Ep. 256: are prisons obsolete? (w/ Sheryl Weikal)

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In an episode years in the making, with the help of “The Leftist Lawyer” Sheryl Weikal, we finally tackle the question of what prison abolition is and whether it would actually work. But first, Corrigan tells the true story behind the legend of John Henry and how it ties into the modern prison industrial complex.

Highlights:

[0:00] Corrigan tells Marko and Sheryl the true history behind the legend of John Henry
[39:32] We learn about Sheryl’s work as a Pay-What-You-Can lawyer and talk about prison abolition

Stuff we referenced:

Ep. 254: nukes & nervous systems

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Boffin Eileen is back! This time she’s perfectly adequately answering Marko’s burning questions about what the nukes can do to us, and addressing Corrigan’s skepticism about regulating our nervous systems! Plus, an impromptu tribute to Catherine O’Hara.

Highlights:

[0:00] Eileen talks about the truly horrific effects of radiation sickness
[58:40] Eileen explores how much we can regulate our own nervous systems, and what it really means to be “dysregulated”

Stuff we referenced:

1. Harry Daghlian – Nuclear Museum

2. May 21, 1946: Louis Slotin Becomes Second Victim of “Demon Core” | American Physical Society              

3. Scientist of the Day – Harry Daghlian

4. How a careless slip killed a physicist

5. The Slotin Accident: Inside the Archives – Los Alamos Historical Society

6. Medical Studies of the Demon Core Victims

7. The Los Alamos Accident, 1958

8. The Cecil Kelley Criticality Accident9. https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radiation-health-effects


  1. Autonomic Nervous System: What It Is, Function & Disorders
  2. Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): What It Is & Function
  3. Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS): What It Is & Function
  4. Stress, Adaptation, and Disease: Allostasis and Allostatic Load – McEWEN – 1998 – Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences – Wiley Online Library
  5. The Window of Tolerance: What It Is and Why It Matters
  6. Expanding the Window of Tolerance: 6 PDFs & Worksheets
  7. What We Get Wrong About the Nervous System | Psychology Today
  8. Allostatic Load and Its Impact on Health: A Systematic Review – PubMed
  9. Allostatic load biomarkers of chronic stress and impact on health and cognition – ScienceDirect
  10. Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress: Unsafe Environments and Conditions, and the Default Stress Response – PMC
  11. Selection on the regulation of sympathetic nervous activity in humans and chimpanzees – PubMed
  12. Stress and Health: A Review of Psychobiological Processes
  13. Neuronal regulation of immunity: why, how and where? | Nature Reviews Immunology
  14. Unraveling the Plastic Peripheral Neuroimmune Interactome | The Journal of Immunology | Oxford Academic
  15. Psychoneuroimmunology: An Introduction to Immune-to-Brain Communication and Its Implications for Clinical Psychology
  16. 20-Year Journey from Axonal Injury to Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Prospect of Immunotherapy for Combating Alzheimer’s Disease | The Journal of Immunology | Oxford Academic
  17. Hypertension and its correlation with autonomic nervous system dysfunction, heart rate variability and chronic inflammation – PubMed
  18. Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system predicts the development of the metabolic syndrome – PubMed
  19. Autonomic nervous system dysregulation in neurodegenerative diseases: Bridging brain and heart – PubMed
  20. Heart rate variability (HRV) as a way to understand associations between the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and affective states: A critical review of the literature – ScienceDirect
  21. Autonomic nervous system dysregulation in neurodegenerative diseases: Bridging brain and heart – ScienceDirect
  22. The efficacy of stress reappraisal interventions on stress responsivity: A meta-analysis and systematic review of existing evidence – PubMed
  23. The Autistic and ADHD Nervous System | NDI
  24. Effects of slow-paced breathing and humming breathing on heart rate variability and affect: a pilot investigation 
  25. Humming (Simple Bhramari Pranayama) as a Stress Buster: A Holter-Based Study to Analyze Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Parameters During Bhramari, Physical Activity, Emotional Stress, and Sleep 
  26. Breathwork for Chronic Stress and Mental Health: Does Choosing a Specific Technique Matter? 
  27. A randomized controlled trial of a multicomponent online stress reduction intervention in inflammatory bowel disease 
  28. The role of yoga in inflammatory markers 
  29. From Dysregulation to Coherence: Exploring the HeartMath® Approach to Emotional and Physiological Regulation – PMC
  30. Acute effects of different Tai Chi practice protocols on cardiac autonomic modulation
  31. Mind over Matter: Reappraising Arousal Improves Cardiovascular and Cognitive Responses to Stress

Ep. 254:true crime grift & zombie d**k

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A miscommunication leads to us having to wing this episode, and it sure goes all over the place! Corrigan revisits the claims of the Killer in the Code podcast, Marko discusses nuclear war, and we preview the next two REALLY COOL episodes we’ve got coming.

Highlights:

[0:00] Corrigan gives an update on the Killer in the Code podcast
[32:08] CoRri was a pukey child and we discuss pukey Garbage Pail Kids,
[41:50] We preview some incredible episodes we have coming up the next two weeks!
[58:28] What we watched: Feast, Man Bites Dog, Taxi Driver, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Train Dreams

Ep. 253: death on mt. hood

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The snow in New Jersey this weekend is magical… so Corrigan brings the mood down by talking about a field trip that turned deadly during a blizzard on Oregon’s Mt. Hood.

