed that half of the time you perceive in your life is over by the time you are 7 years old. Jeff and Anthony discuss their experience with this phenomena, and decide which 7 year span they'd love to experience the longest. We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata Anthony o

A Japanese drinks company is sending 5 samples of whiskey up to the International Space Station to study the effects of zero gravity on the fermentation process. Anthony, Jeff, and special guest Brian Brushwood from Night Attack discuss the ramifications of Space Whiskey. Will there be unforeseen consequences? Interstellar drunkenness? Alcohol that returns to Earth with magic properties? This episode was recorded LIVE at Nerdtacular 2015 by the wonderful people at Alpha Geek Radio! Patrons get a bonus recording of our Nerdtacular Q&A session! Check out our Patreon to listen to it as soon as it’s live. WANNA SEE US LIVE? You totally can! We’ll be at PAX Prime Saturday, 8/29 at 9:30 PM! Check the event schedule for more details. Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Jeff on Twitter: @jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: @acarboni Today’s story: http://time.com/4009456/international-space-station-whiskey-experiment-japan/

An article in the New York Times outlines a series of studies which seem to point to the fact that empathy is actually a choice. Is there a benefit to feel something for our fellow man, or could it possibly be an evolutionary drawback, limiting oor ability to make dispassionate decisions for the greatest good? Anthony and Jeff compare their own levels of empathy and try to decide what to feel. Will you be at PAX? HEY, SO WILL WE! Come watch us record a couple live episodes Saturday at 9:30 PM in the Chicken Theater. Full details on the PAX site! Follow us on Twitter! Anthony: @acarboni Jeff: @jeffcannata Today's story: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/empathy-is-actually-a-choice.html?_r=0 If you've seen a story you think we should discuss on the show, you can submit it over on our subreddit or email it to wehaveconcernsshow@gmail.com

In this very special episode on We Have Concerns, we talk about the plight of an actual Brock: Brock Leads, a young man from the UK who was playing on a cliff when a disaster of cartoonish proportions struck. Are kids just naturally attracted to danger? Have you ever played "Box and Hill?" Will you be at PAX? HEY, SO WILL WE! Come watch us record a couple live episodes Saturday at 9:30 PM in the Chicken Theater. Full details on the PAX site! Follow us on Twitter! Anthony: @acarboni Jeff: @jeffcannata Today's story was submitted by Jonathan Pople: Boy survives falling 100ft off cliff, gets bitten by snake at the bottom If you've seen a story you think we should discuss on the show, you can submit it over on our subreddit or email it to wehaveconcernsshow@gmail.com

Stephen Hawking has teamed up with a Russian tycoon to start a new search for extraterrestrial life. The cost? $100 million... and maybe the safety of our entire civilization? Whatever, we'll just build some moon tanks. Hey? Will you be at PAX? SO WILL WE! Come watch us record live episodes on Saturday 8/29 at 9:30 PM in the Chicken Theater! Show your true nature to the world: pick up a "Team Dad Jokes" or "No Dad Jokes" shirt at our store! Today's story: Stephen Hawking announces $100 million hunt for alien life Listen to the Fermi Paradox episode we mention: The Sky is Falling Jeff on Twitter: @jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: @acarboni

An article on the very scientifically-titled "Healthy, Wild and Free" blog explains why wearing shoes in the house is potentially KILLING YOU. Anthony and Jeff discuss hygiene, etiquette and how bacteria gets a bad rap. This episode was recorded LIVE at Nerdtacular 2015 by the wonderful people at Alpha Geek Radio! Patrons get a bonus recording of our Nerdtacular Q&A session! Check out our Patreon to listen to it as soon as it's live. WANNA SEE US LIVE? You totally can! We'll be at PAX Prime Saturday, 8/29 at 9:30 PM! Check the event schedule for more details. Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Jeff on Twitter: @jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: @acarboni Today's story: http://healthywildandfree.com/this-is-why-you-absolutely-need-to-stop-wearing-shoes-in-your-house/

Some newly declassified documents show that the US government knowingly sprayed all of San Francisco with a biological agent after World War II. How often does something like this happen? How many conspiracy theories are real? Are we more susceptible to paranoia than we believe we are? Thanks to Brock Wilbur for hanging out with us! Listen to the Brock Party Podcast! We have a bonus episode with Brock available right now for patrons! To listen to it, or to find out how to get bonus episodes and downloads every month, check out our Patreon! Jeff on Twitter: @jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: @acarboni Brock on Twitter: @brockwilbur Today's story was sent in by Soryo21! http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/us-military-simulated-biological-warfare-san-francisco If you have a story suggestion, email it to wehaveconcernsshow@gmail.com or post it on our subreddit!

A research lab has apparently created a healthy seaweed superfood that tastes like bacon! ... Yeah, that sounds like total marketing speak to us, too. Anthony and Jeff discuss the whole concept of twisting marketing health and wellness to people and the science news community's tendency to jump on a catchy headline. Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Today's story was submitted by Sean Williams. OSU researchers discover the unicorn – seaweed that tastes like bacon! Thanks, Sean! If you want to submit a story, email it to wehaveconcernsshow@gmail.com or our subreddit! Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acarboni

We talk a lot about whether we can trust robots, but can robots trust us? HitchBOT was a robot on a goodwill tour of the world, depending on the kindness of strangers to get from one end of a country to the other. After successful tours of Canada and various parts of Europe, it came to the US. We killed it. We killed it good. What does this say about the US? What about the future of AI? GET SOME WE HAVE CONCERNS SHIRTS: http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Submit a story! Email wehaveconcernsshow@gmail.com or visit our subreddit Today's story was submitted by literally everyone on the planet. HitchBOT Homepage HitchBOT, the hitchhiking robot, gets beheaded in Philadelphia HitchBOT Was A Literal Pile Of Trash And Got What It Deserved Here's Video of the Jerk Who Killed hitchBOT (Update: It's a Hoax)

Presidential Candidate Zoltan Istvan is raising money to tour the country in a bus that looks like a coffin to promote the Transhumanism philosophy of immortality. Has there ever been a political stance more perfect for Anthony and Jeff? Use technology to defeat human frailty, force the public to confront their own mortality, and maybe even work some time in for Volcano Boarding. This is how you earn the We Have Concerns endorsement. We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acarboni Today’s story w

In this episode, recorded in front of a live audience at the NerdMelt Showroom in Los Angeles, Anthony and Jeff wrestle with their feelings after seeing the results of an experimental Chinese medial procedure. A factory worker in the Hunan province would have lost his hand after it was sliced off in an industrial accident - if not for the fact that surgeons re-attached it to his leg and allowed it to live there for a month while his wound healed enough for it to be grafted back onto his arm. It is a disturbing image, but is it a reassuring concept? We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitche

Sonja Lang has created the world's smallest functional language. Her creation, Toki Pona, contains only 123 total words, and holds simplicity as its highest ideal. Jeff is enamored by language and charmed by the idea of designing one from scratch to fulfill a specific aesthetic, while Anthony is frustrated by the lack of nuance and potential for confusion. Together, they attempt to communicate what makes for great communication. We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acarboni Today’s story was su

For the last ten years, a man in the UK has been waking up every day thinking it is March 14th 2005, the day he was scheduled to receive a root canal. Anthony and Jeff think this sounds like something out of a romantic comedy, but stop to consider what it might actually be like for the man and his family. Could it ever be a good thing? We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acarboni Today’s story was submitted by PowderblueKes: http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com//ne

A hotel has opened in Japan that is staffed almost entirely by robots. While this does seem like a cheap gimmick to Anthony and Jeff, they are still intrigued by the idea, and imagine what staying in such a place must be like. We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acarboni Today’s story was submitted by Vrbatim: http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/15/japans-first-robot-staffed-hotel/ If you’ve seen a story you think belongs on the show, send it to wehaveconcernsshow@gmail.com or leave it on the subred

A company in the Netherlands is teaming up with the city of Rotterdam to introduce pre-fab roads made from recycled plastics, which will eliminate the harmful emissions that result from asphalt, and allow for simple installation and removal. Jeff and Anthony, of course, can't help but think of Lego bricks, and wonder what other problems giant toys could solve. We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acarboni Today’s story was submitted by Kelly Zanylo: http://gizmodo.com/this-company-wants-to-test-p

Scientists have linked together the brains of monkeys to collectively control the movements of an artificial arm, proving that connected brains can cooperate to solve problems. Further, a separate study linked brains of rats together to combine isolated data, effectively creating one larger, more capable super-brain. Jeff and Anthony certainly don't see any issues with the beginning of rat super-brains generated out of armies of linked rat minds. Nothing can go wrong with that, so... no concerns in this episode! We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter

A new paper, published in the Journal of Sensory Studies, attempts to categorize different kinds of picky eaters, in an effort to help parents better deal with their kids at mealtime. Jeff and Anthony take a look at the various categories and confess which flavor of persnickety snacker they were... and still may be. We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acarboni Today’s story: http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/06/scientists-try-to-figure-out-picky-eating-kids.html If you’ve seen a story you think

Monarch butterflies make an incredible, multi-generational migration from Canada to Mexico, but, strangely, they do not take the the most direct route. Somewhere over Lake Superior, these butterflies always change direction drastically, as if avoiding something. New research suggests that there was once a mountain range in the exact position of the course correction, and every generation of monarch butterfly somehow remembers to circumvent it, even thousands of yours later. Jeff and Anthony are mystified by this phenomena, but that doesn't stop them from speculating on how and why this unnecessary extra effort takes place. We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: htt

A new study that claims smart phone users are becoming addicted to their devices has garnered alarming headlines like "iPhones Cause Separation Anxiety". But digging a little deeper, Anthony and Jeff discover that the experiments used to gather the data seem questionable at best. Why are these headlines so irresistible, and why are there researchers so eager to supply such misleading results? We Have Concerns is entirely listener supported! To keep us ad-free and get early episodes/bonus content, check out our Patreon: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata Anthony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acarboni Today’s story was sent in by Soryo21: http://www.