Highlights:

[0:00] Corrigan tells Marko about an ill-fated field trip to Oregon’s Mt. Hood
[53:34] We talk like youth pastors, discuss this week’s current events
[01:08:40] Book club things and don’t forget to mark the weekend of August 8th on your calendar for the UK meetup!
[01:21:00] What we watched! (A House of Dynamite, Chain Reactions, A Hole in the Head, The Rip, Beast of War, Phantom of the Paradise)

Stuff we referenced:

Ep. 252: thinking about death and also america

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Hard to believe it’s only the 10th of January after the week the U.S. has had. We have a talk about it, but not before Marko talks about a people who revere death, we discuss death in kids’ media, and we dig into whether there’s a conspiracy to make people scared of normal weather in the U.K.

Highlights:

[0:00] Marko tells Corrigan about the Toraja people of Indonesia, who have an intimate relationship with death
[29:57] Mark thinks the UK media is making everyone freak out about the weather, which leads to a discussion of the attention economy and studies on what short form video is doing to our brains, and questions about why the Daily Mail has it out for deadly Asian hornets
[54:30] Marko tries to understand American field sobriety tests
[01:05:40] What we watched: Poltergeist, Man Finds Tape, 9-1-1, Aliens, Predator: Badlands
[01:33:35] What the fuck is going on in the U.S.?

Ep. 251: teenage nazi killers

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Why not start out the year inspired? This week Corrigan tells Marko the story of Hannie Schaft and the Oversteegen Sisters, teenage badasses who seduced and killed Nazis. Plus, for good measure, we answer some burning listener questions!

Highlights:

[0:00] Corrigan tells Marko the story of Hannie Schaft and Truus and Freddie Oversteegen
[39:50] Momentous occasions in what we watched! (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Greener Grass, Gremlins, Anaconda (2024), Fantastic Planet
[01:10:06] Answering listener questions!

Stuff we referenced:

Ep. 250: the playbook

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On our last JoAG of 2025, Marko explains the corporate playbook for profiting off stuff they know is bad for us, Corrigan sees a volcao, and we discuss the credibility of the recent revelations that the Zodiac and Black Dahlia murders may have been committed by the same guy!

Highlights:

[0:00] Marko tells Corrigan the corporate playbook for profiting from our misery and poor health
[51:30] We chat about practical effects and learn some Marko marriage lore, and Corrigan saw a volcano erupt
[01:09:54] What we watched: Keeper, The Running Man, They Live, The Void, Scrooged, Shaun of the Dead
[01:41:45] Have the Black Dahlia and Zodiac killings been solved??

Stuff we referenced:

Ep. 249: nobody expects the portuguese inquisition

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This time of year we always have a ramble episode or two, so here’s one! After Corrigan explains why she can’t tell Marko about the Portuguese Inquisition and instead tells him the strange story of the maybe-kidnapping of the founder of the Four Square denomination, we unleash a stream of consciousness episode about nothing and everything.

Highlights:

[0:00] Corrigan tells Marko about early megachurch pastor Aimee Semple-McPherson, who may or may not have been kidnapped off Venice Beach
[44:30] We wonder if there’s a proletarian cure for enshittification and media consolidation
[01:03:15] What we watched: Pluribus, 9-1-1, Bugonia, Daddy’s Head, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, The Thing
[01:29:20] Corrigan has questions for everyone, including “does your esophagus make that sound?” and “did British people take out their teeth in the ’70s?”

Stuff we referenced:

Ep. 248:one last hurrah at the ramen glory hole

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Marko continues his quest to find out if pain can be quantified objectively by diving into the McGill Pain Questionnaire, and Corrigan has questions about food, memory, and final meals.

Highlights:

[0:00] Marko tells Corrigan about the McGill Pain Questionnaire
[25:49] Thanksgiving is coming, Marko’s got a Santa thing happening in his house, and we wonder if Mark has had a fantastic idea or a really distasteful one
[45:59] After an epic gaming sesh, we implore you to hang out with each other online (http://www.ko-fi.com/jackofallgraves)
[54:49] What we watched! (Sweet Home Alabama, Ick, Hot Rod, Abruptio, Revenge)
[01:34:14] Corrigan wants to talk about food and death

Ep. 247: mooninite panic & the goals of ai

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What do the creators of all those AI chatbots and therapists and essay writing apps really wants from us? We’re talking that out today, after Corrigan tells Marko about the Great Boston Mooninite Panic of 2007, and we share lots of cultural exchange.

Highlights:

[0:00] Corrigan tells Marko about the Great Boston Mooninite Panic
[34:26] Marko has an iffy idea for corporate gatherings, CoRri finds out Spotify has comments and people have been commenting, there’s new Fancave on the Ko-Fi, and we need your suggestions for the 2026 book club schedule
[01:02:38] What we watched: Predator: Badlands, Life of Chuck, ANOES 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Shin Godzilla, Hearts in Atlantis, Ghost Ship, Death By Lightning, Depraved, Black Phone 2, Frankenstein
[01:41:05] We talk about the research that exists about what AI does to our brains, anecdotal stories about AI’s impact, and ultimately why the people who create AI platforms are taking advantage of a broken society.

Stuff we referenced: